Yesterday I stayed home sick. At first I felt bad because I thought I could have made it at work if I tried, but by the end of the day, I was extremely glad I had stayed home and close to the bathroom. My problem is that I feel like I could probably make it at work again today, but as with yesterday, I am wondering if I should stay close to the bathroom? I would like to call in and tell my boss one way or the other, but I need to be up and going for a bit more time before I know. Grrr. I have a great boss and hate the idea of leaving her hanging. I suspect I shall try to go in today for better or worse. At least if I go in and have to come home, she will know I tried.

This morning while drinking my first coffee I was doing my usual and watching the chickens in the back. Betty was on top of her improvised coop when I saw she had something green in her beak just before she jumped down and dashed to the other side. I cursed a word rhyming with witch as I realized she had snagged one of the bean leaves, but my mild frustration soon turned to humor as I watched her play keep away with the other chickens. That apparently was her leaf and she wasn't sharing. Wilma chased Betty all over the coop trying to get a taste of the leaf, but Betty was having none of it. Let me assure you that pets are a great source of laughter if you will let them be.

Speaking of pets, we watched Marley and me last night. It was a cute movie and made me miss Sasha all over. I personally think that training a dog is very important, but I can appreciate that dogs like people have there limits.

I think I am going to crawl back into bed for and hour and hope things settle a little better. Have a great day.

Hugs to all
 

Once again I sit at my computer enjoying the day outside. Yesterday evening I went out and pulled weeds. Mundane enough chore, but it is where I put them when I got them pulled that makes this morning fun for me. I put the weeds in the chicken coup and the girls are just having a blast eating. Weeds seem to be to them like icecream and cake is to us.

During my weed pulling and dumping spree I took my girls and put them in the small cage that I have located between the peppers and tomato plants, at the moment. They went to town on the greens available there too. As a matter of fact, they were so enthusiastic about eating anything green I had to put a barrier between their cage and the tomato plants because I didn't know if tomato leaves are poisonous to chickens or not and the girls seemed willing to eat anything they could reach.

At the end of the evening I made my husband come outside and watch me herd the girls back to their pen. I find it so cute and funny to do. Unlike when I have to catch them to put them in the second pen, when it is time to go home I just open the door and slowly follow and guide them back to their house. They run right for home and the only thing I have to worry about is their finding the doorway.

In other less chickeny news, I finished two Barbie and one Kelly dresses. I think they came out lovely as well as the doily I have been working on for my brother and sister-in-law. Here they are.

Yesterday we went to a good-bye party for some friends of ours. It was hard to do. I watched them and wondered if we would be the next ones to leave the community. The question then becomes if we go, where do we go? But that is for another blog.

The good-bye party was very nicely arranged and I was happy that they would have that to remember us by. Not that I can take any credit for it.

Everyone arrived around four, my family was one of the first ones there, not the first, but close. I sat on the gliding swing that the Spangler's have and started working on a Kelly doll dress. It may seem like a strange way to handle a party, but for all that I am a very outgoing person one on one, large parties intimidate me. I tend to slide into the background and pounce on other people that are by themselves, but not on groups.

I did get up and move about. I even went and sat at one of the tables that the Spangler's rented for the event. But in the end, I ended up back on the sliding swing next to my husband and visited with quite a few people that moved about near us.

Most parties are about the food and boy did they get it right. Jerry and Ayron grilled up hot dogs, sausages, and hamburgers to die for. (I always find a bit of irony in the fact that my husband will grill or cook meat, but can't eat it) I am not sure who made what, but at the serving tables there were many, many salad dishes... A pasta salad that I had seconds of, two letuce salads, and two potato salads. The sad part was there was not room enough on a plate for too much of everything. At the meat table were the grilled items and a humungous crock of scalloped potatoes, again beyond delicious.

The deserts were of course heavenly. There were cute mini cup cakes, and regular sized cup cakes, both chocolate and vanilla and possibly cinimon. Darcy brought pumpkin bars and someone made a rhubarb pie and brownies. And as I arrived Jerry was just finishing up the rice crispy treats.

I am sure I left out something in the telling, but oh my. I wish that I had thought to take a picture of all of it, but I didn't.

