I go into the barn before breakfast or my first cup of coffee, stumble to the feed bins, feed the calves and take Bess, the pig her food.
Bess gets to stay in the pasture all night with the cows and is sort of a "guard dog" pig at night. Then in the morning, I feed her in her pen and she stays in there for a couple of hours. Reason being, the little baby chicks that are about a month old now need to get some outside time and I am not certain if Bess would eat the baby chicks. So a few hours each day, Bess is locked in her pen so the baby chicks can scratch around outside without fear of getting eaten by the pig.
Okay, so the six baby chicks are out and about and the two mother hens that are still playing mommy are watching over them. All is right with the world at that moment.
I go back in the house and cook breakfast which the hubby and I devour in a few minutes. After that, we start working on the new pig pen, which is double the size of the one that Bess is in now.
So far so good.
We are getting the panels built without issue until we reach one of the corners. Somehow, we miscalculated the angle and it is not square. So we pull out the posts and dig new post holes.
Yes, digging post holes manually with a post hole digger sucks. It sucks worse when the ground is wet and my husband slides on the mud and lands on his "assets" in a puddle of cow crap mixed in with pig crap. I really thought he hurt himself, but he said he didn't. (He's going to be bruised tomorrow for sure).
Back to building the pig pen and slogging through the mud trying to make headway before the rain comes again.
Then I hear some duck and turkey noises that do not sound right on the other side of the barn. I drop everything and run over to see what is going on.
My tom turkey, Tanner, has one of the ducks pinned to the ground and you guessed it - he is having his way with her. So, I break up the "love-fest" and put the turkeys in their cage. Now the pig and the turkeys are secured.
The pig pen building resumes - until the bottom falls out of the sky and I am drenched to the bone.
Hubby and I drop everything we are doing and run into the house, because it is also thundering and lightening. I decide I am done for the day as it is almost dinner time. I am caked in mud from the days work, so I decide to shower before I make dinner. Trying to unwind and enjoy the few minutes of solitude, my hubby knocks on the bathroom door and says, "Sorry to bother you, but someone left the pasture gate open and well, all the animals are in the front yard. I need your help."
Fudge-cakes!
I still have soap on me and shampoo in my hair. I hurry to rinse off, get clothes on and run out to the yard. My young male bull, Mocha, who I am trying to wean from his mother, Angus Girl, is latched on to her teat. Damn it! Start the weaning clock over again for the third frigging time!
My hair is still wet from my earlier attempt at a shower, while I run to break up the "milk drinking marathon" between Mocha and his mom and my hubby tries to get the calves in the barn to keep them out of the way of us moving the older cows to the back pasture. Then it pours down rain again as I am getting all of the animals back in their correct pastures. Finally after a few attempts, all the animals are where they are supposed to be.
By this time, it is way past dinner time and I am entirely too hungry to even think about cooking. So, cheese and crackers becomes the meal for the evening.
Oh, and I had a beer to go with the cheese and crackers ...
How was your day?
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