Oh boy.
Up between 6:00 and 7:00 am. Let dogs out. Let dogs in.
Coffee / check email / update FB status (
), check in here.
*If there were house babies, it'd be feed them, clean playpens, asses how they're progressing and move them to the barn if all's going well.
Put on barn clothes and hit the barns between 7:30- 8am. (In the hot part of the summer, it's 7am, but we're fixing to "Fall back" so I'm trying to arrive at 7:30-ish now so it won't be such a 'change' for them.)
Feed the 'new barn' goats (3 pens - 2 are 'kid' pens, one is horned boers), fill buckets, feed the cavy, check the bunnies, make sure both chicken pens have water / feed, haul water to the Nubian pen (aka the buck pen during the non-breeding months), then hit the 'old barn'.
Feed Hannah and Mandy, and whoever's in the other stall for breeding (currently Freeney and Dallas). Let in LGD to eat, Penny to be milked, and run food / hay back over to the Nubs. Fill water buckets, milk Penny enough to give the dogs their 1/2 cup ea. (They won't eat their 'cereal' w/ out milk in it...) and fill the cat's bowl. Finish milking Penny, throw her and the dogs out, take the remaining milk to the chickens. Rinse the bucket and head back to the house, usually around 9am this time of year.
*If it were serious milking / kidding time, I'd be milking 9-12 does, bottle feeding up to 15 kids, and cleaning the kid room every 3rd day, finishing around around 10am.
Stop at the 'little' chicken barn to feed / water the young stock and silkies.
Back in here to feed the prairie dog, do any dishes that need it (Dh is a late night eater but not a late night mess cleaner). Start / fluff / hang any laundry that needs it....Let dogs out again. And in. Darn dogs....
*If it was kidding season, I would be bringing the milk back up here to flash pasteurize, fill bottles or freeze, and then clean up that mess. If it is hatching season, I've also got 20-200 chicks in the house to feed / water / totes to clean out.
Check/answer email, FB, BYH again....
On Fridays, clean house (usually done by around noon).
Every other day, get outside (when it's warm) - in summer, weed / plant / transplant, etc. in the flower and veggie beds. Treat the pond. Spray / cut brush from fence rows.
Right now I'm tearing old plants out / cutting back perennials / putting everything to bed. Also harvesting seeds for next year.
When it's too cold to play in the dirt, I do 'serious' cleaning of the house - carpet shampooing, wall washing, pulling out appliances and cleaning behind them, etc.
If we still have bottle babies, head back to the barn @ 2pm to feed them. Let dogs out / in.
Go back to whatever I was doing after feeding the kids. I make a chore list daily and whatever doesn't get finished gets put on the next day's list.
If it's Monday and the incubators are running, clean the hatcher / get it ready for the next hatch (I only hatch on Saturdays). Candle eggs.
Set hatches on Thursdays.
3:00 - If it's Tuesday, get ready for work at TSC. If it's not, call dh and bug him about what he wants for dinner. Get it out to thaw or start preparing it. Feed dogs. Let dogs in and out AGAIN.
4:00 - DH gets home, we go do the afternoon feeding (he gets 'new' barn and rabbits, I do the rest, including milking when 'tis the season), then eat supper.
5:00 - 6:00....Trim whoever's hooves need it, give any booster shots needed, anything that I need 'help' doing, has to wait until he's home.
6:00-bedtime - HE gets to watch tv / talk on the phone to his mom, snack, etc.
I usually go back outside and play in the dirt some more, if it's nice. If not, play w/ the prairie dog, or read, or go online again. Let dogs in. And out. This is becoming a pattern....
If we had bottle babies, go back and feed them again at 9pm.
If I have close-to-kidding preggos, I have to spend at least 45 min. a day staring at them. Ya know...looking for twee twee changes, leaky twees, strutted udders, contractions, loose ligs, etc. I can tell more by watching how they act / stand than I can by feeling them most of the time.
By 9 or 10 pm I'm usually in my jammies / in my chair w/ my Kindle or sitting here doing this....until it's time tooo....let dogs out. Tell them to stay out. (just kidding).
Weekends are for major repairs and Football.
