Whirlwind...Life & Animals

It's been a whirlwind of events around here....I've been on overload training for a second work at home job, luckily training is only a week and then things can settle down when I can choose my own schedule for what works best for us. But most of last week then today we've been home while I've been glued to my computer. Luckily we were able to escape to see home schooling friends on Friday and enjoy a pool get together- we all needed some outdoor time, some friend time.

A few pictures from our week...reading, baking, playing with the animals, kids played card games while I worked, sleepy puppies in the afternoon, some chocolate chip muffins, homemade lasagna for dinner, we moved Teryn's 4H ribbons to the hallway so she had some more wall space in her room but kept the current years ribbons still in her bedroom.

We also had a sad whirlwind of animal happenings. It has been humid as all get out here! Unfortunately with the humidity the house has not stayed cool. It is definitely cooler than outdoors but not by much. With the heat, our littlest guinea pig developed heat stress, even with cooling fans and frozen water bottles he just couldn't pull through. We found some great online resources, called some 4H friends, gave him a cool bath, set him on a damp cool towel- attempted to cool him slowly as cooling too quickly results in shock and syringe fed him gatoraide. It just wasn't enough. Our son said a kind little prayer and little Frederick passed away. We buried him in the yard along with our other two piggies that passed last year the kids setting stones on the site.

Our other crazy animal happening...the day after Frederick passed I went outside only to find that our drake was half way out of his pen, literally stuck, his wings half through, his head through and half his body, all contorted. I lost it, I cried. I had no idea what to do. I called my husband who was on his way to work. My worry was that if I moved the drake I'd end up hurting him more. The kids ran out, our son cried and ran away. I went to go find him and found our son sitting on a table outside, his head bowed, his hands folded- he was praying quietly saying please save our duck please keep our animals safe. Luckily hubbie was able to remove him. The picture is right after we released him, his wing appears damaged. Broken or dislocated. Today though it looks better, he is flapping it and pulling it in closer. We'll keep a watch and bandage if necessary but we are so very thankful he will live. Our hearts just can't take any more animals passing. I suppose partly it is life on a farm, it is life. My children have learned more living here than every before. I am thankful for that.

We go into our week this week praying that our sorrow lessens from loosing our sweet guinea pig, we pray for comfort and we know and trust we will get through any hard time together, as a family and with faith.

Some people may think its just a guinea pig, its just a duck, but creature big or small, human or animal, they are all precious and have a special place in our hearts.