So Much for Spring.

We had a late ice/snowstorm Saturday that has slowed down the blooming of our shrubs and trees. I don't know exactly how much snow we got, but we were lucky...we had a blizzard warning with up to 2 feet of snow in the forecast and most of that went southwest or northeast of us. We just got mostly ice.

The good news is that as of this afternoon it was almost completely melted and even though all of the blossoms on our trees are gone, I'm sure that they will leaf out soon. I did cover our lilac bushes, because I couldn't bear to think of a whole year without the lovely lilacs. They seem to have fared well, I'll post pics when they bloom :)

Chicken on the Roof!

I've been wondering if the chickens were able to fly high enough to escape our 6' fence, and I guess we got our answer. Yes, after spending all day yesterday in their hutch hiding from the cold wind and snow, the chickens came out to stretch their wings this morning and Rosalind flew up onto the garage roof. We convinced her to fly back down, but I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it. I think we might need to clip their flight feathers to make sure they stay put.

Here they are checking out the wood pile


And Margaret loving on Daisy

Thursday update

Anna figured out a new way to get into the drawer where we keep the games


Eleanor circled all of the things she wants in the Magic Cabin catalog (which is almost everything)


Margaret is practicing overtime this week to get ready for her recital this Saturday


Sophia put my ankle weights on the see saw so that she and Anna would be more evenly matched


Our garden flowers are blooming and looking very colorful and happy


It's one of those perfect fall days when the sunshine is piercing and the air is clear and the temperature is just perfect and you wish it could be this way all year! I also took this little video of Anna hanging out with the chickens this afternoon. You can see they are getting bigger, but they aren't full grown yet. They are 3 1/2 months old. Anna wouldn't look at the camera for some reason, the stinker. The quality is a bit poor since it was just taken on the digital camera, I really should get a video camera

This Week's Adventures

Yesterday we caught this little baby mouse in the backyard. The chickens were making a huge squawking fuss and chasing something around that they found in the grass and I thought at first that it was a cricket. When I realized it was a little mouse I grabbed a jar and caught it. The girls and I fed it some of the guinea pigs' food and then took it to the Great Plains Nature Center to set it free in the lovely tall grass prairie. This all seemed a little hypocritical since I killed what was almost certainly one of its' relatives in the garage a few days ago. We have mice...and I'm not looking forward to this winter when they all decide to move inside. Anyway, this one was very cute and we had a nice walk to set it free.



This is a cute little shot of Anna when she woke up yesterday and Margaret was showing her the mouse. She was sleepy and looked rather confused.



Today it's HOT again and Ellie spent some time cooling down in the backyard.



I'm starting to feel that longing for cool weather and fires again. I should probably be careful what I wish for. :)

February winding down

We were busy last week, so I didn't post anything. It was a cold, cloudy, dreary sort of week so we stayed inside and did a lot of cleaning. I've been working on downsizing our life somewhat and I bagged up lots of stuff to donate, and then spent some time re-organizing what's left. We discovered some old cameras we forgot we had, and it has sparked a newfound interest in photography for Margaret.

We also closed the book on a chapter of our life that has hovered over us since Tony was involved in a minor car accident 3 years ago. He let his foot off of his brakes while waiting at a red light and drifted into the car in front of him. Not so bright, but it wouldn't seem like such a big deal. The woman he hit had a dented bumper but our car didn't have so much as a scratch. We really didn't stress out about it at all and had assumed it was resolved by our insurance until one year ago when a man showed up at our door and handed me (I was 1 week postpartum and holding my newborn baby) a lawsuit for injuries she allegedly sustained in the accident. The lawsuit was asking for $75,000.
We were pretty dumfounded, but our insurance company hired a lawyer who told us that it would likely get settled and that we had plenty of coverage in our policy. To make a long story short, it wasn't settled (she was offered almost as much as she was asking and turned it down) and it went to trial last Tuesday. I'm sorry I wasn't able to be there, it sounds like it was an interesting process and we had a very competent lawyer representing Tony. The trial took two days and after hearing the evidence the jury found for the plaintiff in the amount of $2500. Yes, that's only 2 zeros. So we lost, but really the big loser was the plaintiff. She could have had tens of thousands more, but she wouldn't settle and she (or at least her lawyer) got instead what the jury felt was the right amount. It feels pretty good to have it all behind us finally.

Toward the end of the week we passed around the flu, but we're all pretty well recovered now and getting back to life as usual, which is pretty unusual most of the time. :)

Girls in the Mud

Sophie and Ellie played outside on their swings today,

and got a bit muddy.

:)

A good day

About two weeks ago we kept a record of the day in photos...

Anna slept on Margaret's shoulder as she did her math,
Ellie played with pattern blocks,



and practiced writing her name.




The girls pinned a bug which we found in the kitchen,




and worked on a box of fluff and string for the birds (to use in making their spring nests.)






They went outside (with Blaise's help) to hang the box in a tree, then came running back in because it was SNOWING! IN APRIL!



A day after these shots we had a very hard freeze that I'm afraid has done in some of our trees and has dampened some of our enthusiasm for spring. The weather is warming back up, though, and hopefully we'll be posting pictures of our gardening efforts soon.