Not the Post I Wanted to Make

Yesterday afternoon, I worked a lot on this: 

That's the henspa, and normally, I simply rake the straw shavings out the door into the henyard. 

This time, I wanted to recover them. 

I had to lock the goats up first, because Kelly would LOVE to get in there to eat chicken feed. 

The straw, which was bought at our regular feed store, smelled okay but was particularly DARK. 

I'm wondering how old it is.  It did not smell moldy, though. 

Some of the smaller birds rarely go outside, and they were spazzing while I worked.  Then they calmed down. 

I got a lot of eggs from here yesterday, eleven of them.  I used to get twenty, but I have old birds in here now. 

The cart load was shoveled into the new bed.  If you look at the far end, you can see the darker cleanings from the old henhouse.  These were lighter, I had just re-bedded it a month or so ago, but they were full of chicken poop.  It will all compost over the course of the winter.   We'll come back to this picture in a minute. 

Our gorgeous sunset last night. 

I dug the potatoes nearly 2 months ago.  Keith insisted there were more, and I knew that some plants had started growing again. 

He was right. 

And we found at least ten baby pumpkins (and one big one) on our vines that we didn't plant until mid-July.  I'm hoping we get a few in time for Halloween! 

Look who was hiding behind the ammo box/nest in the old henhouse!  Mr. T!  

I honestly thought the snakes had gone underground already, but these last few days of heat have brought them out for sure. 

It was very dark in that corner, and the flash lit him up. 

Kelly is trying his best to eat all the porch decorations! 

Okay, back to that flower bed picture.  If you make it a little bigger, you will see that the yarrow patch has become badly overgrown with grass.  I planned to dig it all up, pull out the grass, and divide it today. 

I got about three spades in, and realized I was totally pooped out.  It was 85 degrees out, and I just.could.not.break the ground. 

I'm either going to have to get Chris up here or wait until it rains tomorrow. 

Today we receieved the Liebster Award from Stella Rose, Maggie, and Gussie at The Three Little Pugs.  Thank you, friends!  We will comply with the "rules" tomorrow. 

Also, we read two bits of sad news.  

S and J at Cranky Puppy have lost their 17 year old Pomeranian girl, Foster... we are so sorry to read of this, and for your loss.  She was a beauty. 

And Ian, at Life on an Acreage, has found out that his wife Elaine has Parkinson's... our hearts go out to you, along with lots of prayers.  They will be moving from their home on acreage, back into town. 

We have enjoyed so much Ian's pictures of the beautiful Canadian bush where they live. 

Resting up this evening in hopes of getting those plants out tomorrow!