If you've ever looked at the sidebar to this blog,
you might have noticed a picture of me in a green linen pinafore,
straw hat, skirt and boots.... picking juicy ripe grapes from our grape arbor...
basket on my arm.
That's the romantic side of farm life...
the illusion (a photo shoot for the apron).
Here is the real side....
I have been up since 5:15, showered, dressed, thrown in a load of laundry,
stripped the bed and bath linens, emptied the dishwasher and cleaned the kitchen sink.
I am out doing the AM chores.
The thermometer is reading somewhere in the low teens,
but I am surprisingly warm...
thanks to UnderArmor and a snow suit....a sort of Pillsbury Doughboy look.
Now here comes the best part:
I am on my hands and knees, picking up manure...
because it has frozen solid fast to the ice and snow beneath it.
I have broken the tines of my metal manure fork on the ice,
and the plastic fork won't budge the frozen manure.
So, I am manually picking each "turd" from the ice.
My hair has worked its way out from under my hood and is hanging by my face.
My nose is running.
(Thanks to the cold bestowed upon me as a sort of Christmas gift,
from a certain 2 year old who shall remain nameless....
the kind of gift that keeps on giving!)
Said runny nose has dripped onto the tips of my freshly washed and dried hair...
and has frozen there as "snotcicles"...
thank you very much.
thank you very much.
Two and a half hours later, with frozen toes....
I am finished.
No one around to take my picture.
So, please forget reality.
Erase this image from your mind.
Think of me each morning...
waltzing around the farm,
basket on arm,
bonnet on head,
beautifully coiffed and frocked!
It may be smoke and mirrors....
but reality bites (frostbites!)!
I am linking up to....
I am linking up to....
Comments
That was the funniest thing when we started blogging. I'd post the pictures and SM and I would be like "Why does it look so much nicer on the blog?"
The house really is dirty and garden has tons of weeds in it but to look at the pictures you'd think we lived in OZ!
Beautiful pictures...just stunning.
Now you can go wipe your nose and clean off the snotcicles!
One more thing, Head and shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes. I suggest this as your morning exercise before heading out to do manure scooping!!! Love you, super hugs this morning for I'm still laughing!!!
Thanks for showing us the reality side of your beautiful farm. I think those of that have experienced even a small portion of farm life with animals know what reality is but we still like to think of it as the pinafore look, lol!
Hope you get well soon.
And now, back to the pinafore and basket:-)
I was out walking " The Moll" at 6:30..Dr.s appt. It didn't seem too cold this AM..Cute post..I love how you retain your sense of humor xxoo
Susannah
Oh and let's not forget 'fogging up glasses'.... dang it I hate when my eye glasses fog over from my warm breath as I try to blow my loose stands of hair off of my face... Come on Summer! We need a good thawing out! lol!
There really aren't "rules", but picking up manure daily helps to cut down on the spread of parasites. For us, it also helps to cut down the amount of manure byproduct that ends up in our pond and stream. Piles of manure will kill the grass in the pasture, also. And for my taste....well, I just like the sight of clean fields and paddocks. Don't care much for the sight of piles of manure. So, I clean the areas once daily in the winter, and more frequently in the nicer weather. I am a bit of a clean freak, however!
favorite photos, the piggies.
I am a new follower!
Our manure all goes onto a pile where it stays for several months (we turn it with the tractor each week). The pile becomes very hot from bacterial action and eventually becomes "clean" and no longer looks like manure....more like rich brown compost. We also compost vegetable scraps, hay, pine bedding, leaves with the manure. Then this rich dark mixture is spread over our hay field and used in our gardens as fertilizer.....the ultimate recycling project!!
Esther