Farmers have “Mondays” too
We hear it all the time. We see it as posts on Facebook. We see commercials about it. It’s the “Monday Blues.” This would seem to be more pertinent to those who work outside the home, forced to go back to the workplace and face another five days of madness, and for those parents who are committed to running children from school to soccer practices and music lessons during another crazy week-long marathon of events. After a two-day respite over the weekend, Monday just always seems to be a lousy day for many folks. Now, farmers are never really ever off the clock. The busy season may have passed but there are still chores to do, animals to feed and water and preparations for winter and next season to finish. Throw the upcoming holidays into the mix and I am still very busy, regardless of what day of the week it is. Weekends don’t really mean respite around here but, apparantly, farmers have Mondays too.
Mine this morning started with checking on our sow, Lucy, who had a medical emergency over the weekend. I won’t go into the details but let’s just say it wasn’t pretty and involved some hog anatomy and actions on my part not really fit for conversation. She will be okay, thankfully, but I needed to check her status this morning anyway. Coming back to the front of the house covered in mud and muck, I fully intended on heading in for a quick shower before loading up to make a delivery to Nature’s Own Health Market. My animals had other ideas.
Our horses, Gem and Lacy, generally run in the back pasture most of the year. This is mostly because the front part of the property is being used for crops and 1,000 pound hungry beasts and fresh veggies just don’t mix … if you want to eat any of the veggies, anyway. But once the season is over the girls have free rein of the front part of the property, too. This gives them more grazing area as the grasses die off for the winter and extends the amount of time we have before having to feed them hay.
If you’ve ever visited our farm (if not, we hope you do) you’ve seen there is no front yard, per se. There is no fenced area that is designated just for yard. Everything is wide open and the chickens frequently visit us right up to the front steps. Technically the horses could do the same at this time of the year. They generally don’t, though, because there’s usually nothing that interests them. All the goodies are out in the now bare fields. They spend their days grazing through the leftovers of greens, beets and whatever else tickles their fancy.
So imagine my surprise as I round the front of the house to find both my girls standing in the front “yard” at our patio table, LICKING the table top. Huh? It was amusing at first. They would both use their lips to push things out of the way to get to whatever was on that table that was so yummy. And they were licking very enthusiastically. My only thought is that someone spilled a soda (or a beer – yes, horses and hogs like beer. It’s nothing but grain, afterall) and they were licking the sugary sweetness from the table. Cute. Until they started to get aggressive about it, knocking things off the table and pushing each other out of the way to get to the next spot on the surface. Lacy even put her front foot up like she was about to walk up on my GLASS table! Okay, enough was enough. I spent the next who-knows-how-long trying to persuade them to find something else to do. I tried handfuls of feed, little horsey treats, even spraying the table off with water to get rid of whatever was soooo delicious. Nothing worked. Both girls stood their ground and actually got a bit ornery with me. I finally had to push them both out of the way and flip the table on it’s side. No way they could get to the tabletop now unless they bent down on their knees … not something horses are in the habit of doing very often.
I finally thought I had the situation under control and turned to head to the house. I suddently heard a loud crash of glass, but not in the direction of the horses. I checked to be sure my table was still intact and both girls were just staring at me like, “Not me, mom.” I then realized the glass crashing had come from the largest chicken coop. I looked over in time to see a small chicken running from the scene of the crime.
We have (um, had) one glass window in the front of that coop. It serves to let in light in the early morning hours of the summer so the girls will get the sun even before we let them out to roam (important for keeping the eggs coming). One of the birds either saw another one through the window or saw their own reflection and flew up at the glass, shattering the window. This was one of our younger birds so they really must have taken a running leap to hit the glass that hard. Thankfully the bird wasn’t injured, only startled, and she just shook it off and went running away leaving me to come over and pick up the shards of glass. After removing the remaining glass from the frame, and making a mental note to cover the now gaping hole with chicken wire tonight, I made my way back to the porch. Upon seeing the horses still hovering near the upended patio table, curiously licking at the seat cushions now, I simply rolled my eyes, sighed deeply and walked into the house for my shower.
The delivery I had to make was intended to be at the store by 10am. I didn’t get there until almost 2pm. Thankfully Monica, the produce manager, understood that farmers have “Mondays” too.