The Good Stuff

Sugar on Snow: Licked the cup clean!

Mileage for the day: 2 miles

More on Ducks

Activity: Sad to say only 1.25 miles, but I did actually register for my April race. 

Make Way for Ducklings......

We have recently added three new animals to our family that Levi has lovingly named Quack, Mack and Jack (Yes, my child has read Make Way for Ducklings too many times).

The original plan was that there would be six ducklings in the brooder today, however, as we learned with the chickens, buying any type of poultry can be a bit unpredictable.  When we went on Saturday to inquire about purchasing ducks, we were told that they arrive on Wednesdays and Thursdays and that you must buy at least six.  We then set up the brooder and waited, on Wednesday and Thursday I called before going and found out that the ducks had not yet arrived, and were expected the next day.  Today (Friday) when I called at noon, I was told that there were 17 ducks left.  By the time Little Man and I got there, three little ducklings were left.  Of course, there was no way that I was leaving Tractor Supply without those ducks; once Little Man laid eyes on them, they were his and he was not leaving without them.  I am pretty sure they had names before the nice lady had put them in the box to take home.  Now we are left with the decision of trying again next week and chancing the possibility of being the proud owners of nine ducklings or just sticking with the three we have. 

In addition to the trial and error of purchasing our ducks, we have quickly learned that these little guys are very cute, but also very loud.  This guy in my hand being the loudest of them all and a bit of a bully.  He tells everyone where to go and then the others follow.  I can already tell they are going to be a lot easier to herd than the chicks, I think I have finally found my gardening partners; ducks love slugs and I have plenty to go around.  It is going to be a good summer. Now if we can just figure out how many we are willing to have.

Little Man loves his ducks!

Ready for Spring

Bring on Spring!

I Can Plant Those Now, Really?

We have decided to add a few new vegetables to our summer growing list; I was very happy this weekend when I discovered that I can start some of them mid-March.  Little Man and I immediately headed to the local garden store to buy seeds and soil, dug out all of the gardening stuff and began planting seeds.  What a wonderful weekend. 

Activity for the day: A four mile run down a different muddy road.  Happiness is running in the Spring. 

Another Bird House

There is a marsh behind our house, where not a whole lot of trees grow, birds live and is not exactly pleasing to the eye.  My solution to this problem is to slowly add splashes of color to the swamp by adding bird houses.  This year our second birdhouse was added to the swamp.  The plan was to have Little Man do it all on his own this year using one of those little Lowes children's kits that, with one of us there to read the directions, he would be able to do on his own.  That was the plan............

Doesn't he look like such a little hard worker?  I should mention that mommy spent 45 minutes trying to get the roof on the stupid thing.  The holes in the pre-cut top did not match up with the holes in the rest of the birdhouse. The wood had to be sanded down until they matched up and then the holes that the screws were supposed to go in did not match up.  So much for Little Man doing this himself. In the end it was put together, painted purple with yellow polka-dots (don't ask) and hung in one of the only trees that is growing in the swamp. 

Activity (confession):  I procrastinated big time in signing up for my March race.  In my mind I had until Thursday to sign up for the stupid thing.  When I went online to register today, in bold red letters there was a note that kindly read RACE FULL.  Two other two races I could find fall on the day we are doing Little Man's birthday party and the day my dad is having a cook out for my step-mothers birthday.  Looks like I may only be able to run in race for 11 months out of the year.  Lesson learned, I will be signing up for my April race this week. 

Aside from that, I had a wonderful run down a muddy dirt road with a friend this morning and since I am not racing next weekend, we are going to do it again next week.  I'll probably run further anyway, we ran 6.25 miles this afternoon.

Pruning

The past few days the weather has been amazing; it's the type of weather that gets you excited for spring and plants a desire in you to do things outside.  For me, it was pruning a few awkward branches on my cherry tree and then bringing the branches inside to see if I can get them to open up.  I tried this last year without much luck, the buds turned green and that was about it.  Since I have the branches, I figured I would try again this year.  I'll let you know how it turns out.  Other than that, we are eagerly anticipating the official arrival of spring next week and enjoying the weather. 

