Babies and February

'Tis the season for babies, you know.  Thankfully the only babies around here are of the non-human variety.  I don't even want to think about what my life would be like with an infant.  I barely have time to breathe as it is; fitting a baby into the schedule (and the house, if I'm honest) is a horror story I'm not even going to consider.

Can you tell I'm all done having kids??  No regrets here.

Still, it's fun to see all the babies hatching and growing right now.

The mommy mollie has had two babies so far... that have survived.  They're both swimming happily around the tank with their friends...

... the baby guppies.  This is one of two infants, but we have three 'adolescent' guppy babies as well.  Two of those are male, and one is female.  We don't know which gender the infants are yet.  I'm kind of excited to find out.

My plants are, by and large, growing rapidly as well.  I'm going to have to spend some time this weekend cleaning out the garden patches and getting them ready, as these guys should be ready to thin and transfer to bigger containers sometime in the next week or two, and they'll be ready to put in the garden in about a month, I think, if the weather stays warm like it has been and I can get them hardened off properly.  That's always the part I struggle with the most.

When I was outside the other day, I took my camera with me.  It's too early for tadpoles yet, but I wanted a few pictures of the creek, just for fun.  After all, if we have another summer like the last two years, seeing water in it may be a rarity.

Also... I like birch trees.  They're fun.

Who can believe it's February already?  Anyone else wondering what on earth to do for Valentine's Day?

Wildlife

One of the things that I thought I might miss when we moved into a neighborhood inside city limits was the wildlife.

Birds.  Shocking, I know.

I figured we'd have birds - and we have, with hummingbirds this summer and winter birds so far this fall - but I wasn't as sure we'd have some of the other critters that we got at the old house.  It was fun to look out the back window and see coyotes or ducks or, once and very memorably, a groundhog who was considering making his home in our crawlspace.

I shouldn't have worried.  I put up our winter bird feeders about two weeks ago.  It didn't take long for the birds (and the neighbor's two tabby cats, whom we affectionately call Fat Bob and Skinny Bob though they're probably female) to discover the feeder.  The birds enjoy the food and taunting the cats.  In fact, I think they deliberately throw food on the cats' heads.

The squirrels don't object at all.  They come and perform clean-up duty during the day.

Last night, though, I wandered into the formal dining room to admire the lights that Oz, the kids and I put up and saw something poking around the strewn seeds.  I called Oz in and grabbed the camera.  Oz wanted to go out and see what it would do if he came outside, so he opened the front door.

The opossum did what 'possums do...

... and promptly shimmied up the tree.  Oz hadn't expected that and got a kick out of the critter that he had treed.  He hadn't realized that opossums in America climbed trees, let alone that they had prehensile tails.  He knew that Australian possums (which are really possums, not opossums) had those features and did those things but hadn't realized that opossums in the USA did the same thing.

Of course, the little guy (or gal) was gone by this morning, but as Oz was getting ready to tuck M2 into bed tonight, he happened to glance out her window - our little friend was back.

It seems that we haven't left Mother Nature behind after all!  And that makes me very happy.

Things That Make You Go AWWWWW...

When we decided to put the house on the market, Oz, the kids and I went up to a nearby greenhouse to pick out a hanging plant for our front porch.  We liked several baskets, but in the end I settled on some beautiful pink double impatiens.  We hung them up, and for a while they did great.  

At this point, though, due to time, the length of the plant roots, and the heat, the whole thing needs to be repotted.

I'm not going to do it.  And when we move, the plant will stay.

Why?

This was the view inside our plant a few weeks ago.  Three perfect little eggs in a perfect little house finch nest.

A week after that, there were five eggs.

Earlier this week, Oz went to check and found this:

The little baby thought Oz was Mama Bird that had come back with food.  I love having the babies on our front porch!  I'm going to miss them dreadfully when we go, though, because I won't get to see them fledge.

Still... photos are better than nothing.  Be safe and grow strong, Little Ones!

