Well my day was planned until a knock on the door that came bright and early this morning followed by the belling of the hounds..ahh.. so out the door I went to be greeted by Farmer T’s oldest boy, and friend in tow..

Mom had sent him over to give a helping hand on the farm (and to keep him out of her hair today perhaps?) needless to say, when two eager young lads ask if they could please rake up your yard and give a hand on the daily chores, what can you do other then say yes..

What a interesting day its been, I so rarely get to spend time with teens these days, my girlfriends little ones range from six and under, so lots and lots of babies but not many teens, so rakes where handed out, gloves were given out to the friend who didn’t have any with him, wheelbarrel, water jug and we began our day..  I think they were surpised to have me working with and around them most of the time.

The morning was spent hauling downed branches to the bush pile, raking the whole front lawn, cleaning up the small hugelbeet, which got topped with rabbit poo and many loads of fall leaves..

At which point I snuck in and made a batch of lemon almond cranberry cookies along with some fresh apple and grape juice, the thank you, and wow, these cookies are still warm from the oven, where as kind and polite as possable.

.They started on the side yard, at which point Dh came up from where he had been working in the barn, and sent them home for lunch, with a welcome to come back afterwards, the oldest said, we will just finish to the tree’s and then come back..

Sure enough right after lunch they were back at it, they cleaned out my chicken pen, hauled it to be compost pile, and then put 12 wheelbarrel loads of leaves into the pen for the birds, then they cleaned the small chicken pen, 8 loads of leaves and then they cleaned the duck pen, another 13 loads, the birds are happy as clams, all my outside pens are cleaned and re-bedded down.

I cleaned out garden beds, put away things and did a general yard tidy while checking on them, they wanted to meet the critters so they petted the cow, were totally stunned of the size of the pig and at how very sweet she was.. were amazed to be mobbed by the sheep and the friend was in awe when he felt the lamb move 🙂

They watched chicks playing, ducks bathing and petted rabbits.. now both boys were hard working and as honest as they come, but it was so funny to see how Farmer T’s boy went behind and fixed his friends work at times, or how he would take the lead on how you stack that wood, or move slow now, don’t scare those birds, spread out that pile, needs another load or two, that corner is still bare..

Afterwards they cleaned the tools and hung everything up, washed out the wheelbarrel, flipped it up to dry, and brought everything neatly to the step for me to bring inside.

I figured that it was only fair to offer them a little something  as a reward, now I offered X amount (think our typical min wage per hour), and that is what I gave them, their heads went together and whispers where heard sort of, and they came back and said, it was to much! That they did this kind of work at home for free, and they had not work near hard enough for this, so they gave me back X amount till they figured it was fair. 

Wow, I have to say I enjoy the day, Dh got a whole pen cleaned in the barn, I got the whole planned weekends yard work and pen work done, and more important, I enjoyed the time with the boys, I enjoyed the quiet talking and the questions ask..

Farmer T’s boy asked if after he comes back from moose hunting with dad and deer hunting with grandpa, if maybe he could come over again and spend some time helping with something, and I said that would be just fine, he was quite excited about the hunting trip, and his football team and there was a girl that likes him but he is not sure about that yet, mom says he is still a bit young.. LOL

Was not the day I had planned, I was going to farm sale, but its a day that just fell into my lap and I am so glad that it did! Hope you had a blessed day on your homestead and feel free to share it with me!

This is a homestead Barn Hop Blogs Post