Activity: 3.5 miles

Autumn (Our Pet Bunny)

It has been a long time since I last posted something about Autumn; partly because it is really hard to get a good picture of her.  When she is out of her cage, she is a very happy bunny and jumps all over the house not standing still long enough for me to take a picture of her. This week I was finally able to corner her under the table and managed to take a halfway decent picture of her.  As you can see she is a well fed and spoiled rabbit.  Not only does she receive fresh hay every day, her cage now has a penthouse level, where she can sit and watch the cars go by during the day when no one is home (rabbits chew on cords, so she is not alowed to roam freely during the day).

In addition to her being spoiled rotten, Andy has recently found a more cost effective litter for her cage.  At the bottom of her cage there is a tray that in the past has held store bought newspaper pellets, that need to be cleaned out every 5 days.  We recently realized that shredded paper works just as well and cost us nothing.  In addition to this, it gets thrown into the compost pile when we are done with it. 

As you can see, bunny is happy and spoiled and we are happy now that we have figured out how to cut our pet costs a little, which is good because we are adding ducks to out happy little home this summer and will have yet another animal to pay for. 

Activity: 3.5 miles on the treadmill: I would have prefered to run outside but we had a million errands to run and by the time we got home it was dinner time.  

Spring Planning

Spring will be here in a little over a week, therefore it is time to start planning my garden for this year.  This year I may actually accomplish my goal of having a beautiful garden, since our plan for this summer is to not go away.  I can't tell you how excited I am about staying home for the summer. There is no place I would rather be than in my garden during the summer. 

In addition to my own excitement, due to this insanely unpredictable winter we have had all winter, I am pretty sure all my friends are feeling the same way.  In fact, one of them planned a garden planning party this past week where we all brought our garden books and seed catalogues.  After that, I came home with a plan and am on a mission.  I'll keep you posted as I go; all I can say is my garden is going to be spectacular this year.

Activity for the day: 5 miles

Tea

As the rain falls outside my window, I sip on a wonderful cup of tea. I adore loose leaf tea.  I have 3 different types of tea balls, but the one below, which I received from my mother-in-law, is my favorite.  This past weekend I restocked my loose leaf tea supply (Though I could not get my favorite kind:dragon eyes, which comes from my local tea house).  Tonight I am a happy woman...........

Activity for the day: 3.5 miles on the treadmill

Splurge

For the most part we are pretty cautious with our food budget, but every now and then our taste buds go a little crazy and we need to statisfy the urge for something different.  This week, it involved a trip to our local healthy grocery store, Healthy Living, for dinner followed by some take-home snacks for later on in the week.  What did we buy, you might ask?  Lamb meatballs and cranberry-venison sausage.  Both tasted wonderful and were worth the splurge.  Now it's back to budgeting for dinner; our tastebuds are satisfied for now.

Activity for the day: A muddy walk through the wood and field with Little Man (he loved every minute!) and a three mile run.

Detergent

On January 23rd, I posted a blog about making our own laundry detergent; this weekend we ran out and I needed to make more.  Since I have left-over materials from the last batch (see picture below), all I needed to do was make it.  The whole process took me all of 10 minutes; less than the time it would have taken me to drive to the store and buy some, and we are back in business. 

The only thing I may do differently when I run out of the current soap is to buy a scented brand next time.  I bought an unscented brand and miss that laundry fresh smell that you get when things emerge from the dryer. Therefore, after I use the last bar, I may invest in a scented soap. Other than that, my clothes are clean and we have managed to survive a few wet beds and a bed bug scare at pre-school (they brought the bed bug dogs into pre-school and confirmed that the bed-bugs never made it there, this was after we thoroughly washed every thing that Little Man had ever brought to pre-school).

Activity: 4 mile run today forllowed by ice skating with Little Man

Spring Thaw

A boy and his puddle.