In our upside-down world weekends are the busiest time for us - I start gearing up on Friday morning for working my two jobs Friday afternoon through Sunday evening, in addition to figuring out which project Ed will need an extra pair of hands to complete. This weekend was no different. Although I only worked five hrs on the phones this weekend, there are another five medium hedge trees felled out back, several trailer loads of branches in the goat pen for snacking, two acres around the house neatly mowed (including the quarter mile driveway and roadside ditch) laundry folded and waiting to be put away, and delicious meals leftover in the fridge. Ed spent his time working on the stalls in the barn and he completed them last night. We now have the smaller stall for the nubians and pygmies then the larger one for the boers. This solves the behavior problems during morning feeding as I can easily separate them and everyone can have their own bucket. The larger stall is made up of the back 2/3 of the barn and can now be quickly divided into smaller stalls for birthing or sick animals. This still leave us space to create two larger stalls that would hold more goats, a horse, or a cow in case we need them in a small confined area for examination or treatment. All this, and we still have room for tools and hay storage in there.

Yesterday was tree-cutting day as I didn't work at Wal-Mart last night and could properly recover. I did an awesome job out there, if I do say so myself. What was once thicket after thicket of hedge growing through the fenceline is now nearly trimmed back the width of the lawnmower and the height of Ed so we can easily work on setting the fence. The goats are happy with their imported thicket of branches they've been munching on (I swear, hedge is like ice cream to them!) and I'm happy with the start of my new firewood pile that we'll age through the year. The next project will be moving the properly aged wood into the old barn for cover and winter use while we stack the new wood in its place. After that we need to get the electric run to the new barn, run the electric fence, and winterize the chicken coop. Shouldn't take long eh? I've still got the garden to prepare and then my fall planting of trees and shrubs will be over the next month. We try to plant as much as we can afford every year because the elms that cover the property are nearly done for and by the time new trees are doing their job (every living thing on a farm has a job to do!) the elms will need to be removed. Ed's of the opinion that all new trees should be planted neatly in rows to facilitate easy mowing. My learned, professional opinion is to scatter them and eventually just cover the acre surrounding the house with them. Since I do most of the mowing, and virtually all of the planting, I have confidence in my ability to win this one. :)

I ran all the errands this morning and then hit the kitchen where I made three batches of soap. They all turned out fabulous! I've got a pale green mango/plumeria, a heather scented red batch, and then a white/pink swirl mulberry spice. They all cooked up fantastically and are cooling on the table now. I'll get them cut tomorrow, pictures taken, and have them up for sale by the weekend or early next week. If I can make two batches a couple of times this week, my stock will increase nicely. I decided to go with my favorite shampoo recipe for everything at this point. It's the nicest recipe I have and foams up so beautifully - just like shampoo. They will be slightly more expensive than other bars as there are no "filler oils" in them at all, but I think the quality will be worth it.

I keep going over to Peggy's site at Hidden Haven Homestead and I want so badly to say *something* to everyone but I'm truly at a loss for words. It's beyond kind what's going on over there and I'm still speechless at the very thought of it. Thank you. I will properly compose something to post over there.

Enough computer playing, all the beds are stripped and need made, dinner needs started, and the kitchen mess needs cleaned.