Spring Puddles

Warming up by the fire afterwards.

The Cutest Caged Animal

Baby Kendall (as Aerya calls her) came over for a visit with her parents. Her absolute favorite part was playing in the cat cage!

Getting Ready for the Garden!

Aerya is excited to plant her own garden this year. She has her own seeds and we'll set out a part of the garden just for her. We planted some seeds indoors at the end of Feb and will do some more in early April, then plant two more sets directly in the ground in late May and June.







For now the seedlings are living in the office/mudroom and have done quite well. I'm keeping a little garden journal to learn from for next year (cucumbers need tons of water and lettuce wilts really easy.) I'm hoping that our friends and family can come by for the May long weekend to help plant it all in the ground. Then in the summer and fall we'll have lots to pick.

I'm planning a pumpkin patch so everyone can pick their own jackolanterns, and we'll have corn then too. We're also looking forward to planting an orchard over the next couple of years with lots of fruit and berries.






I've been warned that the birds will eat the seeds in the ground, and that over the summer we have to watch out for deer eating the fruit trees and all the berries. But for now my biggest nemesis is Meux. Can you see the bite marks out the corn?!? Do they make a scarecat?

Toasty Fires

Country Princess

Princesses have taken over our lives! Aerya is constantly in a princess dress now. As soon as she wakes up or comes home, the dress goes on. She wears it in the house, to the store, and around the yard. Princesses carry in wood, push their babies in the stroller, go to the dentist and school and play in the mud. It doesn't matter the event, or what she has to put on under or over it (jammies and rubber boots are the staple) Aerya has to have a princess dress on.

Our Acerage Animals

Our menagerie has expanded at the acerage. Strider, Meux and Scotch have of course moved with us, but we've added two barn cats as well. Their original names were White Bread and Black Bread, but they've been renamed to The Purrest (Aerya calls him this because his purr can be heard from 40 paces) and Black Beard the Angry Pirate (he is missing the top of both his ears and if you look in his face, it's definatley angry!) They are both quite nice cats. The Purrest is sooo incredibly lovey though Black Beard is a bit wary of humans - especially men who hold them down for their shots (poor Derek.)







Meux spends most of her day watching the dozens of birds outside, and alternately trying to run outside when the door is opened. The house came with a dog run, but I've added some sitting posts for the cats and I put Meux and Scotch out there when it's warm out. Meux loves it, but Scotch spends all her time whining at the door trying to get back in the house. Though when I leave her inside, she howls at the door trying to get outside with Meux. Sigh.









The birds have definatley taken over. I have a half dozen feeders around the deck and at any one time there's 20 birds out there eating their feast. We've seen really exotic birds like a bald eagle and woodpeckers and are of course loaded with chickadees and sparrows. Meux just licks her lips!




Strider has adapted well to the acerage. Here he is by the campfire with his beer. It's a dog's life for sure!