Who took care of the farm?

Curled up by the fire, I'm reading emails and relaxing on this New Years day evening. I just opened a note from my father in law to his brothers. I had to share it with you. It's the perfect description of...well...I'll let his words tell you all you need to know.

I may or may not have told you what
our plans were for Christmas. We went to Kentucky to
take care of Charley's animals so he & Jackie & John
could go to Atlanta. We left here early Wednesday
morning (of last week) and got there about 3:30 pm.
Charley got home from work about 5 pm and then they loaded
up and left for Atlanta.

My job was to feed & water the goats, feed & water
the chickens, and gather the eggs. He has 9 goats of
various sizes (all miniature ones), 16 young chickens that
are not yet laying, 6 chickens that he just recently bought
from a friend, and about 26 chickens that are laying.
All of these are in separate cages or pens so they have
separate feed and water supplies. He has 3 electric
water buckets so all you have to do is keep the water filled
to the top. The chickens then stretch their necks up
and over to get a drink. But one small group of
chickens does not have so I had to keep get the ice out of
it twice a day. It was cold there (in the low 20's)
until yesterday.

He gets about 2 dozen eggs a day, average. He has
been taking these to a friend who sells them for him.
They have their own farm and sell stuff.

The chicken in the first two pictures is one that has a
twisted beak. When he & Jackie noticed it they
discussed whether to put it out of its misery because it
would not be able to eat and would soon die, anyway.
Immediately after that, it became very friendly. So,
they have not put it down. It would fly up onto the
wall in the shed, sit on the wall, then fly from there onto
my back, if I was bent over getting feed, or onto my
shoulder. I was sure glad I had a heavy coat with a
heavy hood, which I always kept over my head.

Charley had warned me that this would happen.

But it still scared me every time it happened,

which was every day, twice a day.

I wish I had taken some pictures of what it looked like
there with all the snow on the ground. It snowed there
December 18th and again Christmas eve and Christmas
day. There was probably 2 inches on the ground.
But it started melting yesterday and was mostly all gone by
this morning.

We drove back to Wheaton this afternoon.

Bob