Guemes Beach Day

We got to spend a day with Grandma Debbie, Poppi, and Chloe at Guemes Island.  It was a beautiful day and the kids had a great time turning over rocks to find crabs, picking up shells and pretty rocks, and playing together all day.  

Lunch break - it felt good to rest on a log for a while after a long walk down the beach.

 Chloe even found a pet slug!  This kid will pick up and make a pet of ANY critter she can catch.

Science!  We brought Conan's little microscope and bug viewer/magnifier and the kids had a great time finding stuff from the beach to examine up close, and to show off to Poppi.

Whoa, another crab!  Every rock has something neat under it.  They didn't quite turn over EVERY rock on the beach, but they did a pretty thorough job of it - right up until the (predictable) smashed finger incident.

It was a great day.

Birdsong

A large flock of red-wing blackbirds arrived about a week ago, and have been hanging around our birdfeeder ever since, singing for their suppers.  You can't see them in this video, but you can sure hear them!



Our wetland is a perfect nesting area for the red-wings, so we generally get to enjoy hearing their songs all summer, though not in the numbers we have currently!  These are probably migrants and will continue heading north in coming weeks. It's sure nice that they stopped to sing for us for a time.

Lake Sylvia

Super Ultra Family Campout 2012 was a total success!



Lake Sylvia was a beautiful venue for our campout. I was initially not impressed - the lake is small, tree-lined, and not very far (5 minutes? maybe less.) from the nearest town. But it delivered big fun. We swam in the water right from our campsite as well as visiting the designated swimming area, the kids formed a tricycle gang and rode up and down the campground road, we paddled all around the lake and explored its nooks and crannies in our inflatable kayak, we saw otters, canada geese, and millions of newts, and we ate and drank and generally had a marvelous time together. It was everything a family campout should be.

Update: More pictures, collected from all the cameras on hand, can be viewed at Gabe's site: http://www.gabetaylor.net/General/lakeSylvia2012/
Bonus newt video:

Newt!

We found this cool newt on our lawn after a rain. We see them occasionally, living next to a swamp. They're really neat creatures.

Science!

 

We found a bunch of pupae when we were working up the garden, so we decided to hatch them and see what they would turn into. We kept them in a jar for several weeks. Finally a big fat grey-brown moth hatched out of one a couple days ago. Two more hatched this morning. We let them go outside.

I'm still not sure what kind of moth they are, but it hardly matters. The important thing is that Conan got to watch a fascinating natural process up close, and loved it.

Update 5/28: Another one hatched this morning!

Mother's Day Massacre

Yesterday tragedy struck.  It started out a perfect day, warm and sunny, blue skies with a light breeze.  We went out to a lovely Mother's Day brunch, never suspecting the carnage we would find on our return home: a raven killed all our sweet innocent ducklings.

I saw the raven perched in the tree above the duck pen, and then watched as it flew a short way and landed at the end of the driveway.  I realized that it was carrying something, but it still took me several moments to comprehend that it was a duckling.  Ravens were simply not on my radar as a potential predator.  I was dumbfounded as I watched it tossing the limp fuzzy yellow body around.

Conan saw it too, and realized at about the same time I did what it was.  He shrieked and ran into the house sobbing. My heart broke knowing that I couldn't shield him from this grief, but I went after him and held him as he cried.  I didn't think it could get any worse than seeing him realize that there was nothing we could do to save his duckling.

But it did get worse.  Cary had gone out to chase off the raven and check on the rest of the ducklings.  He returned with the simple, dreadful news that there were no more ducklings.  None.  We hadn't lost just one duckling, we had just seen the last duckling die.  We had fundamentally failed to keep those sweet, tame baby ducks safe.

"Ravens are BAD! They stealed all my baby ducks and eated them! I hate ravens!" Conan sobbed.

I held him close and we talked about predators.  We talked about how lions eat zebras, and the zebras don't like it, but that doesn't mean the lions are bad.  They are just lions.

We talked about sharks and seals, T-rex and stegosaurus, cats and mice, robins and worms.  Animals have to eat other animals, but it doesn't make them bad.  They are just animals, doing what they have to do.

We talked about how the raven probably has a nest with baby ravens in it, and the baby ravens are happy now because their tummies are full.  And the baby ravens aren't bad, they are just hungry babies.  And the mama raven isn't bad, she is just a raven mama who has to feed her babies.

