In which we don't make hay while sun shines, but rather make fence in the rain

I was hoping for good weather today so I could go pound some fence posts. Early morning forecasts called for rain, so I ran a few errands, including collecting some amazing Craigslist scores:

I picked these up for less than half the price of new, and they still have their original labels from the feed store.

These t-posts are obviously used but mostly-unbent, and I got them at a total bargain price because the seller lives in Oso, which is 20 miles east of everywhere...but only 11 miles from Haiku Farm. I've gotten stuff from this family before--they've sold all their horses now, so they said if they scrounge up more fencing supplies, they'll call me. They also threw in some wooden pencil posts and two buckets of safety caps and fence insulators...AND Joe helped me load all the stuff in my truck while Mimsy played with the baby. Now that is a great deal!

By the time I got home the sky was...well, Dark. Also Grey. Also Full of Serious Rain Clouds.

Dang.

But I have meetings all day tomorrow, and won't have another chance to work on fences until the weekend, so out I went, into the damp.

And hey: fencepost-pounding keeps a body warm, and rain not only felt good, it softened up the dirt. I'm not going to complain about rain if it makes the work easier!

I used a rope and a wooden stake to keep the fenceline relatively straight. I put white buckets on my corners and used the rope and stake to sight down the lines, and pounded posts until I ran out of posts to pound--I need to relocate posts from other parts of the farm to finish this run.

Late in the day, Jim and Willy came home from their normal work/school gigs. Jim went straight to work on the new Chicken Tractor--a model he's designed for 6 hens, but it will have sufficient room for 12 half-grown peeps.

Mimsy finally got to meet the peeps up-close-and-personal. Her first impulse was to lick them, as in, "you are the ugliest puppy I have ever seen, I will kiss it all better."

Then she tried to bite the peep, and was scolded. We're hoping that the peeps will peck her nose soon, as hens have done in the past. Mimsy is very sensitive about her nose.

Luna, not so much. She's mostly clueless.

Willy checked on the bunnies as soon as he got home. I thought that they were gone, i.e. sacrificed to the Great Owl Goddess, but when he was investigating the empty nest, Willy accidently stepped on one of the babies! They've moved out of the nest and are eating grass part-time, though Momma Bunny still stops by with the lunch wagon twice a day or so. The stepped-on baby bunny was just fine.

Their white forehead blazes are getting smaller. When the blaze disappears, God is done cooking them, and the bunnies can leave the nest to become fully-fledged vermin. At that point, Mimsy will be allowed to chase them. Until then, it's not permitted.

We have an amazing sunset view from the dining room tonight. I have a glass of wine, a fire in the woodstove, a warm computer on my lap, and these colors in the sky outside the window.

I'm serious when I say this:

Life is good.