Kids: My lovely Littles- who are always asking to help, who are willing to share with each other and who are sometimes even better than me at getting the dog to go out before there's an accident- have been so edgy lately. They yelled at each other this past weekend almost as much as they spoke in normal voices, and there were tears on more than one occasion. So what did this Mama do about it? I let them sit in front of a screen- for hours- both Saturday and Sunday. Sometimes digging in dirt does it, sometimes a craft or a project does it... and sometimes, to have a few minutes to hear myself think, Minecraft does it.
Dog: My lovely Suka- who is growing like a weed, has learned a myriad of commands, understands that she has to go to the front door and be let out to go potty, and will halt mid-chase after the cat on command- peed inside like seven times this weekend for no apparent reason. I think she noticed I was feeling a little too optimistic about her transitioning out of the puppy potty training phase and needed to put me in my place (which she felt apparently was down on the floor cleaning up spots here and there and everywhere).
Bees: During my most recent mid-winter hive check, I discovered that although two of my hives are doing great, my North Hive has something majorly wrong and is down to two frames of bees, at best. They weren't even the worst off when I discovered my varroa mite problem, but despite having plenty of stored food, they're really struggling. I'm hoping in the next week or so I'll be able to have a friend come out and treat all three hives with oxalic acid to give them a strong start to the spring... assuming there are still bees to treat in North Hive in another week or two.
Chicken Girls: I have been enjoying the ramping up of egg production as my girls have been reacting to the increasing daylight hours (we don't do the artificial light thing in our coop, mainly because there's no easy access to power out there). Some of my girls seem to have forgotten where their eggs go, it's been so long since they were regularly laying! I've found eggs on the floor of the hen house, on the ground under their feeder, and broken on the edge of their door out into their yard (maybe the egg was laid while a girl was perched there?). It's been like a little early Easter. Unfortunately, a few of them seem to have also forgotten that they need to stay in their yard, and yesterday two girls got out at some point in the evening. I went out right after sundown to close everything up (as I usually do, because they're all roosting by then and round up is a non-issue), and as I approached the coop I heard a coyote hauling them off into the woods. I was probably only five or ten minutes too late to save them. I know predation is something most chicken-keepers regularly have to deal with, but maaaaaaaaaaan... actually hearing it happen totally bummed me out. One of the ones nabbed was a favorite of my kiddos, too, and I am not looking forward to telling them she's gone.
Finally, I'd like to take this opportunity to mention that I also burn stuff (like the batch of low-carb chips I was making yesterday for the hubs), break stuff (like the entire jar of homemade beef stock I dropped on the kitchen floor the other day), and eat cake for lunch.
I also have it pretty darn good, but don't let that stuff fool you... I'm a regular parent and a regular person despite it all.
OK, whew, glad to get that all off my chest. I'm ready for more perfection, now, Universe.
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