Once we had worked our way through the basics of predation, I said we would get more ducklings.  "No mama" Conan snuffled.  "The raven will come and eat them too."

So we talked about netting, and how papa was outside Right Now putting netting over the duck pen so when we got new baby ducks they would be safe.  Because even thought the raven wasn't bad,  we sure didn't want it to eat any of our baby ducks ever again.  (No no no no no!)

We've ordered more ducklings from the farm supply, and on Wednesday or Thursday we'll have ducks again.  We've learned some important lessons about life and death and daytime predators, so things should work out better.

And just to be on the safe side, we won't name the new ducklings after desserts.

5/15 Update:  Conan told me this morning that he dreamed of the raven that killed the ducks.  In his dream, he caught it "and it didn't even try to bite me!"  I asked him what happened after that, and he said "Nothing.  I letted it go.  And it is my friend.  All the ravens in the whole world are my friends now!  All of them.  And they are good, not bad.  All the ravens in the WHOLE wide world are my friends and they are good."  I asked him if he was still sad about losing his ducklings and he said he was, but "not as sad anymore now that I have raven friends."

What a sweet heart my little boy has.  It seems losing our ducklings, though painful and sad, has taught us a thing or two about forgiveness as well as life and death.

Zoo 2011

Today we went to the zoo!  Conan and I met Jon, Nadege and Chloe and spent the day checking out all the animals.  We had a great time.  One special highlight was seeing the tundra wolves hunting squirrels right next to the viewing spot at their exhibit.  I've never even glimpsed the wolves before, my understanding is that they stay hidden a lot of the time.  But not today!  We also had a lot of fun watching the gorillas.  There was a young one, not exactly a baby - call it a toddler - who was nursing when we arrived at the viewing station.  It was such a sweet and loving moment to see between mama and child.  Very human, for lack of a better word.  Another gorilla came right up to the glass, sat down, and made faces and interacted with the kids for quite some time.  We also enjoyed feeding the birds in the parrot house, watching the elephants being fed, and watching the penguins swimming in their pools.  We saw snakes, toads, lizards (including komodo dragons), turtles, lions, tigers, kangaroos, meerkats, bears, eagles, fish, and lots of different kinds of monkeys.

I'm exhausted, but in a very good way.  It's been a year since we last visited the zoo.  I hope we go again sooner next time!

2nd Bee Sting

On the 4th of July, Conan got his first bee sting, right below his right eye. He got his 2nd bee sting yesterday, on his left ear. I have no idea why he keeps getting stung on the head, instead of on his feet like most kids. I guess he's just hardcore like that! This sting came from yellow jackets that made themselves a nest inside one of his toy trucks. Yikes.

His ear swelled up and turned bright pink, so for about 30 minutes he looked like he had some kind of toy clown ear on. We gave him some acetaminophen and applied a baking soda paste, made some popcorn (his request) and then cuddled and watched cartoons until he was feeling better. The swelling went down nearly as fast as it came on, and he had a matching set of regular little-boy ears again by naptime. Whew!

Beavers

We apparently have beavers. We haven't seen any beavers; nor have we seen any fallen trees or chewed logs. But what other creature would build a dam this substantial?
Last year we battled some kind of dam critter, but it never really approached this level of engineering, so we had hoped it was just a muskrat. Now I'm thinking maybe it was an inexperienced beaver, and he spent the winter really perfecting his dam building techniques.
This spring's dam is situated in a more critical spot on the stream, and is much higher than anything he attempted last season. We're seeing a real change in the water table around our place, as the spring rains are caught in the swamp and backed up behind this dam.

This is the second time this week that we've dismantled it. As you can see from the below pictures (taken just downstream from the dam site at the bridge), the water level really comes up in the stream once the dam is removed.

That's the same tree in the center of these two shots, the second one was taken about an hour after the dam was removed on Saturday. The water came up about a foot, and looked like it would continue to flow at that level for at least 24 hours before the water level would come down in the wider area.

Notice that I said "looked like it would continue" above. After the dam was removed Saturday afternoon, the critters completely rebuilt it Saturday night. Sunday morning it was as if nothing had ever changed. Not knowing what else to do, we removed it again... although I suspect that tomorrow morning it will have reappeared. I'm not sure what we can do, realistically, to prevent beavers from building dams. I guess the hope is that we can hassle them enough that they will move the dam back into the swamp where it will (hopefully) not back the water right up into our backyard.

