Chores

Dear Wal,

Most people don’t really understand chores. Not really, I mean. You don’t truly get the meaning of the word chore until you have animals. I mean real animals. Not just your cat and your dog and your fish. I take care of two horses and the barn that goes with them. That includes a whole host of smaller jobs and bigger jobs and all kinds of jobs and lots of dust and time.

First there’s the fence. That in itself is a monumental task. Particularly with electric fence in the middle of the forest like mine. Every time there’s a storm, whole sections of the fence go down until little twigs. Since it isn’t wood planks, it can’t even take a little pressure from a tiny branch. So then I have to troop out and wrap wire and wrestle insulators onto posts. I’m not sure what’s worse-digging postholes and hammering panels or having to fix the same fence over and over and over again. I know wooden fence is expensive, but in the long run isn’t it cheaper? I’ll have to work up the math sometime. Anyway, electric fence is a pain. When we first got Buzzy he would push on it to reach the grass outside the fence and then freak out when he got shocked, effectively ripping off the wire. It took him a year and a half for him to get out of that habit. He can be so thick sometimes. One time this branch fell on a post and drove it all the way into the ground. It was a big windstorm and a big tree.

Then there’s dust maintenance. It’s not wise to let the stuff sit and multiply, for my health and the horse’s. So then, I have to sweep out the barn every week or two which isn’t that bad as long as I keep up with it, but then every few months I have to clean out the stalls. That means taking out shavings and sweeping out the dust, and that’s just absolutely horrible. I nearly suffocate and die every time I have to clean out the stalls.

After that you have all the daily tasks; feeding (fodder and grain), mucking out of stalls, walking horses in and out. And then the odd jobs: tending hoses, washing out the trailer, cleaning tack, collecting buckets, unloading feed into bins, medical emergencies.

You complain about taking out the trash? Washing the dog? Cleaning the kitchen? That’s nothing.

/endrant

P.S. I do complain about washing the dog..and cleaning the kitchen…and doing the dishes..:D