Merry Christmas!

Here are the kids enoying their Christmas!

A New Christmas Classic

I was looking at the DVD for "It's A Wonderful Life" when I had an idea...

First Tooth Gone

I delight in the way kids look, when their front teeth are missing. It's an adorable look.

Holmes at Home

I like Mike Holmes. I enjoy his reaction to poor workmanship. It's great, the way he fights for the average guy who knows nothing about carpentry, plumbing, electricity, and the like. I had a Mike Holmes moment today.

Yesterday, I noticed a drip from the ceiling; it came from a wet spot the size of a baseball. Ugh. Called the plumber and he came today. He did an inspection of the visible areas of plumbing that are around bathroom and the laundry room. He ran the washing machine, he inspected the pipes (the parts that aren't in the wall), he looked at the toilet, tub and shower. The only thing he could find that was obviously wrong was a gap between the tub faucet and the wall. He said that gap was enough to cause dripping into the floor below. So, he caulked around that gap and now we have to wait to see if there's any more dripping. He said he tries to do what he can on the outside, before ripping open walls to see what is wrong inside. Thus, we'll have to see if the dripping happens anymore, now that the tub is properly caulked. And, just to test things out, I've put two loads through the washing machine twice since he left and there isn't any dripping, yet.

But, to get to my point about Mike Holmes. As my plumber inspected laundry and bath, he grumbled about the fact that the builders had not left any access panels in the walls by either laundry pipes or tub/shower pipes. I agreed with him that, upon reflection, that wasn't wise of them. We'd had that same problem with our renovated Feltwell house: a plumber had to cut into a wall that should have been left with some sort of access panel. When our plumber noticed the faucet gap, he said right away that it was certainly something the builders should have done right the first time.

I took him down to the basement to see the water pipes and he immediately said, "You've got a gas leak!" For four and a half years, I've been insisting I could smell gas. No, no, that's just the basement smell. No, actually, it was a gas leak. He put soapy water on the places where the pipes join together and he easily found the leak. He criticized the inspectors again: they are required to do some sort of testing along the line as far as the switch-off valves, but then they are meant to test the rest of the connections with soapy water, as he did. When he went to tighten the connection for us, he said it was so loose, it was most likely only tightened by hand, not with a tool. The incompetence of those builders, again!

He walked around the basement, following the path of the gas line and he shook his head, "That 1/2-inch pipe never should have passed inspection." It's too long and should be a 3/4" pipe.

It was as if I were walking through my house with the ever-thorough Mr. Holmes!

So, now we wait. While I am pleased with the service provided, I do hope we don't have to call him here, again!

Winter Updates

No dramatic snow stories from us. The ride home from The Nutcracker took longer than usual, but it wasn't harrowing. One more weekend of performances, but (so far) next weekend's weather is meant to be merely cold, without snow.

Most of our blog visitors know who was travelling through northwest Indiana on Sunday, but I won't reveal their identity. They did, indeed, get trapped -- but in a hotel, not their car. Here's an article about that weather, for the friends who don't live nearby.

Not a creature was stirring . . .

. . . not even the mouse, because he had a warm place to sleep.

Lydia and I visited the nursery/garden center that is the source of so many items in my garden. They have a Christmas display with an electric train that circles a miniature village. I stepped closer to the display to get a closer look at some of the houses, when I saw something moving out of the corner of my eye. It was a little brown mouse! It ran away from me to hide underneath a puff of cotton (fake snow).

When I stepped away, it came out of its hiding place and ran back to sit next to the electric box that controls the train. It curled up in a ball and fell asleep. I'm sure that box was a warm and toasty place to sleep, with outdoor temperatures hovering around freezing. As we watched the mouse, I noticed a cat not far away. There are cats at this nursery and I always assumed they were around for rodent control. The cat didn't see this mouse, however. Rather funny, since it was in plain view!

