On a September evening

I have had qualms about exactly what to write on this blog.  I don’t read others so I can’t compare – do I write just about the farm or about the kids or about me but I guess since it says ball family that is what it should be. All kinds of things have been going on lately.

 

I am still enjoying the wonderful sunrises!  We have had some very foggy mornings and it is like walking into another world with fog shrouded tall dark sentries in the distance and swirls of clouds caressing my face.  There is also a planet, I don’t know which one that is very bright every morning and positioned directly in front of me as I head east towards the chicken coop.  Speaking of chickens my chickens are sick.  They have chicken pox!  It is actually called avian or fowl pox but it is yucky.  The chickens all have black crusty looking sores on their combs and wattles (the red part above and below the head) and slight sneeze sounds.  They also have stopped laying and for a while there Fancy wasn’t crowing al all and Fancy loves to crow.  Fred crows occasionally but Fancy will crow dozens of times a day.  It took me several days to come up with what they had, actually Shelly came up with it (research specialist) and then if was confirmed by Brett, the rancher that rents our pasture and then the Montgomery County Ag extension agent.  We just need to wait and they will be better in a month or so.

 

We also have lost a cat.  One day Spencer was just gone and we haven’t seen him in almost two weeks.  My guess is he became someone’s dinner but I guess he could have found a different home.  Our duck is still doing well.  She came waddling up to the house the other day, we hadn’t fed her yet.  If she doesn’t have a mate we may buy some baby ducks for her to raise come spring.

 

Meanwhile, I think I may have broken the third toe on my left foot.  I dropped a very heavy plastic thing on my foot and then jumped around a bit and finally soaked it in ice water for a while.  It is really a very ugly toe right now and I still can’t wear shoes. I was supposed to get it x-rayed today but it just didn’t happen so I am just going to treat it like it’s broken.  It would help if my children would stop stepping on it.  So far today, Mandy has stepped on it three times and Nathan once.

 

I was very proud of myself last Friday as I mowed the entire yard in one day.  For those that haven’t heard about our mowing issues, they seem to be ongoing.  When we first moved to the farm we bought the old riding lawn that the old owners sold us.  It lasted about 2 ½ mowings.  Then we bought a rebuilt mower from Johnny the lawnmower man and then it kept breaking down.  I think it took 3 times of Johnny coming out and fixing this or that before we could actually run it.  Ask Jeremy, the poor guy kept climbing onto the mower and mowing a strip and then the mower would break and the circle would repeat itself with Johnny coming out, etc.  Finally, right before Cyndi and family left for Arizona it was finally running smoothly.  Anyway, in all this time I had never accomplished mowing all of it in one day until last Friday and I was able to get it mowed even thought I had to pick Nathan up from school and do some running around afterwards.  It looks so much better when it is mowed!

 

Glenn isn’t coming home until Friday night as he had a management meeting in Denver and Nathan doesn’t have school tomorrow and so we get to sleep in, Yeah!  Sleeping in at my house usually means 6:30 but it beats 5:45.  We hope to work on the road some tomorrow.  I am not sure how I am going to do that with a broken toe but it really is getting bad.  With all of the rain we received in early summer it has many and deep potholes and so it is time to do the dirt/gravel fix.  We have priced a tractor with an attachment that would fix the road but Glenn is waiting, I’m not sure for what but he is waiting.

 

Hurrah – we also received Mandy’s Social Security card today!  It’s been a year since we brought her home but we finally have it.  That’s it for the evening.  Ya’ll have a great night.