Lunkers and Leafy Greens

Let me just start by posting the best first:


I pulled this mother out of the lake this afternoon. Now....let me post my "fish story"...
I started Gavin fishing for the first time early this season....we had pulled a million bluegills and sunnies out of the lake, along with the occasional catfish and the gift pickerel that we nailed....He's becoming quite the fisherman, even at 4 years old, the kid is learning how to set the hook like a champ....in fact, today...I taught him how to cast an open-face reel....I figured, why bother with these push button junkers...just teach him the real deal...anyway, he nailed it. He's a bit sketchy on the back swing but, he's nailing the release. Very "proud papa" moment there, but nothing like what would come later in the day.
So today, we're on the dock...a pretty standard day of fishing for us....he's pulling in bluegills every 5 minutes or so...usually, a day fishing on out dock turns out like this:

a bucket full of bluegills, fun as anything for a four year old...but after a while, Gavin decided that he wanted to practice casting. I took the hook off his line, showed him a thing or two, and let him rip, bobber only. I, in the meantime, strung up my pole, sent the line low and casted to an area that I I've pulled some impressive catfish out of this season. I'll spare some details here but....suddenly...I got a hit...I mean, a HIT. If you've fished long enough, you learn how certain fish hit. "Kivers" poke and prod and then zig-zag the whole way in. Bigger stuff like Catfish and Bass hit quick and strong and pull strong in one direction. This thing took my bait (just a simple hook and night crawler) and RAN. I said "Gavin...I got a big one"...he immediately knew what his job was...drop his pole and get the net. I reeled this guy in and Gavin was right there with the net in the water. I wasn't sure what I had on the line until it was about 7 feet out from the dock. After I saw that it was a MOTHER of a Bass, I was freaking out. Gavin got the net in the exact right spot in the water. I got down on a knee to start to lift this lunker to the surface and grab onto his bottom jaw with my fingers when.....suddenly....**SNAP** my line broke.
The biggest Bass I've ever pulled out of my lake in my life dropped and fell.....right into Gavin's net. We pulled him up onto the deck and got the hook out. It wasn't until things calmed down that I realized that....the only reason that we landed this fish is because my son...my 4 year old son, knew exactly what to do in the moment and performed marvelously. I realized that, through it all, I didn't give him 1 command or instruction. he just knew what to do. He was trained for this moment, and did exactly the right things. Had he not been at the ready and on point, this would have been just another story of "the one that got away", but...not the case today. I have to say....that was more impressive than the fish we landed (well, almost :^).
We showed the girls, snapped some pics:


and then let him go . I know, I know...here come the comments "why didn't you eat him"..." I can't believe you let that thing go"....well...gutting, cleaning, and filleting will be next years training. This year, we'll just continue to focus on catching them.

Also tonight....
I had to thin out our lettuces. I planted way more than we needed....which I guess is a good problem. Anyway, I decided to do a major harvest and give individual bags of lettuces and spinach to the participants of the day program that I run. Both kids helped me harvest. Ivy helped me wash:


then we dried:


Then bagged:



I'm sure that the folks at my program will enjoy these garden treats.
It was a very busy, yet very fulfilling weekend for our family. The Lord is using us to serve others in so many neat ways. I'm grateful for the Servant Heart of my wife and kids. That He is using us (and especially the little ones) to bring Him glory through service. I'm specially thankful for the down time that He gives us...and the blessings, like garden greens and this HUGE fish, that He sends our way....

"Dominion" wins and fails

Genesis chapter 1 gives man "dominion" over "every living thing that moves on the earth".
"Dominion" is a cool word. The fact that we are allowed, by God, to "have dominion" is even cooler.
"Dominion" is defined as:
1: supreme authority.
2: the right of the owner of a thing to use it or dispose of it at his discretion.
3. a territory or sphere of influence or control; a realm.

I both succeeded and failed at "having dominion" over my land this weekend.

