The Rooster That Crowed No More

It was a peaceful evening on the ponderosa.  Blue skies, a soft breeze, and the long-awaited warmth of the sun beaming down on our faces.  The kids frolicking with the animals while Cam and I were tending to chores.  Positive energy buzzing through us all, as these are the moments when we feel like our dreams have come to fruition, we breathe deeply: inhale the views and exhale all worries.  We are really getting into a groove, when out of no where...... terror strikes.  The youngest member of  Team Brown, Kendyl, is pinned against the fence screaming in sheer terror at her assailant.... A one year old, prime time rooster, who's hackles are raised, chest is puffed, and mind is in pure attack mode.  A swift kick might send him spinning, but the three year old farm girl is paralyzed with fear, seeing her short life flash before her and reflected in the eyes of the prize fighter.  Out of no where comes Dad, flying around the corner on white steed with pitch fork in hand.  I scoop up the little one, and Dad attacks.  Blind fury might have described it well, the rooster ended in a pile of feathers, spurs relinquished, and dead as a door nail.  

And All That Was Left Was Feathers

Life with children, two legged or feathered is always interesting.  There always seems to be something to keep us up at night, make us laugh, or inspiring action.  For Cam, the sound of terror from our daughter, was enough to elicit a primitive protective response.  Lesson One: kids should know they are always safe in the realm of their parents/family--a safety net that envelopes them, an altruistic and consistent family structure that enables them to grow, explore, and simply be, without hesitation.  Having a rooster, and undoubtedly an ornery one, is one of childhood's rights of passage; yet we seek to teach to protect our little's members, which means we might eat a few more roosters until she comes of pitch fork bearing age.  Lesson Two: Make soup, harvest the bounty, waste not a young (ish) rooster.  After the killing spree, we talked it over a bit, and despite the multiple chores we had going on, we decided to butcher the rooster, as an example that it's simply unjust when one lives on the land to kill and throw away.  So, Cam butchered him up while the kids watched.  Kendyl collected some feathers for projects, and despite a few exclamations of nastiness, the kids tolerated the whole thing quite well.  **I must inject that while I was plenty excited to cook him up, be it age or brutality of killing, he tasted much like a well seasoned piece of rubber-- but the fruits of the lesson were hopefully a bit sweeter. **        

This was an interesting beginning to a long weekend in our neck of the woods.  I was happy to have a four day stretch off, and my dad was set to come over to check out the new horse, Chief,--- oh and help Cam out a bit with the house as well.  I was able to volunteer at Bear's school on Friday, which I always enjoy, and then it was truly the well deserved weekend.  After preschool, we got to work on the house, with a goal of setting all the floor joists.  Just as we were getting started we heard traffic on the drive, and the arrival of two more unexpected guests-- Cam's folks!  Like I've always said, people know when they come, unless it's the dead of winter, it's probably going to be a work weekend!  It brought back memories of the good 'ol days on Loomis Trail Road, which honestly seems like a project we just wrapped up.  Much of the same banter, and grumbling about measurements, techniques, things we would rather be doing.... Didn't we just finish building a house... and the like.  My job was to clear the foundation of rocks... and thus I was officially deemed "Rock Chucker," for the weekend, leaving me with sore arms and blistered hands!  I know this project rests primarily on the shoulders of Cam, but I'm rather excited for it myself, and it feels a bit different this go round.  We don't have a month old newborn, Cam's not maxed out at work, I'm on the downhill slide of school and better able to be good support, and we live in Eastern Washington!  Couldn't get much better than the view from our future front porch, in my opinion.

Not a Bad View!

The guys met their goals for the weekend, and did some on the job troubleshooting along the way.  We've had good food (minus the chewy 'ol rooster), and have all slept well at night.  My dad and me got up early Saturday and saddled up both horses to hit the trails.  We rode up past the lake near us, and traversed the snow to get on to another back road system near us.  Man, it felt good to be riding again together, I have many memories of riding as a child, and my dad just has a way with horses, as he does most things.  I'm getting used to this big old gelding, so it was nice to have someone to ride with, and felt so good that it was him!  We put our mounts through a good workout, with quite a grade going down the far side of a hill that takes you back out to the road a few miles down.  Dad, who was riding my mare, felt bad thinking she had a bit of a tender foot, and hiked with her all the way back up.  Meanwhile, I told Chief not to get any ideas looking at that setup, and kept him on his training plan.  I came back with a big smile on my face, and hopes for a lot more of that in the future.

Big Chief, Me, Vera and Riggs --Dad behind on Kit, the Wild Mustang

The weather has suited us quite nicely, bringing out me and the kids' freckles.  It's sure nice to see the sunshine and blue skies, and it's nice house building weather to boot.  We had a monsoon rainstorm last night, but it came after sleep and was nice out upon rising.  There is more water sitting around here than we have ever seen, which will hopefully help mitigate the fire season this year.  Next on the docket is to lay the floor panels on, and order up the framing package.  We have quite a substantial front/view wall, so the logistics of setting that is a big topic of conversation around here.  I've got a week and a half left of this quarter, and 93 days on my overall countdown.  Things are really shaping up!       

Tuesday Update:  Had an amazing spring day today.  Me and the kids woke, made coffee cake and headed to the lake with our "homework."  We are on letter V for Volcano, and Bear is really getting good at all his letters and sounds.  We hiked the mile up to Turtle Lake, had a snack and did our workbooks.  Headed home for some more work, snacks and nap time.  Double naps= outside/horse time for mom.  My neighbor gal and I had quite the ride Sunday night.  With all the runoff from the snow melt, many of our gravel roads now have small creeks running through them.  It's so strange to see in our usually dusty habitat.  What a ride!  And a good trust builder for my big guy and I.  Today's ride went well, and I'm getting used to being much higher in the sky than with my little mare.  After naps it was back to hiking.  The kids and I set off with some water balloons (Bear talked me into it), to our meadow, and heard the sound of a waterfall coming down the hillside.  Upon further exploring, we found quite the fall coming down by our neighbors spring.  Bear looked at me with wide eyes and said "WHERE does it come from????"  I am not one to squelch curiosity so up the hillside we went lugging the treasures we found in the burnt terrain along the way.  We hiked straight up and found the "source,"  which was several run off creeks coming down from the mountains.  Kendyl was encouraged when her brother exclaimed "B you have made it so far and you're just a little girl."  You could see her light up, and she didn't ask to be carried the rest of the day.    We arrived back home full of adventure, and not ready to stop.  So we asked Cam to pack up some wood, I grabbed some hot dogs and we headed to Fish Lake for a weenie roast and some more fresh air!  The kids watched a little otter play on the ice, and enjoyed hot dogs and smores.  I tell ya, life doesn't get much better than today.