A Bit More Siding

Today, my mom came over and after a few minor setbacks, she and I managed to get two rows of siding up. We were feeling fairly proud of ourselves. We would have done more, but working off ladders was getting a bit uncomfortable.

Siding

So... we started on the siding this weekend. Friday night, I had visions of us slapping up the entire west wall the next day, but we didn't even come close. After a run to Lowe's Saturday morning, it took all day for us to cut, paint, and put up the trim on two windows. Sunday morning, we started the siding in earnest. Again, I was hoping to help get the ball rolling, then take a break and head to church or something. But as we didn't have a roofing nailer, we were hand-nailing every piece; and those fiber cement boards are really heavy, so it took the two of us a concentrated effort to put up each piece. By noon, we'd only gotten three rows done. I figured it would probably take us the rest of the year to get the siding up at the rate we were going, so I was (easily) able to convince Chris to stop in at Harbor Freight on Monday and pick up a cheap nail gun. Things should go more quickly now.

Finley dressed up her stuffed hamster, Scamper, to match her own outfit today. Scamper's outfit included a Barbie skirt, a little ribbon barrette for her hair, and a necklace that matched Finley's.

Today was farm day for the kindergarteners at school. Last week, they sent a note home asking if we had any farm animals we wanted to bring to show the kids. I was a little hesitant, thinking that there would probably be a truckload of people bringing farm animals since we live out here in the country.

I decided to offer to bring Isadora, our blue Polish hen. I named her after my grandmother, since they seem to share the same white, round, fluffy head of hair. I figured at least if there were other chickens, at least Isadora would be a different kind of chicken...

Turns out there weren't as many people bringing animals as I thought there would be. Out of about 100 students, only seven families brought animals. There were handful of chickens, one duck, one rabbit, a few goats, a horse, a calf, and two miniature horses.

Needless to say, Isadora and her funny feathers were quite the hit.

Maybe when Z in in kindergarten two years from now, I'll have a pig to bring, too.

I have been thinking lately about the act of receiving. I know the bible says somewhere that "It is better to give than to receive", but I have the feeling that was meant for an audience that struggled with greed and selfishness more so than pride.

There is something in those of us that are proud that wants to reject a 'gift' if we feel we can provide that thing for ourselves or are ashamed that we can't. Whether it is something in the physical, like money, or something abstract, like forgiveness, it takes a certain amount of humility to receive.

When we are able to finally receive well, without either the greed of a kid on Christmas morning that just wants more or the embarrassment of feeling that others are giving to meet some sort of deficiency in ourselves, we are able to truly experience love.

And that's really the goal of life, isn't it: To be able to love and be loved without our personal issues getting in the way?

The past two mornings, I've been able to witness the morning descent of a flock of wild turkey from the trees into the neighbor's pasture. One by one, they glide down from the night's roosting spot into the open field. I'd been hoping to catch a glimpse of the elusive, not-quite-albino turkey, but either this isn't its flock, or that turkey is no longer of this world. I have no way of knowing which is the case.

While most of the time, watching wildlife is a relaxing and joy-filling experience, sometimes, it can be extremely stressful. This morning, two of the turkeys landed in a different pasture and were separated from their buddies by a livestock fence. One of the turkeys took a couple passes along the fence, then realized it wasn't going to get through, so flapped its wings and flew right over. Sadly, the other turkey wasn't quite so brilliant. I watched as that turkey marched back and forth, back and forth, while the rest of the flock started wandering off to a more distant location. Twenty minutes later, the flock was entirely out of sight, and still this turkey wandered the fence line, looking for that hole that wasn't there. I left the window to do other things.

An hour later, I found myself wondering if the turkey had finally figured things out, so I looked out to the neighbor's pasture again. It was still there. I couldn't take it anymore. I headed outside and into the neighbor's pasture. I didn't have to go far when that turkey spotted me across the field, hopped the fence, and took off running after its long-gone buddies.