"Taking dominion" over the earth and that which lives on it is one of the first jobs that God gave Adam. He gave him this job even before The Fall...which tells me that, original sin or not, we ought to have an understanding of how our environment works and how to control what lives on it. We were going to be doing this whether or not we screwed up. It's a mandate that is both simple and daunting.
We feel that a big part of "taking dominion" over the land is to understand how things grow and to utilize the soil to produce food which sustains us. In doing this, we are in control of our our land, we understand the basic principles of planting, germination, growing, and harvesting, and use what The Lord had provided for us to survive, as well as to bless others with produce. Given our proximity to water, it also includes having a knowledge of fish and fishing.
In that aspect, while being humble, I'd give our family a "Win". This year. The fish are biting and our garden is doing very well. Many of the first time crops that we tried this year are producing wonderfully and we have been harvesting this-and-that since mid-May. All of the "warmer weather" crops have taken nicely and we anticipate a nice harvest of veggies as the months progress.

But....there was also a big "Fail" attached to this weekends "dominion".

Traditionally, we do not have a problem with varmints and critters eating up our garden. I'm not exactly sure why but, there are a number of nut trees surrounding our property, as well as the lake, and maybe there is enough food being produced by those to keep the squirrels, rabbits, woodchucks at bay. We have never had any widespread varmints getting into our garden.

Until recently.

There's a rabbit....one rabbit...that keeps showing up in our yard. I snapped a pic of it earlier in the year, maybe you remember...it was in our yard while the swan was right off out dock and it seemed like a cute little photo op (See if you can spot him):


Well, that little cotton-tailed nuisance has been back here just about every day....and every day, it has been content to sit and nibble the clover in the backyard. When we spot it, we send The Boy out to chase it out of the yard...we'll yell "Go Get 'I'm Mr. McGregor" and everyone has a laugh...it's all innocent fun...yeah...until today when he was spotted in my carrot patch. Now, say what you will but, one rabbit can absolutely decimate an entire garden if it wants to. I've got way too much invested in our garden to allow some twitchy-nosed long-eared rat to take down our plants. It was time for action

Now remember, we were given dominion, or: supreme authority, over that which moves across the earth. I set out the have-a-heart trap but the little bugger didn't take to it. We had to get more serious. The fate of our crops were hanging in the balance (can you feel the Hollywood-like suspense building?!)....It was BB gun time. (just so you know....we, by law, can't shoot "real" guns on our property due to the closeness of other houses or else...this things head would have been turned into a canoe.)
My BB gun is a sweet one. A Crossman 10-pump with a fantastic scope that could allow you to shoot the wings off of a gnat at 30 yards. It's 14 years old, a bit rusty, but still fires true. I pulled that baby out and lobbed an old diet coke 2 liter into the yard to take aim to dial in the scope which needed a few adjustments. I got it true and by this time, the rabbit was along our side yard, less than 25 yards out....an easy kill-shot.

I pumped the BB gun up, chambered a BB, took aim....the thing was so close that I could have decided which eye I wanted to shoot out. I drew a bead on this adorable little Destroyer of All Leafy Delicacies.......and fired......

nothing

The little bugger just sat there, twitching his little nose at me....then he hopped into the neighbor's yard.

Turns out, the misfire happened due to a misshapen BB that got hung up in the breech of the barrel. I've fired thousands of shots out of that gun and never had an incident like that before. The weapon WAS old, unoiled, and not kept in the best possible operating condition. I'm left wondering if The Lord was telling me to be merciful over the creatures in my yard or to take better care of the weapons that he's led me to learn to use. I may have to pray this out a bit.

But...I'll tell you this much.....

WalMart opens at 7am and you better believe that I'll be there purchasing a brand new air rifle....If this new one hangs up at the moment of truth...then I'll KNOW that God wants me to let him go....Otherwise, I plan to have unmolested veggies and a nice new pelt for Gavin at about this time tomorrow evening.

