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The new "sport" around the Feldman home lately has been catching birds! William is laying down, very still, holding a string attached to the door of the cage. They have caught several already! Don't worry, they let them go...=)

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We caught this pigeon in our back yard a few days ago!

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We caught a humming-bird in our barn... It was worn out, so Alayna fed it sugar water and it recovered. (After I got some pictures=)

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Look what Lily Ann found in the bird house!

148/365 {{{Happy Birthday Farrah!}}}

For Farrah's birthday yesterday, we went canoeing down the Rainbow river! The five oldest and Daddy participated, although I know the younger ones would have loved to. Maybe that will be another day... This first picture makes the river look dark... but it's actually very clear!

We stopped and ate our lunch under a big overhanging tree... It was perfect!

The wildlife was beautiful... A hawk flew over and landed on the limb just over Daddy's head, with it's freshly caught frog! He stayed just long enough for Evan to snap a picture.

This is what most the river looks like.

 We stopped briefly on the way in this shallower part, and swam. All these pictures were taken with Evan's phone {in a waterproof case=)} so that's why there's not tons of them!

Cappy...

Interested little creature..

 It might seem silly to post about my bird, but he is SO funny, and cute. So when I have nothing to post about, and I haven't done so in  a week... well I think Cappy is worth posting about.

He turned himself upside down! He poses perfectly:)

This is how Cappy and Cassy climb on the wire.  

He likes to land on the window frame to visit with us.

Cappy and Cassy's cage is an outdoor cage, and the only entrance into it is the girls bedroom window.  This is one of Cappy's favorite places to be, perched on the window sill:)

I took this picture from the inside of the house, through the window, and with the zoom,  and it turned out well! Yay!

 He is such a cute and funny little blessing!

Butchering broilers

Evan,"the executioner".

Broilers hanging up to drain.

Bo and I plucking.

Savana, with a chicken she just plucked.

Alayna and Farrah gutting.

Lily Ann holding a broiler that she just finished.

William, bagging the chickens.

Bo with two finished broilers.

More spring at the farm...

 Here are some pictures of the baby animals around here.  Just now we only have ducklings, chicks, and puppies. 

These ducklings hatched this morning, and you can see places in the other eggs where the ducklings are pecking their way out.  This is actually a goose nest, but it's full of duck and chicken eggs, as we have two geese, not a goose and gander, so the eggs were infertile, so I gave the geese other eggs which I needed hatched.

Goosey didn't appreciate being pulled off her nest so that I could photograph "her" babies.

Another mother with some even more incongruous offspring...

She tried to teach them to dust bathe this morning, but they prefer the water.

Emaline and "Remington".

Bo with Balloo and Inez.

Balloo.

Captain's Adventure

     Captain had quite an adventure a couple days ago, a scary one too! This is how it came about: I (Savana) was walking around the house with Cappy on my shoulder for about ten minutes. Well, I got so used to him there that I walked outside to water some zinnia seedlings, forgetting he was there. He stayed there for about 30 seconds, then as I set the water cup down it scared him and he took flight. I was so stunned, I forgot to look where he had flown-- I just ran inside and grabbed the chip bag, (he loves chips) but I had no clue where he had gone. Meanwhile Farrah was just about to plant some carrots, and she, hearing is screeches, ran over to help me look for him. We ran all over our woods and Aunt Gie-Gie's-- all in vain; we just couldn't find him. But we realized we were never going to find him unless we prayed, so that's just what we did. And right after we prayed, I heard him screech!  We ran to where he was screeching and saw he was about 50 feet up in a pine.  We knew we couldn't get up there-- especially in a pine tree.
      Well, then it started to rain and the wind was really picking up.  It scared Cappy and he flew towards our neighbors, the Hutchersons,  and we all ran over there to see where he had gone.  But we didn't see any sign of him and we were just about to go search in our neighbors' woods when we heard the bell, so of course we had to come, and when we got to the porch Mama was ushering us inside saying, "There's a tornado!"  That was just too much and I didn't know what to do.  Mama was watching the weather and it said, "if you live in Pierson, Barberville, or Eldridge-- GET OUT! But it was too late to evacuate so we just stayed in the house and prayed that the tornado wouldn't hit us.  It passed over pretty quickly and Mama said we could go back out and search for Captain.
     Bo was convinced he was in Mr. Hutcherson's woods so I followed Bo, calling Cappy the whole time, and pretty soon I heard him screech (so providential).  We found him sitting in another pine (I think he likes pines) just acting normal like nothing had happened, but we just couldn't get him down! I thought maybe I should try the chips again, so I told William to go get them.  As soon as Captain saw those chips he started to fly all over the place.  I just kept my eyes on him until I realized he had gone and perched right in front of our neighbors, the Guyers! I ran over there to see if I could spot him and Farrah came over to see if she could spot him, too.  Well, Farrah did spot him (thankfully) but that bird just wouldn't come down. The rain started to come down pretty good and we just about tried (or thought) about every possible thing to get him down
such as spraying him down with water, shooting him with the air soft gun, and climbing 40 feet up to get him!  Mr. Guyer came out, probably because he noticed that Mrs. Feldman and most of her children were standing in his yard with Mr. Hutcherson's ladder waving a bag of Santitas while looking up in the huge live oak in their front yard.  Next thing you know Mama's talked Mr. Guyer into letting us use his hose to spray our dear little bird out of the tree.  In fact, he ended up helping us, but none of that worked; it just soaked poor little Cappy to his little birdy skin.   
     It got dark and we just had to go home and pray the Lord would keep him safe from predators and cool temperatures.  We were all very grateful that the temperature would not be too, too cold, around the mid forties.  That night at worship time we prayed God would bring him back to us. Daddy, after worship time, said we could go back over and see if he would come down.  We tried for just a little while but Captain was not ready yet. The next day, Farrah walked outside to take care of the chicks, and as she did so she heard Captain screeching for us!  She ran inside to ask Mama if she, Evan, and I could go over and check on him and Mama said we could. We ran over and saw Cappy screeching and running back and forth on the tree. Thankfully we had grabbed his food before we left. We held it up until he couldn't stand it any longer; he just flew down and landed on Farrah's hand. We were so delighted!  But as we were walking back to the house with him Farrah dropped his cage, and the bottom fell off! Which of course made Cappy fly into a nearby tree. Thankfully Cappy was still hungry and as soon as he saw that I had his food he started to try to fly down. But he didn't want to fly all the way to the ground, so I stood on a ladder and offered his food until he flew down and perched on my head! This time we were very careful not to drop his cage! We made it back to the house safe and sound, and Cappy is doing just fine now.  Praise the Lord!

Captain (Savana's cockatiel).