About an hour later, after Lydia had finished up the kids' crafts class she was taking, we stopped by the display and noticed the mouse, still sleeping next to the warm box. An employee happened to be passing and I asked her why the cat hadn't caught the mouse. She laughed and said that they'd just been discussing that amongst themselves. Apparently, the cat is an experienced mouser, but she hasn't yet found this mouse.

We're going to return to the nursery sometime in the coming weeks, to buy some poinsettias. We'll see if there's a little brown mouse around. If it isn't, we'll know what happened!

Winter!

It's finally here. Cold. And a bit of snow. It's sticking to the mulch in the garden and a bit in the grass. Not much else. There are some people anxiously awaiting enough snow to use some sleds I bought a few weeks ago. . . . but this snow won't do.

I had a brief, but unpleasant, experience with "bridges freeze faster than the road" phenomenon. I started to fishtail -- but without having done anything to deserve it. You know how sometimes you have scary moments behind the wheel, but you know you could have been driving more cautiously than you were? This was not the case. Luckily, the car in the next lane over was a number of yards behind me, so he was able to slow down before he met the bridge.

Stay warm, family and friends!

Watch Out, World!

Someone has her Temporary Learner's Permit! She passed the written test, paid the fee, and smiled for the photo.

Back from Vacation

We are now back from our vacation in Alabama. We visited the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Hanceville, and took a day trip to Irondale to visit the EWTN studios and be a part of the studio audience for Life on the Rock. Here is a photo of Colleen and the kids with Doug Barry, co-host of Life on the Rock. You can view the episode we were on here.

I also posted a few photos from our trip and a couple of baseball photos here.

Rabbit Update

The evening of the day we discovered the rabbits, we found that Rabbit #1 (now called Frodo) was still at the side of the house. Rabbit #4 (now called Morwen) poked her head out of the little burrow and looked at us. She looks like you'd imagine a healthy rabbit should look: clear, bright eyes, with nice-looking fur.

We hoped Mama would come back in the night, to take care of her. We also hoped that Frodo would make it back to find Mama. As I've said, there are hawks and owls!

No sign of any rabbits, yesterday.

Today, we looked around the garden and noticed a gap in the fur that is covering the burrow. Morwen's head was visible. She even glanced up at us a few times. It would appear that all is well with her, at least. It seems as if she must be getting her nightly attention from her mother. It really seemed as if those other rabbits were too young to be out and about . . . but, I don't know anything about rabbits, so perhaps I'm wrong.

No sign of Frodo. He's either gone or deeper in their hole in the ground.

Tales from the Garden

Yes, it's been a while. Blame the conference. And then, of course, I needed to recover from the conference.

We've been very busy with the garden. Over the last few weeks, we've been planting flowers and more shrubs. One day, the garden will be as green and flowery as the peaceful retreat we had whilst living in Upwell. Over the past few days, we've been planting seeds for various herbs and flowers. Yes, it's rather late in the season to have done this. See above paragraph, regarding conference.

The whole idea of the garden started as something so noble. I wanted all the flowers, bushes and trees to be both beautiful and practical. The butterfly garden and the bird gardens were carefully researched and designed for the best way to provide a home and food for butterflies, birds and bees. There is more to our garden than this, though. In addition to providing food and shelter for wildlife, we also wanted to grow some of our own herbs and vegetables.

Perhaps I was naive and didn't quite think about all the wildlife we'd attract. In attracting birds, butterflies, and bees, we have also attracted wasps and rodents.

This morning, Clare and I went outside to water the newly planted seeds. As I was preparing to water one of our shrubs, something caught the corner of my eye. Oh, heavens! It's a baby rat! No, happily, it was not. It was a baby rabbit! Very young. It's eyes didn't seem to be opened all the way and the fur was still rather stuck onto the top of its head. But, it was alive and slowly moving around the garden. I was thinking to myself that it wasn't the best place to hang out, without the shelter of greenery; we do have hawks. I gathered the children around. As we were watching the rabbit, Lydia heard something moving in the chives. Another baby rabbit! This one didn't seem to move as smoothly and nicely as the other one, but at least it was in the cover of the chives.

