Halloween Fun!

Who needs haunted houses when you have a dad who calls his 14 year old daughter to the door and scares the life out her with this beast...

This is a beautiful 15lb striped bass that Ed brought home for dinner.  It is not so beautiful when you don't expect to find its gaping mouth greeting you at the door.

Here is as about as gruesome as we get on Halloween -

The stomach contents of the bass. 

 We were all pretty amazed at how many little sand eels this fish ate! 

Blech.

We are usually much more into cute on Halloween.....

I really hated to admit it but Aidan was a very cute Wizard and he will not be happy that I said so!

Our handsome Robin Hood. 

The ever adventurous Pipi Longstocking.

A mischievous cat. 

 There was a great debate over who was cuter - Hannah or Mewster.   Mewster is the perfect looking Halloween cat who needs no costume.

The original mischievous cat!

Thanks to a well stocked dress up box and bits and pieces from Halloween's past - the only thing we bought new this year was a black shirt for Hannah's cat.  We were also grateful for the loan of the Wizard hat.

Halloween 2010



New baby chicks! 

We've been pretty busy.  Life is full of comings and goings so it seems a little crazy to bring keeping chickens back into the mix of daily life.  But when the girls were younger they had the experience of marveling at wee baby chicks and I wanted that experience for Christian and Aidan too. 

Isn't she sweet? 

It was just wonderful to get the call from Ed that the post office had called his cell phone to let us know that the chicks had arrived.  The boys and I eagerly jumped in the car and took the drive to the post office.  We were all smiles as we asked about the "peeping package" that was waiting for us.

The boys are so gentle with the chicks and the older girls are of course delighted with them too.  We initially had them set up in the house with a heat lamp where we could keep an eye on them.  Out of the 25 chicks only one did not do well and had died within a day or two.  But happily all the others look well and are already feathering out nicely.

What began as the sweet trilling sound of baby birds soon became much louder - especially at night - with the flapping of wings and very loud chirping!  They have now been moved to a bigger bin with hay in the outdoor shed.  They still  have their heat lamp and seem quite cozy.  It won't be too long before they are moved to the coop. 

The boys will be responsible for the bulk of their care - Aidan and I go up together in the morning to add or change the hay, change their water and give them fresh food.  Christian goes up in the evening to give them fresh food and water.  The boys are excited and willing to do their tasks right now - we'll see what happens when the temperatures start dropping!

We are looking forward to our own fresh eggs again this Spring!