Planting Day Pics

It's a blessing watching things grow...whether it be spiritual maturity, spiritual blessings, children, or other living things. We find such a joy in watching the blessing of life and health grow out of the ground. I never cease to be amazed at the amount of sustenance that comes out of one tiny seed that is cared for and nurtured....there's a sermon in there somewhere, right?
Here's our plots as pictured from the back deck.:

the two long gardens on the right are new to us this year. They house all our leafy greens, herbs, tomatoes, peppers, and about 1/2 of our cucumbers.




Here's several shots of the larger gardens. On the left in the first pic is our "companion plantings" of tomatoes and basil. In the last photo, to the right of the wooden arbor, there is a trellis for our snap peas. About 4 years ago, my dad bought us one of those shade gazebos from Big Lots!....well...the netting only lasted one year. We had kept the iron under the deck under the premise of "We can find some use for this stuff...it's too cool to throw away!". Well, my pops was right. He cut the bottom off of it and Gavin and I zip tied it together and stuck it in the ground. As it turns out, it makes a super cool trellis for snap peas.
Go Resourcefulness!


"Leafy Green Alley" closest to farthest we've got a mesculin lettuce mix, light green lettuce, Swiss Chard, Kale, and Spinach. The Leo Family is going to be "regular"...I can tell you that much.


It won't be long until we're up to our eyeballs in strawberries. There was 1....repeat...ONE ripe strawberry today, which I picked and gave to Gavin. It's funny...looking back at our "Planting Day" blog from a year ago.....this time last year we were harvesting quarts of strawberries every day. It's cool to see how much the weather effects what and when you harvest stuff.


The lower gardens. 30 years ago, everything beyond the granite posts was swamp. Goes to show you what decades of grass clippings can reclaim.




Oh...AND we filled up the splash pool.....


....AND caught a crazy huge bullfrog.

We had friends over later in the evening for a campfire and good fellowship.... Not a bad Sunday at all.

Yeah God!

Mom's Day, CHAP, Stickers, and Swans

A quick prologue:
This Easter....worst ever. We headed to Jersey with the best of intentions..to enjoy a nice Easter with family. What we ended up with was a lingering, nasty intestinal virus that took it's time infecting all of us, landing Gavin in the hospital, and quarantining all of us at Chrissy's moms house while everyone else was at her sisters for Easter lunch. We had to hole up in Jersey for 5 extra days until folks were healthy enough to travel. After that whole debacle, Mother's Day smacked me RIGHT in the face by arriving early...I was totally blindsided a few days before...anyway..we ended up having a real nice day. It was great having everyone healthy again. Here's a few pics:


We decided that since the kids didn't get to celebrate Easter on account of being sick...that we'd combo it up and have a Mother's Day/Easter Extravaganza...complete with Easter church outfits and the "Gross Chocolate Broken Face Bunny". The story of how that chocolate bunny came to our house....that's a blog of it's own....maybe someday.


The family unit out in the backyard.


Ivy Frances....less than impressed.

A week later it was back out on the road for the CHAP homeschool convention in Central PA. CHAP stands for "Christian Homeschool Association of Pennsylvania"...and YES...I know that we don't live in Pennsylvania....but we went anyway. It was a great weekend of education and encouragement. We met up with Chrissy's twin sisters family out there....quick side note:

Chrissy is a twin. Her twins name is Susan. Susan married my best friend from Jersey, Dave. They live in South Jersey and have 2 boys about our kids ages. It's usually fun times when we all get together. Back to the story...

We all stayed together in 2 rooms at a nice little hotel with an even nicer indoor heated pool. The coolest part was that our 2 rooms were adjoining which meant that we could lay the kids down for bed all in 1 room and hang out in the other...the rub was....to make the adjoining rooms happen, we had to get 1 handicapped accessible room...which we didn't mind at all. Let me tell you...as far as our combined 4 kids were concerned...the second coolest thing about staying in the hotel (the pool comes in first on the coolness scale) was:


The Super Rad Monkey Bar Handicap Shower Stall!!!
This photo was taken about 3 minutes after checking into the hotel. Good times.

