The Whatchamacallit Broke

Last Friday The Farmer and I took our oldest daughter off to college. She wanted to leave by 8:30, so that she could have plenty of time to meet her new roommate and get settled in the dorm room before her orientation meetings started. We knew that, and prepared by getting up early enough to get all the chores done.

Feed ewe and ram lambs--check. Feed rams--check. Feed horses--check. Feed cattle--check. Run feed in automatic feeders in chicken coop in preparation for Saturday's baby peeps arrival--check. Make compost--check. Shower--check. Wait! We forgot to turn the heat on in the chicken coop to warm it up for the new babies. (They need it to be 90 degrees when they are a day old.) Run back in the coop to start the five furnaces.

And only one starts. What can it be? Is it the tremendous humidity? We accumulated over 5" of rain last week, more than all the rest of the summer put together. Or just the bad luck that seems to haunt us whenever we have pressure and need something to work?

We ended up leaving for college 45 minutes later than our daughter would have liked. And The Farmer smelled a bit like a chicken coop, despite his shower and formerly clean clothes. When we left the college campus, we would have liked to stop at a restaurant on the way home to celebrate The Farmer's 45th birthday and talk over the events of the day. Instead, we rushed home to try to fix the four furnaces that didn't work...

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