farm:

Well, I'm suspcious the man at the mill is reading my blog. Just hours after my post we received "THE CALL". Chicks are in! Two hours later, my bathroom closet was taken over by heat lamps, plastic tubs, wood shavings,chick feed, and waterers. This batch of chicks has a certain spunk that I don't remember from previous years. When being "exercised" on my living room floor, they follow the girls around like they are their mother hens. The tear across the carpet, peck and tug at bits of whoknowswhat in the cracks between the wood floors. They are keeping us quite entertained.

field:

A few weeks ago, I received an email from a science supply catalog...they had messed up their shipments and had an overwhelming supply of caterpillars. And they were 50% off. We've yet to do the caterpillar thing, so I quickly snatched up a set. The caterpillars arrived and then disappointed when they didn't do much but crawl around eating the sticky brown food at the bottom of the cup, shed their exoskeletons and get awfully rotund. Eventually, I removed the cup from the middle of the kitchen table. It was getting a little gross. And they went into the school room. But this morning we woke up to two chrysalis (chrysalises?) . If a watched pot never boils, apparently a watched caterpillar never chrysalizes? (again, making up my own words here)

sky:

You might not share the same degree of excitement about this that I do but do you remember Maggie? After she (and all her ducklings) flew away late last fall, we've been curiously watching a group of mallards just up the road on a different stretch of Thomas Run. We like to pretend that those are our ducks. A group of the same number, eventually adding mates. We'd pull the car over, roll down the windows and call our "duck-duck-duck!" to them. And I swear, they cocked their heads to look at us. Well.....Wednesday morning as we were out doing morning chores Maggie and "Handsome" her husband came flying and dipping in, landing smack in the middle of the mess of barn cats roaming around waiting to be fed. They were completely unphased by the four-legged animals, wandering among the cats and waiting for us to bring them a scoop of food. After they ate, just like always, they went to the big rubber tub of water, looking for a drink and a quickswim. It's magical, I tell you! They're back. We're so excited. They've been showing up every morning since.

closet:

That same morning when I came in from all the duck excitement, I headed upstairs to get dressed. (Yes, I just might do chores in my pajamas sometimes). And I heard a curious mewing coming from my bedroom closet. Inside was the golden glow of cat eyes. One of the barn cats had managed to slip into the house and was obviously ready to have her babies. Thankfullly, I managed to remove her from my closet and back out onto our mudroom with a box and soft towel. Within the hour, there were four damp litle kittens nursing from their mama.

(chick photos by katiepertiet)