Monday, June 15, 2009

Branch Fence


We have so much yard work to do! My girlfriend has a stand of bamboo that she thins annually. She creates lovely fences in her landscape and garden using the stalks. I am trying to do the same with our fallen branches. This is our massively overgrown raspberry bed. I have made a little fence and cleared a spot for the kid's shovels and rakes. I still need to finish the fence to contain the raspberries and make some stakes. It will be really sweet when the kids can pick raspberries and eat them straight from the vine!

June Bellingham visit



We went to Bellingham to visit with Oma and Opa this weekend. They live near Lake Whatcom so we have swimming, "urban hikes" and backyard nature to enjoy. While we were there, the juvenile Eagles were really flying over our heads often. And also Red Tail Hawks. The Crows and Steller Jays would really start making a racket and then shortly thereafter we would see the raptors flying over. I saw the Eagles lock talons one time mid flight. It was amazing!

While the boys were having a snack in the backyard, a fawn nibbled its way by them within 3 feet. Brother said that he could smell the fawn! About 5 minutes later Mama dear grazed her way by us. They go through the backyard daily and are used to seeing my parents.

We also took a nature walk to Whatcom Falls park. We start outside the park and hike in. Then I give the kids a while on the equipment before we walk out again. We saw Red Winged Black Birds (and heard their song). We also spied a very still fledging Robin. It became startled when a bike came by and ran down the middle of the trail before hiding behind a tree. On he way out we noticed the carpet of fuzz from the cottonwood trees. Wow!

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Firpirey's Home


Here is Firpirey's home while he is with us. Obviously we'll have to let him go ASAP when he turns into a butterfly or moth.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Nature Walk

Today we went for a nature walk on top of Snoqualmie Pass. It was amazingly beautiful. We walked around a lake and played in the water afterwards. While we were there, a thunderstorm moved in. We could hear the thunder for a long time before the storm actually arrived. The thunder is amazingly loud at that altitude. I have never experienced anything like it.


We also found a huge ant's nest. I grew up with these things in the back yard, but Brother has never seen them before.



Proof of beaver activity. I didn't realize that beaver's took down trees this big! i also didn't realize the shavings would be so large. It makes sense though, since they have such big teeth.

Caterpillar Science




Here is our little friend that we found crawling on the bricks. I researched on the net and that he eats last year's growth of Doug Fir branches. We did give him three other types of leaves though, just to make sure that I wasn't starving him. He did chose only to eat the Fir, so we stopped giving him the other choices. Brother has named him Firpirey. We are watching every day for changes with great excitement.

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Long Break!

Wow! I have taken I long break from blogging. It's not that we haven't been doing anything, I've just been too busy to record it. Obviously I need to get back to our planning.

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Happy Birthday Daddy!



Here is the birthday present Brother chose for his dad. He loves it, and Daddy loves that it came from him.