Farm Flaw

I have spent the last year and a half teaching at my Farm School. I love it there. The staff, kids, and I all get along marvelously. Doing chores every seven weeks was even ok. Lily, Wooly, Lucy and Bob were fabulous.

But sometimes what I don't know won't hurt me. I stick to the main walkway in the barn; I don't look too closely at anything. Once our social worker said she saw a mouse in the barn, but I sort of tucked that information away. 

I get it that many farms have small animals. I do not want to see them, hear them, or talk about them. So far, so good.

Now it's summer and I have no farm chores. My chore boots are locked up in the school. I am out of the farm/chore routine. And my friend, who lives just a couple miles out of town, is away for awhile and has asked me to take care of her animals, morning and evening.

No problem. Chickens, a cat, some ducks, and water the garden. Start the first chore day...

The chickens are in a moveable trailer, but I couldn't move it. Asked my younger son to go into the duck barn to check the water. He came to me and very calmly said he is never going back in there again. He saw a mouse. I quickly told him to not say another word about that incident (I had to go in there to get the chicken food) and we moved on. 

Now it was time for me to go into the barn to get food to top off the chicken food. As I was walking to the barn my heart started racing. My palms got very sweaty. I arrived at the barn door and stopped. My foot would not step up. I stood still for a moment and then backed away. I am sorry chickens, I cannot not go into the barn that has a mouse in it.

We finished up the chores and headed home. I was having a bit of an attack of some kind. My body was shaking, my heart was racing. I was trying to block out what I had learned about that barn.

As we walked into the house, my husband said, I guess we now know your farm flaw. He wasn't being mean, he was stating the fact. He came with me for the next chore time. He moved the chicken trailer and went into the barn with a mouse. He is my hero.

Yep, I do have a farm flaw. And now that we all know it, I hope that everyone around me will make sure to do any chore for me that includes being near a mouse.