Snow Golf/Swans

Yesterday, Grace and Micah were home sick from school. They came down with something and are feeling so low, they are staying home today too.  It seems like they have turned the corner though, maybe they can get to school tomorrow.  JJ has not gotten whatever it is yet so he has been going to school and playing outside at home.  He loves sports of all kinds and is always coming up with ways to play.  Yesterday he dug out a golf ball and used a metal rod as a club to play golf in the snow.  The rod has a loop at one end which worked ok as the head of the club.  He hit that ball over and over again pushing it across the yard and back again.  I'm impressed that he could find a white ball in the snow!

Monday I went on a field trip with the students I work with.  There are only four in our program so we can all fit in a van for regular outings.  We have fun getting out and checking out new things.  This week we visited an area of the Mississippi that stays thawed and open all winter which attracts swans and other water birds. Swans don't usually migrate in the winter so they congregate wherever there is open water. As the story goes, a lady that lived along that stretch of river started feeding them corn every winter. When she died of cancer she made her husband promise to continue feeding her swans.  So he feeds thousands of swans corn every day, all winter long.  There is a little observation deck and a donation box right there between two houses on a dead-end, residential street.

It was pretty cool to see and hear all the birds waiting to be fed.  Many of them were resting on the snow of the riverbank until the guy came down to feed them.  He has a system rigged up where the corn slides out of a feed wagon, down a tube and into tubs at the riverbank.  Pretty slick system that probably saves him a lot of trips up and down the steep bank with pails of corn.

I am glad I have a job where I get to experience different, fun things in the area.  It gives me ideas for outings with my own kids.  We will definitely try to get up to see the swans before the end of winter.  Although, I will go on a warmer day!  The temp was around -10 with a high wind off the river when I went this week.