The convention was about 370 miles from home. Chrissy did a great job in putting activities together for the kids while we ate up miles on the highway .....BUT....sooner or later...you just want to be out of the car and done driving, you know? The kids did great...but we all started to get a little bit crazy towards the very end of our trip home. I'll title this one: Gavin+Stickers+Mile 364=


Yep...and in case you're wondering...that's a little froggy potty staring back at you from the back seat, there. Gavin will attest to the fact that stickers are much more fun putting ON legs than they are peeling them off.

That about does it for the moment. I think I'm all caught up. I did spot this little duo out back after dinner tonight:

Bunny up front....Swan out back. Nice.

Lastly....somehow, while we were gone, Southern New England turned into Seattle. If anyone knows where they stashed the sun, please let me know.

Be Good.

Pickerel Party

I just got finished telling Gavin how lure fishing takes much more patience than worm and hook fishing. He persisted, I conceded, and we tied on a little crawfish lure. 3rd cast....



...we land this mother.

There goes that theory.

Holy Catfish!!

The boy and I pulled a nice one the other day...then another...then another.

I've unofficially labeled our fishing area as Instant Gratification Cove.

I'm completely introducing a false reality to my son of what actual fishing is...when he realizes that in most lakes it usually takes more than 15 seconds to catch a fish...he's going to be devastated. But for now...

Our pond is actually one of about 5 or 6 ponds that are connected through pipes under the roads in the area....there's a slight current running through all of them. At one point, years ago, before this area was developed, my bet is that it was actually just a healthy river. The development of the area included a series of dams which pooled up these small ponds and lakes. For our little lake, there is a dam at the one end with a spillway that only lets water when it storms or when the snow melts. The upshot is that the current sends lots of wildlife down into our lake...and then has nowhere to go. It's like our pond is Uber naturally stocked....frogs, turtles, FISH. tons of them. If you can't land a little bluegill inside of 10 seconds off our dock, there's something wrong with you.

It'll take a little longer if you want to land one of the bigger fish in the lake...a nice bass, pickerel, or perch. But...at 4 years old...a fish is pretty much a fish....so right now the boy is king of all God's creation out there.

Life's not so bad out here these days....the fish are biting... the seedlings are up....the fruit trees are blossoming....the kids come in every night covered in dirt...we're dining on garden asparagus....my seasonal allergies are making me want to scratch my eyes out but...a small price to pay for the simple life.

Go Spring!

Fair-weather Festivities Featuring First Fish

The first stellar weather weekend of the year. 63 fantastic degrees with just enough breeze to ring the chimes and just enough clouds to make you appreciate the sun. Everyone and their mom in Southern New England did work in the yard this weekend and we were no exception.

We got a bunch of stuff accomplished (still lots to do)...the biggest of which was to anchor and re-top our dock. Previously, our dock was attached at the shoreline and floated with the help of huge Styrofoam blocks. Now, it's secured with 4x4's dug down into the lake floor (special props to my dad, "The Toe" for spending 2+ hours waist-deep in the frigid April water while we got things level). Gavin thought it would be a good idea to go swimming....so we let him....his adventure invariably ended about 2.6seconds later in tears and goosebumps. We also replaced the old wooden decking (also known around here as "Splinter Central") with some composite decking....no more splinters.....ever. Despite the fact that I'm a ninja with a pair of tweezers...I'm grateful that the splinter ratio is going to drop dramatically around here this Spring/Summer.

Which brings me to our epic moment of the weekend. Gavin caught his first fish today. Now, before I show you a picture of this lunker....a bit of a back story:

As you know...I grew up on this water...I know every stellar fishing spot, every shallow spot, every sand bar, every dead spot. As a kid, I fished this water almost every day that there wasn't ice covering the surface of it. Bass, calico's, horned pout, yellow perch, white perch, pickerel, blue gills, sunnies, carp...I have literally pulled hundreds, if not thousands of fish out of this lake in my lifetime. In 1992, I moved away. In 2001, I moved back. But I didn't fish. At all. I'm not quite sure why.

