I’m sitting outside on the drive working, Delia is hammering nails, Henry is asleep in the stroller, the chickens are scratching around, Snowy the cat is playing, and everything is great. It’s 50 degrees, only a slight breeze, and not a cloud in the sky. I can hear a woodpecker in the distance and a grouse beating its wings periodically, and a couple of buffleheads are floating around on the pond.

I finished my radial arm saw last night. I got the table mounted with only one minor modification, and calibrated and adjusted everything. I’m dying to start on the coop. Emily is going to knitting tonight so I can’t do it then, but maybe tomorrow.

I also did quite a bit of organizing in the garage. I got all my tools out, sorted them into boxes (plumbing tools, wrenches, electrical tools, automotive, etc.) and I’ve got a lot of the smaller ones all nicely tucked into drawers. The bigger ones are still in boxes while I figure out what to do with them. I’m leaning toward hanging them on the wall.

The pond froze over the weekend, but it’s about 1/2 open this morning.  Three geese and four ducks shared the open water this morning.

It looks like we got about 5″ as of 7:30 tonight, and it was still coming down. Delia rode her Kitty Cat today and I plowed our driveway with the tractor. It worked out pretty well! I’m starting to get the hang of it, and once I get my hydraulics working, it’ll be much easier.

Today we had 2 male mallards, 4 female, and one bufflenose on the pond all at once. Emily also saw a goose out there floating around.

We have about an inch so far and it’s still coming down but not very hard.  They’re saying 1-3 today.  Phew!  That’s not bad at all.

A good layer of ice, but no snow, and the radar is pretty clear.  We were supposed to have 6″ by now.  Maybe we dodged it.

We now have two pairs of ducks frequenting our pond. First we had a pair of mallards, and then a pair of buffleheads. The buffleheads are neat because they dive underwater like loons. It’s fun to watch them disappear and then reappear from the kitchen window.

The other day I walked out to the pond with Henry to get a closer look. I saw the buffleheads and then the male mallard stuck his head up from the far shore of the pond. Something caught my attention out of the corner of my eye, which turned out to be a good sized hawk flying sort of along our property line up toward the woods. When I looked back at the pond, the ducks were all high tailing it out of there, and then the chickens, who were over in the garden next to the pond, freaked out and started running as fast as they could toward the barn. One even flew about 30 feet. I guess that hawk is a mean customer. Luckily he never changed his flight path and soon disappeared into the trees.

When I was out the other day digging our little stream from the sump pump output to the pond (more later), I asked Delia if she’d like to feed the worms I kept finding to the chickens. We took a few and tossed them over and the chickens promptly sucked them right up. I found another worm and asked her again and she said she didn’t want to feed the worm to the chicken because she didn’t want it to die. I was a bit surprised by this since up until now Delia has not been bothered by the concept of death, and actually she frequently asks to shoot a deer so we can cut it up and see its bones or to catch a fish and kill it and eat it. She took the worm from me and played with it for a while. She said she wanted it to be her pet, but I told her it wouldn’t make a good pet, would be happier outside, and would probably die if she brought it inside. I told her to lay it down next to the pond, but she didn’t want to because she’d miss it. I should have realized how long she was holding it but I was so busy digging that I didn’t. A little while later, she said in a tiny sounding sad voice “Dad, the worm isn’t moving. I think it died.” I went over and saw a limp, dried out worm in her hand. I could tell she was upset and I told her it was just a worm and there were lots of others, but I also wanted to gently make the point that she should listen to me when I tell her things because I know what I’m talking about and I’m looking out for her. I took the worm and said “Maybe it’ll be okay if we put it in the water” though it sure looked dead to me. I put it down, and when I turned around, I saw her sit down under a tree and start sobbing with her face in her hands. I sat down with her and gave her a hug, and she really let it all out. “I didn’t want the worm to die!” “I just thought it could be my friend!” It was absolutely heartbreaking. I calmed her down after a while and we were going to get back to work, but I figured I’d take one more look at the worm, hoping that just maybe it had pulled through. It didn’t look good, but when I got closer, I saw it move just a tiny bit, and then a bit more. I called Delia over and showed her that her little friend was going to be okay. We both felt a lot better. Delia learned a valuable lesson, and no worms got hurt.

It rained all afternoon but stayed just above freezing.  Now it’s starting to get just a bit white but it’s mostly slush.  There’s about 3/4″ of slush covering everything.  Maybe we’ll get lucky and only get a few inches.  I pulled my tractor out of the barn and hooked up my blade and stabilizer bars, so actually I kind of want a few inches so I can try plowing one last time.  But if we don’t get any, I won’t exactly be heartbroken.

Statement as of 4:17 AM CDT on April 25, 2008

… Winter Storm Warning in effect from noon today to 6 am CDT
Saturday…

The National Weather Service in Duluth has issued a Winter Storm
Warning… which is in effect from noon today to 6 am CDT
Saturday. The Winter Storm Watch is no longer in effect.

Snow accumulation of 6 to 12 inches is expected this afternoon
through tonight across central Saint Louis County. A light rain
and snow mix is expected this morning… then look for the
precipitation to intensify and become all snow this afternoon. The
snow will be heaviest tonight… and may linger into Saturday
morning.

A Winter Storm Warning means significant amounts of snow…
sleet… and ice are expected or occurring. Strong winds are also
possible. This will make travel very hazardous or impossible.

Since that bulletin, they’ve upped it to 10-15″, and a 90% chance.  My bet: 16″.

I have a backlog of reports to write, including that in the last few days Henry learned to walk and Delia learned to read.

I put her down a few minutes ago.  It was clear she wasn’t going to make it, and she had wasted away to nothing and had no energy or strength at all.  I kept trying to sort of force-feed her but when I did she’d spit a lot of it back up.  I didn’t have high hopes, and I thought I’d prepared myself for the inevitable, but I’m still pretty sad about it.

The other chicks are all doing fine though.  Man do they grow fast.  They all have wing feathers now.