A typical day, Friday, 25 May 2007
5 am: Alarm clock rings – get up. Go to the cowshed. Milk the cows.
6 am: Go back into the house, wake up Katrin for school, get the sandwiches for school and breakfast ready. Katrin gets picked up by the school bus at 6.30.
6.30 am:Back to the cowshed. Hans has finished milking the cows in the meantime. Wash the milking equipment. Get the milk tank ready for being picked up at 7 am.
7 am: I go back into the house to wake up Martin and Doris for school. Breakfast – they get picked up by the school bus at 7.30.
7.30 am: Back to the barn – feed the pigs, hens, goat and rabbit. In the meantime, Hans goes out into the field to fence off a new bit of pasture for the cows. Cows and heifers are driven out to pasture. Finish cleaning the barn.
8.45 am: Our well–earned breakfast is waiting.
9.30 – 12 am: Housework, cooking; Hans repairs the fencing.
12 pm: Martin comes home from school first.
1 pm: Doris comes home from school lunch. Tidy up kitchen, hang up the washing at some point.
2 pm: Katrin comes home from school also wanting lunch. Hans chops firewood in the afternoon. Supervise the children’s homework and housework at the same time.
4 pm: Regina comes home from boarding school with a lot to tell. We have a coffee break.
5 pm: Go to the barn, milk the cows, feed them – the same jobs as in the morning. When I have finished in the shed, some gardening.
8 pm: The chores are done – the children can stay up a bit later today because they do not have school on Saturday. I do the ironing. Hans does the office work.
10 pm: We go to bed – it was another tiring, but good day.