The Duck Report
DUCK REPORT 98 December 29, 2013
Here we are again. Christmas is over and was lovely with just Blythe and Synap, quiet but just right*. To bring you all up to date, we finished the school year on December 19th which was a Thursday, those good old school teachers had to get their PD day in and tacked it onto the Christmas holiday. This was also our Christmas party at the bus company. This takes the form of a breakfast with awards and usually a lecture, or some instructional talk, but this year they decided to have a comedian. She was not bad but the breakfast was cold so the whole thing was a bit of a downer. Also, as there was no lecture we did not get paid for it. I should have stayed home - it would have been more productive.
The week before I had finished all the hats for the students and gave them to them. I made them all fun hats, there were 3 different styles. One I call the Noddy hat, after Noddy and Big Ears, (if you are not English and at least 50yrs old you won’t know who they are). The hat has one point like a clown hat but is soft and very long. The second style is a 2 horned job, much like Punch’s hat, in the Punch and Judy shows. The 3rd hat style is like the popes skull cap but with a 4” band around it. They were all different colours and all had beads and tassels.
I had 2 bags full of hats and every one was different so I let them pick their hat, starting a bag at the front of the bus and one at the back. It was a huge success and many are still being worn. I was on a roll so I made hats - much more conservative - for my own kids. My children liked them too, all except Michael** who claims his is not as warm as the one he already has. It was arctic fleece so should have been warmer than his nylon knit, but what the heck you can’t win them all.
My students give me Christmas presents, which loads me up with candies, cookies, Tim cards etc. but this year I had a very special present. One student was the last to get off the bus in the morning and said to me he had nothing to give me. Then he opened his sketch book, selected a sketch and tore it out giving it to me. It was a beautiful drawing in black and white of a Blue Jay. I was so overwhelmed that I almost forgot to thank him. I have since framed it and it hangs on my bedroom wall.
Thank goodness we finished driving on the Thursday, because shortly after we had an ice storm. It was horrible, they seemed to forget to plow the roads and everything ground to a halt. We did not move for 2 days. When it was finally over we had close to an inch of ice on everything, you could skate right over the snow, except I do not skate and had a hard time just standing up. Michael finally got out to church on Sunday, but the roads were treacherous and still unsalted. Things were so bad that I have not had the dogs or Twix out for over a month. I feel really bad but I just don’t want to have anyone hurt.
Over the holiday I had Mr. Miller make 2 collars and a halter. Blythe’s dog Orbit got one and Saiko the other, while Twix got the halter. The halter was too small; Saiko’s collar a little large and Orbit’s collar a little small. Oh well, I shall have to get it sorted out. Don will be in his 80’s and does not always get things right.
My spinning is coming along, but I am still having trouble with tension. I can get the thread even but not always the same amount of twist. It’s difficult, so I have some very odd wool, but will try and knit it and see what happens.
I have finally made a decision on the carpet for the stairs. This all came about when the painter came to give me a quote on the ceiling for the living room. After fighting with the back hall for over a week and repainting the ceiling 6 times, I have finally given up and called in a painter. The final straw was when I cleaned out the paint tray and painted a part of the kitchen ceiling, only to find the paint did not match what was there, even though it was the same paint. Very dirty ceiling!!
The painter said everything would have to be moved from the walls in order to paint the ceiling. This would seriously disrupt Michael's TV viewing, so I scrapped that idea 'til the summer when he moves into the library. The hall upstairs is the only bit of the second floor that has never been painted and seriously needs attention. Blythe and I took down all the artwork, and you can see where every piece was, and the carpet is just plain worn out. I have ordered some good durable stuff so the dogs can tear up and down with no problem. Some of the carpet comes from California so will not be here 'til mid to late January. Now, I have to call the painter and give him the change of plan and get another quote for the hall and walls. The base board will all have to come off but can now be replaced with cherry base. When it is all done it should look lovely and hopefully outlive me, as I do not want to go through this again.
