Spring cleaning

Cat 1

Still working on catching Cat 2 for his vet trip.  Set the live trap last night with fingers crossed that I'd be able to take him in this morning, but when I peeked out around 11 pm, I had Cat 3 again.  Let her out and re-set, but it was unsprung this morning.  Guess I'll have to keep trying.


I got a very nice follow-up call this morning from the vet - wondering if the kitties were doing okay.  I was happy to tell her yes.  Nice of her to check.

In other exciting news, the farrier is coming on Wednesday.  After talking to a number of area horse people, the same name kept surfacing.  Hopefully he's as good/dependable as his reputation.  So far I only know he talks re-al-ly sl-o-w.  

Rufus needs his shoes pulled, and they all need to be trimmed.  They're not super long, since hooves grow slower in the winter and the ground's been hard enough to keep them worn off some, but it's definitely time.  If it works out - and please, let it work out! - it sounds like this guy has a regular loop down this way that I can schedule in on.

Too windy today to work on the loft.  They're saying 35mph winds for the next couple of days, which should dry things out.  Because we so need to be drier.  Not.  I did some post-winter clean-up around the barn and where the bales have been sitting.  Ended up covered in hay bits, even from the stuff that was still dampish.  Came in itching like crazy - I found my second tick yesterday, and now I keep thinking I feel the suckers crawling on me.  So far just chaff today, though.

Amyra is so in heat it's not funny.  She keeps trying to get the boys interested, and they're oblivious.  She gets to walk next to next to Sunny for the duration, because she knows better than to pin her ears at him, and when she makes faces at Rufus he takes her seriously.   She knows better than to snark at him while they're haltered, but if we're not moving sometimes the temptation's just too much. 

No traffic tonight, but we did pass some wild turkeys.

We're melting! We're melting!

T requested Ginger-people bars - post-holidays the gingerbread flavored marshmallows were on sale for $.75/bag, so I picked up a bunch.  

Every time I make them the witch's plaint from the Wizard of Oz runs through my head.  "I'm meeeellltting....".

It really is melting here... mornings are crunchy, but my midday the snow has that slippery, wet feeling to it and the driveway is sloppy.

They're predicting a chance of rain for Thursday, and then it's back into the depths of winter for the weekend.  I hope we get more snow!


Yesterday I worked on the chicken house, restacking all of the wood that's been stored inside it outside, raking out packrat nests and moving all the other odds and ends that have accumulated.  It finally got too dusty to breathe, so I moved down to the barn and worked on that.

Down there, I acquired an audience.

What'cha doin?

For now I'm hauling the manure over to dump next to the granary in what will, if all goes as planned, be tilled for a melon/squash patch next spring.
 

Cat 1 came to see what I was up to via the barn window.  He tried sitting by the muck bucket, but after a couple of frozen horse apples bounced off his head, he moved over into a spot of sunshine by the door and gave himself a bath. 

Thunder came in to see what I was doing, checked out the bucket to be absolutely certain nothing inside was edible, poked the cat to make sure he wasn't hiding anything tasty, then migrated back around the barn to watch me through the window.

You work, I'll watch

Next trip to Orschlens, I'm getting a wheelbarrow!
 
T and I checked out the loft over the weekend.  It's not as full as he remembered, thank goodness! There's some old alfalfa, and some straw bales along the back side and one wall, and someone stored a bunch of windows along the other wall, but a large portion of the floor is clear.  It's really dusty. 

We'll back a truck in below the loft door and shove the bales out, and I think we can use them for mulch.  The windows... not sure if we can use them to make hot boxes for the garden, or if we'll end up just hauling them to the dump.  Anybody have any nifty ideas for old screens?

Also up there, hanging from the rafters, two complete sets of harness.  I think it's too old and cracked to be saved, unfortunately.  But I'm going to see what I can salvage.

Remnants of the old days

Since the horses have been using the barn to loaf in, today's project is getting the mangers cleaned out.  That way, if it's really nasty I can feed them inside, not on the floor.  And there's more cleaning to be done in the chicken house.

A bunch of cows were shoving one another around their water tank when I finished up in the barn, and when I checked sure enough, the tank was empty.  The guys have only been filling it in the morning so that it doesn't freeze solid at night - no heater, so it saves them from having to break ice all the time.  There's another big tank clear on the other side of the pasture, so some days the cows don't come in to this one at all.

I turned the water on for them and Cat 1 and I hung out on top of the well house cover in the sunshine while they drank. 

Pet me!  Pet me, pet me, pet me!

Definitely not a bad way to spend an afternoon!