farm chores day

I was reading (actually re-reading) this post from Alison of This Blooming Life today. I had never heard this Victorian household chores ryhme in it's whole form before:

Monday is Washing Day
Tuesday is Ironing Day
Wednesday is Sewing Day
Thursday is Market Day
Friday is Cleaning Day
Saturday is Baking Day
Sunday is the Day of Rest

How seductively straightforward. I'm with Alison, I struggle to do one single thing at once and often feel like I'm leaping from task to chore to child to dinner to baby to task. Of course I don't envy (at all) the women who had to spend an entire day doing washing by hand, because it took that long. Walking all the way to and from the market. Cleaning all day on their hands and knees. 

Thursday, among other things, is Bikkie delivery day here, where I deliver orders. It's also a school day, a pre-school day, the pick up the box from the food co-op day, a bookkeeping day, a gardening day, a cleaning washing mending shopping baking day. And if Adam isn't here, I do the farm chores too. (They're my favourite bit.) He's here today, so I followed him around instead. 

Feed the chooks.

 

Collect the eggs.

(So thrilled that an Isa Brown has begun laying, we've finally got multicoloured eggs! Yay!)

Feed the pigs.

 

Feed the other pigs we've now moved over to our next door neighbours'. They're borrowing them to dig up their vegie garden.

 

Stop and say hello to next door's new baby turkey. 

 

Feed our baby meat chicks. Look at those wing feathers coming in!

 

Blessed be the peaceful co-workers.

Feeding animals. 

Straightforward. Daily. And even better if someone else is doing the jobs and you are swanning around with a camera going, 'just stay there one more minute honey! I just want to go get a photo of the cow next door.'

I love these days.

xxx

Comments

[charley]

Love the baby Turkey :)

[Sam]

I LOVED the visitor biscuit sample in my co-op order today. So very delish! What a great marketing idea.
My hips and 'trying to get swimsuit ready for summer' body are not thanking you though. Oh well, there is always shorts & rashies to wear to the beach :)

[bennoss]

looks like heaven!

we'll be coming down soon for sure!!!

[Danielle Grabiel]

Love this. We are moving to our family farm this December. I am wondering, do you feed your pigs any pre-made pig feed or are you able to sustain them on scraps and things you grow?

Thanks!

[kelli]

great post! i remember that rhyme from the little house on the prarie books. it surely is seductively simple, in a sense!=)

[alison@thisbloominglife]

Thanks Fiona. I did a little girly jig around the kitchen when I popped in this morning and saw the link!!! And I'm green (pardon the pun) with envy over all that gorgeous green pasture - I've always said if I could live anywhere (apart from here) it would be in your part of the world. Alison

[josephine hart]

BRILLIANT chook pic!!! xxx

[Fran]

As you say, if only life were that simple and routine! I know an old friend who used to say, in the days when she brought up her children, that she would do all the chores in the mornings and then have a friend round in the afternoon for a cup of tea, before getting on with the evening's supper. It all sounded so calm and controlled, very unlike my life!

[innerpickle]

At the moment they get a (100% vegetarian) combination of scraps, pig grower pellets and a horse feed called cool calm. I have, however, just managed to convince my local supermarket to give me all their fruit, veg and bakery scraps a couple of times a week which will cut our feed costs dramatically. Its taken a while to convince them though! Id love to grow all the food for the pigs, but not this year. xx

[Julie Backus]

Hi Fiona, must say I so look forward to your blog. It's 2:30 something AM where I live and I just got up to check if your blog was sent! Love, love, absolutely LOVE those photos recording your near perfect life! . . . ., what a blessied, blissful day. I can just smell the countryside and hear all the wonderful animal sounds mixed with baby giggles and the pleasant growl of your man at work! Enjoy!
Love, Julie in Arizona

[Obaitori]

Yes, Blessed be the peaceful co-workers and mine are asleep at the moment too! Aah. Fabulous Thursday Fiona. Love Katie x

[rachel @ tea with lucy]

Beautifully simple. . . although, even with mod cons, every day is washing day around here. What a great chook picture!!

[littlegreenvillage]

It is Saturday morning here, and i have just been enjoying your beautiful photos with my family over breakfast. What a lovely start to the weekend!

[wordplayhouse®]

The list of chores you began with are hanging on our laundry room wall. Ours came from a vintage children's book—Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush—and are illustrated in dainty little watercolors. I like the reminder it brings me of simpler times when everything was done by hand.

[Nichole]

I love chores (mostly). Especially if I am home and have the time to properly devote to them. Nothing whispers "in the moment" more than rounding up chickens, tending to a garden, hanging laundry, replinishing fresh water to three different groups of animals for me, etc. It's a necessary daily function - a sense of purpose.

Loving your photos! :)