Hot

Warm weather getting even more so.  88 when I left school today.  Rough day at the office.  I work with some really tough kids but I'm tougher.  What it does is really piss me off.   How do I deal with it?  I come home to my farm.  I had to lie down a few minutes when I got home and the doggies didn't mind.  They waited patiently for me to be ready for our walk up the hill to the pond.  It's our afternoon ritual and it really helps me deal with the stress of my job.  The dogs swim in the pond and cool off while I look for goldfish.  Fortunately the Blue Heron that visits us regularly left a few for me to enjoy.  I let the sheep out of the barn yard before we go up the hill and they spread out over the lower hillside.  The pigs head straight for one of their wallows.  Smart girls - they know the concrete floor of the barn is cooler so they head back inside, tip over one of the big hanging water containers (up high so the ducks don't dirty the water) and splash it all over the floor.  Then they mix up some mud from the dirt in the gutter and lie down in it.  I heard crying from the way back and found a yearling goat caught in the fence.  He was not cooperative but I got his horns freed from the wire and off he went.  Since I was back there I spent some time picking up the nylon baling loops from the square bales we used two years ago.  I'm happy to be free of those loops that get wrapped around the sheep and goat hooves so easily.  I saw a clutch of hatchlings following their mom around.  The chickens know just where to lay their eggs so I don't find them.  A month later the babies are hatched and I have a population explosion on my hands.  I have to say the chickens do a good job of keeping the fly population down along with ticks, snakes, etc.  Once dinner was served it was eight pm and time for chores.  By nine thirty or so it was time to go in when I spotted the goat I've been itching to clip.  Beautiful long black mohair - I love my black girls - and very hairy.  I called to spouse can we do one tonight - we've been doing a goat every night or so to make less work for Jim at shearing on Saturday and to give me fiber to work with.  He said oh, alright and I managed to catch her.  A half hour later I had the mohair off, wormed her, and trimmed her hooves.  Poor thing had a length of fencing wire tangled in her back side.  That must have been uncomfortable.  Now she can scratch where it itches and be cool and comfy.  I'm headed for beddie - bye and it will be positively divine to shut this machine down.