Tuesday, April 23, 2013

signs of spring

We have been busy these past few weeks trying to plant yummy things to eat, getting control of our rapid growing yard and property and just being outside enjoying the warmer weather.  The kids are finding new things everyday and we love to find out information about each creature and plant they bring in (usually love, not always).

Here is some of what we have found and what we have been doing...

Aubrey's Dusky Salamander, we kept in for a week and then it got out... it was outside.

Andrew's beaver teeth.

Carter's Red-sided Flat Back Centipede. 

Wild flowers by the ponds...



 
I found this King Snake when mowing.  The kids caught and then learned a lesson about venting cages for animals.  The mistake was fatal.

Andrew's toad.

Everyone loves the ducks, especially this guy.

Andrew building his second raised bed.

Enjoying the sun while the siblings were gone.

Feeding the chicks worms is always fun, for all of us.


A mouse that Jo, that cat, caught.

Benjamin busy under the hammock, in the woods.

The coop is going up!

A lazy Saturday in the tent reading.

He hunts all things now with Carter's BB gun.

Can't believe that she is still alive.  She loves the warmer weather.

Our place turned green, in what seemed like, overnight.

These girls are GROWING!  They went in the grass for the first time this weekend.


The ducks are at the ponds during the day now, they love it.  They eat and play but still don't fly.

One more Saturday and it should be completed.

Andrew's Spicebush Swallowtail butterfly.

Another chipmunk that fell prey to our Jo.  It was unharmed and we let it go.

We will be eating fresh broccoli soon:)

Knowing that we will see lots of these but hoping we don't.  The day we saw our first one we were reading about snakes in science.  The book stated that if you have rocks, wooded areas and/or water you have a perfect habitat for snakes... we have all 3 in abundance, oh my.  This is a king snake.  We have seen a couple of other species but couldn't catch them to identify them. 
 
Andrew's lower deer jaw and lower (one side) coyote jaw.

I'm telling you, we loves these ducks.  Chances are that they will fly off but we do hope that they return.  It would be normal for them to so we are hopefully expectant that if they go they will come back.

The only real sad news is that Carter's cat, Smokey is gone.  We can only guess what happened.  We will probably get another or two.  We are have been blown away at how many critters these cats catch... they seem to us to be necessary for this place!

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