It is always work to get ready to go somewhere. In my case I cram in all the things that I would probably put off if I were here, but now feel like they have to be done before I go. Part of it is to try and make things as foolproof as possible so that the people taking care of things don't face issues.

Now that the tractor finally works (sort of) I spent some time mowing. Then I wanted to try "spreading" manure. Spreading is in quotes because we don't have a manure spreader. I have a tractor with a bucket and me with a shovel. Not practical...

...even though I have made some darn fine compost.

To make good compost the manure pile needs turning now and then, but the dryness on the top is deceptive. It's wet underneath and it's easy to get the tractor stuck--which requires me with the shovel again. Move onto other things that need doing.

The ewes are on pasture and the white net fences are moved around to change the paddock to be grazed. I moved the ewes to the side of the pasture where there is less risk of them rubbing on a gate and inadvertently (or on purpose) pushing things out of wack while I'm gone.

It's hard to see in this photo but I set up the next three fences so that my kids don't have to do it. They will have to close one but then the sheep just go to the next. There are always tricky things (like where there is concrete so the stakes for the fence don't go in all the way and where you have to block off the irrigation ditch so they sheep can't go under the fence, etc)

I had the ram lambs grazing in the back but don't want fence-to-fence contact with them and the ewes so they had to be moved. These are the panels that were keeping them away from the ewes while grazing the back. There is no water in that back field so they needed access to the corral for water. I'm going to leave this in place so that the ewes won't be near the big ram fence (not a big fence, although it is double, but the big rams). I don't need any more reason for the rams to try and mangle their fence while we're gone.

They did this just yesterday.

Here is a temporary fix. They also beat up the other wall and pushed it away from the corner post. That green panel in the upper photo is keeping them away from that part of their shed. Not fixes, but hopefully stopping further destruction for now. I expect when I get back that wire panel over the hole will be mangled as well.

Rusty doing his job of keeping the rams away while we put up the wire panel.

I said that I need to move the ram lambs out of the pasture. Ginny helps with that.

You can see Ginny behind here. She doesn't work with finesse, but she can do the job.

Back up at the house, the birds are starting to get to my black sunflower seeds. These are for future dyeing projects.

I put net bags and bird netting over the flowers.

I water the garden and picked coreopsis. A friend will come and pick during the week to keep the flowers blooming and take squash from the plant that is taking over. The beans in the foreground look great but haven't produced anything yet.

This is the wether in with Peyton. He had his leg through the front of the coat the other day so I caught him to take it off. Don't want that happening while I'm gone and I didn't have a needle and thread handy to make it smaller.

I was watering my barrels that have been neglected. Ginny knew where my attention was and placed her ball appropriately.

When condense into a few photos this doesn't seem like much but I was going non-stop yesterday. I realized at about 9 p.m. that all I'd eaten was granola in the morning and watermelon through the day--it was too hot to want anything else. I am now  gathering up the last of the stuff to take. Where is that book about my camera?

Here is a hint about the road trip. Do you think I have enough reading material with me?