Dropping In

All of the hay is now in the loft, the loft is full and the hay elevator has been put away until next summer. We still have hay to put up but not in this barn/house.

Our main loft is located in the center of the barn with a lower tier on each side. One side is open, it doesn't have a floor in it and the other side is actually the roof of our little house inside the barn.

My young cousin was helping with the hay on Monday morning, along with a friend of his and our oldest son. After the second wagon had been unloaded and my DH was pulling it away to get ready for the next wagon. My cousin was following my son down out of the loft on a small ladder onto the roof of the house, my cousin skipped the last two rungs of the ladder, jumping onto the roof. At which point my son said later that he just disappeared.

I was washing dishes in the kitchen when I heard a loud crash and I thought to myself that they were being too rough and knocking stuff off of my walls. Then I heard my son very clearly say that my cousin had fallen into the house and someone had better go inside to check on him. I turned around and there he was in the doorway of the bedroom on his hands and knees, just looking at the rug. I am sure that he was wondering if he had landed yet.

He slowly pulled himself up to his full height and brushed himself off, I helped him out the door, where he declared that all was well. After he sat down outside in a lawn chair, we all questioned him about his well-being, then the jokes began.

My son is a quick-wit as opposed to a smart-aleck and there was just too much good material here for him. I know that I won't be able to remember every snide remark that he made throughout the rest of the day. But here are a few; He told him that when we said that he could drop in anytime, we didn't mean literally. He told us that my cousin enjoyed this job so much that it sent him through the roof. He also told him that he should apply for a job with the City because now he had experience dropping down through man-holes. He accused him of hitting rock bottom (our floor is concrete) and told him that the next time he needed a fall guy, he knew who to get. He also advised him that he would probably not make a good roofer. I am probably missing the best ones, but I'm sure that my cousin will remember them all.

He did end up unloading another hay wagon after his great fall because he didn't really want to get back in the loft, but when I called his mother the next day she said he was pretty sore and pretty bruised up. The hole was too tiny for him to fit through and when I finally got around to cleaning up the mess, I found his half opened pocket knife in the debris. It was one of those knives that clip in your pocket, so the squeeze was tight enough to scrape his knife out of his pocket and even open it. Which reminds me of another comment that my cruel son made, he told him that he might be able to get a job with a circus as a contortionist.

Thanks, Cuz, we really appreciate all of your help, even though sometimes you do fall down on the job, you are always willing to work and falling all over yourself to be a help.

Farm-Style Manicure

You should see my lovely fingernails, they are brittle and broken, split and jagged. They usually have unidentified dark substances under them as well. I try to keep them out of my mouth most of the time for that reason.

Dipping crushed oyster shell straight from the bag with your bare hands to feed to your chickens is rough on your nails. Bracing yourself with your hands in the mud and manure to look under the goat/chicken house for a lost hen is not good hygiene. Getting into a slight scuffle with a Billy Goat can and will break an already brittle nail and also bruise one's knuckle.

I don't know what has gotten into Cooter, well maybe it's because it's Spring but I didn't know that he had a calendar and knew the exact day that Spring arrived. He is getting hard to deal with, he usually just nibbles at my fingers and clothes, sometimes puts his head against me and applies slight pressure but today he was just being mean and trying to knock me down. He did the same thing to my DH while he was shoveling out the shed, he took the shovel to him and that made him worse.

He likes being kicked and hit because he likes to play rough, so I avoid getting rough with him, even if he makes me mad. If he pushes on me, I grab his ear, give it a twist and hold him still in one place for an extended period of time. When I let go he usually doesn't want to play anymore. But this type of training does take time and patience.

After the slap with the shovel, he thought we were on his energy level and were thinking like he thinks. I know from experience that it is hard to win in a hand or foot to hard head battle with a buck. If you kick them, it will hurt you worse that it hurts them and hitting them with your hand is just stupid and I have the bruise on my hand to prove it.

Billy goats are made of tough stuff and I should have known better than to have made such a pet out of Cooter but he was so sweet and cute, I couldn't help it. My last buck was not pampered and he avoided human contact, so he was much better behaved.

I am afraid at this point that I am going to have to resort to drastic measures and purchase a cattle prod because I don't want my Grandkids not being able to go into the goat lot because of a mean billy goat, plus the fact that I am just getting tired of his annoying behavior.