Working kids

On Sunday the kids helped me get some things ready for the Fall Foliage craft show this coming weekend. I sanded down the frames and they used the air hose to get rid of the sanding dust. They had a lot of fun and we got a lot of work done too!

Taking care of the doggies

Cole vacumming Luna! She's such a good dog! :)

Giving the doggies a treat.

Christa's Bridal Shower

On Saturday we went to Christa's bridal shower and had lots of fun! The kids LOVED spending time with baby Gabrielle!

Cole was so excited to "hold" the baby (well...she's almost a year already!)

What a face!!

smiley Gabby

What a cutie pie!!

Cole really like playing w/baby Gabrielle!

Cole "holding" Gabby

Making blueberry cobbler

Last week we make more blueberry cobbler...pretty yummy! :)

The video is actually from a few weeks ago when they made chocolate chip muffins.

Up for adoption...one stinky dog!

Well....Wyatt got sprayed by a skunk AGAIN tonight!! It wasn't NEARLY as bad as last time...but still pretty stinky. In the photo you can see that he's a little wet from the "spray" of the skunk. I mixed up another concoction of hydrogen peroxide, baking soda, dish soap and I added some Listerine! It actually worked good this time, I think that he was just sprayed too much last time (he was dripping wet with skunk juice) and it took multiple applications to even get rid of some of the smell. But, tonight after a soak of the peroxide mix and a good bath (also with more Listerine) he's smelling ok.

After getting sprayed :(

Luna smelled a little skunky around her face, but was otherwise fine (she also got the special bath treatment).

Wyatt HATES any kind of bath and wasn't too excited about getting coated with the "mix" and just after these pictures were taken he went to roll in some dirt under the kids play area.

Just kidding about the adoption thing....no matter how stinky he gets...we still love him!
Although...we still may have to develop a three times and you're out rule! ;)

Releasing more monarchs

When we got home tonight we had two monarchs to release! :) The kids were very excited and it was nice to have one for each of them to release...no argument over whose turn it was!

Rylie was explaining how her monarch would take off and fly to Mexico....notice how 'gently' Cole is holding his!

Rylie relased hers and it took off right away. Cole's hung around for a while and strengthened up her wings before taking flight!

Farmin' with Uncle Sam

Monday evening Curtis took the kids over to the Thomas Family farm (Sam's homeplace) for some fun around the farm. The kids helped Sam take some hay out to the cows and watched some milking. They didn't want to leave and really love hanging out with Uncle Sam and Aunt Victoria.

Riding around on one of the many tractors.

Luna and Chance

Curtis took this photo of the doggies...they're so cute!

Takin' a sniff....I thought this was a good one to show just how much Chance has grown! He's only 5 months old!!!!

Another good one of the doggies.

Scratchin' and strechin'

Making muffins

Last Tuesday night we decided to make one of the kid's favorites...chocolate chip muffins!

They put the batter in the muffin pan all by themselves!

Looking for deer

We took a break from working around the house and went to look for deer with Sam. As always, the kids had fun and made too much noise! We went out pretty early and only saw a few deer on the drive...nothing came out in the fields we were watching. I didn't get a picture of it, but the apples are all gone!

Using their binoculars to look for some deer.

Cole did such a good job and was using them the 'right way' until I asked him if I could get a picture and then he turned them upside down! Go figure.

Me and Rylie enjoying the ride on the back of the truck (the boys rode up front).

Curtis's version of getting Cole to the car.

Milkweed tussock moth caterpillars

These hungry milkweek tussock moth caterpillars have finally consumed an entire milkweed plant! Since we don't have any monarch caterpillar eggs (and doubt we get any more) on our other milkweed plants in our butterfly garden, we moved them over to another plant for more food! Rylie really enjoyed helping to move them to their 'new' home!

Aren't they cute!

Amish phonebooth

So for work, I collect water samples from tributaries to Piney Reservoir (near Frostburg, MD). One of the sites I collect is near an Amish (or Mennonite) community and is in a remote area. Well, this small building was erected last fall (it's about 100 feet from the road) and we assumed that it was an outhouse or something (there are no other houses nearby)....then we peeked in and it's actually a phonebooth!! There is a telephone line that runs to this little outbuilding in the middle of nowhere! There is a worn path leading to the outbuilding so it looks like it gets some good use!

more monarch caterpillars!

Wednesday on our ride home, we rescued a few monarch caterpillars from some milkweed along Sang Run (County Roads are mowing the roadsides).

The caterpillars took a truck ride down to the terrarium!