My little sister

 Just remembering my sister on her birthday. Hopefully she is having a big birthday bash up there in heaven. I've been hearing from a lot of your friends today. You are so greatly missed!

 Gotta show off those pig tails. So cute!

Can't believe there is a picture of you in a dress. I didn't think you wore any once you were old enough to pick out your own clothes.

Oh the chicken eggs

Well I had about the worst luck imaginable with the chicken eggs. On Saturday night we took the turner out. When I placed the cover back on I didn't realize one of the windows was loose. Sunday morning when I got up it was 90 degrees in the incubator. However, I could hear one of the chicks peeping from inside the egg with a tiny hole started. I fixed the window put some warm water in the tray to heat it up quicker. With in an hour the temp was back up to 97 degrees. The chick hadn't made any progress but was still talking. We left for the cities around noon. I checked on them again. Still no changes, the temp was good and the humidity was 85%. We returned home about 11:30 Sunday night I checked on them about 12:30, and we had three very wet baby chicks, and three more just starting to make holes. I left them in the incubator so they could dry out. When I woke up at 6am, there was no noise. For some unknown reason the incubator over heated, all my babies had died. Terrible bad luck on this batch of chicks.

Rose Headband & Hat

Here is the rose bud headband I talked about last weekend. I just love it. So cute and it will match her Easter outfit. Hopefully that will still fit her. She is growing like a weed.

I also made a newborn boy hat for a gift. I used two strands of yarn, one blue and one green. Part way through to make a stripe I did two strands of blue for three rows.

Wash cloth and the other hat I started are still not finished. I decided I had better work on my taxes before I spend any more time knitting.

Eagle Trouble

This young bald eagle is stalking my ducks. I saw him out the front window this morning sitting on one side of the creek. Then he would fly and try and hover over the creek, and then land on the other side. He did this numerous times. So I finally I took my camera and walked out to get a closer look. That is when he flew by me and I snapped this photo.

I found three of my ducks without a care in the world, cleaning and flapping in the water. None of them seemed to care that the young eagle was trying to figure out how to catch them.

Since I scared the eagle away from these three, he flew to the ponds where my other ducks were hanging out. So I walked over to check on them. They too seemed completely oblivious to the presence of the eagle. 

As I approached these seven ducks the eagle flew back up the valley. Just then another eagle came from the direction of the river and flew very low right over my head and up the valley where the first one had went. Then wouldn't you believe it one more. This one was flying high.

I remember last fall. This mama eagle was training three very young ones in our field across the creek just after Tony cut down hay. Well I think they returned. I hope my ducks learn to take cover like the chickens do.

The heifers were very curious as to what I was up to walking all over the pasture so early in the morning.

Kindergarten Round Up

My middle guy had kindergarten Round Up today. It went better than I thought it would. He is very shy and doesn't like new anything. So when it was time for all the kids to go with Mrs. Klug and Mrs. Doty and leave the moms and dads behind, James did not want to go. I went along holding his hand as they went on a scavenger hunt through the school. First the lunch room he didn't let go. Next the office, I managed to convince him to go in with out me and I promised I would wait right outside the door. Next was the nurse's office. This time I convinced him to go in with out me and I would go back to fill out the paper work I left behind. He was torn between holding my hand and the fun he was having on the scavenger hunt, but the hunt won out. Mean while they had four kids from the High School dressed as Dorothy, the Scare Crow, the Cowardly Lion, and Glenda the Good Witch (from a play they just put on). The lion was so funny. Running around telling people not to pull his tail. Just outside the nurses offices (and near the bathrooms) he asked Mrs. Klug if she'd seen a litter box any where around. We all laughed so hard, including James. It was so nice that the high school students could joke around with such little kids. When James finally came back to me, he was clutching a blow up lion and packet full of summer homework (the best part about school according to Mrs. Doty). James was so proud of himself. It was a good day. And to top it all off, my little girl didn't scream at Grandma while I was gone.

Off to work I go

Tomorrow is my first day back to work after my maternity leave. Luckily I'm only working part time, for the first three weeks my day care only had two days a week available, YEAH! Then in three weeks I start three days a week. Hopefully my little girl has a better day then I think she will have. So far she cries at everyone but James and myself. She even cries at Dad, Grandma and Grandpa. I guess she'll make those ladies at daycare earn their money tomorrow. I feel bad for all of them but especially my little girl.

Over the past few days I tried to get a few more projects in. I made a hat like I made for my little girl for Aunt Tammy to give as a gift along with a couple of headbands. I also knit my little girl a rose headband. I knit a little green and blue hat for gift to give as well. And last night I started on a knit dish cloth. But I didn't finish so hopefully it doesn't sit in limbo too long.

I'll try and take some pictures soon, and post them.

Eggs, Eagles, and Calves

My 5 year old James and I candled the chicken eggs today. We started out with 24 eggs my husband found in the barn. We ended up tossing 8 eggs today that looked clear when we candled them over a flash light. The other 16 have an distinct dark area covering over half the egg. A little worse percentage than when I pull fresh eggs from the nest boxes, but all in all not bad since we don't know how old the eggs were, and it was pretty cold around her the few nights before we found them. James is getting really excited to see them hatch.

We also started watching the Bald Eagles in Decorah IA web cam. He was hoping to see those babies hatch out today. No luck so far.

http://www.ustream.tv/decoraheagles

It was a bad day on the farm for our second calf born. His mama abandoned him last night in the cold. She never cleaned him up just left him lay. When my husband found him this morning at 7:30 he couldn't get up. He came to the house and yelled in, "Could you please clear a spot in the basement for a calf." (Interesting thing to hear - I had to go check to make sure I heard him right.) He came in carrying the little thing to put in front of the wood stove. When he first came in he was mooing so loud James kept covering his ears. My little girl didn't know what to think of it. We dried and dried for an hour. But it wasn't soon enough, the poor little guy died. What a sad start to the day.