Country Life - my heart's desire

Psalm 20:3-5 May He give you what your heart desires and fulfill your whole purpose.


I don't love EVERYTHING about the country life.  Rattlesnakes bother me a lot.  I had already had one experience in May, when one surprised me in the henhouse.  You can read all about that HERE.  That was quite enough, thank you very much, especially since we have lived in this house for ten years, and it was only the second time we have encountered one.  I figured it should be at least ten more years before we had to do that again.  So I was quite dismayed to hear the kids coming running in screaming earlier this week that there was one in the baby bunny cage.
Beau quickly came to the rescue with the .22, but not before the snake had struck two baby bunnies and they died an awful death.  Poor little things.  Why would even a snake want to harm something so sweet and cuddly?

Angel-Leah spent the rest of the evening in tears.  But the dad of this house thought the rattlesnake would make a great snack: after all, they had tasted it at the rattlesnake round up.  So he and Beau skinned the mean old baby bunny murderer (Beau is preserving the skin) and Bill took the rest inside to the stove and fried it right up.  Gross.  No I did NOT eat it - but I think Angel-Leah and I were the only ones who didn't...

Now, on to one thing I do love about living in the country...

Luke's two sisters are staying with us.  If you remember, they were the ones we were asked to adopt, we said yes, went through the whole process to be licensed with the private agency , only to then be turned down by CPS.  You can read that story HERE.  Anyway, they are still allowed to come for visits with their brother, my son Luke.  They will be with us for two weeks.  We are having fun, and so glad they are here.

I also have three grandchildren staying with me for a few days.  To say I have a houseful is an understatement.  But hey, we live in the country and there is a LOT to do.  Big sister loves to build, and she has quite a construction crew.  They have been working on the tree house out in the chicken coop for days.  Big sister is the president, which means she calls all the shots.  Grandson Mikey is the vice president.  Angel-Leah tells me she is the presidents servant, and Tommy is the mascot.  Until today, Luke and Beetle were not in big sisters crew, they were going to make their own clubhouse.  But after two days of watching how much better her work was going, they decided to join her.  Little sister, however, is a different story.  The work is hard.  The boards are heavy.  It's hot.  She didn't know the rules.  She didn't hear the other kids when they read them to her.  She stood on the boards while they tried to build.  She didn't know she was standing on the boards  She didn't know she was supposed to say sorry when she did something wrong.  She didn't know that when you DO say you are sorry, you aren't supposed to roll your eyes.  It goes on and on.  So she is regularly kicked out of the club.  Today, "I" made the rule that each day is a new start, and she can try over.  I think she lasted a total of three minutes before she was kicked out again...

This club has a password.  Before you enter, you must tell President Big Sister the password.  Here is mascot Tommy whispering it to President Big Sister:

Here's Angel-Leah working hard.  I wonder why she doesn't work so hard when it's time to clean her room?  At least it's air conditioned there!  That's grandson Beetle chilling on the bike, and little sister wishing she hadn't broken the rules:

The rules are posted on the front of the clubhouse.  There is a zero tolerance law for breaking them, it seems:

When we found the first snake, Bill spent much time cleaning the chicken pen.  He picked up all the boards, cut down brush and low hanging limbs, raked grass and threw away broken toys.  It was amazing the work he did.  It made hunting eggs back there so much nicer and so much less scary.  Unfortunately, the chicken pen is back to being a construction site, and things are messy again:

But honestly, I don't care.  I have ten kids over here, and the beauty of living in the country is that they never run out of things to do.  It's a wonderful place to raise children and have grandchildren over to play.  I am so blessed to have this messy little place.