A Brutally Long Weekend

I woke early on Saturday morning, not quite ready to start my day, but the demand of all the males in the house made me so. Children were fed, animals were fed, and husband got coffee poured down his throat.

We need to get the barn ready for Firefly. I stupidly informed my husband. I am unsure what got him so motivated, but it was a scary look he held in his eyes. One that meant I would be dead sore by the end of the day.

We started off the day, 7 am, by burning. Some of the clutter and rotting wood around the homestead was pulled from its resting places and thrown into the burn barrel.

I managed to get distracted, call it homesteaders ADD. I began to scrub out the horse tank so that the geese would have a place to breed come early spring. The bottom was covered in a rust looking mud.
It took hours to scrub it out. And even then, it was still stained. But it was a used tank, so no complaints, really. While I was attempting to accomplish that task, a riding buddy of ours arrived with his newish wife {think the Sparks America Rally} He had come to retrieve motorcycle and car parts that he had first stored here years ago. Good! That means one side of the wall of the barn will be cleaned up, without me having to do it. I scrubbed and they cleaned.

I eventually got the horse tank done. Now Donkey can easily reach over and drink from it, Trina, who is part fainting/part Pygmy, had no chance. I brought over the ramp that was part of the goats playground, and leaned it against the side, propping it with old tires. They wanted nothing to do with it.

The geese, I managed to corner in the repurposed cattle pens. {These rails are actually upside down. They are meant to be placed on the side of a truck to transport animals. We are using them as a corral} I got the gander around the neck. He is rather passive with me, so no struggle or any, um. . . goosing occurred. I bundled him up in my arms and placed him in the tank. He swam to the edge, shook his tail feathers and promptly used the ramp to exit with a mocking honk. The goose was a little more difficult to round up. She wanted nothing to do with me, and tried to bite a few times. This aggravated the gander and he threatened me, but he didn't bite. I placed her in the tank and as soon as I let go, she was out. She wants nothing to do with it. But at least they now know it is there.

We went to work on the east side of the barn. There are boxes in there that have never been unpacked in the 6 years we have been there. We loaded up scrap metal onto a trailer we had borrowed. And my husband promptly broke the tubes of all those tv's I have told you about. 2 of them still held a charge. I started on the North side of the east side of the barn. Taking things apart, breaking things down for either the trash, burn barrel or repurposing. I took apart one of the televisions that my husband had broke. Things were going fine. I managed to break out most of the glass, leaving the very thick screen inside. This glass is held in place with a metal ring. I removed one screw that held it down, then moved on to the next. Without warning, the glass tv screen popped, a corner shattered, pelting my face with tinny bits of glass. I screamed once, and was silent. My 6 year old repeatedly asked if I was ok. I didn't answer because I didn't want to say something uncouth. I reached up, were my face burned, tiny droplets of blood had formed on my forehead, my cheek, and down my neck. I took a smoke break.

The rest of the day was uneventful. Lots of heavy lifting and burning. I did catch the goats using the tank.

And the boys and I watched as a Praying Mantis ate the head off a lady bug.

The next day was a lot of the same.

8pm Sunday night, we finished burning.