Coconut

Please allow me to introduce Coconut.

Coconut was born this July while we were in Michigan. Andy was preparing to leave home to join us on our vacation when he thought he would head in to the barn to check on Snowbelle. When he found her she had just given birth to this little doll of a baby goat. It was really such a surprise because we hadn't expected her to kid until sometime in September. But it's just so hard to tell with goats, you know? Anyway, Andy promptly called us up to tell us the good news and Owen immediately started thinking about some names.

Coconut and Mutt-mutt. No discussion. We had all assumed that Snowbelle would have twins like she did the last time, but unfortunately Coconut was not a twin. It's a shame because I really would like to be calling something around here Mutt-mutt.

Playing with Geodes

We brought home a few geodes not long ago after a visit to a friend's house in Indiana. As soon as we got home from our trip I couldn't wait to get out the sledge hammer and crack open those things to see what was inside. Andy laughed at me. "No, no dear. Not when I have a tile saw to cut them with."

Of course! He's a genius! You see, I never think of playing with sharp spinny things that could potentially leave me without a hand. But Andy now, he always thinks like that.

So we found out that our little geode is a type that's called a nodule. Here is a link about that for you smarties that care.

I just think it looks really pretty in there.

Vacation Tour: Growing Power

Growing Power is is an urban farm in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. They hold tours there everyday beginning at 1:00 P.M.. This was one of the things we were most excited to see as we had slowly begun our trip back home. Our tour ended up being about 3 hours long. It was amazing. What was even more amazing is that Owen and Carmel were able to hang in there the entire time. It was way above the call of duty for a 3 year old and a 1 year old, but they really did it and the whole thing was truly incredible. If you have any interest in gardening, greenhouses or...ahem, worms. Then definitely check out their website. And if you ever make it into Milwaukee you should treat yourself to a tour.

About 10,000 Perch swimming around in the underground tank. The water from the tank is supplying the two beds above it with water and nutrients. The plants filter out the water which is then drained back in to the fish tank. Seriously cool!

Those are a whole heck of a lot of worms in that wooden bin above happily eating away at some compost.

Water being pumped from one of the fish tanks into a bed of watercress.

Tilapia tank.

This is a smaller version of the first. You can see the pond liner in the bottom where the fish are. The fish are sunk into a four foot deep tank, again, with the two beds above for plants.

Really, check out the link if you have a minute because they are doing so many great things. It's certainly worth a bit of a peek.

Happy weekending everyone.

Vacation Tour: Camping

There's a reason they call them two-man tents.

Something to remember ~ two adults, two children and one largish dog do not fit in one two-man tent. Just so you know.

Vacation Tour: Clare's Well

Sister Carol (Andy's Aunt) is a Franciscan Sister who runs a retreat center in Annandale Minnesota along with two other Sisters. They live in this spectacular old farmhouse that is so cozy and inviting. And just a few steps out of their door you can see the branches of apple trees heavy with beautiful red apples, a pond surrounded by lovely tall grasses with so many wonderful shades of green, and a barn filled with all sorts of fun little creatures.

Owen was excited to get in the barn to see the Peacock babies that have recently become residents at Clare's Well. We visit the Peacocks at our local fruit farm, but we had never seen any of the babies. They are so perfectly sweet. At least I thought they were sweet anyway. While we were checking out these little peababies Owen looked at me rather seriously and in a low sort of monotone voice said "Those aren't peacocks." Sister even tried to affirm that, yes indeed, they are Peacocks and you can tell by that crest on their head. Owen, with the same tone looked at the two birds in front of him and said, "No they aren't." Apparently, Peacocks are green. Period.

After we stared at the little white bodies of the peababies for a bit, Sister led Owen on an egg hunt through the barn where their chickens lay eggs in all sorts of different spots. It was so very amusing to watch Owen, wide eyed, running with great excitement to what he thought might be another secret egg laying location. Oh my, I can't tell you how that makes me want more chickens. It sure does.

