A Day in the Field

This week was Orin's school vacation week,

leaving him with a little free time to tag along 

and do some field work with Abby and I.

 Our first stop was Pilgrim Lake to take a stream velocity measurement.

Orin was in love,

although honestly I think he just liked getting to wade in the water

and was less impressed with our fancy velocity meter

(have I mentioned he likes anything that has to do with water?)

 

 Next we went to see the elvers and herring at the 

entrance to the fish ladder.

 The run of the river herring is a big deal around the Cape.

The herring start to come in as soon as the water gets warm in the spring.

After the first couple, the migration becomes more like an explosion.

It is hard to see from this picture, 

but the ladders look like a herring traffic jam.

 The bottom of this ladder is sand, so all the brown in the picture 

are the herring!

Pretty awesome if you are into fish.

And in other field notes:

this is a female box turtle caught by one of my co-workers 

at the Cape Cod National Seashore.

Don't worry, she is going to be released tomorrow.

All the critters of Spring!

Hope you are having a good one!

How to Prep a Garden

Step 1:

Forget to take a picture of step 1

(Building the raised bed)

 Step 2:

Dig out the bottom of the bed

 Step 3:

Get help digging out the bed.

 Step 4:

Get dirt.

Lots of dirt.

 Step 5:

Take 1,456 wheelbarrow loads from the dirt pile to the raised beds

until the beds are full...

 OR

Skip Step 5 and instead play naked in the dirt pile.

 Step 6

Take a bath and get dressed again,

then collapse into the finished bed

thus getting totally dirty again.

All in a hard days work.

Some pictures from March

 Although I don't know how, 

I managed to completely forget to post these pictures

from last month of Orin taking the first swim of the year.

 My first swim of the year will probably occur 

sometime in July or August,

but this kid just doesn't feel cold

(I think it is because of his protective layer of

I-don't-care-about-anything-but-swimming)

Welcome back pond days!

New Babies!

 Orin has some news....

 His flock just got five chicks larger.

It was love at first squeeze.

Maryland

 As soon as we got to Maryland,

we met up with Alden, Kato, and the newest member of the family:

Baby August!

(Oh, my... need I even comment on how adorable he is?)

 It didn't even take a second for Orin and Alden 

to come up with the latest

only-in-a-three-year-old-mind-does-this-seem-like-a-good-idea plan:

stripping off their clothes and jumping into the kiddy pool

despite the fact that it was not all that warm out

(Orin has, to my knowledge, never missed an opportunity to swim)

  

 After their swim we headed to the Chesapeake Bay

where Atlas and Paley got to take a swim of their own.

 It was a beautiful day so we posed for some pictures...

 The kids threw some rocks in the water:

and Casey threw some sticks:

(Atlas retrieved them)

 Exhausted from the activities,

we took a brief moss nap,

 before heading home to jump back in the pool

(this time with proper attire)

 And later, with blue lips and wrinkled fingers

the kids played some group ipad games

 before Alden's birthday dinner

and, of course, pink cake.

It has been a wonderful trip.

And now, back to the Cape.

Over the water, under the water

Ok, sorry for leaving you stranded in North Carolina,

I have just been extra busy lately.

Anyway, to get you up to speed,

let's head to our next stop on the way home, Maryland, 

where one of our favorite cousins was about to have her birthday.

But first, we need to go over the bridge...

and through the tunnel and over the bridge

and into the tunnel again

 and through the tunnel

and back out again

and over the bridge...

You get the picture. 

18 miles later we were across the famous Bridge-Tunnel 

and pulled over at a rest stop because by then we all had to pee

(or at least the dogs did).

At the rest area we discovered a rare specimen in a tree

 and decided to take it with us. 

See you in Maryland!