Even Hours

We have things quite scheduled here at Yesteryear Acres so that all the creatures big and small get cared for properly.  Dinners for humans are planned around school activities and sports.  We make it a priority to always eat dinner together, at the dining room table, with no cell phones, no texting, no computers, no instant messaging and no TVs.  You know like back in the day when parents asked their kids, "how was school" and kids answered back right away and said "boring".  Not like today when parents ask kids, "how was school" and then there is a long indeterminate pause where all you here is the clicking of the keys on the cell phone so they can tell their BFF Waz up? and How R U? and LOL, and then finally you get a "huh? did you say something? oh yea school was boring." Nope we don't do that here.  We have real conversations and real laugh out louds. Sometimes we eat dinner ridiculously early so we are sure to make it to a meet on time and other times we eat dinner WAY late in the evening after a meet is over. It is nice to make having meals together a priority and I think the kids will remember all the family dinners we have enjoyed.  The care of our four legged family members is also very scheduled. New puppy pictures are taken over the weekend. Mondays are puppy nail trimming days. Fridays are "sanitary" trimming days. Wednesday we check ears and make sure they are all nice and clean. Some chores are done EVERY single day. Doggie pans, puppy pans, and water buckets get scrubbed and cleaned every day.  Poop gets cleaned up from the yard many times daily and all the doggie runs are cleaned no matter what Mother Nature has planned for that day.  The hottest day of summer with heat indexes reaching way over 100* does not prevent the good ole poop clean up.  Blizzards, ice storms, torrential downpours - it doesn't matter because poop happens no matter what the weather.  Poop removal is done here every single day of every single week of every single month of every single year.  Even on Christmas.  There are no days off. Puppy poop gets cleaned up about every 15 minutes.  Puppies are messy and need lots of attention. They also go outside every 2 hours like clock work. Depending on the energy level of the humans - the first time out is somewhere between 6am and 7am. If it is a 7am morning - then you know that all day long - it is an odd hour day.  Puppies get watered and go out at 7am, 9am, 11am, 1pm and so on.  Last out of the evening is somewhere between 11pm and midnight.  We rarely go to bed before midnight so usually midnight wins. Today was an even hour day.  The puppies did really well and almost every puppy actually went potty outside each time they went outdoors.  They are good puppies! They are super loving too.  They made the even hour day go by pretty quickly and were very appreciative of all the love. I have a T-shirt that says "Agenda for the Day" ... "Let Dog In....Let Dog Out....Let Dog In....Let Dog Out....Let Dog In.....Let Dog Out.....Let Dog In..." and so on. I wear it sometimes in case I need help remembering just what it is I am supposed to do ha ha ha ha. It is quite appropriate isn't it?  So tomorrow if you happen to look at the clock and it is let's say 11am...and it is an odd hour day - you will know exactly what I am doing right at that moment.  I probably will be right in the middle of letting a dog in.....letting a dog out.