Farm chores are the spine, the foundation, the structure and shape of a farm. They are the chess game people play with the farm, as chores are living, sentient, things, evolving changing, challenging. One kind of summer, one for winter, one for rain and mud, one for clear and beautiful days. Farm chores always wrap themselves around living things, plant or vegetable or animal, and so they mirror and reflect those things.

Ours begin just after sunrise, the animals waiting by their feeders, watching for us, feeding the chores their lives revolve around, and us. People with farms are always looking over their shoulders – water? pumps? dry hay and feed? gates good and closed? animals healthy and strong? manure cleared and moved? chickens out and fed? wires dry and working? supplied needed?

People with farms don’t go out as easily, their chores rushing around in their heads. Did she put out enough hay? Leave the dogs out long enough? Make sure the donkeys don’t steal the hay from the sheep? Is the pole barn dry, the lights out in the barn?

Farm chores do not retire, perhaps that is why I need them so much. I am always necessary.