Bad Days on the Farm

It's funny, last night and this morning I was turning over in my mind the post I was going to write this morning. It was going to be humorous and silly. About some of the aspects of farm life people don't think about much. But then my morning kind of fell apart and I'm going to write about that instead. In the scheme of things, if this is my worst day then I am truly blessed. But right in the middle of everything going wrong it's kind of hard to focus on that.

It is cold here. It was 4 degrees when I went out to feed. The ground is frozen solid and so is everything else. Including the outlet pipe on my washing machine. But I didn't know this until I stepped out the backdoor into a flooded mud room. So I pull out the mop and grab the big towels and start to soak it up. Of course the dogs and the baby want to help(translated: GET IN THE WAY) and I'm really not in the best mood now. The washer is still full of water so it weighs a million pounds as I'm trying to push it out of the way and get the water underneath. I pull on my boots and run outside to see what I can do. The outlet pipe has a big chunk of ice at the end so I start beating it with a wrench to clear it out.

As I am doing this my son informs me that the "puppy room" is flooding. The "puppy room" is so called because my husband raises Labs and that is where we keep our puppies when we have them. Right now, we have the 2 outside dogs in there because it is so cold. So I run out there to check and water is gurgling up from the drain in the floor and there is about 2 inches of water on the floor and more coming in. I admit, I said a bad word. I run back to the house and tell my son to move the dogs up to the outdoor kennels where at least they aren't in standing water and I go back to hitting the pipe with a wrench.

I have to admit right now I really dislike my husband. He is gone for a week on a business trip. He is staying in a hotel where nothing is frozen. He is eating food he doesn't have to cook off dishes he doesn't have to wash. He is conversing with other grown ups and he has no children or dogs with him. It's not fair. And it does seem like everything falls apart when he is gone.

So now I am sitting here with the back door open so I can HEAR if the wash water backs up. Giving my son advice on how to chop up and season the jack rabbit he and his dad shot. Sharing with all of you my morning. Trying to breath deeply and calmly and focus on getting back to our day. It's 12:37 and we haven't even started school.

Maybe tomorrow I will post the silly story about Gross Things on the Farm. Today was given over to Bad Days on the Farm. Maybe not bad. Maybe just Hard. Hard Days on the Farm? Messed Up Days on the Farm? 

Okay, now the dog is out running on the road. Days on the Farm. Anybody wanna buy a farm?