I LOVE My Crappy Job... I Really, Really Do!

You can see the old outhouse and the former chicken coop-turned-cathouse in the background

So, what did you think my title meant?! Maybe you thought I was talking about my 8-5 office job where I was overworked and underpaid and had to deal with an egomaniac controlling freak of a boss everyday.... well, you had the underpaid part right! (And I've had my share of freak bosses in my life!!) But ya know what? I'll take this crappy job anyday over a stress-filled company job!!!

While we are building a loafing shed and larger pen for Stormy, the newest addition to our horse family, she is in a smallish pen which needs cleaned out every day, or at least every other day, or sometimes once a week.... well, you know what I mean. I've discovered it's best to stay on top of this task, or you are literally knee deep in you-know-what. Although I will give credit where credit is due, and the meadow larks do a marvelous job of breaking it all down. They are on it before it even hits the ground sometimes! Ok, maybe a slight exaggeration...

So, I decided to snap a few pictures of this glamorous job and share it with everyone. Since I decided to snap my pics before hubby left for work today, he felt bad and decided to do the nasty chore himself. Hmmm, that strategy worked quite well, maybe I should clean her pen everyday before he leaves for work....

Hey, good action shot here, could have used it for the last Sunday Stills challenge...

As you can see below, Stormy often likes to supervise the effort. She has to be one of the all around best supervisors I've ever had in my life. She knows that I'm here to do a job, and that I'll do it well because it's what I do, so she doesn't interfere and try to tell me a better way to get it done. No, as a matter of fact, sometimes she even obliges by adding to the surplus while I'm there so I can do my job as effectively as possible. She's just happy for the companionship, although she's always angling for a horsey treat, or a scritch behind the ears.

Shoveling the crap into the wheelbarrow, while Stormy supervises

So then, once all the crap is in the wheelbarrow, it needs to be dumped in the back 40 ~ this was especially fun on the really cold wind-chill days this past winter. Sometimes I just didn't make it all the way to the back of the pasture, because I knew if I got that far out, my frozen legs wouldn't get me all the way back up to the house! Once I dump it in several small piles, I usually rake it out, just so it will finish drying out and fertilize the soil quicker.

So I would say this task takes the place of the workouts I would do when I lived in the city -- the bike rides, the weight bench, the aerobics. Don't you think so??!

Well, enough for the computer today, it's 79 already and I'm heading outside to sit in the backyard for a spell, maybe even get a little sun! yippee!!

The back-40 trek