Oh Happy Hay!

The goats were moved in to their new barn yesterday. The girls weren’t really too sure about the whole thing. They had never been in a building with ceilings that high. Most of the “shelters” that they have lived in since they were born on the farm have not been much over 8 feet tall. (The height of a sheet of plywood stood on end.)

(A bit of hay does wonders!)

They were a bit leery of the space, and the way sounds bounce around in there. It won’t echo quite so bad once we have the concrete pad poured and the hay stored inside. The tall goats made quick work of figuring out how to get into the hay feeder. The vertically challenged ones took a little longer to work out a solution. Saturday’s job is to put up a toe rail for them to step up on so they can get their heads in to the feeder holes.

The fence and front gate sections were put in, and seem to be doing their job just fine. Everybody is still where we put them the night before. We will add some hot wire to keep them from standing on the fence and slowly pulling it to the ground.

We did have to do a bit of trenching until we can get the rain water drained off the way we want it. As we were working, it reminded me of the special we saw on how the Grand Canyon was carved. I do believe that we had an added benefit of using a grub-hoe and a trenching shovel, but it was still fascinating to see the power that water has to create or destroy, even on that small of a scale. Our efforts seem to have paid off. The barn did not get any more water inside, and the puddling, mini-lakes have drained. I am sure the EPA/ground-water guy will not be happy with our answer to keeping the barn from having an indoor water feature. He can get in the line behind the quilting police for “People who want to have a word with me on how I do things.”

So, all in all it was a Happy Hay Day, and how can you start out a year better than that? I suppose you could go to my Aunt & Uncle’s to have a New Year’s sandwich party and visit with the family like we did. But, since there is limited parking at their place, and you don’t know all of the inside family jokes, you will have to find your own way.

Happy New Year to you all!