 |
| Photo from www.rodneyonearth.com |
All you need to be able to do is fill my hay net twice daily, give the goats two flakes of hay in four piles twice daily (making sure that Jasper gets led by his collar up onto the goat loft, where he will stay until he finishes pile 1 of 4), muck out the mule shed once daily, add bedding to the goat shed twice weekly, check troughs once daily, check chicken water and dog water once daily, change bunny water twice daily, clean the coop and the cat litter once weekly, gather eggs once daily, feed the bunnies pellets twice daily, feed the bunnies hay once daily, feed the chickens once daily, scatter oyster shells once weekly, feed the bunnies vegetables once daily, exercise Harriet and B in the kitchen once daily each (but separately) and for at least an hour, let Clover pee every hour, muck out the mule paddock once or twice weekly depending on weather (more often if wet), let Paisley pee every six hours, let the cats in and out whenever they'd like (but not after 10 pm, when you must find them and bring them in for the night), feed the cats twice daily, check the location of my salt block daily and roll it into the shed if it's been moved outside, stand in the yard for ten minutes morning and evening with Clover until she poops, give me daily ear rubs, pick my feet daily, rub Missy's back daily, feed the dogs twice daily (having Clover eat in her crate, and letting her straight out into the yard ten minutes later), close me in my small paddock overnight and half the day if the weather's wet, opening my gate for at least four hours out of every 24, give Missy two cups of alfalfa pellets in the chicken yard every afternoon, change the bunny litter boxes every other day, change the bunny cages weekly, and keep an eye out for anything abnormal. This can include Jasper peeing slowly (call vet and FW), Paisley having a seizure (call FW and monitor closely for at least 24 hours), birds of prey circling overhead (keep Clover leashed), or me being less than perfectly content (remedy with lots of attention and low-calorie snacks).
Water living room plants weekly. Water dining room plants every other week. Water upstairs plants a couple of times a year if they didn't already die.
There! Not so hard.
Ears,
Fen Bar
Sounds like the perfect vaction for a city girl longing for the farm.
ReplyDeleteHow does Farmwife do it all with your larval siblings!!!!
ReplyDeleteSign me up, but only if I get to ride you, Fenny. There are some nifty flexion exercises I could teach you that would make you able to impress all and sundry with your dressage frame. They're easy. They do not involve pro wrestling. I also can take care of all your leetle friends, including bunnies and parrots and baby mice. I can put up hay and clean tack and dance the hula.
ReplyDeleteI don't think I could keep all that straight ! Sounds like a lot of love going on there at Bent Barrow.
ReplyDeleteI could do that with one hoof, Fen!
ReplyDeleteFenway,
ReplyDeleteMother speaking here. That sounds great! I could take a vacation from work, and spend it with you and the Bent Barrow Crew.
Of course, since I haven't managed to take more than three days off of work at a time in the three years I've worked here, it looks unlikely... then again, I ehink they owe me, don't you?
While it sounds fun and busy, obviously all of the animals' comforts are personalized and well planned. The busiest I was housesitting was when I was watching two houses (only a couple days of overlap, and the home I didn't stay the night at was fine with it) and working at two other barns all at the same time. Farm 1: Clean 16 stalls (sometimes 30, if it was the other barn's cleaner's day off) and 4 dog pens; feed and a few medicates for: 40 horses, 6 house dogs, 6 outside dogs, 2 goats, 2 barn kitties and 10 cows twice a day; feed 2 parrots and clean cages once a day; turn in and out for broodmares and foals (mostly sorrel qh with few markings... ahhhh!), turn the 10 show horses out in either the indoor or the roundpen individually, of course (several stallions); thank goodness the open broodmare field had a runout and they only got hay. Farm 2: three horses, 2 dogs. Easy peasy. Working at farms 3 and 4: combined, about 30 more stalls, and feeding 15 horses and bringing in from turnout at the one barn.
Yeah, I was one tired pup.
Hmmmm..... as a school teacher that sounds like a perfect summer...
ReplyDeleteIF you were closer to my 1500 lb baby.