Happy Mother's Day!

With the crunch to get projects done and the added pressure of finals…I’ve been slacking a bit. Mother’s Day weekend was a good rest from the stresses of everyday life and I got to see a lot of immediate and extended family all in two action packed days. We went for a nice hike while the women had some weird bridal party for a friend of the wife’s sister. It’s funny how a bridal party resembles the understanding of any tribal parties I have of the programs you see on discovery sometimes. Here are some pics from the hike at Frozen Head, which turned out to be a very nice spring day:

Ferns Everywhere


Big Millipedes everywhere


Tried to freeze some water drops under some of the falls.


Another violent microcosm in an otherwise smooth running stream.


Sleepy Millipede


Mosses and Lichens everywhere


Stairway to heaven


Boogy vs. waterfall
(waterfall wins eventually but only after a long fought battle)


Spotted Red Salamander


"Bear Corn"


"Daddy" in the woods about 30 feet from the stream so took him back to some water


Last of the spring wild flowers


Men on top of the cliff taking a break.

A Sunday brunch with all the Moms in the families present eventually gave way into small separate sewing circles of conversation and I teamed up with Ashton, my niece, to go play with Boogy in the field and we found a nice specimen of a corn snake to examine. After petting it and showing to may horrified moms we had a release back into the field from whence it came out behind the house.

Ashton has come a long way from being scared of every bug to being curious about everything.

Sunday evening I started to feel a little weird and Monday I woke up with my insides outside on the back porch and sidewalk. Apparently the cute little slobbery twin nephews of mine were laden with a nice GI virus they shared with a good portion of the party on Sunday. Mystery of the day Monday was my pool of vomit on the back porch and sidewalk (because I didn't want to have to clean the bathroom when I woke later) had amazingly disappeared, chunks and all. I noticed Boogy was nearby...you do the math. I got better over the next day only to be re-infected with a bad sinus infection by my lovely wife on Wednesday and thus my week, concluded Friday much the way it began on Monday. The biggest bummer of all was that I missed the official bike to work day and ride I volunteered to lead from west Knox.


After about 48 hours of constant sleep I began to recover from the sinus ailments and the workman in me decided to do a little around the house so I set out on a barrage of projects Saturday afternoon and Sunday between rain showers. I managed to get a chicken coop built with a nice little roost rack system for the ladies out back. Apparently chickens need to sometimes be “trained” to roost. Training a chicken to roost correctly consists of letting them fall to sleep out in the cool of the night on their own and then sneaking up on them in the dark and quickly placing them on the roost rack. You place them close enough to one another so as to make sure they stay put, feeding off of each others warmth. To my surprise this technique Abby’s mom taught us works quite well. The ladies are getting quite fat and happy now and soon I think we will commence naming them. Name submissions are now open on the floor so if you have any “goodens” send them my way. I will introduce the types of chickens we have with pictures sometime in the next day or so to aid in your creative answers I am anxiously awaiting. If your names are used you will receive as a prize the first few eggs from your named chicken.

Room with a view
Side window to the palace


Roost Training Begins...