Likes and Dislikes of living on a ranch
I love living on a small ranch. However, like any other kind of job, there are likes and dislikes about it. Here's a list of my likes and dislikes.
First of all, I love my daughter's heifer. I love watching her eat, drink, and play. She greets me every morning when I head out to feed the chickens and let's me know she is not really happy that my daughter feeds way after I do. LOL! This is a LIKE.
I hate refilling the fly catchers! YUK! They stink, are filled with fly guts, and are just all around gross. You would be amazed at how many flies these things catch. They work like a charm, but I can't stand emptying and refilling these things. Definite DISLIKE!
I love my alpacas! I love watching them pronk around the pasture, graze peacefully, and just hang out by the fence. I have a few of them that will give me kisses! They are some of the sweetest animals on the planet and I feel so very blessed to have so many! Definite LIKE!
Manure piles... yep, we've got them. With so many animals, there is plenty of manure to go around! I really hate cleaning up the manure piles. At least the alpacas go in a communal pile, so there are a few large piles, rather than a ton of little ones. However, the horse and heifer don't seem to get that concept. Definite DISLIKE.
My kids convinced me to get a couple of ducks at Tractor Supply this past spring. I absolutely LOVE our ducks! They are so funny when they waddle around and are constantly quacking about everything. DEFINITE LIKE!
Along with those LIKE ducks, comes the DISLIKE of cleaning out their pool. They love to play and splash around in the pool, but immediately upon entry into this pool, they relieve themselves. Yuk! I have to clean the thing out every other day. DISLIKE!
Every now and then, a stray hen gets away and lays her eggs somewhere that you can't find them. Then, she disappears for awhile while she hatches the eggs. Sometimes, you wind up with a lot of chicks and sometimes you wind up with only one. This was the case this past week. So, I caught the hen and her newborn chick and placed them in this cute little hen house that a friend gave to me. There is a little ramp that goes from the top layer, where the water and nesting box are, to the lower level, where they can get some grass. I sprinkle a little hen scratch down every morning and watch them go at it. They are so adorable! I love watching new chicks. Definite LIKE!
This is our alpaca and horse watering trough. Yes, it is an old bathtub and it works great! However, one of our boarder's alpacas has decided to climb up in the water trough to cool herself down, thus discarding all of the dirt from her body into the water trough. Remember the duck pool? Most of the alpacas use the pool to cool themselves off in. This rebel refuses and instead, continues to make my life more difficult by using the water trough. DISLIKE.
I love feeding the chickens and collecting their eggs. I don't really know why, but I love it. The egg collecting is kind of like Easter every day! Chickens are eye candy. Just ask anyone who owns them. LIKE.
Here are some added bonus' to my life. I love to garden. I'm not very good at it, but I sure do enjoy it! This is a muskamelon plant that is going crazy in my backyard. I'm going to have enough melons for the whole neighborhood! LIKE.
And how could I forget my two, sweet, playful kitties? I love them so much! They provide TONS of entertainment. Here they are on the back porch cleaning one another. I love watching that. They have quite a love for one another. So sweet! LIKE!
I just finished mowing today. I like doing that, too. I like when the grass is all cut and it looks so nice and neat. I dug up some nasty thorn bushes today from the pasture. I don't like doing that. Overall, there are so many more likes than dislikes. I'll take living on property with animals any day over living in the city with more humans. The animals are so much nicer! Ha ha!
Anyway, I'll bet there are things you like and dislike about your place, too. What are they?
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