Chickens and Ducks

The Mother Instinct aka Chickens and Ducks

One year Mother decided to raise some ducks. I don't know why. She bought some Muscovy eggs and gave them to one of the setting hens. I'm sure the hen was quite confused when Mother would lift her off the nest two or three times a day, roll each of the eggs over and then sprinkle them with water. In due time the poor mother hen had a bunch of little funny looking “chicks.” She took good care of them teaching them to forage and scratch for seeds and bugs they couldn't pick up because their “beaks” were in fact bills.

One day my sister and I heard a loud, frantic squawking coming from the area of the pond created by the overflow of the barnyard windmill and tank. Thinking it was probably a water snake threatening the ducklings, we ran to the rescue.

We found the hen frantically running along the muddy edge of the pond as her babies cavorted happily in the water. Eventually, the babies returned to her side and dutifully followed her back to the chicken house. This was repeated daily for several weeks.

Years later, I was witness to the opposite scenario. I had finished a meeting with the ranchwife and was getting into my car when she said, “Watch this.” A duck had hatched a chicken egg. She was leading her baby to the hydrant in the barnyard. The hydrant was set to drip into a shallow pan so that small animals in the barnyard always had fresh water. The mother took a long drink and then got into the pan getting herself wet all over. Then she shook herself off and proceeded to try to push her baby into the pan. The chick protested loudly and ran away from the pan.

Mothering is universal. With my adopted children I have found myself in both these incidents.

Sisters by Marriage

SISTERS BY MARRIAGE

Sisters by marriage;

Friends by choice.

Sharing family, name

And heritage.

Sisters by marriage,

Friends by choice.

Two or three mothers

All those cousins.

Sisters by marriage,

Friends by choice.

Let's meet at the park

It'll be fun.

Sisters by marriage,

Friends by choice.

Let's all go shopping,

My turn to drive.

Sisters by marriage,

Friends by choice.

Thanksgiving at my house,

Easter at yours.

Sisters by marriage,

Friends by choice.

Chokecherries are ripe

Jelly for all.

Sisters by marriage,

Friends by choice.

Sharing laughter and tears,

Joys and fears.

Sisters by marriage;

Friends by choice.

Sharing family, name

And heritage.

(Dedicated to my Mother, Aunt Max and Aunt Jesse and Lauretta, Kathryn and Clara May.)

Old Bill

A Person from my childhood

Bill was the year around hired man on the ranch for about 15 years.

He was about the same age as Daddy but he seemed older.

He always wore bib overalls. Daddy wore levis.

He stuttered a bit when he got excited or had a drink or two.

Bill seemed to be quite content taking his meals with the family,

Sleeping in the two room bunk house

Which featured a wood burning stove

And a sink with a hand pump and an outhouse.

Bill worked hard and was steady and reliable.

He didn't have a car.

On Saturday a relative would come to the ranch to get him

And would bring him back on Sunday evening.

Bill never corrected me or my sister.

If he saw something amiss in our behavior

Or danger in our actions

He would tell Daddy but he never said anything to us.

Bill was a private person and we really didn't know much about him.

When he died in his room at a residential hotel

We leaned that he had never married

And that he had served in the Army during World War II

Going to Grandma's for Christmas

Going to Grandma’s for Christmas (1950’s)

It’s Christmas Eve. It’s Christmas Eve. We’re going to Grandma’s. We’ve had a nap although we were too excited to actually sleep. We’ve had baths and our hair is in curlers. Oh hurry, Daddy, hurry. Do the chores as fast as you can. Take your bath as fast as fast as can be. It’s Christmas Eve. It’s almost dark! It’s time to go to Grandma’s house.

When I was in grade school, we went to my Grandparents’ house in Torrington, Wyoming for Christmas. On the 24th Daddy would do the chores very early but it would always be dark when we left the ranch 10 miles south of Alliance. And, it was so dark. There were no mercury lights that come on automatically at dusk. Farmsteads were visible only if they happened to have a yard light on when we drove by. Leaving Alliance, there were a few street lights at Angora and a couple at the junction but then it would be very dark the rest of the way to Scottsbluff. There we would see Christmas trees in windows, street decorations and a few lighted decorations in yards. Then it would be pitch black again with our headlights throwing thin beams down the road ahead of us. The stars, if it wasn’t cloudy, were low and bright. We would sing Christmas Carols and I could gaze at the black sky and imagine how startling a sky full of angels would be.

