Well, maybe it’s that way for other people, but it sure doesn’t work like that around here. I’m up before dawn only if I know there will be a lot of things going on during the day, if something really noisy wakes me, or if Rhiannon and I are somehow already up with Paul (who does, in fact, get up before dawn). Paul is constantly after me to wake up early so I can take care of the animals. I see no problem with milking the goats at 8 or even 9 am as opposed to before the sun has even peeked over the horizon. As long as everyone gets milked, fed, watered, etc. every day in a somewhat scheduled fashion, I figure I’m doing great! Besides – chickens don’t wear watches. Although with the time change this weekend, I may have to check their little feet for a Timex because they were giving me the “chicken eye” when I went to let them out this morning – an hour later than normal.
There are only two things I'm really adamant about; processing the goat milk & keeping track of breeding / kidding dates. Up until just recently I had been selling some of my extra goat milk and Rhiannon has been drinking it, so I was a bit paranoid about not making anyone sick. So I try extra hard to keep everything squeaky clean & get the milk in the freezer quickly.
Since I'm such a worry wart, having accurate breeding dates keeps me calm(er). Otherwise I'd be in the barn for weeks just waiting for the goats to pop. Granted, I'm much better now at detecting the signs of impending goat-labor, but I'd still be checking on them fifty times a day if I wasn't sure when they were due to kid.
Other than those two things, I guess I’m pretty lax about chores around here. Is that good? Bad? Don’t know. But that’s just how it’s going now. Goodness knows that our garden would supply better yields if I were weeding more. Would I have lost so many blueberry bushes if I did a soil analysis first? Watered them more? Maybe the goats could enjoy more fresh hay if I weren’t too lazy to bag up the green stuff for them instead of letting it just get blown out the mower. The wood cook stove is still sitting in the basement instead of outside in the "future" summer kitchen. The house is in a constant state of sorta-clean and sorta-finished.
But our freezer and pantry are full. We have fresh eggs, milk, cheese. Homemade bread with wild grape jelly. Paul has a job in this bummer of an economy. My family loves me. And what would I aspire to do next if all were “perfect” around here? How completely boring that would be!
Sounds like my house :)
ReplyDelete