A Place for Everything?

How does that old saying go, A place for everything...and everything in its place? Whatever it is it sure doesn't apply to around here.

This morning I went to the goat barn to get the milking done and all heck broke loose. I had just gotten started milking Becca Boo on the stand in the birthing stall when into the barn marched the three mama sheep with their four now teenaged lambs. The goat barn isn't the largest of places as it also holds a dog igloo and two tables for the goats to jump around on. The goats seem to think they are above all the other animals around this place and the sheep intruding into THEIR space was an insult that they considered beyond the pale. Addison immediately jump up on the igloo while Chip and Gidget climbed up atop one of the benches. Poor Becca Boo was uncomfortable on the milk stand with all these strangers watching me work her teats.

I could not for the life of me figure out what in the world the sheep wanted and why they would ever wander into the goat barn. Sara was happy as a clam as all her four legged friends were all cooped up in one small space. At some point Chip decided he had had enough so down he jumped to challenge the mama sheep, figuring that if he reared up they would get frightened and leave. The place was so crowded at this point the sheep couldn't have backed out if they wanted to, and with Sara standing (and I would swear she was smiling) at the door the sheep were not going to go anywhere. At this point Addison decided that no way were the sheep going to cut in front of her to get grain for being on the milk stand so she jumped off the igloo and crowded her way through the goat/sheep throng to the birthing stall door. Chaos, pure chaos.

Sara was crowding everyone in, Chip was rearing, Addy was headbutting, Becca was crying, the sheep were eying the grain, something had to give and it wouldn't be long until someone got hurt. At this point I reached over and opened the latch to the side door and the sheep quickly filed out into the goat pasture area. A light rain was falling so I wasn't worried about the goats going outside, but I'm sure they were upset that the sheep dared to intrude upon their territory. I guess the sheep had been coveting their neighbor's pasture as the goats are so picky that they let everything in their fenced off area get a little overgrown, and apparently the sheep decided they wanted a piece of the action!  As things calmed down I finished milking Becca and Addy, and Gidgit and Chip got their grain.  I opened the side door to the goat area so the sheep could get out into the yard when they finished grazing - everything was getting back to normal....

....Until I went into the garage to feed the keets and lo and behold as I opened the door I spied a guinea keet loose on the floor staring me right in the eye. How the heck did that keet get out? Their crate was covered with netting and it was still on tight, there was no way the keet could have flown out and yet there on the garage floor it sat - mocking me! I chased that little bugger around the garage for several minutes to no avail, it was going to take more than just lil'ole me to catch this bird. I fed the keets in the crate, put down some food and water for the wild one, and figured I would come back later with some help to catch it. What a crazy start to my day.