Mucking, Minerals, Maintenance & Muffins

I have accepted that I am more of a manure person than a market person.  After the excitement of yesterday's holiday market (and an overload of socialization for this farm girl) , I was more than happy to have a quiet day on the farm and get caught up on some chores.

Our market set up.

Ian waiting to give sample honey sticks to potential customers.

We began today by mucking out our three barns.  I am well past the stage of pregnancy where I can do any actual mucking myself (I can hardly bend over to put on my farm boots, let alone scoop any poop) so Ian and Liam took the reins.  They did a stellar job of giving everyone a clean, dry place to sleep tonight. 

The goats' sleep spot.

Seamus, on the other hand, was a bit of a disaster.  His contribution to the morning chores was tipping over a full grain bin, spilling chicken food pellets all over the back yard.  For whatever reason, these pellets are extremely enticing to both the goats and the dogs but eating them makes them very, very ill.  It took me half an hour on my hands and knees to scoop most of the pellets up off the icy snow.   I was not impressed with Seamus, to say the least.

Besides damage control, my other contribution to this morning's farm chores was prophylactic.  I filled up all of the animals' mineral and salt bins.  They all get free access minerals to supplement whatever is lacking in their feed and it was time for a top up.

In addition to mucking the barns (nothing says "I love you" like scooping manure when you'd rather be doing just about anything else), Ian also fixed the coop door to the chicken run.  The door spontaneously fell off its hinges earlier this week and now it is back to being securely fastened. Happy wife equals happy life?  Or in this case, safe chickens equals happy pregnant farm girl who does not have the energy right now to deal with randomly exploding chicken coop doors.

While Ian and Liam were at swim class this afternoon, Seamus and I puttered around the kitchen.  After much debate about what to make, we decided on pumpkin cranberry muffins.  They turned out delicious, as good as MacDonald's apparently (high praise to be compared to a fast food joint, huh?).

After getting the boys to bed, I will help Ian bottle a batch of his home brew (a Belgian-style sour beer made with cherries) and we may even have enough energy left to watch a movie together.

 It has been another busy but productive day on Gael Glen Farm.