Farm Friday - A Day in the Life

Farm life is a lot of work and you have to want to do it, or you need alot of money, lots of time and lots of help.  As I also work full-time (from my home office) and my husband works out of town during the week, all of the farm chores fall on my shoulders.  It makes for a very busy life. 

I used to not be a morning person, but now I am both a morning person and an evening person.  I have to be bi-polar in order to get everything done.

The clock goes off early. Most mornings between  5:30 and 6:00 am.  The cats are waiting for breakfast.  Truman is usually waiting for his cat treats.

Not a breakfast eater, so typically go out to the barn to feed the horses next.  They usually hear me coming and great me with a neigh a nicker before I get to the barn.  It is about 400 yards from the house to the barn.

I wear these this time of year:

In the winter, I wear this which is about as industrial as it gets, but there is NOTHING warmer than this baby.............and I doubt there are any photographers around waiting to click my photo for the next issue of Vogue, maybe "Farmers Weekly"....

Mucking stalls is about as unglamourous as it gets but taking care of the animals is not work to me, and I only have three to care for, and no more!  I always do the stalls in the morning, getting the hard work done first thing.  But it does not take long.  My next farm project is setting up a compost pile, so that I am truly "green."  Hope to have it set up by the end of summer.  These are leaves but you get the idea.............

Horses are turned out most mornings unless it is really muddy or really raining.  They love their turn out and don't want to stay in. This time of year they are in at night and out during the day hours.

Right now there is so much lush grass that it can be very dangerous for horses, you have to watch them closely or they can founder, which is very painful and detrimental to horses. I worry a lot this time of year.

I go to work in my recruiting business from my home office.  It is enjoyable work, have some great clients and I can set my own hours, well, some of the time.   I've been doing this a long time and it is great to find something you enjoy doing that allows you to also have a life. 

Since I work from home by myself, most of the time, I make an effort to get out of the house.  So many days, I travel to I-81 for lunch.  A quick bite a Wendy's, I love their salads, helps break up my day.  Kinda boring I know, but it works for me.

I always ride at the end of the day, not sure why, but I'd rather get all my work done and then not worry about being somewhere at a certain time, although I do make a lot of calls at night for my work, but typically after 8 pm.  It is hard to find time to ride three horses in one day and work, and I don't ride every day, but I do try to keep at least one horse in very steady work.  Right now, Sega is the fit one and she is horse showing, so she gets the priority ride.  I also don't ride for long periods of time.  A 20 minute hack is all she needs.  April, the baby, also gets shorter rides as the attention spans in the young ones are limited.

A quick ride or two, and it is time for dinner.  For the horses.  Since the stalls are done, it is only a matter of haying, feeding and watering the beasts.

By 7:30 pm I am typically back at the house (earlier in the winter months) and the cats need feeding again.  (More treats for Truman).  This time of year, I sit out on the patio, read my Wall Street Journal, and enjoy what is left of the day.  My dinner comes after everyone else's!

If I have any energy left, I clean the house and sometimes I needlepoint. This is one of my many current projects:

I am usually in bed by 10 pm.  I try to read before I go to bed and have been trying to get through this for many months, but I can't keep my eyes open.  Still on chapter two....................

Can I add a few more hours to my day?