I've been getting better about getting up in the morning. Used to be I would want to sleep in until 8:30 or 9. This morning I got up at 6:00 a.m.

Once out of bed I followed my usual routine: coffee and a book on the porch until I'm awake, surf and check email, morning chores.

Morning chores consist of feeding the boys (Hans and Dogwood — they think they're twins but nothing could be farther from the truth as Hans is an Angora goat and Dogwood is a Jacob sheep, but they were raised together, so...), feeding the milkers (there are about 10 goats and llama in that pen), milking, and taking care of the chickens. In the summer, the horses are out on pasture and only get checked when they come in and ask for it which is not often.

Milking means washing the milk pail, installing the filter, getting a can of grain from the bin and then wading through the mass of goats all thinking they need their corn right now! Once I get to the milking stall thing quiet down as Victoria, the older of our two La Mancha milkers comes in behind me and promptly hops onto the milking stand. One-third of the can of corn is poured into the feed bucket and she happily munches away while I milk her out. She normally gives around 4-5 pounds of milk per milking, but the heat has gotten to her lately. This morning she gave 4 pounds, though — it was cooler thanks to some rain last night and the remaining cloud cover this morning. Once Victoria is done, Kupala, Victoria's daughter is let in as Victoria leaves. Kupala also hops right up and she also gets a bout one-third of a can of grain. Meanwhile, I have Rosemary, the llama, leaning over my shoulder wondering where her grain is. I tell her she has to wait. We used to give her her grain at the same time, but she made a habit of spilling it. Kupala gives about 3 pounds per milking. This morning she's a bit off and gives 2.3 pounds before she, too hops down. Often, if she finishes her grain before I finish milking her, she'll turn her head and nuzzle me asking for more grain. Kind of sweet. Once she's out of the milk side of the small goat barn I use the same feed bucket the milking goats have used for their grain to give a little bit to Rosemary. By this time she's complaining loudly (for a llama) that she's starving! The remaining on-third gets split between several pans in the yard for the rest of the goats.

Once the milking is finished and the milk is put away by restraining into a sterilized glass jar and tucked safely in the refrigerator, the next step is feeding the sheep and rabbits.

So I shoulder my scythe and pitchfork.

This is not routine. Normally, I would fill up the bed of the pickup trailer and haul hay and water to the other end of the property. This morning, however, I know that there are a lot of weeds along the road that need to be mowed down and I also know that the sheep like the weeds. Furthermore, last nights rains and the cooler temperatures mean they wont need any water this morning.

Once at the other end of the property, just one-half mile away, I set the pitchfork down and begin cutting the weeds like hay in long even strokes with the scythe. Once I've cut enough I trade tools and use the pitchfork to rake the hay together and toss it over the fence to the bawling sheep. Once fed they quiet up and then I go in to check on the rabbits.

This morning I noticed a lot of blood staining the coats of the sheep. I don't think the worst though as a cursory count (yep, 47 shep) tells me that everyone is there. The culprit is Crab Claws, a young ram lamb named for the horns he's carrying which look like, well, crab claws. He's tussled with a door frame of something and managed to break off a horn. These wounds to the head, although not dangerous, bleed a lot. Once I confirm he's OK, I finish taking care of the rabbits.

We have two rooms in the old house we now use as a sheep barn that are closed off and the rabbits are allowed to run free in these rooms in warrens. In one room we have the breeding females with their litters of kits. Right now there are three moms and bout 36 popcorns. We call the kits popcorn as they will pop all over the place when you walk in on them. They get water and pellets and the occasional armload of hay or weeds to nibble on. The other room has the non-breeding weaned rabbits for sale. This room has given us some trouble as there is a gap under the door the smaller rabbits can escape through. We block it up, but once in a blue moon the sheep barge their way in and scramble everything. There are seven rabbits in this room this morning and I know that there are about 9 living under the house from the last jailbreak. They also get food in the form of pellets and weeds or hay, and water. We also have three caged rabbits — Stanley and Kristina are French Angoras and they don't get to run as it would ruin their fiber and Jack is our breeding buck and we only want that little miracle to happen when we want that little miracle to happen instead of when Jack wants it to happen which is all the time. They get pellets and water, too.

To recapture the renegade bunnies I put a live trap on the side of the house and this morning there's a blond bunny in it. She goes back in with her sibs for breakfast and the trap is reset.

Shouldering my scythe and pitchfork and giving a last minute kiss on the nose to Muppet — one of the two guardian llamas assigned to the sheep — I head back to the house.

The rest of today will be filled with designing web pages, fulfilling orders (2 pounds of Jacob fleece that is a wee bit overdue at this point), updating journals such as this, dealing with kids, cleaning the house a bit, and this evening, after evening chores which look a lot like morning chores except that Jeanette's home to help by then, we are going to see I, Robot after a meal out.
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Got two surprise calls today: one call was for goat's milk and one was for rabbits. The calls were surprising as we don't sell goat's milk (dairy licensing and such) and therefore don't advertise. This call, though, was from a local dog breeder that had a litter of pups that the mother can't keep up with. The rabbit call was surprising because we just took them off the market.
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Hope this finds everyone well!