The joy of being six.

I wonder if I had that much imagination, or thrust myself this enthusiastically into life, when I was six, as our six year old does.

Every day is a new opportunity for a new enterprise.  I find random sketches of various maps and "plans" he has drawn.

One day, he was intent on opening a "Trap Store". He didn't have traps made yet. But he got his sign nailed to the tree- strategically near the chickens, since his specialty would be chicken traps. He also designs "brother traps," but this day, it was chicken traps. 

Another day, he dug a 4 inch hole out by the silo, and another 4 inch hole by the house, with plans to connect them. The tunnel map includes large rooms intended as dungeons for the brothers. This, of course, obtained the desired result of freaking out the brothers, being such a realistic threat and all.

Another day, he wrote a letter to his cousins.

He shamelessly stated, "I have a problem.  It is that I don't get mail and packages anymore." Accompanied by a picture of a sad boy with no package, and a happy boy with a package. 

One day, the enterprise of interest was designing shirts. He asked me over and over again which design he could print on a shirt.

Most days recently,  he is up before 6 am with his boots on, eager to join Papa and Daddy for chores. If he misses it, he is Big Sad.

Thank you, God, for this life-loving bundle of energy. Guide us in wisdom, as we channel his energy and ideas....

The Egg Thief

 Hi, I'm Skye. 

I view myself as kinda The Mother Hen around here, even though all five of us ladies and our two valiant defenders hatched within a few hours of each other.

Almost every day, I lay a golden nugget. Well, it's not actually golden- more pale blue. But it's more valuable than gold, to me.

Almost every day, The Egg Thief steals my golden nugget. The sneaky creature.

She plays nice.

She gives us food and water. She puts straw in our coop- which we suspiciously scratch out of the box immediately. 

Every night, she coops us up in our little sleeping quarters. Every morning, she sets us free

We let her get up close and friendly to us, and sometimes, we let her hold us and stroke our necks. Ah, if I could purr, I sure would, when she does that! 

Once or twice, a couple of us let her put a contraption she called a “harness” on us, and we went on a little walk. That pushed the limit a bit, but it was tolerable. 

But back to the golden nuggets.

Some of the ladies I live with drop their little nuggets any old where. It's like they literally don't care. Under the tractor. In the middle of the floor. Beside the car. They apparently just drop their nugget and keep right on waddling through life.

Not me- oh, no! Not me.

I spend hours scouting for The Perfect Place to hide my gold. 

Some days, the Egg Thief catches me scouting- just when I found the perfect spot, so I can't use it. 

I have found an unbelievable amount of perfect spots. 

Behind the lawn mower. Three tiers high on that metal shelf. On the shelf in the utility closet. In an old unused goat pen.

Each time, I spread the word to the other ladies, hoping some of them will tidy up their act, and there can be some decency and order among us. So far, I've managed for three or four of us to team up and leave a beautiful collective treasure.

But every time I find a new perfect spot, the nuggets just keep disappearing. 

One of the ladies seems to lay a perfectly round nugget with dents all over it. For some reason, the Egg Thief never takes that one. I guess I need to find the recipe for that, then maybe she'll leave mine as well.

One day, the Egg Thief followed me around while I was scouting. Then she caught me and cooped me up all by myself with some of her suspicious straw. As if I would THINK of depositing my gold there!

Another day, she found my nugget in my newest perfect spot. She carried both me and my nugget to the coop, and tried to show me where she thought it should be deposited. Well, I showed her what I thought of that! Each time she put it into the straw, I took my beak and rolled it out. Over and over, like some dumb little game, until I finally just grunted and strutted off. 

I'm still scouting for new perfect places. I've found a spot on top of an old refrigerator that looks pretty good. Maybe I'll use the second shelf over there sometime. 

Well, Mr. Roo is calling loudly for me, so I'd best waddle on. 

I'll keep you posted.

Meanwhile, keep an eye out for that Egg Thief, will ya? Great, thanks. Talk to you later!