Photos from the Farm * 9 October * What a Mess!

Welcome back!

I hope you had a wonderful week.

Once in a while we go out to the barn and we have a surprise. That happened this week.

I went out to milk the goats and this is what I saw.....

This was not a fun surprise!

There was poop everywhere!

Hay had been torn down and trampled on.
There was poop mixed in with the hay, too.

Annie had pushed open the door and gotten into the barn.

Goats don't know that they shouldn't poop inside the barn. They don't know that they shouldn't walk all over the hay. They don't know that they should be careful with their hooves.

She made a big mess!

Matt and I had to clean it all up. It took us about 45 minutes. 

That looks much better!

No more poop, and no more big mess on the floor!

Have there been times when your teacher came back in the room and you weren't doing what she expected you to be doing? Have there been times when your mother or father came home and you had made a big mess that they didn't expect? 

There were things I wanted to do, but I had to clean up the barn instead. I have some sewing projects I'm working on and I couldn't because I was cleaning up a mess instead. I was a little bit frustrated.

Sometimes days don't go the way we planned. That will happen to you sometimes, too. I hope that instead of getting mad, that you get to work and do what needs to be done. 

Farmers like to say, "There's no use crying over spilled milk!" That means that the problem already happened, you might as well use your time to take care of it instead of complain about it! 

Why do you think farmers think it's better to take care of a problem than to complain about it?

I also hope that when your teacher is out of the room you do just what she expects you to do so that she doesn't come back to a bad surprise! You might have to miss out on some good things because the class has to take care of the problem instead.

*     *     *     *     *     *     *

Here's our Tom Turkey. A Tom Turkey is a boy turkey.
This is the father of the baby turkeys that I've shown you.
He doesn't have a name.
If you have a suggestion for his name, please write me a note and I'll look at them.
Matt and I will decide which name is best for him.

Here are the chicks that were born a few weeks ago.
Can you see how their feathers are growing?
They run very fast so it's very hard for me to catch them!

The brown chicks are the chicks that were born the first day of school.
The grey mama hen is a banty, that means she is a mini chicken.
Her babies are almost as big as she is!
They still chirp like chicks so they aren't ready to be on their own.
Once they start clucking like a hen they won't stay around their mother all the time.

There are three chickens in the photo. The one on the right with a comb on his head is our rooster. His name is Peetey. He's a good rooster, he doesn't attack people.
The white chicken is also a rooster. He was born earlier this summer, Peetey is his father.
We will find the new rooster another home because farms don't need two roosters.
We can tell he's a rooster because his tail is getting long!
Soon he'll grow a comb on his head like Peetey has.

*     *     *     *     *     *     *

I hope you have a wonderful Fall Break!