A sunny day in the snow

Have I talked about our cattle panel goat shelter? (CPS) I generally call it the goat cave. It consits of several 16' sections of cattle panel fence bent over lengthwise to form an arch. We use bail ties as internal stays to keep the arch in shape and support any snow load. For the summer, it has a tarp canopy to keep the rain off.

But in the winter, we get a little more elaborate. The outer shell over the goat half is the silver polly tarp. Under that is a layer of translucent plastic. On the north side the inner layer is a canvas tarp that can also cover the open south end in foul weather. The canvas helps buffer condensation and keeps things more confortable for the goats. On a nice day like today, we roll up the outer poly tarp on the southeast side to let the warm sun in. That's the point of today's post.

When we woke up this morning temps were about ten degrees. They had risen to about 32 when I took pictures. In that same time period, the goat cave had risen to almost seventy degrees. Passive solar gain in action.




















It's not like the Goat Cave can hold anything like that over night. The South end of the shelter is generally at least half open, so fresh air is always breezing in. This helps prevent moisture and ammonia from building up. But inspite of that open door, the bedding in the goat side never freezes.