I Love To Go A Gardening
Growing Our Life in Northern Michigan
Jobs
We certainly had an interesting day yesterday.
I have not slept well–at least not consistently–since maybe when JJ was diagnosed with cancer and I only slept a few hours at a time. The last few weeks I’ve really struggled to sleep, but last night–maybe because I was so tired–I was sleeping well. Finally. Until the power went out. There’s a lot of little noises at night: the hum of the clock, the furnace, the refrigerator in the other room, the fan. When the power goes out, these noises stop and the quiet becomes so loud that it always wakes me up. And the power didn’t just go out last night. It went out, then it flickered on, then it went out, then flickered on, several times until it finally was off for good.
Actually, this occurred early this morning–maybe about 4:30 or 5:00 a.m. EJ was already up getting ready for work. The first thing that I thought was, “Well, so much for getting a good night’s sleep.” JJ and I both got up for a moment and then we headed back to bed. Suddenly, we heard a very strange beeping noise. It almost sounded like the fire alarm, but it wasn’t. It was very loud and annoying and even a pillow over my head didn’t drown out the sound. I got out of bed and went into the living room with EJ and JJ, who also had gotten back out of bed. EJ realized that the noise was coming from outside. He looked out of the window and gave a shout so we looked too. We saw a strange pulsating glow through the trees out near the road, just beyond the corner of our property. It reminded me of those old horror movies in which an alien ship crashes in the woods and the people see it glowing through the trees. I half expected War of the Worlds aliens to emerge from the forest. EJ said that it was probably a relay or transformer exploding. Sadly he meant just an electrical problem and not the type of Transformer which immediately came to my mind–and which would have been more interesting:
EJ called 911 to report it because the last thing we need is a forest fire. We have to worry about forest fires up here in the north where we are surrounded by forests. The dispatcher told EJ that someone else had just called it in so they were aware of it and would send the appropriate people out. JJ went back to bed. I stayed up a few more minutes with EJ. Just before he left for work, Luke leaped onto my back, his claws digging deeply into my back as he held on. I swear his claws went bone deep. I howled with pain. EJ pulled the cat out of my back. Then he went to work and I went back to bed. The power came on an hour or two later. I woke long enough to hear all the various hums resuming, and then I fell back to sleep. I woke up tired. Oh, well.
JJ had a final exam for his college math class yesterday. He did well on the exam and the teacher told him that he 4-pointed his class–which means he got pretty close to a perfect grade in the class. He was very happy.
Meanwhile…[I deleted this part because JJ didn’t want news to get out prematurely. Oops. I will add it back in a future post when he makes a decision.] But yesterday was an exciting day for JJ.
Meanwhile, my mornings–after I drink enough coffee to wake up–are filled with caring for animals. Making sure the dog’s, cats’, ducks’, and chickens’ food and water dishes are filled, the coop is clean, and the waste is scooped out of the kitty litter. The I do my other chores: laundry, cleaning, cooking, dishes, and whatever else need to be done.
Yesterday I read at a Facebook page called Duck Eggs Daily that ducklings hatched under a mother duck are waterproof and can swim without drowning or becoming chilled right from hatch. Ducklings hatched in an incubator need about a month to build up the oils that waterproof their feathers. Until then, swims should be short and supervised because the ducklings can easily drown. I thought that was amazing. I also read that ducklings need to get their heads wet every day. I’ve only given Peeper and Cuddles a bath once since moving them into the coop because Peeper is hard to catch–he moves out of reach–and he yells loudly whenever he is separated from Cuddles. However, today I found a large shallow bowl (actually the pan that catches the water under one of my plant pots), put it near the coop, filled it with water, and let Peeper and Cuddles come out to enjoy it. As soon as we can, we will find them a little kiddie pool to play in.
Today I heard a few real quacks from one of the ducklings–probably Peeper. I told him, “Wow! You are getting your big duck voice!” 🙂
Yesterday afternoon I unfastened the dog pen fencing from the metal posts so EJ doesn’t have to do it. The fencing was attached to the posts with wire. This afternoon I was going to try to pull out the metal posts, but they were snuggly in the ground and I would have had to dig them out with a shovel or something. I wasn’t sure if EJ wanted to put in the new posts as soon as the old ones are taken out, so I decided not to proceed. Besides, it was rather dampish and cold outside today–in the low 40s. Brrr.
This afternoon I found a 10% off coupon from the farm store in my email inbox. I think it’s been there for a while because it expired today. After EJ got home from work, he quickly ate a bowl of the chili and cornbread I had made and then we drove to the farm store to take advantage of the coupon. We needed another heat lamp for the new chicks we are getting tomorrow, and we can always use more bedding and poultry food. We always go look at the baby ducklings and chicks in the farm store. They had adorable brown ducks there today. I was very tempted…but we left the store without them. Whew.
When we got home, I set everything up for the arrival of the babies. I put bedding in the horse trough and clipped the heat light to it to keep them warm. Since the weather is warmer, we have the horse trough set up in the garage near the chicken coop.
I Love To Go A Gardening 
So many beautiful changes for JJ and I love the ducks they are real big already . And they are talking to you ,you’re mom in their eyes and that is why they talk so much. Love them ❤
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So happy for JJ and such wonderful opportunities coming his way, he will do fine wherever he chooses, continuing enjoying the beauty all around you guys, happy summer is a coming.
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