Adjusting Animal Chores

Since being home, I am working on streamlining the daily chores.  There is so much cleaning up and organizing to do it could drive a person batty.  It seems that most of my time is spent maintaining what I did yesterday and very little time progressing on to the next task.  The weekends are busy cooking and prepping for the week, such as grocery shopping, cooking, food prep and just cleaning up after cooking.  I feel guilty if I open a jar of Alfredo sauce for spaghetti dinner, like that is cheating...I am going to have to get over that.  So, I try different strategies on everything I do:  folding the clothes on the dryer, on the bed, on the couch watching Kelly and Michael (take it from me, you don't do that, it is not time effective), straight from the line (I have only had two chances for this in January, but yay!),  drying dishes with a towel, air-dry (no dishwasher, soooo).  I want to be ready for this summer when the garden is the main priority.

 So far the only definite strategy that I have found I liked is how I feed the animals.  I know, you pour the feed in a bowl, water in a bowl and voila.  Well, sort of. 
First, one must don their new Christmas Muck boots (love you, Mom).  I grab my 5-gallon Home Depot bucket that has an old Maxwell house coffee canister in it and three rabbit water bottles.  The fit perfectly in the bottom of the bucket.  I also grab the compost pot if it is at least 1/3 of the way full.  I fill the water bottles at the kitchen sink and then traipse out to the shed where the feed bags line the entrance.  It is a disorganized mess of a shed that will be put on a project list, but for now the animals must be fed and watered.  In the can in the bucket, I pour the chicken mix.  I have pellets (accidentally grabbed that bag), crumbles, sunflower seeds, cracked corn, and scratch grain, as well as anything I would like to give them from our leftovers or scraps.  I give them a dip of this and a dip of that.  Next I grab the coffee canister that came with the farm (since I rarely drink coffee, let alone buy it) and fill that one with rabbit feed and 3 hay cubes.  I grab the goat scoop and throw in some goat chow, sweet feed, sunflower seeds and sometimes a handful of mineral mix and hang that scoop on the edge of the bucket.  I fill one more can with hay cubes and take that to the fence to fill a hanging bucket for the goats.  They run to the fence when they hear the cubes hit the bottom.





I shut the door and grab my bucket and off we go.  I have to put the bucket down to close the gate, and the goats run to get a fresh nibble of the goat scoop and they can reach the rabbit pellets too, but not the chicken.  They don't get much before I have to pull their heads out of their respective cans and head to the backside of the barn / coop.  I pour the goats' food first and hang the scoop over the fence as I open up the chicken gate. 
 I remove the rabbit feed and put it on the ground for Roger and Thumper, my free range rabbits to go ahead and start on if they want.  I feed the chickens, check for the eggs, which we are only getting one every other day or so at this point,put it in my coat pocket,  and then move on to the rabbits.  I have a bowl by the chicken food that I fill with rabbit food for Rog and Thump, even though they prefer chicken food.

 I have three in hanging cages that I feed and water.  I have duplicate food bowls for each cage.  I grab the extra one I put on top of the cage fill it up, open the cage and switch the new one for the empty one, which I place back on top of the cage for tomorrow.  I find this the easiest for me since I don't have to fight with them as they try to stay with the bowl in the cage or fall out of the cage, which has happened.  I give them a hay cube, new water bottle and repeat and repeat.

By now Mollie has been butted away from the food and checked out the scoop hanging on the fence and tried to open the chicken coop gate that I have placed a cinder block in front of.  So she goes back and waits for greedy little Brie to finish.  I double check the chicken water, dumping it if it is dirty. 

After all the cans and empty water bottles are back in my orange bucket, I move the block and head back out of the coop to the water spigot, leaving my bucket in the path for any curious goat.  I fill the chicken and goat water pans as needed.




Then I grab my bucket and head back to the main gate to exit quietly on most days, throw my empty cans less one back in the shed and take my bucket inside.  I will feed the cat and dog, refill my bird feeder as needed and 'tis done! Seriously,i t took me a week of different ways before I found a system that worked.  You wouldn't think it would be that hard, but the goats can get out of the main gate, in the chicken coop and then you are chasing two goats and knocking over feed, trying to get them away from the feed, and muttering words that are ugly!  I am glad that goats can't talk like parrots!  Oh and don't get me started when they go through the chicken door-a little door that we open so the chickens can go out into the yard and get some fresh grass and bugs, even mice!!  That's a whole different, disgusting story.

But if I can conquer that "simple" chore, I can conquer anything!