Morning Chores

I love mornings! I know, it's disgusting... but I'm such a morning person! I love the peace and quiet first thing in the morning as everyone wakes up. Today we're going to try to make it to the homeschool park day and then later game day, so I have to hustle (and I'm blogging because I'm nursing Soren, might as well multitask)! Got up and put in a load of laundry. Fed the chicks brooding in the garage and the chicks in my make-shift brooder outside. Baked some cupcakes to take as a treat to the park. Made 1/2 a gallon of humming bird food (1c of sugar to 4c of water), we have tons of hummers this year! They are drinking my 3 feeders dry every day. Odin got up and unloaded the dishwasher for me, so I reloaded then left for the outside chores hoping I could get everything done before Soren woke up!

Threw out scratch grains for the hens, then wondered why only half showed up. Hmmm... something is afoot!

Fed the horses... Snotty is the chestnut in front, Freedom is the big bay, and Honey is our rotten little pony (actually, she's a pretty darn sweet pony, but she still has a bit of the pony attitude, and she's a mare!). We actually have grass up in the pasture so I'm just throwing out flakes from a square bale instead of giving the horses their usual big round bale. More work for me, but it saves a little money.







Taf gets her 'Old Lady Feed'. She's well beyond being able to eat hay, so she gets her bucket of beet pulp and high fat pellets every morning. At 34, she's doing amazingly well! A little wobbly and her vision isn't great, but she's happy.




Then it was off to water the garden. I discovered where a few of the hens were!! rotten birds were destroying the mulch rings around my veggie hills! Thankfully they weren't interested in eating the little sprouts, but in their enthusiasm to sort through the hay mulch they were starting to tear up some of the hills. I ran them out with the garden hose. Chickens don't seem to enjoy getting wet! Imagine that! Some of the flock was out in the pasture just beyond the garden fence foraging for breakfast. A few were in Taf's paddock (which is the front half of the garden, the back half is fenced off for the garden) eating scratch.

Bella woke up as I was just about finished watering and came out to tell me good morning, and to let me know Soren was awake. I showed her the baby bell pepper, and she was so excited! The kids have helped me in the garden since the start and are really looking forward to home grown veggies. We talk so much about healthy food and try so hard to eat organic. I guess it's sinking in because the kids are very dedicated to our all organic garden. We even used certified organic seed! The tomatoes are growing great guns as well and are flowering!

Well, it's about 9:30am and I have plenty left to do today! Soren has since wandered off and I'm sure is up to no good. Odin is finishing off the days school work (oh the power of a bribe... 'Finish your school work today guys and we'll go to the park!!' Suddenly the kids find motivation!). Magnus is still asleep, and Bella is grumbling about how she wants scrambled eggs for breakfast, not cereal. Wonder how many of the cup cakes sitting on the stove to cool have disappeared....