It started on Saturday morning (or actually Friday night). I'd been unable to corral the ducks into their pen for a couple of nights. The first night they did great. Ducks have an instinct to stay in the water; they even sleep on it at night. It keeps them safe from many predators. So I thought we were home free as far as them being independent and all. But Friday it was storming. Ducks also seem to have an instinct to leave the water when there's lightning. Not a bad thing, except that they came up and sat in the middle of the lawn. Bright white ducks. I could see them from the house. Any creature with night vision could probably spot them a mile away. I looked out the window around 11:00pm and the ducks were separated--some in the water, and some on the lawn. They usually stay super tight in a flock. I went out to check them and there were only five. I looked and looked and tried to get them into their pen. No luck and it was just storming like crazy, which made me nervous, standing there in the middle of the lawn with lightning going on. I went to bed and when Kip came home in the morning there were only four. I'm pretty sure a fox or some such creature got them. There were no feathers or sign of a struggle, so I'm thinking they were just carried off by something. I was pretty heart-broken about it throughout the day, but that evening Kip manually caught each one of them and put them in the pen.
It make me feel surprisingly comforted and safe. There are many metaphors that could be discussed, but I'll refrain at this time.
We've also been battling flood issues. This evening the creek finally made it up over the dam, so now creek and our backyard pond are one. (This worries me as far as the ducks are concerned also because I don't want them floating on down the creek never to return.)
And then one wall in our basement is letting a bunch of water in. It's been rough. It's not as bad as the last time (which was the result of a different problem), but it still involved a lot of wet-vaccuuming every few hours. And it puts me in a super super grumpy mood. Super. Grumpy.
Otherwise, however, we've had a good weekend. We had an Easter egg hunt yesterday and a pleasant Easter morning and a great dinner with friends. We are safe, even when there are annoying things to deal with and possibly much money to spend. And the kids love the rain. Tonight Mark told me not to pray that it would stop because he likes playing in it. Oh boy.
This is how our dam normally looks. To the left is our pond. To the right, the creek.
This is how it looked this morning.
And this is how it looked this evening.
A willow tree in the morning. Despite my grumpiness and concern over the flooding, everything is really quite beautiful. Especially in the morning. When I go out to let the ducks out, there's mist rising off the water and it seems like I'm in some sort of fantasy land.
The sink hole normally. For what it will cost us to fix this, we could have nearly created a full master bath instead of the 1/2 one we have.
Perhaps we can now begin bathing in the sink hole instead.
Random picture of flooded creek.
The survivors.
This is how they rest/sleep. I think it's cute.
Swirling vortex of terror. (Okay, maybe that's a little dramtic.) This was created because the water from the creek goes through a pipe into our pond when the creek gets too high.
Here's the pipe end. Tonight, the swirling vortex of terror is probably gone since the creek and pond are now even.
Savannah finding an Easter egg and wearing fairy wings because they help.
Baskets on Easter Eve.
Emma gets the candy thing this year.
This is the best picture I got with all the kids. The best. Mark woke up with a swollen eye. That's why he's a pirate in all these pictures. Not that he needed to be. He was fine when he wanted, but at picture time the melodrama kicked in.
This one's for you, Sarah. I got the kids new shoes this year.
Our best family picture. Kip was in flood-cleaning clothes, so he just took it. I got one with him, but it was blurry. Sorry, Kip.
Here he is in his Easter outfit.
And because I depressed you with our flood pictures, here are some happy yard pictures I've been meaning to post.
Turtles. Because they're cute.
I always accuse Kip of purposefully working when there are disasters. Whatever, you know it's a conspiracy... However, the great thing about no disasters when he's home is that he tends to make himself useful. This is a sort-of-before picture (a true before picture was not taken; we never think about it in time--for the true before picture, you can picture all that dirt as grass and no little tree).
And here's the after. Pretty awesome, huh. And we don't even have anything planted yet.
Mark with his guitar.
Life as a fairy. Savannah's usually the child fairy and Elizabeth is the mother fairy.
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