Lost and Found

Poor little Uila died this weekend.  It looks like she got smushed by the other sheep.  Since we only got 2 ewes out of the six lambs born so far, it was a real loss.  She was also my little sweetie - she would lay her head on my shoulder (after she stopped struggling) when I picked her up.  

I read on CL that someone in my area lost 15 sheep!  I know that there is a lot of empty land behind those lots, so the sheep could very well be congregating together somewhere out in the conservation land, but they could have also been stolen.  I think it would be pretty difficult to steal 15 sheep, though, without someone noticing.  

This weekend I found that making tomato sauce out of you own very ripe tomatoes is almost too sweet.  It was fun to make it, even though I don't really have enough to can - which was a goal.  The tomatoes have been producing about 6-8 tomatoes a day, which is pretty much enough for us to eat for salad at dinner, which has been wonderful!  

I should be getting a bunch of cucumbers soon, too. And the peppers are getting tiny little buds on them, so I am hoping they make lots. 

I watch Pearl Harbor on Sunday.  It isn't the greatest movie, and some things don't seem to be accurate (only two planes were able to get up to respond to the bombing, and they were in cane fields, which is how they were missed, for example), but it is remarkably weird to watch even movie bombing of your home - very different than just watching movie bombing of a place you are not familiar with.  I remember feeling that when we went to watch it with my in-laws years ago when it was in theaters - they were young during the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and my mother-in-law actually lived only a couple blocks away from the bomb that went astray and hit a home.  

It is kind of like watching Magnum PI (show from the 80's) and Hawaii 5-0 (the old one is particularly fun, because every thing looks like when I was a kid - or watching 50 First Dates - where they drive down one street and end up at a beach or a building which is in another place altogether (or even on another island).  

Ah, I guess the ramble for the day is over, but the Remembrance of Wars and the reminder of how quick and randomly death can come (not that I anticipate being suffocated by sheep anytime soon) made for a very surreal weekend.  

Three Day Weekend

If it were the end of school, like it is for every other school this year, this wouldn't matter.  But since I have almost two more weeks left - I suppose I should be grateful for a three day weekend!

However, because our registrar wants our grades early, I need to wrap up my classes on Tuesday.  We have student led conferences on Wednesday and Thursday, and three foolish, wasted days (because our grades are due early, and the kids know it).  Not good planning.  That means I really wish I had Monday for classes to help the stragglers with their monster papers I assigned four weeks ago and which are due on Tuesday.  Also, not good planning.

I am also not done completely with the student led conference schedule, it being my year to do that duty.  Mostly, I spent today in a very long meeting, then staring at the student led conference schedule, and then driving my son around to get his work permit and documentation done, as he has a federally funded internship this summer (yay, kid!).  It's in a biology facility, even though they hired him to do computer work, so maybe growing plants will rub off on the boy - although I think his boss is more of a DNA guy than a greenhouse guy.

I am end-of-the year frazzled and yesterday's kicked anthill and sorrow for not understanding that one of my students wasn't just blowing stuff off - she was really hurting - it makes me pretty upset.  I think tomorrow, I need to sleep a little and pray a lot.  I went to church this afternoon while my son was in his last driver's ed class (he passed: again, "yay, kid!") in time for the Exposition.  I had time to pray for my student and her family, and for my own family.  It was peaceful and a good thing.

Bad words, Bad words

I have a student (well, several, really) who have issues with turning in work and coming to school and staying focused on their work when they are in school.  I get frustrated with them, and worried about them, and just wonder where their heads are.

Today was a reminder that sometimes life is overwhelming for some kids outside of school, so school just isn't where their heads can be because of what is happening at home.

I thank God that my husband is a good father to my children, because some kids don't have good fathers.  

Up to My Eyebrows

I feel like a cartoon drawing of myself - just picture a face peering over the top of a stack of papers falling off the desk.  I am not that bad, but it's not that far off.  There are just so many loose ends out there that I am trying to pull together.  I will be relieved when the school year is over, in some ways.  We have a very short summer vacation, well, at least compared to the summers I remember as a kid.  We have 7 weeks.

All the other schools switched back to a more traditional calendar, but we are still on year-round - so today is the last day for most schools (yesterday was the last day for my kids).  I knew when we had the extra week at Christmas and the extra week at Spring that I would be feeling wistful to realize we have two more weeks when everyone else is taking off!  So color me wistful as well as up to my eyebrows.

A banana farmer my husband met brought us a large box of bananas and plantains.  In return, we gave him a large amount of eggs.  Eggs are the other thing I am up to my eyebrows in - I could sell them at work, but I always forget to ask who wants.  I was feeling bad about the amount of eggs we gave him - not sure how anyone uses 5 or 6 dozen eggs - but then I started thinking about 35 lbs of bananas when my freezer is already full of frozen bananas I need to turn into smoothies and banana bread.....I guess we're even.

