Thursday 7 August 2014

A Night In The Barn

*addendum ~ this post was written by Belle months ago but she wasn't confident about posting it. I've just discovered it's existence and encouraged her to publish it. Cheers, Linda (Mum)*

We had been planning and planning it for weeks. I was so looking forward to it. Last night we slept in the goat shed/dairy. I was milking Daisy and mum was lying in the scattered hay from the hay bales. She was just about falling asleep, its so comfortable down there (as long as you have long sleeves and pants, or it can be a bit itchy). When I'm not milking I like to lie on top of the chaff bags and in the straw and hay, and just  listen to the sloshes and squirts of the milk, made by whoever is milking.

But anyway as I said its very comfy on the hay and mum said "why don't we sleep in here tonight?"
yes! I couldn't wait! I took the milk up to the house, and headed down to the Indian tribe, which me, my brother, buddy, and my sister, pumpkin made when we had finished reading The Indian In The Cupboard, and were absolutely inspired. We built three tepees, and a campfire (of course we didn't light it), and we found an old kettle in the play area. We've been playing Indians almost everyday since.  There's only one tepee left now, it's mine. pumpkin knocked hers down and dragged the wood across the river (the driveway) and onto the bank opposite (grass and shrubbs on the other  side of the driveway) , to build an Aboriginal hut, and have an Aboriginal tribe over there. She never played with it, though, so I took it down and dragged the wood back to my tepee, and added them on. I don't think she's noticed yet:) buddy knocked his down in the hopes for me to make him a better one (I built his first one)! I still haven't. Buddy and pumpkin continue to play Indians, even without tepees!
  
I spent some of the afternoon whittling a spear out of a stick. My next project is a wooden knife.These are both tools for the Indian tribe.

The day seemed to be passing very slowly. I had been waiting to sleep in the goat shed for weeks! But finally, the evening came, and me and dad trudged out to milk the goats. When we were finished, back into the house we went, to collect all our bedding like mum, pumkin and buddy were doing. We took it all out to the goat shed, layed down some doonas and a horse rug in the hay as a sheet, and some more doonas and quilts for the covers and sat for about half an hour, in the hay playing the 'I went to the shop' game. Soon it was time to settle down for the night. I was warm and comfortable, with a cat at my feet and a dog at my head(the dogs don't sleep inside, so it was kind of fun). This was going to be one the best nights in my life...

It was not to be :(
I probably woke up five to six times. Since the goats were in the shed with us (in the stalls in the shed, not actually loose in the shed), they woke us up multiple times, chomping on hay and things like that. Then there was the birds. We have what we call a 'night bird'. She's not an owl, she's more like the birds you see during the day, exept she has a prettier voice than most of them. Her voice is hard to describe, but it is a very lovely chirp and we love to listen to it when we're milking in the evenings, but when you're trying to sleep in the middle of the night, it's not so lovely! At 2:00 am I had to go inside to the toilet. Dad had left several hours earlier, he claimed he hadn't slept at all. He was inside, cooking the bread, and lighting the fire. I went to the toilet, and then made my way back to the goat shed, through the cold night. When I got  back Buddy, who I was sharing a doona with, was lying half on and half under the doona, so I couldn't pull it up propery, and I basically froze untill the early hours of the morning, when buddy moved into mum and pumpkin's 'hay bed'. Then came the roosters. I reckon they were having a crowing competition. They crowed and crowed and crowed, and every time I was almost dozing of, they'd have another bout of crowing ):