Crazy for the ocean

 Yesterday we went to Seagull beach for an after dinner walk.

(Please note the use of the word "walk"

and the fact that Orin is fully dressed upon arrival.)

After abandoning his shoes, Orin splashed in the surf a little,

but soon complained that he needed to take his shorts off...

Then his coat and his shirt...

(You might notice that Casey is wearing a sweatshirt, boots,

and a jacket)

For a brief moment he stood on the edge of the water, 

and then he was in.

15 minutes later we dragged him out, purple-lipped and goose bumped,

but still entirely insistent that we let him play more.

"We will come back this summer..."

we assured him...

"When the water is warmer"

But he will not wait that long... there is no way.

I am staring to think he's part polar bear...

Bye Bye Grass!

Last Spring when we moved to the Cape,
our front yard looked like this: 

just a bunch of deadish grass that needed to be
fertilized, watered, and mowed in order for it to look good
(we only bothered with the mowing part)

Not only was the grass high maintenance, but it provided no habitat

for birds and other critters, no flowers for the local pollinators, 

and no food/ herbs for us.

It wasn't hard to decide that the grass needed to go. 

So, last year when a nursery was scaling back their inventory

I bought every herb they carried and planted them in the front yard

along what was to be a pathway through the garden.

I am pretty sure the neighbors just thought I was crazy.

 After the winter, it was time to move on to step two
of our front garden plan.

I gathered up some pavers that we weren't using on the
side of the house and put them around the garden-to-be 

to define where the path would go.

We also planted a bunch of other plants, mostly cape cod natives,

to provide food and shelter for wildlife.

The next step was to till the entire yard to
kill the grass in each of the garden beds

before having 6 yards of mulch delivered to cover each bed.

And lastly, I planted another 20 or so varieties of flowering

plants and herbs by seed.

The next step is to line the pathways with rock 

and then cover them with sand or gravel...

It might take time, but I think our work will be well worth it

in a couple years when the plants get established 

and start to fill in the beds. 

Now I just have to convince the neighbors of that... :)

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.