Hide and Seek

Cloudy, 94/78, Fair to Fair. Lots of work this weekend on the old farm. Since not much is growing here in the dry, we're trying to clean up old messes and trying not to make new ones. This weekend we pulled old fence posts from what used to be the edge of our pasture. We've since cleared and added about five acres to it. The old tractor was straining trying to get this dry concrete hard clay to let go of posts that have been in for four years.

Last night we heard something at 2am thats pretty rare around these parts.....RAIN!! probably only about .1 inches, but its always welcome.

Since telling you about this weekend would be completely boring (we pulled up this post... then we pulled up the next post.... then we pulled up the next post...), I thought I'd tell this story of what happpened earlier this year.


Well a fun time was had by all this weekend. Somehow the goats found a way into the barn. This means a clean up of tipped over feed bins (a fancy name for garbage cans) and hay bales. The goats had a great time. Their owner didn’t.

It started with me trying to pull the tractor out Saturday morning. I opened the gate and fired it up. This usually makes them back up, but after backing the tractor, there was a mad rush for the open gate between the goats and me….. I lost.

Funny thing though… Billy wanted no part of it. Once he saw everyone else was in though, he did find a shady place to lie down and watch the fun.

It took 4 seconds for all the goats to get in the barn. Getting them out was another matter. I left the gate open hoping they’d leave. None of them did. Whenever I’d force one out, he’d just come back in the open gate. It was beginning to look like a Three Stooge’s routine.

Finally, I started making progress. I’d get one and force it out, then close the gate and get the next one until I finally got down to the last one. Now the 90 degree Alabama heat was starting to get to me and I was getting a little punchy looking for the last kid who was nowhere to be found. I heard a bleat or bah or whatever coming deep in the hay. I thought the poor guy had fallen in between the bales, so I started digging at the loose hay. I was half buried in the hay when I heard Billy laugh (I’m sure he was laughing at me, and not just coughing up something more to chew). Then I heard the hay move above me, and on top of the bales stood my prize.

Now, I have watched every Elmer Fudd or Roadrunner cartoon on the face of the earth. You would have thought I’d a had some idea about what was going to happen while I climbed those bales. Its all kinda fuzzy, but here’s what I think happened:

I climbed towards the kid and it decided to jump (Billy snickered). I reached out to catch it and one of the bales gave way (Billy laughed). Kid and I fell off the top of the bales and landed in some soft hay below. I had kind of still not gotten my grip on the kid when he decided he wanted to be elsewhere and he started kicking me and gave me a bloody lip. (I’m sure Billy was busting a gut by now) I didn’t let go though and eventually all the goats were out of the barn.

I went home to nurse my wounds and get a little consolation from my compassionate family (“That little one did that to you dad?? That is so wrong…..”). After I got the bleeding stopped I went back to the barnyard looking for the goats. I only saw Billy, stretched out again in his same spot. Then I heard a baah or bleat from inside the barn again…… I forgot to latch the gate…….

This time though I was a little smarter and called them with some corn. They all came out in an orderly fashion. Why I didn’t think about that before, I’ll never know. The last to go eat was Billy. He just kinda walked by me with a little smirk on his face. That’s alright…. Summer worm checks are coming up…..Then we’ll see who has the last laugh……