Barn Cleaning

Never a fun job but yet has to be done.  This is the first day we have had that has been nice enough to do it.  We have to wait for the ice to melt outside the barn so that we can get the gate open and get the truck backed in.  It is a hard, heavy lifting job.  We put a good dent in the work that needs to be done but still have a long way to go. 

We started by cleaning out Eeyore's pen.  Eeyore was Dancer's goat that had seizures from, we think, a traumatically hard birth.  He was fine Monday morning but after having his peanuts started having seizures.  This is nothing new, he usually has a couple and then he is tired for a few days and is back to normal.  This time though he didn't stop having them.  By Monday night he wasn't looking so good so we hoped he would make it through 'til morning.  He did, but when we checked on him in the morning he was having one seizure right after another with only a few minutes in between them.  Dancer sat out with him all morning, comforting him and talking him through each one.  He kept looking more and more tired and his eyes were getting glassy.  After lunch time he just couldn't do it any more and his little body gave out.  It has been a sad, sad week for Dancer and the rest of us.  She hasn't gone out to the barn the rest of the week and I certainly didn't expect her to.  Today when we went out to clean she came out.  She didn't help clean his pen, which I think was a good thing, but did some work on the other side of the barn.  By the time we were to the end of his pen she did help scoop some of his old hay into the truck.  She did well and I hope she is able to start doing chores again because I think she misses the rest of the animals.

Grandma Pat called while we were in for lunch and wanted to come over so we were spared from cleaning the rest of the afternoon.

By the time she left it was time to start getting ready for church. Church is at 6:00 p.m. which means we either eat dinner really early or wait until we get back home.  Normally we wait until we get back home which is about 8:30 because we also tack on a trip to the grocery store since we are already in town. 

To add a little fun into the day we started a bonfire when we got home and roasted some hot dogs for dinner.  The temps were about 45 degrees so we were even able to sit out around the fire for a while and chat.  Spark always wants to play "Ten Fingers."  Ten Fingers is a game where you try to say something you have never done that you hope everyone else has done so they have to put down a finger.  For example, I might say that I have never danced on stage, Spark and Dancer have so they need to put down one finger.  The game continues until one person doesn't have anymore fingers up.  The game doesn't last very long for us since we know exactly what each of has or hasn't done.  With a group of people you don't know it would take longer but Spark loves to play it over and over and over.

Tomorrow, unless we get the rain or snow that is forecast but hasn't reared it's ugly head yet, it is back to cleaning the barn.