"Politics: a strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles." - Ambrose Bierce

God taught chickens that the preferred time to raise their young was in the warm dry months of the year. (He schooled most animals on that one.) So even a hen bred to produce eggs drops way off when the daylight hours begin to diminish. Fortunately for us, chickens are pretty stupid birds and can be easily tricked.
Yesterday I put a clamp light in the coop and plugged it into a timer that turns it on at 5 a.m. and goes off at 8 a.m. We'd already seen a drop in our daily haul, so I'm curious to see how much that changes. I looked down there this morning to make sure the light was working - it was - but I didn't hear Lucky, our rooster, making any noise. Maybe tomorrow I'll go down and look in on the ladies, but it's raining today and I'm not that curious.

The rain is good. I need fire restriction season to end so I can burn that massive slash pile left over from the logging, and that needs to happen before I can build the south side of the goat pen. Our rain-free days will end soon and I have a lot of work to get done before that happens, and before the baby goats arrive in late Nov. or early Dec.

Here's evidence of my progress on Casa de Cabras so far. First, I laid out the pier blocks. The finished size will be roughly 8' x 16', with a 8' x 5' room at the near end for me to store hay, grain, and other things I don't want the goats getting into. I worked pretty hard to get the blocks laid out correctly so I'd have straight, square walls. I didn't worry too much about getting them level on the uneven ground because I can just trim the tops of the posts to make it level at the roof line, the thing that matters.

Next I set the 4x4's in the pier blocks. I bought treated because they are actually cheaper than untreated. The guy at Jerry's said that's because they sell more of the treated. I don't care, would prefer to save money, and these work just fine. But those puppies are heavy because they're full of chemicals.
Note: one of the posts is out of range to the left; you can just see its shadow on the ground. And the one furthest back is hidden by the one in the foreground, so the total comes out at eight.
It should be nine. I forgot about the doorway, so after I took this pic I had to get another block and post. Oops.

Here's how far I got yesterday. The studs are 2' on center, which works fine for a goat barn. After I got the walls framed I sighted down the long walls and realized that even after all that care both walls had a slight dogleg. The good news: one of the advantages to using pier blocks is that a little careful manipulation allows you to move them, this one in a bit, that one out a skosh. My walls are now straight as string.

Next step: get the rest of the rafters up. The one at either end are there just to stabilize the framing. So this morning I'll get the other eight at 10' each and put them up, again, 2' on center, with blocking in between. Then roof sheeting. I'm also ready to wrap the walls with 10# roofing felt over which I'll nail the cedar fence boards that will be my siding.

You can see the 2x4's extending at this end, one each off the front and back walls. I'd wondered where I'd hang a goat to butcher, and there's my answer. I'll put in some bracing, run a 2x6 across there, and she'll be ready to go.

A local guy is trying to break the world record for doing burpees. Here's an article about his effort, which will raise money for local cancer patients' financial needs during treatment.
I hate burpees, so I read the article to see how many he plans on doing in the 12-hour period. The most I've ever done at one time is 101 (had to break 100!), and this guy plans on doing 7,200 over the 12 hours. But then I saw the GIF of him in the article, and HE'S CHEATING! He's supposed to do a pushup at the bottom, and when he comes up he's supposed to jump high in the same motion, not stand and then do a little toe bounce. Come on, man.

Anybody else watching Shetland on PBS? We're fans, but there's a problem. Most of the story lines take two episodes a week apart, and the plot lines are so complex that by the time we've watched our recorded second episode (it's on too late for me!) I've forgotten what's going on. I think we're going to have to delay watching them until we have both episodes recorded and can watch them back-to-back.

The first presidential debate is on Monday night. I'm something of a political junkie, mostly because I enjoy the exchange of ideas. Which is why this time I'll be watching MNF, or if that game is a bust I'll find a rerun of Say Yes to the Dress. Anything except!