Mudding, Taping, and a visit from the Rents visit

Saturday is a half day here at the farm (for me, not for Sally), and I spent the morning throwing some more drywall up in the barn, and then taping and mudding the seams. The reason for this is that on Saturday there is going to be a wedding in the barn! But that means that the building has to meet fire safety regulation, so the wall with the emergency exit on it has to have some fireproofing put in. Sally is also building a handicap ramp for the barn. Right now the barn is still full of hay, there's ugly drywall up (to be covered with prettier barn board), and the outline of a ramp that leads up to a door that currently lets out onto a seven foot drop to the ground. It is a really good thing that the couple lives in Brooklyn and won't be stopping by for an impromptu visit to see the space in the days leading up the wedding, as they'd probably go into conniptions over the state of affairs. Obviously we have a lot of work left this week, so I'll be doing more carpentry-type jobs than I would otherwise this time of year. But it's been fun and I've been learning a lot.

ramp construction, looking into the front pasture

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That's the drywall going up on the left there. I'd take more pictures of the barn but my flash on my camera doesn't work anymore (maybe it fell at some point?) so it's a bit limiting. 


Just now (late afternoon Monday) the hay wagon finally showed up so we started to load up all of the hay, which is hard work. We'll load 125 bales today and another 125 bales tomorrow morning. I'm using this as my workout for the day and maybe an excuse to grab another ice cream sandwich....


But I'm geting ahead of myself! On Saturday after mudding and drywalling I went to the Ashfield farmers market to get some apples for my aunt (hi Kritty! I got you Cortlands!) and then had the afternoon off. I took a walk to the waterfall which is about a ten minute walk across the boardwalk. It was a bit too dark for my camera so I didn't get any good ones of the actual waterfall (although hopefully dad did on Sunday.)

The finished boardwalk leading to the forest 

Very green and tranquil in there

Whenever there's a still pond you gotta get a reflection picture...

...or two

And on Sunday my parents visited! It was really fun, they got here a little before noon which was perfect for a tour of the farm before the calves came out for their midday exercise. My dad took a bunch of pictures with his really nice camera, and those pictures will undoubtedly be better than the one taken with my 4 year old Canon point and shoot, so I'll do a bigger post later with his pictures. For now, here are some that I got:

Still the cutest one, I think.

Mercy and Dorie, doing what cows do.

Butts.

All four! Mercy and Dorie were standing right next to each other when Sparkle just moosed right in there in between them.

Dad taking Ace for a walk!

Kip sucking on mom's pants!

We also got delicious hot sandwiches at the Creamery, drove to Notchview (I forgot to bring my camera but again, hopefully dad got some good shots), drove to Manda farm to see the Gloucestshire Old Spots and their floppy ears (again, waiting for dad's shots), and then split an ice cream sandwich (apparently my proclivity for these treats comes from m + d.) It was great! I think they enjoyed it too.

Gotta load some more hay now.  Not really feeling up to it but oh well. Just gotta keep my eyes on the prize (ice cream sandwich), eyes on the prize...