We knew which small town was next and we watched eagerly for the lights of each. In Morrill there was a lighted Santa standing beside the chimney on a roadside roof that made us laugh and heightened our excitement because we were almost there. Only Henry and then we’d be in Wyoming!

We were always the last to arrive at Grandma’s. My cousins from California, if they came, would come a week early and the other ranch living cousins had other family members who would do the necessary chores so they could leave home right after lunch or even earlier.

December 24^th is my sister’s birthday so as soon as we had been greeted, we would have her “birthday party.” After she had blown out the candles, we’d eat supper having her cake for dessert. While the women washed the dishes, we children put on our good clothes and the men arranged the chairs in the family room and made sure that the fire in the fireplace would last through the evening.

Then we opened presents. My uncles exchanged the same gifts year after year. I suspected that they really were the same gifts that were just put away with the Christmas decorations. One was a coconut with a handkerchief tied around the “face” and the other was a bag of nuts and bolts. Grandma and Granddad’s gifts almost always included new pajamas or slippers or a robe for each of us cousins. After the presents we talked and played with new toys or games and had snacks and sometimes some of the grown-ups would go to church. One by one we kids would go change into our nightwear and then clutching a favorite new gift we would snuggle together in the warmth of the fireplace and the soft lights of the Christmas tree and fall asleep on the family room floor.

After a big dinner on Christmas Day, we would return to our house. We could never spot the Santa on the roof in the daytime and coming from the other direction. This was just an ordinary, long drive home. Only the Christmas Eve drive in the dark was magical.

My Place

My Place

In the bedroom of my childhood

with the twin beds, each next to a window,

two small dressers and two yellow chairs from Mexico,

I breathe in the fresh air because the windows are open to catch the evening breezes.

I think of summer and freedom when I remember our room and its ceiling papered with yellow roses, where my sister and I dreamed of these days when we are “grown up.”

(excerpted from Class Exercises)

I Am the One

I Am the One  

I am the one sobbing uncontrollably, collapsed in a crumpled heap on the hospital bed. I am the one with an empty womb and empty arms.

I am the one who saw the fleeting look of total despair in my husband's eyes as he cradled me in his arms and we sobbed together.

I am the one who watched the sorrow wash over my parents as they learned that their first grandchild had lived only 15 hours.

I am the one who saw the clenched fists buried into the mattress to keep from swinging them at the priest who said our baby died because I married out of the church.

I am the one who wept when a baby cried in church or the grocery store. I am the one who struggled to answer my little brother's questions about babies in heaven.

I am the one who found the article on new adoption policies and kept it open in my desk drawer to revive hope on long lonely days.

I am the one who felt the faint stirring of new life. I am the one who awakened from the anesthetic and looked into my husband's laughing eyes and heard his gentle words, “It's another boy and he can cry.”

I am the one sitting carefully in the hospital bed, praising God as tears of joy splash gently on our newborn son.

(from Class Exercises)

The Funniest Thing I Never Saw

The Funniest Thing I Never Saw

When my brother, Roger, was about 10 years old he had two best friends. Copper was a golden Labrador mix dog and Brighty was a donkey. In the summer they spent all day every day together. They were in the Heritage Days parade dressed as a prospector with his donkey and dog. There was a picture in the newspaper of Roger sharing his ice cream bar participation “prize” with Copper. The three of them roamed all over the ranch together.

Roger spent hours and hours teaching Copper and Brighty tricks. The best one was Copper jumping onto Brighty and riding double with Roger. It was quite a trick because Roger not only had to teach Copper to jump up but he had to teach Brigthy to let Copper get on his back. They practiced it over and over and over.

One day Daddy needed help moving some cows from one pasture to another. Brighty was no good at herding cows. Donkeys can’t (or won’t) turn fast enough to make a cow turn around. Besides the cows didn’t like him so Roger rode a horse named Pally. Pally was quite a bit taller than Brighty. Copper went along just because Copper always went wherever Roger went.

One big cow decided she didn’t like that dog so close to her calf. She started to chase Copper. Copper, of course, ran to Roger for protection and TRIED TO JUMP UP ON PALLY. Pally was too tall for Copper to get on and he wanted no part of a dog on his back anyway so he jumped away. The cow was chasing Copper and Copper was trying to jump up on Pally and Pally was jumping away from Copper and Roger was trying to stay on Pally and chase the cow away from Copper. Finally, Daddy and Jim (the hired man) were able to stop laughing long enough to chase the cow back to her baby and Copper and Pally stopped jumping and Roger could catch his breath and they could continue to drive the cows to the other pasture. I wish I had seen it. It must have been quite a Wild West show.