Working Weekend, New Skills

My working weekend started on Thursday as we drove to Moore Farms and Friends to farm sit for Laurie and Will. They were going away to a memorial service and I am now a professional farm sitter.

Once we arrived we tried to stay out of the way while they finished up to leave for Atlanta. Laurie still had chores so we pitched in and gathered eggs, spread straw and pine straw and learned a new skill.

Always good to learn new things and this time it was egg washing and reviewing. Last farm sit I gathered the eggs for the first time. Duck and chicken. There is a grumpy chicken that is still here and still grumpy from my gathering in June. We remember each other.

Eggs soak in hot water, get scrubbed with scrubby gloves and then into cartons pointed side down. I broke three my first washing. No problem, the dogs are there for any clean up.

Dog sitting is a big part of this too. Roscoe and Sweet Pea sleep with me, husband has his own room. The dogs take more than half of the bed. And don't move easily. Cooper is also here and he is the size of a polar bear. He does not sleep inside, his job is patrol all night so nothing attacks goats, chickens, ducks. Occasionally one of the cats will also sleep with me.

No one needs fed extra early, morning starts between 9 and 10. We feed and water cats, dogs, chickens, ducks and goats. Put out the food before releasing goats and stand out of the way! More new skills.

And then I usually take a shower and make some breakfast for us. We eat last. I think I ate one of the grumpy chicken's eggs.

We can relax then and this weekend have since it's been raining a lot. A lot. Which means mud. A lot.

Evening starts about 6 with indoor dog feeding, then Cooper, cats, chickens and ducks. Goats do not eat in the evening. We come back to the house until 8:30 ish when we go back to check the goats are all in, the chickens are in and the ducks are in. And close up everyone.

Chickens are always in the chicken house when we go down and the ducks are usually sitting outside by the door. They usually go in when they see me but not Thursday or Friday, there is a band of 4 that need to be encouraged to the house. It's easier with two people. Another skill. Duck gang fueling up.

Pretty easy evening except when we got back to the house Friday evening, the door would not open. It was not locked, it's an old house (built by Will's grandparents) but not going to open. So yes, we crawled through the front porch window (yay for yoga flexibility) and husband started to trouble shoot.

Was it the dead bolt? Of course we had to check even knowing we couldn't set it from the outside. The door knob? Maybe. But no, after removing all pieces couldn't open. Did we have to take the door off the hinges and then re hang it and put all the pieces back on? Before having our dinner and wine? Yes, yes we did. And perhaps broke the window fan when crawling through the front window.

So dinner at about 10:30 for us with a lovely glass of wine. Dogs were somewhat perturbed that I hadn't gone to bed yet, they have routines. I would have been happy to not be eating but was very hungry.

All else went well. Lots more rain Saturday but I dinner prepped for us before going to evening chicken/goat duties.