Family Visit = FUN!

My brother Stephen and his family made the trip from out west to New England last week for a family vacation. My brother and I had the chance to spend a few days together when our Grandmother passed away but other than that, we have only been able to keep in touch via telephone and computer correspondence the past 10 years. When they moved, other than my nephew, the children were too young to remember each other so this was a great chance for us all to get to know each other again. Everyone stayed at my house the first week they were here and every morning my brother and Alex got up at the crack of dawn to spoil us all with fresh Dunkin' Donuts - needless to say my pants are a little tighter this morning! We made a trip one day to Yankee Candle Village and the next to Mystic Aquarium and Institute for Exploration. We ate like kings and queens - one night we had Mona's Pizza, I spoiled everyone the next night with my home made baby back pork ribs and my Brother treated us all to a great meal at the Steak Loft Restaurant during our day trip to Mystic. It was great spending time with my brother, his lovely wife and all three quickly growing up kids! I hope to get a chance to spend more time with them after work this week while they are staying with our Mom and wished I had another week of vacation available. I miss having family around and now that I am a grown man ( yet not quite an adult!) I realize that I have a lot in common with my brother and feel as close to him as ever. Probably because our age difference isn't evident any more like it was as kids. It was entertaining watching from a distance as my nephew spend time with Alex, the memories of me spending time with him at that age came flooding back. I hope and pray that some day we will all live closer together but till then I think regular vacations/visits with each other will become one of our goals in life.

The Girls

The Boys

The Whole Crew

The Kids (minus Ben as he was still in route)

A taste of summer

Yesterday I went down to the shore to help out a close friend/family member ( long story short - I consider him family and have always thought of him as my cousin due to our family ties) with installing a few marine electronics and wiring in his boat. When we were done it was such a beautiful day we decided to head out into the open water and do a little fishing despite it being the wrong part of the tide cycle for optimal fish catching.

On our first pass I picked up a nice striped bass which ended up being a keeper. A short time later I hooked into an even nicer fish but due to the rough surf I had a hard time keeping my balance while keeping my line nice and tight so despite fighting it to within a few yards of the boat I never landed it. It was a great afternoon on the water and despite being a little rough thanks to my wrist bands I was able to spend a day on the water and enjoy my first taste of summer - and an awesome Italian Cold Cut Grinder without any effects of motion sickness. I look forward to many more trips out in Rick's boat and watching the kids experience the trill of catching some big Stripers and Blues! Till then I will savor a few fresh fish dinners!

On Shelley's Farm there was a girl - E-I-E-I-O.

My Baby Girl is growing up so fast - and with all the manure she will be stepping in she should be getting a bit taller this summer too!

What you never heard that stepping in manure will make you taller - well it will, especially if you don't clean your boots off regularly and let it build up!

Why is she going to be stepping in manure you ask.....

Well, tonight was Ariel's first day of employment on a local farm. She gets to work with herding dogs, sheep, horses, miniature ponies, chickens, ducks and of course the ever present farm cat.

We met Ariel's new employers at the Monday homeschooling group that the kids were part of this past year. At the beginning of the year they got a tour of the farm and the chance to help shear one of the sheep for a "start to finish scarf knitting project" that both of the kids participated in.

I took this picture just before we left and was going to take one of her when she got home but despite being a little messier there wasn't much of a difference - she was still sporting a great smile. Hopefully she will maintain this level of enthusiasm throughout her employment

I can't help but smile when I look at her slop boots - mine were always black! Leave it to a girl to put "style" into doing farm chores!

Facebook for chickens

Well, Okay it's not really for chickens but for people who have chickens. As most of you know I am no longer on Facebook (old news I know but I really didn't want to discuss it while I was going through withdrawals!) I really enjoyed butting in on everyone's lives and was able to rekindle some childhood friendships which I have been able to keep up with via email and personal blogs despite my lack of Facebook membership.

For those who didn't know why we abandoned our FB Accounts - Rebecca's profile was hacked and after several days of getting nowhere with the FB staff we finally closed out R's profile - only to find it reactivated the next morning asking more people for $$$ due to me getting mugged while on a business trip, Rebecca getting stranded trying to get me back after I left her and went to London, and the lies went on and on. I finally took the time to delete ever post I ever wrote, group I joined, flair, etc...


It has been several months now and despite it being tough at times I was able to give up Facebook - and I did it cold turkey! I found that after I gave up FB I regained my desire to start blogging again - plus it helped that it is spring time and I have more to write about. So how does this all relate to my title - Well seeing that I have been raising a new flock of chicks I often get answers to any questions I may have right here on the world wide web and one of the sites I found myself often referring to was : Backyard Chickens.

It was here where I found my Facebook replacement. It turns out they have a forum that you can join and not only get answers to all your questions you can make your own web page, post pictures, message other members, buy, sell , trade and the list goes on and on. I have really enjoyed browsing the site and even found a new rooster for Ariel that we went as a family to pick up on Saturday Morning.

I hope that you all don't think I'm becoming "Chicken Crazy" but I feel secure with my "Peeps" over at BYC and fear not - I will always be here to Blog about it and thankfully, with the aid of my keyboard it will always be legible so no need to worry about my writing looking like chicken scratch!

Oh and in case you were wondering our new Roosters name is Sokka. It is nice to wake to the sound of the roosters crow again - it was too quiet out here in the north woods!

Warming their new feathers

The early evenings here have been nice so I decided to let our new little girls (and boys) get some exercise and feel the green grass under their toes. I must admit I am getting quite addicted to my back yard flock and would like to build a really nice coop some day that looks more like a farm barn. The kids have really enjoyed finding bugs and worms to feed the chicks, which has really helped with human-chicken interaction. I really like having the larger brooder in the garage and I know Rebecca is grateful too! Here are some pictures of this years chicks during their first back yard adventures this week. They all got a chance to stretch their wings and warm their feathers (and what is left of their chick fluff) in the warm evening sun.