I know that at some point I went through a "fishing is cruel" phase. I'm not sure what prompted it, but my general attitude was that I was deriving entertainment by causing physical and mental anguish to another living thing. Now...if I were fishing to feed my family, that would be one thing, but I was a catch-and-release guy all those years. I read journal articles and test results with titles like "Do fish feel pain?"...on both sides of the argument. Fishing became something that I just didn't do anymore. Until today.

Earlier this year, I looked at my son...here's a boy, a country boy...a mud-loving, dirt-eating, frog-in-his-pocket country boy. Country boys need to know how to fish....both on general principle and because there may be a point in time that he may need that skill to provide food for his family. He's 4 years old....it was time.

We were given a rod and reel from a family friend....I took off the reel and attached a 5 foot length of fishing line to the end of the rod...kind of like a bamboo pole...Huck Finn-style. We dug up a few juicy night crawlers from the garden, baited our hook, dropped that baby off the dock and within seconds....BAM:



Gavin's first fish. Now...don't under-estimate this lunker...he was a fighter....4 inches of fin-waving fury!!

We caught 5 or 6 in all today...all blue gills:






Ivy told us that she wanted to give the fish a kiss....this is as close as she was willing to get:


I still haven't come to a conclusion as to whether catch-and-release fishing is cool or cruel....but with the kids...it sure was fun. Suffice it to say that we rocked the new dock in style this weekend and had a blast outside enjoying God's wonderful creations.

Hope that you and yours had some outside fun this weekend as well.

False Advertising

The advertisement for the product, as described on Amazon.com, is as follows:

"More than a dozen birds can perch and feed from anywhere on the Duncraft Squirrel Proof Blocker Selective Bird Feeder. The entire tube dispenses seed, yet squirrel paws and noses cannot reach inside to get to the seed source. Fill with black oil sunflower and watch the birds perch on the fencing, putting their heads through to select one seed at a time from the stainless-steel mesh tube."

The Reality:





This must be made by the same people that made the 2D High-Density Plastic Collapsible Weather and UV Resistant Full Color Coyote Decoy and Canadian Goose Deterrent...remember that?





read all about it here:

http://findtheblueheron.blogspot.com/2010/06/canada-goose-mind-freak.html

Ah well...at least the squirrels aren't crapping all over my backyard....yet.

What else are you supposed to do in the Freezing Cold?

O.K....so let me just start by saying that I'm 100% positive that by the end of this post, there will be several people out there who think that our family (or at least me...and especially my dad) needs serious help...and I'm o.k. with that. Before I get into what happened, let me offer this caveat:
Around here, we fancy ourselves amateur explorers...we're blessed to live in an area with so much nature so close by....we feel it's important to seize opportunities to check stuff out..especially in nature. Dissecting a beehive, eyeballing a bunch of frog eggs, prodding a beaver lodge, examining animal tracks in the snow, identifying bird species at the feeder, breaking up a pine cone, checking out milkweed seeds pods....we love this kind of stuff. There really is no better way to learn about nature, science, God....than to get right in the middle of it and soak it in. That brings us to the activity at hand:

Frozen Roadkill Science Extravaganza.

Before I go any further, let me say this...my father is a rather unique guy. He loves The Lord so much. He loves his family so much. I am an only child...my children will be his only grandchildren. he loves them so much. He lives to show them interesting things. My dad's the kind of guy that can (and has) designed and built an entire house from the ground up, but literally has no clue how to turn on the DVD player to watch a movie. Let me pause and show you the guy I'm talking about:

Here he is in all his glory. He broke his hand shoveling snow off the roof last week. He told the orthopedic to give him the "brightest cast that they had". That pretty much tells you all you need to know about him. He's awesome. Anyway...back to the Roadkill.

