Chores

While DH is gone, I am in charge of all the chores for 4 days, which isn't difficult itself. He has things set up well for me, so all I have to do is open a gate and the cattle pretty much move themselves to the next paddock. I just need to make sure that the calves follow their mamas into the new paddock or stay relatively close, so they can find her. With only one hot wire, the little guys can walk under the wire and find her as long as their nose works...

We are also brooding turkeys and chicks (for broilers). Since we were out of chicken, we needed to start brooding them earlier this year than we had hoped. Turkeys you pretty much get when they are all hatched because they take several months to mature to the proper size. So we ended up with both sets coming a week apart. Our plan to brood them in the same location went out the window.

The barn cats (ie. resident rodent catchers for the farm) quickly decided that the chicks were an easy lunch, so we proceeded to tighten up security for the chicks (ie. blocking all access in and out of the trailer they are in, with both hardware cloth and then a tarp to keep the rain out (and partially for additional protection from the cats. The first couple of weeks, it was decent weather during the day with cool nights (60s). If you have brooded chicks before you know that you have to keep them warm for the first couple of weeks. As they gain weight, add more feathers, etc. you don't need to heat it anymore.

Hubby is gone for training for a few days or we may have put them out, but time constraints and their size (plus the weather before he left) prevented us from moving them. This week the weather has turned incredibly warm and extremely humid. I am now trying to figure out how to keep them both:
1. cool enough so we don't lose them to heat
2. secure enough so that we don't lose them to cats (for lunch).

Always fun! I keep lots of fresh cool water in front of them and hope that tonight, MIL and I will be able to come up with something that accomplishes both objectives. One idea was to move their location to a shadier spot. What had shade at 11:00 a.m., didn't have any by 2:00 so moving really wouldn't have helped for more than an hour maybe. I will just keep a close eye on them through the afternoon and pray for some cooler weather.

Chores aren't hard, it is just coming up with solutions to the challenges that come up (when your in charge and hubby isn't here to bounce an idea off of).