Floating, Kicking, Swimming, Success

Becca had her last swimming lesson of the 8-class session tonight.  It is hard to describe the feeling of watching her and reflecting on the progress that she has made these last couple of weeks.

The sessions started out a little bit rocky and frustrating.  I am a careful parent when it comes to signing my child up for classes, lessons, camps, whatever.  As with any class that you might sign up for, there are prerequisites, skills that you should already have before beginning.  Becca met all the criteria perfectly for her Crocodile group.

“Child must be able to enter and go underwater easily, be able to understand the concept of kicking and scooping, attempt to kick and scoop, and jump to the instructor from the deck.  Basic swimming strokes will be taught.”

One of the other children in Becca’s class could not even put her face in the water easily.  I could tell there was no way she would jump to the instructor.  Becca knew the basic front and back float, and learned how to kick and crawl.  She practiced what she learned in our small pool at home that night, and the next day, her instructor was impressed with her progress and had her move to the next class up.  For this class, the criteria is:

“Child should be ready to move onto the larger pool and be able to enter the water feet first from the deck and swim front crawl for about half the distance of the pool (approximately 12 meters).  Stroke development and water safety skills are the focus of these classes.”

This was close.  She hadn’t been taught how to breathe while doing the crawl yet, but I knew that she would learn quickly.  However, it was apparent that the kids in this class weren’t ready for the basic prerequisites, either.  At the end of this session, they told her that they were going to move her up to the Dolphins because she was more advanced than her classmates in this new class.

We went home, and I reviewed the prerequisites for the Dolphins:

“Child must be able to swim the whole length of the pool (25 meters) from crawl and backstroke without assistance, complete half the length of the pool breaststroke, and must have passed the Marlin class.”

Well, no way in hell did she meet those requirements.  Before the next class, I chatted with her new instructor and explained that 1) she didn’t meet the prerequisites, 2) she had never had a lesson before starting this session, 3) she had learned the crawl two days prior, but not how to breathe, and 4) had never been in the deep end of the pool.  He looked a little surprised and said he would bear that all in mind.  She learned a little bit how to tread water, but looked scared doing it, and was struggling with the breaststroke.  While class was in session I reviewed our options, and discovered that for a little bit more money private lessons might be an option.  It wasn’t something I had considered when I signed her up, but this was like having made a down payment on private lessons and being able to pony up a small amount more to complete the fee.  After the classes, I asked if it would be possible to upgrade her to private lessons for the balance of the session.  Yes, that was possible, and her first instructor was available to teach her.  We were set, and on day 4, she started private lessons.

She took off.  Before I knew it, she was treading water, discovered she has a killer backstroke, learned how to breathe while doing the crawl, was diving for rings, jumping off the side of the pool, diving off the side of the pool, and swimming all the way across the pool.  She struggled with the breaststroke, but has learned enough to keep practicing.

She is so much more comfortable in the water, and she loves it.  I think she loves it that I have relaxed a little bit.  I went from eyes glued to her in the pool, to being able to read a sentence or two in my book, or sometimes a paragraph, before glancing up to see what she and Kelson were up to.

Tonight was the last class and they had a bit of fun at the end of class.  She got to go off the diving board.  The first was a cannonball, the second a jump in, feet first, and the third her very first attempt to dive head first from the board.  Her legs weren’t pretty, but she did it.  And what happened next is what will stick with me forever.

After coming up from her dive, she treaded water casually in the middle of the pool and chatted briefly with her instructor before swimming to the end of the pool and getting out.  The lesson was over.  What a memory.  When she came to get her towel, I told her about that moment.  I said, “Wow, that was so neat, Becca.  After you came up from that last dive, you just treaded water and chatted with Kelson like you’d been doing it forever, before you swam to the edge of the pool.”  She said, with genuine surprise, “I did?”  Then, “I guess I did.  I didn’t even notice.”  It is becoming second nature to her.  She didn’t have to think about what to do with her body to make it stay up in 13 feet of water.

At the end of the lesson, Kelson gave Becca an Otter Pop and her report card with a BlowPop tucked inside of it.  Kelson told me that he was going to give us a swimming pass so Becca could come to an open swim session to practice for free.  As we were walking to go get that, I thanked him, and said, “I want you to know how much this means to me, for her to be strong and competent in the water.  Twenty years ago yesterday, my brother drowned at age 26.  This means the world to me.”

Tim knew how to swim, having taken lessons as a child with the rest of us, but was never really comfortable in the water.  I know that there were other factors that day that contributed to his death - not the least the shock of cold water on a 100 degree plus day, all alone, and the fear that I am sure caused everything to fly out of his head he had ever known about swimming.  He didn’t have the confidence in the water that I want Becca to have, and that her big sisters have.  Becca looooves the water, and I want her to be safe and strong.  Thanks, Tim, for helping press me on to get this done.

I have a feeling I will be spending a lot more time pool side.

I Can't Believe It's Friday Already

Well, no big adventures today, just a small, wonderful, fun day with my girl.

For some reason, Becca got up before I did this morning, and apparently, before the alarm even went off. I snoozed it until it stopped, and she woke me about an hour after. After morning milking, she fell asleep on the couch.

Ivory, one of the bucklings, is cracking me up these days. Quite often, when I go to get the boys out of the barn in the morning, I have already milked Salsa, and that means that there has usually been milk accidentally squirted on the leg of my jeans. Ivory always sniffs that, and has started butting my rear-end, as if he thinks that just because it’s an ample, soft area, there’s gotta be milk in there. It’s become his routine now every time I put their leashes on, to nuzzle and bump my butt. I keep telling him, just because it’s BIG doesn’t mean there’s milk in it! This morning, when I leaned over to put Ebony's leash on, Ivory decided to try bumping my boob to see if there was anything there for him. Ahem. No.

There was a lot of activity on the ranch this morning. The landlords came down with the glass man to replace the two broken doors in the studio next door, and filled me in on the status of the hunters at that time. So far they had bagged two wild pigs and were cutting up trees that had fallen over the trails at the far end of the property. No coyote sightings, though I did hear the fox last night. THAT was an eerie call.

We went to the game store late in the morning, to see if they had a used DsiXL that Becca might be able to buy with her saved allowance. They did have one, but the price was ridiculous and over her reach. She was disappointed, but overall took it in stride and will keep saving. Then a quick trip to Home Depot to pick up some pipe for under the kitchen sink.

Pipe for under the kitchen sink, you might ask? Didn’t you just unclog said sink? Why do you need pipe? Apparently I was rather heavy-handed with the unclogging, and broke the pipe at the top where it meets the sink. I had to put a bucket under there to catch spillage until I got the new piece to replace it. One good thing about being a woman wandering around Home Depot looking lost? Men help you. Customers, even, when associates aren’t about, even if you don’t ask. Home Depot employees are also always happy to help hapless me with a little cutting job. I needed the plastic pipe cut to the same size as the old that I’d brought with me, and didn’t want to scrounge around at home looking for my hacksaw. “Happy to oblige, ma’am.” We got home, and it was a five-minute job to put that sucker on, and I did it right! Yay me! Watertight, baby.

I unpacked some boxes in the laundry room while Becca spent more time in the pool. After an early dinner, so that she didn’t eat just before her lesson tonight, we headed to town for her first private swimming lesson.

When Becca asked me last night how long the lesson would be, and I told her 25 minutes, she was unhappy that it was “so short.” I explained that she would be swimming that whole time, and it would be much different than the 10 minutes max she got to swim during the group lesson. After tonight, she really understood what I meant! That girl was POOPED. And beaming. Kelson is a great teacher for her, and she swam 3/4 of the way across the pool “to the deep end, Mommy!” At one point, I looked over and she was staring off in the distance while Kelson was next to her, and I wondered what they were doing, because there was no interaction. Then I noticed that she was treading water! She later told me she was focusing on something so she could concentrate, and he was timing her. He asked her to do it for 15 seconds, longer if she wanted to, and she did it for 25 seconds.

We headed down to Windsor to bring Jessica her cat carrier so they can move Savage when they move into their new house this weekend. It was great to see the place looking so spiffy, painted, carpet cleaned, and ready to move in. The new stove looks *awesome*. We helped them move some boxes from Cory’s car, made plans for tomorrow, and headed home.

I had hoped to break in the new ice cream maker tonight, but it’s too late, so we’ll have to see if we can get it started tomorrow afternoon. We plan to go to the farmer’s market in the morning, then check out Memorial Beach at the river, before heading up to Sebastopol to pick up the freezer and take boxes to Jessi and Cory’s place. A full day ahead!

Changes

Today we decided to see a movie. Everyone has been talking about Toy Story 3. I don’t think we’ve ever seen any of the Toy Story movies in the theater, but this was one of a few that Becca and I could agree on. I’ve heard so many people say that they cried during this movie, and couldn’t figure out why. About halfway through, I was thinking to myself, “There’s no way I can cry at this movie.” I was wrong. I won’t give away any part of the movie, but if you’ve seen it, you know where the tears started to sting. I fought them back. And then, at *that* moment, I couldn’t hold them back anymore. I sat there trying to surreptitiously dry my tears so no one would notice, wondering why the heck I got all teary at that part. Harrumph. Maybe there’s a soft spot still in this guarded heart.

