Hay retrieval, new home, class, vacation

Tuesday evening right after I signed off from work, Mama and I went to Muenster to get hay. The farmer we buy from there had enough for us to get thirty bales – which is great for this time of year since most suppliers are out of the Sudan hay. The goats will eat the Coastal hay readily available in this area, but they do so grudgingly. His price per bale is among the lowest we have found, seven dollars per bale. I used the Sequoia to haul the trailer, but I am not sure I did any better with it that I would have done with the truck. I hesitated taking the truck because the access to the barn he has the hay stored in is pretty tight and I had difficulty getting the truck and trailer maneuvered into the barn the last time we picked up hay. I got the trailer into the barn in an okay position but I sure wish I was better at backing it than I am. Mama and I did not make it home before dark so the trailer has sat just off the drive waiting to be unloaded since I disconnected Tuesday evening. That should happen this evening. Fortunately, we have had no rain and very little dew over the past couple days.

Once we got home, I prepared the little coop for its new occupants. We had relocated the hens that had roosted there for months now to the West side of the coop building. They were not happy about being displaced and Mama and I have had to pick them up from the porch of the little coop and take them to the roosts of the big coop every night since. Hopefully, they will soon get the idea that that is no longer their home. To prepare the little coop for the chicks – which were in the garage in totes – I had to rig up two heat lamps and a space heater to warm the building sufficiently. Fortunately, when Grandpa built this building for Victoria’s puppies, he insulated it very well, so it warmed quickly.

Mama and I were able to get the chicks offloaded into the little coop after about an hour of the heat lamps and the space heater doing their job. The chicks were ecstatic to be allowed so much room. While some huddled in a corner several flitted about, almost flying, just of the fun of being able to do it. So far, they have done well. We picked this time of year to raise the new brood because of the limited threat of snakes. At least for now, that looks like a good decision. By the time these chicks are six months old and ready to lay, it will be April. Good timing.

I had a small class yesterday, only six participants. It was a very good class. All of us enjoyed ourselves thoroughly as we paced through the material. It was not a short class because there was plenty of discussion and interaction. In fact, I was about an hour short of where I would normally be by lunchtime, so I had to pick up the pace through the afternoon portion of the class. But we finished in good time and I had everybody on their way by 4 pm. I will be in the office later this morning to record those grades and make the entries in the spreadsheets we use to track all our instructor led classes.

Tomorrow I am taking a day of vacation so I can help Mama set up at a flea market in Azle, TX. It is only about thirty minutes from us, and we have been told it is a smaller, more intimate market setting with far less competition than at Trade Days. The seller who was beside Mama last weekend told her about that market and Mama is anxious to try it out. The cost to set up is only fifteen dollars, so it is a nominal expense should it not work out very well. I am going to help set up tables and provide company to Mama during the day. I need the break from work and perhaps I can find something I like at the market as well.

There is lot of work I need to be doing at the farm and in the shop, but that work has waited for days and one more day will not cause a problem. Maybe I will have some time Saturday to work on projects after we go to pick up three lambs from the couple that are the landlords of the property Grandma and Grandpa now rent. We will keep those lambs for a few days before we take them to be processed, so it will be a short time with those animals on the farm. We crowded the dates so we would have quick access to the little shelter I have by the boy goats for the weanlings we need to take off their mama goats in the girl’s area. That should happen by Thanksgiving.  

It will be a busy couple weeks here at the farm, but we love it.