Spiraea

Also known as Hardhack and Steeple-Flower, spiraea douglasii is a common native wetland plant in our area. It is the dominant species in much of our swamp, and this time of year it is in full bloom.
Looking down from the observation platform, the swamp looks like a lush meadow sprinkled with bright spikes of fluffy pink flowers. But as is so often the case, looks can be deceiving. It's actually an impenetrable thicket, a thick, 8 foot high tangle of small woody stems growing over the soggy and uneven ground. No frolicing in this "meadow"!

Spirea is often thought of as a nuisance plant. It's a common weed in my flower beds and garden, and has to be cut back away from outbuildings, trails and driveways every year. It's vigorous, opportunistic, and tolerant of just about any growing conditions. In its proper place, however, it's a magnificent plant, and I am really enjoying the blooming of our swamp this year.

Zoo Zoo Zoo

Yesterday we went with the Ericsons to the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle. It was amazing. It was Conan's first time at a Zoo and he had so much fun.

Some of highlights: Feeding the birds in the Australian bird exhibit, looking for penguins in the underwater viewing portals, seeing the Sloth Bears "wrestling", watching the Orangutan play peek-a-boo, and seeing the Snow Leopard mother & cubs playing out and about in their exhibit. The real tigers were sleeping, but we had brought along our own tiger anyway. The Lions gave us a nice show, stalking about their enclosure and evoking many good loud roars from our little guy.

We also saw Elephants, Giraffes, Brown Bears, Otters, Mountain Goats, Zebras, Meerkats, Kangaroos, Emus, and many snakes, bugs, and other birds and animals. Conan loved seeing the animals, although with the snow leopards and the elephants he was much more interested in the big ball in their enclosure than with the animals themselves.

By the end of the day Conan was super tired, but even so he stayed awake in the car for nearly an hour on the way home, happily babbling and making animal noises and generally telling us all about the fun he had at the zoo. It was a great day.

Goin' Birdwatching

Let Conan be your guide for a trek through the woods in search of those most wily and mysterious of creatures... birds!

Precious little free time these days, it seems! I've been meaning to edit this down to a manageable length and post it for a while now. Because unbearably cute tho he is, I realize no-one wants to watch 4 minutes of the back of a little blonde boy walk down a path through tall grass in the spring sunshine. I certainly wouldn't have watched it as often as I have if he was someone else's kid. Now when he points to the bird and squeals in delight, though... well, that's another story. Everyone wants to see that!

Worm!

Conan found a worm in the garden. He was so proud of it, we had to take it into the house to show Papa. Then we released it back into the wild.

The worm got a little bit squished in one spot, but I think it'll recover. It certainly wasn't hurt any worse than the ones I cut in half with the shovel every time I dig.

We also saw a Pileated woodpecker in the yard. Conan was absolutely entranced.
Outside is so much fun to explore. Watching Conan discover everything from slugs to spiders to leaves, flowers, rocks and sticks is just amazing.

30 Seconds of Frogs

This is 30 seconds of our nightly frog song*. There are so many frogs that it's not ribbits that you hear, after a few seconds it becomes a solid wall of sound. I find it weirdly hypnotic. It reminds me a little of heavy metal guitar.

It's also a good explanation for why this swamp we live in really just doesn't have a mosquito problem. Thank goodness for frogs!


*It's a video, but there's nothing to see 'cuz it's nighttime! ha.

Monkey Boy

Normally I avoid posting any videos featuring my voice, because I sound like a total dork. But I decided that sharing the cuteness of Conan's animal noise repertoire is worth a little self-embarrassment.

Conan's monkey impression is the only thing that could possibly be cuter than his lion roar. Ever.

Outside Fun

Conan is really enjoying the nice spring weather. He's very interested in birds, flowers, rocks, and puddles. Puddles, as everyone knows, are for stomping in.

He's also a connoisseur of rocks. It takes forever to walk to the mailbox (aka toddler death march) and not just because it's a long way. No, the biggest problem is that there are rocks all over the road, and Conan needs to pick up and inspect most of them.

He also constantly points out birds, saying "Birr! Birr!" whenever one flies by. It's extremely exciting when a whole flock flies by. We've been seeing large flocks of red-wing blackbirds (they sing so beautifully!), as well as Canada Geese moving through the area. They make Conan smile and clap his hands.

