My Favourite Photo Of The Week

     You have to get up pretty early to beat these guys! On this particular morning, I was on a mission. It was Saturday morning and I was hurrying to get chores done and get on the road, it was auction sale day and Mike was taking me to Picture Butte for my birthday.

      All night (instead of sleeping) I was fantasizing about what would be in those cardboard boxes at the auction sale. When you drive into the parking lot, you can see rows of boxes... many contain rabbits, there are usually a few boxes of worn out, old brown laying hens - but then, there are always surprises! I get butterflies, just thinking about it!

      Seriously.

      It reminds me of child like anticipation on Christmas Eve. I dream about what critters will be brought in - one can never be sure as to what is sitting out in the parking lot or going to come into the ring at the Picture Butte Auction. It literally could be anything!

      Suffice it to say, even though I flew through my chores, showered and was ready at the agreed upon time, my day did not go as planned. Mike was not ready, then we had to trade trucks with Andrew (he needed our truck to pull the stock trailer. He was going to pick up his cows). We hopped into his truck, realizing that we were already running behind. I was getting a little hot under the collar. Why did the truck swap not happen last night?

      Then we looked at the fuel gauge. Andrew did not have any diesel in his truck.

       None.

      By this time, I was so hot that there was probably steam coming off my head. Now we were REALLY LATE, because of course (in my mind) we were missing all the good stuff. The "smalls" start selling promptly at 10:00am and the auctioneer is usually done in about a half an hour. I may have said a "few" bad words and made some very unkind remarks about men in general. Confession - I said a lot of bad words and I pretty much cussed out all the men in the world. Twice.

     And that was before we saw the train... wouldn't you know it, we ran right, smack into a very long freight train and we had to wait. Then we had to get fuel. Peyton had to pee. I was almost starting to twitch.

    The rest of the story ... we missed the important part of the sale. There was not a single person left in the parking lot,  they were already walking back to their trucks, carrying their precious boxes. I was frantic as I peered into the ones left out in the gravel sales area. Rabbits. Old laying hens. I was starting not to hyperventilate any more, maybe there had not been any thing that terribly exciting at the sale, after all. Then I saw the BIG BOXES, off to the side.

      There were ducks. There had been ducks at this sale. 

     "My" birthday ducks.

       Not just any old ducks, either.  They were Harlequin ducks, males with vibrant green heads and more drab looking hens. I was choked!  The worst part was that when we took a seat in the building, to watch the rest of the sale, I had a clear sight line to that wriggling box. I sat there through the pigs, sheep, goats and milk cows, thinking about those damn ducks, out there in the driveway - fuming in silence. It took a lovely lunch at my favourite restaurant and a trip to Peavey Mart, before I stopped sulking and put my big girl panties back on.

      I had to admit, it was a wonderful birthday adventure, even sans ducks! I just have to try and figure out how to quiet the voices in my head that keep telling me to buy chickens. LOL.They get me into a lot of trouble!