all ours at last

campfire, anyone?

we're planning to burn the mortgage when we can have all the kids here to help light the matches.

it's our very own thin place, a place where heaven and earth come together.

coming soon to a backyard very near me

ordinances be damned. overrated, outdated, and uneducated.

these are aracauna chickens. their eggs are shades of pale blue and green.

my dad told me once that i should have been a farmer.

cabin fever claims 2 more victims

it's an epidemic.

will spring ever come??

"as wisconsin goes, so goes the nation"

ON WISCONSIN

...thank god for the people who take the time to educate themselves on the issues and do some fact checking before they let their mouths loose to make fools of themselves...

birthdays come but once a year

we love you

happy birthday emilie claire

his first grammy

about time.

have always loved the quality of his voice.

male cardinals singing today!

february 7th----the earliest date that i've heard the male cardinals start to sing in the treetops in early morning, letting everyone know that their birdie testosterone levels are responding to the lengthening days. what a sweet sound, full of blind faith that spring will be coming.

we are forever students

things i'm studying up on this week:

keeping chickens--in my ongoing efforts to control what's going in my mouth and the little pests in my gardens (no, not brodie and dorie)

wabi-sabi--to my great joy this philosophy has helped me understand my attraction to the simple, the old, the imperfect things in my world

when i go for my walk i have a new little side trip to take off riverside, down the new pedestrian path along the tracks.

i take this little detour to pay a visit to the blue spruce that got too big for the front yard.

our amazing city forester offered to find it a new home where it could grow freely, not bound by a picket fence.

so now it's happy in a little stretch of urban woods not far away from the river.

i missed not being able to put my big old-school colored lights on it at christmas, though...

looking for spring?

not really.

they're just looking for squirrels.

again.

oh to have their diligence and persistence.

for them the experience never gets old.

dumb dogs.

they teach me something every day.