Stress... and A Goat.

I have been more than a tad stressed for some time and this continued state plagued me when I went out to feed and milk last night. 

I knew I needed to go in and do some house cleaning and cook dinner, but the trough and watering buckets needed to be scrubbed.  After everyone had been fed, milked and loved, then the feed pre-set for morning, I began scouring the watering buckets in the kids pen and refilling them, then in turn cleaning the big trough in the barnyard. I finally began to fill the big trough and all the while fretted about all the other things that needed to be done. 

Just as you cannot hurry your coffee pot to brew faster, you cannot make the trough fill faster than the hose will spout that cool elixer of life.  There were no more than a couple of inches of water in the trough when I realized that everything that needed to be done and which seemd "so urgent" could wait a few minutes more.

I stood with the fence at my back and the hose held under one hand, both arms outstretched along the top of the fence in the lengthening shadows as the water streamed into the big trough. The temperature was about 78 degrees, a light breeze blew softly and all of the animals were content finally. 

Jonely the rooster was herding his girls toward their house, the donkeys were munching hay from the pallet manger, the babies which are now more like pre-adolescents were in their pen playing and eating, and Gerie was laying comfortably behind the barn.  Balvenie suddenly felt affectionate and walked up to me to have her cheeks and shoulders scratched, so I happily obliged.  Then true to form, my blue eyed girl rubbed her face against my leg.  She paused and looked up at me, probably asking if I loved her even if she was clown-car crazy, so I offered her more scratchy reassurance.  She moved in again as if to rub her face on my leg... Then she BIT MY BUTT! 

The sheer shock of it made me laugh aloud, which either scared her into skipping off or, more likely, she dashed off laughing to join the donkey-girls at a safe distance! 

PS: I never got around to cooking dinner - it was leftovers or fend for yourself - but my floors did get scrubbed!