So, it's Sunday evening, and I'm using agonizingly slow internet at my parents' farm - so I've given up any hope of amusing myself by surfing the web and have decided to write something instead (knowing that it will probably take half the night to actually post it).

Anyway, I'd love to be watching tv at the moment but the dogs are all over me if I try to sit on the couch. At least if I sit at the computer, the three of them pile around me on the floor. I'm on the 'GSD' shift at the moment (meaning, the three german shepherds are inside with me for their hour of house-time). Then I have to still do the four crazy Parson Russell Terriers and finally, the old guys can come back in (a golden retriever, a sheltie, and a Parson Russell who isn't old but she's quiet).

So has gone every evening for me for the last four in a row. I arrived here Wednesday with my dog, Tigger, unpacked the van, and started my adventure as a 'farm girl' extraordinaire. Let me tell you, it's exhausting, though I am slightly proud that I have managed to get through it without killing anything.. :)

My day starts at 7:40 am, when the young terrier, who hasn't yet learned the wonders of sleeping in, begins to scream. (For those of you who haven't owned a terrier before, this is akin to what a regular dog would sound like if you ran over its leg with your car, or some other similarily horrible incident... They SCREAM, and I've timed one of them at two high-pitched barks per SECOND, in two-minute intervals while I'm trying to take a much needed nap...)

So I stumble out of bed and throw my boots on to greet the day (yes, on the farm, boots and pj's are incredibly functional and fashionable, don't you know). :) Anyway, so first off, I head out to the 'dog room' where I'm greeted with various ear-splitting screetches and bellows, and I grab the three GSDs and throw them into their run, enduring a literal 'pummeling' of claws and teeth as they excitedly greet me, to open the door to the outside run. That one done, I do it again, twice more, with the various terriers. Then I find somewhere for the old guys to go outside.

I then alternate trying to make coffee, feed myself, feed the cats, and get dressed with feeding the puppies and Tigger and making sure everyone has time to do their business before I close down the runs of the smaller dogs who need to stay warm.
That done, I throw on my horse attire (ie: it's allowed to smell like a stable) and head out to the barn to put the horses out into the fields, muck their stalls, change their water, put new bedding in stalls, put hay out for breakfast, and hay in stalls for night, and sweep the aisles, before changing stallions (one out at a time) and heading in for lunch (yes, it takes about 2.5 to 3 hours to get all that done by myself).

By this time, the dogs all need to go out again, so I do that while feeding myself lunch.

After lunch, I've been taking two of the GSDs for a walk to the back of the farm, and then I spend the better part of my afternoon cleaning up after whoever has decided to poop on the floor or track shavings across the floor (myself included), and rotating them through time in the yard, time in the house, and time in their runs.

I usually just start to settle into something relaxing, like thinking about opening a book, finding some good music to listen to, or whatever, when I realize it's 4:00. That's feeding time at the ranch. :) So I get back into my barn clothes and boots, and stomp out to the barn to bring the horses all back in, give them their grain and fill up their water dishes, and then lock down the barn for the day.

By the time I get back, it's time to feed the dogs. So I get all their dishes ready, then bring each group in and crate them with their supper.

During this brief lapse in animal company (minus the cats who are still following me around and throwing my stuff on the floor, jumping into the dryer when I'm loading it and not paying attention, and sitting on the dining room table), and Tigger, who eats in with me, I decide to try to make dinner. So I make some little thing for myself to eat, and scarf that down before Tigger decides he needs out again (he's having a tough time adjusting to the water so when he needs out, he means it), and so all the dogs need out.

After supper, I lock the runs down in the garage (as in, I close the doors to the outside runs, so it stays warmer in there) and I start the shifts of each group getting an hour inside with me while I attempt to relax. I just threw the GSD's out a few minutes early because they'd finally become quiet, when I heard a funny popping sound coming from the kitchen. They were in the washroom where I'd stowed a garbage bag, and were busy trying to eat a pizza box. Now the terriers are in and I am doing a fairly good job of ignoring their skittering little bodies as they fly all over the house, sniffing and nipping and getting into things... And now one of the old dogs is scratching and whining at the door.

I managed to handle this for five days. I have one more to go. I certainly couldn't do it forever though. I'd go friggin crazy... (Someone just opened a kitchen cupboard door, be right back...) Anyway, my day will end at 10:00 (I can't stay awake much beyond that, because of my helpful canine alarm clock), and will have involved one more shift of dogs coming in, and one more session of them all going out to do their business, before they all are brought in and put to bed with a cookie for being such 'good dogs'... :) I don't know how my parents do this!

Anyway, so yes, tomorrow it's back to Ottawa, back to a job that bores me to tears, and back to my own home, where I can hopefully learn to appreciate how unstressful it is to take care of just ONE dog, instead of 9...

'Night!
S