DUCK REPORT 99 January 8th 2014
We made it!! 2014 and all is well. First day back to school and we have an ice day. In fact this is our 3rd snow day and, really, they have all been ice days. We stayed inside and just did not move. I let the ponies out but the next day was so cold that all the animals stayed in the barn, and were very happy they did.
Ralph has now been put in with the girls, and immediately had a head butting contest with the head ewe. She was not impressed with him, but eventually gave in and let him join the herd.
The Tuesday that it was so very cold I was worried the bus would not start, or stop in mid-route as it has in the past, but all went well and we made it home in one piece. I think the dogs must have been worried about me as the welcome home I received was something to behold. They were woofing at the door and when Michael opened the inner door I was practically bowled over with the tail wagging, dancing, woofing and jumping up. Saiko finally grabbed my scarf, which was still wound around my neck, and pulled. The result was he was strangling me. When I finally managed to get control of the scarf and take it away from him, he took off with my slipper. He is very fond of slippers and quite often attacks them. I have a pair of Koala bear slippers which I was given, one Christmas, in Australia. They have survived several litters of puppies, but succumbed to Saiko. He has eaten the eyes and noses out of them.
Today was somewhat warmer, so Michael and I set off for the feed store as we were out of cracked corn. We should have done this 2 days ago but it was just too cold. As a result the ducks have been on a cat food diet for 2 days. It seems everyone likes cat food: ducks, ponies, sheep, dogs and even a family of Blue Jays. I know we have raised at least 3 clutches of Blue Jays on cat food. It got so bad that I had to start feeding the cats at night so the Blue Jays would not get all the food. Back to the story - we loaded the corn sacks on to the toboggan and set off down the driveway. Michael said he was going to take the shortcut over the snow down to the barn. As the snow has at least an inch of ice on top of it I considered this quite foolish and suggested he ride the toboggan down to the barn. He chickened out and decided to follow the path down to the house and around to the barn. Down to the house is also very steep, and off the toboggan went ahead of him merrily down to the back door with Michael desperately trying to hold it back and still stay on his feet. I was behind watching this spectacle doubled over with laughter. I still think he should have taken the short cut - it would have been spectacular.
Wally came today and we loaded a round bale of hay into the sheep field. We had to throw it over the gate as the gate is frozen in place. When it fell it rolled down into the field and almost made it to where we wanted it on its own, just a little push and we had it where we wanted it.
Wally also did me a favour and ran around the property with the tractor, creating me a walking path through the ice. After lunch, the dogs and I had a nice walk all round the fields with no slipping. It was so nice I may take Twix out tomorrow and try the same thing with him. Today, he was quite annoyed that I did not take him, but I wanted to see if my plan had worked. We will still have to be careful in places as the ice is so thick that the tractor has not broken through.
DUCK REPORT 100 19th January 2014
Michael is driving me crazy!! He slipped on the ice last week and has been an incredibly annoying patient ever since. He claims he has broken some ribs which is a reasonable assumption but won’t go to the hospital for an x-ray or have me bandage them up. Well, now one week later he appears to be better, so much better that he now wants to shovel snow. I tell you there is no accounting for stupidity!!
Saiko has been dubbed by Christine as Golden Ninja***, as he can sneak up on the dining room table invisibly. I have a few less choice words for him at the moment as he took off on me and went walk about up the road to the neighbors and I had to go and retrieve him. After scrambling through two snow banks I was not a happy camper. He now has to be tied up or on a lead at all times. I think because he is now lean and able to trot of at high speed he feels he can go anywhere he pleases. Well, I have news for him - that just will not happen, and when the weather improves he just may get tied to the carriage to be exercised.
This week the carpet guys are coming to install the stair and second floor hall carpet, so I hope we do not get any more snow or ice as they have to get the truck down here to unload. After this I hope I can get the painter in to paint the entire upper hall. It is going to require scaffolding so is quite a job. I have stripped out all the base board, so now I will definitely have to organize the new base board, which means I shall need more cherry lumber. Now I have found a source this is much easier, and has saved all the cherry trees on the property.