I picked up some ranunculus starts and put them in the planter by the front door a couple weeks ago. They suffered through a few hard frosts but are doing quite well, and now are blooming nicely. Conan is fascinated by the blossoms.

Today we had a great work day, we got all the mitigation plants ringed with bark, planted a couple of cedar tree starts, removed the sod from a strip by the garden where we're planning to put in some raspberries, and nearly got the front flower bed all weeded and edged. There's just about 5 feet left to do. It sure feels like spring! I have to keep reminding myself that it is really only early March. :)

Chanterelles

It's been an unusually rainy fall in Plain, which means monster Chanterelles! After lunch on Friday we went for a walk in the woods (to work off some turkey) and gathered these beauties:

This one is the largest Chanterelle I've ever seen.

Cleaned and trimmed, there were enough of these to give some away, eat a bunch, and STILL put some in the freezer for later. Delicious!

Summer's end

The grass is still green and the sun is shining, but it's definitely not summer anymore. We had our first light frost a week ago and a killing frost last night. I'm relieved, frankly; no more trying to keep up with the beans, tomatoes and cucumbers in the garden. I will miss the sunflowers though. It really was an amazing year for them in my garden. This spring when I was laying out my beds I just didn't have the heart to take out very many of the volunteer sunflowers that had popped up. As a result, by mid-summer my corn was stunted from growing up in the shade of so many sunflowers, but I enjoyed the luxury of giving away huge bouquets of dazzling blooms all summer long. Now this year's flowers are dropping their seeds (the ones the chickadees miss, anyhow) all over the garden, so next spring I will face the same choice: the garden I've planned, or the garden that volunteers?

Another sign of fall that I am enjoying is the finches foraging for thistle seeds. Among the clover and vetch that we planted as a cover crop on the someday-to-be orchard grew a large number of big purple thistles. All summer long as I drove down the driveway I would look at them and think "Man, I really need to get out there and cut those before they go to seed." But, I never did. Inevitably, the thistles went to seed. However, I had not counted on the army of finches which has descended upon the thistle patch and is just loving those seeds. Now when I drive by I enjoy watching the finches spook and fly off, and I love knowing that my laziness actually resulted in a bonanza of seed for these birds. There's probably a pithy saying that sums this up, but I can't think of it.

It's very very windy today, and cold despite the sun. Still, it's not raining so Conan and I are going to bundle up and go over to the Cloud Mountain Farm fall fruit festival. I expect it will be a lot of fun! Perhaps I'll have some pictures tomorrow...

A frog on a fig

This little guy has found a great perch.

Last year we planted a fig tree on the south side of the house. It's a super hardy variety, and a good sheltered spot, so we thought it would do well. However, the winter storms we had in December brough extreme cold temperatures; I thought the fig was done for. Our rosemary plant and a couple of blueberries did in fact die. But lo & behold, late in the spring a few little shoots appeared at the base of the trunk on the fig. Now it is doing great!
I probably ought to prune several of these branches off of it, but they are all covered in figs so I can't bring myself to do so. I'll trim it next spring, after we see what makes it through the winter.

Spring! Bees! Rhubarb!

Spring finally is here. I've gotten peas, lettuces, radishes, brussel sprouts, kale, green onions, spinach, pak choi and beans planted. The beans were starts that really needed to go in the ground, but I'm afraid they got a bit shocked by a hard frost last night. Everything else is doing great though. The lawn has been mowed twice now already, its growing super fast.
Mason Bees are loving the nesting block we put up for them. They found it and started nesting almost immdeiately after I hung it up. We've actually had the block for a couple of years but never managed to find a spot to hang it up. The sunny side of the woodshed seems to really be a hit. Mason bees are a shiny black stingless native NW bee that are the best polinators around. They lay their eggs in crevices with a supply of pollen and then wall them in with mud. The larvae will hatch next spring and do it all again. It's really fun to watch them working, flying in and out of the nesting holes - busy as bees, one might say. The nesting block has paper tube liners so we can pull them out next spring and put in fresh ones for the bees to use. We can also move the whole block to a sheltered spot to keep the bees safe through the winter.
A couple weeks ago Dave brought over several rhubarb starts and planted them in various spots around the yard. They are doing great - we're going to have a lot of rhubarb this summer and in years to come, which is terrific: my rhubarb-chardonnay and rhubarb-ginger jams both got rave reviews last year. :)