Friday of Spring Break

Today is Friday the last day of Spring Break.

I bought a husky aluminum scoop shovel a couple of weeks ago. I found it under the feed tarp broken. How annoying. It was probably stepped on. So I decided to fix the problem of tools being left helter skelter everywhere. Stacked up against this fence. Over by the dog run. Who knows? Years ago we had purchased a tall Rubbermaid storage cabinet for motorcycle parts. The children don’t ride anymore. This has been left collecting dirt for over a year. Anyway we (my youngest son, and I) cleaned it out. We moved it over to the animal pens and took out the top shelf. Instant tool cabinet. Now if I can only train everyone to put things back where they belong.

When we moved the cabinet out popped a mouse. Angel our dog snatched it up and shook it to death. Then I saw a little baby mouse. Then out popped another mouse. We tried to save it thinking it might be the mamma. Angel saw it hiding and pounced, grabbed, and shook. It was too late. On further inspection there were seven babies. We are feeding them goat’s milk. I am most certain they will die. What a sad thought. Their lives have just begun. On the other side. Mice are yucky. They cause a lot of damage with chewing. Not to mention when they do die and you are unaware of there were a bouts they stink to high heaven.

We also worked on the pigpen. We used wooden pallets and tie wire. I will need to purchase more T posts to put in joints of the make shift fence. We made a giant pen. Pigs get very big. They use their body weight to push on fences. They also scratch a lot. I am unsure of the gate as of now. We will need to use something strong, but not to heavy. It will have to swing. Something will come up.

I took the weekend off from work. I have PTO at work and if I don’t use it I loose it. So this freed up some time. For lunch we meet a friend and her daughter and grand daughter at a local Mexican restaurant. I ordered my usual. I think everything is spicy. If I find something I can tolerate I stick with it. My friend told them it was my yougest’s birthday. We had a nice meal then the staff brought out ice cream singing happy birthday. We could only eat half of our lunch. The rest was packed up for another meal. You know how it goes with Mexican restaurants; you fill up on chips and salsa before you eat your dinner. Often times I will order queso and that will be my meal. I know how bad is that.

We got home and my youngest got a call from the neighbor. Could he help with the dollhouse? The dollhouse is a large playhouse for his daughter. He had it built a year ago. Another neighbor, whose trade is carpentry, built it but never finished. Her birthday is coming at the end of the month and he wanted it complete. It needs to be wrapped and stoccoed. This will be a new skill for my youngest. Unfortunately the neighbor will have to take time to teach him. My children have had to learn many new things; carpentry, plumbing, electricity, animal husbandry, gardening, etc. They can use all kinds of machinery. From tractors and forklifts to welding machines and power washers. We will call these life skills. No they will not have any sort of degree in these skills but they can do them none the less.

.Bandit did not want to be confined in the bathroom. So I let her out. She went outside and layed in front of her doghouse. That is where she was every time I checked on her. I am hoping for a fast recovery.