It is kind of funny how things work out. The biggest portion of your life you spend looking forward, wishing time would pass fast so things you are anticipating would hurry and happen. As you reach your so called " golden years" you spend most of your time looking back, wishing time wouldn't go so fast. So many wonderful and not so wonderful memories. MEMORIES, now there is a subject that is really not a favorite discussion.
The word memory to an older person is generally used in the past tense and for the young it is the future tense. With all that being said, lets move on..
Let's just go ahead and put my age right out there now as I am very thankful that the Lord has seen fit to allow me to stay around my wonderful friends and family for this many years. I have been on earth for 75 years and believe me they have not all been easy. But then people are not standing in line to ask me my opinion on things and to hear about the way things used to be, although they really should as I am pretty darn smart and have a lot of common sense which is rare these days.(lol)
So, since no one is lined up to ask my opinion, I guess I will just have to volunteer it. Just kidding. If you find that I am meandering here and there or going on a rabbit trail as my friend Dede says just follow along. That is one of the fun parts of growing old. It is perfectly OK and you will be totally excused because of your age. Young people call it ADD. I call it FUN.
Come on, see if you can keep up.
Melissa (Lisa)
Sunday, September 22, 2013
Sunday, May 19, 2013
Wow! time certainly goes by fast. It has been a really long time since I last posted on this blog. In that time Scotty and I have downsized and settled into our newest home and really love it. A lovely gated community where we feel safe and aren't afraid to leave the garage door open for a time without the contents disappearing. A perfect place for a couple of proud grand parents. It was not easy to give up my beautiful Jeff Click Home but the stairs just got higher and higher as I got older and older. Even harder was giving up my ducklings and the wild life around the lake. But things change and we move on.
I still work part time but I work from home and have ample time for reading, gardening and enjoying my arts and crafts. I have re-discovered the Oklahoma City Metropolitan Library and find that a good book is just a click or two away. No excuses for not reading.
Scotty built me a couple of raised gardens to make it easy on my back.
We still have our lake home and always look forward to sunny weather and kids and grand kids fishing and having fun on the water.
That about brings me up to date on living life so with that said I hope to be posting more often and sharing some wonderful Art from my daughter Jamee and my grandson Justin as well as a little of my own slap stick art. I also want to tell you about some of the talented artists that I follow on line and I hope you will enjoy the adventure.
Lisa
I still work part time but I work from home and have ample time for reading, gardening and enjoying my arts and crafts. I have re-discovered the Oklahoma City Metropolitan Library and find that a good book is just a click or two away. No excuses for not reading.
Scotty built me a couple of raised gardens to make it easy on my back.
We still have our lake home and always look forward to sunny weather and kids and grand kids fishing and having fun on the water.
That about brings me up to date on living life so with that said I hope to be posting more often and sharing some wonderful Art from my daughter Jamee and my grandson Justin as well as a little of my own slap stick art. I also want to tell you about some of the talented artists that I follow on line and I hope you will enjoy the adventure.
Lisa
Saturday, May 5, 2012
Since Scotty and I moved from Edmond to NW OKC a couple of years ago, I have really missed my ducks and my wonderful back yard pond. On Wednesdays after my Bible Study group which meets very close to my old neighborhood, I sometimes swing by and watch the ducks as they swim and play. They quickly forgot my voice and adapted to Ed, a very wonderful neighbor who took over their feeding and care. As a matter of fact, they run from me now which was disappointing but understandable. I will always remember the years of caring for them and the joy and fun they brought to me and my grand-kids. Great memories, good times. MOVING ON!
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Thanks for your patience.
My original intent for this blog was to write stories about my blind duck Pepsi. However, tragically Pepsi was ran over by someone in my neighborhood along with a couple of his siblings. My heart was so broken over the incident and loss that I just have not had the motivation or desire to write about him and have decided to use this website for other thoughts and ideas. Thank you for your patience as I progress.
Monday, July 27, 2009
Here a duck, There a duck, Everywhere a duck, duck....
My respect for female ducks took on a whole new prospective in the 15 days that followed the taking of Fuzzy’s eggs under our supervision. With Kalie’s hands-on experience from her classroom and the incredible plethora of information we downloaded from the internet we set course to hatch a few ducklings.
