I have not yet managed to make myself post every day, I keep getting closer but I am thinking every two days maximum should keep everyone up to date. On this lovely day 6 of my 42 Forever Fridays I decided to catch up for the last two days. I did not get any farm work done as my volunteer job needed me to spend the day doing it. Annmarie did hear the sheep out front, not where they should be, and lo and behold they were out. The sheep had come through the gate down by my mother in law’s house. This gate was magically open. You scoff? This really does happen! The gate was discovered and closed before the cows got out. I chased the sheep into the barn lot and shut that gate so now they can spend some time with the horses. I am not sure that the horses will appreciate these food competitors.

We have been trying to figure out where Zeke has been sneaking out of the yard. Annmarie was convinced he was still going through the spring crossing by getting down in the water and going under the fence. I was certain this was not so as we fixed the water crossings after the flood this spring. My money was on the spot just behind the trash can outhouse building. I did not carry the woven wire all the way to the building. There was a four foot gap and I was sure he was getting through at this spot, not sure enough to fix said spot though. Annmarie had some shoes she needed to drop off at her mothers and Zeke cannot resist sneaking out of the yard if she stops to visit. So I went upstairs to the breeze porch to watch. Zeke was in the yard watching her from the bridge until the car slowed down and parked at her mothers. He bolted across the bridge and was through the fence before I could blink! I ran downstairs immediately and he had already made it all the way down to Annmarie in that time! I called him back, told him he was busted. I tossed some woven wire over the fence today to be installed soon to stop the escape artist for a few more months until he finds the next weak spot.

I had two new candidates come out to the farm today for some indoctrination into the wonders of farm life. They are brothers and their mother dropped them off with lots of water and food to make it through the day. It usually takes me all day on day 1 to choose a Knick name for most of my helpers. It serves two purposes, it amuses me and it helps keep their privacy. The first one is why I started it but the second one is what I tell everyone! The plan was to have the barn done in four hours and then spend the rest of the time working on the barn lot fence, fixing flood damage.

I split them up immediately, this is a hard knocks learned thing, unless you want to listen to two teenagers bicker incessantly, always divide up the siblings. One worked on the momma/baby area and the other worked on the opposite end of the barn, basically not even possible to split them up any more and still be in the same building. I had to give a few lessons in how to use a pitchfork to get under the sheep excrement concoction and then how to use the shovel as a chisel to break up the cemented dry poop/straw combo off of the floor. It is much more efficient if you use the tools correctly, both parties needed a few different teaching moments. I had my first knickname within an hour of starting. Mr Nose was standing on top of a four foot pile of excrement concoction holding his nose trying to kick the pile out of the back door of the barn. The door is five feet in the air and I was moving the outside pile with the tractor over to the compost pile. I finally had to give Mr Nose instructions to not reach into the pile with bare hands as the pile was steaming. Once we start moving the poop it gets turned and loosened and starts to heat up immediately. Inside the barn it is so compacted that it doesn’t get a lot of oxygen so It never really heats up. This is the reason that once I start in on the barn it has to be completed quickly. Later I taught Mr Nose to use a metal rake, long strokes not 12 inches at a time.

I went to help the other sibling finish the momma/baby area, he had done 1/3 so far so the two of us finished the other 2/3. I am over three times his age and he had to work to keep up. The older I get the more I understand old codger jokes and their criticisms. We finished the barn at lunch time an hour over my four hour goal. Not bad, if you add up the 15 hours today to the 14 I had it only took 29 hours to clean out the barn! It will really take 30 as I have one more pile to move with the tractor but 30 hours is amazing and over 50% decrease in time over last year. I spent their lunch moving poop then we moved some of the new blocks we just got a couple of weeks ago. The plan is to line the bottom of the spring with blocks and the side with blocks and create a weed free, clean drinking area for the animals in the barn lot. During this block move I had two phone calls, hence the second knickname Mr Ears. One of the boys has very good hearing and was very interested to know with whom I was talking. He kept thinking it was his mother. I knew that no bones were sticking out, no uncontrolled bleeding was occurring and all four extremities were still moving, they were golden! No mom call was needed. He did not know this, but he did ask what I did for a living but I don’t think it sunk in. 90 blocks later all the blocks were moved and Ears and Nose had to restack the block pile as they kept trying to pull from the top ones and not get the ones off the bottom of the pile. I made them use the whole stack and then neaten up the pile when we were done.

Mr Ears and I pulled all of the old fencing out of the spring after we all cut apart the fences. I cleaned up the creek with the tractor where I could and we ended up cleaning up the barn lot area. Mr Nose was getting tired and had to be given tasks to keep him on point. I had him filling holes with water for a couple of hours. I need to be able to drill holes with the tractor but the ground is too hard. The water is a necessity to soften the ground. The garter snakes were out in force, we spotted five snakes and Mr Nose claims that one tried to bite him when he came across the culvert crossing. I think he stepped on its tail.

I had to leave early to go pickup an antique chair we purchased a few months ago. The boys walked around the farm out by the machine shed and picked up scrap metal and twine for an hour. I didn’t check how they did but I am sure it needs a couple more hours. I have spent at least an hour this week just pulling scrap metal out of the ground that keeps growing around the outbuildings. I am hoping that they come back again as we got a lot accomplished. I think it is possible for two of us to get all the blocks in place tomorrow if I have help.