Spring has sprung and for us that means of flurry of activities. I have been so busy, I haven't had any time to rest (or blog, obviously!). We have added many baby animals to the farm over the past few weeks and they have kept us hopping! A typical day starts at 6am when we milk Dixie, feed the calves, feed Bessie, feed the chicks, feed the hens, and bottle-feed the calf, goat, and lambs. When we get back in the house there are a myriad of buckets, bottles, and jars to wash. This is followed by morning activities like showers, breakfast, cleaning, laundry, baking, reading, music practice, and devotions. At noon we feed the lambs again and eat some lunch. The kids are free from noon to 2pm to do what they want and I usually finish up the laundry and any other things I didn't get done from the morning. At 2 I milk Dixie again (still dealing with the end of the matitis - I am going to go back to 12hrs milking on Saturday and hope it doesn't come back). When I am in the barn I also check and fill the chick waterer and feeder. These are the chickens we will butcher in May so I want them on full feed. I also fill feed buckets for the next day so the kids can do the feeding while I milk. If Bessie is out of hay or water I fill that too. When I get back in from chores we do school work. The kids have chosen this time. I prefer to get things done and out of the way first thing in the morning, but they prefer afternoons so I use the mornings to get my things done and by 2:30 in the afternoon I can help them with their work. If we have plans in the afternoon we either do the school work in the morning or evening. We are almost done with our books so it doesn't take long. I am excited to shift over to the summer schedule which will happen the 2nd week of May. School takes most of the afternoon now. Around 5 we head out to do evening chores which includes bottle-feeding the calf, goat, and lambs, watering the chickens and giving them the bucket of scraps from the day, gathering eggs, feeding the cats and dog, filling the cow tank, feeding and haying Bessie & Matilda, and refilling the chick waterer. We like to mess around outside after chores - sometimes working, sometimes playing. If we eat by 7 or 7:30 we are doing good. After supper, I can finally relax a little so I try to read or watch a little TV. The kids are usually hogging the computer so I don't get much time online! At 10 we go back out to milk Dixie once more and feed the lambs again. We do this last round of chores as quickly as possible and then it is straight to bed for all of us. We crawl into bed exhausted and have no problems falling asleep. And even though I am exhausted, I love this time of year. I am looking forward to getting my piglets the first week of April and hopefully I can still find a couple more baby calves. Have I ever told you how much I love animals?!?!?
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| Matilda - Wichita's calf |
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| Bessie with Matilda (Bessie is getting so big and has 'adopted' Matilda as her own!) |
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| my broiler chicks |
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| 2 of the lambs (Pinocchio is the one looking at you) |
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| All 4 bottle lambs around 4 days old. |
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| my future egg layers and 4-H purple ribbon contenders |
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| Cocoa - the goat we are foster parenting for a fellow 4-Her |
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