I am bushed tonight...

Spent the day around the farm just doing a little of this and a lot of that. Mowed a bit of the lawn, got a bunch of stuff moved around to their proper homes, took some brush back to the brush pile, etc. But most of my day was spent getting the goat barn fixed up for the new kids (the goat kids that is).

First I had to move it to where I wanted it to live... the tractor helped with that. The little "barn" was a mobile poultry house in it's former life. To keep the poultry in the house when it was being moved it had two layers of wire mesh attached to to its entire underside and attached to each of the three ground level crossbeams. All this mesh needed to be removed as it was difficult to walk on for the little goats and for us. I ended up having to use wire cutters on every stapled attachment. Once it was free from all four sides and the three crossbeams getting it out was another challange. Again I had to cut each piece of both layers into sections to get them out from under the crossbeams and out the small door. All this must have taken about 3 hours if you don't count stoping for lunch for the kids (the human variety).

Once that job was finally over I then raked the ground inside the barn. I had already raked this ground prior to moving the barn over it but this is part of the property that is covered the worst with broken glass and other trash. After I raked it a second time it was time for getting down on hands and knees to pick out the remaining bits and pieces. Like other areas I have cleaned up I know that as the animals stir up the ground more will be found and I will be picking it up for months yet... but it is a clean as I could make it for today. Once I was happy with how that looked I covered the ground over with shavings to give the kids a nice clean ground to play in.

Through all this the little goats were hanging out in the dog crate to keep them safe. But they were pretty bored after spending most of the afternoon in there. It was so much fun to watch them in their new and improved barn. They ran around twirling in the air, jumping up and down, head butting the other kids and just having a great time! They are oh so cute to watch!

By the time I finished up with the goats it was time to get everyone else fed for the night. It was dusk by the time all the rest of the livestock was fed and I took some time to just lean on the fence and enjoy the sight of our animals grazing out on the pasture, the puppies (our 70lb livestock gardian dogs) chasing each other around the field and the fireflies twinkling among the grasses. It sure was a peaceful sight to me. It was quickly broken by the screaming of children asking for me to swing them... sigh... so much for my peaceful moment. :)

Oh, Evan caught his first firefly tonight all by himself! He came up to me with a juice bottle with the firefly already in it. An important event in a young boys life.