It's been so long since I have blogged. I feel out of practice. I have had trouble logging in the past couple of times so I just backed out of it.

Today hubby and I took off to Springfield and took Ellen to the zoo. We got rained on a bit, but still had a good time. I think Ellen liked feeding the fish the best. They have this huge pool with bridges and such, with enormous carp swimming around. They hear the little feed dispenser clicking and they come swimming up to the side there. Ellen didn't want to get TOO close to them, so she'd toss the feed pellets from a ways back. But she'd giggle to watch them with their pink mouths gaping above the water. Then this spoon-billed pelican had to get in on the act. He wouldn't eat the pellets, but the fish swam a distance away from him, though they were much too big for him to scarf down.

While it rained we took shelter in a little lean-to like structure in front of the tiger paddock. It made me think of "Jurassic Park" and I was thankful that we weren't in front of the T-Rex paddock. Ha!

We petted the goats a bit, though Ellen wouldn't have anything to do with them. And we said hello to the giraffes, but were too cheap to buy food to feed them.

One of the elephants decided to put on a show for us by trying to tear down a tree branch near its pen. Apparently they don't keep elephants in there much, else the tree would have been pruned much sooner than this.

My favorites are those humongous tortoises, from some island off the coast of India I believe. I should've got a pic of them. Hubby says he's glad none of them live around here because they'd really mess up your car if you accidentally hit them while driving down the road. Much to my delight one of them actually picked itself up and lumbered along for about 6 feet. They look like they are made out of some sort of plastic.

Once again I was disappointed because the kookaburras didn't laugh for us. Maybe next time.

Comments

jel said…
hope she had a good time! :)
September 10, 2009 at 8:17 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Oyster

It isn't even halfway through the month yet and I have run out of lists or anything amusing to tell you about the dairy. So here is a poem I picked up on a homesteading forum. It does deal with ag issues, just of a different sort... Enjoy! The Oyster Baxter Black The sign upon the café wall said OYSTERS: fifty cents. "How quaint," the blue-eyed sweetheart said with some bewildermence, "I didn't know they served such fare out here upon the plain." "Oh, sure," her cowboy date replied, "We're really quite urbane." "I would guess they're Chesapeake or Blue Point, don't you think?" "No ma'am, they're mostly Hereford cross . . . and usually they're pink But I've been cold, so cold myself, what you say could be true And if a man looked close enough, their points could sure be blue!" She said, "I gather them myself out on the bay alone. I pluck them from the murky depths and smash them with a
Read more

Like Cats A'Fightin'

Image
That's a local saying when it's snowing hard. Snowing like cats a'fightin'. You can look out and see the fur flying. Ellen had never been outside while it was actually snowing. She was enchanted. She had to have a bucket of it to carry around. It was in the mid-20s but we took a bit of a walk before coming back in for a nap. The snow is still too dry to be able to make a snowman, it is really powdery. So far we have somewhere between 3 and 4 inches, I would suspect.
Read more

The Blind Calf Story

Image
This happened last month. I thought it was an interesting case. Wed Aug 15th 2007 8:30 AM: Went out and brought new heifer calf and cow in from field. Not too sure how old calf was; umbilical cord sort of dried up, but calf still seemed damp. Left her with cow all morning ‘til maybe early afternoon, then separated them. Beautiful, normal calf. 6 PM Fed calf bottle. She slugged back the whole thing. Thurs Aug 16th5:15 AM (approx) Calf comatose. Or as near as I could tell. She was on her side, non-responsive, drooling, head on ground, eyes closed or just barely opened. I tried to feed her bottle but she only swallowed convulsively once or twice, then milk just drained from her mouth. 5:30 AM. Husband went out and looked at her. Drug her out of pen and out of the way to be taken to boneyard later after chores were all done. She was barely breathing and as I said, totally non-responsive.This was a real grief as the cow she came from is a great milker and to get a heifer from her was a joy.
Read more