A day in the life...

I have been so busy lately that I've not had much time to blog. At least two days a week, my time is not my own, for reasons esoteric (not all of my life is public, you know) but not entirely altruistic.  On those days, I have to be out of bed and making coffee by 4:30 a.m.  Oy.

The farmstead chores, housework, and miscellaneous woodland adventures get crammed into the remaining time.  Here's how today went:

Wake up.  Brush teeth. Throw on old jeans, t-shirt, jacket and boots.  A hat might've been a good idea. I'm lucky I didn't scare the chickens.  At least the sun was out.

Check bottom of drive for packages since the delivery driver is afraid to drive into the deep, dark, scary woods where chickens and geese could lurk, lying in wait to drop eggs on his head, or perhaps chase him with loose feathers for tortuous tickling.   Expecting the package yesterday, I left the gate open and even hovered near the front door.  Later, I found a Missed Delivery sticker on my mailbox with a request to sign permission to leave packages at the end of the drive, right by the road, a fifth of a mile from the house.  *sigh*

Feed and water critters.

Shower.

Coffee with Eöl, catch up on what has been going on with each other, and fend off several varied interruptions.  "We haven't seen each other since yesterday! I don't care if the house is on fire, stop bothering us!"

Check driveway again, just in case driver can't follow directions left with the less than helpful Customer Disservice Line, instructing him to leave packages at the gate.  Still nothing.  Mother Nature said she was just kidding with the sunshine, and it clouds up.

Bookkeeping.  Or, more accurately, manic chainsaw/machete/cream pie juggling.  No limbs lost or pie in face, always a good sign.

Schedule and re-schedule appointments for various maladies (not all mine).  I will eventually get to that orthopedic surgeon about my knee, I swear.

Bring in wood to fill fire rings.

Make lunch.

Wash ground cherries and put them in the dehydrator.

Check for packages again.  Hooray! They are here, and actually at the gate.  

Review homeschool work with Little Sis. Perfect, as usual!

Clean out chicken house.

Clean out goose house.

Clean out duck house.
     Between the rain and my insane schedule, the poultry houses were well past due for a cleaning.  The chicken house, which stays very dry, was full of some seriously dusty poo.  Dusty poo that puffed up as I cleaned, and landed on my skin, clothes, and hair.  The smell made me really glad that I didn't actually eat lunch. Little Sis (who helped immensely by fetching the clean hay) went on and on about how bad I smelled until I threatened to hug her and wallow my stink all over her skin, clothes, and hair.  Did I mention that farmsteading is quite glamorous?

Walk down driveway again, to get mail.  That makes almost two miles today, just going up and down the driveway.

I found this salamander while stacking wood.  Isn't he cute??

Stack firewood, in the rain. I absolutely cannot complain about stacking firewood.  I didn't have to cut it, haul it up the hill in the wheelbarrow, or split it with the ax.  Nope.  I  just have to stack it.  Did you know a cord of dry, seasoned hardwood weighs about 3500 lbs? (Thanks for that bit of firewood trivia, Colonel!)  Between stacking wood and doing laundry by hand, I have forearms that would put Popeye to shame.  Which reminds me:  if you've ever seen the movie Rob Roy, remember that scene when the skinny little fop manhandles the farm woman?  The farm woman that does her laundry on a friggin' rock??  As if.

Harvest basil.  I need to get all of the tender garden stuff harvested; we may have frost this weekend.  The rain stopped, but the clouds got bigger and thunder rolled.

Take another shower, for obvious reasons.  Use an entire bar of soap.

Eat dinner and work on this post.

Lock up critters for the night.

Do laundry.  Remember, this is by hand, so I can't really do much else while the laundry is being washed.

Hang laundry.

Do dishes.

Sweep and mop kitchen floor.

Finish up this post while I have a bedtime snack.

Fall into bed, exhausted.