Day 353

This morning everything was covered in frost. The sun was out an the whole world just sparkled. I wish I could have gotten some better pictures of it, but the camera just doesn't capture what the eye can see.

Day 326

While Wally and Ryan waited for the bus they heard a strange noise coming from the rock garden. I saw them going over to the side of the house and wondered what was going on, so when Wally came back in I asked him what was up. He told me that there is a strange animal in the rocks making a weird noise. So I went to go look with him, and there was nothing to see. I asked him if he was trying to fool me, and just as he tapped his foot on a rock, this thing popped his head out and screamed at us. Hello heart attack! I grabbed my camera and took a few pictures and a little video as well. I got out my North American Mamal Guide and was able to ID him as a mink. Isn't he cute?

Day 308

As I was washing up in the kitchen, I spotted these little gold finches in my black eyed susans. They're all picking out the seeds and fattening up for winter.

After I was done, I came into the back room to find that Alex had fallen asleep looking at the Sears Christmas Wish Book. I wonder if he's dreaming about what Santa will bring him?

For supper we had baked salmon steaks with a Garlic and dill lemon sauce that I made from scratch. It was to die for delicious. The steaks were huge and I ate the whole thing!

Day 279

Some geese resting in the still flooded fields on their way south.

Later in the afternoon we had a crazy little hail storm

Day 276

Wally and I had a kid free day so we decided to take a walk in the woods again and explore. It's just beautiful this time of the year...

The leaves this year are so much more colourful than the last few years. Check out the beautiful colouring on this one...

Day 262

I spotter this contraption at Wal-Mart today. Has society really become that lazy that they need this?

I think this mushroom in the garden was happy to see me :o :P

I bought a fake skull at the dollar store and put it in Ryan's bed. When he came home from school I told him someone was waiting in his room for him. I'm so going to hell :P

Day 259

At the bus stop this morning I was surprised with a tin of "get well" cookies from one of Ryan's schoolmates. I thought that was veyry kind of him, and for a 13 year old boy, he did a pretty good job. I may have had 3 of them for breakfast LOL

A check in the garden revealed that I have 1 measly pumpkin growing in my patch. That's 1 better than last year. I don't know why I can't grow any pumpkins. I have seen a few gardens around here with big orange pumpkins already and all I have is this little green thing about the size of a baseball.

Day 249

Two bees getting kinky in my garden. Bow chicka wow wow!

Day 248

The birds are getting ready to head south. In the woods today we saw a huge flock of grackles fly into the trees above us. I took some pictures, but they all turned out blurry. This was the best of the bunch and I don't even think you can spot a single bird in it. Oh well!

Day 247

On and off showers gave us this beautiful rainbow today. No pot of gold to be found anywhere. Bummer.

Day 240

We took our last family walk of summer vacation today. It didn't last that long as the mosquitoes were nuts! Though a fence we spotted this big buck. The picture is a bit blurry because I really had to get my camera to zoom.

I also found this giant centipede.

I'm also happy to announce that Wally finally kind of finished the hall closet. After about 4 years of looking at a gaping hole full of crap, he finally put in the frame, and door. It still needs to be painted and trimmed, but at least it looks better than before!

Day 229

I was sitting in the yard when this freaky bug landed on the sunflower beside me. I have never seen anything like it. It folded up its wings and I swear it looked like a Transformer. It was totally weird.

Look at the choppers on this guy!

Day 225

Today's freaky garden bug is this caterpillar. I have no idea what kind it is, but do you see that white tic-tac looking thing on it? That means it was impregnated by a wasp, so there is a wasp larvae living inside it and feeding off of it. Basically the larvae controls the caterpillar, and the caterpillar is now a mindless zombiepillar. Once the caterpillar forms it's chrysalis, the wasp larvae transforms inside, will chew it's way out leaving an empty chrysalis shell behind.

Wally brought home a little aquarium from the store yesterday that was no longer being used ,so we decided to set it up in our kitchen. We've had a few small beta tanks, but I missed having a real aquarium. I would have liked to have had a bigger tank, but this was free so I'm not complaining! I spent the day cleaning it and setting it up, waiting for the fish to come later when Wally came home from work. In the end it looked like this...The boys love it and so do I.

Our male fiddler crab

Day 223

A dragonfly takes a rest by my pond

One heck of an ugly spider snacking on an ant. I hate ants in the house, so this guy is doing me a favour.

Day 221

Black Eyed Susans are one of my favourite flowers. This little guy had decided to make one of my flowers his home.

Day 220

I took Ryan out with me grocery shopping while Alex stayed home with Dad. On the way home, I noticed that the truck driving ahead of me ran over ( as in above, not squished) something and as I passed over it I saw something wiggling. I thought at first that it was a bird moving it's wing, but then I thought, wait, was that a turtle?

So, I turned around in the next driveway and went back to look. The speed of the truck had knocked the little guy over and what I saw was him trying to flip himself back right side up. Last week I had found a turtle on the road near the house, and his shell was cracked and crushed. He was bleeding everywhere. The poor thing was still alive and there was nothing I could do for him. I didn't want this guy to suffer the same fate, so I grabbed him and put him in my car. I didn't see any water around for him, so I just brought him home and put him in our pond.

He's a painted turtle

Ryan's first time holding a turtle. He was a bit scared at first.

Waiting for him to take the plunge into the pond

Day 219

Today is the first day that I don't have a picture. I carried my camera everywhere with me today, but it just really slipped my mind to take a picture of something today. So, I'll cheat and use two pictures from yesterday that I didn't post.

A busy bee in the garden

and the guinea pigs having some outdoor time

Day 218

Another beautiful day spent outside. Along with 2 snakes, I also spotted this spider in the garden.

I even let my old girl Chloe out so she could eat some grass and sit in the shade in the backyard.

I also decided it was high time to give the boys a hair cut, Ryan will be starting school soon and Alex's hair is so shaggy and he gets so sweaty. I buzzed off all of Alex's hair, much to his screaming protests, and when it was Ryan's turn, I asked him if he wanted me to keep a strip in the middle long because he likes to make his hair spikey sometimes. He said yes, and then I asked him if he wanted me to colour it for him, to which he also said yes. I got out my cake food dyes and he choose blue, he is now rocking a blue mohawk and says "I look like a rock star, mom!"

and the side view:

Da 216

This afternoon we had a thunderstorm and yet the sun was out at the same time. I took a stroll out to the road to look for a rainbow, but with the trees all around I couldn't find one. The sun made the drops of rain on the trees sparkle like diamonds, it was really pretty.

Day 209

We spent most of the day outside today. I mowed the lawn and as I moved some stuff out of the way I spied this tiny baby snake. Of course, the boys were all over it within 2 seconds. They were both very gentle and we let the snake go in a safe place.