If it sounds like a good party. it was. Not only did everyone have the pleasure of visiting there was a trampoline for the kids to play on as well as a swing set that Jerry built years ago with sand all around it and a dog that couldn't get enough of playing fetch. At the end of the evening the finally was that Jerry had gotten some fire works and he let each young man over the age of eight and under the age of 12 help him light a non leathal fire work. Boy did the boys like that and we, of course enjoyed watching the results.

Unfortunately, like all wonderful things, the party ended around 10:00p.m. It may not sound late, but it started at 4:00 p.m. That is six hours of fun and most of the people there had young children and everyone needed to be up early today for services at the Kingdom Hall.

Oh and I think the Spanglers found a new home for their ginny pigs too. A family with two boys around eight and ten found out that the ginny pigs needed new homes and I think they took them. That will be a relief to Jerry and Alex. One less set of pets to take care of.

By the end of the evening, I had finished all that I could of the Kelly dress and now I will be able to give it and two others to coworkers and thus be done with that project. All and all a perfect end to a great day!

I hope that those who read this had just as wonderful a day.

Hugs
 

Well, the great Duck experiment of '09 did not work out quite the way I had hoped. Apparently ducks are a bit louder than chickens and they are messier too. After two days of debate and discussion Ayron and I took the ducks back and traded them for two juvenile hens with the guarantee that should I discover one or both are roosters I can trade them in. I now have four chickens, Betty and Wilma who you know then Pebbles and Hoppy. I am going with the Flinstone theme all the way. Yes, Hoppy was a flintstone character. Hoppy was the Rubbles pet and not to my knowledge named male or female.

I am embarrassed to admit that my chickens lived up to their names when the ducks moved in. They spent most of their time hiding from the strange birds. This time around it is the new guys that are hiding while Betty and Wilma work the pen like they own the place. With fresh weeds to eat they are pecking and scratching for all they are worth like happy chickens.

There was a second reason to go visit Rita. She had rocks. That is right, she had two wagon loads full of field stones and I needed some. Three trips later Ayron and I had collected enough field stones to fill in a small square area between my steps and the entrance to the cellar. It looks much better there now.

As if that wasn’t enough to do we also headed to Spirit Lake to do some much needed shopping. Since we hadn’t been to Wally World in about a month we walked the whole store which left me with aching feet when it was time to go.

Being home is a relief , though with the setting of the sun I am reminded that tomorrow is just a few hours away and then it is back to work again. Don’t get me wrong, I like work just fine, but I like time off just a much or possibly a little more.

I shall go read now and leave you to your regularly scheduled day.

Hugs to all

 

Yes, you read the title right. Ducks. I bought two yesterday. Why? Because I could. When I showed them to Ayron, he said take them back. I begged that he wait till today, so we will see what the day yields.

Poor Betty and Wilma aren't sure what to make of their new pen mates as of yet, but they aren't completely freaked. I did see them putting one of the ducks in its place earlier, but not really attacking it.

How did I end up with ducks? Well, I have been planning on going to a friend's farm for about two months now and I finally did yesterday. She gave me the big tour and I was really eyeing a couple of her smaller chicks, which weren't ready to go yet. Then we got talking about ducks and she just kind of started convincing me that I should get ducks. It didn't take a lot of work on her part because I have wanted ducks for a while.

The hard part was the catching of said ducks. I discovered that if they can't fly you can run them to the ground. Well, you can if you aren't an out of shape forty year old with a bumb foot. Even if you are, with a little help from the person trying not to fall over laughing at your efforts will still score you a duck or two.

See ducks get tired too. Who knew. They run till they can't run any more then they just sort of collapse and squack at your loudly. Thank goodness they do or you would never catch the buggers.

So, home I came with two new members of the household. As I said before Ayron heard them and said take them back. Apparently an upset duck has no problem telling you off. Thankfully a content duck isn't very loud. Once the pair settled in the loud quacking stopped and Ayron is becoming less opposed to the idea.

Now, I have to do some research about ducks. I have read about them in the past, but a refresher course is in order to my way of thinking.

Time for that second cup of coffee. Be well all

Hugs
 

It rained again last night leaving everything looking extra green and beautiful. The garden is doing great. I know as I walked it yesterday when I came home from work. It was too damp to work in which was fine with me because I wasn't up to really working in the garden.

