Most mornings start early for me on the homestead. I went out in the blowing snow this morning to feed the animas. I slipped on a puddle that froze over and then covered over with a fresh layer of snow during the night. I laughed at myself hoping nobody saw me flailing around for a brief second before I made contact with the ground. Once I made may way into the barn I said good morning to our LGD (livestock guardian dog) and gave her some snuggles. I put some feed into some buckets and made my way out to where the hogs are. Our Boar Butch is a big lad he probably weighs over 600lbs he has a little lean-to that he sleeps all snuggled up buried in straw. Most mornings you can hear him grunting peacefully as he snoozes away. I shout over to him that his breakfast is here but that I am not serving it to him in bed, that he needs to get up. He lifts his head and looks at me with a snort an puts his head down as if to say go away! I pour his feed into his feed bowl and walk away. A little while later as I am finishing up feeding everyone else I notice that he has reluctantly made his way out of his bed of straw to get his breakfast.
I normaly get out of bed around five most mornings. This gives me some time to myslef before our household gets busy. With a family of seven it doesn’t take long to get busy. Our youngest who is six months old is up shortly after I am and full of smiles. I love morning snuggles and smiles with her, she is pretty peaceful. Then our three year old wakes up hopefully after six. Once she is awake good luck to eveyone else to continue sleeping. She is loud and full of energy, she comes down the stairs singing at the top of her voice (other than the fact that it is nice to see her so full of life and confidence to say that it is a pleasant sound would be a stretch). Our teenagers would sleep all day if given the option however around here you are expected to be up and ready for the day by eight. They roll out and make their way to the main floor of the house just in time on the weekends. Saying good moring to them may be a dangerous thing to do.
Everyone is different. Some wake up quietly smiling looking forward to the day, others wake up singing, and yet others don’t like the thought of getting up at all and do so begrudgingly.
How do you wake up? Are you a morning person?
SPLITROCK HERITAGE HOMESTEAD 