Full Time Farmer For a Day

Our herd has grown from our 0 to 2 to 6 since opening our doors. I've learned a lot in 2 months since the first time I helped with the chores. I nearly gave Carrie a panic attack the first time I did the chores without her (intended as a pleasant surprise). I started to do them on my own while she was hurt, but now it's a joint effort. She does the thinking and I play support.

We've worked together enough that we've come up with a system.

Carrie has things written down and has labelled cups and jars for measuring each ingredient out.

As I said, she's the brains of the outfit. She has the experience to see the bigger picture and chart a course. My part isn't rocket science. It takes effort and a willingness to get dirty.

Carrie withheld food from Oakie today and used it to lure her onto the trailer. Oakie's owner hired Carrie to drive Oakie home when their Plan A fell through.

Oakie's not a fan of traveling. She was a sweatball last trip and Carrie drives her trailer grandma-slow and rock-steady when she has horses in tow. I heard Oakie rambling around a little as they went underway.

That left me to tend the farm.

Things were an uneasy status quo. Annie's low-girl on the totem pole. She wants to join the other girls, but they're both bossing her around. Nibs is still being aggressive (which I wish was a surprise), but Maddy?

I didn't think a horse could be more submissive than Maddy, but I watched her assert herself. That leaves Annie as a horse in between.

Despite Nibs' temperament toward her, Annie seems really attached. She keeps running back and coming up alongside Nibs.

The drama flared up a few times over the course of the day (Annie skidded out and hit the fence again), but things were calm most of the time. I was able to tighten the line and fix it in seconds.

I got a picture of all three ladies eating together drama-free midday.

Meanwhile, the boys are comfortable enough to lie down and nap together. 

Shane and I left to go to the library for an hour or so midday. It was his standard "I don't want to go," followed by the "Now I don't want to leave!" I bumped into someone behind the library desk I'd last seen a decade ago in today's edition of "It's a small world."

With things calm midday, I was able to catch up on a lot of writing and uploading. Carrie called a few times for addresses. She had me call a flooring company that has more pallets than they know what to do with. They sell them for a buck a piece! 

The next round of horse drama became barn work after Carrie got back. She dropped Oakie off without issue, picked up some pallets, and picked up some tools. She went into the field and Nibs ran over to say hi. 

Nibs is incredibly fond of people. Especially Carrie since she "Mama" and bottle raised her. Nibs can get jealous when other horses monopolize Carrie's time, so guess what happened when Annie came over and wanted to crowd up next to Carrie and Nibs?

Nib's kicked. She missed Annie, but nailed her stall door perfectly.  

I got a good look at the nails the builders used, because they were knocked clean out of the frame!

We couldn't risk exposed nails, so we went straight into damage control. We stalled Annie and Maddy and closed their curtains. They had fresh hay and water to keep them occupied. Then Nibs was easy to keep at bay as we removed the door.

Nibs got to wander around and ponder her newfound freedom while we worked.

We laid the door down and pulled off the boards that had separated. Then we looked at each other and said, "Screw it."

I mean that literally.

The nails slid right off, so we decided to over-engineer the door with a bunch of wood screws. We didn't have enough the right size, so Carrie scooted off the to hardware store and left me to remove the nails. 

I'm no contractor. I took a couple shop classes in middle school and Pop made sure I learned a thing or two as a kid. Basic repairs weren't too much to ask for. 

Speaking of teaching kids, though....

I went inside the house and made Shane come out to help. He got to assist hammering the nails back through, so they could be clawed out.

Carrie came back and Shane got reassigned while Carrie and I shifted the hinges. Some of the old screws were loose and needed to be re-set.

We upgraded the latch to a bolt when we hung the door. It's been on the to do list (along with 1,000 other things) and this was the perfect time!

Nibs was stalled next and then Carrie had a new project in mind. Shane got to run back inside and play Super Nintendo (We are on break!).

Carrie had me tie strips of rope onto the top of each section of polywire to make it more visible for Annie. She followed behind with a can of glow-in-the-dark spray paint. Each strip and each post got a quick coat.

"How many do you want to do? All of them?" I asked.

"All of them," Carrie said.

There were a lot of them.

If the glow-in-the-dark works well it should look really cool at night.

Carrie found one pole that was improperly grounded as she painted and checked connections. The fence tester sang and lit up a few more notches when we checked!

And that's with some jury-rigging.  I spotted where Annie snapped the line.

We learned we needed to swap out another door latch when Maddy pushed her way out to join us! She wanted scratches and shadowed Carrie everywhere she went. I let Loki out and he enjoyed romping around with the girls.

Shane came back out with me and I got a cute picture of him and Annie.

Looks idyllic doesn't it? A quick look at the original shows I cropped out some of the stinky bits!

I scooped them up after. We were a little behind from the week and Oakie's stall needed a good cleaning. I filled multiple buckets of poop over the course of the day.

The ladies were turned back out and got to enjoy the field before we brought them in for dinner and evening chores. 

Being a farmer can be a fun change of pace.....but it's also a good reminder of why I got my teaching license! 

When I was growing up, Nana would say, "Degrees let you work in the air-conditioning." I enjoyed being outside. I enjoyed problem solving to fix the door and I especially enjoyed being out of school, but I'm not quitting my day job anytime soon.