Chores

The head gardener is off on his annual hunting trip which means that I am on chore duty. Come help me do the morning chores.

Most days I am an early riser,  getting up about 5:30 AM. I make coffee and settle in my easy chair to read my blogs on the iPad while the Head Gardener sleeps in.  When I am on duty I try to keep his feed schedule at least in the morning, so I go out about 8:00. Sundance is usually in the corral waiting. He calls to me, telling he how hungry he is.

"Come on boys, can't you give me a smile this morning? You are going to be featured on the blog," I say to them as I try to get their attention. I want them both looking straight at the camera lens, ears forward, joy in their eyes, but they only have one thing on their mind: breakfast.

The boys know the routine.

Pop gets Senior Glow, a low carb pellet. His former owner told us that he is prone to founder (a condition that could permantly cripple him caused by too rich of a diet), so he gets a low carb feed and grass hay. His pasture time is limited, too, and he has to wear a special muzzle that limits his access to fresh greens.

Sundance gets a small amount of a high carb grain mixture of oats and molasses.

They each get a flake of home grown hay. Both cuttings of hay this year were exceptional. Sundance will finish his breakfast and head to the pasture, while Pop will stay in his stall until 2:00 when I let him out to graze in the pasture.

Next the hens. We are down to eight. We lost one last week. They are getting on in years so they are not laying very many eggs. From 8 hens we are averaging 0-3 eggs a day. We are not prone to put them in the freezer, so we have think about getting chicks next spring. We can only keep 12 hens according to our covenant. 

Scratch--simply cracked corn. They have mash in the hen house. 

Dew clings to garden in the early morning. The crisp, cool air hints at fall. Today will be sunny, mild, and  about 70 degrees. 

As a kid, I always dreamed about a barn with stalls for my horses. They were pastured, fed hay only during the winter. Our barn was an 80 year old milk barn where I kept my gear, but not my horses. These boys have it made. Sundance  now 18 and Pop is 24,  will live out their lives in peace, both spoiled princes.

I'll repeat the routine around 7:00 PM.

The rest of day will be filled with cleaning, reading, daydreaming, laundry, cleaning out the refrigerator, did I mention daydreaming?

Now back to reality. There are chores to be done.

Thanks for visiting.