Hog Enclosure vanishing

Hog enclosure vanishing.

 Another day closer to getting the barn completed.  My help, Mr President, came out at 0800 this morning.  Annmarie tried to wake me up at 0500.  I hurt all over.  My body was abused by the metal grain holder from the day before.  I had to lay around in bed for another 1.5 hours to convince myself I would not die if I got out of bed.

 At 0900 I moseyed on out to the barn with my faithful companion, Zeke ( the hardhead) dog.  Annmarie wanted me to sort out one of the ewes that she thought might give birth soon and put her in with the new lamb and mom.  I figured any thing was possible with my sidekick at the ready.  I wanted to push the sheep into the corner near the ram pasture, I would then wade in and catch the one ewe, then while holding the ewe open the gate and let the rest of the sheep out.  We went into the pasture and all the sheep ran to the opposite corner of where I wanted them.  Zeke waded right in at a dead run with no instructions from me (can you say over achiever?).  He is very fast and at 30#  he can really dig in.  He had one ewe down on the ground in five seconds flat.  He hits them from the side and pulls them over by their skin.  I called him off with extreme vigor.  He let go and came right back.  Amazingly, when he does this he never draws blood.  It is very traumatizing to watch, impressive but traumatic.  We had some loud words exchanged and a small tirade about listening (yes it is just the dog and I).  We gently cornered the sheep in the appropriate corner and I set Zeke to guard the bridge.  I talked to the sheep and slowly walked up to them until I could grab the one I wanted, #13 ewe.  The rest of the morons ran away from the gate, causing Zeke to break his guard position.  I was trying to hold onto the pregnant ewe and yell at the dog at the same time.  Somewhere in here I realized that I would not be able to get the rest of the sheep out and drag the ewe all the way to the barn.  I let her go.  We then pushed the sheep up into the horse covered area.  Zeke guarded the opening and I waded in and caught the ewe again.  The sheep bolted and I called Zeke.  He actually ignored the sheep and came into the enclosure with me.  I was holding onto the ewe.  The plan was to let go of the ewe, while the dog held her in place with his intimidating good looks, and I opened the gate into the barn.  Zeke was not down with the plan.  He broke his stay position and the ewe bolted for the field.  I had to leap onto her back and pin her down while being careful since she is pregnant.  It took 45 minutes to single out one ewe and I was covered in sheep shit from the waist down.  Not how I had envisioned the whole escapade.

We managed to get all the tin off the lamb shed attached pig enclosure today.  We are going to salvage all the wood to use in the barn roof along with the tin.  It went much faster than I anticipated.  I will spend this weekend attempting to get it torn down.  This was the precursor to tearing off the granary roof.  If it continues to go well, I think we can have the whole granary torn down in one week.  Which means in two weeks we could be back at the barn fixing the roof!  If I can get the roof done by mid July, that would be amazing. 

Sarah's Artistic  Endeavor.