Remind me that I do like animals.

[Remudamom]

This morning started out quiet enough. The kids have been setting their alarms for six, and doing their math before breakfast. Works for me. They finished, only missed 1 or 2. We ate pancakes and the girls cleaned the kitchen and started the laundry. One boy left with dad to chore and the other boy and I went over to one of our farm houses to check on water for the penned up cattle.

All the dogs jumped into the van to ride along. Two border collies and one heeler. All worthless. I glanced over and noticed blood smeared around the seats. Not from ds. Dogs look happy. I pull over and find Boone's covered in blood on one side. I try to clean him up and can't find the source. Everyone piles back in and as we turn the corner I see my four weanling fillies tearing down the road abreast like something out of a cowboy movie. They are making ground fast.

We race after them, turn them around and head back to their pasture. I drop off the boy to do his thing at the barn. Boone is bleeding again. He's still happy. The fillies see the mares ahead of them and decide to stop and visit. They decide they would rather be with them than in their own pasture.
They jump over or plow through the fence. The whole herd joyfully takes off.

I drop off the happy bleeding dog and holler at the girls to check him out. Go back to the rental house and stop the boy there from smashing glass angels with a baseball bat and take him home. At home there are now two girls and one dog covered in blood. Only the dog is happy. I find a tiny slit in his ear from whence come the gallons of blood.

The boys have gone out to repair the 50 feet of fence the horses have destroyed and I'm out to see if there are any bleeding horses. I will change out of my pajamas first.

So far the cats look innocent but that always means trouble.

[JudoMom]

Hopefully the cats aren't up to no good :eek:.

[Michelle T]

and they make enough trouble! I can't imagine adding in horses and dogs!

Sounds like a rough morning! Hope the menagerie settles down soon.
Michelle T

[Ottakee]

On the positive side, it is likely at least above zero right now, right?

I was out doing chores in 8 degree weather with windchills below zero. On the positive side, the snow is BEAUTIFUL at those temps--very crisp and sparkly as the sun comes up (meaning, yes I was up before the sun----one donkey decided to start kicking her stall at 6am).

One of the BEST things my friend's dh did for her (that I am benefiting from) is putting in a special water pump in the barn so that the water doesn't freeze. This is SO much better than last year when I was filling 5 gallon buckets in the bathtub 3 times a day, then putting them on a sled and hauling them down to the barn. The 2 outside water throughs have de-icers in them so that is wonderful as well. Now we are only breaking up the water in the stall water buckets---using a creative, exercise/resistance training, method of hitting them with a rubber mallet, pushing on them withour knees, hitting them again, dumping the ice out, repeating the process again and again to empty them.

How are the kids, dogs, laundry, horses, van, and windows doing now?

Thankfully no blood or fences down here.

[Remudamom]

althiough I did catch the chickens planning a prison break.

Our snowstorm has not arrived yet, in fact it's so nice I'm going to try to sneak a ride in after lunch.

[Ottakee]

The chickens haven't been watching "Chicken Run" lately have they? Chicken pot pie is NOT on the menu, is it?

My friend's daughter called a few minutes ago and all is quiet on the farm front.

My friend flew up to Alaska yesterday to see her dh for a long weekend. She will be back Monday. I got called to stay with her 16dd overnight last night as the weather was so bad the aunt and uncle that were on duty couldn't get there. My girls thought it was a great treat to spend the night there (and my 20 year old special needs son loved it I was gone---DH caught him watching TV at 2am). We did morning chores.

I will go tomorrow and do afternoon chores (aunt and uncle are coming tonight), then bring my son and the 16 year old girl to the church so they can go on the retreat. Then my girls and I (and hopefully dh) will spend the weekend at the "farm" as it is too cold to leave the horses out all night and she doesn't like them in the barn with no one home. I also have 2 cats and 2 dogs to care for. Then Sunday I will get the teens at 4pm and likely spend Sunday night there again with 16 year old girl. Her mom comes home about 11 on Monday.

Then Wednesday they are leaving for 4 days for regional homeschool basketball tournaments out of state. I will be sleeping at the farm again. My girls just LOVE this.

Let us know if you get out for a ride. 16 year old girl rode the donkey around the pasture today but said donkey was NOT impressed at having to ride through the deep snow. I just need to get my new horse over so I have someone to play with.

[Cindyg]

How on earth do you get any school work done?

[Remudamom]

at how much we can cram into a day. With math finished now before eight, the rest of the morning is smooth sailing. A lot of days we do history in the evening, all together.

When everything works for me and the girls we have school all morning and ride in the afternoons. Since the boys help with chores, they have to finish up schoolwork after lunch. They usually start around 10:00.

I used to really stress about getting everything in everyday, every week, all the time. Now we just plow along. We'll school in the summer too, when it's too hot to go out.

Something is working, oldest ds is loving college and doing well.