Oh, Those Silly Impromptu Trips

The kids and I had a great day today.  Oz was a busy boy elsewhere, so the three of us were on our own. We started the day off slowly - breakfast, playtime outside in the drizzle, playtime on the Wii... one of the lazy Saturdays that the kids and I have desperately needed for ages.

Sometime around noon, we all decided we were hungry.  We considered going to a Turkish festival that was happening locally, but instead we drove over to a nearby shopping center and ate lunch at a Panera so frigid that I'm still not entirely sure I'm thawed.  Mostly M1 wanted a panini.  He has a penchant for panini and found one on the menu that contained artichokes.  He was a happy camper.  While we ate, we discussed plans for the rest of the day.  We tossed around several ideas - going to the festival after all, going to the park, visiting people, swimming - and finally decided that we'd go out to a local sheep farm that was having a "Wooly Weekend."  We've been to this farm before, but it had been a while, and the kids were both keen to see a sheep get shorn.  M1 also remembered there being a huge garden, and he really wanted to check that out again.

Since it was an impromptu trip, though, I didn't have my camera!  Quite frustrating, especially since once we got there, there were SO many fantastic opportunities to take photos.  There were lambs.  There were sheep that had yet to be clipped and those that had been.  There were hay bales and a big red barn and all sorts of great photo ops... and that was before we even got inside!

Inside the barn and up the stairs, volunteers and various farm workers were hard at work.  They take some of the cleaned wool from the farm's sheep and card, spin, and knit or weave it into actual products to be sold in the shop below; M2 discovered a great love of wool-working!  She discovered a small loom first, on a table full of toys.  I showed her how to work the shuttle back and forth, and she did that for a few minutes until M1 wanted a turn.  She seemed at a loss for what to do for a minute, so I pointed out a very large loom at which a woman was working and directed her there.  I expected her to stand and watch and ask questions; I did not expect her to say, "Can I try?"  And what was more, the woman said yes!  (By the way, the volunteers were ALL that way... they were patient and kind and I simply adored them.  Not a single person said no to anything my children asked.)  Anyway, M2 sat down at the loom and listened carefully as she was given directions.  She couldn't quite push the foot pedals down far enough to get the shuttle in between the threads very easily, so the volunteer helped her, but she did several rows before another little girl saw her working and came over to inquire about having a turn.  M2 graciously gave up her place... and promptly walked over to a woman who was spinning wool into thread and asked to try that.

And that... that was where she really found her niche.  She again had problems working the foot pedal by herself because the chair was a bit high, but she worked so carefully and patiently and well that she finished spinning the entire bunch of wool that the woman had been working on.  The volunteer was incredibly impressed and told me that M2 had done the best spinning of any child that entire weekend and promptly made a small present to M2 of about a yard of 'her' thread.  I saw the two women - the one at the loom and the one spinning - talking about M2 a few minutes later and both were smiling and nodding.  That always warms a mama's heart!

It kills me that I have no pictures of any of this.

I wish I had pictures of M1, too.  We did wander over to the garden, and he got there well before M2 and I because he was in such a rush to see what they had growing.  There were two different kinds of mint, and he had to get down on his knees and see if he could differentiate between mint and spearmint (he could).  He waxed completely poetic over the regular basil versus purple basil.  He found chamomile and echinacea and wants to grow them both so he can make healthful teas.  He was disappointed that the day's crop of strawberries had already been picked (he wanted to help) and wants to go back when the asparagus and blueberries and raspberries are ripe.

In fact, both kids want to go back.  When M2 finished working on the spinning wheel, the volunteers let me know that they were open every weekend if M2 wanted to come back and work with them again, and I'd be inclined to say that it might happen.  I'm sure M1 would probably love working in the garden if they'd let him, too.

The end of the day contained a trip to a park as well as a trip to Braum's for ice cream, and by the end of the meal, both kids were thoroughly worn out - M1 burst into tears at Braum's when he felt too tired and overwhelmed to get up and pick out a flavor of ice cream for his cone.  All's well now, though, and they're both eagerly looking forward to tomorrow.  It's lovely to spend weekends with my babies again!

Good News Friday

I think that because today is the first day of fall AND it's Friday, it's time for a post about dogs.

