97 in the Shade

Okay so it's hot.  I mean really hot.  Gotta deal.  Somehow it doesn't seem right, living so far north and having temps so high, but here we are.  The land of extremes.  The sheep are taking it well, lounging on the cool dirt barn floor during the day and out to graze in the evening.  The goats in the maternity ward are panting a bit.  I've been pulling down the plastic sheeting on the windows which kept out the winter chill.  I have very powerful fans up and down the barn, but I'm afraid to turn them on with the wiring so old and brittle.  Better a hot barn than a burning barn.  Chris told me he paid $700 each for those fans a long time ago so I wish I could get them working.  In the meantime the little ones are doing fine.  Little Hannah, born yesterday, is very tiny but is alert and nursing.  Have to catch her to peel off that poopy pack that baby goats often get.  One more mom in the maternity ward is due to kid along with Monkey, who would never stand to be put in a pen with other goats.  She would whip her beauteous horn set around and make them miserable.  Monkey is due to lamb anytime and I sure hope I am here to save the "second twin" who she loves to ignore, just as her mother, Celeste, did to her.  Monkey was hand raised after finding her flat out frozen dead on the barn floor, in the pen right in front of her mother who ignored her in favor of the other twin.  I was living in the trailer at the time and had an oven in the milk room for cooking.  I warmed Monkey up in the oven and left her on the lid overnight in a laundry basket with a rack separating it from the elements.  I gave her up for dead, but one should never do that. The following morning, on Easter Sunday, I opened the door to the milk room and found little Monkey standing up in the laundry basket.  Naturally, she has been a VIG ever since - Very Important Goat.  Speaking of Very Important flock members, I just let them out to graze and sure enough Lilly came over to me to say hello.  Her affection taking first place to her need for green grass.  Then her son, Forrest, was next to come for a smooch, then Luna, her daughter.  This line of sheep is so very friendly.  The others act like I'm not even there for the most part, except for when I appear with a bucket or a bail.  I sure hope I can keep this "Lilly Line" going.  I still have her mother, who must be 14 years old.  I'll be thrilled if I have Lilly that long.  Now to sit down and drink my morning French Roast leftovers with a good dollop of vanilla ice cream on top.   I hope the ceiling fan will dry this tee shirt which is drenched and sticking to me, after just a few preliminary chores.  No cooking tonight - don't dare light the oven.  A salad will have to do.  Last day with the kids today.  Only two out of seven showed up but they might as well have been twenty with their acting out.  The end of school can be very unsettling with anxiety issues.  I had four extra aides, making six total, helping me clean up and organize my big classroom.  It was wonderful having those ladies scrubbing and sorting.  The pile of garbage in the hall was enormous.  A secretary was retiring after 39 years and there was cake for her.  I can't imagine working anywhere that long.  My life has been so topsy-turvy it was impossible.  The farm gives me some of the peace I've been searching for all my life.