"Spring" Is Exhausting!

So its March and clearly its not truly spring yet... but Saturday was spring LIKE... which meant we did our best to make the most of the day. After feeding the dogs and goats, I decided it was so nice out that I would start picking up dog poop in the yard.

Generally, we like to pick it up right after it happens and not have a messy yard... I hate having poop everywhere, then someone steps in it, tracks it into the house and all that! But this winter was LONG and COLD and it was easier just to open the door, let them out to do what they had to and then let them back in. Otherwise you have to pile on all your outside clothes and boots and hats and mitts, just to pick up a poop.... for most of the winter we had 3 dogs which means that happens at least 6 times a day!!

Anyhow, I've picked it up a few times, whenever there's a decent day and since it started melting this weekend, there was more that became visible. So Shawn I spent almost an hour touring around the yard with bags, picking it up. Unbelievable amounts, is all I will say!! Oh and we were smart to do this BEFORE breakfast, as after breakfast would've been much much MUCH worse!

We also went out into the goat yard and raked up all the nasty, dirty, soggy, wet, poopy hay that had accumulated over the winter. When its nice outside, I like to feed a bit of hay outside on the ground... the goats like to eat in the sunshine and I figure the fresh air is good for them. Every evening when I lock them up in their shed, I like to rake up the leftover hay and if its not too wet, I toss it into the shed as bedding... but of course, you always miss some... sometimes it snows on it and covers it and stuff like that.

We filled and hauled (Shawn did most of the hauling) at least 8 - 10 muck buckets of this nasty stuff out of the goat pen.... mind you, the buckets weren't full, at about half full they were almost too heavy to carry!! Gross stuff now that will hopefully make nice dirt to grow pretty stuff in eventually!

We also took down the outside Christmas lights and all the extension cords (except for one that part of it is still frozen under some ice and snow. They are all rolled up neatly and waiting to be put away in their rubbermaid container until next time.

We also went into town on Saturday and I ordered my new eye glasses... I had gone in earlier in the week looking for new frames and found ones I liked the style of, but not the colour... the manager of the store was a great help during the process and told me the style I liked came in another colour, but they didn't have them in stock, but could order them in for me to try.

So by Saturday they were in and I took Shawn with me to make sure I didn't look TOO stupid in them. They are a similar style to my current ones... a bit more chunky though... the fronts are a dark gray / almost black and the arms are a brownish colour. They look better than my description makes them sound :) They should be ready in a couple weeks for pick up. They are the kind that come with clip on sunglasses (sort of like the magnetic ones I already have, but they happen to not be magnetic, if that makes any sense!) Thank goodness for extended health insurance, otherwise, I'd have to keep making do with the ones I have!!

While we were in town, we made a trip to Home Depot... a spring day and Home Depot... a perfect combination! We looked around at various things, Shawn bought a new pair of gloves (I got a pair earlier in the week). They are very similar to our SSG riding gloves, but a little bit thicker and definitely cheaper!! ($10 compared to $35 - 40!) They are still think enough to operate snaps and fasteners which is what we were after.

Today we took it a bit easier, it was quite a bit colder out and there was a nasty wind... we mucked out the goat shed though... a good day for that... yesterday would've felt very warm... today was cool enough that we needed our hats and coats on and no one worked up a sweat!

We also spent some time thinking about chicken coops and what we want to build and how to do it cheaply and still have it look nice and have the features we want. We didn't come to any decisions yet, but we're going to look into the shed kits again (sold at HD, Rona, etc).

We had looked at them for our goat shed last year, but decided they were just not going to be durable enough for goats without a lot of $$ improvements... chickens on the other hand are smaller animals and don't need the same level of durability... mostly it just has to be strong enough to keep predators OUT with chickens. So we'll see... I'm sure this topic will be debated for a while yet... I'm sure you all wish you were here to listen to it in all its excessiveness! ha!

So that was our tiring weekend.... some where in there Shawn's laundry got done... meals got made and enjoyed.... dogs fed and played with... goats fed and fussed with... all in all busy enough compared to recent weekends. We're both tired and I think both of us are feeling a few muscles that got a bit soft over the winter... but the good weather comes, you start to feel like doing stuff and you start gearing up again... that's just how it goes around here.

Both of the dogs were pretty tired yesterday and today.... they aren't used to being outside so long and running, running, running... Ok, only Oliver runs like a madman... Pixie runs only when necessary! :)

I will still likely eventually get around to making my own post here about Buddy... I'm still not nearly ready to go there... I'm hoping with time comes perspective and with perspective the pain will diminish enough to make a posting and move forward... but not... not yet.

I think sometime overnight tonight we are supposed to get SNOW... which is not springlike.. maybe 5 -10 cm in the next 24 hours... but its not spring... but while March can be nasty, its not likely to be death cold and any snow we get, won't linger too long... and that's encouraging!

That's it for now...
-- L