Let us back in!
The Older Girls getting some fresh greens
Navarre watching over his babies

Discovering the joy of clover

Just noticed the older Hens in the yard

Chip and Dale - sticking together

The Kids showing them the ropes

Chip and Dale's Backyard Adventure

A couple of weeks ago I told you about the new chicks we purchased in this post. Well a lot has changed since April 18th - The 6 red sex links and 3 golden comets are all in the downstairs brooder where they have more room to stretch their wings, the 2 dark colored bantam chicks are still in the upstairs brooder - just because I enjoy interacting with them and they are so much smaller than the standard breed chicks. Unfortunately the tiny white bantam chick we had died.

The kids had named the white one "Speed" because when he wasn't sleeping he would run around like Forrest Gump while plowing his way through all the other chicks! The 2 other bantams are now named "Chip & Dale" due to their colors.

Last night when I got home from work I decided to take them outside for the first time. At first they were a little wigged out from the feeling of the grass but eventually calmed down. Then Navarre came over to guard over them and that's when they started climbing on his back and hopping back and forth between the two of us. I wish Navarre would keep his ears up when a camera is around - it seems like his ears are always up and at attention until he knows that a picture is being taken and then down they go!

I am always amazed at how gentle Navarre is with the baby chicks and how big of a desire he has to guard over the mature chickens when they are out of the coop - especially from squirrels! (that's a video I need to post!)

NOT LAME!

So on my way home tonight a co-worker called to tell me he saw a NASCAR vehicle parked in town and knowing I was a fan thought I might want to take the kids to check it out. I picked up the kids and after running our errands I took a detour to check out the car without ever telling the kids where we were going. About 5 minutes into the trip Alex pipped up and asked where we were going as I rarely take the back road we were driving on. I told him it was a surprise, to which he responded "It's not going to be LAME is it?" Ahh they grow up so fast! I assured him if he thought is was lame I would drive past and continue home - I was pleased to hear the cheers as I pulled into the parking lot of "Cool, dad this is NOT Lame!" We got to see Carl Edwards NASCAR Nationwide Car last year so it was nice for the kids to get a close up of a NASCAR CUP Series Race Car this time around.

And just to clarify he is pointing at the Duck - we all know that Kyle Busch is #1 NOT Carl Edwards!

Neither of them route for Ford drivers but its all about the Aflac commercials!

Below is a picture of the FORD powerplant

Multiple ignition modules

Fire suppression system

The Main cockpit


My little car chiefs discussing sabotage - You know they are Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick fans after all!
Carl Edward's 2008 NASCAR Nationwide Race Car that we got to check out at the local Home Depot last year

Lego Humor

As most people know I love the movie "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" so you can only imagine my delight when I found this little gem. You can see some of their other amazing work here.



Monty Python - Legos - Now that's Funny!

Sunshine, Fresh Air and Fishy Hands

Yesterday was the opening day of fishing season here in the Great North Woods. Due to everyone feeling under the weather I let the kids sleep in and after breakfast we decided to venture out to the waters edge. We took some pictures at the first spot we stopped - our usual fishing hole in the center of town. Even though it was almost lunch time there were still mobs of people fishing in the same area so we decided to venture out and find somewhere new. I ended up finding a brook that had lots of nice areas but all the open fishing areas were posted as private property. After following the brook a couple miles up the road we found a dam with a large body of water above it that was fishable! I didn't know if we would catch anything and was just looking forward to soaking up some sunshine and enjoy the cool breeze coming off the water while hanging out with my 2 awesome, talented, country mile casting kids! I left the camera in the truck and was too lazy to go back and get it - I figure it will make for another post during the summer - Plus I don't want to give away our new hot spot just yet! Much to my surprise there were trout in the water despite the fact that every time we hooked into one they would jump out of the water and throw our lure :( I eventually landed a nice brook trout which due to its wounds came home for dinner. Despite not filling the stringer with our daily limit the kids and I had a great time together (hopefully the fresh air will help their colds go away) and Rebecca got a nice quiet morning & afternoon to get some much needed rest.

In need of a new alarm clock.

Well as stated in a past post if our rooster kept up his antics that we would have 1 rooster too many. Well, due to the fact that Alex was no longer able to interact with the chickens and Ariel was taking chances getting the eggs after sundown - Thursday night we had a nice fresh chicken dinner! Ariel was sad that I slaughtered her rooster (aka - Bobby - kids don't understand the "don't name your food" rule until it's too late) so I decided to stop in to Tractor Supply Company during my work travels and was surprised to learn that they were getting several more shipments of day old chicks! When I got home I discussed my plans with Rebecca and decided to pick up a rooster if they still had sex-link chicks. Well due to people making bad decisions T.S.C. began a minimum purchase of 6 chicks. After discussing this with Rebecca we decided that the more egg producers the better - we have room for them so why not! Ariel and I dropped Alex off at school and went to pick out 6 more chicks and we would try to pick out a replacement rooster for our flock. When we arrived they had just finished unpacking the mornings shipment which included assorted straight-run bantams. Being the sucker that I am for cute chicks I decided to take a chance and picked up 3 bantams along with the 1 chick we believe is a rooster and 2 pullets. It is fun trying to figure out what breed the bantams are - I think we figured out what the 2 dark ones are - the white one is a little harder although we think it is one of 3 breeds. My guess is here. Once they mature I will be sure to post an update. It is amazing how much the chicks we got last week have grown - it seems like just yesterday they still had their egg tooth and before you know it they will be increasing our egg sales!