Waking up this morning knowing I had time for a cup of hot cocoa and to read my devotion for the day was nice. Usually I jump up get dressed and head outdoors for chores. That extra 30 or so minutes is nice. Starting the day without talking to God on the go is nice. Doing chores in the daylight is nice too. The animals still aren't happy about the change but they will get use to it eventually. I wanted to sit on the back porch while I drank my hot chocolate but Whiskers was sitting at the door meowing to be fed and the ducks, chickens and young goats start making lots of noise when they see the kitchen light come on much less see me outside. So I enjoyed my cup while I sat in the living room reading. Nice, quiet and peaceful. Then it was time to start chores. Sundays are the days our hired hand has off and I get to take care of things myself. Whiskers has to have his can of cat food as I go out the door. The dogs have automatic feeders but have to have their cookie before I feed the others. Diva and the girls hate Sundays. They stand at the fence and give me dirty looks while I feed the chickens their grain. Then I feed the Diva and the girls, who are absolutely starved to death by then and almost knock me down while I fill their feeders. The young ones are crying so I walk down to their pen and try not to get stepped on when they rush to their feeders. Brown Robyn and the big boys see me and start their loud crying for breakfast. I speak to them and let them know I am on my way. Opening the door to their pen and feeders I have to brace myself . They come charging and almost knock the scoop of grain out of my hand as I fill a feeder. I finally get all their feeders filled and its time to finish feeding the chickens, geese, ducks and rabbits. They get grain or rabbit feed along with crumbled up bread. I buy a rack of bread from the bread store for $5.00 and it lasts a couple of weeks or longer. I also give carrots and lettuce as treats. After I finish feeding them I take hay to all the goats. By the time I am filling Diva and the girls hay rack they are standing in line waiting to be milked. I grab a bucket of feed and the milk buckets and head for the milking stall. Sammi is first. If for some reason you let one of the others go first she will go to the other end of the pasture and pout till you go get her. We have a shelf with baby wipes (for udders) and hand sanitizer so we can keep our milk clean. After putting a cup of grain in the feeder for Sammi I have to give some to Princess Diva who is still small enough to crawl under the gate into the milk stall. She won't be doing that much longer as she is getting fat. Diva is trying to open the latch on the gate but I secured it with a bungee cord. I get another of her cold stares and am glad I can't read her mind. Letting Sammi out Diva rushes in and jumps on the milk stanchion and stares at me for her cup of feed. I milk and talk to her. With Diva you milk fast cause if she finishes eating before you finishing milking you are in for a fight. I finish first and have to drag her away from the feeder to let her out and Bridie in. Bridie is such a good milker it takes 2 cups of feed so I can get all her milk. She is patient and will left her leg out of my way if I happen to touch it. She will hop down on her own and wait for me to open the gate. Sonya is trying to act like she doesn't want to come next but when she sees me reaching for BossyToes she rushes in the gate. She is a easy milker but likes the security of having her head locked in. None of the others have to be. While milking her I call to ViVi who stand quietly under the tree waiting. When I call her name she slowly eases toward the gate but not all the way. She waits till Bridie comes out and I tell her its her turn before she comes in the stall. She is so sweet and the easiest milker we have. BossyToes likes being last. She knows that when I finish milking her she can stay there and eat the feed that's left. Of course I leave the gate open when I finish and the others rush in to see what goodies they can find. I put away the feed bucket,grab my full milk buckets and head for the house. After straining and putting the milk away I feed Bud (iguana) on my way out to water all the animals. The girls are waiting to see if they get a cookie while their water buckets are filled. The rabbits attack their water bottles like they haven't had water in days. They just love the fresh water. The geese and ducks see how fast they can dirty their water while the chickens could care less about theirs at the moment. The young boys stick their nose in the bucket while I am filling it and jump back as the water hose scares them. The bigger boys look to see if I have cookies in my hand and happily chew on them while I fill their bucket. After all have fresh water its time to rake the goat pens. We rake them every day to keep them as free of poop as possible. Its a big help in keeping the goat hooves in good shape. With all the pens raked its time for my breakfast. I usually have a bowl of cereal or egg sandwich while I check my email and watch news on the TV. I check on the forums I read and read a few blogs then its time to wash dishes and bleach milk buckets. After straightening up a little I decide to head out to the flea market. I enjoyed walking around but only ended up buying some MRE's (military dried food packets) that William has been wanting for forever. I stop at the dollar tree on the way home for a couple of things. Talk to William while driving home and then its time to do more paperwork. After almost finishing I take a break for lunch and talk to my daughter Maggie. Got some soap orders together, listed more soaps and then it was time for afternoon chores. Afternoon chores are a repeat of morning ones except add gathering eggs. Talked to my other 2 daughters for a few minutes then made some goat milk garlic cheese spread and finished packaging the fetta I made yesterday. In between I have checked on some blogs I read daily and looked up a couple of things on the computer. Fixed myself a baked potato for supper, had my shower and now I am going to settle down for the evening. Finish up the paperwork is my plan for tonight while I watch a little TV. I have a book I want to finish reading when I go to bed and that will be my day. It might sound busy but it was actually a nice quiet day. There is laundry waiting for tomorrow along with many other things on the to do list. That's ok because tomorrow is a new day of a new week and what a blessing to have had today and to have tomorrow to look forward to. Have a blessed week everyone!
It was a fun afternoon for everyone and I sold some of my soaps. After supper we received a call from a couple that was driving by and saw our sign. They wanted to purchase some eggs. Once they arrived and saw we had goats they and their two granddaughters spent time with the babies. I think Diva and Sammi were very happy the kids had so much fun as they slept really good last night! It was nice having visitors and the weekend ended with our selling 8 dozen eggs and lots of soap!