Visiting, cleanup, herd relocation

Mama and I are trying to make it to Bus Calling every Saturday morning. It is only about two hours out of our Saturday. There are other ways we could use the time, but I consider it like a tithe. When I give that time to the Lord, He will give me that time back in ways that are more profitable and often unexpectedly blessed. That is kind of how things worked out Saturday. Since I did not have enough time to get started on any farm chores Saturday morning between feeding and Bus Calling, I sat and uploaded the receipts we had accumulated. Mama and I record our receipts to help us keep track of our spending. It really does help but it takes time. Time which we often do not allow ourselves to complete the task. That got done before we needed to leave. When we got to the church, there were nineteen others there. A really good group. A group of young people from BBTI have swelled our Soul Winning ranks lately. That has been a great encouragement to our pastor.

Mama and I went with Bobby and Raymond Garza. Bobby is deaf so Mama gets forced to practice the sigh language she knows for the time we are out. We were only out for about an hour and twenty minutes. Raymond had only two stops to make to visit his route. It seems every house on that route has been recently visited by our gang, so there were no new visits we could make in that area. Mama’s head was spinning by the time we got back to the church. Bobby’s signing is less formal than Mama is used to, and he signs very fast. It is hard for someone not fluent to keep up. Fortunately, Bobby is used to pantomiming his thoughts versus just signing. None-the-less, he is a challenge to communicate with. We headed home to meet Victoria and she and Mama went to Denton to do some shopping. I stayed at the farm to get some cleanup done.

The pig building, where the weanlings are staying, needed to be cleaned, sanitized and re-strawed. I have to do that every week or the smell is horrible. That little chore took about an hour complete. While I was getting the soiled straw out of the building, I lost count of how many times I made the little goats faint. It is hilarious to watch. They are so curious that they cannot stay away and so easily startled that they cannot help fainting. I left them out of the building for the rest of the day so the building could dry out. I took a few minutes to relocate a couple panels at the garden shed as I was getting feed dispersed. They have sat like they were for four years while I waited for the time to build a proper side to the garden shed. That is a chore that is still waiting on me. It looks better the way they are now placed. Mama liked it much better. A win-win for me. Maybe that will buy me another four years.

I had to get the tractor for the next chore. I had a mess in front of the goat barn. We have not cleaned out the goat barn since we built it and the front had gotten a little messy. It is where I dump the stubble from the hay feeder we use in that barn. That stubble then gets put back in the building for the goats to bed down in. With the wet winter we are having, that area at the barn entrance had gotten mushy. I took out a full tractor bucket load of straw, manure and wet dirt from the entrance. I could have taken more but I did not want to create a hole for water to pool in. I will get to see over the next couple days it that worked the way I wanted it to.

I dumped the load of refuse removed from the goat barn in the garden. While I had the tractor in the garden, I pushed the raised bed back up to level it. Over the years it had started to lean a bit and I did not like the look of it. It took some time to get the new bracing in place, but I like the look much better now. It allowed me to remove the two by sixes attached to the side of the bed to mount a shade for the bed. They were actually keeping the bed from leaning any further than it was. While I was finishing that up, Mama and Victoria got home.

With Victoria’s help, we took the little male weanlings from the pig building and put them with Midas. Mama was worried bout the size and age difference between the little ones and Midas and at first, it was a little concerning. Midas chased Julian around the lot as soon as the two were put together, but as we got all the little ones in the lot, it worked itself out. After all, it was five to one so Midas could not possibly chase all of them around the lot. The little ones were thrilled to be in a bigger lot. They ran, skipped and jumped until they got worn out. Callie, our weanling doe, went back with the nanny goats. She has been off her mother for three weeks, so Millie is pretty well dried up.

When Mama and I get back from Honduras, we will take the last of the nursing babies and wean them. A few weeks away from their mommies and they will be placed back with the larger goats. Boys with the boys. Girls with the girls.

We love our farm.