Indoor Hours

On Saturday, Phil ran to the hardware store. He had thought he bought enough shims earlier in the week, but the openings proved wide enough he needed more. (Shims go around a door to hold it in place; he had figured a package per door would be enough, but he ended up using two or three packages.)

He put in two door handles, as well. I have a door that closes and locks now. That's pretty cool.

On Monday, we noticed that Catherine was being bred now, almost eleven months after delivering. Why do our cows not breed back after two or three months, like most cows should? She wasn't even being milked, to put undue pressure on her! This is absurdly frustrating.

She broke free of the pen, perhaps trying to avoid the bull's early advances. The bull broke out, too. Phil stepped out to try to put them back, and returned about a minute later. "That would be really stupid. If I get close to her, the bull is going to see me as a threat." No kidding.

When he brought hay down to the cows this morning, they were both happy to rejoin the herd. Easy!

Phil has spent the last two days, and Saturday night, working in the office trailer on office stuff. He probably put in more than 14 hours yesterday. I don't see him much, and I know he isn't thrilled with what he's working on. When he helped wash the boys in the sink on Saturday, he thought it was time to start working on the bathtub. I'm glad to hear that he'll get to it soon.

As for the boys and I, we are having a great time. Jadon has been building Lego sets for hours every day. With the pieces divided by color, he can find what he needs somewhat easily.

The other boys took out many of the finished sets today, and played with them on and off until Isaiah said the room was "stifling," and they began a frenzy of cleaning up. Just finding the right bag for the different sets, and making sure any pieces that had fallen off got put back on, took a long time.

We have had a dusting of snow today. Abraham was getting suited up until Phil told him that the snow was paper-thin on the ground, and no good for snowballs. Bummer.

We've all been enjoying the wonder of pat-a-cake, though. Roll 'em and throw 'em in the pan makes Caleb smile, or belly laugh.