Windows and Doors

We just have one more door to install on the side of the house, then maybe we can keep the chickens out of the house.

This morning, I am going to take it easy: Piddle on the computer for a minute, drink some coffee, and take a long, hot shower. I managed to get the kids off to school on time, which felt like a miracle, since I was up three or four times last night with coughing children and we had a late start.

Aside from the coughing, Finley was up late reading and had started to complain about her eye... said it was blurry and everything looked kind of yellow through it. I was hoping a night of rest would clear up whatever problem it had, but she got up this morning pressing her blanket to her eye. I don't know what is wrong with it, but like I do with everything else, am just going to give it some time and see what happens. One big bummer about her eye is that today is picture day, and if she isn't comfortable relaxing and just opening it up, she is going to look mighty funny for the camera, screwing up her face like a pirate. Oh well. I am just thankful that she wore her flowered dress yesterday- the same dress that she wore for both photo days last year- and I was able to convince her that it was too dirty to wear again today and that just 'fluffing it up in the dryer' would not be okay.

Anyway, yesterday, in spite of the lack of sleep due to hacking, snotty children, Chris insisted that we clean the whole trailer in an effort to help the kids kick whatever this funk is they've been fighting. I didn't argue. If he was going to step up and help me clean, I was all for it. So I spent the morning doing laundry and disinfecting counters, knobs, and light switches. When he got home from work, he dusted, disinfected, and wiped down the floors while I fixed supper and washed dishes. I don't think the trailer has been this clean ever. It didn't even get this clean when we moved in. There is one room that didn't get any special attention, though, and that is our room. I guess since the kids aren't supposed to be hanging out in here, Chris didn't feel it was necessary. Maybe I can take care of it today... although what I'd really like is to just curl up in a ball and sleep for about two days. You'd think once you wean your infant from nighttime feedings, your zombie days are over and restful nights are all that are on the horizon. But no.

The neighbors had another round of baby goats not long ago. Chris got a call wondering if we might want to take a bottle baby. That might be fun, I thought... so we went over to see what the deal was. Sometimes a mother goat doesn't bother taking care of the kid, and most of the time, that is why some need to be bottle fed. This situation was different. This kid seemed to be paralyzed from the hips down and couldn't stand up on its back legs. They didn't know if the kid had some birth defect or had been stepped on. Aside from the unusable legs, the baby seemed healthy enough... but I felt like it would be a waste of time to take him on. Sometimes a "farmer" has to make a decision... that every life is not worth saving.

Our neighbor, Denise, couldn't quite give up on him yet, though, so she ended up bottle feeding him, then even got the mother to let him nurse... When I heard the news that he was strong enough to nurse on his own and seemed to be happily dragging himself around the pen, I felt a little guilty. Who was I to play God and decide this life was not worth giving a chance? I started having visions of a goat strapped into one of those doggie wheelchairs, pulling himself around the barnyard with his strong front legs, bringing joy and inspiration to visitors with his undefeatable spirit. A quick look online showed a doggie wheelchair ran about $200, but I bet we could rig one up somehow...

We stopped in for a visit this afternoon, and sorry to say, "Gimpy" (the name I tend to give all animals with leg handicaps) wasn't doing so well. Sure, he was hearty enough, thanks to Denise's attentive bottle feeding (he was no longer able to nurse), but he could no longer even get up on his front legs, and Denise had finally decided it was time to put the guy down. Sometimes, with animals (I'll not dive into the human aspect of this),  it is better to not "save" a life. Life is life, and death is part of life, and sometimes, maybe, we shouldn't fight so hard against it.

Windows

We started installing windows today. I would be more excited about it if 1. the process of selecting and buying said windows hadn't been such a headache, 2. it wasn't miserably hot, 3. I felt like I knew what I was doing, and 4. I wasn't irrationally grumpy (aka. pms-ing). Five down, nine to go.