2 weeks ago...my dad was so excited to tell me the story of how he found a dead hawk on the side of the road...in relatively good condition...frozen solid. He was so excited for me to show it to Gavin and Ivy and to teach them about it. It turned out to be a very cool experience. The Hawk was in very good condition. We looked at the markings and referenced them to a local bird field guide and found it to be a Sharp-Shinned Hawk. We got to check out all of the cool aspects of this bird...the reptilian feet and talons...the curved beak, the sharp eyes. It may sound really weird and disgusting to you...but what a cool opportunity it was for Gavin and I to explore this awesome animal...this was the closest that we would ever come to one of these creatures. Getting to see all of the little parts that makes it such an efficient hunting machine.....it was great stuff. I regret that we didn't take a picture of it, but we did save a few tail and wing feathers:



Definitely cool...but nowhere near as cool as what my dad found yesterday.

He emailed me to tell me that he had something amazing to show me...and...if you are into frozen roadkill...he was right on.

A Fisher Cat.

Dead...but very well preserved. Now, for those of you not in the know....
the Fisher Cat (or Fisher, to some) is, pound for pound, one of the most deadly animals on earth. It looks somewhat like a big weasel and is a relative of the marten. They have the ability to rotate their hind paws 180 degrees...which gives them the ability to climb trees and then turn and descend them head first (unlike a cat or raccoon, which has to "back" down")...because of this, they are considered as efficient a hunter as a puma or leopard. If you live in MA and have had a pet cat killed, chances are it was at the hands of a Fisher Cat. Pretty much, whatever they hunt...they kill. But the craziest thing about them isn't this...it's their call.
The call of a Fisher Cat is other-worldly....it literally sounds like a small child in horrid pain and great distress. Like a little girl being brutally injured...google it, check it out. We hear them throughout the Spring and Summer in the woods near our house...it's chilling.
I've heard calling as close as our back yard, but have never spotted one. Until yesterday:

He was awesome to check out....his teeth, his claws...the pads on his feet that looked just like a house cats. He's got an amazing coat....super soft and full. We had a great time checking him out. We're going to give him to a family friend who is into taxidermy to see what he can do with it.

Call it weird...call it bizarre....but the fact is....God gave us this amazing world to explore....we pay 25 bucks a pop to go to a zoo to check out exotic animals at 100 feet away....we got to do the same thing...just frozen and at point blank range. Is it really so weird?

Thank You, Lord...for these amazing creatures....for the tools that you give them to survive...teeth....claws....talons...instinct....how much more to you care for and equip us?

Not much to say, but....

...beavers cut down 3 of our apple trees.


this means war.

i've been trying to look on the bright side of this, and so far all I've got is.....at least i'll have some nice apple wood to use to smoke some ribs next summer.....AND.....once I put a well placed .22 or .223 in it, i'll have a cool pelt to tack to the wall of the workshop......no, that's just the bitterness talking ;^)

maybe not.


alas, nothing gold can stay.

Mouse Count

11

you'd think they'd have caught on by now.

Mouse Count...

8


I don't know whether to laugh or cry

Deep Thoughts on Mousetraps

Summer is dead.

Much like planting season this year, Autumn has decided to arrive a bit early. Signs, smells, and sounds of Autumn are abundant around hear these days. One sound especially lately....the distant **snap** of a mousetrap downstairs ridding another pest from our basement.
This morning at 6:30 the outside thermometer read "38.8"...that kind of temp sends those little mice scurrying for warmer spots, my basement being one of them.

4. I've caught 4. In 2 days.

I guess that I view those mice the same way that I view just about any other living thing...I'm more than happy to live peaceably with you in this big world, and maybe we'll be fortunate enough that our paths will cross in a meaningful way for some length of time, but if you enter my home, without permission, with selfish intent that puts the safety and/or well being of my family in jeopardy, chances are that you aren't making it out alive.

Now it's going to be right about **here** as you are reading this where you probably say to yourself something like "Wow...he's a bit of an extremist"...but, the reality is....those cute little twitchy-nose mice will eat through my stores of food, gnaw through and ruin anything soft that they can get their teeth on to build themselves a nest, leave droppings everywhere and basically contaminate everything that they scurry across. No thanks.