At this point, I became suspicious that there must be a nest nearby. Carefully moving around this part of the garden, I found a clump of fur, hidden underneath Lydia's tall snapdragons. As I carefully moved the flowers for a better look, I felt something brush my foot. Yes, I screamed; so, then, did most of the kids. It was a third rabbit. This one looked the nicest of them all, in terms of open eyes and nice fur. However, it flopped onto its back and convulsed for about a minute before it died. Oh, lovely. While having rabbits in the garden seemed so poetic, this suddenly awakened us to the reality of the circle of life. Dead rodent.

We stood around awhile. Suddenly, Emily and I noticed movement in the grass. Another baby rabbit? Maybe. But, oddly enough, it seemed that the grass was being moved from underneath the ground. Do rabbits have tunnels? We watched the grass move, like a bad ghost movie (so noted Emily), until the movement stopped just before a forsythia bush. Out popped a little brown mouse. Rodents everywhere! That's just too much.

The mouse went away, towards the neighbors' house. Emily used a stick and moved the dead baby rabbit out of the grass, so no one would step on it. I wondered if I could get away with leaving the dead rabbit for Steve to deal with, when we became aware of the fact that insects were already starting to crawl over the carcass. Thus, I bit the bullet and went in search of a plastic bag and Steve's work gloves. I disposed of the rabbit and was feeling less than charitable towards all the nature I'd hoped to attract with my garden.

Soon after this, we discovered yet another baby rabbit, the fourth one, in another part of the cluster of chives. This one seemed very healthy: eyes open and sparkling, sniffing around the chives. It's brother (or sister), the first we'd found, made its way underneath the fence and into the strip of garden that borders the west side of the house. All new plantings, there; it better not eat too much.

We went back inside and left the three rabbits to their new world. The mouse doesn't deserve another thought.

Just before lunch, I went to check on the rabbits. The second one we'd discovered was now dead. I think it had been gone for a while, because it wasn't just little bugs on it. Flies had found the body, too. I decided to take care of it after lunch. That was a mistake, as disposing of that little body after eating has caused my lunch to not settle well in my tummy.

However, there is still a small rabbit, slowly wandering around on the side of the house. The other rabbit is still sitting amongst the chives.

We did some research on the internet. It's possible that Mama Rabbit is still around. Young rabbit only nurse for 5 minutes in the night. Based on the fact that most of the rabbits appeared to have eyes that weren't quite open, yet that had fur, we're guessing that these rabbits are about 10 days old. They won't wean until 3-4 weeks. Thus, I do hope that the mother returns tonight because I do not want to have to handle any more dead rodents. Fewer than 10% of orphaned wild rabbits survive. Ignoring them is the best thing to do, as we'd probably only hasten their death, if we were to interfere.

I've seen baby rabbits before. Two years ago, our neighbors had a nest in their backyard. The rabbits came out of the nest and hopped all over the place. Nothing ugly or weird. I wonder if ours have been orphaned, which caused them to come out of the nest too early. I don't know. I don't know enough about wild rabbits!

So, now I'm left in my state of disillusion. Creating a wildlife-friendly garden means attracting more than just the birds and insects I like. I suppose that if I'd thought about this, it would have eventually occurred to me. In my defense, they do not mention this in the gardening books. Or, if they do, it's more of a "how to conquer unfriendly fauna by using friendly fauna." They leave it to you to figure out why the undesirables are showing up in the first place. In truth, I suppose they're only undesirables because I don't like them. As I tell the children, when they're arguing about whether or no dandelions or Queen Anne's lace are weeds, "A weed is merely a plant growing where you don't want it to grow."

