Juniper removal part II

Ever since we removed the juniper bushes from around the maple tree last year, I've been itching to remove the one under our weeping cherry tree.   As you can see it has overgrown and was crowding the plants near it and spilling over into the driveway.

 So yesterday, my dh and Nathan and Stephen went to work on it.   Two bushes came out pretty fast using the tractor.   The third bush was a hard one.   They had to work hard to find the main root AND to not rip up the existing plants as they drug it out of the flower bed.

 I plan to mulch under the weeping cherry and plant a couple flowers around the big rock in the picture.   But even without the mulch, it looks so much better.

It was like a pre-Mother's Day gift!

Scenes from February at Cold Feathers Farm

In February, Deborah and I painted wood for a new set of shelves in our garage. 

After two weekends, they were finished.   And since they would always be filled with stuff from now on, I had the kids get up on them before I filled them.

 A wonderful dinner of mussels and shrimp that I made one cold Sunday night.

 And of course, we had to go see the 3D version of Star Wars I.  In costume of course!

Stephen and my dh saw this one cold morning.  Can you tell what happened?

Our guess is that it was a mouse that crept out of a bramble and then got eaten by an owl.  See the wing marks near the top of the picture and how the mouse tracks just end?

Birds (and a Cat)

Feeding time at the bird feeder.   All the free range chickens gather round to get any seed that drops.

 Mavis, our wonderful cat.   She is an outside cat and a great hunter.  Amazingly she is 11 years old!

 Jungle Birds! (that's what my dh likes to call them when they wander in the woods)

April Fool!

For April Fool's Day, Aaron really wanted to make some April Fool food.   So we started off with drinks...

 ... which were really jello.

 The rest of the meal was normal except for dessert.   For dessert, we had Spaghetti!

 The base is pound cake.   The spaghetti is frosting tinted just a little bit yellow.   The meatballs are no bake cookies.   The parmesan cheese was grated white chocolate.   The hardest part was the sauce.  It was hard to get something that didn't look like strawberry jelly or was too dark.   We ended up making it with apricot jam, a little cherry preserves, and a spoonful of chocolate pudding.

Jr. Lit group

Yesterday we had our junior literature group.   We discussed the book The Shakespeare Stealer by Gary Blackwood.   First we had a quiz on Elizabethian English.

 We discussed the book's themes and story arcs.  

Afterwards, we learned that for the next book group time, we're going to practicing a play based on The Song of Roland.   Deborah is the evil Saracen lord Marseillon and Aaron will be Roland.   We're going to present this play to the dads in June.

Meteorites

It was a regular day in Monopolyville.

 Until a small meteorite struck!   Notice that there was a few houses buried in earth and one hotel was knocked off its foundation.   All was well....

 until the large meteorite hit, destroying everything in its path!

Happy Birthday Deborah!

Deborah turned 10 this month.   The birthday day started with chocolate chip pancakes.

 For Aaron's present, he made Deborah figure out scavenger hunt clues to find her present.   This clue was "yuk, yuk, yuk" so she looked at the Three Stooges videotapes.

This clue was "Look in the fire".   She found the next clue in my Kindle Fire. 

 This clue was "where heroes are" and the next clue was under the lego figures of her Lego Heroica game.

Finally she found her present under her pillow ("where your head is half the day). 

For her cake, she had a Lego Ninjago cake. 

Debate

So far, we have really enjoyed debate.   We're now on the homestretch with only one more tournament to attend.  Below are pictures from the Parkside Tournament, the Midland Tournament, and the Hillsdale Tournament.

Nathan and his partner Kurtis quickly discussing something before Nathan goes up to speak.

Team picture with the coaches - Mr. and Mrs. Schubert!

 Relaxing after Parkside at the Steak 'n Shake.

Stephen giving his Impromptu speech in Midland.   He has two minutes for make a five minute speech on the phrase that he receives in the room.   At the Hillsdale tournament, he advanced to finals and was fourth!

 At Hillsdale, Nathan participated in Sweepstakes.   You have to participate in three speech events.   He did Impromptu Apologetics, Dramatic Interpretation, and Biographical Informative.   All the Sweeps participants get called on stage during the awards ceremony.  He did okay this time and hopes to do better next tournament.

 At Hillsdale, Deborah competed in the JV Biblical Interpretation.   She did the story of the hand on the wall and the lion's den from Daniel 5-6.   She did pretty well for her first time.   She didn't make it to finals but got a two 2nd rankings and a 3rd ranking for her three rounds.

 And when she wasn't competing, she played with the other younger siblings that were hanging around the tournament.

Happy Easter!

We wish you a very happy Easter!   We had a wonderful day, starting out with worship with our church.

 And followed by the annual Easter Egg hunt.   Though this time, we had 8 hiders (older kids) and only 6 hunters (younger kids).   So since there were so few hunters, the older kids got to hunt as well only the younger ones had found enough eggs.

 After a really tasty brisket and onions, Au Gratin potatoes, green beans, and salad dinner, the three younger ones had an Easter Egg hunt.   I was helping Nathan with his oratory speech for the upcoming debate tournament so the three stuffed their own eggs and hid them for each other.

 Stephen hid Deborah's, Aaron hid Stephen's,...

 and Deborah hid Aaron's.

 I just watched and took pictures.

Bird Boy

Encouraged by his previous success, Aaron went out twice this week to see if he could any birds to land on his hand.  This one flitted from tree to tree getting up his nerves.

Finally he got up the nerve and landed.

 It's a little hard to see, but I caught this one hovering right above his hands.

 Finally he landed as well.

 A blurry close up.

 Aaron has really enjoyed getting the chickadees to land on his hands.   He's even touched one of them on the  back.   Now his next goal is to get a nuthatch to eat out of his hands.

Pasta!

This Sunday, Joe made us another pasta feast.   I told him that I like the trend our Sundays have been taking lately.

This week it was Zite Sangiovanniello (on the left) and Shells with Gorgonzola and Pistachios (on the right).   Both were delicious.   The Zite was light and tasty and the Shells were cheesy and wonderful.

Birds and Snow

Aaron, our bird lover, went outside to fill up the bird feeders.   He stood very still for a long time and was finally successful.

 If you look very closely, you'll see a bird eating out of his hand.   It was a brave and hungry chickadee.

 Our chickens really love the ground under the birdfeeders.   But they don't like walking in the snow.   So Aaron shoveled a path from our coop to the bird feeders.

 The chickens appreciated the path very much.

 But it was a narrow "one chicken wide" path.   Whenever two chickens going opposite directions met, neither one wanted to give way and step into the deeper snow on either side of the path.   It made for entertaining viewing from the window.