Good morning, it's the last day of my week off. Today, is barn cleaning time. My first question was how clean does a barn need to be? My OCD nature wanted to pressure wash and scrub it with a 10% bleach solution. But then I realized, these cows, as much as I like them, aren't potty trained not to go in the barn. It's just a fact of nature. Mr. Tarheel is having allergic reactions when he goes in the barn, so I have Tim, a teenage helper coming to help me. He was the one who I paid high dollar to shovel out the waste. Best $ I've spent in a long time. Everything is dried out now and not too smelly. More about my cows...we have 6 "mama" cows, 6 calves (ages 4-5 months), 1 steer, and 1 heifer. We own a bull with 3 other friends and I named him "Big Red"...guess why...he's big and he's red! Not too original, huh? I have another reason...I grew up on a farm and my Dad had a bull named Big Red, so it meant alot to my Dad. The bull is a registered Red Angus and his ear tag has him identified as R13. Now say R13 three times outloud, fast. It sounds like "Arthur", doesn't it? So that's what the other owners call him. His official name on the papers is Feddes Vermillion R13, his dam (mother) was Feddes Blockana 231, his sire (father) was GMRA Vermillion 796....so that's more than you probably wanted to know about "Big Red". Well, Big Red has been acting a little strange this week...a little different. I have a feeling that all these mama cows are already pregnant (he's been visiting for at least 2 cycles now) and he is getting that restless feeling that celibate young men have....you understand? Hopefully, he won't break through the fence. I have no desire to chase him back home but since he cost about 4K, if he breaks out, you'll see me among the crowd, chasing him back home. It's back to work tomorrow and I have a feeling that I'll do less work at work than work at home. The list is almost complete except for barn cleaning and grocery buying and instead of nice little check marks beside everything, I took a sharpie and marked over & over each item....so each one was obliterated. See sometimes, OCD is a good thing!