Eleven Day Sabbatical

My postings on this site have been a bit light. I was kidnapped by my son Andrew, his wife Renee and my grandchildren for eleven days to house sit. I was in charge of keeping things in shape watering the garden, but also caring for their critters. They own four female goats that need fed and watered twice a day as they graze keeping grass and weeds at bay in their fenced in pasture. They are a rowdy bunch, jockeying for a place at the feeding trough when I dup in their goat feed grain. They aren't milkers yet, so I didn't need to revert back to my youthful days milking cows.

Next came the feeding and watering of their two cats. Miss Pickles and I can't remember the other's name, but they needed their food bowls filled and watered twice per day. I also had to feed and water their dog Honey twice per day.

I was feeding their flock of about twenty-four chickens. It was filling their feeders and making sure their water bowls wer filled and claen. Twice a day I needed to grope under several nesting hens to check for their egg production. Uually I collected fourteen to sixteen eggs pear day. Washing the eggs to remove chicken poop and placing them into cartons came next. Once packaged, I carried them to an outside, self-serve refrigerator for sale.

The most fun was rounding up the chickens after a free-range day of foraging. Certain chickens were to be kept in certain pens; placing so many chickens in one coop and the rest in the other. Let me just say that chickens are the most scatterbrained, obstinate creatures on God's green earth the worst were three black chickens and one white one. They sometimes refused and I'd have to catch them and put them inside. The flock had to be locked down at night to keep them safe. I also had a male Mallard duck to care for. Something got into his pen and bit him on the head and neck. Nursing him for several days, he seemed almost normal, although his feathers were still ruffled.

Before I could turn-in, the six mice needed to be fed. Finally I am free from the indentured servitude and am at home.