DUCK REPORT 101 January 26th 2014
We just had the lane plowed again!! I don’t know how many times that has been this year but it definitely is a lot. I think on Friday and Saturday we must have received at least a foot of snow. The temperature is so cold that this morning Bart, who is an intrepid supervisor, refused to come to the barn and organize all the animals. Saiko is useless in this department as all he wants to do is scout out food, or lie in the shavings shed, so he can come inside and distribute shavings everywhere. Such a joy. When I finally made it to the barn the snow was over my wellington boots, and now the weather forecast is for more snow. The only upside to that is we may have a snow day and be able to stay home.
I have subscribed to Luminosity, as I had a feeling I was getting a little more stupid than usual. I have been studiously following the program for over a month with absolutely no improvement. In fact, if I was about to be worried by its findings I think I would be severely depressed. It claims I am slow and unable to solve problems. Well, I am slow at typing because I never learned how, and my spelling is atrocious, but what the heck I already knew that. As for solving problems, I did that for a living for 40 years and do not feel I have lost much in that department. So the games are fun and it is interesting, but hardly, I think of any value****.
I am afraid it is the dreaded tax season coming upon us, so I hope Monday is a snow day so I can get started putting it all together.
Lots to keep me busy even though I can’t ride or drive Twix. I went to see Melvin the Amish man who broke Twix for me, and he agreed that the ice was too bad to work Twix. He is ordering a harness for me. Well, he actually had mine and sold it to someone else then reordered mine. I am not in a desperate rush for it as I have a leather harness which works fine but has to be cleaned all the time, so I am getting a nylon harness that I can just hose down.
The seed catalog came and I was not impressed. It has lost its magic. The company has been sold and just is not up to snuff anymore, so I have gone online to find a new source. Actually I only need perennials and want to add to my Lilly and Iris collections so have found suppliers in Canada with lots of variety.
The opera schedule for 2014/15 came in this week and was very exciting. They have 6 operas planned and all look very good so I think Blythe and I will go to the whole lot. They tend to be scheduled in batches, which makes it very hard to spread them out and not get opera-ed out. They all seem to congregate around 2 months in the spring and fall.
I am now knitting. Can you believe knitting my own wool? Mind you it is pretty rough wool. I keep over or under spinning. It seems hard to get the correct amount of twist. I have knit two pairs of mitts just to get in shape and am now starting on a sweater. It is on round needles which take a bit of getting used to, and I think will be very heavy by the time I get to the top of the piece. I still have Ralph’s fleece to comb and spin so I hope to do better with this as his wool is very nice and soft, not coarse like Matilda’s wool, which is what I am knitting now.
The carpet installers came and went on Wednesday, and did a lovely job, and a very fine job on upholstering the stairs. It looks terrific and will be even better when the painter has done his thing. I tore off all the base board, so now I really have to get going on this wood and get it milled up and installed (that is if I can ever get it out of here). Maybe I should just go and get the next shipment and take it over to be milled into baseboard and leave what is here for the fire place surround.
Notes by Blythe:
*Awwwwwwwww, Mum! *sniffles*
**Michael shouldn't really be considered a child at 70 years old, but he IS terribly annoying. He could probably benefit from a little brain freeze...
***When I first read this report, Mum had spelled 'Ninja' as 'Ninger' and made me a bit panicked that she thought I had used a racial slur or something to describe her golden retriever. Then I realized that Mum simply can't spell *facepalm*. Gawd knows what the extended family thinks of me now...
****OMFG, MUM! YOUR BRAIN IS JUST FINE & THERE IS ALMOST NO SCIENTIFIC VALIDITY TO THESE ONLINE 'BRAIN TRAINING' WEBSITES! YOU DESIGNED AND BUILT BUILDINGS FROM SCRATCH FOR 40 YEARS - YOU. CAN. PROBLEM-SOLVE.
jesus... parents...