Sheep babies tagged

Sarah and I went out on Friday and tagged/banded babies.  We only had one boy to inflict the rubber band torture on and the rest were girls who only get an ear tag. We had six babies to catch.  So we took Zeke with us and herded the sheep into the barn, shutting the outside main gate so the sheep could go between the barn and the holding pen.  The initial idea was to sort them in the holding pen, but Zeke got rolled again and didn't want to get in there.  So we chased the sheep into the barn and Sarah caught babies.  Zeke chased the sheep back into the barn every time they tried to sneak out.  We are still going in chronological order of age with the tag numbers.  It just makes it easier to sort the sheep by age if we keep doing it that way.  Our only baby boy was tagged #10, so we will have 7 boys to sell this year.  They will almost pay for the hay this next winter.  In 2013 we might actually break even on the sheep!

The spare bedroom is emptied and ready for me to start in on the floor.  I just need to strip the paint around the edges and I can start sanding.  This project is holding me back from working on the barn so I need to get it done.  The weather is so nice I could already be working on the barn.  I am starting to get fixated on the barn project.  Not even sure where I should start.  First thing I am going to do is walk around with the camera and take pictures of the whole thing before I do anything. It has that chunk of roof that got blown over still on the roof, but it is holding down the leading edge of the surviving roof so I am reluctant to move it until the new roof is on, but I may be able to salvage some of the lumber from it for the repair.  Just going to have to crawl up on the roof and look and see if any of the main supports are still intact.  Haven't ever done that.  The hay turbinators are going to come down and I want to mount them horizontally on the barn ends as owl nests.  Annmarie is shooting down my plan as I type this.  She wants me to cut a hole in the ends of the barn and mount the metal tubes inside the barn.  Just mounting the owl landing board outside.  It makes it very neat and tidy and aesthetically pleasing, adding about 50% more work for me!  So of course this is how it will happen.

We did our taxes yesterday.  Annmarie does them, but I pay the day to day bills and do the filing, so I have to be present for the "TAX DAY".  Always much grousing about taxes and how I file the needed documents.  I had most of them readily available but did have to dig around for a few.  I should probably use an expanding folder for the farm so I can sort the receipts as I go, I had them spread all over the chair and myself trying to categorize them.  We delved into the small business side and used our "Stewart Creek Somethings" business to write off farm expenses.  There was some tax credit incentive for small businesses to purchase capital items (one time kinda thing) that let us claim the whole value of the tractor in one year.  That gained us another $4000, so in reality the tractor only cost us around $16k, the thing just gets cheaper and cheaper!  Not bad for a tool that I will never have to replace.  It lives in a barn all by itself with all its implements.  I am going to make a better storage place for the implements and maybe even eventually fix the door so that I don't have to lower the roll bar every time I need to park the tractor.  We are going to get enough money back that I will be able to purchase all the needed items for the barn remodel.  So as soon as our return comes in I can start ordering lumber and some gravel.  Once I get the barn leveled then I can worry about where to go next.  Most likely the tack room will be the next logical progression as I have to dig out a foot of grain and need a door to get at said grain.