When I went out to do farm chores this morning I noticed some ailments.  Jocko, our old ram, had diarrhea.  I caught him, put him in a pen, and grabbed a fecal sample.  I went up to the barn office and examined it under the microscope.  No parasites but here’s the view from the barn office.

Then Tom came back from the feed store.  It took a while thanks to the I-5 bridge collapse.  He had to get hay as our remaining hay is moldy.  Here he is bringing the hay in.

He told me that the rams had briefly broken into the feed shed yesterday, and Jocko had gotten into a small amount of chicken feed.  So I gave Jocko some Pro Bios, good hay and water.  Hopefully he will recover nicely.  He rammed me for my efforts.  One of our hens has had a bare back for a while so I put some black salve on her to protect it while the feathers grow back.  And I noticed our black goat Shorty had some diarrhea.  Her kids had recently had coccidiosis so I treated her for that as well.

While I was waiting for Tom I noticed the lawn in the backyard needed mowing bad.  Then I noticed the sheep and lambs were bellering because we were late feeding them hay.  So I got smart and strung an electric net fence in the backyard.  Tom arrived and we hooked up the charger and let them in.

Here’s the back yard being mowed.

And here’s our view from lunch on the back porch.  I had scrambled eggs and ham, and Tom had a toasted ham and cheese sandwich.  We had ham from Desi last night for dinner.  It was cider and fennel braised ham, and it was SO GOOD!  It was soft and juicy, practically melted in your mouth.  It was equally good for lunch today too.

After lunch we repaired a barn gate the goats had destroyed and trimmed some hooves that are having issues with all the moisture recently.  Then Tom and Walker came up to the barn door to see if there were other chores needed doing.

Then something caught their eyes.

Tom is now inspecting the orchard for signs of tent caterpillars, and I need to get ready for an appointment.  All in a day of farming.