Green Acres...

So, this weekend I'm getting a bit of practice at farming. Some friends asked me to farmsit for them. I've done it before with some backup, but decided to try this weekend without anyone else around. If I want to have a farm or otherwise live in the boonies on my own, I should see if I can do this. This is not a totally realistic test because there is a nice house with internet, flush toilet, working well, garden, fence in place, etc etc. But still, there are animals and I'm on my own.

So far things are going pretty well. The first day everything went pretty well. The only difficulties were very minor. A chicken who likes to steal other nests and sit on the eggs for a day, then abandon them...she wouldn't let me get under her to get the eggs out. She pecked me! That bitch. So I got a short hoe from the shed and cornered her with that while I went for the egg. Then on the way out of the coop the rooster came at me with his sharp talons. He had me cornered against the door of the coop! That bastard. I called one of the dogs over and he backed off but it was pretty embarrassing. Those were very minor issues. The dogs and I spent the hot afternoon napping in the living room.

This morning the rooster, who HATES me, came over close to the bedroom window and specifically crowed at me starting at about 5am. At 7:30 the dogs decided they'd had it, and sent one up on the bed to dance on me. That worked. I got up and let them out for a pee. I went and checked and fed animals then brought the dogs in for their breakfasts. They had apparently spent their night plotting to exploit my weak points. First, they went for "groggy before has coffee." There are 3 dogs and they get fed 2 different foods (one is a pup) in 3 different spots and in a specific order. You start with the pup out in the back room. I got her fed and started eating and brought the chubby lab his breakfast. When I turned around, the pup had come into the dining room and horned the lab out of his dish and was snarfing it down! I grabbed the pup and was taking her back to her own food. The lab, who is a piggy, finished his and had half his body down in the giant garbage can of kibble by the time I got back. I hadn't closed it because the third dog still needed her food. I was pulling him out of there when the pup showed up. So the pup and the lab got thrown out of the house. The third dog was being very good. She got fed and ate politely. Then she tried to jump on the couch which is not allowed so I threw her out too. It was like a dog version of the three stooges or that "I Love Lucy" episode where Lucy and her friend are working at the food factory and food just keeps coming at them and they can't keep up. I was Lucy.

The drain plug on the horse/mule-water bathtub got dislodged while I was topping up the water. I don't like to be in the corral when the mule is in there, but they need water and he came over. He kept eating, but I don't want to be found face down in a pink bathtub in the mule corral. I think I have that fixed, but will check again later.

Overall, no disasters so far, and I think if I were more used to the routine, it would be easier. Also, I'm thinking of making cold brewed coffee in the fridge tonight so I have coffee the minute I get up and before I need to deal with animals.

There are a few acres here the owners would be willing to sell me. I'm going to go over there and take a look again today and see what I think. It's too far to drive to work...but who knows what the future brings.