I am house-sitting for the assistant director of my agency in the County of Alameda. She lives in the Oakland hills in a home built in the 1930s. It's huge, is on three levels, is rambling, etc. I have two cats and three chickens to care for. My first day started after work yesterday. So many stairs...up to the bedroom, down to the living area where the dining room and main kitchen are, and then down again to the TV room and second kitchen where the cats are fed. There is a side door on the second (albeit the "street") level with some steep steps going to a door out of which I must trod to reach the chickens...down three more flights of steps to the tiered-off garden and chicken coop area. Actually, there is a coop and henhouse. And then there is a fenced-in exercise area. I was given freedom from actually herding them into the exercise area, but I thought "what the heck"! I swear, chickens are really odd. And I chased one chicken all over the garden area. I was up and down those steps several times before tackling each chicken one at a time and putting them back into the coop. I got more exercise yesterday than I normally get in a month. Seriously.
I slept VERY WELL last night on a wonderfully firm mattress in the "unused" master bedroom (the owner of the house says it's too large for her tastes and she uses an adjoining, small room). Her "roommate" has a bedroom on the 1st level (down where the cats hang out).
