Boo!

17 days

Seventeen more days until Mama Duck's first marathon.

It has taken a lot of effort to train & stay motivated. It is not very appealing to step off the porch into the cold darkness for those long, early morning runs.

(Especially when the smell of skunk is very strong. I don't think my pepper spray would be much of a deterrent to them...)

I found a training schedule and posted it on my fridge. Crossing off all those little boxes helps with the motivation a little.For fun, I painted "Race Nails". Truthfully, they look weird and when I looked down at them this morning during my run, I still didn't go any faster. Oh well... My pace was probably similar to this guys':

Super good

Superhero's new uniform: He was able to climb out of the trenches long enough this afternoon to refuel with some field rations:

Back to the battlefield...

Dirt, boys and army men

Can you tell we've been watching WWII documentaries lately?

(Hmmm... that "tree" looks a lot like a piece of my dear hydrangea bush...)

Owl Day

The kids & I declared today a holiday - Owl Day. (Actually, I declared it. We needed to add a little fun to our homeschooling.)

We set out to learn as much about owls as we possibly could. We checked out books from the library, consulted our own animal encyclopedias and researched the internet.

The day officially began with owl pancakes. Actually, they looked more like piglets, foxes and bunnies. None of them really looked like owls...but that was okay. They had chocolate chips.After lunch, we (or they) dissected owl pellets. Owl pellets are interesting and smelly! Look at Superhero's face. That pretty much sums up Mama Duck's reaction. Queenie, who apparently has a stomach of steel, ate the rest of her ramen while watching the dissections going on around her.Each pellet contained at least 1 or two rodent skulls along with a lot of fur and tiny bones.

After the pellets were done, we feasted on owl cupcakes.
Tonight, there will be a presentation of sorts. Each duckling has something to show & tell about owls. Should be fun & interesting!

Horsin' around

Bootsie & the horse that actually bears the same (real) name as Mama Duck

I am really enjoying my camera & the free photo editing programs that I've found online!

Buffet Style

Chickens are amazingly dumb animals, but they sure know how to take advantage of a situation. They watch for the lid to be lifted off the can, and if the lid lifter happens to be on the smaller (or unsuspecting) side, these bullies hop right in and start guzzling down the grain like there's no tomorrow. Or at least until the next chicken jumps in and lands on his head...

We're down to two roosters now and about 15 hens. Daddy Duck & Bootsie butchered the last 7 roos last weekend. Except for feeding time, life's a lot more peaceful now in the chicken coop.

Note to self: if we are ever forced to live off the land, we will become vegetarians:)

Two pretty girls

Well, at least I think Mimi (formerly known as Violet) is a girl.