Re: My first story
Section Three, The Farm
Four years, three months ago, and it still lies vivid within me. I was sixteen then. I was in my Junior year of high school, and winter break had come. I had planned to do lots of skiing, when it snowed, and a bit of ice blocking if I could find a hill, but chances were not in my favor, at least, not in Florida. So I had to endure the torture of nice sunny days with occasional rain, while everybody else in the country enjoyed the cold harsh winter storms. One day it got so cold, that I had to put socks on……
… I love Florida.
The previous night it had rained. Mom and Dad had planned on an Easter egg hunt in the winter, because everyone had plans for spring. While they were out making final preparations, (and perhaps doing other business as well) . I was left to watch my little brother, Garret. He was young and did not sleep well alone, so he bunked with me.
(see first passage)
That night I slept in. It seemed that everyone was so busy that no one had thought to wake me. It was 11am when I finally got out of bed. I walked out onto the porch, and most of my family had arrived. uncle, aunts, grandparents and the other adults were conversing around the campfire, while the little ones ran about in every which way.
My little brother, Garrett, was running along with them in his rubber boots that swamped his legs because they were too big for him. They were a light blue rubber with green soles and little orangish-green frogs on the sides, with two useless handles.
Everyone wore boots, especially after last night’s rain, everyone but me. I had none, but I had never needed any before.
I remember my mother calling me, “Owen….Owen! Do you hear me?”, “Yes mom I hear you” " Good… Now Owen, can you show the kids around the farm?" “Yes mom”.
I then proceeded to take the kids around. We have a small farm. In our front yard is a pond, with an island in the middle, and we have a wooden arch bridge to go to it. The bridge always reminded me of the one in Whinny the Pooh, when they played pooh sticks over the little river.
In our pond we have fifteen ducks. Nine of them are white Peking ducks , the other six are Canadian mallards ,or something like that. I can never remember the name. They came and went as they wished, always gave them food, and they always gave us eggs.
In the back we had a chicken coop
with about twenty three chickens, mostly road island reds. Every now and then we let them out to eat the bugs, but other than that they stayed coed up. This was because of our neighbors lab. , a mix between a pit bull, and a black lab. Besides than eating live chicken, he is a good dog.
Further back were the giant bunnies, three big white rabbits, blends of Florida White’s, and New Zealand’s, and they had nine baby rabbits. The fur is so, soft, and the meat isn’t bad either. Next to them we had a pen for our two dwarf goats, they were light gray with a black stripe from the head to tail. The giant rabbits are slightly larger than the dwarf goats.
We also have four farm cats, and a Weiner dog.
I let the human kids play with the goat kids, for a while. I let them see the bunnies, but no one got too close, because they are mean, and have a nasty bite.
I figured, that by then the adults had hidden the eggs, so I round up the kids. If you have never done it before, it is about as hard as herding cats, in other words many hands are needed. Once I had gathered the human kids, and goat ones too (the little humans like to follow the goats, and the goats like to follow me) We went to the front yard.