I am happy to say that though we do have weeds in the garden, I am still winning the war. All of my vegetable plants are much taller than the weeds and some have even started producing. I have several little zucchinis that should be about ready to be picked. As a matter of fact, I picked one that had grown then seemed to have an issue and gave it to Wilma and Betty. I hope they enjoyed the first produce of the year.

Since I mentioned Wilma and Betty, let me just say they are doing great. They have started nesting. No eggs, but they are starting to get urges, I think. They sure did cackle up a storm when disturbed them bringing in some weeds for them to go to town on. Never heard them cackle like that before.

I haven't been able to get them out in the garden like I hoped, but they are going to have great fun in the fall with all the old plants and leaves to go through. I am suspecting that it will decrease the bug population too.

Oh, did you know that chickens can be hearded? Yep. Now that they know where their pen is and it feels safe to them, if I have had them in the temp pen, I don't have to try to catch them to take them back. I just let them out and walk behind them as they head for the bigger coup. They head straight for it. The only problem they have is find the door. Once they do, they head right in, telling me off the whole time. It is cuter than all get out in my opinion.

Well, I shall end here for now. Hope everyone has a great day.

Hugs
 

The definition of immature is: - not fully developed: young, and not fully grown or developed
- childish: lacking the wisdom or emotional development usually associated with adults
- stylistically crude and imperfect: not yet having attained the perfection of a fully developed style


I definately rate on the stylistically crude scale, but as for being not fully developed or childish, I think I rate mature. However as an imperfect human, I may lack wisdom, but not emotional development.

Why am I bringing this up? Well, there is a woman at work that most people there don't like, who informed another employee that she didn't like me because I was immature.

It was a shock to learn that. I knew she didn't like me, but to find out she didn't like me because I was capable of being pleasant and having fun at work was kind of mind blowing. Mind you, I was defended by the other employee when s/he said, "I don't think she is immature, she is fun."

I take my job very, very seriously. Yes, I like to paint it as all roses, but that is because I make it that way. I deal with residents who have had bad days, and I go to work even when I would so much rather stay home, like yesterday. I arrive on time and I don't leave early without permission, which I am given almost every Wednesday and Friday, mainly because the boss wants to leave early too.

If asked, I usually switch shifts and do it willingly, I will come in and work early or stay late as needed. I do NOT grumble when asked to do something and I try very hard to be helpful to others I work around.

Yes, I do smile almost constantly and I try to be silly for the residents and staff at times, but that is to keep up moral. Oh and I am loud, but in my defense half the people I am talking too are partially if not almost completely deaf.

So, where in there am I immature?

Ah well, I know the phrase that goes something like "you can please some of the people some of the time, but not all of the people all of the time...." Still it irks me to find out that I am being disliked because I am good mooded and show it.

In other more pleasant news, I have finished my doily and will post a picture in a day or three once I get my memory card for the camera back. It is on loan to my boss to develop because I took a couple of pictures of people riding the bus the other day when we went sight seeing.

We had a thunder storm last night and everything plant wise is very happy about that. So, maybe I will post a couple of pictures of that soon.

Unfortunately for me, it is time to get ready for work. At least today I feel semi human going in verses yesterday. The cumulative effects of several small problems left me feeling exhausted before I walked in the door and I really didn't improve before I left. Of course, that did make it very easy for me to crawl into bed nice and early last night.

Hugs to all. Have a great day!!!
 

As you all know, I just got back from a trip to New York state to visit with family. Well, since I have returned I haven't really spoken to either my father or my brother. It isn't for lack of trying on my part. I have sent out thank you notes and emails with no real responses back. It leaves me wondering if I somehow offended them or they found me lacking in some way. I admit it hurts. I know that I went on the trip because of their kindness, but I was hoping that spending time together would have brought us a little closer together. I could ask them straight out, but I don't believe that would get me a true answer.

Moving on. It is raining here. The grass and garden are thankful, I am sure. Heck, I am thankful. The weather has cooled off a tad and everything is greening back up for a few days. About now I think the chickens are even happy with thier improvised coup. Of course this will keep me out of the garden and the weeds safe for another day, but hey I don't hate weeds like some people do. LOL

Dott is shedding overtime this month and I am ready to shave her bald. It doesn't seem like I can do anything without finding cat hair. GRRR

Well, that isn't much, but it is a blog for today.

Oh, and happy 4th.

hugs to all