Just Another Day

The goats are thanking Irene for all the fresh green leaves and acorns. Life around the homestead has been mostly cleaning up from Irene and letting the animals entertain me. They communicate so well its scary. William was gone for a few days this week helping his son in law again. I got to milk the goats while he was gone. Buttons gives about a gallon of milk and my hands get so tired I have to stop for a minute now and again to rest them. Buttons likes that as it means she gets more time to eat grain. Precious is still letting Little D sneak a little nursing in so isn't giving a lot of milk. Got to figure out how to separate the two of them. We bred Blackie a couple months ago but she has decided its time to dry her off.  For the past couple weeks we were only getting about 2 cups of milk from her and Monday only a couple drops so stopped milking her. She still comes in the milk stall and hops up on the milk stanchion to eat grain. If you try to feel her udder she will stop eating and give you a mean look while telling you in goat language her udder is off limits. Its funny as she was one of our easiest milking goats. Haley always wants to be the last one milked so she can finish off whatever grain is left. No matter how hard you try to get her into the milk stall she will not come until she is the last one to be milked. Then she is standing outside the gate waiting her turn and walks right in when you open the gate. I have enjoyed having the few days by myself and doing all the chores. Its peaceful and stressful at the same time( if you have farm animals you understand what I mean). I am close to my burnout point though. Every year I get to a point where I am burnt out taking care of the homestead and the animals. I don't ever miss a morning or evening feed so it starts building up inside me and I just want to be able to have a break. Am trying to figure out a way to take a weekend and head to the mountains. Need to see the girls and their families as its been forever it seems since I last saw them. Hopefully that will work out. But I know the burnt out will pass as it always does and the animals will make me see how blessed I am to have them to care for.
William did bring home grandson H and grandson W for the holiday weekend. H has played outside all day and fell asleep  in a chair a few minutes ago while talking to me. W is playing video games at a neighborhood friends house. They don't get to see each other often so spend as much time together as they can. William is napping on the sofa so things are kinda quiet around here. Well, pretty quiet except for the peeping of the baby turkey. It is still in a box in the diningroom under a heatlamp. Tessa and Sister Jr haven't hatched anymore eggs but I thought I heard pecking in a couple of them today. This one I call Pigpen as it is the messiest little thing. It stands in its water dish and kicks water out with its foot like a game. When the dish is empty it starts peeping louder and louder until you clean and fill the dish again. This goes on all day. At night it won't go to sleep until you cover it with a small soft cloth. Doesn't matter that it takes naps all day in its food dish or under the heat light. Come night time it wants to be covered up. It's a crazy life around here but I love it!