What a Difference a Day Makes

Yesterday was the day from hell. Everything that could go wrong did and on top of that we had heavy rain off and on along with tornado warnings till 9PM. William left Monday night taking the grandsons back home and to work with his son in law again for a few days. I woke up at 5am but it was still too dark for morning chores so checked out blogs and facebook. Went out at 6:30 and it was still dark (come on time change) but could see enough to start feeding. While feeding Tramp and Kuma a dumb confused rooster flew into Polly's pen from his roosting spot instead of into his pen.He didn't roost in the house but on the fence and got confused which way to go I guess. Anyway before I could get to him Polly was trying to have rooster for breakfast. She is the dog someone set out on us a couple years ago. She is also the one that will kill a cat or chicken in an instant. Didn't want to turn her into the animal shelter as they would put her down. She is a beautiful yellow lab around 3 years old that loves everyone especially children and is real gentle. I have tried listing her on Craigs List and asking around but no one wants a cat/chicken killing dog. Think I am going to have to go ahead and call the animal shelter. Anyhooo after getting the dead rooster out of her pen I went on to feed Tinker and Bella to find that Andy had made a hole in the double fences separating him and the bucklings from the does. He was in with the girls having him a high old time. I pulled him off of BJ and took him back to his pen, made a temporary fix on the fences and went to feed the goats. While feeding them I found that one of the ducks had gotten out of their pen (must have flew out as the fence and gate were fine) and Tinker and Bella had chased and wore her out. Had to wash the dirt off her and put her back in her pen. In the middle of that it started pouring the rain. Everyone knows that goats don't like rain and they won't eat wet grain so I had to scrape all the wet grain out of their feed pans and give it to the pigs. I went to feed the chickens and found the rat snake that has been living in the feed room sleeping in my chicken feed bucket. That really woke me up! Got the chickens and rabbits fed and was heading to milk the goats when I heard crying. Gerda (Buttons little doeling) had gotten her head caught in the fence trying to eat the ducks food. Had to get her unstuck with her mom breathing down my neck. Went to the milking room only to find that one of the goats has diarrhea and had spent the night on the milk stanchion making a mess. Cleaned her up, gave her some meds and cleaned up the milk stanchion.  Buttons and Precious gave very little milk thanks to being chased and pestered by Andy. Hayley refused to come in the milk room at all. I decided to go ahead and water all the animals and then milk her. The expensive no kink hose we bought kinked on me 3 times while watering and I had to keep stopping and tracking down the kink. Finally caught Hayley for milking and she gave very little milk. Gave the goats a little more grain before it started raining again. Made sure they had plenty of hay, brought the milk in and went to fix the fence. Of course it had to start thundering, lighting, and pouring the rain while I repaired the fence. Of course fixing the fence made Andy mad and he took it out on Petro by ramming his side and knocking him down. Had to separate them. By the time I got back inside for my breakfast it was almost lunchtime and William made the mistake of calling me. Boy did he get an ear full! But today the sun is shining, all the animals are where they are suppose to be and being good. No snakes or broken fences. The girls gave plenty of milk this morning with no problems. I actually got to eat breakfast before 9AM. The no kink hose still kinks and makes me mutter a few choice words under my breath but all in all its a blessed day and I am going to enjoy every minute! Don't forget to count your blessings... no matter how small.