I Spy

Can you see what I see??


It is difficult to see.

This was taken at 5:30 this morning.


There are lots of reflections in the window from the spotlight I was using.


This is something that likes to eat my duck and chicken eggs.


It also eats up old mouse guts that the cats have left around.

It is black and white and stinky.

Have you guessed yet?

Maybe this will help.

Yup.  It's a skunk.  I watched him (or her) slink across the yard in the dark this morning.  It's probably living in our culvert again.  Ugg!  Sometimes country life just isn't pretty.  A couple years ago we had a family of skunks living there.  We think the mother ran off and got killed because one evening we came out and found some baby skunks playing and looking disoriented in our ditch. They were probably starving.  The kids wanted to keep them as pets.  Uh!  No Thanks!  They were cute little stinkers.

Now the gory part-- don't read if you have a queasy stomach.  Rich whacked them over the head with a shovel.  Then we buried them.  They sure stunk after getting whacked.  They would have most likely died of starvation or gotten killed anyway, and I'm not in the business of animal rescue-- especially skunks!

Raising kids not Strawberries

I really wish I could grow strawberries.  I love strawberries, but I just can't seem to get them to grow here.  I can't get much to grow here.  Most likely because I never have time to think about it, or do anything about it.  Plus it is dry and windy and very hot in the summer and dry and windy and very cold in the winter.  Not a really good place for berries.  So I bought some and was chopping them up for the freezer.  I realized something as I was taking this picture, though.  I am doing it again.

I am trying to grow strawberries and not kids.  None of the kids were helping me do this job.  Some were gone with Dad and that is Ok, but some were reading books or playing.  Just look at all this fun they were missing, and the time we could have spent together.  Sometimes I really miss the mark.  I would love to grow lovely luscious strawberries, but I think I'd better grow kids instead.

Learning to Read

Everett is ready to read.  He recognizes most of the letters, and knows some of their sounds, so it is time to teach him to read.  I've taught 4 kids to read now, but each time it seems like I have to relearn how to do it.  Especially with the 6 year gap between Everett and Cedric.

I bought a moveable alphabet this week (oops, I didn't quite get all the letters in right, and there are many more letters included). . I have wanted one for a while for teaching reading and writing. Everett and I played with it last night.  He loved the little "i" with it's separate dot. He pulled all the "i's" out and put them in a row and said "i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i."  He hasn't learned the "i" sound yet, but he has learned m,c,a,b,t and d.  I keep trying to see if he can put them together (I have to tell the other kids NOT to read it for him), so I will line up C-A-T and have him sound out the letters.  He doesn't quite get that they actually form a real word.  That will come.