"Bed is like the womb, only drier and with better TV reception." - Linda Richman

This has been a really long day, and I just dozed off between inserting this pic and typing this sentence. Thankfully, I can hold a coffee cup level while falling asleep.

I was wide awake at 1:30 a.m. and couldn't get back to sleep out in my chair like I normally do. The good news: I watched Roger Federer win his match and get into the quarter finals. That guy is amazing, playing incredible tennis at 45 years old when most guys are on the senior tour. And he's such a stinkin' nice guy.

Fed the goats and went to church. Talked a bit to Brett before the service and he's sick as a dog with a bad respiratory infection. I know how hard it is to preach when you're sick so I felt bad for him. And he has a 2-day staff planning retreat tomorrow and Tuesday.

I learned from Marta yesterday that Itzhak and Asante should have alfalfa hay "free choice," the term used in animal raising for available all the time. But it's too rich for Stella and will give her digestive trouble, something we do NOT need.
So this afternoon I built a partition across the goat barn/shed that creates an 8'x3' area that I *think* only the kids can get into. The opening is only 8" wide, but Stella may still be able to get through that. Tomorrow I'll make another feed rack in that section so the boys can have alfalfa whenever they want. Stella's feeder will just have grass hay (boooring). They'll both get grain, too, but Stella will get very little.
Stella recognizes the alfalfa hay, so when I put it in the new feeder I'll know right away if she can get through the opening. She'll be in there immediately. In that case I'll narrow the opening.

I did all of that and mucked out the barn while waiting for Ray to arrive. He also attends UFC and Brett told me he knows how to butcher, so I made contact with him at church a few Sundays back. Coincidentally, he was given a couple of goats a guy got with the house he bought and the plan was for Ray to bring one of them over this afternoon here to show me how to butcher.
Unfortunately, Ray got held up with things at his place and called at 4:30 to say we'd have to postpone.
He came over about 6:00 with his big ol' truck to hook up the trailer and haul it back to the church offices for the plumber to do his thing. He brought his four young children along, so we took a tour of our "farm" so they could see baby goats and chickens.

They left about an hour ago. I've made another French press worth of coffee to go with a few chocolate chip cookies Pam made for me before leaving TO BE WITH OUR FAMILY WHILE I'M HERE ALONE.
I have to stay awake until the goats' 9:00 feeding. Then clean the bottles so they're ready for tomorrow morning's 6 a.m. feeding.
Yeah, coffee.