My husband and I are in disagreement about the need for a stand- alone freezer.  I want one; he has visions of a sky high electric bill.  We have the highest kilowatt hour price in the nation, I believe, so he has a valid point - but I keep thinking of what I could do if I could freeze a bunch of chickens or lamb, or veggies.....

Versatile?

Thanks, Chai Chai for the Versatile Blogger award.  I haven't responded both because the end of a school year is fairly nuts, and because I was really pondering the "versatile" label.

Compared to some of the teachers with whom I work I feel like a one trick pony.  I know English Language Arts very well, but when it comes to teaching an elective, all the other things I can do - bake, ride a horse, worm a sheep - aren't very school worthy.  Even after 6 years of French in high school and college, I can barely read it, and speak not at all - pidgin English is the closest I get to a foreign language.  I am a peg which fits my hole in life very well - not sure I would be versatile enough to move to another place on the pegboard, to extend the metaphor.

I even spent some time thinking of  7 things I could say about myself that you couldn't read for yourself here on Hapless.  But here we go:

1) I am not good with change - at first.  I adjust when I need to, but my first reaction is panic.

2) When people are talking and talking, I tend to tune out, which can be highly embarrassing when someone asks you a question in a whole staff meeting.

3) Even though I have spent my professional life with teenagers, sometimes my own baffle me.

4) I suspect my kids are well aware of number two, and start talking and talking so I tune out and say, "Uh huh, sure" when they want to have me say, "Yes".  It doesn't work, but it is pretty clever of them.

5) I am ridiculously tender-hearted and cry at stupid movies and even touching commercials - which cracks up both my kids and my students to no end.

7) I am ridiculously over-educated, but my lifelong dream was to get my PhD.  At this point, the amount of comfortable work years and the cost of a PhD don't make sense, but it was still a dream of mine.

I know I need to pass on my Versatile Blogger award to another blogger, but that will have to wait until later - I think all the bloggers whom I read frequently deserve it - but I am extremely late for an appointment - arrgh, just noticed the time.

Fencing Issues

The sheep have discovered that they can get under the electric fencing.  I hate when things go wrong with fences.  I have to keep the sheep confined to their stall and their dry pen until we can figure it out to protect my taro, olive trees and other fruit trees.  I think that taro in large amounts isn't good for sheep either - so I am protecting them, too.  This is not a fun thing.  

I think that maybe the fence has a faulty connection somewhere, but at the moment, I can not find it. 

They got out again this afternoon - I just had to grab Elvis with a dog leash and a can of feed and they all followed him to the barn.  Except, of course, the new Dorpers, who are still confused.  They led me on a merry chase - the ram lamb jumped over the horse water trough and the ewe fell in, necessitating a rescue.  I think she is too pregnant to really be agile (I remember the feeling well).  

I think I am going to have enough cucumbers to make pickles and eat cucumbers fresh in great amounts.  My tomatoes have a lot of fruit, although I am just getting a few a day at the moment.  I do want a bunch to get ripe at the same time so I can try my hand at canning sauce.  Based on the blossoms on my eggplants, I may get a good amount of the asian long eggplant - so good for stir fry and curry.  I wish I'd planted more peas, they aren't as prolific as I'd hoped.  I have two kinds of peppers: Jalapeno and bell, but the plants are growing slowly.  

I have chicken thighs in the crock pot (making bbq shredded chicken sandwiches for dinner) and bread in the oven, and I made a batch of my "treasure cookies" - they should probably be called "Everything But the Kitchen Sink" Cookies.  We're going to the late Mass because my daughter got called in to work, so we'll eat pretty late tonight.  I need to write a test for Period 5 and print out some other things for periods 3 and 4, and there are at least 6 loads of laundry waiting to be folded.  Just a normal Sunday.  

New Sheep

I picked up my new Dorpers yesterday - a little ram lamb and a pregnant ewe.  They are very calm and manageable compared to my current flock, although rather smaller.  My sheep, including Elvis, the big bad ram, were frightened of them.

Here are some pictures:

 Here is the ewe lamb.  She is a yearling due on June 23.  You can see Calico checking her out.

Here is the four month old ram lamb.  I am considering naming him Spot.  

The are pretty solid animals, if a bit small in stature compared to the rest of my flock.

Minnie is looking things over from her usual "safe place".  She is the bravest of my first sheep - she shared the feeding bucket with the newcomers first.   You can see little Uila next to Minnie - I think she is going to be brave like her mom.










In other news, the rooster died, apparently of injuries sustained by being stepped on by Gib.   It was quiet this morning, but at least we can go into the coop without fear of attack.  I should have processed him before he died, but I thought he was just a bit bruised and lacking in tail feathers and that he'd recover.  Waste of a bird, but it was a bit stupid of him to think he could attack a horse....