Farm Life

Apparently my new part-time gig is house sitting. Lucinda, who works in Strahorn, asked me if I could house-sit at their farm while they were at their daughter’s wedding and since I was agree, obviously I agreed. The weekend before I went out to the house to get the lay of the land, so to speak, and to meet the dogs. I knew from the get-go that this would be a very different job than house-sitting for the Godwins. There were three dogs: the older two were fine and easy but the puppy was jumpy and would nip at you and was just a bit out of control. Perfectly acceptable behaviour for a puppy but not one that I was used to.

I headed out Thursday afternoon and by the time I went to bed at 9, I was exhausted. I had spent the last four hours so tense trying to brace myself for nips and bits or for the dogs jumping up on it. I had no idea how I was going to survive the next few days. At work the next day, though, I started to think about what things I could do to make my life easier. I figured that if I wanted to ensure that at least my toes wouldn’t get nipped, I could just wear rain boots because they were pretty substantial and in order to keep my hands from being slobbered on all weekend when playing fetch- the only way to really occupy the two younger dogs- I could just wear gloves. So I did just that. I looked absolutely stunning the whole weekend, in my black rain boots and my red knit gloves but I will say, it made my life a lot easier. 

Once I had the dogs under control, I could enjoy all the excitement that came with farm life. I’d feed the chicken every morning, give them corn in the afternoon and make sure that all 11 were back in their coop by night fall. I couldn’t figure out where they were getting out of the coop from and actually had to text Lucinda that first day to make sure that the head count I was getting was indeed the right number of chickens. Sukie, the middle dog, and I would wander the property and play fetch, while Lily the cat would follow us around. I got to sit on the porch swing and read and eat dinner outside on the front porch. I had to get up around 6 to feed the dogs and most mornings I could then sit in the window seat upstairs and watch the sun come up, which was just stunning. I could pick apples from the front yard and make breakfast using literal farm fresh eggs. 

I did a ton of reading and a lot of napping during the weekend. I had made sure to get all of my work done on Friday and before so that when I headed out for the weekend, I was really free and didn’t have any obligations. I did go back to Caldwell on Saturday for the football game and on Sunday, Michelle and Hanna came out to join me for dinner. Otherwise, it was pretty quiet and it was so relaxing to be isolated in such beautiful surroundings. While I would have enjoyed a slightly less energetic dog, I really did enjoy my weekend out at the farm and would love to go back sometime!