Norman and the ducklings are so very cute and it has been fun. But it takes a lot more time caring for them and has presented some troubles. It also causes me to worry a lot more than usual.
In the photo to the left, you can see blue twist ties on two of the ducks. Those bands mark the ducklings we are keeping and holding to tame.
Monday my cough, cold, and headache were worse. I went in to school early, because I had a bunch of printing and xeroxing I hadn't gotten done over vacation. I left school late going to my mammogram appointment and then grocery on the way home. Our load of gravel had arrived but didn't get poured in quite the right spot. I did not want it along the whole length of the garage shed, so now Joe is in the process of moving it. Where they piled it was good.... but now it needs to be spread in the low spots down the length of the drive and in some of the parking area.
Britney had opened the barn so Norman could sun...and Sir Loin came over and laid right on the other side of the gate near baby Norman. The two cows are really drawn to each other.
Missy was sunning on the deck.
Joe and Britney went in to LeRoy to complete the deal with Hutch on a new truck, trading in the old Faithful Toyota and the recent "new" truck that was not too reliable. Here is our new 2007 Dodge Ram Truck with 38,000 miles vs a total of 330,000 for the other two old vehicles.
Only problem.... the truck is too bigto fit in the garage....unless we move some storage units we have in there.
I made agratin potatoes and a big toss salad and then we headed out to our growth group pot luck in our new wheels.
Tuesday was much the same in terms of how I felt. Britney tutors on Tuesday's so we rode in to Normal together. Once home I had chores to look after since we had been gone for 5 hours. Baby Norman and baby
ducklings require
The sun did peek out a bit and it wasn't horribly cold, so I opened the barn door for Norman again. He was visiting with Sir Loin and Amiga when I left. I checked on him a bit later and he had gone back to Zorro's stall to lie under the heat lamps. I decided it was too cold for him and closed the barn door to eliminate any draft. My hurting head made it tough to focus on getting school work done, and I was really fighting the need for a nap.
Wednesday and Thursday were no different than Tuesday....I was swamped with school work, unable to focus, and kind of dragging from my cold. Britney picked up the slack and took care of Norman and the ducks, and also moving Amiga on and off green grass pasture. She is great at nurturing the animals, both with feedings and loving on them. She holds the ducks several times a day
to continue the taming process.
The barn cats have been making a killing with their mouse hunting.... literally. We regularly see them coming to the yard and barn with mice, birds, or baby bunnies hanging from their mouths. Here Missy is on the lookout for potential prey, but also very watchful of possible predator canine after her.I was hoping to ride Amiga when I got home Friday, since it had been over a week, but it was just too windy, and still rather cold. It was not near as sunny as had been predicted either. Sir Loin had broken a wood fence board and escaped from the paddock into our yard at noon. Britney had to coax him back in. This time he did not run off to Becks, because we have
fencing on all sides of our property except where the drive exits. Britney did
have to chase him around the house,
but was able to get him back in the paddock. She then locked him into the corn crib. Once Joe was home, he decided to replace the old boards with stronger ones, so he ran to LeRoy for lumber and then got to work on the fence. By now Sir Loin was out on the back pasture. I tried to work on school work, but was not well focused. Who would be on a Friday afternoon? Marj came by to drop off their manure spreader and we chatted for a bit.
Then Joe got busy loading it and moving it to the front pasture, in preparation for Marj's son, Adam, to pull and apply using their tractor.
Joe, Britney and I enjoyed dinner sitting in the dinning room watching the sun set, and I even managed to get some school work done before bed.
Saturday I was up just after 3am and on the road by 3:30. I went to Bloomington High School to help out at the Youth Relay For Life. It was a 12 hour event, from 6pm to 6am. Here is a group shot of many of the participants. Then one with most of them doing the Zumba followed by a Zumba face-off competition. And last of all, one of the ending ceremony.
Our NCHS kids did a great job. All total, the event raised over $20,000. I helped with clean up and was home by 6:40am. Once home, we put
Amiga out on the
front pasture. At first she was very leery of the manure spreader that has never been there before. But once she got a whiff of a smell she recognized, she realized it was not a predator. I was soon back to the daunting task of planning lessons for school. Happily it wasn't long before I was interrupted. Joe needed help with a few things outside and I needed to clean the duck cage and move it back to the front porch. It was just too much to have to sit with it in the office. (stinky and noisy) Joe added some manure to our garden and worked on moving more gravel. It wasn't long and Adam came to spread the manure.
Here Joe is helping Adam get the spreader hooked to the tractor.
If you have not seen a manure spreader in action, here are some shots of what it looks like. It is actually quite handy, flinging the "stuff" all over.
It wouldn't take long to empty the spreader, and Adam would head back to the paddock for more. Joe would load manure into it with our little Kabota.
It took 6 loads to eliminate our pile. During all this, Bob showed up. He came to repair the broken water pipe in the garage that goes to our hose outside. I take the credit for its freezing and breaking this year.
Bob and Adam both got done at about the same time and hit the road for home.
I did a few more cleaning tasks and Joe took off to go play cards. Just as I was coming in to get lunch and maybe take a nap, the phone rang. It was Lisa inviting me to ride at Moraine View. Because I had declined the last several times she had called, and it was so nice out, I figured school work could wait a little longer. The trailer was hooked to the truck, so off I went with that. I got to the park a little after Lisa and her two boys.
We saddled up our horses because we had a trail to ride. Notice how much better the trailer looks with the truck. It doesn't clash like it does with the forest green Expedition. That cute little horse looks good there too.
We had a great ride. Lisa's boys did very well and are fun kids. I kept Amiga in back much of the time. Out along the edge of the fields though, we could ride side by side.
I could not get Amiga to load back into the trailer to come home. She had slipped and gotten green paint on the front of her back leg on the way into the trailer at home. Now she was "trailer shy". Lisa was great help working with Amiga and we got her loaded in a little over 10 minutes. I am so blessed to have so many wonderful, helpful friends.
I woke in the middle of the night, unable to sleep and stressing about Norman, the baby ducks, Amiga, Zorro, and school work. I finally crawled out of bed at 1:30am and started in on school work. How was I going to be prepared for my teacher evaluation starting in a few days? What was I thinking "goofing off" all day yesterday? I worked till 5am, fed Norman, came in and took a nap. Now I need to head to Church to work in the nursery and then catch 2nd service. I'll also stop off at school to do some xeroxing. So that I can focus on school work when I get home, I am posting this blog this morning. If anything exciting happens today, I'll let you know next week. The good news is.... it is greening up and spring flowers continue to grow with the promise of blooming soon.
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