Tranquility

Even though I am not a morning person, I find mornings on the farm to = tranquility.

It's quiet and dark, and all the alpacas do is walk and eat. 

J and I both have regular day jobs in addition to our farm business.  This works very well for us, but does mean I need to be organized to make sure everything gets done.  Since J has to be at work early and has a longer commute than I do, I am on duty for the morning farm chores (even with doing that I still get an extra 45 minutes of sleep than what he gets).

I get up at 6:30 a.m. and throw on my farm gear over my pj's.  It's still dark out but the cats are always there to greet me.  I feed them first (otherwise they are underfoot when I try to dish out the alpaca's grain).  Cats are fed, then I move onto alpaca grain.

We separate out our alpacas at grain time so that we can tailor their grain to their needs (some get more grain, some get beet pulp in addition to grain, and some get a very small grain portion, all based on their body score and individual need).

After grain I move onto hay. I get a bale of hay out of our hay tent, and put it on the wagon.  Some of the eager beavers start chowing then:

It's not just the young ones that rush over for hay, all the alpacas think the hay from the hay tent is much better than the hay in their bins - funny since it's all the same hay, but they are convinced new from the hay tent is better :)

Here are a couple of the maidens gathering around their hay bin:

and some of our older moms:

In the background in those pictures you can see our poop scoop and rake. I do clean up poop daily, but not in the morning. For one, it's too dark (I can't see what I'm raking up). Also, I have less time in the morning (have to get the kids to school on time), and I find this time of year it's more frozen in the morning so harder to clean up. Every afternoon I scoop it up. This makes for a clean area for them, and also reduces the risk of parasites.

I have never been one to exercise in the morning, but with doing farm chores, I can see how that early morning activity is healthy.  I hate getting out of bed, but once I'm out there doing the chores, it feels like the perfect start to each day.