G & I are home after three weeks on the East Coast. We were fortunate enough to come back to a superlative Wisconsin day -- blue sky, white clouds, green fields, no humidity -- which made it that much easier. After saying "hello" to Maike, Cocoa, Grandpa and Luna (pretty much in that order), we headed straight for the pool, which wasn't open when we left.
School is out! This is Dan & G before the last concert -- a reschedule from "Swine Break '09."
Our campsite was right on the water 
Mother's Day was a beautiful day here. We did some yard work in the morning. Cocoa supervised my weeding/mulching of the raspberries. There's an elm tree that sprouted up, and we're just going to leave it, so that when all the ash trees (which we put in because of Dutch elm disease) are overrun with emerald ash borers, we've got something else in the yard. Dan & G spent the rest of the day with me doing household errands and then fun shopping.
Farnsworth usually showed up in the front yard in the morning
Dan & Jamie put the new bees in yesterday. We had to replace both our colonies, because one did not survive the cold weather and it looks like the other one may have succumbed to Colony Collapse Disorder. Jamie had better luck and only had to replace two of his six. I didn't get more pictures because after six months of going strong, the battery on my new camera finally died.
Our "gardening" has evolved into a rooftop garden, ever since cats and chickens wouldn't leave our flower boxes alone. Instead of buying everything at once, G & I are going to plant in phases this year. Since it was a beautiful day, we decided to visit the garden center to start this year's garden.
We hiked part of the Ice Age Trail, which included exposed Silurian Dolomite of the Niagara Escarpment, a geological formation that runs from New York (and Niagara Falls) through Ontario and Michigan to Wisconsin and Illinois.
We went geocaching with friends on Sunday. One of the caches included a Big Chicken as a clue. It turned out to be more of a Wild Goose. We ended up ditching the search to go for custard at LeDuc's, which was conveniently nearby.
We took the RAV4 four-wheeling into various corners of the farm. Here's a view of our cows on the ridge.
I finally feel comfortable letting G use the rider. With an assist from Dan, we got most of the yard done in two hours.
We got a robocall around 11 a.m. today informing us that three schools in our school district, including G's, were being closed because of a confirmed case of Influenza Type A H1N1. All middle and high school students now have a week-long holiday thanks to HHS. Since we've been instructed to limit social contact during that time and it's still too cold to open the pool, I'm not sure what we'll be up to. G's default mode is Gilmore Girls and Webkinz. Thank goodness we have all those new Scholastic books piled around ...
Didn't do much of anything but the Spring Book Fair this week. The Twilight and Diary of a Wimpy Kid series were the two big sellers -- we couldn't keep them on the shelves. G and I managed to keep our tab under $200.
We've been hearing this pheasant's vocalizations for about three weeks now. While there are wild pheasants around, we think he is an escapee from either a stocked hunting ground or a farm that raises them for restaurants, both of which are in the neighborhood. During the past week he's started to come into the yard and to shadow our chickens as they make their rounds. Maike doesn't seem perturbed by his presence and the rooster hasn't run him off yet. It will be interesting to see if he sticks around.
Good luck to all who are going on to the State Tournament! (G qualified in the Informative category with a speech about Krakatoa.)
We had some spring-ish weather, so G (who has been home sick) & I opened the glass door sans screen to let some fresh air into the house. Luna was even happier than the two of us, because the birds are back!
On super-clear nights like last night, the cloudy band that is the Milky Way is easily seen right over our house. (On some nights in the summer, it is so evident that I like to say that it looks like we're an exit off of it.) We had an extra treat last night: the Space Station was visible around 7:50, with the Space Shuttle chasing after it about 20 minutes later. The Shuttle looked like it was in a higher orbit and was moving much faster, passing right through Orion, which was above the southern horizon. G wasn't too impressed, but Dan & I, true children of the Space Race that we are, lingered until it had faded into the northeastern horizon.
Yesterday we got quite a surprise. Dan went out to give the cows hay, but there was a newborn calf there as well! Since the cows are bred to calve in late April through early June,* this heifer is more than a month early. While she's a little small, she's not premature, which means that the bull and Honeysuckle managed a secret rendezvous early last summer. Given the circumstances of her birth, I think she should be called Immaculata, but because of the weather at the time of her birth, Dan's choice is Vanilla Ice.
Maike turned 10 yesterday. It has been a harsh winter and she is really starting to show her age. As you can tell from her expression from the various pictures on this blog, she is a good dog and a smart one too. When we got her, that was difficult for me to believe. It was obvious early on that she was never going to be "my dog." She and I flunked not one but two puppy kindergarten classes because I could not assert Alphaness. While she still regards much of what I say as optional, she loves my kid with such intensity that all the other stuff stopped mattering to me a long time ago. She is just the best.
Posing because they have to
Dan & G have been going to the indoor rock wall most Sundays. Sometimes Jamie & Becca go too. They all passed their Belaying class this weekend and got their green tags. Now they can climb any of the walls, not just the ones with autobelay. Next step: Trying it outdoors ...
