Animal Crazy

It has been a bit of a "wild animal kingdom" type of week here! First off, one of our chickens aka. BFG (the Big Friendly Giant by Roald Dahl) has started roosting in our pear tree. So, every night we have to go out, remove her from the tree and transfer her to the coop. Grandpa Joe is definitely a rooster and spends most of his day (all day, everyday) crowing, "protecting" the hens from up on the fence and is starting to be a bit aggressive.  He is really cool to look at... I hope our neighbors don't mind the early morning wake up calls;)

Something has been digging up our lawn, so we set out some live traps. Gabe was off for a few days, nothing came and I forgot about them... Until the morning that Gabe went back to work and James came in from letting the chickens out and said, "there is a cat in the trap"... I can't say that I was impressed, but the kids and I took care of it.  The next morning James came in again and said, "there is a skunk in the trap".  To which I replied, "There can't be a skunk in the trap, I didn't set it".  Well, although I didn't re-set the trap, I also hadn't taken the second trap in the day before... This time I was a bit more frustrated than the day before and wishing that it were just a raccoon... Luckily, there are people out there who will come and take the skunk away without it spraying, unluckily they couldn't come until 6 that night.  So, we spent the day away from the backyard and cringing everytime Grandpa Joe crowed or the chickens got to close the skunk, hoping it wouldn't spray.  In the end it worked out as well as we could have hoped for without any skunk spray.  Gabe spent the day oblivious at work, but I did make it clear that he is not to set the traps unless he is going to be home the next day to deal with it;)

In between the critter chaos James lost his first tooth! He has been working hard on it for a while and was so excited when it finally happened:)  We are also having a really productive year from our pear tree... Now to find how to process this volume of pears!  The sunflowers have bloomed and the kids can't wait to pick the seeds.  The last picture is of Noah with Matilda.  She wouldn't get off of his bike so that he could ride.  It was like a circus act when he was trying to move the wheel back and forth;)  

Labor Day Weekend 2015

To say that we took advantage of this bonus summer weather over the long weekend would be an understatement. We spent the whole day Saturday at the beach picking crabs out of tide pools, scaling the rocks and building in the sand.  Sunday we had BBQ, visited and played outside.

Monday we talked some adventurous friends into renting a boat with us on Rangley lake and spending the day tubing and basking in the warm weather on the water... or maybe it would be more accurate to call them trusting friends who didn't know what we were getting them into...  It was all fun and games until  we jumped into the rougher part of the lake and realized that it was a bit too choppy for enjoyable swimming.  We also realized that we had rented a "trick" tube that was lots of fun for the adults, but terrifying and impossible to use for the kids.  All in all it was a very fun day.  No one fell overboard, no one got sea sick and that the end of the day everyone wanted to do it again... maybe next year it will go a little more smoothly and we will be a bit wiser;)  We finished the day at "Height of the Land" which is one of the more breathtaking views in the area and it didn't disappoint!

Ben Turns 4!

This big guys turns 4 today!  He is growing into a very sweet, thoughtful, kind and caring boy.  He certainly keeps us on our toes with his active spirit, but he also continues to show us how to have fun and take life head on. He is almost the same size James and Noah were when they turned 6, but he is still very much their little brother:)  We love you Ben and can't wait to see what the next year brings!!

Family Video

We recently had the wonderfully creative Joni James make a family video for us.  She does some pretty fantastic work and we are thrilled with the end result.  When we first watched this video James started crying because he was so sad that Miss Trunchbull (one of our chickens) had died, she was just a chick in the video and I didn't even notice her;)  To view it in full resolution just follow this link: https://vimeo.com/137045680  Enjoy!

First Day of School 2015

We have made the decision to homeschool the kids this year.  For many reasons, mainly because, for this season in our family, it works:) Today was our first day so we all got outside for pictures, some more willing than others... The kids made these tie-dye shirts as one of our last "summer bucket list" items.  Once we gathered everyone for the group shot it didn't take long for the chickens to start photobombing...

Noah is entering 3rd grade this year and wants to be an Air Force (or Naval) pilot.  James is entering 1st grade this year and wants to be a half time inventor and a half time lobsterman... it will be interesting to see how that all turns out;) 

Last Bits of Summer Vacation

School starts next week, so we packed lots of fun into this last week!  Our tomatoes are ripening fast and furious, we are 45 pounds in and going strong:)  Lots of salsa and sauce into the canner. Where we once tried to keep boundaries with the chickens, we have now given in and they have free range of everywhere... including keeping Audrey company while playing in the sand box. In a poor parenting moment, James is demonstrating the only backup clothes I had in the car the other day when he fell into a mud puddle... I guess it is time to restock the car!

On Wednesday, the kids all had dentist appointments in Portland so we spent the day exploring Willard Beach and Fort Williams Park.  It wasn't quite nice enough for a beach day, but it was a great day for a lesson in ocean front fog;)  Friday Hilary and I took all the kids to Boothbay to check out the aquarium and have some ice cream on a beautiful day. 

The bottom picture Gabe took before leaving for work the other day.  We have some pretty amazing sunrises up here!  We try hard not to forget what a gorgeous view we have... or that Gabe gets up really early and works long days to provide for us all:)

Belgrade Lakes Take Two

We finally visited at the clubhouse over a weekend, so we were actually able to hang out with friends this time:)  The weather, although not ideal, cooperated better than it usually does and allowed us to take a beautiful, kid appropriate, hike.  It also allowed us to have a BBQ with great friends where we could let the kids run free (and wild) outside.  Thank you so much friends for hosting us (again) and having a really fun BBQ!