April 26, 2012

Outside Temp: 50 F (awesome weather today... clear and beautiful, then the clouds rolled in, thunderstorms and lightening, rain... I love the smell of rain!)

What I cooked today:
Tacos: I hate those days where it's suddenly 6:30pm and you have no idea what to make for dinner.  I would love to just say 'Hey, I'm hungry, what's for dinner?', but I realize that I'm the only one who will answer me.  So, I settled for tacos.  It would have helped if I had known that one of my kids (I'm blaming 'not me', but it might have been 'ida know') ate all the tortillas.  Fortunately, the Grandparents sent some down when they cleared out their fridge, so we had 6.  We made really big tacos and then just ate the insides on a plate with a fork.  It worked, my tummy is full and that's all that matters.

Update:
I substituted today for the Special Ed class.  That means that I got to help some kids one-on-one, which is really awesome.  Tomorrow, I get to sub for Katie's class, so hopefully, we'll both survive.

Patrick picked up his new 'toy' today.  He got a riding lawn mower.  He had them leave it in the box, so that it would fit in the van.  Amazingly, it fit in the van, although it was a little challenging to get it out.  They used a forklift, and I guess we didn't really think about the fact that we had somehow get the 500lb box out of the back of my van. 

We ended up not having a problem.  We dragged it out, tilted it on to the ground, then had Allen slowly move the van forward, while we held on to the end.  It didn't fall to the ground (thank goodness) and we were able to slowly lower it to the ground without breaking anything.

It took about an hour to get it put together, and Patrick was finally able to start it up.  It started smoking immediately, which he put down to the high altitude.  He made some adjustments, and then it worked fine.

Of course, by this time, it was raining and there was thunder and lightening.  But that wouldn't stop him from playing with his new 'toy'.  He ran it over to the shed and cut the grass in this silly line, across the yard.  Then he ran it around in a 10 foot oval, just to make sure it worked.   I think it would have worked better if the grass hadn't been wet.  We stored it in the shed for the night, and if the rain stops, I'll try to get him to actually mow the entire lawn next time!

The storm was fast and strong.  The wind was amazing and the kids were outside singing 'It's raining, it's pouring'.  The thunder made them fall to the ground, laughing. 

We covered the outside chicks with a tarp, so their 'cage' (which is about 12' x 12' x 8') will stay dry.  There is a cardboard box, with some stuff on top to help insulate them, in their cage, so they can escape the openness into a nice, warm, cozy room.  Patrick picked up some 1" chicken wire, which he is going to place around the edges, so that when we move the other chicks out there, they won't be able to escape through the holes (the current cage has about 2" holes, and the littlest ones might be able to make it through).  It will also help protect them from other rodents (hopefully) although I realize that if something wants in, I probably won't be able to stop it. 

In our desire to keep the chicks dry, we neglected to think of what would happen to the cage with a tarp over the top, when the winds came up strong.  We went back over to check on them after about 30 minutes, and couldn't figure out where the hole came from at the bottom of one corner.  Oh wow, the entire cage was lifted up and moved about 2 feet.  Hmmm.  Not really expecting that one.  We were able to move it back to it's original position, and then we put some boards over the top, so the tarp wouldn't balloon up.  I'm half expecting to see the cage on the other side of the yard by the morning...

The chicks are healing fine from their 'fight' the other day, and their wounds have scabbed over.  And nothing is stopping them from eating... and eating... and eating some more!  Some of the other teachers at school today were relaying their best 'chicken slaughter' horror stories during lunch.  Oh my goodness, I am totally not prepared for this.