The trip generally includes the feedstore for sheep and/or chicken feed. The bank (to make the deposit to PAY for said feed) and Wal-Mart for groceries and some “people feed”, and Lowes, another farm store or two, and possibly the office supply store, another grocery store, the list goes on ad infinitum. When things start getting out of hand, we call them “mushroom trips”, as things seem to mushroom out of control.
Today, before we set off on what was supposed to be an abbreviated trip, I got a text from B. My all-time favorite cleaner was on clearance sale at her place of employment, and I could get it about half-price. Never one to miss a bargain, I altered the trip plan a little.
Tom had to make a stop at Staples to do some copies for the Market. As Market Manager of the Saturday Market AND chairman of the Market committee, he gets all the fun jobs.
The rest of the trip was uneventful, until we got to the store to pick up my cleaner. It is the beginning of “chick days” at Tractor Supply. You could hear the peeps as we walked in the door. I swear, I saw those wheels turning in Tom’s head BEFORE he said, “hey, let’s go look at the peeps”. B was still unloading the boxes and boxes of chicks and ducklings. Tom got to thinking maybe we could get an extra batch of broilers earlier than we planned, cheaper than we thought, and maybe we could do this TODAY!
Hmmm, neither one of us could remember what we were paying for chicks, so we put the plan on hold and headed home for lunch. We would check the hatchery website. Despite our check of the weather prior to heading into town, it became obvious that we were in for a rain. We were in for rain….RIGHT NOW! Of course the tarp was in the tool box, and the tool box was back at the house. Drat! That chicken feed is packed in PAPER bags. Tom kept telling me to hang on ‘cause he might have to drive like the wind. Of course, that meant we got behind a VERY, VERY slow vehicle on M’brook Road. When they made M’brook Road, they must have followed a sidewinder, because there are almost no straight stretches, and very few passing zones. It was pouring by this time. He finally passed and drove faster. The rain nearly stopped by time we got to our lane. Thankfully, none of the bags were TOO wet. We laid them out all over the barn to dry.
While I was in the barn, I checked on the sheep and gave them a little hay. Uh oh! One of my yearling girls had her birth sack hanging out. That’s a sure sign of imminent delivery. But, please,not now! I NEED LUNCH! She was busy munching hay, so we went off to lunch.
Over lunch, we discussed the rest of the day. We really, really needed to make a run to the dump. The junk piles up quickly around here, and it’s a regular chore to cart it all off to the dump.
Since the rest of the week is supposed to be nice, we decided to chance the rain and tornado watch and get rid of all the stuff, leaving the rest of the week free for farm work. While we were at it, we really ought to get that batch of chicks. We could have chicken for sale by the end of April. The price was right, and it’s not too far out of the way to swing back by the store on the way home from the dump. But that ewe…she was STILL chewing her cud and just “chillin’”. We locked her in a stall slightly away from the noise and confusion in the rest of the barn.
And off we went. We got to the dump with no catastrophes. We got by TSC, and picked up the chicks, a light and some feed. Now, there are 30 broiler chicks living in the shop with Jimmy Dean.
Not exactly WITH him, everyone has their own pen. The rain re-appeared on our way home. (thankfully we made it to the dump in fairly dry conditions). They also lifted the tornado watch. But, we’re getting some amazing rain.
Tomorrow, Tom will clean out the brooder, and eventually we’ll get the peeps out there. The shop is just a stop-gap measure for a couple days. They will actually be "pastured poultry".
When we got back, the sheep was still in her stall, just hanging out, chewing her cud.
After last week’s sheep disaster, we decided to check her out. I “suited up”, checked her out, found nothing amiss, and am hoping that my rooting around in there will start the labor in earnest.
We will have to wait and see on this one.
And, so it goes….you never know what is going to happen next around here. I didn’t get much done on my “to do” list for today. However, we started a broiler project, I got the groceries, AND we got all the trash to the dump. Now, if I can just get these lambs born….
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