Morning Report: Part II

Field cows: check; turkeys: check.  Those are the easy ones; I don't even have to feed them.  Now you can all follow me as I stroll on down to the chicken coop.  First things first, I let the 40 or so chickens out of the coop (that's where most of them spend the night) then I check for morning eggs of which there can be as many as 6 or none at all.  Then I go into the barn and mix up the secret recipe chicken feed (it's not really a secret recipe, but that does make it sound more exciting) and bring it out to the chickens who fall all over themselves to gobble down the corn and wheat nibblets.  All in all the chickens are pretty cool; they give us yummy nutritious eggs everyday and some will even let you hold and pet them.

Next I feed the horses (there are 6) who would trample me if I just walked in with a bale of hay so I give them what I call "distraction hay."  "Distraction hay" is about 1/4 a bale over the fence by the chicken coop and another 1/4 bale over another part of the fence; this way, when I unlock the gate and go to put the full bale in the trough, most of them are happily chowing down on the distraction hay.  Then I have to tie the bale to the trough so the horses don't drag it all over the place.  Feeding horses can be very perilous work.  They operate in a hierarchy and the "top dog"--or top horse if you will, always gets the first pick.  It goes on down the line like this; each horse shooing the lesser horses out of his or her way until the bottom horse (that's Julie) either has to be very sneaky or very patient.  But watch out! if one of the horses realize that Julie is in his or her food zone, a person who is not paying attention could get him or herself smashed by a horse.  Let me just put you all at ease and say that this has never happened to me; I was carefully instructed where to stand and how to watch while around the horses.

As if the possibility of being trampled by horses wasn't exciting enough, now I will move on to the adventurous part of the morning.  I head to the next fenced enclosure to feed the goats (6), the sheep (9, but three graze in the field because they got too fat) and two cows.  One of these cows, Luna, the beautiful brunette cow, I have been assigned to spending time with.  She is young and still a bit wild so my job is to "people" her, i.e. get her used to being around and being touched by people.  This is an awesome assignment.  Luna is ADORABLE!  She loves to be scratched behind the ears and sometimes she she frolics (mostly when I have food scraps to share).  The goats are for the most part very friendly, not easily scared, are escape artists and evidently love to eat cat food (as the cat food is where the goat who occasionally sneaks into the barn as I am hauling out a bale of hay races to).  The goats are quick and they are nimble and, they can be really gross.  They will jump on top of their trough and even stand on the bale as they are eating the hay and, disgustingly, have been known to poop right on top of their food!  The boy goat is the worst offender.  The poor little sheep get pushed around by everybody, but then, they are much too timid for their own good.  The sheep are mostly scared of me and will run away if I cross their path and they will wait to eat until I leave sometimes.

Last but not least (in my mind, but probably least as far as importance on a farm goes) are the cats.  There are 5 barn cats who hang out in the barn and have been vying  for my attention every time I have had to walk through the barn during the morning feeding.  I pet them and talk to them and since I am a cat person, give them some of the attention for which they are so desperate.

I do one more round of the chickens to see if anybody has laid some more eggs while I have been about my business and head up to the house, with my collection of eggs in hand, to see what other kind of exciting work I will be getting into that day.  On my way up to the house I pass the 2 ducks, who waddle away as quickly as they can, and the 2 geese have gotten into the habit of hissing at me.  Let's just say the water fowl are not my favorite farm animals though I like them just fine when I see them in the wild.  Oh, and I pet Tess, the dog, who rolls over on her back when she sees me to get a good belly rub.

This is what I get to do every morning; in my opinion a very fine start to the day: a brisk walk, greeted good morning by the cows, fresh eggs, the mutual respect of horses, kitty cats who love me, spunky goats, cute sheep and a cow who acts like a dog; I mean, what's not to love?  I am in love with this life I am leading!