Surprise!!!!

Yesterday was my daughter's birthday. It is usually very difficult to surprise her in anyway because she just knows me too well. But we got her good this time. I called her hubby a couple weeks ago and asked him if they had any special plans for lunch on her birthday. Well they didn't so I asked him to keep that free and we would drive up (1 1/2 hour drive) and have lunch with them. Poor guy, he's not the real deceptive kind and I guess she wanted to know if they were doing anything and he told her he had special plans but he wasn't going to tell her.

So we took grandma with us and drove up and sat in the driveway next to their house till they got home from church. Turns out her hubby was driving her all over the neighborhood killing time to make sure we were there already. We knew for sure she'd see us sitting in the car but she didn't. They drive up and get out and she's just leisurely walking toward the house while hubby is trying to get her to turn around but she wouldn't. We drove up next to her and said, "Would you like to go to lunch?" She was definitely surprised and pleased.

I just love surprises. Thanks mucho to my wonderful son-in-law. Not only did he keep the secret but he got up that morning and made the house nice and tidy for her cause he knows she like to have it nice when people come. She thought he was just being his usual thoughtful self. Isn't that wonderful???!!!! We are so blessed!!

Making a scarecrow!

I just had a wonderful visit with my daughter. Her hubby went to Washington for the weekend so she visited with us. I just love her visits. We decided to make a scarecrow for the garden, not really to keep the birds out. We just did it for fun. So while we're making the scarecrow we decided to let Zelda and Basil out. Not so sure that was very productive but it was fun. Zelda jumped right up on the hay to "help" us. Basil (aka BaBa) just walked around looking for cookies. She's always looking for cookies. The scarecrow is still in progress. She'll be hanging around in the garden a little later. It was a blast of a weekend. Jenny got a real kick out of Wyatt singing love songs to Zelda. We hope to let them get together around November. Right now Zelda just beats him up all the time. He continues to sing. Poor guy.

Save a duck day!!!!

After all the issues with the ducks, it breaks my heart to see Mama duck go from 11 babies down to 6. I count them every day to see how she's doing. Two days ago I counted 6 then today I headed out to feed them and I counted 7. I counted again and sure enough there were 7. Vince had been working in the pasture filling holes that old posts have left (definite leg breakers), and as he was about to put dirt in a hole he heard peeping. He looked in and there was a little fuzz ball. He pulled the baby out and took her down to the pond where mama was with the others. Well mama heard the baby and came straight for "Vince." Yep, he sat the baby down and backed up and mama went around baby and headed for him but he managed to back away far enough she stopped. I'm thinking baby was pretty happy to see mama and mama was definitely happy to see baby. So now she's back up to seven. As annoying as they are they are still God's creation and I get a lot of joy from watching them. So I'm really glad he was able to save the duck :-)

Good bye Daisy Mae, we will miss you!!!

I think it's so sad that animals live such short lives. But then I guess they'd get old and crabby like us, oh wait Daisy did get old and crabby. Although I must say she handled it very well. The most she did was YOWL at me constantly and that was because she wanted me to sit and rub her face. She was 19 years old and was the best hunter ever!!!! She would bring home her catch minus the head, don't know what she did with that. She even spent a year missing and returned as gorgeous as ever. She had a pretty cushy life all in all. She will be missed but the litter box will not be missed. She was a good kitty.

Fences and gates and gates and fences . . .

Goodness!!!! We have to put up a fence to keep the dogs in and other dogs out, a fence to keep the goats in and coyotes out. We need a fence for the chickens, we now need a fence for the whole pasture!!!!! Of course with all these fences comes gates, walk through gates, drive through gates. Gates that are all different sizes and colors. Where does it end??? What happened to the chickens happily pecking across the yard and the goats grazing in the open field??? Oh that's right, that was only in the Disney movies. When you think of all the things that can get in and get at the little critters you love you just can't leave them out there unprotected. So here we go, get your boots on honey and grab your gloves. Ahhh at least we have the tractor to help dig some holes. So far we've managed to dig 140 holes and put in 140 poles, stretch 4 rolls of fencing. Ugh, I'm tired. The last couple dozen are really giving us a hard time, or I should say giving Vince a hard time. There's solid rock under these. The neighbors started stopping by welcoming us to the neighborhood. I guess seeing the pasture fencing going up they realized we're here to stay for awhile. Either that or they want a close up look at those "crazy goat farmers." Hehehehe!!!!