'Normal' day on the farm...

Today was a kind of a spring cleaning day for me... Maybe when talking about bachelor living, one could say that seasonal cleaning is actually,  probably accurate. The day started at 8:30 with opening up the barn and feeding the animals, because the fam is out of town. The geese were squawking, Miracle had a smile... and the goats & the sheep... well it's hard to tell with them. Then I caught up on laundry, vacuumed, did the dishes, changed the sheets... you know... the basics. We had a little sun here and there but it remained pretty much chilly all day. Caught the end of 'The Insider', with Pacino & Russell Crowe... good triumphs over big corporate evil in the end. Not without a few bruises, but I always like a good, redemptive ending ;-)  And an amazing thing last night... I spoke to a friend in India over the computer... A cool download allows you to talk for free any where in the world. It was a trip... but then again I'm behind the times in the geek world... so it always blows me away. Any way, she and I spoke about trying to sell some Indian wares on e-bay... We'll see where that leads. Kind of exciting.  

Here's Loyd ... the only other goose I know by name... Quackmire being the other. Loyd has been getting real friendly with me lately. I guess my probation is over because now he's always underfoot. Quackmire being the Alpha is usually the first to butt his beak into a situation, but now it seems Loyd always checking things out... Doesn't matter if I'm running the tractor or shoveling mud... his glued to my side. I can actually pick him up at will now... He just snuggles up to you and voila... he sits comfortably in your arms. You have to hold his wings down and support his feet, and he settles in quite comfortably. That too is a trip :-)

 

Then it was time to bring the cows some more hay again. This is the set up to drag it down to their 'feed bin'. You use the tractor to topple the roll onto the skid and away you go...

And this is a really exciting pic ... ;-)  Just kidding.  There is still so much water soaked deep in the hills & mountains from the rain, that it's still flowing down and across the property. The water runs through the pasture and by the cow's 'home', and though you can't tell by the pic, the water seemed to be soaking the ground underneath where they sleep... So I spent a couple of hours trying to divert the flow by shoveling troughs in the ground so that the water would run past their 'house'.

Here's inside the barn after mucking it out the other day... Nice & clean. Those rubber mats you see are laid down to provide insulation from the concrete floor. The section where Miracle and the goats live, I finished it up while it was still raining outside... 

   
Just another shot... There's the piles I mentioned earlier... I was just waiting for the rain to let up so that I could haul it out. No matter... it sort of breaks up the day a little more.

A few days later the rain did let up and I was able to tractor the 'stuff' through the mud pit and to the compost pile.  

And with new hay down, every body's happy. 

And of course there's Miracle... Sweetie Pie. When she doesn't want to come in at the end of the day... sometimes you have to chase her around the paddock. She just loves the chase, and it's really cute to watch her play... So spirited... 

And when we did have snow... Henry had re-created the Calvin & Hobbs mayhem. I think I emailed most of you a series of cartoons depicting some amazingly hilarious & original snowman scenes. This kid's got talent.  Any way, that's it for now... Take care,   Alexis