Not a farmer...

Last weekend, I helped a friend on her parent's farm. They have mostly cows, some that get milked and some that don't, steers, calves, pigs, chickens and a couple horses.

I have always appreciated the hard, thankless work that farmers do. But, I really REALLY appreciate it now.

So, for those of you who don't know...I live in Ohio. Last weekend, it was BITTERLY cold! As in below zero with the wind! BURRRRRR!!!! 

Plus, I am TERRIFIED of large animals...and small animals...and pretty much any animal, with the exception of dogs.

What was I thinking????

It was actually a very interesting experience and I did enjoy the feeling of satisfaction from being able to help do the "chores". 

Thursday was the first day. I followed the girls into the front barn and stood just inside to the right of the door. Then suddenly I realized there was a horse there. I almost screamed. I went back outside and took a few deep breaths which caused me to start coughing because of the cold air. I went back in and didn't get as close to the horse. The other horse, I think it is a pony, kept kicking up it's rear legs and kicking as the girls got the food for their rabbits...oh yeah, there are rabbits too. They are just the girl's pets though. The big horse, the one that I ran away from, kept stretching his neck toward me. I was almost petrified but not quite.

Then, we started taking hay to the calves. Each calf got a flake...for those of us who aren't farmers... a flake is when you pull a section off of the hay bale...it kinda "flakes" off. We also fed them old bread which I had heard of before. What a great way of not wasting food!

Stubborn Cow....MOOOOOOOOOOO!!

It wasn't as cold as the other days and I sank up past my ankles in "mud" when I took food to the steers. GROSS!!!

Sadly, the hose was frozen and we had to cart the water to the cows. I filled the buckets as my awesome husband and the girls carried the buckets to the troughs.

One of the poor milk cows was stubborn and wouldn't walk across the ice to get into the milk room. After a lot of coxing and some advise from the parents and some burnt ashes from the woodburner, they got the cow in to milk.
 
The rest of the weekend wasn't as crazy/scary as the first night. Although, it was very funny watching one of my other friends get goosed by one of the cows. Several times. Everyone else made it seem like nothing to get near the animals, but it definitely doesn't make me feel comfortable.

I tried to get near the cows when they were milking one time but that totally freaked me out and I ran out of the room...almost knocking over my friend. I hope I was comic relief in her otherwise stressful weekend. :-)