Drumlin Farm and Bird Refuge According to Ivy

According to Ivy, we saw:
a crow. It said caw caw caw. [This was the first animal we saw. I still had high expectations for her identification skills] Then we saw:

a chicken

another chicken

another chicken

see that owl chicken?

what's wrong [with] dat chicken?

two chickens

a rooster

a cow

another cow

a cow that said moo really loud

and two cows.

Actually, the above picture is of two cows- look closely and you'll see the hooves of the baby cow being born. The mowing cow two pictures above is the father bull, and he was as anxious as expectant fathers come. We watched the calf being born. Ivy took it all in stride and was ready to move on to see the next chickens or cows as if that sort of thing happened every day. I guess it does.

We also saw No-Mason-dat-Ivy's-kitty:

and Ivy showed the kitty her Marilyn Monroe impression:

Videography

My camcorder is catastrophically malfunctioning, so I've had to break out my old point-and-shoot camera to capture video. Here are some videos of this week:

Ivy finding a new use for my little sieve:

Calvin's first go without training wheels:

Needless to say, I'm beginning the search for a new video recorder. Any recommendations?

Clams Weren't the Only Things Baking

Peter and Bryn each came home sporting sunburns. For them, the burns mean pain and itching. For the rest of us, they're a pleasant reminder of our beautiful sunny day at the beach for our annual ward clambake.

We went for a swim and Lance borrowed my swim mask. He came back up with a live sand dollar and a large sea snail on his first "dive." Never mind that my ears turned blue from the cold; we had fun!

Bryn's life-long friend Conor was baptized in the ocean in the morning, we had a real nice clambake at noon complete with dear friends, family and lobstahs (and Laura brought raspberry pie- she wins), and then enjoyed an afternoon on the beach squeezing the last moments of summer from our beach towels.



*A rather long and mostly unrelated note on the bottom center photo [so don't read unless you're really bored]: Yesterday we noticed a new friend's web in our car in the corner of the dash near the steering wheel. Boris the spider lives in a tunnel in the very corner, and it's hard to dimensionally relocate his spirit (aka squash the living daylights out of him) without risking a panicked spider getaway, a panicked screaming driver, the swerving car, and the and-then-there-was-blood-everywhere scenario. So he got to go to the clambake and back with us. He occasionally came up out of his tunnel to enjoy the ride and the view- reminding me of a dog with her jubilant head and tongue thrust happily out into the wind on a ride to the canyon. I hope Boris enjoyed his last day on this earth- tomorrow I'll vacuum him into oblivion.

Tropical Storm Irene Still Packs a Mean Punch

Irene may not have been a hurricane anymore when she hit us, but she still knocked over a great big oak tree in our front yard with a giant gust of wind. Our next door neighbors were outside grilling in the front yard when they heard it start coming down toward them. They ran to the back of the house, and tree crashed down a couple of feet where they had been standing moments before.

Luckily, the tree missed hitting any people, houses, or vehicles (even though our neighbor's car was parked directly underneath where it hit). It took out our utility lines and the neighbor's fence on the other side of their yard. It also completely blocked their driveway, so Peter spent the day helping them clear out enough of it to allow cars in and out.

So we had no power (or hot water) for 5 days. We had no internet or phones for 6 days. We had potentially live power lines in our yard inches away from where the kids get in and out of the car. I showered at a local gym and Peter took cold showers here. This is what we learned:

1. The food in our fridge all went bad. I took some over to Laura, but I should have taken more, or hooked up a generator to keep things running.

2. It would have been so nice to have had a generator hooked up to our boiler- then we could have had hot water and heat (which we didn't need because it was summer, but it definitely would have been necessary if this had happened in the winter).

3. It's nice to have a burner or camp stove on hand to cook food and warm up water.

4. If a tree rips out your power lines, have someone check inside the meter socket before they restore power to the neighborhood. Cautionary tale:

Our house almost burned down (again) because the tree yanked the power lines running to our house right off their posts (think of the inside of your meter box as a car battery- there are posts and the power lines come in and brackets connect the lines to the posts). The two contacts of the live wires were touching inside the meter socket (hidden from inspection) when the power came back on, causing the contacts to explode and fuse and the power line insulation to catch on fire (3 foot flames).

The power company was already gone, but luckily our neighbor noticed it and called 911. So I came home to all manner of emergency vehicles at my house putting out the fire- not a fun surprise. And to make matter worse, since it was inside our box, NStar won't willingly foot the 1k+ electrician bill for them to come fix the damage. End rant.

Schoolward Bound

My favorite moment from the day happened when we were hustling into school to find their classrooms and were nearing the Kindergarten wing. Bryn spontaneously grabbed Calvin's hand and walked him through the rest of the process until he was safely in his classroom as I hung back and watched with Ivy in my arms.

Chasing Waterfalls in the White Mountains of New Hampshire

Scenic driving
Hotel room fun- The kids enjoyed some mirror friends and Bryn liked the painting effect of the shower door.


We swam and swam and swam. There was an indoor pool and hot tub, an outdoor pool, and great big Jacuzzis in the rooms.
The basin- this area was awesome.

We hiked to the Lonesome Lake which Bryn did not think was named dramatically enough, so she re-christened it The Black Lake of Sorrow.

This was my favorite waterfall site. Lance led us on a waterfall hunt drive where we tried to find 4 waterfalls and failed on all counts until we were driving back and he suddenly said "Pull over," and after a short hike we found some spectacular falls. They were unmarked, leading us to believe some calamity happened and all signs were erased for liability purposes. But wow, it was gorgeous.

Camping in Vermont

We enjoyed our 10th annual ward campout in Sharon, Vermont. Peter's cousin Spencer recently moved to the area with his family, and they came with us. It was lovely to get to know Spencer and Andrea better and watch our kids bond.

Vermont is beautiful, as usual. The colorful sunsets over the smoky hills never fail to take my breath away, nor does the visibility and the vastness of the stars at night.

Final Glimpses of Vacation

Last days in the motherland...cleaning gutters, petting Purrface, jumping (and holding seances???) with cousins on the trampoline, looking pretty (Lucy!),

running through sprinklers at the cemetery (don't tell me you've never done that on Sunday afternoon),
and just hanging around.

Rolling Along: New Skills

Bryn fished my old pair of roller skates from a dusty box in the garage. Here is a movie of her progressive first day:


Calvin found Lance's old skateboard in the shed. Here is a movie of his unique technique for getting up:


Ivy coveted Bryn's roller skating gloves. Here is a movie of her pageanting her own pair:

10 Little Ducks Went Out One Day...

...over the hills and far away. When the mother duck said,... well, actually, the mother duck is the one who led the 10 little ducks on this adventure.

It all started when Dixie (my parents next door neighbor) noticed one of the resident wild ducks nesting in her flower garden. In due time, the eggs hatched, and as mother ducks are want to do, this one led her ducks to the nearest water.

The nearest water was the raging irrigation ditch on the side of the yard. It was not a great place to introduce 1 day-old ducklings to swimming. Seven of them were promptly washed away down into the culvert and the mother duck, realizing her error, waddled up across the street to the more placid canal with the remaining 3 ducklings.

Soon, neighbors down the way brought the rescued ducklings back up the street, and placed them back on the nest. Unfortunately, the mother duck never came back. And with the threatening storm and drop in temperatures, these ducklings faced an almost certain early demise.

Happily, more neighbors came to the rescue and are now housing the abandoned ducklings in their garage.

This is the kind of drama that goes on in Millville on a Sunday afternoon.