Rural Roots 10: “Chores and the Animals”

My parents instilled in me at a young age the value of doing chores and having responsibilities. I had two chores that I was responsible for on the farm. With moms help feeding the Pigs and gathering eggs from the Chickens was my daily activity. Now keeping in mind I started this ritual around 5 years old, so getting to hang out with the animals was all fun in my world. One day my world and my chore duties along with it changed forever.

I took my job very seriously, I had my own pail and plastic shovel to feed the Pigs with and everything. Well, one day that large Sow was not too happy with me; along with its food she decided she was going to eat my shovel in it’s entirety. It was shocking to my little self thinking “now the Pig is going to die” that, however, was not the case.

Interesting incidences would always come up on the farm, the turkeys were no different. We used to house our Turkeys and chickens together and soon found out what Turkeys DON’T like. They let me know pretty quickly they had a dislike for the color red. Well, one fateful day, Mr. turkey decided to go after my red jacket and rip at the arm. Thank goodness Mom was with me as she was able to chase him away. They do say timing is everything as the eggs were gathered before Mr. Turkey had his way with my red jacket.

Lesson learned; don’t wear red, and keep shovels away from Pigs.