As I slept on the cough today trying to get better Bubba “finished” the barn. I say this because Bubba did a teenager finish. I now really understand my father as he was always getting on me about the minutiae. I learned by the time I was a teenager that the job had to be perfect. Yet every teenager I have ever had out to the farm uses a different measuring stick of completion. Bubba is correct, this section is clean of poop and straw. Yet for the barn to be functional we have to have all the sorting pen that was removed reinstalled and all of the feeders put back out.
This doesn’t include the two smaller areas where we keep the new mommas. It still needs to be cleaned out and under the stairs needs to be cleaned out. I went out and talked to Bubba to give him clearer directions and then we went over how to clean out the chicken coop. He started working on the coop after that and I went back to the couch for another several hour nap. We should have all the buildings cleaned out by Monday. I am super stoked. I need about 8 more hours on the bull enclosure and then its onto the next project. I need to trim the alpaca feet and fix the machine shed overhead beams I broke last year with the tractor. I will call on Monday and get some custom beams cut for the repair. 
We need to clean out the milking area also. Meathead is coming out on Tuesday to finish moving all the straw and poop from the barn over into the compost pile. She can grab the extra compost from the alley way and front barn lot at the same time. There are four big rocks in the milking area I would like to take out. They were used as support for floor beams but they just get in the way now. I have tried to get them out with the tractor but there is no room to move the tractor around in this tight space. I am just going to have to use a breaker bar, shovel and fulcrum to get them out. 
Last night I went to bed early due to an illness. I was dead asleep when I was woken up by the dogs just raising a ruckus outside. It sounded like they were tearing something up and it was vicious. This went on for a little while then I heard Annmarie slap the side of the house loudly to shut them up and I fell back asleep. When she came to bed she told me that the dogs were at the back garden gate barking and trying to get at the four raccoons on our back porch. They were helping themselves to the cat food. She had flipped on the light and took a shot at them with the 30-30. She missed as they were almost gone by the time she got back with a weapon. So we have baited the back porch with more cat food tonight. I didn’t feed the cats in the barn and we are going to send Annmarie out to the chicken coop area and I will come out the back door blazing. Last night the raccoons ran toward the chicken coop. Annmarie will be waiting for them. As soon as I start shooting she will turn on her flashlight. I will not leave the back yard so she can shoot at anything that comes her way, no crossing of fire lanes. This is a stupid problem to have but they cannot get at my chickens! My babies should be laying next month and I do not want to wait another 8 months before getting more eggs.
Bubba has been working on the barn a few hours a day. I managed to get the tractor inside and in two hours we got about 60% of the barn torn up and near a door ready to be shoveled outside. The smell is very bad! All this heat and the moisture getting trapped is causing a faster than normal breakdown of the compost material. It is even causing a bad smell out by the cars when the wind blows toward the house. I am hoping to be done with the barn in a few more days. After he gets the barn all dug out and cleaned the chicken coop needs its annual cleaning also! The fun never ends at StewartCreekSomethings! We need the barn to sort the sheep one more time before putting the ram in with everyone. We need to sort off the sheep we are culling or selling before turning in the ram so that they don’t get pregnant. This needs to happen in July so that lambs are born in January. Doing that will allow us to have two sets of lambs born in 2019.
It is now officially summer in Eastern Oregon. The back creek is dry, the wheat is supposed to be harvested next week, the summer weeds are flourishing and its hot! 
Zeke got to work the cows the first couple of days as Mouse is injured. He got a large splinter and torn toenail on one foot. The vet had to fix it and while he was there they pulled out a couple of foxtail from one ear. This was not a bonus find as we paid for that removal also. So he is now $220 ahead of Zeke in vet bills. He won the most expensive dog category last year also so he is off to an early lead. 
Once this was done I had the boys help me remove all the wood from the L shaped granary and pile it up in the barn. Mr Consumer stood by the barn door and tossed all the scrap wood I handed or tossed his way outside to be burnt. The Brothers had to carry all the large pieces out to the barn floor. I am positive that Mr Consumer had figured he had the best job until I spotted a large black and white fur ball on the floor hidden under some wood and informed Mr. Consumer that he would be disposing of the dead skunk! He did bitch slightly but I told him he had made a choice to take the easier job of the three and his choice may have been the easier choice but the consequence of said choice was that he got to move the dead skunk as his job was to remove the trash from the barn. We had a couple minute discussion on how sometimes our choices lead us down paths we don’t expect but it was our choice and we have to live with our personal decisions. I had to keep digging through the lumber to get to the body as it was buried. Turns out it was just a furball from the packrat! He did not have to deal with a dead skunk but the anticipation and dread served its purpose. 
The Brothers reminded me of lunch time at 1205. They have worked with me before and know that one must be vocal if one wants to get fed on time. Mr Consumer brought his own lunch. I did not expect this and ended up with an extra 18 inch hoagie in the fridge. We ate on the front porch as Mr Consumer and Thing 1 had started digging feces covered straw out of the barn and did not smell the best. As we ate lunch I watched two different washed and cut fruits in separate bags emerge from the lunch pail. Meanwhile, the Brothers and I are wolfing down meat and cheese hoagies and Doritos. I enquired as to whom had prepared his lunch? Drumroll please! What 16 year old boy puts TWO types of fruit in his lunchpail? You are all correct, his mother did it and a name was born, Mr Consumer. He ate every bit of his lunch. 
It was an incredibly productive day and now I need to get the fields mowed and disced again then I can start in on the bull enclosure. Those fields need to be ready in the fall for alfalfa. A friend of ours is looking into getting me 150# of Round up ready alfalfa. I have a Monsanto ID number now so I can buy it. I am told it is very expensive but we need it as I will be able to spray Round Up on it to keep the weeds and cheat grass under control as it establishes itself. We only need one cutting from it next year. 
Stewart Creek Somethings 