Dog Treat and Cat Treat

That's what Alex wants to name them. No names so far. This picture was taken today. The little guys seem to be doing ok. We'll see.

Two more mouths to feed

Well, it's official -- we've lost it. We've adopted two baby cottontail rabbits that need to be bottle fed. Donald came into the garage on Friday holding two little baby rabbits by their ears. They were squirming around and looked a bit like little gophers. Jordan ran out screaming. Donald had been working in the grove and noticed the dogs were extremely interested in this one area. Next thing you know - one of the dogs ran off with a full sized rabbit in her mouth (the mom, we're assuming). A bit later, the dog came back and was digging around some more and pops out with a baby and dashes off. Donald walked over to see what was going on and just then, two little bunnies hopped out of the den. He grabbed them and the rest is history. The Internet is truly amazing though - I called a friend who raises chinchillas and asked if I could bring them over. By the time I got their, she has researched what they needed (kitten meal replacement mixed with heavy cream) and we dashed to Petco. They are now eagerly eating the formula that we mix up every couple of hours and feed to them with an eye dropper (from our home school science kit). I guess this is truly a home school science project now! The picture of the two together in Jordan's hands was just minutes after catching them. The other picture is me trying to feed them. They are actually getting a lot better at taking the formula - in the beginning, they were wearing more than they were eating.

Life in Rome

J and I have been learning about Rome for History. One of the assignments was to make a mosaic out of crushed egg shells. The directions actually said to color the eggs, but we chose to leave the natural colors - which we think are so beautiful. Attached is the finished product. It's a brown starfish on the white sand with the blue/green water in the background. Frameworthy!

Killing the Gingerbread Houses

Here are a couple of pictures of the massacre. Alex used a shot gun - I think a 12 gauge. Mason used a 20 gauge and Travis used a firecracker. The excitement in the air was palpable! Funny how boys just love to kill stuff. They got everything all set and the fun began. Well, Mason missed, and loud pop scared the heck out of the dogs. So we gathered all of them up and locked them in the garage. Alex and Mason each blew up the houses. Then it was Travis' turn. The first firecracker was just a smoke bomb - it looked a bit like the gingerbread house was on fire. The next one, blew it to smithereens! What a fun and loving tradition!

Creating Gingerbread Houses

Every year we make Gingerbread houses and this year it was a bit more difficult to convince a one of the little darlings of the value of participating. After "convincing" him to do it and I told him that the reward would be that he could shoot it or blow it up after Christmas. Here are a few pictures of the wonderful and creative houses. Alex has a bulls eye on the roof!

Hiking around the Homestead

Yesterday was a beautiful winter day - I think it was 75*! Winter? What winter? I decided to hike around the homestead and see what was growing. We planted a winter garden, but we planted it a bit late. I was a bit dismayed to see that the weeds were growing great. The nasturtium are going like gang busters which will be nice, but they may turn into a real problem. We also have a lot of sunflowers coming up all over the garden and around the chicken coop, we tried to feed the sunflower heads to the chickens - they didn't go for it. However, most of the veggies we planted are not doing as well. It looks like a few onions, also some squash - ones we planted and then volunteers from before. The beans and peas - nope - the kale, cucumbers, peppers, etc. are non existent. Bummer. I need to keep this in mind when we plant next winter. We have a few potatoes that are coming up from before. I know the peacocks have been brutal lately - need to work on thinning the herd a bit. (what do you call a group of peacocks?) Speaking of birds, our chickens are really slacking too - we only got two eggs yesterday. We put a light in the coop and have it set on a timer for a few hours, trying to trick them into thinking that there are more hours in the day -- so far, not working! Jordan is working on a project for history - doing a mosaic. They suggested saving egg shells and then coloring them. We decided that the colors were so beautiful on their own, that we were going to leave them the natural white, brown and blue. I think it's going to be beautiful. We'll post a picture when it is finished. Well, what is going on around here - Alex is practicing the piano, Travis is doing math and Jordan is studying her lines for a play. It's calm and quiet. I guess I need to get out of my robe and get on with the day.

Correcting by Candlelight

I took this picture this morning - you can see the beautiful sunrise through the windows. Isn't there a saying about the red sky in the morning? I love to get up before everyone else and I always light a few candles - it makes the room seem cozy. I was working on correcting and enjoying the beautiful morning.

a couple more from Williams

Grand Canyon

Williams, AZ

We drove to Williams to catch the Grand Canyon Railroad - what a fun time. It was very cold and there was snow on the ground. We enjoyed the train ride to the Grand Canyon and the tour. Worth the trip!

Winter Sunset

Isn't it awesome? We took this from our back patio!

Jungle Bells

We went to the SD Zoo to check out the exhibits and all of the lights. It was beautiful, especially riding the Skyfari just after the sun went down - we could see all of the lights in the downtown area. one of the little darlings didn't look very happy!

Christmas morning bike ride

two of the little darlings got new bikes, so we had to go for a ride. it was a beautiful day and a fun time. maybe we should make that a tradition - what fun.