I can confirm how cool it is to have an area full of wildflowers near your yard or garden! When I lived with my parents for a while, north of Philadelphia, their lot backed up to some electrical power lines. At first that land was farmed, but then the adjoining farmer sold to a developer, and thus the land next to my parents' lot (which was owned not by the farmer, but by the electric utility company) filled with whatever would grow (including more than a few asters and goldenrod!!) You should have seen the variety of tiny, native, solitary bees that used to feed upon my parents dogwoods when they were blooming!!! (If you haven't learned of the native, solitary bees, you really are missing out on some of the most beautiful insects eastern North America has to offer!! The vast, vast majority of them never sting humans, largely because they either don't have stingers, or are so small their stingers are incapable of piercing human flesh. They're cute, and often besides that ) Native solitary bees can be quite useful as pollinators in your yard. They don't live socially, with hives, and workers, and queens. Instead each adult female collects her own nectar and pollen to feed her own set of offspring, but even so when you have many of them (all largely totally harmless, cute, and beautiful) in your yard your flowers and vegetables get pollinated even if you don't have (alien) honeybees there. (Honeybees never existed on this continent until European colonists brought them here. They are only native in Europe, Africa, and Asia.)

OK, everyone, send your kids to me, that barn will be cleaned in no time, LOL, and I won't charge you very much for the honor. (grin) Ellen, I can guarantee they'll get appropriately dirty. They probably won't smell very good either, but they'll learn about rinsing off in the horse tank, one of life's little known pleasures in the summer when it's about 85F. (The stock drink from the pond in the summer, and a 50 gallon horse tank makes a decent "swimming pool", or at least a wading/rinsing/cooling off pool). Sally, I don't have very big hands and I grew up milking, so I'm not sure hand size has much to do with it. :-) We had a couple of cows for "family milk", we didn't pasteurize or anything, we just drank it raw. I got up at 4 a.m. every day to milk, came home and showered, got on the bus for school. When I came home I milked again, had supper, did homework and went to bed so I could do it all over again the next day. Dad always did morning chores with me but I did evening chores before he got home from work. My sister hated the farm and the barns and had only "inside" chores. I hated housework (still do) and would far rather be mucking stalls than mopping floors. Michael, you're right, any kind of animal is an everyday job. It doesn't matter if you're sick or on vacation or if it's Christmas or your birthday, animals must be cared for. If you want to go away, you'd better line up reliable "help". Fortunately, Amanda and David are right across the street and Amanda will check Valentine and Suzy every day, make sure there's food and water, that the tank doesn't freeze. She'll check on Red Cow too, to make sure she doesn't have a calf early, and keep on eye on the horses to be sure the hay feeders are full. That's one of the reasons Elery isn't so keen on farming, it IS a 24/7 responsibility and keeps you pretty much at home, or close to home. Ashley's fine, although she did get her jeans dirty, LOL, Valentine's little hooves are still flexible, not even hard yet. In spite of the work and the responsibility and the expense, I love it. I want to plant blueberries and raspberries, a few more fruit trees. I think I'm going to raise a couple dozen ducks for the freezer and I'll be waiting for Valentine's "little sister" or brother. Hey, it keeps me off the streets, LOL. Annie

Thanks to the posters who complimented our FR! We are very happy with the way it turned out and really enjoy hanging out down there, watching TV with the fireplace going. I popped in to reply--first chance I had after reading our comments, but It's too late for me to really look at the wonderful rooms posted since I posted mine. Mental note to savor them tomorrow!!!

Oooo fun! My day(s) are pitiful compared to yours! Good Grief! I have 2 different routines. One for those times i work, and one for when I'm off. Age: 35 yo female Lives with: SO, 4 large dogs, and a random cat that decides it lives on our property now. Work days (nights): 4-5 am: make breakfast for SO before he goes to work. Clean kitchen. 6 am: shower,go to bed Sleep until 2 pm or so 2-4 pm: Feed and play with dogs, feed random cat, cook dinner for SO to have when he gets home from work. Clean Kitchen. Take second shower and,dry hair, and otherwise make myself presentable for work. 4 pm: This is when i leave for work, I almost always have at least one stop to make. 5pm: Arrive at work. Do as much work as i have to. I usually cook and eat my first meal before 6pm. I have a full kitchen setup here so I am able to cook fresh, though i sometimes just get something on the way. 5pm-Midnight: Do whatever work comes in, tend to my large flower garden, clean the office, feed the "work"cats, and otherwise keep myself amused until my fitbit resets at midnight and i can get my steps in for the next day. Midnight: (fitbit resets to 0)- Go outside and walk laps around my office building until i get 15000 steps, stopping throughout as work requires. Sometimes this is 0 times, sometimes its 20, just depends on the night. 5 am: Yay! go home. Make breakfast. Shower. Change sheet. Bed. Off days (nights): 4-5 am(ish): Make Breakfast. Clean kitchen. 5am(ish)- ???-Back to bed! Only for a few hours. I change my sleep schedule to "normal' people hours to accommodate the man. Rest of the my day could be whatever. I am off 4 nights. I try to stick to a basic routine. One day i do all of our laundry for the week, which between the 2 of us may be 5 or 6 loads at most. I wash, dry, fold or hang up and put away all the laundry that one day. I also wash our comforter that day, i change the sheet daily. That same day i do a thorough house cleaning. Dusting, scrubbing the bathrooms, sweep, swiffer, mop all floors, baseboards, etc. Another one of those days i do our basic weekly shopping. While I am out i try to do whatever other errands can be done. I live in the sticks and its a drive into where all the stuff i go to is, so i try to get it all out of the way on one day. Stores, bank,post office, whatever. I usually shop for meals daily, but since all this has been going on and we are trying to say home as much as possible, this has changed and i try try try to get all of our food for the week on this day as well. I sometimes have to go to the nearest store, which is about 10 minutes away in between. But I am really trying hard not to. Another day i make whatever candles, scent cubes and sprays i need to restock my inventory. I also tend to bake something sweet for SO to eat and for me to stare at since i am on an eternal diet,since I am already in the kitchen and hot and toiling away i might as well bake some cookies or a peach cobbler or some bread or brownies or something...... The last day I try to relax. Though random things do come up. I feel very lucky to be somewhat flexible. I find parents fascinating. I cannot imagine having my whole life being devoted to taking care of others all day every day. To have someones very life depend on me. That is probably why i decided very early in life not to have children. Especially now, it must be so stressful. Every single off day i do some gardening, do lots of playtime and training with the mutts, I cook at least 2 meals,we only tend to eat 2 meals every day. I often cook 2 different meals for each meal, or at least 2 different variations on a meal, because i am on a diet and SO is not. I am probably unreasonably weird about the kitchen. I CANNOT sleep if my kitchen is not sparkling clean. I cannot leave dishes in the sink or a dirty stove or if my counter tops have not been wiped down. Nope. And every single off day i get on my treadmill at the end of the day to make sure i get at least 15000 steps for that day. Then i shower and go to bed. I try to be in bed by midnight. By then, SO is already asleep. He works 6 days a week, tends to come home, eat, relax a little bit, then go to bed early. His one day off he is running around all day doing things... This is my last night at work this run. Tomorrow its supposed to storm BUT i have some hibiscus plants that NEED to be planted so i guess i will out there digging in the rain. I started my flower garden last year and it will take probably two or 3 more years for me to get it as large as i want it. Until then, lots and lots of work need to be done to it. I run my dishwasher every day as well. And its just the two of us. Even on days that i work i have a remarkable ability to use way more dishes then is probably needed to make 2 meals a day for 2 people.