Goosed lately?

Welcome to Hill's Half Acre! 

I am so delighted to be able to share some of the daily musings our little homestead has to offer. First off, meet Gus, Grumpy Gus to be exact! He just appeared here. Nobody knows where he came from but he is meaner than mean. In fact, he's goosed everyone in our family. 

You see, geese like this are notorious for waiting until you break eye contact and start to turn your back. That's when they go in for the kill ambush. They lower their beaks really close to the ground and sort of float over to where you are in a fluid-like motion, (so as to not let you in on their surprise.) Then in an instant, they goose you with their powerful pincer beaks! Even though you know you should run, you can't move- your legs are numb. You can't defend yourself as you just watch in horror and scream. Geese are so naughty and it hurts like a mother when they goose!!! (Sorry mom...)

We didn't know just what to do, HE was running this joint. After I saw him attack my baby girl, Clara, while she was filling up HIS water jug, I had had enough! I stomped off to the house, grabbed my oven mitts, and returned with a vengeance! I spread my long arms out to my sides as wide as they would span, and I started to scream and follow him around. Every couple of seconds, I would smack my mitts together as I screamed and screeched. I sounded like a witch being boiled in hot oil! It was not a flattering sight but I meant business!

Thinking I was an easy target like all the rest had been, he came after me. I grabbed him by the neck, and put his beak low to the ground. I held him there while screeching at him and explaining about how I was the alpha-goose around these here parts! He wanted to be released, but I just held him there. I made sure not to hurt him, I just wanted to let him in on how things were going to be around here. After he started to calm down, I started to coo and tell him what a good boy he was as I periodically blew into his face so he would get used to my scent. I started to pet/scratch (the best you can while wearing thick, cotton-y oven mitts...) his neck. He decided that he may have, in the least little bit, kinda sorta started to seem to like it, and since it felt a teeny tiny bit pleasant, maybe he would NOT try to peck my eyes out... this time.

Now, it's been 3 months, I have retired my oven mitts,  and Grumpy Gus and I have this on going love affair. He hears me talking to the kids when we are out in the back yard, and he calls for me. I call back. He greets me at the gate, just waiting for me to scratch his neck and to tell him all the beautiful things about him. (He loves to be oohed and aahed over... much like a husband.) He loves to climb into my lap and to nestle against me. I am totally smitten with him. He makes me feel like I am the most important person in the world and in his beady little eyes... I am!

(As for the rest of the family... they still have to watch their backs!)

'Twas the Night Before Adoption Day...

Warning: Because it is so difficult to refer to my kids as “my real kids” and “my adopted kids” (yuck! They are ALL my kids, silly.) we just refer them as “The Blondies” and “The Brownies.” Now, some may find that politically incorrect, but it reminds me of different types of brownies that one eats. I have NEVER met a brownie that I did not like, so in a way, that makes me the least racist person alive! If however,  you find it offensive, I invite you to kindly leave this blog and don’t let the politically incorrect door hit you in the butt on the way out.

We had been working for this day for almost a year now  -And when I say work, I mean WORK! Don’t believe what you see in the magazines… Angelina and Brad don’t just go “pluck” some poor kid out of an orphanage and magically they have one more kid. No sir! It’s a lot more involved than that and I will get into that in a later post.  Anyway, I was so nervous- I mean, don’t get me wrong, I was super excited and I knew that these kids were meant to come to our family. Time after time, the stars aligned just right for them to be here with us, I don’t have a doubt that this was the design of the Lord. Yet, I still had butterflies in my stomach and I couldn’t sleep.

So as I was laying wide awake that night, I started thinking about all the mixed emotions I was feeling. (It was just like how you feel the night before your wedding day, you know, happyscared?!) I started thinking about how I was happy and sure they already were part of our family. I reminded myself of the monumental responsibility and commitment we were undertaking, all of us! I also felt a tinge of sadness as it was an end of an era of just having the Blondies by themselves.  -I don’t do well with ends of eras. Lastly, I also felt sad for the Brownies, they were coming to an end of an era as well. Yes, they were gaining a family that loves them and they finally found a place in this big world to finally belong, (NO MORE LIVING IN THE PARK AND EATING KETCHUP PACKETS!!!) but, they were also saying good-bye to a family of many people who were instrumental in seeing our family off to a good start.

Family counselors, a previous foster family, and most of all, their amazing case worker, Casey all had done so much for not only the kids, but for our family as a whole. Not very often in their line of work do they get to see a “success story.” They love these kids like we do and most of the kids they see in and out of the foster system are just tossed around from one foster family to another, they don’t usually get a “success stories.” I wanted to give them a gift to let them know just how grateful we were, even if the kids themselves didn’t realize all the work that truly went in on their behalf. I had been thinking about what kind of gift would mean what my heart-felt for them and everything I came up with seemed so inadequate.   When EUREKA! words started flooding my head! I grabbed my pen and paper and ran into the bathroom where I could write without waking up Russ. (Long ago, I learned to always have a pad of paper and pen on my nightstand. When I’m rolling around during the night, that seems to be the only time I am quiet and still enough to hear inspiration, whether divine or creative or  rent is due, what have you. If I don’t write it down, I  FORGET!)

At the bottom of our big tub, I was on my knees bent over my pad of paper scrawling the perfect words that described just what my heart-felt. Those words, they truly were a gift, not from me, but the one who designed this whole adventure! Here is what
I
we came up with:

                            The Harvest

How can we thank you for all you have done?

You shielded and nourished us when others chose to run.

You gave us back our childhood so we can grow, laugh, and play.

You nurtured us with guidance and compassion every step of the way.

You labored and toiled in the hot sun-

until we could find a family that would be honored to pick up, and carry on.

Well, today is the harvest you’ve been working to see.

We are being grafted into a new and loving family tree.

The season has been long, and of no small feat,

But the fruit of your labor is tender and sweet.  

                                                     -Hillary Stewart

So after I was done writing, I went down to the computer and printed up this family picture, and attached my little poem to it. It was the perfect gift to give these wonderful ladies that were all going to be in the courtroom with us, in just a few hours as we, this BIG BUNCH OF MIXED NUTS, became one official family.

Autumn Garden Time

Well, here at Hill's Half Acre, it's time to get our Autumn Garden under way. You may not be able to see it very well, but I have marked off our garden plot with these four stakes with white t-balls on each one. It seems so little, but beings that this is our first garden here, we are starting out a little little. When my kids hear that I am planning quite a few beets, they suddenly think this garden is getting way out of control and that I should start much much smaller.

Since our "grass" is of the crab variety, I first have sprayed some Round-Up to kill it.... dead. When it is no more, I will till it up, and mix in some magic mixture that my chickens, ducks, and geese have been making for me.

I am giddy with excitement since it has been SOOOOO very long since I have been able to have an actual in the ground garden. The only garden I could get to grow in the last 7 years involved a kiddie pool! (more on that in another post)

As for now, I have to patiently wait until the spray takes it's course and scour the seed catalogs in wait...