Yesterday

Yesterday was a bit of a whirl-wind day. Our Abigail turned 5 years old. She wanted pancakes, sausage and bacon for her birthday meal. She got a bag full of things from her grandma. One was a bag of balloons. Her first activity was to hand them out to each brother and sister to share in the fun. She's a very sweet girl.

We also got some very good news on our house. We had it appraised last week. Without going into too much detail, let's just say that God is good!

The kids found a cat last Thursday or Friday and asked if they could keep it. It was obvious this cat was used to being around people. My wife said that she would have to call our neighbors and make sure it didn't belong to someone. No answer from one neighbor. It was obvious they were gone. There was no activity at their home for a few days, so my wife left something on their answering machine. We got a call last night that said it sounded like their cat. They had just got home from vacation and received the message. My wife told her that I would take the cat home to them. It was about 8:30 or 9:00 in the evening. The wind was blowing pretty hard with a cool/warm mixed breeze, like it was trying to kick up a good storm. It's pretty dark by this time. I walked out to get into the car and my wife said “Troy, their's something in with the chickens.” I squinted into the dark and sure enough, it's a goat. I gave the cat to my wife to hold and started to chase the goat around. That was not enjoyable. At one point I told the goat “If I catch you, I'm going to kick you...hard!” I eventually caught her, but I didn't kick her. I picked her up and dropped her over the fence. I see why in the Bible, they are the rebellious animals. I'll have to see where she got out today (when it gets light out). I fixed any damage she caused to the chicken pen and took the cat to the neighbors. When I got back from the neighbors, it was blowing even harder. My wife was outside looking around. I got out and started talking to her. Just then, the wind ripped off the roof of another chicken pen. I grabbed my drill and a box of screws and tried to put it back together the best I could. Then my wife expressed concern for the turkeys and guineas. They free-range and are only a couple months old. She wanted to put them into the chicken pen for protection. While I finished putting the roof on, she started chasing poultry; in the dark. She managed to capture the turkeys quite sportsman-like. I was impressed. Then for the guineas. They are fast, feisty and noisy. She caught a couple that were huddled in a group. We both had to chase down the last three. They kept circling and circling. I had to have Eshell block their path while I chased them into a corner so I could grab them. We managed.

We also found our first farm-fresh egg yesterday. It was small and broken, but we were excited none-the-less. I guess I'll be building nesting boxes soon.

Ahh, life in the country. Needless to say, I was ready for bed last night.