Is It Over?

Thankfully I had called Loren from the farmer's market to ask if he could help empty the hay wagons. When we got home and Matt started sending the bales up the elevator, the motor overheated and tripped the breaker. Loren arrived and climbed up the mountain of bales to cut away the many baling cords tangled in the motor. Much to our dismay, the motor wouldn't start again. No elevator. This meant that the wagon had to be pulled around to the other side of the barn and unloaded by hand. Each bale had to be carried in the barn and to the back. Fortunately the strings were nice and tight and the bales were very good quality first cut, which helped my mood about the whole predicament. As I started around the wagon with my first bale I sniffed something awful - death. Every farmer knows that smell. I looked around and saw a dead sheep behind the barn at a corner where I would not have noticed unless I went out the east end door. At first sight I thought it was Othello's best friend, the Merino wether that came with him. I ruminated about how I wanted him to be shorn last time Jim was here, but Jim said let his wool grow some more, etc. I don't enjoy cutting the wool off a dead animal, especially in the hot summertime when I would have to play FBI and put Vicks Vapo Rub under my nose. I later saw that sheep in the barn standing up and fine, eating his night-night bale, so it's someone else. I'll do a closer inspection in the morning. We continued to do our unloading with the lovely aroma wafting up into the barn. It took a couple of hours but we got the wagon done. Matt - keeper of the dead - and Loren will deal with the corpse tomorrow. The men pulled a tarp over the last wagon after retrieving it from the field and we called it a night. Loren had to leave and the two M's were spent. I still had to make dinner and do nighttime chores. I opened the milk room door to get to the rabbit feed and I was suddenly lifted off my feet and carried into the milk room. Denzel, in an effort to get into the feed room, put his head between my legs pushed through the door, taking me for a ride. Skinny, runty Denzel has grown over the summer and is very strong now. I tried to get off him but lost my balance and crashed to the concrete floor. Denzel hardly noticed I was riding him and started munching on cat food. A bit of alligator wrestling and he was out of the milk room and back in the barn. When I found Matt he was flat out on the sofa, full of barbecued pork spare ribs (my poor piggies!) and fresh cole slaw. He was moaning incoherently but I managed to hear something about wanting pie and ice cream served to him. I thought of the sheep corpse he will be dealing with in the morning (thank the stars I am not the one who has to do it) and the wagon load of hay outside and I brought him a giant piece of Very Berry Pie and ice cream. Good Night Moon and Good Night to the Old Lady Whispering Hush!