My grandson spent most of the day with me today...just him and I. He is a " city boy" Catholic school....lives in town, only child and very well dressed for an 8 yr old. (khakies and a dress shirt most days) So I tell my son to make sure we have " farm clothes" for the day.
9:00 am. He gets here. Now most of the time by 9 am, I have the chicken chores done, but I waited for him to get here.
9:30 am. Out we go..jean shorts, and mud boots. We have had so much rain, there are huge puddles everywhere and plenty MUD!
So we head out to spread the barley on a tarp...in the sun, to dry. He is no weakling for sure. These bags of Barley weighed about 60 pounds each, and there are 9 of them. He drags every one of them to the tarp, about 20 feet away, and dumps them in the middle of the tarp. Then I hand him
the rake..and explain several times what, why, and how. LOL
By 10:30....job done....and he wants something else to do..to " help grandma." ( gotta love this kid!) So, we get the feed buckets, and start makeing rounds. There are 10 pens that need fed. This takes about 30 minutes.
11 am....time to drag out the hose, and fill water buckets....wadeing pools for the chickens, and waterers. Oh...I guess I should have remembered how little boys and water hoses go. Yup, we are both soaked by 11:15. After filling the pig waterer, the pools, the water barrell....now its almost noon, so we go to the porch to get off the boots, and go in for lunch. He tells me.." Grandma, this is all hard work" I just laughed and said.." Thats what living in the country is all bout kiddo, we work hard every day out here" He gets this concerned look on his face, and says " grandma, we dont work THIS hard in the city"
After lunch...time for more work. This is the look I get form him.
Out we go...its very warm in the coop..and the vent is still wrapped in plastic from the winter. So...I grab a ladder, and have him climb on top of the coop. ( The lowest point is only about 4 1/2 ft from the ground, so no real danger there) He keeps asking.." Are you SURE this is safe? Im not going to fall am I" I said " I hope not...cause then I will have to climb up there"
He gets up there, cuts the tape...and gets it all opened up for me...then climbs to the edge of the roof and says...grandma..this is scarey...dont let me fall! LOL After getting him down..more "jobs" Had a pen I needed to take apart..so out come the hammers, pry bars, and pliers. ( New to him!!) It takes us about an hr and a half to get most of it done when he says...I think its break time. OK, go ahead...take a break...I will keep working. So he is playing in a brush pile and I ask hime to start throwing all the brush into another pile. He looks at me and says..." GRANDMA, IM ON A BREAK!"
When we get it all done..his mom is on the way..so I bring him inside...wash him up..and get hime presentable. His mother gets here and he is telling her about " all the work we did" She cringed about him being on the roof...
As he is walking to thier car...he stops and turns around with his hands on his hips and says..." Grandma....next time I come out. you OWE me a break" That was it, I hit the ground laughing. Just gotta love these grandbabies.
What a great day!!
9:00 am. He gets here. Now most of the time by 9 am, I have the chicken chores done, but I waited for him to get here.
9:30 am. Out we go..jean shorts, and mud boots. We have had so much rain, there are huge puddles everywhere and plenty MUD!
So we head out to spread the barley on a tarp...in the sun, to dry. He is no weakling for sure. These bags of Barley weighed about 60 pounds each, and there are 9 of them. He drags every one of them to the tarp, about 20 feet away, and dumps them in the middle of the tarp. Then I hand him
the rake..and explain several times what, why, and how. LOL
By 10:30....job done....and he wants something else to do..to " help grandma." ( gotta love this kid!) So, we get the feed buckets, and start makeing rounds. There are 10 pens that need fed. This takes about 30 minutes.
11 am....time to drag out the hose, and fill water buckets....wadeing pools for the chickens, and waterers. Oh...I guess I should have remembered how little boys and water hoses go. Yup, we are both soaked by 11:15. After filling the pig waterer, the pools, the water barrell....now its almost noon, so we go to the porch to get off the boots, and go in for lunch. He tells me.." Grandma, this is all hard work" I just laughed and said.." Thats what living in the country is all bout kiddo, we work hard every day out here" He gets this concerned look on his face, and says " grandma, we dont work THIS hard in the city"
After lunch...time for more work. This is the look I get form him.
Out we go...its very warm in the coop..and the vent is still wrapped in plastic from the winter. So...I grab a ladder, and have him climb on top of the coop. ( The lowest point is only about 4 1/2 ft from the ground, so no real danger there) He keeps asking.." Are you SURE this is safe? Im not going to fall am I" I said " I hope not...cause then I will have to climb up there"
