What Day Is It Anyway?

I kind of feel like I'm adrift in Easter weekend, but I'm not really sure where. I've checked - it is Sunday - but I'm a day ahead of myself.

Wayne and Jacqui and the kids were home for the holiday and because of Wayne's exam schedule they arrived on Wednesday evening and had to be back in Winnipeg tonight so that he could write again tomorrow. I guess, in my mind, that set the whole week back by one day - I even offered to do the big family meal so that we could arrange to have the big family gathering on Saturday instead of Sunday for their benefit. So, while everyone else is just sitting down to Easter dinner, I'm doing laundry and tidying up a house after everyone has gone home.

It's a wonderful day out there today. It was yesterday, too, and the little kids spent all their time out on the trampoline bouncing out their energy where there were no adults to tell them to calm down and be quiet. When it comes to hosting the big family meals (average guest list 25 to 35 people) Easter and Thanksgiving afford a hostess half a hope that she can send at least half the crowd outside. At Christmastime the chances are very slim that any of the noise and confusion can be anywhere but in the house.

There was some excitement last night, though. Just as we were finishing dessert (I made cream puffs and they actually turned out!) someone spotted some of our cows heading down the road. There was a mad scramble for boots and shoes as the men all went out to head them off at the pass and get them back in where they belong. During calving season we keep them all in a small pasture east of the barn where it's easier to check on the birthing situation. For a diet they get chopped grain in the morning and then hay and greenfeed bales rolled out on the ground. I think they are getting tired of the same old same old every day and took a notion to head for their summer pasture on their own - that's certainlly where they were headed.

Glen is planning to separate out the cows that have already had their calves and send them out into a field next to the house, just so they have more space, but we can't have the heifers out yet. We have three or four that haven't had their babies yet and because they are smaller animals they may need assistance when the time comes. So far we've had to pull two calves and a third one died because we didn't intervene in time. We thought we had chosen a bull with lower expected birth weights for the heifers, but he seems to sire bigger than planned.

This spring our herd will be up to about eighty animals so Glen had to go looking for another bull. It gets complicated after a while - you want to keep a sire separate from his daughters and a bull is only expected to service 30 cows anyway so as your herd grows, so does your number of bulls. Glen made his purchase at a sale this week. To me it's just another big Black Angus bull - I'll be lucky to be able to tell them apart - but you'd think it was Christmas and the bull was Santa himself the way Glen carried on. I have the feeling I didn't show the proper amount of enthusiasim.

This week is going to be totally out of the ordinary for me - even after I convince myself that tomorrow is actually Monday. Sandy, our oldest daughter, and I are heading off to England next weekend to visit my aunt in Oxford and to see some country; Scotland for sure, possibly Wales, and places like Stonehenge, Salisbury, and Bath. The flights were booked ages ago, but it's only just becoming real to me these past few days. I'm running the whole emotional gammit of happy, excited, nervous, anxious, regret Glen's not comming, happy Sandy is ... It will just be good to get on the plane and get the trip underway!