I was roused from my deep slumber by a mating pair of barred owls caterwauling outside of my bedroom window. They were definitely taking their time, as the mating calls and canoodling sounds seemed to last for a good twenty minutes before I decided that I could not get back to sleep.
After the rude owl awakening, I stumbled to the kitchen and started making breakfast. I took out the free-range eggs from the refrigerator and made a mental note that I needed to wash some more as the unwashed ones from the last couple of days were still sitting on the counter in a large egg carton.
As an aside, I have made a conscious decision to wash the eggs every few days and keep them in the refrigerator for storage. Some people do not do this and accuse me of ruining the egg's "bloom" by washing them, but I am a germa-phobe who has had food-poisoning before and do not want to chance getting sick from the eggs.
I had made a large batch of pancake batter a couple of days prior, so that the early morning chore of making breakfast would be a little easier for me. There was only enough batter left for two pancakes, so the pressure was on not to burn them on the hot griddle. I was successful with not singeing the pancakes and the scrambled eggs came out fluffy and light.
After I finished preparing breakfast, I woke up my husband. He has had trouble sleeping through the night due to pain from his double foot surgery a few weeks ago, so lately, I have been letting him sleep in while I try to be quiet in the kitchen.
The sun just barely peaked through the pine trees, when I stepped into my rubber boots and made my way to the poultry barn to let the chickens, turkeys and ducks out of their safe enclosures. I filled seven, one-gallon water containers and two hang-over buckets with fresh water, then filled the hanging feeders with food pellets and cracked corn. I then cleaned up the hay soiled with poultry droppings and lay down new bedding in the barn.
The ducks and chickens are fairly self-reliant and needed no more attention than food and water to start their day. But, the turkeys are used to being walked around the property and are full of energy that only a romp in the pasture can release.
But first, the cows needed to be fed. Their moos grew increasingly louder the longer it took me to get their stock feed into their buckets. Once they were face-planted in their feed dishes, I was able to take the turkeys for their morning stroll.
My husband met me in the pasture after cleaning up the breakfast dishes and we walked along the path to a stand of trees that the turkeys like to roost in. Once they were preoccupied with roosting in the trees, we walked back to the house to decide what the priority was to be for the day.
First on the list was making an twenty-foot by twenty-foot aviary for the turkeys, as they had started the habit of jumping over the fence and hanging out with our neighbor's goats. The neighbors also have dogs, so the aviary became a higher priority than repairing the barn roof or painting the steps.
The turkey enclosure consists of a large, ten-foot by ten-foot chain-linked dog kennel attached to a ten-foot exterior barn stall. We covered half of the area with chicken wire and the other half was already covered by a sheet-metal roof that is attached to the barn. By lunch time, we completed the aviary to our satisfaction.
Lunch consisted of hot dogs and bratwursts on the grill. It was quick and easy, although not very nutritious.
After lunch, we found that one of us had left the gate to the garden open and the cows had helped themselves to the grapevines, apple trees and blueberry bushes that remained from the season's earlier harvest. We scolded the cows and shooed them out of the garden, then locked the gate. But, the damage had already been done.
By this time, we had done a few other minor tasks and decided that a nap would be great, since neither one of us had slept well the night before ...
But first, we had to round up the turkeys and place them in the aviary while we napped. An hour later, the turkeys were safely in their new pen with food and water, so off we went to the house to sleep.
Right before we settled into bed, we heard a terrible noise from the chickens in the barn area and raced outside to see what the problem was. I looked in the barn thinking it might have been a snake in one of the nest boxes, but found nothing.
As I walked outside of the barn, my husband came around the other side of the entrance and in his hands was a head-less rooster. The noises we had heard were from a hawk attack and my husband interrupted it just as the hawk was decapitating the rooster.
By this time, my husband's feet were swollen as he is still healing from surgery, so he asked me to take the dead rooster a few acres away, so that the other poultry would not mess with it as either the hawk or the vultures would soon be back to claim the corpse.
With all the excitement and our adrenaline in high gear, we decided that a nap was no longer a possibility. So, we let the turkeys out of the aviary and supervised them while walking around the property for the umpteenth time.
After the last walk, it was almost dinner time and one of us needed to start cooking another meal. I ended up making an easy chicken dish with rice and vegetables before it was time for the evening chores - feeding, watering and putting the animals up for the evening.
At eight in the evening, I finally had time to write down my thoughts for today. I can only sum it up as - A Typical Day in the Life of a Hobby Farmer.
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