I was simply amazed at the things a mother duck- to-be knows about hatching her babies without ever reading a book. It was a true eye opener as to the intense work that it requires as she sits up to 28 days on her nest only coming off to grab a quick drink of water and any nourishment she can consume quickly.
So now I was the mom and I had to attend to the eggs and make sure they were turned several times a day and that the temperature was constant. Kalie, Tyler and I probably overdid the candling ordeal a bit because we were just so curious and wanted to watch the ducking growing inside the egg. We were just amazed at the pulse and the growth was so fast as it took up the space inside the egg. It was hard to stay away from the incubator and I feared we would handle the eggs way too much.
To make sure the eggs were turned correctly I marked them with an X so that I could tell if I had turned them all equally. It really could be very confusing. I couldn’t imagine how a mother duck could tell which of her eggs she had turned and keep track of it all. It was such a complicated ordeal.
One of the weekends during the incubation period we were scheduled to go to our lake home and I was frantic at what to do with the eggs. Who could I get to baby sit our eggs and how could I ask anyone to do such a tedious chore? I was sure that only I could make sure they were cared for properly. At my neighborhood Wal-Mart store we found a device that would plug into the cigarette lighter in my car and into the incubator therefore keeping the correct temperature while in transit. So off we went on our weekend trip with our eggs and all was well.
We were pretty sure we had the days of incubation correct as we logged our progress and watched the growth of the embryo in the egg. Wow, it was so neat when we saw the first beak up in the air pocket of the egg we knew the moment of hatching would be in 24 to 48 hours so we prepared a place to receive our new babies. A trip to the feed store for scratch, a water device and a nice plastic tub to keep them warm and cuddly was our mission...
15 Days is not a very long time but those 15 days seemed like a month. We kept the incubator in the extra bed room on a dresser where my dogs Kaci and Angel would not be likely to sniff around. One afternoon my Scotty (husband) decided to take a nap in that room and after a few minutes he came in to announce that he couldn’t go to sleep because the duck eggs were peeping. We ran to check on the eggs and sure enough they were peeping loud and clear. It was such fun to hear them peeping inside the eggs. I checked the eggs and discovered that one had its first crack.
We settled in for a long wait as the ducklings worked so hard to free themselves from their shells. Ever so slowly the babies broke free and uncurled and struggled to stand and finally huddled together as they became dry and fluffy. The kids cheered each hatching and logged the time of hatching and gave each duckling a name.
My job was just beginning. Raising the baby ducks would prove to be a real laborious time consuming task.
I was simply amazed at the things a mother duck- to-be knows about hatching her babies without ever reading a book. It was a true eye opener as to the intense work that it requires as she sits up to 28 days on her nest only coming off to grab a quick drink of water and any nourishment she can consume quickly.
So now I was the mom and I had to attend to the eggs and make sure they were turned several times a day and that the temperature was constant. Kalie, Tyler and I probably overdid the candling ordeal a bit because we were just so curious and wanted to watch the ducking growing inside the egg. We were just amazed at the pulse and the growth was so fast as it took up the space inside the egg. It was hard to stay away from the incubator and I feared we would handle the eggs way too much.
To make sure the eggs were turned correctly I marked them with an X so that I could tell if I had turned them all equally. It really could be very confusing. I couldn’t imagine how a mother duck could tell which of her eggs she had turned and keep track of it all. It was such a complicated ordeal.
One of the weekends during the incubation period we were scheduled to go to our lake home and I was frantic at what to do with the eggs. Who could I get to baby sit our eggs and how could I ask anyone to do such a tedious chore? I was sure that only I could make sure they were cared for properly. At my neighborhood Wal-Mart store we found a device that would plug into the cigarette lighter in my car and into the incubator therefore keeping the correct temperature while in transit. So off we went on our weekend trip with our eggs and all was well.
We were pretty sure we had the days of incubation correct as we logged our progress and watched the growth of the embryo in the egg. Wow, it was so neat when we saw the first beak up in the air pocket of the egg we knew the moment of hatching would be in 24 to 48 hours so we prepared a place to receive our new babies. A trip to the feed store for scratch, a water device and a nice plastic tub to keep them warm and cuddly was our mission...