Furthermore, this would be an entirely different post, if I'd gone out to water the seeds and found four happy, healthy rabbits frolicking in the garden. Thus, in the interest of taking the bad with the good, I'm willing to put up with high rabbit mortality rates, if it means that I can enjoy looking at those rabbits who do make it to adulthood. But I cannot help wish that they'd struggled over to the woods to do their dying there!

No photos to accompany this post, yet. We captured the rabbits both in picture and in video. However, the video needs some editing, as we have visual evidence of the dying rabbit. I'd rather not share that!

I think I'll go make some herbal tea. I need something to soothe my stomach, after that post-lunch experience! Does this make me a wimp? Perhaps it does. I've simply never had to do that before, so I'm not afraid to admit it!

Hopefully, the next gardening tale will be more uplifting!

Springtime & Clare

It rained all last weekend. These photos were taken the weekend before, at the Transfiguration Center, which is lovely in all seasons, but most particularly in spring.

Does anything smell better than a lilac? This bush has very deep purple flowers.



I was testing out the "up close" feature on the camera. Yes, some daffodils do still survive.



Here's Clare, relaxing for all of 23 seconds in a gazebo.



Clare, poking her finger in a fountain.



Clare's reflection, in the pond. I wish I'd centered it more, so that her reflection showed up in a more artistic way.

Spreading the Mulch

Do you have any idea just how much mulch there is in 4 cubic yards of mulch? That's how much we had to put on existing garden areas and new garden areas. I did most of the job, but Emily helped, as well. And it was completed in 6 hours. Hurrah!

More photos of the actual garden, later. Here's a look at the pile, as it diminished during the day.

The big old pile:



Getting a bit smaller:



All gone!



Another view, early morning. First, large and intimidating:



Noticeably smaller:



Tired person, sweeping up:



Perhaps this is the best view of all.

Early morning:



Lunchtime:



End of day:



Truth be told, there is still a bit of the pile left. One more part of the garden needs to be prepared before I can spread mulch. This is what is left of the entire lot:

Snow Pics

Now that it is officially meteorological spring, I'll post some winter photos.

First, some photos that I took one morning when the fog froze. I didn't know fog could freeze. I always associate fog with warmer temperatures than freezing. Nevertheless, it happens!



Everything was covered with this lovely-patterned ice. The prettiest views were those of long ranges of trees, all covered with the delicate ice. Alas, I didn't think distance shots would show well in a photo.



This last photo is a close-up of the ice crystals, attached to one of our trees. I'm glad that modern cameras are able to capture such an image.


And, coming soon: some photos from one of our big February snows.

Furniture

I think someone missed his calling!

We needed a place to put our TV, music and games down in the schoolroom/playroom. I'm a bit picky and there was nothing, nothing that I liked that is sold in any store, anywhere. So, I made a collection of photos of various cabinets and entertainment centers that I sort of liked. And passed the photos to Steve. And see what he did? He put together the elements I liked best from the various furniture designs.


This photo doesn't show it with the knobs, yet. Nor does the photo show it in its proper location in the room. But it is finished now. And it looks lovely. I'm planning to have matching tables/desks made for other parts of the room!

Winter Weather

Finally! They predicted lots of snow . . . and it actually happened!

Steve shoveled away about a foot high in the driveway and the front walk. Drifts in the back did get a few feet or higher.

Kids who have Saturday activities did not have them yesterday morning.

Do I have photos? Not yet. But the snow left the wooded area behind the house looking very pretty. I guess you'll have to take my word for it, for now.

Even in all the snow, we saw some more robins this morning. Yes, the first males have been returning from warmer climes. They were fighting over a Twinkie, of all things!

We've just been given another winter storm watch for Monday through Wednesday. Accumulation could reach another 6 inches. Since they were correct about this winter storm, I don't have much faith that they'll be right about the next one. We'll see!

Riverdance, Take Two

For anyone who hasn't seen this elsewhere, this is a very funny link.

Britain's Got Talent 2009

You'll have to follow the link to YouTube, as the embedding was "disabled by request" of someone.