It was supposed to rain today but it did not. Instead, I woke and saw the light of the sun. Yesterday was the first time I’d seen sunshine since my birthday on September 17 – today was the second time. Yesterday I went on a ride and played with horses in the Playground of Higher Learning. Today I watched (in the morning) as the horses raced around the yard.

I am the livestock person, and as such, I have to tend to the four horses, three chickens, and two goats. Pete feeds the dog. I don’t know how those who have more animals than I do, do it, and do it well. It seems to me like this would be an impossibility. I can barely keep up with what needs doing here.

The first thing I did was sort the hay in the hay shed. I made three piles, one for John DePriest, our hay guy, who is buying it back from us so that he can feed his cows. This was the stinky, moldy, dusty stuff. We’ll feed the less stinky, moldy, dusty stuff to the goats. And the sweet smelling stuff is going to the horses.

In addition to sorting the hay, I lifted pallets and cleaned out the loose hay. I put this questionable loose hay in the chicken and goat pens. I loaded up muck buckets and put the buckets in the cart. I then pushed the cart

up the hill. Once there, I cleaned out the chicken and goat pens, putting the soiled hay into buckets and the buckets in the cart. I’m now doing this once a week, on Saturday or Sunday.

As I was working, Pete was doing the same. He’s the gardening guy, and so no surprise, he planted trees, I think, mostly apple.

Then together we worked on moving the mats in the horse pen. They had gaps and so it was difficult cleaning the spaces in between them. This turned out to be yet another big job. But all of the above, it’s now knocked off the list.

The list – it’s on a yellow legal pad, next to the kitchen table. Every few days now I cross things off of it – today, of course, we made some progress.

The last item read “Harvest.” It was getting dark – it now gets dark around 7:30 p.m. (much to my dismay.) Pete said that we needed to pick beets and greens and carrots. He finally decided that I should just do carrots otherwise he’d have to process the beet greens. So I got two buckets and put carrots in one, and carrot tops in the other. When done, I gave the carrot greens to the horses, who ate them very quickly.

It's supposed to rain tomorrow. If it does, I’ll end up doing indoor things. I’m way behind on several writing projects. I can’t win. I feel guilty on sunny days in which I’m working around the place because I’m not getting writing done. And I feel guilty on Rainy days when I’m working inside because I’m not doing things with the horses. Indeed, my lifestyle is one in which the words no win situation apply.

Next: 272. 10/2/17: We are the Champions