Every morning Ann would wake up around 5 am, go to the kitchen and build a fire in the old
wood cook stove to boil her coffee. She would start her day off the same way every day. While
the coffee was making, she would go outside to the smokehouse, cut down a slab of bacon for
breakfast, bring it back into the house, slice it up and fry it. Alongside it came a pan of biscuits
and eggs. She loved the simple farm life she had. Once Paw and the kids were fed it was time to
make her rounds feeding the animals, by now the chickens were wide awake pecking around
waiting for their feed and clucking their happy, little song, as they often did just before they laid
their eggs. And, of course Molly the milk cow had awakened and started to bawl, letting her
know that she was hungry and that her utter was full and ready to be milked. Ann loved to milk
Molly, for she was just the kindest and gentlest milk cow, and then she could process it into
butter, cheese and buttermilk for later use. Soon after the milking was done, it was time to feed
Henry the horse. If you did not feed him his breakfast he refused to do his daily chores. Henry
was kind of like a child in that way. And, of course, you could never forget Bob the Billy Goat.
If he did not get his breakfast in a timely matter he would come up behind Ann and give a her a
little nudge with his horns to remind her. Ann, then made her way around to the pig pen and
noticed that Petunia the Pig had her litter the night before of 15 baby pigs, so she decided that
Petunia was going to need a lot more slop and grain for a while. Then it was off to feed the
geese, turkeys and ducks. Gigi the goose had 11 goslings that followed here everywhere she
went, honking behind her. However, Ann noticed that Tabitha the Turkey was nowhere to be
found, that worried her so she went on the hunt for her to find she had hatched out 13 baby
turkeys. So, she left her feed at the nest so she would not have to leave the babies. Ann loved
each and every animal on her farm and every one of them had a purpose. Now that the animals
were all fed and she had found that the family was growing, it was time to go back to the house
to start dinner and do some laundry. Ann did not have a washing machine and dryer so she
broke out the old wash board and tub and baled the water from the well to begin scrubbing the
clothes and hang them on the line to dry. By this time Paw and the children had to plow the
fields and mend the fence. By the time all this was finished, it was time to start supper and teach
the children their lessons for the day. As nighttime fell, it was time to light the oil lantern, brush
your hair, change into night clothes, go to bed and get a good night’s rest. For tomorrow it was a
new day to do the same things all over again.
