Pixie dust.... NOT!

So that noone gets the mistaken notion that life here is ALL pixie dust...

this is how the morning began...

* Note:  there will be no photos... they would not be nice at all, if, indeed, I could photograph my own self.

Morning rounds here are routine and must happen.  Somewhere in my childhood, a much loved uncle taught me that I should never sit down, to rest or to a meal, leaving the animals that look to me for their care unattended. 
So, each morning,  when I leave for work, I need to know that things are 'right' in the barnyard.

Workdays means the days starts earlier,,, drink that coffee more quickly, load the dishes from last night (yep, you read that right!) and hit the porch that contains the feed... Hmmm.... there is the pregnant cat.
(yes, I am a proponent for spay and neuter, but I'm also a realistic farm owner, and without  several barn cats we will be overtaken with rodents and snakes)... The pregnant cat is roughly, this morning, the size of a cat that has swallowed a gallon milk jug... my word, she is SO huge... I have vivid memories of being comparably laden, so I stop to rub her and listen to her happy purr, only to realize that, yes... she is in labor as I stand there... oops.. get a box, find some nesting materials (old towel, old pillow) and settle her in.  Mental note to self:  run home from work at lunch to check on progress here.

Head to feed up... no dog food... NO Dog food!!!! panic alert!!!!!  You've all seen the dogs... OH!! NO!!

Look around frantically, realize that we're 'one up' on  bags of catfood... maybe the dogs will not start to meow before the end of the day...  Make a mental note to get dog food before coming home.

Fill chicken feed buckets, take off flip flops (thereby avoiding sprained ankles and wrenched knees), and slip into garden clogs.  ICK... shake large spider out of clog,.. shimmy-shake, put clog back on... realize there is a chicken in the garden... the PLANTED garden.  Grab the large fish net (my chicken catching tool of choice) and head to the coops.  Step in ... uhm... eerrr.... poo... large amount of poo... ugh...  too early in the morning for poo... (No, it's not, poo happens round the clock, just seems like it's too early... not 'poo' proof  yet!).

Arrive in coops, catch stray chicken, who is interested in feed buckets, notice how nice and fat she is,,, sorry, chicken, to have upset your day of happy garden seed eating... pop her back in the pen.... Gather the eggs ... forgot to get them in yesterday, what with all that waterfall sitting and contemplating... beautiful eggs... put them in the feed bucket.  Feed second coop... water leak in the hose has led to a messy situation there... YUCK!   Muck my way in, wishing for all the world that I had an extra hand to hold my nose... correct the leaky water situation... realize that pajama pants are longer than the heels on the clogs... oh... crap...
On the way out of the coop, realize that the dog has his nose over in the bucket with the eggs. (What can you expect, when you run out of dog food? ) 

Stop and admire the garden... such a beautiful thing in the spring... by next week this time, tiny little rows of green shoots will be letting us know they're there,,, if the chicken's don't get out and get at them.  Go back and check the doors to the coops.  Get buckets and return to house... shed clothes and shoes on deck, straight into the washer (Thank you, Lord, for modern laundry equipment!).  Clean clogs... hope noone is on the place to witness this spectacle...


Pixie dust... Not this morning... Not this morning, at all!