Welcome to my little farm . . .

This is the first place I visit every morning. I love early morning before everyone is awake and before the rumble of trucks can be heard as they descend the first of the Seven Mountains.

When it is super cold and windy out like it has been for the past week or so and when the fire in the stove has died down, it is really difficult to crawl out from under the blankets on the sofa.

Yes, I sleep on the sofa. First of all, I'm a bit paranoid and from the sofa, I can view everything: the wood stove, the front and back doors, the stairway. But I digress.

In the mornings, waaaay before it is time for the kids to get up and get ready for school, I'll sneak out from under my blankets real quick. I'll turn on the coffee pot, run to the bathroom, and then hurry back to the sofa before my chihuahua, Tipper, even knows I'm gone. The other dogs don't even bother: they can sense when I'm getting up to take care of business and when I am really getting up. Until they know I'm planning to head outside, they stay curled up and fast asleep.

When I can hear that the coffee pot is done - which isn't difficult because it is THE noisiest coffee pot in the world, I'll zip out again, grab a cuppa, and then hurry back to catch the weather on TV. In the winter time, there is always a good chance of a 2 hour delay for our school district.

As frigidly cold as it has been and as crazy windy as it gets (I swear, you can feel winter blow in during October and back in April), I can't wait to just get my outside chores over with. But it never fails. Once I get outside and get moving, I can stay outside forever. I have a system to my chores: first feed and open the door on the chicken house, then give Snowball a treat. After that it is yams for the horses, goats, and Dolly Llama. Each of my four-legged friends gets two treats. After that, I put out hay, do the poop-scooping boogey, give everyone fresh water, and then I'm done.

Interspersed with all of this are several trips to put the chihuahuas back in the house because when it is cold, they only go out for a few minutes. I make at least two trips back to the house to referee fights amongst the kids and to encourage my youngest son to please, please, PLEASE, get totally ready for school before playing with his tec decs.

I don't know how I woke up before I had my little farm. I've always been a morning person and before kids would often be done with my daily run by 6:30 am. Going out so early in the day and being able to greet the rising sun with a purpose, is so calming for me. And a great way to begin my day.

So that is me, One Old Goat, and my little farm.