Orin's T-Ball

This spring Orin is signed up to begin Tot T-Ball.

To prepare for his newest sport

(he is still playing soccer once a week,

now in both the 3.5- 5 year old class and the 6-8 year old class)

he has been practicing every day, 

or as often as he can convince his daddy to take him to the local ball field.

Last weekend I went with them to film some of Orin's new skills.

We accidentally forgot the T-ball tee,

but as it turned out, that was not a problem.

As you can see from the video, the only problem that 

came up during the practice was that Casey really needs a helmet.

Enjoy.

Back to the Beach

It has been a particularly long, cold spring this year, 

but the other day it finally hit 70 degrees

which prompted an afternoon trip to the beach.

It was hard to tell who was happier to be back by the water,

Orin who instantly started drawing himself 

(and his name) in the sand

 or the dogs, who are only allowed a small window of 

warm weather beach time each year before they are banished

by laws created for the massive influx of tourists

that will begin to arrive shortly.

And speaking of beach, 

here I am with a beach ball under my shirt...

or wait, that is not a beach ball. 

Beach balls don't wiggle or kick

or get the hiccups at 3am.

Four weeks to go.

I can't wait!

Casey up a Tree

Every once in a while I am greeted by a moment

where the first thing that crosses my mind is

"I am going to need to write a post about this."

This morning I had one of those moments.

It started with this:

"What is that?" you might be wondering.

It is Casey's solution to a problem we have had in the backyard

for the last couple months:

A limb that cracked during one of the blizzards this winter

was dangling precariously over an area of

the yard that we walk under regularly.

To reach the offending branch, Casey created this saw-on-a-stick.

 

 The only problem with the contraption was that it ended up

being about 5 feet shorter than it would need to be to reach the branch.

So instead, he decided to climb up the tree and cut it by hand,

a process which took a painfully long time.

But, in the end, the branch came down.

So the lesson learned is when innovation fails you

there is nothing like brute force and a bit of crazy

to solve the problems of the day.

Trouble Returns!

The other day I pulled into the driveway to be greeted by 

a very familiar ball of fluff.

Our Trouble, who disappeared last fall,

had finally come home!

She looked slightly over-fed and slightly under-loved

but all in all she seemed to have fared pretty well.

Now all that is left to do is work on making up for 

some of the lost snuggle time.

Play time!

Despite the fact that Orin is super excited about his baby sister

"popping out" on his birthday,

we were a bit worried that his fifth birthday 

might be eclipsed by the other birthday occurring around that time

so we decided to get him an early birthday present:

a play structure for the backyard.

Step one was to disassemble the structure

 which, even with only a team of two,

we managed to do in record time.

A little over an hour later, 

all of the pieces were stacked in a big pile.

 

Although the Prius was useful in transporting the swings,

they ended up taking up pretty much all of the available trunk space

so we rented a U-haul to get the larger sections.

 After getting it back home, we started the slightly more challenging 

operation of assembly.

That big pile of pieces turned into a large, very heavy puzzle.

Luckily, we had some good help.

Slowly, it started to come together.

And finally, it was finished.

 

 Orin was a self-appointed tester of his new structure.

It passed inspection.

 

 All in a good day's work.

Egg Innundation

Typically, during the winter months

chickens naturally lay fewer eggs.

Chicken-raisers just know to be patient and 

eventually in the spring the flock picks back up with regular production. 

Knowing this fact, I was expecting to see some kind of a decline in

the number of eggs I was pulling out of the nest boxes each day.

However, my girls apparently didn't get the memo.

All winter long I have been trudging through the snow

to collect the 10-12 eggs per day from my 12 chickens.

Now, don't get me wrong, I am glad to have plenty of eggs

but I have to say, there are some downsides. 

For example, where do you put all of these eggs?

Throughout most of the winter

almost every inch of room in my fridge was taken up by eggs

and trust me, nobody can make quiche fast enough 

to put any kind of substantial dent in their collection.

So I started packaging them up and bringing them to the local feed store

where the owners happily purchase them from me 

and sell them to their customers.

 My girls eggs are particularlly popular because of their

beautiful deep orange yolks

and beacuse almost every dozen contains at least one of these: 

a two-for-one egg.

 It is hard to take a photograph that really shows the enormity

of this Ameraucana egg,

but here it is again next to a perfectly normal size Red Star egg.

Even extra large egg cartons can not contain these beasts.

 

Last week, after returning home from North Carolina

I was greeted by a fridge that contained nothing but a wall of eggs.

We literally could not have gone to the grocery store

because there would have been no room for food.

So out of pure necessity, I sold 18 dozen eggs to the feed store 

before I was cut off... they had run out of room in their fridge.

After selling 18 dozen eggs at least I was able to 

stack the remaining 4 dozen in the drawers of the fridge

to free up some room for other important fridge contents,

like, for example, milk.

So why have my girls kept up their egg production 

all winter and at what point will they feel the need to rest?

I suppose you will just have to ask them

for I honestly have no idea.

But, for now, let's focus on the more important question: 

Frittata anyone?

Happy Easter!

 Happy Easter!

 Happy egg hunt!

 And maybe, just maybe.... Happy Spring!

(finally!)