Updates

Dad is home from the hospital, resting comfortably at home. He received a pacemaker/defibrillator on Monday. We had a nice visit yesterday.

Lauren flew home from Germany on Monday, getting here around midnight. We've just begun to hear her stories, but it sounds like it was a wonderful opportunity.

I wrote about Will in my blog under "Play Doctor" and that the intern was upset that he had dropped to about 15th percentile in height. I maintained that he was just not in a growth spurt and it would come. Since that appointment, about two months ago, he's grown a full inch, jumping to about 45th percentile.

Except for a few finishing touches, Anna's room makeover is done. I learned to install laminate flooring, measure, cut and install moulding, use a miter, jig, and table saw. I learned how to make moulding corners and how useful is caulk. I have yet to install the ceiling fan, but I know how to do it.

Horses: Jorgen has some kind of growth on his rear-end that is going to be surgically removed on Tuesday. That should be an interesting learning experience for my kids. They gave the horses their West Nile Virus shots yesterday, apparently not a moment too soon. We found an adult starling dead in our field.

Chickens: One of the two Araucana's I purchase is a rooster. Even as tiny as he still is, he rushes at anyone reaching into the cage as if to protect the other little ones. I am going to work on taming him.

Some of our chickens are older, and apparently not laying much. Anna brought the funniest egg down from the barn. It was about the size of a robin's egg, but brown like our chicken eggs, maybe a little darker. She found it in the chicken stall. I thought at first that a bird had gotten into the hen house, but they live in a converted horse stall. All openings are covered with chicken wire (to keep out varmits that eat chickens) and there is no way a bird could get in. So, one of the chickens laid this mini-egg, perhaps one of the older ones. Unfortuately, it was cracked, and thrown to the dogs, or I'd post a photo.