The girls on the farm

While I taught class yesterday Mama and a friend from church traveled to and from Oklahoma City to meet Brittany and get the girls. They had a easy trip to Oklahoma City, a great visit with Brittany and a good trip home with the girls. They got home about 5:30 yesterday evening. Mama was worn out. The girls were fired up. Zoe and Sophia greeted me with their usual exuberance. Audrey was, and still is, much more reserved towards me. With Mama and Victoria, she is quite comfortable.

So, our normally quiet house was alive with high-pitched voices, continuous words of caution not to run so fast and the ongoing rattling of boxes of toys Grammy has available for entertaining young ones. It seemed imperative that all the boxes be inspected in one evening – as is typical. It was a delightful cacophony…and remains so. The twins need to express themselves verbally provides a continuous stream of chatter in the atmosphere, some of which is quite entertaining, and some of which is enlightening. A portal into their little minds. Again, quite delightful.

This morning the girls went out with Mama to feed the chickens. That is not as simple a process as it sounds. It requires that hen scratch be gotten in the scoop used for that purpose alone. That hen scratch (a treat for the flock) is then scattered on the ground in the coop yard in a specified manner. (Some of the scratch grain must be scattered under the coop building on the East side to allow the smaller chickens that are beaten away from the main mass of gran to feed quietly away from the melee of their fellow flock members.) Water dishes are then filled as needed to ensure the flock has plenty of clean water to drink – even though they prefer to drink from the mud puddles we intentionally create for them beside their water dishes.

Only then are the coop doors opened at the back of the coop. The chickens, well aware of the routine, are poised and ready to pour out of the little coop doors into the yard and get a quick drink before they consume the treat provided. Feed is added to the feeders stationed inside the coop and the nesting boxes are opened. We close up the nesting boxes at night to prevent the hens from sending the night in then. When that happens, they dirty the nesting boxes making the eggs laid in them dirty from the residue left by the overnight interlopers. Mama does not like that at all. I tried to get a picture of the twins in their pajamas observing the process as Mama worked, but it did not turn out because of the continuous action of the girls.

Victoria was able to help with the inside routine this morning and will be off tomorrow to provide support to Mama. That is a huge help, especially since Mama will have to take care of all the feeding on her own tomorrow. For today, Mama is going to have to take care of the girls mostly on her own even though I am working from home. I will participate when needed as I listen to the squeaky voices pose question after question to Grammy. It is always fascinating to me what little ones notice and how they try to describe what they see in relation to what they know. That often works out to be extremely funny. I will be watching for those moments as I listen in from my desk.

This will be the last time we have easy access to our granddaughters. They will be moving to New Jersey later this week. It is a move back home for Andrew and largely the same for Brittany since most of her memorable (preteen to late teens) years were spent in New Jersey. They will be in a great church. The twins will be in a great school, one that their mama attended. It seems like a really good move on their part. Brittany invited Mama to make the trip to New Jersey with them as they drive their vehicles from Kansas to New Jersey and we agreed that that was a good idea. So, Friday Mama will be driving back to Oklahoma City to meet with Brittany. From there she will go along for the ride back to Wichita and on to New Jersey. Victoria will drive the vehicle back home from the rendezvous I OKC. But that is not until Friday. Mama will be flown home on the 2^nd of July.

 

I will be teaching a class tomorrow so my participation with the girls will be limited, but I will enjoy what I am able of their visit.