August 27, 2007 – The life of a farm goddess is not simple. Neither is the life of a farm, which revolves continuously around chores – feeding, fixing, replacing, watering. Every morning Annie shows up, and makes sure all of the animals have fresh water and grass and hay. We meet every morning and go over the animal’s welfare, and the things that need to be done on the farm. Often, we do chores together, as in this morning when I took the sheep out and Annie washed out the sheep’s water trough, which had gotten scrungy in the morning heat. We talked about getting all the hay feeders ready for the winter, getting in the final load of hay this week and patching up the fences where the goats might get out. She was distraught that lightning blew out her computer files this weekend, but as Annie often is, was cheerful and chatty five minutes late. She went out and filled the water trough, calling out to the sheep by name and chatting with them. They are lucky to  have her, and so am I. She checks on every animal on the farm at least once, perhaps twice a day, and is a major reason they are so calm and  loving with one another and with people.