Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Cowboy Owen Rides Again


Owen showed up this morning in the cowboy hat you see above. His parents had let him pick out a toy at the Walmart last night and he picked out that hat.

The black hat. Oh yeah, he's bad.

No he's not. That boy really did help me today. He helped carry the laundry basket from my bedroom to the laundry room which is approximately 1/8th of a mile. He also carried the ketchup and the salad dressing in from the dining room to the kitchen which is approximately eight steps but hey! Saved me a trip. I love how he is when he helps with that laundry basket. He doesn't do it with any sort of delight and he doesn't do it grudgingly. He just does it like it's his duty and let's get on with it.

I love a child who helps.

He was going to help me with the bread dough kneading but in the process of washing his hands to get ready he got more interested in cleaning the drain with his toothbrush.
I am going to throw that thing away. Yikes! Not the drain, the toothbrush. The drain is clean now.

He also helped me feed watermelon to the chickens. We go out and call them. "Chick, chick, chick, CHICK!" I yell and Owen says, "Chigens! Chigens!" and here they come a runnin', Elvis in the lead. For those of you who are relatively new here and who don't know chickens, roosters do a thing called "tid-bitting," which is that they will find food and then place it on the ground for a hen or even directly into her mouth. Elvis does this. I find it so charming. He shares and shares and shares and then when he has calculated by some mysterious rooster power that the hens have all had their rightful share, he begins to eat. Elvis will eat right out of our hands and never pecks us. He is the best rooster in the whole world.

Well, we think he is.

I believe he may have lost a little weight since the new hens have joined the flock. More sharing, more fucking, more hens to watch over. If one calls he runs to her aid. When one of the hens gets off the nest after she lays an egg and comes back into the yard, she'll call out to find where the flock is and Elvis always comes and leads her to them. I think he's courting a fancy hen who actually lives next door but who seems to have taken up residence in my side yard. I wonder if he'll succeed in bringing her over. He's a sexy old thing and not afraid to take on one more mouth to feed. Especially a mouth attached to such a feathery pair of legs as this hen has.
Well, we'll see.

So it was a good, full day. Owen climbed the tree and he also made me take the horse out to the front porch which I gladly did. At first the horse was set right under Ms. Spider and he spent more time studying her than he did riding.

But then he wanted the horse moved to the end of the porch- don't ask me why- and so I did it. Of course. I pretty much do whatever he wants. He is the boss of me. We found four eggs and when he left with his dad this afternoon, he was carefully holding a brown speckled egg in his hat to take home. I wonder if it made it. I also sent the tiny egg from yesterday home with Jason because that was obviously an Owen egg.

In other activities today, he added water to the dog's water bowl, watered some plants, and did a little sweeping. Then he pretended to milk his horse (what? where did THAT come from?) and drink coffee. He handed me a coffee mug and asked for coffee and I put some warm water in it and he took a big sip and said, "Aaaahhhh." He also handed me a martini glass but I did NOT go so far as to make him a pretend martini. I do have SOME scruples, you know.

Yeah. He's a good boy and a funny one too.

I love having him around so much. And I know he's got me wrapped around his little finger. I live to serve him. I wonder what it's going to be like when there's a new baby. I sure hope that baby likes being in a snuggly or a sling because there is not much chance I'll have the time to sit and merely hold him or her the way I did with Owen. I feel exactly like I felt when I was pregnant with my second as applies to how in the world will I do this?
You just do. That's all there is to it. You just do.

So that was my day. Doing with Owen. Kathleen called me on her way to Thomasville to make sure that I got to talk to someone outside of the family today. "Well, sort of outside," she said, and I agreed that she's not that far outside the family but I guessed it still counted.

It's just felt like a really good day and since I actually got the dishes washed and some laundry done and bread rising AND kept that child alive, I feel pretty sassy about it. I'm still scratching chigger bites and what may be poison ivy but it's not so bad as it was. And the flies are gone. Mr. Moon will be home tonight and we'll have that bread and some soup made from the remains of the venison pot roast I made on Saturday which turned into stew on Sunday and which I am adding some leftover frozen soup to tonight to stretch it out. Waste not, want not, babies. Fresh bread will make anything new.

Speaking of which, I need to go punch that dough down and put it in a bread pan. Check for eggs one more time.

Full day. Good day. This is what it was like. I wouldn't have traded it for anything. Which makes me just about the luckiest woman in the world, I reckon.

Amen, hallelujah, and don't forget to wear your hat when you ride your horse. Hat-wearing while horse-milking is optional. Share your treats with your sweetie, offer to help carry the laundry. Enjoy your coffee and watch out for spider webs when out on that long, lonesome highway.

Yep. That about sums it up.

Yours truly....Ms. Moon

15 comments:

  1. I love your Owen day stories. One day he will read them and love them too! :-)

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  2. My daughter and her family lived next door to us til we moved out to the country. She has given me 4 g'kids, a boy, twin girls, and a girl. When they were too small to make their way over here by themselves (well, the boy would when he would get up before any of them and come visit early in the morning and frantic parents would come over looking for him), our daughter would bring them over to visit. We called it the happy baby parade.

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  3. And don't leave out having an incredibly TMI conversation with me all before 9am. Thanks again for that.

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  4. Sounds like a great day... You just inspired me to learn to make bread!

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  5. Birdie- Maybe. As he says. "Maybe."

    Stephanie- And what I said to Birdie.

    Ellen A- I sort of dream of a family compound. I do.

    Jo- I loved it too!

    SJ- NEVER TMI! I'm a nurse! And a woman....

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  6. Dianne- I have a lovely Kitchen Aid with a dough hook. It helps tremendously. But I do like to knead bread.

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  7. Owen's so adorable! Loved all the stories, Ms. Moon, especially the one about Elvis trying to woo the feathery hen over.

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  8. That's funny how he chose his hat as the toy he wanted. Maybe he sees someone else wearing one?
    In the first photo it looks like he is looking up in an attempt to see his hat. How precious!

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  9. Owen's livin' the dream for sure! Whenever I'm just wearing undies, tie-dye, and my hat, it is a damn good time!

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  10. Nice hat that Owen has. I always preferred the black to the white hats anyway. Have a great day! No--you are already having that!

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  11. Nicol- Elvis is a good woo-er. It would give me great satisfaction and amuse me to no end if that hen followed him home.

    Towanda- I don't know. He has always demanded a hat of some sort when he rides the horse. Now he has a cowboy hat. He's bona fide.

    Beth- Sweet Lulumarie sent him that shirt. He loves it. We do too.

    Marshal M- But do you have teddy bear diaper pins?

    Syd- He looks good in a hat, that boy.

    Ms. Bastard-Beloved- That was five bucks well spent!

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