Mornings on the Farm

 It’s been a whirlwind couple of months with getting the fence in, (thanks to the guys in our youth group - you will never be forgotten).  In the midst of that, mom was in the hospital for a month and went through major surgery.  And the donkeys arrived.  

So morning start EARLY here.  I generally wake up at 5:30am and trudge off to the coffee maker for my first cup and check in the weather while that’s starting to wake up my brain.  

At sunrise I’m out to the barn to get the donkeys out of their stalls and into the pasture.  They are EXCITED to see me and HeeHaw as they hear me approach.  

Once they are out I clean out their stalls, empty old water buckets and fill them with fresh water and wipe down the stall gates and latches. Keeping them as clean as possible will keep them working better for longer but in the barn, clean is a relative term.  

Then it’s off to pick up poop out of the pasture.  This morning Waylon was very thoughtful and pooped right in the pile I was picking up.  Wilbur loves this time of day because he uses the wheelbarrow to scratch.  The wheelbarrow is his favorite thing … besides food. 

Then I dump the poop and straw into the compost bin, give it a good turn with the pitchfork and check the temp. It was a little cool this morning so I added water and hope for the best.  Compost is manure, straw, grass clippings, veggie scraps, and shredded cardboard or paper.  It needs to “cook” at about 140 degrees to break down and kill pathogens.  

The three bins are for the different parts of the breaking down process with the last one being the final product that’s ready to be used as fertilizer in the garden or on the lawn.  

Then I come inside with a whole new hairdo and get another cup of coffee and a shower.  Coolio watches all of this and wonders what my obsession with poop is all about.