Charger on big cow pasture blew out. Elvis is already leaning on the wires. If he goes through he will fall out onto the road. Got to get another one. Cold, dank day. Rose and I took the sheep out into the meadow up the hill and into the woods. We found quite old hay bales, rotting up there. The sheep ate weeds and moss in the dark. Flo painted a swath of the big dairy barn so I can see if I like it. I do, it is transparent red, and you can see the grain of the wood, just as I could on the barn before it was re-sided. Anthony thinks it looks too red. Maria loves it. So does Bill. Carr, the farmer up the road, thinks it’s a waste of money to paint it, “like calling vets.” Flo will come back and paint it next week, along with the carriage barn and the lambing pen behind the house. The big barn will look beautiful, and that is important for many reasons, including the fact my office looks right out over it. Used the tractor to crush a pile of wire mesh, so Annie can get it to the dump. This weekend, must move all the cow manure out into the woods with the Kubota. Listening to Feist this weekend in the tractor.

P.S. Our sheep stroll on the hill was interrupted by a donkey break-out. Led by Lulu and drawn by the smell of fresh and ungrazed grass on the top of the hill, the donkeys came charging up while I was gazing out towards Vermont and rushed through the fence and took us on a grand and merry chase – Rose leading the charge, me running behind, through the woods, across the meadow, and down along the far side of the pasture. The donkeys are eerily intuitive and managed to always be a jump ahead of Rose and I, while Izzy stayed with the sheep. I stopped and let them graze a bit, and they ran here and there, staying close to the farmhouse, playing tag with Rose, who was, for once, stymied. After an hour, we all tired of it, and I opened the lower gate and tempted them with cookies. They came rushing in, on their own terms as usual. I am going to take a nap.