Toadies

For some time now, I've been aware that there are toads living outside my window. I think I became aware when I came home one day to find one sitting on my windowsill, staring blankly into my room. In contrast to that one-time outpouring of curiosity, the toads are usually very silent and very well-hidden. In fact, I rarely see them, despite looking out my window for them every day. Today when I opened my blinds, it appears that one was in the middle of a game of hide-and-go-seek:

I decided to look around a little more closely and I discovered that the toad population was in fact much higher than I had originally imagined. This one is the smallest toad. He had perched himself on a rock, undoubtably looking for the hiding toad.

His cousin is a little bigger and was hiding under a leaf: 

And of course, the grandaddy. This one's eyes quickly scared me out of the open window and back into my room. He looks like he's about two croaks away from warping into a small dragon and flying around my window-well belching fire and brimstone. I'm going to have a difficult time mustering much sleep at night knowing that he's about 10 inches away from my head. He didn't give the least effort in attempting to hide.

Applefest Cancelled

As you can see by this picture of my lone surviving apple tree, there are no apples on it now. There were 3 small, rather scruffy looking apples on it until recently. Apparently someone or animal decided they wanted them and took them.

I wasn't sure how we were going to celebrate, perhaps we could have made a quarter cup of cider or a few tablespoons of apple sauce or even a half slice of pie. Or perhaps David and I were simply going to each eat 1 and 1/2 apples to begin and end the festivities. But regardless the event has been canceled so you can make the appropriate notations on your calenders. Maybe next year...

A truly electrifying experience

After days of goading, I've finally caved to the peer pressure and agreed to upload photos of my new electrical panel. For the clamoring hordes eagerly awaiting these images, have fun!


Here's the old panel—pretty messy, and not altogether safe.


Here are the two panels side by side. In this picture, the old panel (on the left) is being backfed from the new panel (on the right). That way I had power in my house between the time when the power company switched over the outside wires and I when I finally finished transferring over the circuits.


The new panel, with all the circuits moved over. Pending a final inspection, this job is done.


The lonely, old panel. Poor old panel, locked out of its electricity. I'll put you back...


Outside the house, the new mast along with the new wire running to it.

Picture of Electrical Panel

I decided to post a picture of my electrical panel as a seed picture. Thought maybe it would germinate other pictures of other family member's electrical panels on the blog.

A Walk in the Woods

Over Labor Day Weekend we spent some time at the camp in Gladstone (Brampton, to be specific) relaxing and enjoying the outdoors. We had several visitors as Mom and Aunt Sue made a short visit on their way from Hancock to Muskegon and Dad also stopped by on his way from Minneapolis back home. We also had a big family get together on Labor Day proper, after which we became the proud owners of two large taco salads.

In addition to picking apples and watching the deer, the kids had a blast using their imaginations while playing in the pine forest. We also had a demonstration of how a mousetrap works (fortunately not with a real mouse). There were no bat appearances in the camp this year.

One of the exciting experiences at camp is going for a walk - over the Days River and into the deep woods.

Everyone made it to the trail-head. I think the kids were told to look for acorns, which is a challenge because there aren't many (any?) oak trees at camp. Instead, they've identified several pine cones.

There are feisty crayfish in the river. This is one of the bigger ones.

After crossing the bridge, we handed out the cameras. We took pictures of the flora and fauna:

Everyone had to have a leaf:

We found another frog. Actually, there were tons of these little guys. They jumped around like grasshoppers.

A nice crow flew by and offered to take everyone's picture:

We found more to photograph:

It was a good walk.

For you non-facebookers...

In our spare time, Karl and I have been working on decorating and settling into our new home. Ok, mostly it's been me decorating, but he's been very helpful in hanging things on the walls : ) I thought I'd take some pictures so you could all see our new place!

Our spare bedroom/office

Cozy bedroom complete with new age bedspread

Our tiny, yet functional bathroom

The refrigerator is laughing at you

Our tv doesn't actually show any channels or movies, we just like to watch it glow

Give a Bug a Hug

I stepped outside yesterday and there were two bugs on the side of the garage door. They were just hanging out. The first was a large walking stick. It actually stayed there for most of the day. 

And a cicada.

 The two were not on speaking terms.

I never realized that walking sticks had pincers.

This is a decoy walking stick that I found.

Here's to You Dad...

Dad, remember the times when I would beg you to tell me a story? And then, do you remember when you ran out of story material and I had to tell you what story I wanted told to me?

Well, one of my most vivid memories of those stories involves finding abandoned military bunkers full of all kinds of army vehicles and machines. This has long been a fantasy of mine. And today, I discovered that it is in fact a reality.

So here's to you Dad, for telling me one of my most favorite stories that was in fact true.

Hiding in the Tall Grass

I would like for you to meet some turkies:

These are but a few of the turkies that I see on my way to work each day. They stand around on the side of the road and lurk at me from the tall grass. This time of the year, they move in packs. Large turkey gangs. These are young turkies, and they are particularly brazen. This pack spilled over into the road and slowly poked around on the pavement. I and a couple other cars actually had to come to a complete stop in front of them while they considered their options and began shuffling off the road.

Turkies are also excessively weak-willed in their intentions, or else stupid. Just as it begins to dawn on some of their comrades that the road is no good and really needs to be avoided, new turkies begin mindlessly sauntering back out onto the pavement to see what all the excitement was about.

This turkey got too close to the car.

A little gardening project

As anyone who's seen my house knows, I've got more than enough projects to keep me busy. When things like a new kitchen and roof repairs are on my list, landscaping has fallen lower on the list of priorities. But a few weeks ago I picked up a bunch of perennials on sale and decided to ignore the urgent projects for a few days and convert one of my landscaping beds to a perennial garden.



Here's a picture of the landscaping bed in front of my house. It's pretty overgrown with lily of the valley and a bunch of annoying weeds that grow through the bed of rocks.



Here's the same bed after I removed all the plants, weeds, landscaping blocks, and a whole mess of flagstones that were hiding in there.


Now with 100% more plants! There's a variety of things here, which should blossom over the course of the summer and fall—ideally there's some color blooming at all times (though I think it's going to be hard to expect that in the winter). In the midst of everything on the left (kind of hard to see here) is a red elderberry, which will grow big white blossoms of flowers in the summer, followed by clusters of tart, red berries in the fall. I'm really excited to see this grow into a bigger plant—it should get close to 6 feet tall and fill out quite a bit. With any luck it'll hide the house.


And, lastly, the garden with mulch and flagstones laid out so you can walk into it without crushing the plants or the dirt bed.

Welcome Andrew

Barnhart, Baby Boy (2) has entered the waking world. Rachel and the baby both did very well. Here are the important details:

Andrew Paul Barnhart
Born August 10, 2011 at 2:10pm
8 lbs, 9 oz.
20.5 inches

He's a keeper.

Be sure to check out the latest food post, too.