A day in the life

Tater, always the last out of bed

Today started out like any other day.  I woke up with a 65lb boxer stretched out across my body, head buried in my neck.  That was a sweet moment, until some boney boxer part started pressing on my bladder and it was then that I realized there was an 8 year old boy also on the left of me and on the right? Two pugs stretched out from my pillow to my toes and to the right of that I could see the lump of covers that was Dr. Farm Hand over on 'his' 2/3 of the bed.

After some effort in extracting myself, I made coffee, started making lunches (only 3 lunches left to make in this school year!!!!) and gathering breakfast options.  Getting kids up, dressed, fed, out to carpool, dogs fed, husband out and THEN it's time for some farm work.

Completely disassembled feeder

This is perhaps the only area of my day where i have somewhat of a routine.  I always start with feeding the goats, they are the loudest and pushiest and also, the softest to pet.  This morning, as many mornings, I found that they had completely disassembled their feeder.  It is a borrowed feeder, and new ones are expensive, so I just keep putting it back together a few times a week, hoping eventually they will get bored of this game.  After that, I got the goats their pellets and grain, and as usual, one of the boys (either Petey or Chuppie, not the babies) jumps up and tries to get me to drop the bucket that I hold at head or shoulder level to keep them out of it.  I usually end up spilling some, the only difference today was that I spilled the grain down my shirt which lodged a few pieces in various undergarments.   Next I washed their water troughs and refilled them, sprayed the tortoises with the hose for their shower. Then comes the raking of poop,  I do this every morning to keep the sleeping areas clean.  Lately, I have one chicken who has been laying her egg inside the turtle house, forcing me to get on all fours and crawl into a dark nasty plywood box to retrieve the egg.  Usually, I put this egg in my brassiere for safe keeping while I finish my chores.  If I leave it out it will either get broken by a goat or stolen my a crow.  Today, since I had already had goat grain down my shirt I just put the egg in my pocket.  On Mondays I also rake those piles up into the wheelbarrow and take them out to the compost area.  This is where the next trouble happened.  I forgot about the egg until I felt a strange substance in my pocket right after I struggled to dump the wheelbarrow.  Yep, one egg down already.


Then comes the chickens.  I filled the bucket with chicken feed to top off their feeders.  I was startled when I opened the coop door by my poor pain-in-the-ass turkey, Red, dead in a corner of the coop.  The entire family has a love/hate relationship with this bird, so part of me was relieved that it was her and not an egg producing chicken.  It's obvious that I've changed in the past year.  I wasn't upset, didn't shed a tear, and my first thought was "Damn, the trash truck just came, if only I had checked the coop first today."  Problem is, you do NOT want a dead turkey in your trash for a week.  Trust me.  Now I need disposal options....  I say a few words to Red as I wrap her up, in a heavy duty black trash bag, double bagged and set to finish feeding the chickens and scooping their roost boards.  Under their roosts, where they sleep at night, I have theses little shelves that are filled with an odor busting/clumping mineral.  This way, every other day I can scoop the shelves like a litter box and the coop stays nice and odor free, the eggs are clean, and I only have to do a deep clean on the coop once a year instead of 3-4 times a year.  It has worked out great.  Plus the mineral is safe for composting, which is where all the scooped chicken poop goes.  It is also a bonus that the coop is due for its yearly cleaning this week since dead poultry always necessitates a coop cleaning.  I know what I will be doing tomorrow.

Partially disassembled feeder being used as a jungle gym.

Next, I have trees to water, and the watering system that is there doesn't work so that means 10 fruit trees that are watered by hand at least twice per week.  Those get done by setting a hose timer and placing a small sprinkler under each tree for 15-20 minute intervals.  Only I have to remember to move the sprinkler and turn off the hose everyday.

There were 4 eggs in the bowl when I went to turn on the hose, pre bra-stuffing days

Monday is also my big laundry day and day to pick up after the weekend.  But?..  no time today.   I have to pick up Jamba Juices for the 4th grade beachy read-in at school this afternoon, 18 of them.  I need to shower to wash off the farm dust and head out.  Then is comes to me....in the back of my mind, all morning, I am trying to come up with a way to ditch the dead turkey that will leave my trashcans maggot free (I almost hate maggots as much as I hate snakes).

By 1pm, I am in my car heading to get the smoothies, BUT, I need gas first (wink, wink).  Stop at the gas station, fill up the tank (which today, only took a mere 4-5 gallons), deposit a tightly wrapped, double bagged, heavy duty lawn bag into the gas station trashcan then hightail it to Jamba.

Pick up large case of smoothies, deliver to hot and happy 4th graders, run to get groceries, pick up kids,  feed store to purchase cleaning and bedding supplies for tomorrows coop cleaning, head home to do the laundry, pick up and afternoon goat feeding, egg checking and tree watering.  Homework, dinner, dishes, tuck in, few moments of TV with Dr. Farm Hand then bed.

Every single one of us is busy, especially parents, especially working parents.  This is just a glimpse, for those who have asked, in how my life differs now than it did 13 months ago.  Dead animal disposal and outsmarting livestock and wildlife were certainly not a part of those days.  Everyday isn't this exciting, but each day does offer something unexpected.  I wrote most of this last week, but end of school year functions got the best of me before I could post it. Today, I am starting out the first week of summer vacation relatively surprise free.  It is only 10am though, give it a few hours, the potential is endless......