Big Doins at Granny Yaya's

How are we tired? Let me count the ways:

• Francesca and Cecilia spent the night at Granny's (stayed up until 9:30.)
• They woke up at 6:45.
• Went right outside because, "We're missing the best part of the day!!!"
• The Great Horned Owl is in the tree again.
• Ran around in the wind like maniacs. Granny comments that she hasn't even taken a shower or gotten dressed. "Uh, well yea, welcome to my world. Now you know why I always look/smell the way I do!"
• Francesca picked any flower that was blooming (every flower that was blooming.)
• The apricots are in full bloom. The orchard is humming with bees. Granny has a beehive in one of her cottonwood trees. The trees are about 10 days behind schedule for blooming, according to my farmer friend.
• Went for a morning walk.
• Carried Julian because I forgot my baby carrier (dangit!)
• Cecilia rode in the baby buggy.
• Francesca walked, floating her duck in the canal by a string.
• Julian's hat blew into canal so Francesca held Julian while I jumped into the canal to rescue the hat (it is a really cute hat.)
• Heard a rooster crowing. I guessed that by the sound of the crow, it was a bantam (because since I've heard two rooster crows, Jackie's and mine, now I'm a rooster crow expert.)
• Walked to Mary Story's to see the goats. Baby goats nursing and wagging their tails are so cute.
• Saw the "husband" goats.
• Found the bantam rooster (ha!) He is a cutie pie, with a huge plumy tail - Spanish looking? Looks like a Spanish something rooster in my chicken book.
• Carried sleeping Julian home while both girls rode home in buggy, eating snacks and singing, "Is everybody happy? Yeeees sir!"
• Lunchtime.
• Girls swing on swings and play in sandbox while mommy makes lunch. (Why am I speaking about myself in 3rd person, ala Bob Dole?)
• Owl is still sitting (sleeping) in tree. He looks as big as a cat, sitting way up on a skinny branch. We look at him through the scope. His talons are huge and black.
• Granny finds a cough pellet from the owl. It is huge (as big around as a human turd.) Upon dissection, the grey fur and claws and teeth look to be Granny's missing cat, Rooster. Yikes, poor Rooster. Supposedly, most owls' MAIN food is cat (not mouse or rabbit like you would suspect.) I suppose that cats would be relatively unsuspecting, compared to a rabbit or mouse or other wild animal. A house cat would be a pretty easy pick, right? Rooster was probably just laying on the chair on the back deck when, SURPRISE!
• Lunch is typical, girls falling out of chairs, spilling drinks, getting up, etc. I'm the only one eating.
• Nap time: on our way to nap time, Granny says, "I know! Why don't we take naps in the camper!" I say, "I know! That can be your job!" Granny takes girls for nap in camper.
• Julian falls asleep. I get to read almost an entire article in Backyard Poultry magazine about the goodness of roosters and now I'm missing our rooster.
• Grandpa gets home from Lake Powell, wakes Julian up. Francesca comes in from camp trailer, "I kept saying, 'is she asleep yet? Is she asleep yet? and waking up Cecilia so Granny told me to get out."
• We go outside to show Grandpa the owl.
• Granny gets Cecilia to sleep and finds some plastic castle of a tool work bench for Francesca to put together on the deck.
• Julian plays on his blanket. Afternoon goes by. Cecilia wakes up from a much needed nap.
• Andrew returns from his bike ride from Fruita to Utah to Fruita on the old Highway with a banged up face. He mouthed off to some lady in the parking lot after the ride, while riding without hands and crashed (instant karma?)
• After dinner, we discover the 'eagle has landed' and the owl is with its mate, outside Granny's kitchen window. The mama owl is sitting way, way up high in a cottonwood tree on a nest, which has babies because we can hear them.

• I bet the mama and daddy doves sitting on their nest RIGHT outside Granny's window aren't too happy about the owl situation. Will the owls eat the dove babies when they hatch? Or pick off the doves themselves? This is like Discovery Channel Live. The owl's feathers are perfect camouflage for hiding in the pines - their feathers look just like the bark. Its amazing that the songbirds and bunnies are so seemingly oblivious to the owls' presence. They seem so ominous. And to leave the cough pellets of the missing cat, about three meters from the back door is so irreverent! For all we know, it could be Julian's owl, coming back to visit. Mom keeps reminding me to mind the baby while outside, as if the owl is going to swoop down and snatch him.
• We herd the children into the car and go home (finally.)
• I check on our baby chicks (who I left inside this morning because I noticed an owl flying in the sky.) (I know it was an owl because now I'm also an owl expert.) :)
• I accidentally let all the chickens out and while hearding them back into their coop, the suspected rooster baby tries to attack me. I don't miss my rooster anymore. This little pistol is going to be fierce, I can just see it in his stinkeye.

Thank goodness for mother nature and all mothers. And while we all drift off to sleep, our owls begin their night, hunting for more yummy cat, or mouse or what? to feed to their babies.