It's been busy around here. We went to the auction Sat. morning and purchased grain feeders for the animals then watched the rest. It's so odd to see huge plow attachments and hay trailers go for $150.00 but stall panels go for just dollars under the price of new. I had a blast and wanted to stay the entire time but it was a beautiful wind-less day so we headed home for chores. I worked with Smoke and Fire (the sorrel colt) more in the afternoon and Midnight finally allowed me to pet him. I was careful to just pet his nose and neck then retreat. Hopefully another week or so of this will gain his trust so I can attach a lead and get to know him.

Unfortunately the boarding horses do not care for the goats and evicted them from the barn. Feeling homeless, we noticed the goats entering the road and neighboring fields - something they have never done. At this point we're going to have to keep them locked in the pen and rotate them into the barn to allow the horses and Moo into the pen at night for shelter. Moving livestock around all day is not fun and I'll come up with a better system this week. Moo has warmed to the goats though and even lets Buck scratch her with his horns. I watched yesterday as she was sunning herself and he approached she just layed her head down and he gave her a masssage. Hopefully she won't begin to act like a goat, although I did watch her play "butt heads" with Leo, the pygmy buck.

Sunday was spent repairing the roof, cleaning gutters, washing the hourse, and tearing down an old fence. Then I learned to set T posts in the pen so we can separate the goats out from the horses. My wonderful husband showed me how to set them last week using his post hold driver - a weighted cylinder with handles that slides over the top of the post. As you raise and lower it the post is driven into the ground. Of course, Ed forgot to tell me that as you lower it loosen your grip! I was hanging on to the thing for dear life and using all my strength to get those suckers in the ground. After setting just five of them I stood back to admire my first attempt - not too bad! But then I took my gloves off and noticed my hands had a line of blood blisters and open cuts across the palm. Ouch. It's hard to imagine that a year ago I had a decent manicure and callus-less hands.

The boys and I started spring cleaning inside the house yesterday and even the hot water tank is shiny and dust free. Then we uncovered a brick patio that's been next to the concrete patio for probably 40 years or so and had about 2" of dirt covering it so that you couldn't even see where the edges were. We had moved the basketball goal over to the patio for the boys to get them away from our table and chairs but they were still playing on dirt. Using the power washer and rakes took me about 3 hrs to get it all cleaned off - but it sure was worth the effort.

Our spring outside work is nearing completion and once the garden is installed we can move on to the pasturing of the west field. I'm hoping we'll get it done before the farmer comes to plant soybeans because if he were to arrive today I'd have all 12 goats, 3 horses, and a crazy cow in a quarter acre pen - they were NOT be happy about that one bit.