The best part of milking in the morning is bringing the cows back out to the pasture. It's one of those peaceful things: walking through the grass in the morning sunshine, surrounded by the cows slowly wandering up the hill. It smells like dew and sunrise and the dirt beneath your feet.
The rest of morning chores smells like grain. The pigs are always happy to see us coming, and the chickens begin flocking over as soon as you appear. The chicks still flee to the corners of their pens, but they'll learn soon enough.
And there's always something random to see in the parking lot at some point. This is what we call a farm fix.
The sheep are on pasture right next to a kindergarten, and when I rode in on my bike to check on them this morning, I was waylaid by an arriving teacher and invited inside. It was really nice and they called me Farmer Lydia and wanted to know if I lived in the little green trailer.