We took the weekend off of market, and enjoyed a rare weekend at home. It was great. And productive.

Lately, we have such a long to-do list of projects that need to be done around here, I hardly know where to start. The greenhouse needs to be finished, lots of seeds need to be planted in the ground, hours of weeding needs to be done in the garden, compost spread on all the garden beds, the chicken coop cleaned out, the goat barn cleaned out….. the list goes on and on. All on top of Jeff needing to finish custom orders and create lots of things for our business, and me cleaning, cooking and all the other aspects of daily living. Sometimes it feels a little overwhelming.

But this morning I woke up with extreme determination. I decided my number one priority on our list was to clean out the goat barn because I wanted to have it done before the baby goats are born and they could be here as soon as next week. I told Jeff my plans. He was going to spend the day finishing the greenhouse and working in the garden. That way we could both be getting things done on our list. 

Then I headed down to the goat barn with a wheelbarrow and a pitchfork. My will was strong. Slowly, but surely I lifted the mounds of old hay into the wheelbarrow and dumped it into our new compost pile. I was glad I had eaten such a hearty breakfast. After hauling quite a few heavy loads, I realized the job was much bigger than I had expected. I thought I could do it in a few hours. But soon it was feeling to me that it would take 5 days to finish. With the rain, I was sopping wet and muddy. I still had the determination, but my pace was beginning to slow. 

 That’s when my hero arrived. I’ve referred to Jeff as my hero many times. That’s because he is. He came down at just the moment I needed a little encouragement and asked me how it was going. I showed him what I’d done and where I’d put the new compost pile and all that. He told me he decided to help me on my project rather than working on a different one. (Bless him!) So we worked on the project as a team. We took turns hauling loads. It’s amazing how much more enjoyable a big project is when you have someone else to work with.

This is what the goats did while we worked:

They happily grazed on all the new spring growth.

Jeff is much faster than I am so he ended up doing the majority of the hauling, while I spread the dry straw on the muddy parts of their yard and planted grass, flax and some extra kale and broccoli seeds. 

And I am proud to say that we finished cleaning out the goat barn today, which feels like a miracle. There is still some loads we need to haul from their yard, but that project is not dire. The important thing is that the inside of the barn is all fresh and clean and ready for baby goats! 

Here is the compost pile when we finished.

WOW!! This thing is gigantic! Jeff looks like a happy little elf popping up out of the woods in this picture (hard to tell in this version because it’s so small.) This compost is going to make for an incredible garden when it’s ready.

I was so exhausted, I can’t imagine how tired Jeff was. But regardless of our complete exhaustion, we had huge smiles on our faces and felt content. Getting big projects done is deeply satisfying. And we get to check it off our list.

And here are the goats and the barn cat, enjoying the fresh straw in their nice clean barn. 

Life is Good!