Busy Day In The Barn!

Today was quite the busy day! We have had our barn for quite a while and only managed to get one stall wall partially finished. Boo! We were going with concrete, but have decided to keep Flossies milk stall concrete, but the rest of the barn stalls will be wood.
We started as soon as we got done feeding this morning. Let me tell you,  Pud'nin was a  force to be reckoned with today! He was a man on a mission! Did I mention that it was like 20 degrees today?
First we started by taking down the old panels. That was kind of bittersweet as we had put them up when Ciskgo was sick and needed to be inside. We are so blessed that he has healed and is now such a peppy pants! But now the panels had to go to make way for nice sturdy stalls!

Pud'nin working hard! Yea, that IS his happy face! :)

Panels down, now ready for some real stalls!

Then we had to dig some holes. Sounds easy, right? In theory, it would be a breeze, but in reality it was terrible! The ground in the barn is harder than heck! I mean the posthole auger just sit there smoking. Literally! Spinning, spinning, going nowhere. Pud'nin was determined, so he gave the tractor more gas! It was screaming!!Still nothing...
We finally had to resort to an unsafe practice that I will not document and finally had two lovely round holes!

Gorgeous I tell you!

The cool thing about this is I actually got to operate the tractor! Yea, the lift, the gas, and the PTO! I was pretty nervous, but I managed to get it done with Pud'nin patiently explaining the steps. He was probably so sweet and patient because he knew he would shortly be behind that tractor, with me in the seat!
Then it was time to set the posts. We had two awesome helpers today and they were perfect! Not only were they big helpers, they also found a whole nest of eggs that some hen had hidden in the hay!

Pretty Little Farm Girl!

Steady! Of course, Payton and his silly face!

WooHoo!

Then add in some boards, and you have a stall! All we have left is the gate. I am so excited! Now we only have four more to go! This is actually on my 101 list so look at me go! We are going have that list knocked out in record time.

TaDa!!

Joshua giving it the once over!

Since Flossie is possibly due to calve in a few weeks, we could not have waited another minute. She is getting rounder and rounder by the day. She has not bagged up yet, but that can happen in a flash. I do feel so much better knowing that she will have a warm safe place to bring her little one into this world.

Look at that belly!

I really like the look of wooden barn stalls. They remind me of my grandfathers barn where he used to let us use the hand corn sheller. I loved watching all the yellow kernels falling down into the wooden box and then he would let us take a scoop to Midnight the pony. Those were some of the best times of my childhood. Helping on the farm and learning how to properly care for the animals has stuck with me. I really think that early exposure to the simple lifestyle is the reason that I love it so much now!
Well, there you have it, our day in a nutshell. Let me know what you think!