We wrangled the neighbors horses back into their pasture. He recently fenced his property on the other side of the creek and moved his females in. They have close to 20 acres or more fenced off of wood land, pond and clearings.
He lives a mile or better down, at the head of our lane. Of course, he and his wife work days, so when we discovered the horses were roaming the access road and creek, there was no one to call. I couldn't just leave them out. Some folks around here get rather twisted when you mess with their animals, but I would hope if say, my cow were walking around the road up there and they saw her, they'd bring her back and shoo her behind a fence if we weren't home.
I've been sewing on the last truly needed dresses for the girls, and started attacking the pants and shirts for the boys. I don't like making shirts. I'm not at all good at sewing them, the collars give me fits, the button holes always seem to have a problem...but, in the interest of saving money, I have a load of fabric here and there's no reason I can't make them. They just give me a headache :-(
We found the new barn babies...
She just had the 2, same as her last litter. Fine with me. I like barn cats and all, but I have enough really. I'm glad she isn't like Black Momma...she used to pop out 7 each time!
Today, the original plan called for sewing more shirts, cutting more broadfalls out, schooling and so on. What happened in real life was hoof trimming and barn cleaning. So much for plans, right?
It might not look like much, but it is...was. We worked just over 4 1/2 hours out there raking out all the well-composted bedding, scraped down the old layers that still held moisture...and stink, oh my! We hauled over a dozen and some wheelbarrows full of that rich gold soil to the garden. Then we had to get the area leveled back out. Buddy, the Great Pyr, likes to hollow out the far corner for his bed, the goats tend to paw here and there, etc. It was running down hill into the barn stalls, not good when we usually have heavy rains in the fall. So, we raked and shoveled and tamped. I think we did pretty good, but here's my Word of Homestead Wisdom for the day....when building a barn, space those support posts far enough apart, and your roof line high enough up that you can back your tractor in! Not that we built this barn to begin with, but the side roof is low...like barely head high for me at 5.5'...and the posts are too close...man, if I could've backed the tractor in just enough for the box blade to get in there, clean out would've gone much faster. And I'd be much less sore in the shoulders. Much less.
Trust me, I'll take a sore bum from riding the tractor over stiff and aching arms and shoulders from shoveling and lugging a loaded wheelbarrow any day!
The rest of this day, what's left now as it's after 2 pm, will be quiet schooling and reading. I need to recreate my LHOP-On The Banks of Plum Creek/Week 2 notes on the school blog...again. That's twice now the autosave has failed and either then computer or the iPad has eaten my post. Arghhh...technology.
What's been happening around your homestead this week?
-blessings from Hands and Hearts Homestead!
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