Progress, girl’s day, relocation

I am making slow progress on the shop. I did not really feel like getting soaked with sweat last night but pushed through to get another wall set up to receive the metal siding. I plan to start putting on the siding tomorrow. Tonight and tomorrow are the last opportunities to work on the building until the following Friday night. FBI starts Monday night. I will be traveling Tuesday through Thursday next week; on vacation with Mama from Wednesday through Saturday the following week. My goal is to have the shop complete by the end of September and even with a full week of travel the second week of that month, I think it is still doable. As always, time will tell. I packed away the tools just a little before dark so I could water. Even though this has been an uncharacteristically wet August, all the plants suffer in the near triple digit temperatures; especially with the winds we have this time of year.

Yesterday, I met Mama for lunch. She had Gracie with her. Gracie came home with us Wednesday night after church. Mama thought it would provide a good opportunity for her to have some time to go shopping and just do girl things. They spent the morning in Decatur and met me at the Sweetwater Bakery at lunch time. After that they went to a couple more variety stores and Gracie spent the afternoon arranging all the small items she and Mama had bought. Luke and Joseph, her brothers, were at the farm with Victoria through the day. I think it was a fun day for all of them. Sometimes it is hard to tell. I was not in the house when their mama packed them up to leave. That is normally the time you get a read on how much they enjoyed the stay. Staying with us at the farm will not be as big an attraction in the months to come. They are buying a house just down the road from the church – hoping to close this month. It will be a real blessing for the family to be that close to the church. On the down side. It will cost the daddy an additional twenty minutes’ drive time to work every day. I can sympathize with that.

Mama and I both are suffering from plugged up sinuses this morning. She has been fighting the symptoms for several days already but I believe mine is a direct result of working with the chickens last night. In order to keep me from having to build an additional building, Mama is combining the new chickens with some of the older chickens. She will be giving about ten to Alissa and Zach Burns to be put in the coop at their little homestead – Victoria’s former house. That will get us back down to about twenty on that side. The other side will be given to the Banty chicks we are raising.

The Banty chicks are in a large cage on the side we emptied of regular chickens last night. Mama will let them out of the cage this morning. The chicks are getting to the point that they can escape the cage when Mama opens the door to get the feed and water containers for their twice daily refreshing. The reason I am stuffed up is because the chickens I needed to catch have taken to roosting on top of the large cage we have the Banty’s in. I put a tarp on top of the cage just in case the chickens decided to take up residence there. Now that tarp is rather nasty and last night, in the dark, I had to catch the chickens on that nasty roost so Mama could put them on the other side of the coop. As I began to catch the ten or twelve of them they began to flap and squawk and stir up all the wonderful accumulation of poop – dried and moist – blowing it into my face since the top of the cage is just about the height of my shoulders. I was ready to get out of those cloths and take a shower when that little chore was done.

This morning, I wish I could have stayed in bed.