Baby birdies

I took another picture of them tonight. They have more "feathers", but are still ugly. I counted 5 babies for sure. Mom and Dad were both spying me with their little eyes. You would think they would be used to me by now. Darren has been harassing me and says I'm a bird paparazzi. Oh well - there are worse hobbies I suppose. :)

Train Museum

On Father's Day we toured a train museum in Green Bay. Personally I gained a new grasp on train travel. The movies portray it so romantically, but in reality it must have been uncomfortable and annoying. I think all us gained an appreciation for the engineers who operated those "beasts". Some of them were HUGE and confusing!! The next few pictures are of one of the bigger trains there. Blase is standing by the opening where they put the coal. It was a massive chamber. I couldn't imagine trying to keep up with the shovelling and dealing with the amount of heat coming out of there. Cormac and Stephen are on the left hand side of the cab. There were knobs everywhere, at least 50 if not closer to 100. I should have taken a picture of the diagram. Then Rex and Stephen (obviously thinking he could run both sides?) are on the right hand side. Stephen is attempting to brake I think. The last picture in this group is Blase standing in front of the train. That is just the engine and the coal tender attached.

The next couple of pictures are of the boys and Darren inside the snow plow. Then Rex is standing in front the snowplow.

This last picture is of the boys and I inside the caboose. It was roomy and actually looked very functional. There was a table for eating and a couple of benches for sitting. There was a story about that particular caboose that said it was involved in a train wreck. As it happened, the caboose fell into an icy pond with someone inside of it. It remained underwater for 6 hours and yet the man came out of the caboose without injury. Personally - I wouldn't want to be stuck underwater in the caboose, but it must have been sturdy enough at one time.

After the museum we went out to eat and then home by scenic route. That was not fun as the van's AC is not working and it was hot outside. The drive itself was nice and we enjoyed seeing something different. We gave Darren his presents later that night. It turned out to be a wonderful day for all of us, not just Darren.

Babies on board

We are the proud onlookers of a family of hatched Eastern Phoebe babies as of last week. I have been meaning to post about them for awhile now. I have a variety of pictures from over the last couple of weeks. I'm not sure how many there are total. I'm guessing 4, but I could be wrong. We also found some of the egg shells, but they didn't last through the week. The mommy bird is very good about sitting close by and watching her precious family.

The last picture is what they look like as of this afternoon. We have agreed that they are about the ugliest things we have ever seen.

Critter visits

My friend Meredith and I were talking about the animals Darren, the boys and I have seen on our 40 acres. I thought I would put together a list of what we have seen up to now.

mink
raccoon
white-tailed deer (doe, fawn, spike buck, buck)
black bear cub
opossum
shrew (lots of them in the house - yuck!)
skunk
tracks of a wolf
chipmunk
Eastern cottontail rabbit
red squirrel
gray squirrel (also the black phase of the gray squirrel)
flying squirrel (also in our house)
mouse
porcupine
crow
bald eagle
Dark-eyed junco (bird)
Northern Cardinal (both male and female)
turkey
Black-capped chickadee
American goldfinch (male and female - in winter coats and bright yellow too)
dove
Pine Sisken (bird)
Red-breasted Nuthatch (bird)
White-breasted Nuthatch (bird)
Hairy woodpecker (male)
Ruffed grouse
Robin
Blue jay (male)
garter snake
toads
hummingbird (male and female)
seagull
Eastern Phoebe (bird)
Brown-headed cowbird (male)
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (male)

On some of the birds, we have probably seen the females, but didn't realize it. They are so much harder to spot. If I didn't put down anything, chances are we have seen both the male and the female. Some look so much alike that its hard to determine which is which.

Not a bad listing considering most of these we have seen from our front or back doors. The only one that wasn't that close to the house was the bear cub. It was way over on the farthest point of our 40 to the east. I think it can just STAY there. That was last year, so that means this year we have a bit bigger bears. Our neighbor said someone saw a mother bear with three cubs last year on the 40 next to ours. That is FAR too many bears for my liking!!!

Like Uncle, Like Nephew

I ran across this picture of my brother Andrew from 2003. He was 6 years old then.

I took this picture of Cormac today...he is 4 years old.

Like Uncle...Like Nephew

I'm in trouble.......

Good Times

Last night I took Blase to my fiddle/mandolin lesson. He was impressed with how fast my teacher could play. On the way to the van, Blase said "Mom, your teacher plays really fast. You will never be able to play that good." Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence. That was almost as bad as Darren telling me that it was ok if the dishes weren't done at the end of the day if that meant I practiced when he was at work. I'm feeling the love - really.

After lessons Blase and I did some shopping and went out for supper. It was nice to just have Blase and Mommy time. Its been a couple of months since we had time to do that. We did get a jump start on our Father's Day shopping and Rex's birthday too. I feel like I could say I'm a bit ahead in that regard. We didn't get home until quarter to ten last night...so it was a good time for both of us.

Mystery solved

I finally figured out what bird is building her home above our door. I even took a picture, thought not as clear as I would like. Its an Eastern Phoebe. She's moody too. I scared her out of her nest a couple of times, not on purpose by the way. Each time she sat on a limb not too far away and chirped at me until I left. I looked up the incubation of the eggs and it takes about 15 days. I'm assuming we will have babies hatching any week now.

Its all relative

Yesterday I took Brech to the doctor for his well baby checkup. The first question the doctor asked me was "Are you getting any sleep?" Talk about throw me for a loop. I expected - how's he eating? is he crawling? is he standing? but NEVER asking me if I was getting sleep. I simply answer "Well, yah I guess." What I really wanted to say was this...

Its really quite proportional to the situation. If I was 22 and out partying Friday and Saturday nights, working a simple full-time job and all that thang then I would probably say "No, I'm not getting enough sleep." It takes a lot to maintain a healthy 22 year old lifestyle.

BUT I'm a 30 year old mother of 5 boys who gets up 2-3 times every night. I know full well that the only ways I would get more sleep are, but not limited to:
1. drink some beer, etc. until I was sleepy
2. take some type of medication
3. completely ignore the pleas of my baby or
4. lock myself in a room all by myself with a fan going so I hear nothing.

At this point the only answer, being the somewhat responsible mother I like to appear to be, could only be "Yah." I am blessed to be able to take a nap here and there on slow days. Then most every Saturday morning I get to sleep in an extra hour or so while Darren feeds the boys pancakes or waffles. Besides, I can sleep when the kids are grown and I become their problem! HA