Sore, Spring, Sore, Planting, Sore muscles

Picture of a roadrunner. We have a daily roadrunner who crosses our fields and has a nest close by. He came within six feet of us while we were watching the goats last night.

---
Everything's sore. We had the last 'freeze-like' weather on Saturday (brrrr), so planting on Sunday commenced well, but digging holes, lugging compost around, pulling hoses and running the goats out of the OTHER garden area... then putting up a fence to supplement the fence that's supposed to be keeping them out... We're sore. Oh, yeah. I also ran the chipper/shredder and mulched a bunch of generic branches from the forested area... lugging it all into the barnyard (flattest, safest place to run the shredder). Wheeeee.

And Mike went further, putting our newly-acquired 18-foot boards on the 18-foot trailer we bought to move us into Coyote Ridge about ten years ago. They needed replacing, but we bought one too few, so we'll have to order ONE board again from Lowe's. Grrr..

Had a nice weekend, though, and got a lot done. Just put an ad on Craig's list to sell our Cabrito goats. We now have 48 goats (sold three females to a neighbor this past week).

We need to get down to 35 goats, our minimum for keeping our Ag exemption. "7 units" which equals 7 cows or 35 goats.

We're both getting over the flu from earlier this month. It has taken a toll on both of us and this weekend was the first time we got out and did stuff we really needed to do.

It was also our last fireplace fire until next year.

Projects to do:
Replace fence around backyard with cedar posts.
Rebuild fence in dogleg.
Put fence down to creek in hidden area.
Move fence to incorporate more of the forested area so the goats can eat more.
Put gate in backyard when we redo the fence.
Clean out barn
Deck (in process)
Replace siding on top of split level on house.
Paint house
Re-do the hay feeders

And there's more, but even my brain is tired.

I still have a lingering flu.  Just down to a raspy cough now and I don't have my usual energy. 10 days of this is too long.  Kristi is still enjoying her new car.  It's actually pleasant to get into unlike her old one.  We've been having problems with many goats getting into the front yard.  Can't really blame them, there is fresh green out there to eat.  The opposite of everywhere else around here.  At least we've had a couple of inches of precious rain this weekend. The electric fence is showing 4 bars.  That's about 4000 volts.  Enough for a painful jolt.  So why are the goats getting through it? I think it could be that they are getting through from the garden fence.  The garden fence between the garden and front yard isn't charged.  So I may have to connect it up tomorrow and get the goats trained to avoid the front yard.  Geese are laying eggs.  The peahen hasn't which is making me wonder if she's okay.  She would usually have laid about a dozen by now and then a dozen in a month or so.  She seems okay but...  I haven't seen any rats in the tack room for 3 days.  But they are still there.  I've seen a couple racing along the horizontal stringers in the barn.  I need to get rid of them before we buy our next pallet of feed.  They made a huge mess out of the last pallet and wasted a lot of grain.   Kristi found a dead snake in front of the greenhouse this afternoon.  Probably compliments of one of the cats.  Kristi tossed it to the chickens for protien.  Nothing gets wasted here.  I had to untangle 2 more goats from the hay feeder in the barn.  They push their heads all the way through and their horns get caught.  This is one of 4000 things on my ToDo list.  Replace the hay feeders.  I'm on it!  Cooked my corned beef today.  Came out perfect.  3 weeks in brine and spices in the fridge and now it's preserved and tasty.  All ready for St Patties day.  I wonder what corned goat would taste like.  Hmmmmm.

Bad day, but it's Friday

Okay, so last weekend, I bought a car. I had to. My mother's car, a 16-year-old Chevy Corsica, died on 71 and I pushed it off the road. They towed it to my mechanic, he declared its total death and now I had no way of getting around.

For one day, while one of Mike's work trucks (my vehicle for a few days) was in the shop, I rented a car from Enterprise -- a Mazda 6, 2009 variety. I fell in love with it and so I got one. It's a very fine car and much better than last year's mazdas and the years before that.

It's been fun to drive.

Why is today a bad day, then? Because Mike's sick -- got the flu bug, I think, and is probably still sleeping, even though it's late. He rarely gets sick, but when he does, it's a doozy.

I bought him some cold/flu medicine on the way home yesterday and I hope that's going to help. He just seems so... helpless, though. I don't know.