This week on the dairy farm my husband Dan did all the daily chores by himself (including the milking – his normal routine) while his brother Denis (whose responsibilities are feeding, filling, and fixing things) was gone. No worries, Denis was on vacation, not down and out because of illness or injury. We don’t begrudge him his time away, and looked forward to living vicariously through his phone calls home.
The beginning of the week was intense, more so because of our anticipation that whatever could go wrong, would go terribly, horribly wrong - so in order to keep from being overwhelmed, Dan compartmentalized each individual “chore-time” (2 per day). As they were completed, he checked them off on a chalkboard: one of 15 done; 2 of 15; 7 down, 8 to go. As a result at the end of each day there was satisfaction and a sense of accomplishment, instead of obsessing about how much more work there remained to be done.
He caught a break when the iced-over driveways receded and the weather mellowed; snowbanks disappeared to reveal mounds of turf and the pig’s waterer unfroze. Was it a sign of an early spring? Or global warming? Whatever it was, we’ll gladly have it instead of thundersnow and ice storms while Denis is away. Even with water coming in to our basement and the persistent growling of the dragon therein (I still don’t know what causes that) – incidences on the farm of machinery seizing or freezing were few, except when the alley scraper – the metal thing that moves manure off the barn floors and into the pit – unraveled and went off the ‘rails’. This wasn’t so catastrophic since it has been in a revolving state of just repaired or just broken for some time now.
Midweek, Dan found time to finalize his root canal surgery and make two cheese deliveries to Burlington. Though, when I mentioned in passing that I had read about an elderly couple in a Colchester trailerpark who were too poor to repair their damaged roof, he retorted, “Are you asking me to take care of that too?” He then required rewards for completing each day’s tasks: chocolates, pie, and maple fudge.
Toward the end of the week he gave much thought to cutting down the dead fir trees in the driveway that had become a constant source of irritation. I’m guessing this was more to distract himself from thinking about farm work because he didn’t actually do it. When the chalkboard reached “0”, we went out to dinner and marked the occasion with some friends.
Dan and I have always had an appreciation for what his brother does and is around here, so this past week wasn’t a lesson in taking stock of your assets and liabilities…but it has again brought home the reality that there’s no one waiting in the wings to step up and take over, nor indeed to take either man’s place if they are incapacitated for an extended period of time. More food for thought.
