Morning Chores

Every morning on the farm kicks off with chores. By now, it has settled into my daily routine. I barely notice it anymore. But, really, it's pretty bizarre and entertaining on most mornings. Thought I'd share a glimpse into my world every morning.

8:15 a.m., random morning: I am by the red barn with two paint buckets, filling them up the water to give to the buck goats and rams who have, once again, knocked over their water/polluted it with something ungodly. Across the way, a few volunteers are milling out of the hay barn, aka: chore central, grabbing wheel barrows, throwing hay into them, swinging buckets of feed. Two little dwarf goats named Ren and Stimpy run by, because they never stay in their pen, chasing Maggie with a bucket of swine grain. In a few minutes, Maggie will be trying to water the pigs and simultaneously throwing Ren and Stimpy out of the feed bucket over and over again. Those two live off of every other animal's food.

Off down the dirt path, Nic is pulling Henry, our spastic buck goat, on a leash, because Henry has escaped from his pen for the second time that morning. In a few minutes, Henry will escape again. Ashley rambles by on the big tractor, earphones in place, happily nodding her head to music, on her way to move the cows' water. Jen comes around the corner of the barn, leading Abu, our giant camel, on a leash. He's being slightly obedient, which is better than most days, but making very deep grumbling sounds that surface as camel burps. Pretty soon, he will lie down and refuse to get up for five minutes.

Behind me, Sarah is happily bottle feeding Imou, our Randall Lineback calf. Out in the sack pad, Jason is surrounded by some sixty goats and sheep, who are all desperately trying to swallow the 50 lb. bag of sheep grain that he is attempting to open and put in the feeders, which would be easy to do if Artemis, a black goat, weren't punching her front legs into his stomach trying to get the feed. In a few minutes, Evander, our massive pony-sized ram, is going to butt me in the leg while I'm trying to retrieve his feed bucket. It is going to hurt like hell, and I'll have a bruise for weeks. After that, I am going to meet up with some of my fellow volunteers next to the coffee maker and badmouth Evander over a leisurely cup of coffee. Chores are over. It will be time to start the process all over again at 4:00.

Ok, not every morning is this crazy. Just most of them.