Ames, Iowa, 7:56 a.m., D.S.T.~
Howdy from Farm Country! This is your friend, Milton Eddleston, writing; hope this finds you all well and accounted for! I am good; thanks for asking!
Just got done taking care of the critters and am now waiting for the school bus to come pick me up for school. Today is the last day of school before Easter (spring) break; we're off for a week. It's gonna be so nice to be able to sleep in, but as for me, I can't really. I live on the farm. Chores wait for no one; we have to get up early to get the farm running and the animals fed, watered, and exercised.
Most mornings I'm up by 3/4 a.m. and don't hit the sack until well after 10:00 at night. LONG days; by the time it's time for me to go to bed I'm so exhausted it's not funny! It would be easier if I had brothers or sisters, but it just didn't work out that way. Ma and Pop had only one child: ME. So the lion's share of the work falls on my young shoulders.
Pa works hard, too. Ma does as well, but last year she had a scare: she had MRSA and ended up in the hospital. It took her a very long time to get over it.
Grandpa Ocie is doing as well as can be expected, but he has the beginning stages of Alzheimers: he is getting pretty forgetful. We are all worried about him. Good thing he is with us instead of by himself at the place he and his wife built! There's no telling what might happen if he was alone!
My cousin Travis Whitenauer continues to be an enigma to us and to his own family. He is about the same, healhwise; he'll never get any better. If anything he will get worse and die. He has Canavan disease (his mother, my aunt, carried the gene and passed it on to him; she's Jewish) and cannot walk or talk. It's really sad seeing him like this because there's really nothing anybody can do to help him or make him better.
On the other hand, my other two cousins, twins Brandt and Bryson, are now one year old, walking, talking, and are into everything. Whenever they come over, I have to hide my books, games, etc. so grubby little hands won't start exploring (or possibly dismantling) my things! I do love my little cousins, though: they are as cute as cute can be!
The pigs and other critters are flourishing. In fact, three of our sows are fixin' to deliver their babies within weeks of one another, so there' s gonna be a mini pig population explosion on our farm! Exciting times!! The babies are due either later this month or at the start of next month.
The weather is finally getting warmer. The leaves on the trees and the flowers are starting to come out and everything is coming back to life after a long, cold, harsh winter. I am more than ready for sunshine, warmer temps, and even the rains that herald the spring season!
Well, I see the bus coming 'round the bend, so I'd best shut this down and go to school. I will write in here again soon; until then, this is Milton Eddleston saying so long! May God bless you always!
~Milton. :)
~To be continued.~
