Hunting.

Have you ever seen a live, wild hunt? I'm not talking about a cat catching a mouse, but a wild predator hunting down and eating wild prey, without ever knowing they were being watched? I guess you could count a hawk catching a mouse or an eagle fishing, but I'm not counting that. I'm counting what I saw today.

We were coming back into the house from milking and I saw a tiny fly walking along the edge of a white bucket. Not six inches behind him was a tinier spider. I count this as a wild hunt because of the intensity of the attack. As soon as I saw the spider, I knew he was stalking that fly. He moved quickly and when he was half an inch behind the fly, he jumped fast and hard and landed right on the fly's back. The fly tried to take off but couldn't fly far because of the weight. It fell down, but the spider's string saved them and they hung there, fighting, until the spider could drag the fly back up to a level surface.

I was surprised by how captivating the whole thing was. This was a spider and a fly, not a lion and gazelle or wolf and elk. But it was definetely predator and prey. Hannah was fascinated and wanted to watch until it was all over. Somehow she's gotten to four years old without knowing about spiders having strings coming out their rears. Don't know how that oversight happened.



I wish I knew how to take better, up close, pictures. I could have gotten some killer (pun not intended) pictures for you.

Grandpa's visit.

Grandpa came to visit.







He always brings fun stuff to do with the kids. This time it was swirly balloons. You blow these balloons up, let them go, and watch them swirl and fly everywhere.









This led to the discovery of static electricity.





Grandpa got introduced to Hannah's babies.



And held an appreciative Grayson.

You know you want to.

Grow your own rice. How cool is that?

Flying fairy.

We visited my sister and her kids. My sister has lots of wings for her daughter. Butterfly wings, angel wings, fairy wings. Hannah was in heaven.





Once you have the right wings, then you have to fly!

Very cool. But very slowly.

Today we...

Played in the garden.





Checked on the rhubarb.



Fed the sheep with Daddy.



Played in the swing.



Played with momma and baby goats.

Cabin fever.

Our weather can't make up its mind. One day it's cold and as windy as can be, the next it's sunny. It's driving the girls crazy. They want to be outside so badly, but when it's so windy, they really can't. Here they are attempting to be out while I planted potatoes.



You know how it feels to swim against the current? To paddle your legs and arms as hard as you can and still move backwards. That was poor Ains in the wind that day - after about fifteen seconds of trying to get closer to me, she burst into frustrated tears. The wind was pushing her back faster than she could walk, poor bug. I moved them inside and they watched Diego for a few minutes while I finished planting.

The next day was sunny. Ains didn't believe me, hence her outfit.



We got a good look at one of the Great Horned Owls that lives on our property.



We built a kid pen to hold the kids overnight on milking days. (For more about our farm, go here.) The girls love playing in it with the kids. Don't ask me why Ains has her purse. I couldn't tell you.





Hannah planted bush peas that her aunt gave her in her own garden.



We're always feeding bum lambs.



We snuck a peak at our barn cat's new kittens.



Hannah helped me repot my root-bound luffa plants. Look at the lenght of those roots!





We've perfected a delicious tortilla recipe. On our way to perfecting it, we found out how to make a killer flatbread.



Grayson's nine weeks old now, and he's acting it. Sleeping, eating, sleeping, eating, smiling, giggling for Ainsley, sleeping, eating.





Going for pony cart rides.



Playing on the porch with the dogs and cats. Chin's not sure about whatever Hannah's doing.



And when the weather's too bad to go outside, but we're too antsy to stay inside, the grocery store's the answer! Even if one falls asleep on the way there.

Surface tension.

This is a cool experiment that my dad showed us while he was here.

Get a plate with a lip and fill it with milk. (Water would probably work, but you couldn't see the colors moving as well.) Put three drops of each color of food coloring in the milk.



Put one drop of dishwashing liquid in the center of the plate.



The food coloring zips to the outer edge of the plate, which is pretty fun to watch in and of itself. But the real fun comes a few seconds later. The dishwashing liquid destroys the surface tension of the milk and starts sucking the food coloring underneath and up through the soap drop. Very cool patterns emerge.







If you left it going long enough, the colors would all blend evenly and the milk would turn brown.

Today we...

went shopping. It was, apparently, worth dressing up for.