An Unseasonably Hot Day

This is the north country and we have fewer hot days than most of the nation, but we've had some this year which were brutal. On one recent hot day, I decided to clean the chicken coop. First I opened up the little chicken door and let the bantam hens outside:

They hadn't been out in a very long time but they remembered how much they loved the outdoors and immediately began eating grass and bugs. I suppose they also replaced the grit in their crops. They were clearly happy birds:

Blondie is on the left. She seemed so stupid as a chick that I never believed she'd make it to adulthood, but she's done fine:

Once the chickens were outdoors, I began shoveling the crud on the floor, which was about 7" deep, into a plastic bin:

 

  It was mostly dry, and I used a snow shovel to scoop it up:

I carried each bin out though the chicken coop door, through the pigeon room, along a narrow aisle, through another door, around the parked bush hog, over the old gutter trench and dumped it in the tractor's six foot bucket. When it was full, I drove it to the manure/compost pile and dumped it:

I then began to shovel the floor of the pigeons' room. This was more difficult because so much of it was wet from their baths and from a leaky water dispenser (which has been replaced). I never finished the entire room, but I removed enough to fill the tractor bucket once again. I dumped it also, then used the tractor to push a fence post back into place:

I didn't want to leave the chickens outdoors too long because of the many foxes we have, so I went up into the hayloft to retrieve the leaf rake which I use to herd the chickens. Five hens had already gone back to the safety of their room, but I wanted to round up the other six:

 I found three of them enjoying the sun, and the other three were in the shade of the Rhododendron right behind the sun bathers. I herded them back to the barn, up the ramp and back inside the safety of their newly cleaned room:

But before I put the tractor away, I drove out to the far end of the field, where the cattle were enjoying the shade:

They seemed perfectly contented and comfortable:

The two little horses, however, were out in the sun and grazing. They mostly ignored me as they worked to fill their bellies through the small opening in the front of their muzzles. By this time I had dust and sweat running into my eyes, making it difficult to see - so I hurried back to the barn, parked the tractor and decided to relax for the rest of the day: