Hello Monday

These five day work weeks are tough! We're lucky to have a few nice long weekends in the teaching profession, which is very good for farmers like me. I'm looking forward to one next week. We got the barn ready for cleaning yesterday, as much as we could do from dawn to dusk. The sheep are in a different living quarters in the upper hay mow with a separate barnyard area. They were not happy about this at first. Sheep are the ultimate creatures of habit and don't like changes at all. They were very suspicious of the new fencing even though the hay mow is a wonderful place they love to hang out, not surprisingly. I had to coax them with a bucket, then an avalanche of sheep mobbed me, carrying me across the floor of the mow. Yes, a wave of 200 pounders can push a human where she doesn't want to go. Matt closed the gate and they were in for the night. We made a temporary home for the piggies between two silos and fixed a sleeping area for them in the entryway to one of the silos. There are so many nooks and crannies to this lovely old barn and we make good use of them all. The boys didn't seem to mind and two sturdy gates are holding them in. Lots of cabbages, sweet feed and slop are helping. The bunners are in the room adjacent to the apartment so they won't be scared of the machines and have to breathe ammonia fumes. The chickens are still in the chicken room. There is outside ventilation, and I hope they do alright. I might not get any eggs for a few days! There is just nowhere else to put them and too many chickens to handle. It snowed off and on yesterday, that dramatic lake effect weather I've come to adore. One minute the sky will be bright and blue, then a black wave of horizontal snow will block it out, then the blue comes back again. The light on the fields flashes green, then gold, then dark again. So beautiful, and a warning of the blanket of white that will surely come sooner than later.