Chickens and Dogs and Horses, Oh My!

Lots of chickens, 3 dogs, and 4 horses to be exact.  Add to that mix, 7 or 8 cats, and a bunny and you have the life of this "city girl" for the next 30 days while my children are in Colombia, South America getting my 2 new nansons.  Did I mention the several acres that I get to mow on this really cool (and huge) professional looking riding mower and the REALLY huge 4-wheeler that I get to drive to pull the wheel barrel full of horse manure for dumping?  Now, don't get me wrong - I love it, LOVE it, LOVE IT!!  Did I mention that I love it?  And I really am able and capable of doing all of these things but it takes me a lot longer and I'm not as smooth and graceful at it as Beth is.  In fact, I'm quite clumsy and funny looking but I manage to get the job done and I love it (I think I mentioned that already).  Even the girls drive the mower and 4-wheeler better than I do. (-:   AND the best part is that I am doing something helpful for my children - which is what I live for.  I love being out here in the country, it's so pretty and peaceful and the air smells so fresh and clean.  I can say this right now because it's not raining or storming and cold, just the normal wind.  So, with all of this said, let me tell you about yesterday, my first day on the farm:

It started out pretty well.  We left at 4 am and got to O'Hare in plenty of time for the kids to get checked in for their flight.  I even drove all the way back without even 1 wrong turn - thanks for the great directions, Darin.  I got home about 7:45, changed shoes and went out to do chores before I dropped from getting less than 3 hours sleep.  The chicken coop had been left open all night so the chickens were already all over the place and Belle and Peg were in the horse trailer (I forget why).  I fed the horses, let Peg out to potty, and put Belle's collar and leash on her to take her back to her pen.  We went around to the pen and found chickens in there so Belle starting pulling on the leash and I tried shooing chickens but Belle is strong and chickens are dumb so she got hold of one and I had a hard time getting her to leave it.  She finally let it go and I drug her back to the horse trailer and shut her in.  When I got back to the dog pen to bring her breakfast to her, Peg was chasing and catching chickens too!  She wouldn't listen to me to stop and the dumb chickens couldn't get out of the pen, so 3 more went down before I got her stopped and chased out.  I then shut her in the horse trailer, too.  Total damages: 4 fatalities and 1 injury - sorry, Beth and Darin.  So, I finished chores and came in the house, furious, trying to figure out what to do and praying that they'd come back to life.  There was cardboard and paper that needed to be burned so I decided to put them in the burn pit since there was no wind for a moment.  I went back out, they were still dead, so I scooped them up, put them in the wheel barrel, and burned them in the burn pit.  It smell like Sunday dinner around here.  End of story, right?  Wrong, there's more.

I went back out later to clean stalls.  The wheel barrel was already full so I figured out how to run the 4-wheeler (I remembered what you taught me, Sydney, good job) and dumped it and filled and dumped it again.  I took the long way around to dump it and when I started driving toward the back pasture I thought Meko looked a little far away from the other horses - sure enough, she was in the back pasture, not under the trees or in the arena that are safely fenced off.  Since the fence in the back pasture needs some repair I thought, "Oh great!"  Really, that's all I thought.  So I kept checking on her while I finished stripping the stalls and putting in the fresh bedding and decided to bring them in a little early.  The other 3 came right in without me going out and leading them in but Meko just stood out there looking at me.  When I went to get her I found that she was closed in the back pasture so she must have gone over or under the fence between the arena and the pasture.  I guess Beth and I should have put new fencing along the side of the arena and not just the back so I'll go look at it today and see what I can do. When I took the wires down, she ran into the barn and got a little stuck in the corner between Crash's stall and the tractor but she calmed and I was able to lead her into her stall.  Surely this is the end of my day, right?  Wrong, there's more, read on:

I put Belle and Peg back in their pens with their supper and plugged in the electric fence.  IT WAS SPARKING AND SNAPPING LIKE CRAZY AND SCARING BELLE who refuses to come out of her house when it's making noise.  Beth and I had just spend hours securing the fence in the arena and fixing the hot wire.  So, I kept going back and forth plugging in the fence, finding where it sparked, unplugging the fence, taping it up, plugging in the fence, finding where it sparked, unplugging the fence, taping it up, plugging, etc, etc - you get the picture.  I FINALLY found all of the spots and got them taped up.  WHEW, now that's it.  The rest of the night passed uneventfully - except for Moses randomly barking at the door and scaring me to death. Boy, did I ever sleep good last night!!  And morning chores went very smooth - thank you, Jesus.  I'm going to put the horses out in the front pasture in about an hour and be busy outside again.  Hopefully, I won't have any problems that will make for another long, boring post.

So, please pray for the happy but clumsy city girl playing in the country. (-:  And, please pray for my precious children and nanchildren in Colombia.  Be safe, my darlings, have fun and don't worry - I'm slowly, but surely, doing fine.  (-: