Animal House, I Mean Update

Tap, tap, is this thing still on? 
My apologies for being a haphazard blogger the past few weeks.  I've been very busy celebrating my birthday, week, month.  Also, sometimes life gets in the way of blogging about it and you know what?  That's ok.  If I have a choice between going fishing (remember my definition of fishing) with the family or an intense one on one basketball game with Blade or a friendly game of family kickball in the yard or laundry or blogging, laundry will lose every single time. But unlike laundry, if I neglect my blog nobody has to go commando, so sometimes blogging gets pushed to the back burner and I'm forced to do laundry.   Such is the plight of a working mom/wife/farm girl/wannabe blogger.  I tell you this so hopefully you don't hate me and quit visiting.  Your patience and understanding are appreciated.   
Here's some news from the zoo since it's been awhile. 

Holy has moved on to greener pastures, and no, that doesn't mean he died.  That means that instead of being confined to only the barnyard area, we've let him out to roam the 30+ acres of lush, green grass with the horses, llamas, and mules donkeys.  He rather enjoys this and is eating himself into oblivion. Don't be surprised if you see him in the cattle barn at the Iowa State Fair with a sign above his head that says "Largest Steer."  Except there won't be any gawking at the size of his family jewels because well, little farm lesson for you, because he's a "steer" that means he doesn't have any.  Listen, I'm here to educate and inform you.  Even though Holy can sometimes be far away, all I have to do is call out his name, and he'll come running, cuz I've got a friend.  Oh sorry, enough singing, back to the story.  Really, all I have to do is yell "Holy" in that special voice reserved just for him which is much like the way you would address a chubby cheeked 6 month old baby, and he comes trotting across the pasture to the fence so that I can rub his chin.  I still don't think he realizes he's actually not a dog or better yet a human, and who am I to tell him?

Then there's our super cool, one of a kind lawn ornament/weather vane. 

You can't get THAT at Lowe's. 

So it's peacock mating season at the Koons Zoo. Or at least it appears that way given that Aladdin (the boy peacock) is constantly strutting his stuff and calling for Penelope (the girl peacock). Take a look.

Is it me or does she look unimpressed?  Kinda reminds me of myself in high school when the boys would wear too much bathroom Polo and show of for us girls by seeing who could burp the loudest.
You may not know this but male peacocks are rather noisy when they are ahem...looking for love. They have this loud call that sounds like they are saying "HELP! HELP!" Seriously, you have no idea how many times I've run outside expecting to find a bleeding child
only to find Aladding perched on his fencepost yelling for his lady. It's really LOUD. We enjoy us some hillbilly entertainment so we'll either yell "help" or honk the car horn to tease him and get him to talk back to us. It's all fun and games until we're at the zoo and come across a caged peacock and the kids (ok and me too) start yelling "Help!" at it in an attempt to get him to talk too.  No dice, apparently the zoo's peacock is not near as friendly or outgoing as ours.  

 Not to be outdone by some silly peacocks, the happy turkey couple have been "twitterpating" and Tatiana is currently sitting on 8 turkey eggs....accompanied by a chicken. Only at the Koons Zoo would we have a chicken hen "helping" the turkey hen sit on her eggs. Imagine a picture here, I would take one but Tatiana can be a bit moody (I blame the hormones) and I'd hate to have my eye pecked out for the sake of a picture.  It's not weird at all to look into the little shelter where Tatiana laid the eggs and see her and Alice cozied up, laying on the eggs, reading Parents magazine. Not at all.

And then there's this guy..

Regardless of how it looks, I assure you this is real and NOT a cartoon character.

About a month ago, I was home sick with a migraine when GI Joe came home early from a work with a little box that was making noise. Inside the box were 3 of these crested ducks. I love this kind of duck,they make me laugh just by looking at them. First a llama and now ducklings, that guy sure knows how to romance a girl.
Unfortunately, only this one has survived. Such is life on the farm. And actually, I'm pretty impressed that out of 15 chicks and 3 ducklings, we've only lost 2.  That's a huge improvement over previous years. You know what's also a huge improvement?  That I've become farm girl enough not to wail and cry and gnash my teeth over the 2 we lost.  Yay me!  I didn't name him for the longest time just in case he too perished, because everyone knows that when you name them it makes it that much more awful when they die.  (Except for Hormel, who's name serves as a daily reminder of her greater purpose in lifedeath...mmmm bacon.)  But finally, last week, I decided he's gonna make it and  definitely needed a name. Not just any name though, a name that would represent him and pay homage to his adorable afro. I took to the facebook to solicit suggestions and it paid off. Meet Kramer the Duck. Need I say more?

And finally, the biggest news of all....my birthday present and the newest resident at the Koons Zoo....

Gotcha!!!!  OK isn't actually the newest resident at the Koons Zoo, but a girl can dream right?  This photo taken at the Blank Park Zoo today, right after we tried to get the peacock to talk to us and right before Dakota started making "cat calling" noises to get the lion to roar at her.  I can't take these people anywhere.  

Have a rip roaring long weekend!   Check back next week, it just may be a multiple post week!