Swiss Frau Farm Products

This Sunday in the barn was a beautiful leisurely time of milking and caring for the goats. I started out the day with letting the chickens and geese out for the day then moved on the the hay mow where I am drying a lot of damp bales of hay. We brought them in damp on purpose to avoid the rain which was just starting. This meant that there were about 100 bales of hay laying around the barn floor, mostly dry and a huge pile of opened up hay to go back into the baler to be re-baled. So I opened up the doors wide, put on the fans, checked a sampling of bales for dryness and moved on to milking goats. It was nice and cool in the downstairs of the barn where I milk. Usually I put the radio on but today it was so perfectly beautiful and peaceful that I left it off. The big barn door was open wide and Robbi was ready to go to work. The barn smelled of new hay and there was a great sense of contentment in the barn this morning as all the goats were well fed and fat and fit looking. So much hay that had been fed out to use up the wettest bales meant there was more than an abundance of good groceries for goats. Milk production is up as well, almost 5 gallons a day up from 4 before the good hay came into the barn.

I had just finished milking and was filling buckets when I heard footsteps in the hay mow. Then I heard a few bales falling on the ancient wooden floor upstairs too. This made no sense. Dan was out of town and my daughter does not go to the barn. There is a staircase leading up to a trap door that works on a pulley going up to the mow. I slowly crept up the stairs and peaked out the open door to see if there was a strange car outside and nothing. Then I surveyed the hay mow. My heart was racing. Suddenly there was a movement at the far end of the mow. What I saw momentarily gave me a scare. There between bales and a big supporting post was a large shaggy beast. I only got a glimpse of it’s back. Then it moved forward and suddenly I realized it was my Tog buck Klaus pushing his way through all the drying bales and then the 2 other boys could be seen as well.

I headed across the maze of drying hay and grabbed Klaus hoping the rest would follow. I was partway to the buck house when Robbi came up the stairs to see what was going on and discovered the bucks out of place. Now you have to understand Robbi has no relationship with these bucks like he has with the does. Last time I tried to bring in the bucks with him was more than a year ago and all they did was turn on him and try to defend themselves so I didn’t use him again with the bucks. Maybe I underestimated my dog. He took one look, rounded up the boys and ran them back into their pen and the bucks were more than happy to oblige this streak of black and white dog police. All I did was open the gate. He did it all too fast for sure, but he knew exactly what to do and that it needed doing without being asked. I have to say I am proud of the speed demon.

The buck run gate has 2 chains locking them in. Both chains were off. They were on when I put them to bed last night. I have 2 chains because they have been known to play with it long enough to unsnap the snap. Apparently they unsnapped 2 chains . Maybe they were out all night on a big toot eating pears and alfalfa or maybe it just happened. They are not talking.

All is well and it is a beautiful day. The hay is nearly all dry and will soon be stacked and order will come back to the hay mow. The bucks are fine and Robbi had a good morning of work.