Oh goodness, we’re still here, but just barely.

I’m getting a little tired of these heavy rain, high wind storms.  We got over four inches of rain in less than 24 hours coupled with 30 miles per hour winds.  And guess what happened … the damned goat shelter blew down … again.  This is it, we are both through trying to fix that stupid thing.  We made a pact that if it came down one more time, then we’d sell some sheep and build or buy a better shelter.  Luckily the tarp stayed on the shelter while it was raining.  During the day, I watched it blow, knowing it was likely going to blow off and sure enough, it did.  The wind was so strong, it lifted the concrete blocks we had the lower part of the tarp attached to and blew the blocks up over the fence.  Want to know how much fun it is wrestling a 48 x 30-foot tarp in 30 mile per hour winds?

This weekend we’ll begin building a wooden, covered shelter.  Part of our building project will also include making a wooden, covered run-in for the horses.  I know they will go into the 10 x 10 ShelterLogic building that they have down there, but I don’t think they care much for it.  The 10 x 10 ShelterLogic building will come up here and that’s where I’ll start to feed the cats because I’m getting just as tired of cleaning up the messes they make in the kitchen when they eat.  The goat shelter will come first, but the horse shelter will follow shortly thereafter.  We still have a huge pile of tin for the roofs which will help with the expense and we’ll use unfinished lumber which is about half the price of finished lumber.

I’m tired of staying awake at night during storms worrying about shelters blowing or coming down.  We considered using a 10 x 20 ShelterLogic building for the goats, but what we’d have to do to keep them from climbing on or chewing the tarp isn’t worth it.  The attraction of using a ShelterLogic building is that we can take it down and take it with us if we move, but I honestly don’t think we’ll be moving any time soon.  At least I hope we won’t be moving any time soon.  As far as I’m concerned, we can stay here for the rest of our lives.

Speaking of feeding the carnivores, as I wrote several days (weeks?) ago, I’ve adjusted how I feed the dogs and cats.  They do not have access to as much food as they did before and when I put food in front of them, they eat.  Gel in particular is eating better.  He’s looking for food and that is better than turning his nose up at it as he was previously.  I’m not feeding the cats anywhere near as much as I was and I haven’t seen many mice around so they must be hunting more than they were before.

Everything is flooded.  The back fields are, once again, lakes.  I’m glad we got the rain because it will make the grass grow in the spring, but I wish we didn’t get it all at once.  Yesterday, I went out to check the sheep, calf and Liath as soon as it got light and road down back to look at the river.  At that time, I was able to pass through the fields, but I couldn’t do it in the afternoon, unless I had a row boat.  That means I won’t be able to ride again for a day or two.

Rain is good.  Rain is good.  Rain is good …