Closing the Gates

For the last week I’ve been debating whether or not it was time to close the gates onto the back half of the Back Forty.  I finally did it last night.  I’m glad I did because the goats headed out to pasture before it was even light this morning.

That’s when it’s dangerous because coyotes do their hunting in the morning.  I feel better now, but the goats were not happy.

Moira, Caroline, Daisy, Astra, Moose, Cutie and the whole gang

They might have even been silently demanding I open the gates.  I’m pretty sure they were judging me.

Daisy, Maisie, Reva, Victoria

The whole herd was waiting for me to let them out there.

Caroline was especially sure the gates were going to open.  That is not going to happen until the days get longer next spring.

It didn’t take long for them to decide it wasn’t going to happen and go back to eating.

The only ones who weren’t mad were the llamas.

Aurora, Maybeline, and Odie

Well, they were probably irritated, too, but at least they were just ignoring me instead of being demanding.

Hanging Out

The goats are spending most of their time out in pasture, but they do hang out in the barnyard in the morning and the evening.

Chiffon hoping for peanuts

My sweet gurl Purl

Little sister Trace and big sister Bubbles

Wanda

Caroline snacking on a pepper from the compost pile

Archie checking out the latch on the Love Shack door

Pluto coming to see me

They make me smile.

Moving On

I really was happily in denial canning and just ignoring the chaos around me.  But the Sunday after the storm, the insurance adjuster came, and then I realized I had no reason to ignore the mess. I decided to unplug the basement freezer long enough to do my laundry.  It makes me appreciate my clothesline even more.

Then it was time to clean up.  I brought the Ranger in and picked up two full loads to haul up to the north end of the farm and burn.

Sky helping

Then I decided to mow.  That would make it easier to walk when they got around to coming back to finish the magnolia tree and the big oak limb in the yard.  It was a good plan right up until the lawn mower lost its ability to steer.  Now it’s a lovely yard ornament until they get around to fixing it.

Moving right along, I decided to work on picking up the pasture.

I spent a good nine hours over the course of a couple of days cleaning the brush off the bottom.

It’s a good thing I started clearing it because, part way through, my nephew called to see if he could mow it to finally make my hay.  It was supposed to be done the week before when the storm hit.

Goats on the bottom

I hurried to get it finished.  There was only one log that was so big I had to use a chain to pull it off the pasture.

I got it done! My nephew mowed the bottom on the front half of the Back Forty.

Then he cut the bottom on the back half.  He did say he had to stop a few times to pick up stuff I missed, but I got a lot of it.

After baling all the small bales I needed, there was enough for a couple of big round bales too.

My dad came out with the chain saw to help me clear the fence in the Back Forty so we could let the goats back out there too.

After the town got electricity back (late Sunday evening), my dad also told me their Internet was finally back too.

Truck and worker who came from Canada to help restore power.

I checked mine by moving the modem and router into the kitchen so it was closer to the drop cord coming from the garage.  It worked!  So I brought my computer back in and my kitchen became my office.  I need a more comfortable stool though.

I was supposed to start back to work on August 19th, but there’s still so many people without Internet and electricity that they delayed it.  I now start on Sept. 1.  But there’s trainings and virtual PD and all that fun stuff because of Covid-19, so I had to have my office.

Beau

Since I was still taking care of my mom’s cats and she now had electricity, it made it a lot easier to borrow her shower–a real, warm shower! Then I saw the weather was supposed to be really hot again, so I decided I better make it so I could sleep in the soap room too.  I hauled a twin bed over.  I got a longer phone line, and I put the router and modem in the milk room.  What’s another cord/cable stretched between the house and garage?

Sky is still coming over with me.

Then the weather turned really hot again, so If it gets too hot, I brought the cat over too.

Sky welcoming Rocky (cat food and litter in the milk room)

He’s still exploring and getting adjusted, but it’s better than being alone in the house and waaaaay better than the day in the barn.

Sky is doing a good job of tolerating the harness when I take him back and forth from the yard.

Bob  has been in too, but he usually doesn’t hang out too long.

Bob in the back; Rocky in front

Caroline was trying to figure out what was going on in here.  She’d never seen the dog through the window before.

Caroline peeking in the window to check out Sky

It’s about as cozy and homey as I can make it. I guess nothing is normal right now, but I’m going to try to quit living in De Nile and just flow like a river.