After the movie, we had a little bit of extra time before Becca’s swim lesson, so we drove North on Healdsburg Avenue to see what was down there. I found the back way to the dump. I haven’t found the Salvation Army store/compound yet, but think that it’s in that direction.

Before Becca’s lesson, I talked to the instructor and told him that she didn’t meet the criteria for the class he was teaching, and even though other instructors said that she could be in it, I wanted him to know exactly what her level was. She did fine for the class, but he started teaching the breast stroke during the second half, and I recognized that she didn’t have the foundation necessary to build on for this class. I looked at all the other classes in the pool and also recognized that she didn’t really fit into any of them, either. She is in between the levels that are being taught.



Looking at the schedule, I saw that private lessons were an option for a slightly higher fee. I’d already paid for the group lessons, and the difference in price wasn’t much at all after getting that out of the way. I asked after class if it would be possible to shift to private lessons for the remainder of the session, and it is. So starting tomorrow, Becca gets private lessons that will really help her. The lessons start a half hour later, but that actually will be easier for us to get to once I’m back to work next week. I am feeling much better about this, and I think Becca will enjoy the one-on-one attention, rather than having to wait her turn while 2-5 other kids are taking turns getting individual instruction.

We stopped by the grocery store for a couple things, then headed home. At the second and last gate on the property, we saw the vultures again. What actually caught my attention first, though, was the dark grey coyote trotting off and away from the sheep pasture. Then I spotted the vultures sitting on the posts at the gate, intently watching where the coyote had left.



My landlords have lost another sheep. This time, in broad daylight. They are planning now to move the last remaining sheep and the llama with her into the pen with their horses and goats. The fence around Salsa and her bucklings is tall and strong, and the locals say that the coyotes won’t mess with an electric fence, including my PermaNet fencing, so I hope that my goats will be okay once the sheep snacks are moved. Hunters are coming onto the property tomorrow, and may take care of part of the problem. The deer population is down this year, and the predators are simply looking for their food, but it is hard to lose livestock.

The source of the water leak on the property has been narrowed to between my landlords’ house and the tanks, so we hope they’ll be able to figure it out before too long.

Friday might be warm enough to go to the river with a picnic lunch. We will have to see how it goes. Saturday morning will be the farmer’s market, and late that afternoon and Sunday we’ll help Jessica and Cory move to their new house. I can’t believe the week is almost over.

Lazy Wednesday

We took it slow today and got a later start than expected, so didn’t get to do all that we wanted on our list.

The fly predators were put out, and hopefully this is the beginning of the end of the numerous flies that have showed up at IBTC Farm. Unfortunately, some were eaten by the birds, but hopefully enough are left to hatch so they can do their work.

Foggy the Rooster seems to have suffered no serious injury after his mishap with the feeder. I have left it on the ground and am keeping an eye out for something to hang it with that won’t cause problems in the future. Maybe an old wire hanger could be bent to hang it up safely and easily. The eggs are still being eaten, though I am out there often to check for them, they are apparently eating them quickly. I ran out of the good food that seemed to help stop the problem, so will pick some more of that up and work on getting them real nesting boxes. I am determined to find a way to stop this without losing Roxie. I am pretty sure she is the only culprit, but she lays my favorite eggs. I just need to figure out how to keep them. (And I refuse to clip her beak, as some online sources have suggested.)

After a trip to the feed store to pick up some grain (I forgot to bring the truck, so we’ll be picking up alfalfa today), we headed back to Healdsburg. Unfortunately, because we left so late, we weren’t able to go to a couple places I’d hoped to see. We settled for a trip to Garrett’s ACE Hardware. I know, a hardware store? But this hardware store advertises that they have rare hens for sale, and I wanted to see a place that would have things like that. The store is in an area of Healdsburg we haven’t explored yet, and we were happy to see a Round Table Pizza across the street. Mental note for future reference. The store is homey and feels like the small town gathering place that it is. They have a beautiful garden area with fountains and benches, gazebos and arches, it was a delight to wander through and get ideas. There weren’t many chickens available, but we were happy to look at the doves, (including some babies), parakeets, cockatiels, and a few interesting looking chickens. We spied another building with a sign over the door that read Country Store, that looked intriguing. Housewares! A wonderful shop filled with kitchen and household items, shelves, soaps, every gadget you can think of, and so fun to wander around. I have often wanted a bagel cutter, because those things are so hard to cut straight and I always worry about cutting myself, and found one there. Becca used it last night and hugged it, saying, “MY bagel cutter! I love it!”

