Remember

 

I sprained my ankle. It had already been a killer morning on the farm. Many things had gone wrong, not the least of which was, the side-by-side wasn't running properly. (Thank goodness it is under warranty so they have already come to pick it up and get it working.) At the tail end of a bad two hours of things not being where we needed them, grass not being mowed, transportation not available for hauling feed, etc., I sprained my ankle and was down for the count.

John got off at 4pm on Monday and was able to swoop in and (with the help of the boys) get the turkeys moved.

I'm continually learning lessons on the farm. One lesson that I have learned (repeatedly) has to do with moving sheep. Over the last 7 years, I have gotten better and better and moving these animals, and now, we rarely have emotional eruptions that occur because "everything went wrong" out in the pasture.

(They actually have shirts that say "I'm sorry for what I said while we were moving SHEEP or moving CATTLE" because people just lose their minds when things go wrong!)

Here are a few things I have learned:

• Avoid working when it is BLAZING hot
• Avoid working for over 90 minutes (45-60 is ideal)
• Avoid not having enough people to do the job
• Prepare ahead of time by doing some "preliminary" work so that the day of the move, everything is where it needs to be
• Don't be lazy and leave tools, things in places of unknown origin. NO ONE wants to walk around a paddock looking for the hammer or jumper cables. Put things where they belong.
• Think ahead. 
• Plan ahead.
• Slow down and enjoy nature/the animals/the people who are with you.
• Remember that being able to walk is a GIFT!

We didn't remember any of those things when we started to move the turkeys. We are processing the birds on the 20th of August. We want it DONE. We aren't as good at moving birds as we are sheep. We have to be more INTENTIONAL.

And sometimes, you just have to stop doing anything because you hurt your foot ...