today was very full of construction to improve and change the layout of the goat yard. we just bought 3 nubian goats for milking. our old flock of 7 sanclamente goats has slowly diminished over the last 14 years until now only our old lady Rosemary is still with us. the 3 new queens of the goat world are VERY pushy and slightly dangerous when you are holding food in your hands. they have already broken into the chicken yard several times, as well as breaking the grain house door. it's practically impossible to feed them or any other animal without being mauled, so we decided to end the chaos today. we rewired their yard to divide them from the chickens and grain house. this involved building a new gate for them, digging up locust posts and re-planting them to make the new fence line, restringing electric wire, using the screw gun often, wrestling with tangled wire, sweating in the unseasonably hot sun... all this work evoked quite a bit of swearing, straining and panting from us all. after a full days work we have succeeded in our mission... mostly. the goats have yet to really learn that the new fence WILL zap them if they wiggle under it (which they have done already several times) and we need to do some finishing touches tomorrow, but all in all a successful and productive day.
I also managed to plant up two flats of seeds this morning in the garden. cucumber, melons, squash, pumpkins, gourds, hot peppers and more borage. I also laid out paths between the last 4 beds and planted one bed in sweet corn.
Yesterday I erected a hurricane fence of wire bound wood slates to make the side and back wall of the garden fence. thats a good step in the right direction for preventing hungry rabbit invasions when the lettuce shoots come up!
Anthony and I are REALLY exhausted now, it's been a long day, our muscles are sore and we have passed up a perfectly good cinco de mayo dance party in favor of going to sleep! off we go now...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.....
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