I think at least half the country would agree, this has been the craziest winter ever! You won't see me complaining though. I have been able to get more stuff done that I would have had we had 2 feet of snow on the ground all season or if we had a month of below zero temps and wind chills. This is GOOD crazy.
It has been hatching season for me for the last month already. I doubt I would have had enough not-frozen eggs to put in for hatching if we had a typical Minnesota winter. I have already hatched over 100 chicks and there are more a cookin'. This is exciting and fun. I find it hard to understand how my kids have become the way they have about the baby chicks. Call me crazy, but I still get excited to see them cracking and popping out of those eggs. Daughter, who is not quite 10 yet, still likes to go out and hold them, but she doesn't oooo, and ahhhh like she used to, not even over the Silkies. The good thing though, she and Middle still want to show them in the Summer. In fact, they still want to show ducks too, which means getting a whole new batch this year.
Ah, that is another good thing about the winter being mild and minimal amount of snow, the ducks. I sort of stuck myself with 6 Jumbo Pekins and a Welsh Harlequin drake over the winter. You see, my processor said he doesn't do ducks until after it gets really cold. Well, things were busy around here and I kept putting it off until it got to be early December. I then called him up and he said he was closed for the Winter. Then I called around, and everyone else was close to ducks for the Winter. So, then, I was going to do them myself. I told Middle and Hubby they had to help me since they were the ones who wanted to ducks to eat. Middle said, "NO WAY! I'm not killing the ducks." Once I explained I would do the killing (not my favorite thing either, sheesh), he said he would help pluck. As it turned out, whenever there was a day warm enough to do it, kids were in school and Hubby was out of town. So, guess what? I STILL have 6 Jumbo Pekins and a Welsh out here. The good news? Well, I am getting Pekin eggs now and I KNOW they are fertile (poor girly ducks, 2 of them and 4 drakes). I am really hoping that the duck who laid double, conjoined yolks all Fall has her system settled down so she lays normal eggs. I plan to hatch a few and then start looking for someone to process the whole 7 of them.
Life is always a bowlful of cherries with a couple of teenagers in the house. Eldest gives me a daily dose of crap like most teenagers do. It is a good thing I color my hair often because I don't want to see how much more gray hair I have gotten in the last 6-months. Poor Hubby though, he is getting it like crazy.
Eldest turns 16 in May, and guess what he is wanting to get? You betcha! A car. Of course, when I tell him how I was 18 before I had my own car and I had to buy my own car, he won't hear it. "Things have changed, Mom!" Oh, yes, they have changed so much that parents are supposed to just go out and plunk down $10,000 for a car so you can go hang out with your friends whenever you want? I don't think so. The nice thing is, he does work. The not-so-great part of that is that he only gets about 5-8 hours a week. I can't suggest any jobs though because they aren't cool enough or they don't pay enough or just about any other excuse just because I suggest them. He was such a wonderful, perfectly wonderful young boy, I had really hoped we would skip this part of being a kid. I was wrong. And the extra fun thing, Middle is 13 1/2. You know what that means? Here comes pain in the ass number 2. Middle says he won't act like Eldest, but I know not to get my hopes up. They do have different personalities, so maybe there is a chance, but I am not putting any stock in it. The big dread though, Daughter becoming a teenager. Holy crap, are we going to have our hands full then!
Even though we have had a very mild, very snowless Winter so far, we are getting snow tonight. I am just hoping like crazy the school isn't closed or delayed in any way tomorrow, the kids had off Friday and today, and the whole "I'm bored." thing is really going to make me snap if they are here one more day. On top of it all, Hubby was gone to a meeting all weekend. Isn't that special?
Middle will be happy with the snow. I swear he has been doing the snow dance (like the rain dance but different). He has only been snowboarding 3 or 4 times this year, and he wants to be on the slopes SO SO SO bad. We thought about Hubby taking him to the Rockies to get some good boarding in, but we are afraid it will poison him. By that I mean that he will never be happy boarding here in Minnesota again if he goes out and finds out what a real mountain slope is all about. I know it spoiled me from ever wanting to ski anywhere but the Rockies. The whole idea was for Hubby to take Middle out there, and me take the other two and go to Florida! We lived there for 5 1/2 years when we were in our Navy days, and I would never want to live there again, but it sure is nice to visit. Plus, I want them to have a chance to do the theme park stuff at least once before they are off to college.
Well, time to retire is upon me.
Til next time....
CC
