you bathe your kids every night? Unless my kids are really dirty or sweaty they take a bath a couple times a week. More in the summer because they need it. I dunno, I just never thought it was necessary.
Yeah, my kids are country kids They stay dirty and the temps today were in the mid 90s and we went to the park after story time at the library today. I'm constantly on them about wearing their shoes too....at the very least I scrub their feet and their faces before they go to bed.
If it rains and we are inside all day I don't worry about it but when the weather is nice they like to take a bath before bed every night. I'm trying to get them to take showers but my son HATES a shower. I try to do a "quick bath"---get in get clean get out. I fill the tub with about 3 inches of water and let it roll. Then I scrub them down and pull the plug and rinse them from the tap with a cup. I use less water that way. They like to take a bath in the garden tub in the master bath and if I fill it it uses a ridiculous amount of water. Sometimes I put my daughter in the shower with me in the evening and we kill two birds with one stone.
I just checked on the ducks and closed everyone up for the night. They were huddled in a corner so I broke them up and unplugged the fan and plugged in the heat lamp and when I left them they were chasing bugs around the brooder. They look like fuzzy golf balls. The runners are so much bigger than the mallards and they stand up so tall when they walk it is just funny to see them together.
Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day, the fan seems to have worked to at least alleviate some of the heat and move some air around. I have it in between the food and water so it goes straight up the middle of the brooder and that seems to be working for now. It is just all the more reason for me to only do birds in the spring or the fall. This is a nightmare. This is exactly why we only do our meat birds in the fall so we don't have to deal with dead loss from the heat.
Been a busy morning...the garage door guy is here and he is about halfway done putting the door up.
The ducks were fine this morning. I turned the heat lamp on last night at about 9pm and it is still on now because they are laying under it. No more dead this morning. I talked to Meyer Hatchery and they are sending me replacement ducks next week. He said it sounded like a combo of stress/dehydration to him. Now that the rest have the electrolytes in them they seem okay. They aren't drinking a ridiculous amount of water but are sipping on it and eating well. We cut up a watermelon for breakfast so I saved 3 long pieces of rind with some red left on it and put it in there for them to nibble on.
It is supposed to be a lot cooler today so they should be alright. I also turned the brooder (which is an old truck bed turned into a trailer with lattice on the top and now the back side) so that the air could flow through a little better and the sun will not get on the brooder at all. Last night it had full sun on the back side of the brooder for about 2 hours but it was okay with the fan going. They should be alright, the garage door guy was fascinated with them.
It dipped down into the 50s last night so they needed the heat lamp. I think it is only gonna get into the 80s so I'll keep an eye on things. We may go to the pool this afternoon for a few hours so I'll make sure they are okay before we go.
I have a friend that is supposed to be coming for dinner tonight but I almost don't want her to come. She has issues. This is the cake lady. Her son stepped on 2 oak moth caterpillars and had to go to the doctor to be put on antibiotics for that as well as a rash on his back that had become infected as well. Her daughter fell out of the bed and hit her ear and it is all bruised up. They both haven't been feeling well and she wants to get them out of the house for a bit. I don't care but she is just getting weird on me.
They won the beach vacation at the golf tournament raffle. She is the cheapest cheapskate ever sometimes and is always looking for something for free. Now, I don't mind that, free is good right? Here's the deal, my MIL donated that vacation and when she called her to set it up cake lady asked if they could come down early....for free. She essentially tried to get another full day for free and whined about how it was such a long drive for them and how they should be allowed to come early in order to get the full value of the vacation credit. WTH? My husband is livid. You are gonna get a free weekend at a house that sleeps 17 and rents for like $600 per night and b!tch about it? I get so tired of hearing her schemes to get something for nothing.
She has had problems with depression and anxiety and drugs and shoplifting and drinking her whole life. I am only friends with her because my husband works with her husband and he asked if we could get together and let the kids hang out. Now 3 years later hubby decides that she is a bad influence. I never leave my children with her alone or at her house. They always are under my supervision or are at my home. She wants to have a sleepover and split the kids up....she takes the girls and I take the boys or vice versa and I have to keep coming up with excuses why we can't do it.
She is the kind of person that it is hard to sever a friendship with because she will bad mouth you to everyone she knows. I know, I've seen her do it. I've tried to distance myself from her a bit but it is hard when the kids beg to see her kids. I don't know what to do about it but I just needed to vent my frustrations. At least they are coming here tonight and not vice versa. I have the milking the goat as a standing excuse to leave the house now.....
Stick to your guns on the relationship with this woman and her children. Your instinct sounds spot on. I have a sister that sounds just like her. Perhaps you could just keep trying to distance yourself from her.
Good to hear the ducks are doing better and that your getting replacements.
Glad to hear the ducks are okay and you're gettin replacements.
I'm sorry about the cake lady. I don't like people like that either. I keep my distance far and away.
I knew a lady like that once. I was introduced to her by a mutual acquantance and we all car pooled up to NOVA when I worked up that way. I was cautiously "Friends" with her and kept my distance, but as soon as I gave 2 weeks notice that I was no longer going to car pool with her, she did bad mouth me to anyone who would listen. I knew she would. She's just a miserable person and doing that makes her feel better. It's her way.
But, that was several years ago (when I was pregnant with DS who is now 6) and I'm so happy I don't have to worry about her and her issues anymore. It's freeing - even after all of these years.
Well, we ended up seeing an aquaintance and her children at the pool yesterday and stayed until 6pm. The kids were having such a good time we just stayed. So by the time we got home I boiled some nitrate/nitrite free hot dogs and cut up a watermelon, steamed some veggies and called it a night. Didn't even talk to cake lady, she never called me so I dunno. She'll probably show up at my house today.
The kids wanted to camp out last night but we just didn't have the time or energy to set everything up. So it looks like that is my project for the day. It is actually a little chilly this morning. I want to work the bees today cause they are calling for a chance of showers tomorrow and the temps are gonna be in the 80s today so if I can get my neighbor to come help me I'll clean up the hives a bit today before all the camping starts.
There is also a chicken swap a few miles down the road and I cannot find my liquid smoke so it looks like I may have to hit the feed store and pick up that smoker to do the hives today.
Here is an odd thing that happened yesterday too. My garage with the ducklings is all the way on the opposite side of my property from the barn and chicken pasture. I came out of the milk room last night and the kids are yelling at me to come over to the chicken run. I get Aliana squared away and look up in time to see my son scoop something up off the ground. It was a mallard baby. I don't know how it got there and if it was one of mine or what but it looks slightly smaller than the others and I cannot for the life of me figure out how it got there. I put it in the brooder with the others. It seemed fine when I checked on them all last night.
See, we have a pond behind the house so it isn't terribly strange to have wildlife around. Last week I had a huge snapping turtle in the garden. I just don't know where the mallard came from. I tried to do a head count last night of the mallards but they were all running around like little wind up toys. I originally had 25 and lost 6 so that puts me at 19. If it is an extra from somewhere else then I should have 20. I'll try to do a head count again today. It is feasible that my scheming 6 yr old took one and put it there but I don't know until I check the numbers. Nobody has fessed up yet to anything.