The Longest Weekend

So many things I want to share as I go about my busy days. I need a head implant so that I can blog as I scoop manure and transmit directly to the blog: I ought to tell people that pi$$ ants are back. I'm sure you'd want to know. They are actually parasitoid wasps that hatch in the spring and you see them all over the manure piles. Why do I like them? Well, they show it is now really spring and warm, but more importantly, they are predators of house fly larvae in the manure piles and keep down the flies. I am fortunate to have my own colony, but you can also buy them online. Yes, so as I scoop manure each morning, I think of sharing this with you because my life is so full of manure.

So what have I been up to? Just this weekend, Lauren and I drove 380 miles to two piano competitions (she won third place in DePauw University's competition and we await results on the other) on Saturday. On Sunday, we attended Church, baseball practice, the high school graduation of three wonderful homeschooled teens, and left from there to go to a piano recital that included Lauren and the children of several close friends and my niece. Dh, who was at his aunt's memorial service in New Jersey this weekend, flew in and got there just in time to hear Lauren play. What a whirlwind!

All this and we are all fighting a virus that gives one a terrible "I can't talk" sore throat that lingers and sometimes, develops into a cold. I have had the sore throat for a week and a half, but no cold. Anna and William can't hardly breathe, and Lauren appears to be getting it now that her commitments have been made and she can afford to get it. Dh has been lucky so far. And yes, we've tested for strep - it's not.

Other notes:
Roxie (miniature horse) was reaching for that one little last blade of grass when the board of the fence gave, and being small, she stepped through the fence. At five in the morning, she was in the middle of the road. A good Samaritan neighbor on his way to work stopped and put her in our yard and closed our main gate. We found her later at 7 a.m. and his card telling us what happened. He stopped by later that day and introduced himself, (we'd not met previously) and I thanked him. Cars were going by, he said, and he could not just leave her there and turned around and came back. Thank God that there are people in this world that are willing to look out for their neighbor.

Both my bantams are broody. One sits on three fertilized eggs. I don't need more chickens and hope to give them away. The other sits on two pitiful little green eggs but she has no babydaddy so they won't be hatching.

I look at the yard and my planting gene starts working, but I don't have time. I should be growing food - the economy, you know.

I'm sure there is more I meant to write, but as I said, I've not gotten that brain implant yet, so I've forgotten more than I've written. Check back soon, and maybe I'll remember.