Slight change in plans....

Well, they're finally getting started on the environmental cleanup out in the front "pasture". We've not been able to USE it as pasture, since the whole cleanup issue has been hanging fire all this time. It turns out they're going to dig a honking big hole in the ground, make one pile of clean dirt and one of contaminated. The contaminated stuff gets turned once or twice a week for at least a month until it's clean. Then it all gets put back in the hole and sort of tamped down. Any water they come across gets put into a...I think it was a 5500 gallon tank to be aerated and cleaned. It then gets dumped somewhere on the property (not in the creek).

In other words, lots of space, lots of time, no chance of using that pasture this year. Boo. So. The Soay wether and the two ramlings will become tasty meat in the freezer. The two goats will go back to being tethered, which they won't like. It does allow us to put them where the blackberry particularly needs eating...and they won't be overgrazing the pasture. That basically halves the pasture population. This is a very good thing.

It probably won't be worth fencing the rest of the pasture area (that's being excavated) for next year. Too much time and money needed for that project. Pigs, still probably a go for spring and hopefully chickens and turkeys again with better raccoon proofing. We'll probably go for dumber than snot but fast growers where the poultry is concerned. I'm forgetting the variety of pig the Better Half was interested in. It's a heritage breed and all that good stuff though.

Things that make me sad....

The Spawn and I went to a local park with a splash area this afternoon. A good time was had, I must say. There was running and splashing and climbing and being sea otters "forgotting to wrap ourselves up in seaweed." But there was another little girl, perhaps a bit younger than the Spawn, who was not having such a good time. Her paternal unit kept following her around forbidding her to do stuff. Don't run. Don't splash. Don't climb. Ye gods, why did they even bother! It made me feel a little sad on her behalf.

Later we went to visit the "crayon store", a.k.a. Young Art. It's a horribly overpriced art store catering to kids (or their parents). Lots of cool stuff, really, but usually available elsewhere for half the cost. Fun place to look around though and they really want you to buy, so they demo everything for you. They also have art classes for ages three and up. Maybe it's just me, but the idea of teaching art technique to a three-year-old, with an eye to "finishing a piece of artwork each class" doesn't sound like much fun. I was assured they don't assign a subject though. Right. Maybe it works for some three-year-old kids, but not the one I live with. It just seems like a really good way to kill creativity in the name of creativity. And that makes me sad too.