15 Days is not a very long time but those 15 days seemed like a month. We kept the incubator in the extra bed room on a dresser where my dogs Kaci and Angel would not be likely to sniff around. One afternoon my Scotty (husband) decided to take a nap in that room and after a few minutes he came in to announce that he couldn’t go to sleep because the duck eggs were peeping. We ran to check on the eggs and sure enough they were peeping loud and clear. It was such fun to hear them peeping inside the eggs. I checked the eggs and discovered that one had its first crack.
We settled in for a long wait as the ducklings worked so hard to free themselves from their shells. Ever so slowly the babies broke free and uncurled and struggled to stand and finally huddled together as they became dry and fluffy. The kids cheered each hatching and logged the time of hatching and gave each duckling a name.
My job was just beginning. Raising the baby ducks would prove to be a real laborious time consuming task.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
An Egg-stra special adventure.
Our four ducklings grew quickly and were happy and content at their lake home. Blue was in heaven being the only male duck with three female ducks and he played his role as protector and warrior with gusto. The mallards that flew in from time to time were kept at bay with his vigorous attacks. The girls started nesting the second spring and it was interesting to see the places they chose to nest. Rue chose my neighbors yard to the south, Speedy decided to nest across the lake in the tall grass and sweet Fuzzy decided to nest across the busy street in the neighbor’s flowerbed.
The neighbors were delighted to have Fuzzy and promised to watch her close and try to help me with getting her safely across the street when she wanted food and water from the lake. It all went well for a couple of weeks.
Rue really never sit her nest just layed her eggs and went about business as usual. Speedy was very serious about her nesting. When she came off her nest for nourishment it was fast and furious and then back across the lake to take care of her eggs.
Fuzzy was really a good mom and took her nesting duties serious, but it was like watching a teenage mom torn between her nesting duties and wanting some fun time. I was only aware of her evening trips across the street to the lake and didn’t realize that she was crossing in the early morning darkness when the neighbors in their big SUV’s were heading off to work.
One morning I went out to check on Fuzzy and found her pretty much squashed in the street. She had tried to cross the street and had been struck several times. I frantically called my daughter Jamee to come over to give me help in disposing of her body. We dug a grave and buried her across the lake. Kalie and Tyler were right there with us helping and were very concerned about the eggs. We had no idea how long she had been off the nest and we knew keeping the eggs warm was critical.
Fortunately Kalie had gone through egg hatching 101 at school and knew just what to do. She suggested candling the eggs to see how far along the ducklings were and if they were alive. We determined that 14 eggs were alive and well and they were about 2 weeks into gestation. At that point Jamee took off to go buy an incubator to hatch the eggs. She came home with the incubator and the adventure was about to begin. We just hoped that the temperature of the eggs had not been too low for too long..
The neighbors were delighted to have Fuzzy and promised to watch her close and try to help me with getting her safely across the street when she wanted food and water from the lake. It all went well for a couple of weeks.
Rue really never sit her nest just layed her eggs and went about business as usual. Speedy was very serious about her nesting. When she came off her nest for nourishment it was fast and furious and then back across the lake to take care of her eggs.
Fuzzy was really a good mom and took her nesting duties serious, but it was like watching a teenage mom torn between her nesting duties and wanting some fun time. I was only aware of her evening trips across the street to the lake and didn’t realize that she was crossing in the early morning darkness when the neighbors in their big SUV’s were heading off to work.
One morning I went out to check on Fuzzy and found her pretty much squashed in the street. She had tried to cross the street and had been struck several times. I frantically called my daughter Jamee to come over to give me help in disposing of her body. We dug a grave and buried her across the lake. Kalie and Tyler were right there with us helping and were very concerned about the eggs. We had no idea how long she had been off the nest and we knew keeping the eggs warm was critical.
Fortunately Kalie had gone through egg hatching 101 at school and knew just what to do. She suggested candling the eggs to see how far along the ducklings were and if they were alive. We determined that 14 eggs were alive and well and they were about 2 weeks into gestation. At that point Jamee took off to go buy an incubator to hatch the eggs. She came home with the incubator and the adventure was about to begin. We just hoped that the temperature of the eggs had not been too low for too long..
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