Sunday, October 26, 2008

guinea hen wrangling....

These silly guinea hens!!!!! this afternoon, Ed and I had an errand to run down in Dover. I had a feeling that we wouldn't be home before dark, and decided to bring the guinea hens in before we left. Well.... nothing doing, the afternoon was bright, sunny and warm, and those little birdies said "no way are you closing us in now".... I chased them around the barnyard and gave up when they went into the woods!!! Hoping for the best that Mr. Fox, Hawk or whom ever he was.. wouldn't show up again tonite before we got back.

Well, as thought it was pretty dark when we returned to the barn. I first checked their stall and no birdies... great..... I have this funny sound I make which they often call back to, and was very happy to hear them when I "called"... there they were, in the paddock with Mocha... all..... FIVE of them!!!! One was missing, "oh no".. and not only was one missing.... it was MaMa bird who was missing!!! The babies seemed a bit lost without her, and I had a pretty hard time herding them into the stall. Usually they just follow MaMa bird, so if you herd her in the right direction...they follow. Any ways, I got the babies in and Ed came out to the barn and said..how ya doing... I told him the Mama bird was missing... just then, we could hear her... somewhere out in the woods. I was worried that maybe something had started to get her and she was hurt out there. But listening carefully, we found her... in the top of a small pine tree... she had roosted for the night, and left the "kids" to themselves!!!!!

Ed got a long pole and we more or less knocked her out of the tree, I thought she would run right into the barn.... but...NO..... she decided to take a walk out thru the pasture, over the manure pile, into the woods... anywhere but into the barn. Here is Ed and I ..in the dark, with flashlights... rakes, etc.. trying to herd this silly bird in!!!! Because of the rain we had last night, there were puddles and mud all over the place and we gave up trying to get around them and head Mama bird in the right direction!!!! Finally... she co-operated and calling to her kids, went inside!!!!

Ed and I looked at each other... covered in mud (our shoes are a mess).. running around for who knows how long... all after a silly bird who would have been perfectly happy sleeping out in a pine tree.... but, it's just my thing... I need to know that when the night falls, all my animals are tucked into their beds safe and sound (it drives me nuts that the barn kitty doesn't stay in all night and I can only assume she is ok because her food is gone each night!!!!) I don't know, a "real" farmer would have said "good night, good luck Miss guinea hen"... so I have my doubts about ever being a "real" farmer..... and for tonite anyways.. Mr. "whoever ate the other baby". won't have a free meal. I will be able to sleep and good thing, as I report for jury duty tomorrow....

30th class reunion

Last night was the "class of 78" high school reunion. I simply can not believe that I have been "out of school" for 30 years!!! Where in the world has that time gone!!! We are all a bit wiser (aka "older") and in most cases... grayer!!! But it was so much fun to reconnect with friends, and feel like the years have hardly passed at all. My two class mates, Cindy and Marty obviously spent a great deal of time organizing, searching and planning and their efforts more than paid off. We had a very good turnout and almost everyone in the class was "found" (amazing thing this Internet!!!)

For the most part, I would say that I recognized everyone, and if it "did take me a second".. it was mostly because I hadn't seen that person since graduation. I think, too, that just about everyone looks the "same".Naturally there were a few special people that I was looking for. A few were there, and a couple were not, but because of all their work, Cindy and Marty put together a small booklet containing email address ... so, hopefully, I can to a little connecting on my own.

I was very happy to meet up with Chuck!!! who, by the way, was my senior prom date!!! Chuck is such fun, and is the kind of person who everyone liked and was everyone's friend. It's kind of funny how we ended up going to the prom together and actually it was his sister's doing. I was dating another guy who had already graduated from high school, and when I asked him if he would take me to my senior prom.. he promptly said "no way am I going back there"...so I figured that I would just have to skip out on it (Ed told me years later that I should have asked him to take me... he would have gone!!!!) But either way, I was pretty sure that I would miss out on my senior prom. Well, Chuck's sister Mary was in a few of my classes, and when she heard that I didn't have a date, she said... you should go with Chuck..he doesn't have a date either!!!! I guess she must have said the same thing to him, because he did ask me to go.... and much to the dismay of my "then" boyfriend, I said yes that I would love to go.... I really didn't want to miss out on my last prom.

To be honest, I don't remember much about the senior prom... but I do recall we had a fun time together and I was always grateful to Chuck for taking me!!!! We saw each other ten years ago at our 20th reunion, and found that we were both on the "same time line" with life... married, raising kids, paying a mortgage and enjoying life. Last night, we "compared" notes again and find we are still on the same track... still married to our wonderful spouses... kids mostly out of the house (Chuck and Cindy kids at college) and talking about retirement and what we have done and where we are going!!! I now have his email (and promise to send him the blog address.... Hello Chuck, if you have gotten around to reading this!!!) and I am in hopes that it isn't going to be another 10 years before we can visit again!!!

As "typical" with life, some of us still live fairly close (people were "shocked" to know that Ed and I have left town!!!) some have moved very fair away. Some are still with their first spouses and other's aren't... kids range in ages from very little (2 and 3 year olds) to college/married/grandchildren age!!!! But all in all, we were very happy to be together again for a special evening of good food, visiting and dancing. For the most lot, I would say we are all very happy and doing well......and it was certainly a fun evening and one to put into the "memory book".














this week's progress


Despite having a day of rain, the guys got alot done on the house this week. And the framing on the first floor is now complete. It's fussy work, Ken, Eric and Buzz are very particular about how it all goes together. It's fun to get a real idea of the size, and I think it will be about perfect. I have been worried (abit) about it being "too big"... but, it's not much bigger than "the old house".. just laid out in a different fashion. I am very excited about having a dinning room, and hope to have many family dinners and get togethers!!!!

This view is the (facing) right front corner, which will be my "quilting/craft room"....





Here is a view from the back yard... which shows (from left to right) the living room, kitchen, pantry and first floor bathroom....






And this is the view from the driveway.. which folks will see as the pull up... the garage is the closest... then the mudroom and continuing across the front, the dinning room, front hallway and the quilting room...
Next comes the ceiling boards, on top of that comes a "chase way" for plumbing and electrical, and then the framing goes up for the second floor... you can now see the house from the road, and today in church, we received a number of compliments and got to meet a few more of our neighbors....guess folks are beginning to notice that "we are really here"...