I know there are child labor laws...

But we take help where we get it. Annalee was off school today, and helped Daddy look after the goats. She's gotten pretty good at driving her little gator, so here are a few pictures of her hard at work. I'm not absolutely sure, but I believe she has my headlight on her head. Never know when you might need a headlight in the middle of the day. And of course, even on the best day our road can be a problem. I'm not sure if Chuck gave her a push or if she got out of the rut herself.

Over the weekend we started moving the older does with kids, and a few yet to kid, to the new farm. They are staying with their own group, but it is still a change. Hopefully having some forage starting to green up will make it a good move in the long run. Nobody seemed overly disturbed by the move, although the new kids seemed a little surprised by the wide open space. These three bucklings stayed pretty tightly together as their mommas moseyed off to graze. We are still wondering how long it will take to bring some organic matter back to the dirt here, how long before it becomes a turf instead of looking like you could take a handful of the powdery clay as is, add a little water, and throw a nice pot on a potter's wheel. We hope to run some chickens behind the goats, and are trying to figure out the best spot for a compost pile where it will be handy, get sun, and won't attract varmints. No point in wasting good poop, or leftover coffee grounds, or spent straw, or eggshells...

Here are a couple of pictures from the "working day" on Saturday. One is of our new used barn. Not many people would get so excited over a used metal building, but like I said folks, we are starting from scratch. A great bunch of guys came to help Chuck reassemble the barn. I don't know what we would do without these guys taking their precious time and helping a family of crazy goat folks try to cobble together a farm. The other is of Daddy with his double handful of younguns. One found himself trapped amongst sticker bushes and had to be resuced and the other was the one who suggested to him that might be a good place to go hide. Once of these days, when he is a little more savvy, I imagine that sort of thing will come back to haunt her. We were trying to figure if we could take an unused corner of the farm coated in sticker bushes and woods full of trash (thanks, folks who treat woods like a dump). Cleaning up the old trash will be a hassle, but some of it has reached the age it is not just a piece of garbage, but rather, an artifact.