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Well,
here we are: another fall in Kansas! It
seems that normally the leaves have started dropping in bigger clumps from the
trees, but with all the rain, they are still hanging on, green as they were in
June. Also, it probably has something
to do with the fact we got the pool cover on, so there’s no point in them
dropping en masse. But if we
hadn’t got the cover on, I’m sure I’d wake up one morning and an entire tree
would be floating on the top. The hay is standing in the fields in great big round
bales (the square bales are already stored in the barn loft) and the grass is
turning yellow. The tomato vines have
wilted, but still have that good, DIRT smell when you run around them, trying
to catch the ducklings Jim and the girls just had to have. Again.
They
started out with six chicks and four ducks.
But then they had to go back to Atwoods for starter chicken feed, and
naturally came home with two more ducks and three more chicks. The girls take their bird-care
responsibilities very seriously, and after the first two days of reminding Lucy
not to hold the chicks upside down, and reminding Betsy that they don’t have
feathers yet, and can’t fly when she tosses them, even if they’re only a foot
from the ground, the girls finally got the idea that gentler equals
better. Or anyway, it equals the same
number of live chicks at the end of the day as what you started with.
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| Catching him (her?)! |
The
chicks are mostly a straggly looking bunch, not very cute, and not terribly
interested in anything except the warming lamp and the occasional unlucky
grasshopper that strays into their bucket.
But the ducks are hours of entertainment for everyone. Whenever
you reach in to lift one out, they race around their bucket (Jim just stuck
them in one of the great big plastic horse watering troughs) in a frantic
cluster, barreling over their water feeder, peeping frantically, and splatting
through the soggy wood chip bedding that stinks to high heaven. When you feed them, they peck anxiously at
their food, then tilt their heads and blink at you rapidly, clearly
distrustful. But, oh, the joy, when Jim
takes them out front and turns the garden hose on them, and lets them play in
the puddles that form in the rock garden.
They duck under the water and come up waggling their back sides and
hopping from foot to foot, chattering and grabbing at bits of tomato vine in
their reach, gobbling off the leaves, and then scolding Jim furiously when he
turns the water off.
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| Watering the ducklings |
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| Trying to catch the OTHER five ducks. |
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| HELP! |
At
first, I got onto the girls about washing their hands with soap every time they
handled the chicks and ducks … some vague idea of preventing the transfer of
poo and other germy stuff, I suppose.
But then came the day when I saw Lucy plant a big old smackeroo on her
captive duckling’s head. So when I
remind them to wash up now, it’s more form than substance. I also think twice about letting Lucy kiss me
after she’s been playing with ducks.
We ended up with a bumper load of pumpkins this year. See what a little indifference and neglect does for growing gardens? Jim and the kids hauled a bunch back up to the house and dumped about 20 medium-sized ones on the front porch. The girls rearrange them every day, always selecting their placement based on where they can do the most damage when an adult is walking out the door and it's dark, or their arms are full of groceries, or they're being dragged by a great dane who realized just a moment ago that her bladder was about to explode.
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| Woody's baby |
School
is in full force now, and the kids are used to the routine.
The other day Lucy asked hopefully, “Mommy,
can you read a book
at me?”
Lucy turned three in August.
While on a walk with Aunt Amanda, during
which time they noticed many lovely butterflies,
Amanda asked her, “Do you want to be a
butterfly?” To which Lucy matter-of-factly replied, “Nope.
I want to be a sandwich.”
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| Three Years Old! |
Betsy
started piano at the beginning of the month, and is making good progress in
playing her scales and “Mary Had a Little Lamb”. She has small hands, even for a six-year old,
and releasing a key before pressing down on the next one is difficult for her,
so I try to remind her to lift her fingers after pressing each key. Now she
raises her entire hand to head level every time she presses a key, then brings
her finger crashing down on the next key, and sometimes it’s the correct one,
sometimes it’s not, but it always reminds me of Betty MacDonald’s piano teacher
in Anybody Can Do Anything, the one who
“lifted her hands off the keys about four feet and came down on all the wrong
notes but the effect was very brrright and certainly staccato.”
As
it turns out, Jack needs glasses. Jim
discovered this on a recent excursion when we told Jack and Woody to meet us at
a certain store at a mall, and Jack couldn’t read the signs above the
stores. Funny thing about home
schooling: you never have to sit at the back of the class, so you don’t know
when you can’t see the chalkboard. Jim’s
suspicions were confirmed last week when Rooger bolted out the back door, and
Jim and Jack had to go chase him down.
Jim told Jack to “go over there and get your dog” where Rooger’s black
and white speckled rump could clearly be seen bounding through the freshly-mown
yellowed grass … and Jack headed off in completely the wrong direction.
Amanda
has started a new job at R2 Dentistry in Wichita and on her first week,
when she was in training, Jim and Woody, who were at Woody’s orthodontics
appointment nearby, decided to drop in on her and say hello … wearing these
Turkey Hats (that looked like fully-cooked Thanksgiving turkeys, complete with
white paper-covered drumstick tips).
Then,
when Amanda walked out, they ducked behind the front desk so only their hats
were visible.
Poor Amanda, to have such
charming relatives.
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| Thinking hard |
The
next day, Woody and I were reading from a difficult passage in one of his books
and I told him he really needed to focus and concentrate, to which he replied,
“Wait, let me get my thinking hat!” and came back moments later with the Turkey
Hat planted firmly on his head.
Which
was fine for him, but now
I couldn’t focus or
concentrate for the rest of the session.
Later that day Lucy apparently urged Amanda to put the Turkey Hat on
because, she told her plaintively, “It will make you happy!”
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| Their favorite ride - the train! |
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| Jack gets measured by the Silver Dollar City Undertaker |
We
took a long weekend to visit Silver Dollar City again, this time with our
former neighbors, the Ogrens. They moved away, but we forgave them because now they live in a little farmhouse next to the Walnut River and the dads and kids go fishing whenever we visit.
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The Ogren and Manry kids
2008 |
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| 2013 |
They say this is supposed to be a harsh winter, so Jim is spending a lot of his free time clearing out the dead Hedgerow trees along the property lines and chopping them up for firewood. We've got maybe three ricks of wood now, but think we may need as much as eight. Luckily, I get the easy job of driving the air conditioned tractor, complete with radio. Lucy and I sit at the wheel with a can of soda and peanut butter crackers, and yell, "HUH? WHAT? I CAN'T HEAR YOU!" as Jim, dripping with sweat and covered with chainsaw oil and sawdust, gestures for us to drive forward, back up, lift the bucket, etc. Yep, life is rough!
Hope you all have a beautiful October!
