May Insanity

I realize that I haven't posted many entries for the month of May. It just seems to be an avalanche of events none of which are any fun to write about. This week has been particularly insane. This is testing week at school. The state is now testing all grades I think 3-11, so my entire day is messed up at school. I have my horrible homeroom the entire morning for testing. It is also the last week for Seniors. So, I've been getting grades calculated and writing finals in addition to my usual lesson planning. It has been quite hectic. I am really worried about my dog too. I suppose I can blog about insanity as well as fun an interesting things too.

School will be out before we know it. We have two more days this week, four days the next week, and five the following week, which includes final exams. It is the end of the year crunch. Exhaustion sets in, and then the who cares its over mentality takes over. I'm plugging along like a little steam engine.

There is a nice long break approaching, and I am excited about unpacking and sorting things in my new house. I am looking into the idea of painting a few rooms. I'd like to plant a few things. I want to buy some curtains. I am also planning a trip to Washington DC. The summer is really a welcome respite.

Everyone should come visit me at my lake. You can check out all the water fowl. The Heron has been catching fish in front of my house. He caught a huge silver fish two nights ago when we were having dinner on the porch. He thought he would share a meal with us. He gulped the fish down in one swallow. He stood up on the bank for awhile afterward, so that we could see his pretty feathers. Then he flew down the lake stretching out his wide wings, feet dangling down.

White duck and mallard the inter-duckle couple have not been swimming on the lake for two days. I am getting concerned for them. A couple of days ago I saw them trying to cross the road in the morning. I hope they haven't gotten into some trouble. There is also a Mallard family living on the lake. Bethany and I saw the mother and father shepherding one little duckling the other evening on a walk.

There are still half a dozen or so Canadian geese hanging around the lake, but the large flock that lived here in the winter has flown to other places. The little brown ducks have flown away as well. The little brown ones, I could never get close enough to see markings to identify them. They could plunge underwater and swim for several minutes. They would dive in at one point and pop up somewhere else. They were quite interesting.

We are hoping to observe some turtles this summer. Supposedly, they like to sun themselves on the wall in front of our home. I will let you know when we see one. Bethany has been collecting the shells of freshwater clams. She has maybe thirty now. I'm not sure what we should do with them now that she has them. She likes to wash and sort them in the bathroom sink.

We have been fighting carpenter bees, which have invaded our porch. They drill holes into the wood, and lay their eggs. They are huge and look like bumble bees. We had an exterminator come out to look at them. He told us to spray WD-40 into the holes, seal them with wood putty, and finally varnish our posts in hopes that the bees wouldn't smell the wood. He didn't charge us for this information. We have a little weekend project to attend to now. He also said they won't sting people, so I don't feel it as critical of a problem as I did two nights ago when they were swarming around my porch.

Until next time...