The kids and I have finally gotten things cleaned up after the big Halloween snow we had... It took forever for the snow to melt and all the water to drain off the little pasture. R and I went out several times to clean out the little drainage ditch, to keep it running...

...and after days of deep pull-your-boot-off mud the pasture is almost dry. M and I cleaned the paddock out... between manure and muddy hay, it was a mess! We probably moved 10 wheelbarrows full of muck out of that paddock (dumping it down into our little gully to decompose).

We also finally got the monstrously heavy doghouse (soon to be chicken coop?) moved up the hill to where I wanted it. It turned out to be much easier than I thought... B (dd#2) was here, and suggested "rolling" it up the hill. (Count on someone who spent years in college, moving from dorm, to apartment, to house, to know how to move something that's too heavy to move!) So that's what we did. B, M, R and I rolled it over and over again and it only took us about 20 minutes to move it all the way up the hill...

 ...and around the corner and up to the fence where I wanted it.

Yeah, it looks a wreck now... but it's built very strong (double walled with insulation between the walls) and should clean up well. Half the roof is missing because the dog house was too wide to fit through the back gate without removing it... Joe is going to put it back on with a piano hinge in the middle so I can open it up to clean it out.  I'll set it up on concrete pavers when we move it into place, and make a little door if we end up using it as a chicken coop. 

So it will stay where it is for now, while I'm painting etc, and when it's done we'll move it a few feet into the pen the kids and I made for Lili.

It's good to have those big jobs done. There is supposed to be more snow coming this weekend... but that's ok... I think we're finally ready for it.