Outside work and a goodbye

Well, it has been a good day, but a bittersweet day, too. I spent the morning with Jose and Mikey; Jose had to go to work, and Mikey went to a friend's house, so I decided I would spend the rest of the day working on the garden, getting things ready for spring planting, and on the barn, getting things cleaned up a bit there.

I am planting part of this year's garden using raised straw bales, so hopefully before long I have lots of strawberries, squash, cucumbers, tomatoes, potatoes, watermelon and more, all outside of my back door. I stacked the bales for now, but I am thinking I am probably going to move them around so I get more use out of them.

I spent part of the afternoon working around the barn, putting out minerals for the goats and giving the goats and chickens mineral blocks, which they absolutely adore. They need lots of copper right now, and I am hoping this will help some since I want to wait a few more weeks before bolusing everyone (more to come on that). I change light bulbs around the barn, and then I checked the fence and fixed a few places that needed it. The chickens tend to dig where they shouldn't, and the next thing I know, I have a hole that needs fixed! I also secured the fence on my gates in a few places; it has been needing that for a while. After that, I made a small fire to burn branches and other odds and ends that have been lying around the barnyard for weeks.

After the fire was going good, I dug into one of the old compost piles in the barnyard. I hauled about five loads of composted manure and plant material that has been 'seasoning' for about two years now to the raised beds behind the house and threw it in there. Now I just have to till and work the ground. The peppermint, some green onions, parsley, and lemon balm is still hanging around from last year's garden. Speaking of last year, over half of the garden came back on its own last year. I planted green peppers, and that was it! The tomatoes, cucumbers, and onions came back on their own. I'm wondering if the same will happen this year. I want to try to go organic and non-gmo this year, so just in case, I am thinking I will till up everything to make sure I don't get anything popping up from last year's crop.

And on a sad note, as I was cleaning the barn and trying to fill in holes where the chickens were trying to relocate themselves to China, I noticed some pink on Panama's nose. I couldn't figure out where it came from, so I started looking around, and then I found some blood under her tail, too. I looked around to see if I could find a baby anywhere, but I couldn't, so I am thinking she aborted early or is in the process of it right now. She's not contracting or anything. She would have been a little over two months along, due in June. I have no clue what has happened unless she's been fighting with Queen Cozette; that is always possible. Cozette is getting ready to kid soon, and she's a cranky butt, ramming everyone when things don't go her way, which is quite often. That's the only thing I can think of that could have caused it; everyone else seems fine. Panama was standing at the buck pen, wagging her tail before I came in the house, so I guess she knows what's going on. She seems sad, and I know that feeling. :( Poor girl...  and goodbye little one or little ones.

Until next time...