One of the many things I love at Clare's Well is their Labyrinth. I had never seen one until I had visited there. The one they have looks a lot like this one with the prairie grass and all. It is so peaceful to walk through it and this time Owen and I were able to do it together. I was so excited to walk the entire thing with him, but I had such a strange feeling about it. It was almost as if I was just trying to finish it without really enjoying it. Owen must have sensed my crazy-mama mood because he slowed way down and waited for me to turn around and then he said very slowly "Just sit with me for a minute."

And so we did.

Vacation Tour: Crow-Hassan

This is one of the most remarkable parks I've ever had the pleasure of visiting. Crow-Hassan is a 2600 acre park that has 800 acres of restored prairie. It is so beautiful and so natural and so big. I'm finding that I am becoming increasingly excited for our walks there each time we plan a trip north for Minnesota. I wish I could do it justice either with pictures or words, but I can not. I can say that each time we visit there my mind, my body, my thoughts, my ideas, they all just feel bigger. It's as if somehow looking out at that great big prairie perched up so perfectly next to a long winding river helps me to see beyond myself, beyond my own worries, beyond my gripes of that particular day toward something beautiful, massive and forever. It is such a wonderful place to be and being there with the three people I love most somehow just makes it feel magical and timeless.

Silkie chicks

Here I promised vacation pictures and just look at me, already breaking from my previously scheduled programming (that I haven't even started yet). Shame on me. But there was some big news around here for us this morning that I must now pass on to you. This message is brought to you by the silkie chicks who say:

"Cock a doodle doo!"

(or at least something kind of like that)

I apologize for being so negligent in the information department about our little silkies because I really did mean to tell you all about them; I just never got around to it. We had eight silkie eggs delivered to our door by our wonderful mail lady who had some fertilized eggs. We swapped her some duck eggs for some silkie eggs. She made a duck egg omelet and we threw ours in Andy's fancy homemade incubator and waited around for 21 days to get several little chicks. Well worth the wait. So cute. That was sometime back in May. May 23rd to be exact.

Since then we have been waiting for these little chicks to grow up, but they are so incredibly tiny it just seemed like they were never going to mature. Of the 5 chicks that hatched only 2 of them have made it so far. Every day we watch their tiny fragile-looking little bodies parade around the yard and wonder if we have 2 hens, 2 roosters, or 1 of each.

This morning I heard a terrible sound coming from our yard. It was awful. It sounded like one of our chicks was being eaten by something. I leapt for the door, jumping over a rocking horse, spearing myself on some piece of wooden train track, sliding across eight overturned toddler puzzle pieces (whose little round wooden handles become remarkably similar to marbles when laying about in just the right way) and then finally, heart racing, made my way out of the front door.

Once I was out of the door I saw Andy running over from the garden because he must have heard the same terrible sound. He and I met at the base of our pines, heads cocked, slightly grinning to find that horrid sound was coming from one of our silkie chicks. There he stood with his little head up and his tiny chest out trying so so hard to make a cock-a-doodle-doo that I swear he was sweating! He must have been embarrassed because he stopped trying just as soon as he saw us. Poor little guy. Right now he sounds like a really angry cat, but I'm sure he will sound like a rooster one day very soon.

Yes my friends (and family) we have a rooster out

there running around our yard and here he is:

Road trip

We're back!

It was long. It was fun. It was (mostly) happy.

Oh yes, perhaps I forgot to mention here in this space that we were taking a bit of a family vacation. Well, we did! It turned out to be a little longer than we had planned. And now, our front yard looks like we need to run a bush hog over it. Our car (with 211,000 miles on it--eek!) is feeling a teeny bit over worked and our garden is being taken over by thistles but, oh my, did we have fun!

I will be sure to post some highlights just as soon as I find my itty bitty SD chip that could be just about anywhere, really. They shouldn't make those things so small.