A Day in the Life.

Suzy in Chiot's Run posted a day in her life and dared - well, suggested - that her readers do the same.  I thought that a Sunday would be a more interesting day.  Little did I know...

4:30 a.m.  I am awake and contemplating lying in until 5:00 a.m.  Much clickety-clacking of dog toenails on the floor outside of my closed bedroom door.  I get up.

4:45-5:45 a.m.  I knit, trying to complete a Christmas gift and the Baby Surprise Jacket for Els' imminent grandchild.  I listen to our local NPR station in the mornings.  I am sitting with Kramer on my lap (he's staying), Tippet snugged next to me on one side, Cookie on the other and Scrappy at the far end of the couch, wrapped up in his fleece blanket.  The temperature outside is 30 degrees/inside 58 degrees.

5:45-6:00 a.m.  I put a load of laundry in the washing machine and turn on the dryer - which I forgot to do last night, even though there was a large note taped to the kitchen cabinet to remind me.

6:00-7:30 a.m. I mix up Mama Pea's Cranberry Almond Cake for the guys at the farm and put it in the oven.  I put it in the oven and feed the dogs (kibble and heated leftover won ton soup with chopped hard boiled duck eggs).  I feed the cats, clean the litter boxes, move the laundry around, change into my outdoor clothes.

7:30-8:30 a.m.  I take the dogs on a short walk because I don't want to burn the cake.  We hear lots of gun fire -- deer hunting season already?  There's a lot of interesting scat on the side of the road.  The dogs notice ALL of it.  I get back in time to rescue the cake.  I put it to cool in the laundry room - the only cat/dog safe space in the house.

8:30 a.m. - I finish the cake, slice up half of it and drive it up to the farm - stick my head in to say hello and stop on the road to see Jasmine, who is looking divine.  The laundry is hung on the line to dry.

9:00 - 11:00 a.m. - I scrape out a large pumpkin, cut it and put it in the oven to roast.  The seeds and goop go out to the sheep, then I give them their hay.  They are still p**ed off that they're on a diet.  I start on the chickens and rabbits, when my dairy farmer neighbor pulls up the driveway and yells "We got a situation here, can you help?"  His bull and four young heifers broke out of the fencing and are down my road terrifying the weekenders.  The entire farmer family (all in pickups) show up and disburse.  I am stationed at the intersection armed with....a stick.  I am thinking I should have a bazooka.  The ensuing chaos resulted in me *running* about a half-mile.  This is something I have only done a handful of times in my life, as I regard running as unnatural.  Much sweat, muck, and hollering later, the recalcitrant are back in a fenced-in area.  May I add here that Jasmine and her sister, Rosebud, have NEVER breached the fence.  Jersey girls are the best.

11:00-12:45 p.m. - I return home and finish the poultry/rabbit chores, then roll up my sleeves and start to erect the rabbits' winter housing.  I spend a lot of time calling KW Cages many bad names.  The urine guards are NOT the same as the instructions say they are, and interfere with putting in feeders.  In order to install the feeders, I have to get out the bolt cutters and cut holes in the cages.  What the heck?  I get them put together anyway and take a 15 min. break for a glass of Marianne's delicious apple cider!



Rabbits in their new, snug digs.



1:00-5:00 p.m. - My neighbor Vic arrives to help me put a tarp on the greenhouse structure over my outdoor fuel tank.  He also remembers to bring a handle for the hayport door.  His memory is waay better than mine, and he's waay older.  I continue to tick things off my list -- I am a woman on a mission!  Kay arrives in bunny-grooming garb and an absolutely adorable hat she knit and we (read: Kay) start with clipping nails on Ginger and Chamomile, my chubby non-fiber rabbits.  I quickly take the laundry off the line, then we move to Blue (Mr. Adorable) who parts with a huge amount of beautiful fiber after an intense hour of mostly Kay's work.  I am very good at hovering.  I had taken a great shot of Kay in action, but it was getting dark and it didn't turn out :o(  I doubt if Kay would be willing to go through that again, anytime soon.  Now in the dark, we had all five rabbits with trimmed nails in their new digs, the last two done under the glow of my headlamp.  Kay left for home, and I finished putting up the water bottles with same head lamp.

5:00-9:00 p.m. -  Dogs are fed, Tippet gets her evening snack, dinner is put in the oven, sheep get their hay, I collect my ONE egg from the freeloaders, freeloaders are tucked in for the night.  I pour a nice big glass of wine, put on a Murder She Wrote DVD, and eat dinner.  The other half of the pumpkin is in the oven.  By 8:30 I am ready for bed, only to discover I still have to put the mattress cover on, make the bed and put away the laundry.

9:05 p.m. - The phone rings.  It's my friend from the endless weekend saying they'd like to stay over Wednesday night because they're buying another sheep.  I say yes and go to bed.