Morning Chores

Every morning between 7:00 and 8:00 I head out to do the chores.  Sometimes I have help...often more than I need.  There's help and there's good help.  JD says, "one boy is good help, two boys are no help at all".  I'm not sure what three boys and one over-aggressive cow-eating girl is??  Oh, yes I am...chaos, usually.

One boy.  Good help.

So off we go, graining first.  The horses can see us go up to the shed to get the grain and begin waiting patiently for their meal....or not so patiently.

This is Lady.  "What's the holdup?"

Lady is 34 years young, she has outgrown patience.  And manners.

This is Lou. 

Lou is my horse, he is five, and perfect, and the bestest horse in the whole world.  Just look at that sweet face!  He is working on his manners...ground manners good...still chews with his mouth open though.  Typical kindergartner.

Notice the food falling out of his mouth, sheesh.

Enter boy two into the equation.  He's ten.  He smells like horse turds...and cow turds.  He's missing most of his front teeth, casualties of chore time.  It's tough out west.  Meet Zeke.

Zeke on the job.

As boy two enters, things can get interesting really quick.  Zeke is getting older and has never been particularly ambitious so chore time is his favorite time to guard/herd/torment the livestock.  They're distracted when they're eating.  Its the perfect time for the cheap-shot, ankle biter to make his move.  He likes to wait until you're standing next to them when he bites, so they can wheel and run you over.  He's so helpful.

Even though Zeke isn't much help at chore time.  We love him.  He's a good babysitter.

Mater, the third boy.

As the third boy enters...the first boy leaves.  Its cold, the wind is blowing and the toys are calling.  JD was right, more boys, less help.

And because the boys and I weren't getting the chores done fast enough, the cow-eating girl enters the scene.

Bailey sizing up her prey.

Bailey is stealthy, usually I don't even know she's out there with me.  The cows are behind the loafing shed so she can stir everything up in hiding while I'm on the other side. 

This is how I know she's been there.  Cows huddled up, away from the feeder.

 

"What?  I've been waiting here for you the whole time."

"They can't even see me here."

 

"Oops, she caught me."

It's cold this morning, so I finish up and get back inside to find the first boy.   Chore time would be a lot of work if I didn't have all of this help every morning.  Thanks boys...and girl.