Weekend chores

We had an exceptionally busy weekend. Most of it was spent cleaning out the barn and putting fresh shavings in the stalls. The goats will begin kidding in a few short weeks and stalls need to be clean and waiting, especially if the weather is cold. I still have to hang heat lamps and scrub the milking stand. I spent part of one day rearranging animals-- or should I trying to rearrange- as there was little to no cooperation on their part. The sheep need to be condensed to two pastures, one for the ewes and one for the rams. After a couple of hours of plying with grain, begging, chasing and screaming I gave up. Better left to another day. We will soon have to put up temporary fencing to keep the animals out of the hay field so that means the pasture set up needs to be complete by then. Hay was put out and the small bales were counted. Unfortuately we are going to be about 80 bales short this year. I will need to lock down some hay very soon to get us through until we mow again in May.
After milking this weekend I discovered the calf will have to be weaned. She is starting to chew her mother's udder up pretty badly. So Jasmine went to her own pasture to the dismay of her calf who has been bawling her head off ever since. That adds another daily chore of milking every day, not just as an as needed basis for milk. I will just milk in the evenings though for now. There are just not enough hours in the mornings these days to get everything done, especially if I have to bake and work. I'll save the early morning milking for when the goats kid. A few more weeks of not tromping down to the barn at daylight sounds just fine.
I pulled the grow light stand from the recesses of the laundry room. Tomorrow I will clean and disinfect it in anticipation of starting seeds very soon. Not enough time today as it is my oldest son's birthday and we are fixing a special birthday supper for him.
It was a pleasure pulling out t-bone steaks to thaw from our cow we butchered last year, along with green beans from the pantry and potatoes from the basement. I even managed to find a few surviving brussels sprouts in the garden to roast for supper. It is such a feeling of satisfaction laying a table with everything grown here.
So off I go to do the evening round of chores and then spend a lovely evening with family!