It's beginning to feel a lot like a farm around here

Nothing says "farm" like bucking bails of hay 9-feet up into a loft while the chickens and pig watch with apparent amusement and curiosity. 

First off, Tilly was spayed last Friday, which means a 10-day demotion from 'farm dog extraordinaire' to 'indoor dog who must lay on the doggy bed on the floor and try not to cry'. We've made it to day 5, half way through, and she is beginning to perk up, meaning beginning to be a lot less complacent about the demotion. As hard as it is to keep her calm and leave her out of all the fun, I'd much rather have her throwing her bone in the air all night long than waking up early to stand in the middle of the room and cry inconsolably for hours. It's a strange thing to do to the pets we love and I am so glad not to have to spay any goats ever.

Speaking of goats, today is goat day! Last night, after Tim got home from his first day of work as an official, registered, apprentice electrician, Nancy and I elected to give him some quiet time and took off to milk Tadd's goats. It's been great getting fresh milk once or twice a week and I am getting much faster at milking. On our way home from milking, we picked up 12 bales of hay from Claudia's farm. Hay is heavy. This morning, all that lovely hay that was so nicely strapped into the back of the truck had to be moved by little wagon and hand out of the truck, down the hill, across the yard, into the barn, and up about 9 feet into the hay loft, and then across the 4' crawl space to the far corner of the barn. I am really quite proud of my full, beautiful hay loft now and feel tempted to sleep up there tonight. Freshly whitewashed and filled with new hay, this is the cleanest it is likely to ever be.

Oh, a note on whitewashing! Tim and I yet again got busy whitewashing, this time the goat half of the barn, and now it is looking... much brighter, significantly better, and cleaner, though perhaps if the smell and the chemical burning sensations weren't so bad, we might have done a little more careful and through of a job. Next time!  I decided to use a "wet on wet" application method for the whitewash this time, which means I power-washed the barn, then immediately set about applying the whitewash to the wet walls. I really enjoy power-washing. It's similar to vacuuming in a way; all the yuck vanishes as you move back and fourth across the space. Unfortunately with power-washing, a lot of that yuck gets sprayed back at me and I was very glad to be wearing fogged up goggles that didn't allow me to see too many details of the contents of what was flying about in the air and spray around me.

My recipe for whitewash: Mix 1 part salt, 3 parts hydrated lime, 4 parts water, a little old goat milk. Let sit over night. Rub on damp walls with sponge. "It's not paint, and it's only a barn!" http://fiascofarm.com/recipes/whitewash.html

I figure people have been whitewashing for hundreds of years, so although you should always wear proper eye protection, a mask, rubber gloves, long sleeves, etc, I have yet to notice any severe harmful effects from working with it. Getting some on our recent sun burns (from watching the Blue Angels air show in Seattle) was a little tingly, but nothing a shower didn't cure.

So I am taking my lunch break midway through moving 3 cubic yards of sand and gravel from the tarps where the dump truck delivered it to the floor of the barn, then I need to finish building a divider wall in the corner of the barn for goat food storage and a milking station, then clean up all the construction materials, bicycles, and other non-edibles from around the yard, and aim to meet Tim at the goat lady (Molly)'s house to pick up our goats at 5pm! Another busy day on our farm!