Satrurday-what's up?

I have been fighting the lawn mower for a couple weeks now-ordered one part, but can't get all the other parts apart to replace the broken one. So I need to order some more parts. In the meantime, the front yard is starting to look like a neglected pasture-but it's not fenced in so I can't put the goats on it. (A week ago I put the sons on it with some hand clippers-but while it makes a good punishment, it is impractical for cutting a lawn.)

Have planted 5 more rows of beans this morning and hope to plant a couple more before the rain (please!!!). I planted some more sunflowers too. The goats (and the pigs and chickens for that matter) will love them. However we have many more to plant.

My two oldest sons fenced in another overgrown area this week and built a lean-to (which stayed dry during a horrific downpour a couple nights ago). Hilary, Obama and their mother Nanny are staying there. Their mission is to clear that place.

We need to build a small barn/milking shelter and a cool (1/2 underground) multipurpose building (read: slaughter house). We've always done the chickens outside, but this is painful when it is both very hot or very cold and the wind blows feathers everywhere. Now with the impending pig slaughter and butcher, we need a cool place to slaughter and hang the carcasses overnight. Since this will be happening at the end of June (great timing Rockfish!) I have planning, planning-but it is getting close to the time to act.

We have the site-it is just behind the goat/pig area. We will run a fenced passage between the goat pen and the milking shed. The milking shed will have a cement floor, but will be at ground level. the foundation will be cinder block, but the walls will be logs. At the back end of the milking shed will be a door which leads to the slaughter room, down some steps (or a ramp) as the slaughter room will be dug 4 feet down. This room will have a cement floor with a drain in the middle of the floor. Cinder block walls topped with logs will form the slaughter room. Windows in the slaughter room will face North. Possibly we can put a window AC unit in the slaughter house just for the day it is needed (once the pig is dead, bleed and gutted, you hang it overnight in a cool area before butchering). Of course the milking shed needs electricity. Running water would be nice for both, but we might do with a long hose until we can fit the piping as we are running short of time.

But we won't start on all this today, I have some woodworking projects to finish and a milking stand to make (the one we inherited was for full-sized goats not pygmies and really is impractical for us.)

I have finally put Beyond capitalism and socialism to rest-it has a well-deserved place on my bookshelf. I am now reading "Left to Tell"-more on this later.

Oremus pro invicem!