In Pasture

We’ve been horribly dry for quite a while again.  Once the rain stopped drowning us, it just quit.  I’ve had to water my “garden” and the ground is cracked.  We’ve had only had a few sprinkles since the hay was made.

Myson on the rock watching his herd

The grass was turning brown.

I’m glad we got the hay made.  After my bales were put in the barn, my nephew made the rest into round bales.  They work well for scratching against.

Gidget

(Blaze in the back)

Orpheus wasn’t too sure about that huge thing at first.

Orpheus

The bales have since been moved from the pasture, but we still hadn’t had rain.

Finally, we managed to get about two tenths of an inch Sunday morning, and then we had more overnight into Monday.

Lily

It’s was still dry, but that was certainly a big help.  Then we had more rain.  Last night, we even had rain and sun at the same time when a tiny cell went over us.

Osiris and Zinnia in the door

Hopefully, it will really let the pastures grow again.

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Working Weather

I decided to use this past week’s better weather to finally clean out my garage.    I am so tired of it being a livestock barn.

I had to kick the boys and Buster and Aurora out of the small paddock.  The bucks were not happy that they had to wait a couple of hours before they could lounge in the buck room.

Fionn and Xerxes

I am piling it in there to try and fill in the hole where we hauled dirt.  It will compost into nice dirt.

I divided it into a multiple day project (mostly because I switched to removing twine from the barn).  I can at least see how much progress I made that first day.

Buster was happy to be let back into the little paddock.  He was happy to get to his dust bowl (and I was nice enough to not get anything icky in it).

I’d hate to mess up their dust baths.

Buster

After we finished putting up hay, I managed to come back to this project.  I still have to take out my fence and do touch up scooping before I can really get it fully  back to my garage, but I’m making progress!

Then it’s on to the buck room.  I’ll add that to my compost pile too.  It should really start to fill that dip in nicely.

After that, I have the Love Shack, the Greenhouse, and the barn.  It keeps me busy!  I just hope the decent weather lasts.

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Getting the Hay In

Yesterday morning, my nephew came out and we got ready for the hay to be put in the barn.  He had to remove the round bale feeder (like the big compost pile it left in the middle) because we couldn’t get the hay in otherwise.

Since he had to come do that, he helped me with cleaning the barn out.  The pile he made is on the right side of the picture above.  It’s better in there, but I still have a pile that I will have to finish doing by hand because he couldn’t get it with the tractor.

Then I put the gate across the door to keep the llamas out because I’d had enough llama supervision the day before.

My nephew went out to rake the hay into windrows so it would be ready to bale.

The goats just went about their routine while he raked.

After he had enough done for the small square bales that I wanted, he just left the rake where he finished, and I took him to get the hayracks.

Then my dad came out to drive the tractor and my nephew stacked.  I had the easy job–photograph and bring them water to drink.

After my other nephew got off work, he came out to help stack and continue raking.

My dad left, but we gained my niece-in-law and my nephews’ uncle to help.

Since we weren’t unloading it all in the barn last night, I made sure everything was secure for keeping the goats on the west half of the barnyard.

Lily and LilyAnn

Moose

It looks a bit crowded with them all on that one side, but it was just for the night.

Then I got them their water.

Reva

We unloaded one hayrack before dark.  In the morning, my nephew brought out the borrowed elevator.

We unloaded the other four hayracks.

Now I should be good for the winter.

I better be.  We don’t need another winter like this last one.