I'm typing this while my Schipperke, Gizmo, is lying upside down on the floor beside my feet.  I learned this week that if you don't let him in the house for 48 hours because it's raining and he looks like a bedraggled, pathetic stray, he gets a massive entitlement complex and howls at the back door for hours.  It's even more fun if he also gets fed outside because he's convinced that eating outside isn't really eating and that there must be another bowl hiding in the house somewhere with his real food. 

Speaking of dogs, I brushed Speed Bump the not-quite-so-oversized Corgi this week.  I found a Shih Tzu hiding in his undercoat.

ALSO speaking of dogs, we've had quite the predicament with the dog across the street.  He's a Rottweiler.  Now, I'm not opposed to Rotties - my MIL has two, and one of them, Toby, is a lover.  Darcy's totally wacked out, but Toby's sweet.  M2 calls him her baby.  But this dog across the street is a problem.  He's getting older, and the older he gets, the more territorial he gets.  And apparently he thinks our yard is part of his territory.  A few months ago, the problem really got started when he came into the yard and had a go at Oz, but the neighbors were good and built a pen.  For a while, they even kept him in it (how gracious of them!).  I could let my kids play in the front yard, and M1 could even go out to the mailbox (which is on our side of the road) to get or send mail.  That's how it should be! 

However, they got lazy or decided that the dog wasn't really a threat; I don't know which.  Either way, Cosmo started wandering again... but only at random times, because sometimes he would be in the house and sometimes they'd still pen him.  So my kids were allowed to play in the front yard as long as they couldn't see him or he was in his pen.  This was most of the time.  It wasn't ideal, but it was suitable.  After all, we do have a good-sized back yard, too.

Two weeks ago, they dismantled the pen.  I have no idea why.  I've never really talked to them (hazard of living in the country... we've been here 9 years and I still can't tell you most of our neighbors' names... our house is still known by the previous owners' name), and with that dog, it's not like I can just wander over and have a chat.  But I suspected that the dismantling of the pen would be their downfall, and I was right.

It's getting cooler here now - highs in the 80s - and there are several preteen and teenage kids who live on the street.  Some of them are friends.  One of them is in some sort of sports and likes to go running.  Some of the kids even try to ride their bikes, though this street really isn't good for that - no sidewalks and crazy drivers.  Sure enough, Cosmo tried to take at least one of them out.  The kid got away safely, but I'm sure he was scared to death.  I try to keep an eye out of my kitchen window for things like that because if someone's getting mauled, they're generally not in a good place to call 911, ya know??  Still, I'm not home all day and can't sit and stare out my window when I am, either.

The last straw came when the natural gas guy came to install one of their remote meters that can be read from his truck.  Cosmo went absolutely nuts.  The guy was throwing everything at him - including the meter he came to install - just to try to save himself.  I guess it was sheer luck that the homeowner was able to get hold of Cosmo, because he doesn't listen at all.

Now, I only know all this because our Horse Lady is going riding this weekend.  We don't have a circle drive, but our neighbor to the west does, so she parks in his driveway and walks her horse over to the trailer so she doesn't have to try to reverse in or out.  Earlier this week, she was getting Cherokee reshod, and Cosmo came across the street into our yard - again!  She had to hop in her truck to get away.  I had no idea about this.  So she hates Cosmo as much as we do.

Thankfully, The Horse Lady has known our neighbor for decades because they knew one another growing up.  She called her up and read her the riot act about the dog and told her in no uncertain terms that if it tried to do anything to her or if she saw it loose again, she'd be calling the sheriff's office. 

You have no idea how happy this made me.

But the best news was that the neighbor has promised that the dog should be gone by Sunday.  Since the meter reader incident, they've figured out the dog is a liability (DUH) and needs to go, so they're having a rescue operation come get him.

I'm ecstatic.  I can't wait until my kids can play in the front yard without me out there to keep an eye on things.  M1 has been quite annoyed that he hasn't been able to go get the mail, and he'll be able to do that again.  Things will go back to the way they should be!

That makes for a great first day of fall, doesn't it?  :)