Last Day of School

It's happened. School is officially over for the summer. Two and half months of all day boy stuff.
School begins August 17. And yes I'm counting the days until then. I dearly love my boys but they have so much energy. And it was over 90* today.
Picked up the turkeys and Magie gave me 3 cayuga ducklings for a goose. Still waiting for Lucky Duck to hatch her eggs.
I'm thinking that my mom needs to start a blog, her children and grandchildren could keep up with what's going on. I think she's busier now that she's retired from teaching.

And the chickens just keep coming

So on Monday I took a rooster, 8 2-month old chicks and 4 2-week old chicks to the auction. Brought home 4 chicks (hey, they are cochins) and (3) year-old cochin hens.
Tuesday the pipe under the sink started leaking.
Wednesday, that's today, this am the post office tells me that my chicks and Magie's goslings are in so I go rushing up to get them - 15 miles one way. Not my chicks and it's a good thing since most of the probably 100 chicks in the box had died. Took a load of fencing over to Magie's new place, raced to Fountain to get dog food since we were so out. and got Granny some chocolate syrup. Came back for the awards program at the school. Andy and Alex both did well in reading, math, writing. Alex won for best Kindergarten artist and Andy took the only science award in 2nd grade.
Then I called the post office in the city and my chicks had just come in on the truck so we dashed to town to get them. Had dinner at McDonalds. Ate in the car on the way home. Got the chicks settled in, gave Lori and Larry each a bottle. We are going to dry up Luna, she's not nursing with mastitis on one side and a cut on the other side.
Tomorrow, Thursday, I'm volunteering at the school. I did get a cup for during the award ceremony for volunteering. Friday a.m. Magie and I go to the co-op to pick up her other goslings and my turkeys. School gets out at 1 pm after the school barbeque.
This weekend we are putting in the veggie garden, planting Andy's flower garden, moving the nesting box.
And sometime soon, Lucky Duck should hatch her 10 eggs plus the one chicken egg she's sitting on. And we really need to wether Jester, Joker and Simon. with Larry to follow soon thereafter.

Menu planning

I find it helps to write out the menu for a week. A week is about all I can deal with and still follow it pretty closely.

Sunday - pot roast with corn and mashed potatoes (the girls were over for supper)

Monday - I'm taking the boys to see "Shrek - the final chapter" and then do a little shopping and then have supper at Country Buffet. I have coupons for the boys to eat free.

Tuesday - Stew made from the left over pot roast

Wednesday - Pork chops, black beans and rice, fruit cocktail

Thursday - Spaghetti (Andy's favorite) and salad

Friday - Pizza and ice cream

Saturday - possibly going to MIL we do most Saturdays

And on Wednesday I have baby turkeys (4 royal palms and 3 bronze) coming (at the co-op) and 19 chicks coming in the mail. I ordered 11 russian orloffs, 3 are roosters and 8 straight run crested polish assortment. I'm also going into the Springs to pick up new doors, self leveling cement and flooring for the den. I found an awesome chair for the computer desk at Goodwill.

Tuesday and Thursday I'll volunteer for the last time at the school. Thursday is also field event day and elementary awards.

Friday is the last day of school with a barbeque and early dismissal.

It's a part of country living

This morning the dogs were barking and barking. I thought maybe we had a coyote. I went outside to make sure the baby goats were alright and as I got closer to the dog pen I could hear that distinctive rattle.
It was a 3 foot long rattle snake.
I grabbed the long handled shovel and proceeded to slice the snake with it. I didn't actually cut through the snake but the job was done. I picked up the snake with shovel and threw it in the burn barrel. We generally have one or two rattlers at the house area a year. Usually one or two of the animals get bit a year. So far, knock on wood, no people have gotten bitten.
We usually kill a large number of snakes by driving over them on the roads. I couldn't find any animals with bites this time. Although one of our cats, Milo, has now been missing for five days. We still have his mother, Sheba, brother Socks and half brother Cosmo. And Tigger, Salem, Rocky, Ben (who is Sheba's brother), Meigs and Keiko. Just the girls, Sheba and Keiko are in the house.

And two more equals thirteen

It finally happened. I came home from volunteering at the school today to find that Luna had two babies. Last year she had one baby, dropped him in the middle of the field and fled. This year she had Lora and Larry in the barn, cleaned and fed by the time I found them. She was laying next to them. I moved them into the kid room.
So now we have 13 goats.
1. Sage who is the mother of Luna and Jet and this years Simon and Sasha
2. Lily who is the mother of Jester and Joker
3. Jet (see Sage) who is the mother of Jem.
4. Luna (see Sage) who is the mother of Lora and Larry
5. Little orphan babies Baby and Heartlee.
That's 13 goats. I shouldn't have a weed problem this year. Going to have to save some money to buy hay this winter.
And we have the baby chickens, baby ducks waiting to be hatched in the shed under their mother, baby turkeys coming on the 26th and maybe a baby llama coming the end of summer. Just babies everywhere.

It was a nice day for mothers

So yesterday morning, Peter brought me breakfast in bed. He had made blueberry pancakes from scratch. He always makes pancakes from scratch. The blueberries are the fat juicy kind as opposed to the hard dried out kind. Sadly, while the outside of the pancakes were done, the interior was not. So while he made some more, I went out to do the farm chores. Luna still hasn't had those babies yet. I asked Sophie if she had told her mom happy mother's day. She just wanted to be feed. Silly horse.
I came back into the house and Andy and Alex had eaten all the pancakes. So on our way to my parent's house we stopped in Limon and got drinks and I had a snickers bar for breakfast.
We had a very nice day. We gave my mom a framed b&w photo of the boys and she gave me some metal butterflies for the garden. I seem to have some sort of condition which enables me to always leave something at their house. So this time I left the butterflies. I had left the camera and the soy oil at home. And my dad's birthday present (it's in January). Maybe for Alex's birthday in July.
If anyone is reading this blog, please leave a little note to say that you are. Or am I just spinning my wheels writing to the wind?