Morning Chores

 Every morning (and night) at 6:30, NP and I don coveralls and sweatshirts and winter boots and we brave the cold and the dark and …… ok, we’re really kind of wusses about it, but we do it anyway. Every morning at 6:30, we head down to the barn for morning chores. Once you make the initial leap out the back door, AND if you're bundled up properly, it’s really not that bad. And we get to experience the sunrise every morning. Sometimes we forget to stop and enjoy it, but it is always there!

Yesterday morning was such a particularly beautiful morning that I thought I’d share it with y’all. Now, I don’t like snow but with the warmth of the sun, the beauty of the lightly falling snow would have been hard to beat yesterday.

​We usually divide up the chores like such. One of us feeds and milks the cow and the other makes sure  the horse and heifers get their grain and hay, fills water tanks, and runs bottles out to the bottle calves.  Then we work together to make sure the bottle calves also have a smattering of grain and water and do whatever cleaning is necessary right then. Not too much extra gets done on weekday mornings because we usually both have to scurry off to work after chores!

NP and I take turns milking Abby. We milk her by hand and she gives us 6 gallons of milk every day!

Mmm, fresh milk!

Abby is always anxious to get in her milking stanchion as that is where she gets fed her grain!

Abby really enjoys breakfast ...

We carry all of our milking supplies to and from the barn in this tote. It has teat dip, udder balm, warm water, clean cloths, bottles and nipples.

Right now, this bucket is serving as our milking stool while the other one is in the shop for maintenance ;)

Towards the end of the geese video, you can see a couple of the calves finishing up their bottles. After they finish the milk, they have the option of eating fresh creep feed out of the bucket strategically located beneath the bottle holder in each hutch. This guy went straight for it which is the goal!

58 and Rusty teamed up and figured out how to eat hay straight out of the hay loft ... the ultimate self feeder! Naughty critters! So, in the pictures below, NP is rigging up some boards in hopes that 'side boards' on the loft will keep them from breaking into the winter stores again!

Good thing NP is tall!

The guilty parties.

Who, me? Never!

The last check mark on the list is always to ensure that everybody is happily munching away at their hay! And now, it's off to work we go!

Enjoy,
​Brun Ko Farm