Here are some pics of Ada from late this summer.  I start missing warm weather about this time of year.  Who am I kidding?  I start missing warm weather by about November.  These images are all shot in either the woods behind our house or down at the pond.

And a completely silly one of Zoe about to give Ada a big wet dog kiss.

I’m behind on posting images on the blog.  Here’s one image for now from one of my new favorite places, the City Museum, in St. Louis. We’ve been there twice in the past few weeks, and I hope to go there frequently in the coming year.  I officially think it’s the coolest place EVER for kids.

Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and the Happiest of New Years.

My friend, Sam, a photographer (harnackphoto.com) came down to visit with her kids this past weekend.  We had a GREAT time!   Ada and Grace who are only a couple months apart in age ran around holding hands and calling themselves sisters, listing all the things they had in common.  “We both have BROWN EYES!”  Gasp!  “We’re both in Kindergarten!”  Gasp!  At one point when we were having a cookout down at the pond, the girls came up with their superhero names.  Ada was “Stone” and Grace was “Crystal.”  One girl shot lightning from her fingertips and one from her head, can’t remember who did what.

I have to wonder at what point people stop thrilling at the similarities between each of us and rejoicing at making new friends and start getting hung up on all of the crazy little differences between us.

Thomas helped the girls crack hickory nuts, which are surprsingly excellent this year.  And everyone got to play in the fire with sharp sticks and flaming marshmallows, which is one of the quickest ways to liven up a party with the under 7 crowd.  Lol.

Anyway, here’s Sam and her kids, aren’t they adorable?!  Thanks for making the trip to see us!  And come again soon!

The last couple of weeks have been crazy.   One of the projects going on behind the scenes involved trying to raise two baby birds that the neighbors brought to us.  When they brought them here, they were probably about a week old.  They had some pin feathers and a bit of fluff but had a lot of pink skin showing.  They were tiny, about the diameter of a quarter.  My first guess was that they were some type of wren, due to the tiny size.  My daughter, Ada, named them Cottonball and Silly Feathers.  Silly Feathers had a piece of worm stuck to its head when we got it, thus the name.  So, for the next thirteen days, our feeding schedule was every thirty minutes during the daylight hours being careful not to contaminate the food in between feedings.

I was amazed when we got them to the fledgling stage.  Silly Feathers had a twisted leg that as it matured pointed straight up from the joint.  I didn’t see how Silly Feathers would ever make it in the wild, because it would have to perch on one leg.  Cottonball, on the other hand, was very vigorous.  Cottonball started flying out of the shoebox like a bumblebee.  And I have a picture, somewhere, of Cottonball sitting on top of a spice jar in my kitchen.  So, my husband helped me build a flight cage beneath the pergola.

During the warm parts of the day, we put Cottonball out there, so it could get exercise and start getting used to outside.  Silly Feathers got to go out occasionally, as well.   Silly Feathers seemed to be getting worse and worse and finally stopped eating and died.  Cottonball, however, was doing so well that we started turning it out of the flight cage and letting it fly around outside during the day.  I made sure I was outside to make sure a cat didn’t kill it.  Cottonball would fly down and perch on my finger or my head to be fed.  And I’d put Cottonball up at night for safekeeping.  For a series of warm nights I left Cottonball in the flightcage, because it banged against the box and seemed to want to be outside.  All was well until one morning, the thirteenth day, when I stepped out to feed Cottonball first thing in the morning and was shocked that it was cold outside, 60 degrees.  Cottonball was all poofed up in a corner of the cage and cheeping, but weakly.  It hopped over to me, but I knew we were in trouble.  SHad I looked at the forecast the night before, I would have brought it in that night, but I did not.  I still had the heating pad going, so took it in and put it in the warm box to warm it for a few moments before trying to feed it.  It died within the next five minutes.

Suffice it to say, I felt horrible.  I felt lucky to have raised them to fledgling status and felt we were doing all that we could, but such a tiny bird, (three inches long at fledgling size) has precious little reserves.  I’ve raised birds in the past and managed to get them successfully fledged and launched, so was following that same protocol, but failed in the end, on this one.

I’ve found with baby birds, and told Ada from the get-go, that you do the best you can but assume something is going to happen at some point or another.   And, yes, I know that it is technically illegal to help out a baby bird.  When we found a nest of screech owls a couple of summers ago, I tracked down the experts and drove halfway to St. Louis to get them to someone who could handle their special requirements, teach them to hunt, etc.  I’ll post the link to that place later, and it is wonderful and is what I recommend for most small creatures that need help. Anyway, here’s Cottonball a day or so before it was flying all over the yard and in the lower right is a picture of the flight cage we built to help transition it to full time outside then wild.

Some leaves that Ada and I picked up on a walk last Sunday.

My grandmother passed away this week after a long sweet life.

I put together a collage of some images of Grandma and her family for the funeral, and then scanned some new images of Grandma, thanks to my cousin, Randy, who showed up with 30 originals — thanks, Randy!  I’d been hoping to get a fresh scan of the image below of Grandma with her sisters since the first time I saw it.  I just love it.

Hard to believe that three weeks ago we were wearing jackets. It has been so wet that the fields have set fallow longer than usual and annuals like yellow rocket have had time to bloom.

We just got home from a quick trip to Chicago. I had a one day photography workshop, which we turned into a little three day family vacation. I have more images to post, but here’s one for now of Ada at the Shedd Aquarium.

I’ve been moving my bee hives around and set up a new hive last week. In the process I threw out an old bee hive super because the corners rotted out. We burned the bee super in the firepit in our backyard last night and at the risk of making it sound like we’ve gone trippy down here in Bunnyville, I have to say that the bee box burned beautifully. I went and got the camera, figuring it was going to be interesting if I managed to melt or otherwise mess up an expensive lens taking pictures of a bonfire. Anyway, here’s our fire dog, and in case you’re wondering, no, I didn’t photoshop it to make it look more “dog-like.”

We have new chicks hatched. We always have too many chickens, but Ada and I never grow tired of looking at freshly hatched chicks. We brought some in to babysit them a while before turning them back over to the “professionals,” otherwise known as the banties.

I have a fortune cookie stuck on my refrigerator from over a year ago. It was Ada’s fortune and it read, “A financial investment will yield returns beyond your hopes.” I laughed when I read it to her and asked her what she thought it meant.

She thought for a moment before replying in a very certain voice, “Chicks stay alive.”

Considering our banty population, I’d say we are very fortunate indeed.

And Ada holding chicks in the chicken shed as I handed them down from the boxes.