After we reluctantly left the store, we headed down to pick up some ... bagels, of course, then on to Becca’s swimming lessons. She is picking things up so quickly that they moved her to another class last night, and at the end of the lesson, introduced her to her new teacher for Thursday, who teaches a class three levels up from where I enrolled her. According to the class description, this is far too advanced for her, so I’ll have a chat with the instructor before class starts to make sure he understands that she’s a fast study, but really, she only learned how to do the crawl on Tuesday!

I barbecued pineapple sausages for dinner (yum!!) while Becca got into the pool to practice more, and we had the sausages with Cesar salad before watching So You Think You Can Dance and our hometown fella, Guy Fieri, on Minute to Win It. Becca stayed in the pool too long and was shivering and really cold the rest of the evening. It took a while to get her feet warmed up. I’d say that I need to keep an eye on the temperature and make sure she’s out before that happens again, but as miserable as she was, I don’t think Becca will push the temperature again like that.

Looking forward to what Thursday has in store!

Farm and Field

This afternoon we packed a picnic lunch and headed to Dragonfly Farm, about 5 miles up our “street,” to check it out. The signs at the road say that they have fresh cut flowers, a farm stand, and picnic area. The place is lovely and rustic.



We wander toward the sign that invites us in, and tells us that dogs must be on leash, and a long-necked duck waddles across our path. There are dozens of them. I spot a chicken run and have to check it out.



Lots of Rhode Island Reds, White Leghorns, and Plymouth Rock chickens, and one beautiful golden chicken on which each of its feathers is outlined in brown. I must find out what type of chicken this is!

We wander around more, admiring the acres of roses...



... and spy a gift shop. I vaguely notice the sign showing their hours of operation as we open the door. A kind-faced woman asks if she can help us, and I explain that we are exploring Healdsburg. She says that they are closed today, but we are welcome to look around. After apologies, I explain that we brought lunch with us, and ask if it would be okay to eat at one of the picnic tables outside. She says we are welcome to. We find a table and open up our small lunch, enjoying it, laughing and taking pictures, while looking at the surrounding rose gardens.



It’s a lovely place, and we plan to come back when they’re open to explore it some more.

Next stop, the high school football field, to try out the boomerang. We’d looked online the night before to see how to throw it, and have a pretty good idea of what to do. Becca threw first, and it just plopped into the grass. My first try had it making a turn and starting to come back. We were excited! We played with it, finding the wind, getting all excited as it started to make that turn, but being disappointed that it didn’t really come back to us, determined to keep trying. There was a man on the other side of the field driving golf balls, and he asked if we had ever thrown a boomerang before. We explained we hadn’t, and were operating off of online instructions. He looked at our little wooden boomerang and showed us how it was made, where the wood was cut away to give it the lift and turn, and gave us some really helpful tips on throwing it. Our last few throws were really good, still not what we wanted, but much closer. We had so much fun, lots of laughter and good times.



It was time to get to the pool, next to the school, for Becca’s first swimming lesson. She was nervous about being stuck in a group of much younger children, since she hasn’t had swim lessons yet and she’s 12. There were three kids in her group, and she was the oldest, but it wasn’t too bad. I could see the confidence in her build, and she paid attention and then practiced kicking and floating in our pool at home - even though it was really cold!! Eight more classes, and I’m hoping for more confidence for *both* of us when she’s in the water. She’s a fast study.

We couldn’t resist going back to El Sombrero for dinner before going home. There was a concert in the park, so finding a parking spot was a challenge, but we worked it out. I wish I’d gotten the burrito again, as the nachos were a disappointment. Still, good times with Bex, watching the people in the store, from the girl knitting at the table with her big sister, to the high school students walking in and then out, to the group of 8 French tourists chatting away and looking at their iPhones.

When we went to the chicken coop to feed and tuck in the chickens, I was horrified to see Foghorn Leghorn, our rooster, lying in an awkward position at the end of the coop. Upon closer observation we could see that one of his talons had gotten snagged in the baling twine I used to hang the feeder so they wouldn’t kick dirt and shavings into their food. We quickly untied the twine and Becca held the top open while I reached in to see how it was caught on his foot. He is normally a feisty little bird, but he must have known I was there to help him, and he was really calm, allowing me to take his foot in my hand and ease the twine off of his claw. He walked away slowly with a limp. Poor thing, I am sure that he is sore and his foot was probably going to sleep. I hope that he hadn’t been stuck like that for long, and that he feels better by morning. He’s a good boy, and I love listening to him crow.

Bex went into the pool, of course, for as long as she could. We played cards and watched Hells’ Kitchen (I know, but at least they bleep the words) before hitting the sack. I am really enjoying this time with Bex. There are a few options to discuss with Becca about where we go on Wednesday. Looking forward to it!!

P.S. Foggy the Rooster is fine this morning!