Day number...I've lost count
Like with any job, sometimes things are great and other times things are not-so-great. Today is an in between day. Nothing is bad, but we are just kind of pushing along trying to do what we can to be productive.
People always ask about a typical day at the farm. The short answer is: “THERE IS NO SUCH THING”. Usually, the weather, or some other incident dictates what our day will look like. I suppose if there was one though, today would be it. Each of use has our own task list, we all go our own separate ways, and we try to get as much done as we can.
So, whoever is here first feeds the cat and the steers and unlocks the office. Usually that’s me, but I had to make a stop on the way out. Then we get a few small office tasks done. We call it piddling. Once we are all a little settled in, we do our prayer. This time is very important to me. (I’m certain it is for my parents too, but I don’t like to speak for other people). Our prayer time is a moment where we are all of the same mind and heart. We bow our heads together and we set our sites on God, His will, and ask for guidance.
In our line of work, guidance is a big key. We NEVER know what the day/week/month will bring. Sometimes its progress, others its heartache. To get through it with sanity, (yes, I know that word is a stretch for us) we need Him to make the path as clear as possible.
After our prayer, we make sure to communicate anything new, or our plans for the day. For example, today I needed to: finish the newsletter, update quickbooks, do some research on fake meat, this blog post, work on our agritourism logo, email one of our volunteers, mow the carriage ride paths, verify our next beef harvest, work on 2 meat orders, email a customer, research how to improve our SEO’s create an FFA Volunteer form, and measure the carriage.
I managed to cross 7 things off that list. Mom had her own list. As far as I know it involved food for this weekend, and event area lights. I have no doubt she did a myriad of other things, but that’s all I know about. Daddy went to cut/rake hay…that takes like a week to do. Papa went to get parts from Hillsboro, and did a few other things that are slipping my mind.
I hope I didn’t lose you there, because I just jumped ahead in the day. Back to our early office time…after our “Iteration” time, we always stop in the house to say good morning. This is not just a farm, it’s a home to 2 lovely people that are very dear to us…Mema and Papa. Aka: John and Vi. We spend a few minutes in the morning catching up and again, communicating anything important for the day like tasks, Dr’s appointments, trips, etc. Basically we have a daily staff meeting.
From the house, we do what mom calls “Walkabout”. She got this from Crocodile Dundee…for all of you younger than 50, it’s an old movie about a guy in Australia and a journalist from NY. He saves her life, she writes about him, they fall in love…blech. Anyway, on our walkabout we go check the pastures, animals, new babies, electric fences, etc. Simply put, we drive around (not walk about) and make sure everything is in order and that nothing needs immediate attention.
After this is finished, we officially start our day. That seems odd to say because we’ve already done quite a bit, but nothing on our list is done yet and it’s already after 8:30am. Mom and I usually head back to the office and do any tasks that need the computer.
This is backward from this summer, but its all based on the temperature. We want out of the heat, so in the summer our afternoons are in the office. But then once the low gets below 70, mom is freezing in the mornings, so we wait out the “cold” (it’s not cold until its below freezing) in the office.
We each work on our lists. Sometimes these lists overlap and we are all working together. Like last Thursday and Friday, we all worked on getting the picnic tables put together. We all go in for lunch and take about 30 minutes as a group again. Mema has usually made food, and we appreciate the break. Papa jokes that we could solve all of the world’s problems with our little group.
If we let ourselves sit too long, we could all take naps, but after cleaning up, we jump back into work. Today, I spent almost the whole day in the office. Mom and dad both spent almost the whole day outside. I’ll admit, the quiet is nice.. ;)
Outside of this, our day is never the same. Some days we are working on the computer because we’ve put that stuff off. Other’s its raining, so we have to be inside. Sometimes we spend the entire day/week putting up fences. Sometimes we spend the day working cows. Lately, we’ve spent nearly all day every day setting up for the corn maze. Come winter, we will be building raised garden beds. At some point we will be building a chicken coop. The plan is always fluid.
Every day is a new adventure, and it’s never boring.