Part of me is reluctant to admit it, but the truth is I get giddy, and maybe even a little adrenaline rush when I find one in the trap. Last night I was headed for bed when I heard the thing snap shut and I barely touched a step as I rushed downstairs to see If I got one. I did.

It's dorky, I know, but I think that it plays to some primal instincts that humans (males, specifically) are hard-wired with: to provide and to protect.
I think that maybe finding one of those suckers in a trap tickles the same part of my brain that was tickled generations ago in some frontiersman after he shot some bear that was threatening his family. In both cases, there's the satisfaction and relief that you just protected your family against a threat. On much different scales, obviously, but the principle is the same.

Men were designed to provide for and protect their family/village/country, etc. It's in our chemical make-up. No wonder why everything is a sword or gun to a 4 year old. He's actually SUPPOSED to be thinking along those lines. Provide. Protect. Men need to be capable of performing acts of violence. For centuries and centuries every man needed to have the physical and psychological ability to hunt, trap, kill, disembowel, and dismember another living thing to provide for his family. Also, they had to be capable of, without hesitation, be able to stamp out another human life should a direct threat to the lives of their family be posed.

Today's culture is an interesting one. There's much less need to perform these violent acts to protect and provide for our families. Our protecting and providing are, for the most part, done for us. Our food is killed by someone else. We are protected by locks and walls and security systems and police....which is all great, but that hard-wiring is still there. That God-given ability to be able to perform that violent act in the name of provision and protection is still very much there, it's just that there's no longer and outlet for it.

I wonder if there would be as much crime, murder, and sexual perversion in our culture if we still had to hunt and kill things to provide and to protect our family. I wonder if much of the violence that is present in our society isn't misguided flare-ups of our primal instincts. I mean, let's face it, on some level, it's fun to be violent. It's cathartic. Don't believe me? Go down to your basement, wrap a light bulb in a towel, and smash it with a hammer...listen to it shatter and *pop* It's feels GREAT, right? Next time you are getting rid of some major appliance and it's out at the curb for the garbage truck to take away, whip a brick at it, or slam it with a bat. You can't tell me that on SOME level, maybe WAAAAYYYYYY deep down in your spirit, in a place that you don't want to admit exists, but on SOME level, it feels amazing.

I have no solution here, not even much of a point, really. I don't expect that any of us will stop shopping at Market Basket and start plinking squirrels to feed the family, but I do think that it's important to recognize that these emotions and capabilities exist in all of us, and we shouldn't rely on our society for as much and provide more for ourselves and our families. For our family:
We garden: I am providing vegetables and fruit for my family that I have planted and cultivated.
We heat our home with wood: We have a few years worth of wood that my father and I have cut and hauled. Every year at about this time, we cut and split 6 or 7 cords down to fireplace length to heat our home. If it's cold, it's up to me to work to keep our home warm. I am providing warmth and comfort for my family.
We don't watch tv: Entertainment media is annihilating entire generations of human beings and reducing them to mindless consumers. We spend tons of time with our kids and do all sorts of entertaining, educational stuff together. Our kids don't give 2 hoots about tv. I am providing positive, engaging activities for my family.

This all may read as kind of pompous and prideful, which is not my intent at all. As this blog post went along, I think I ended up writing it mostly for myself. But I think that, if I were trying to get a point across, it's that we can do much more than we think to provide for and protect our families, which, in the end, makes us feel better and more fulfilled, but more importantly, pleases the LORD.

I gotta run, I think I just heard a **snap**.

More Birding

Spotted a few new additions to the bird species checklist over the weekend...and even managed to snap a few pics. I snapped a better shot of the Cardinal than the one in the last blog, but I need not post that one, we've all seen a million of them. The only one I missed was some sort of large, dark, water bird, something like a Loon or a Night Heron. It flew over the house and before I could get a good enough look at it, it was gone. Ah well....it's all part of the sport, I guess.

Bird Watching's a "sport", right?

More of an "activity", I suppose.

Perhaps an "event" in very favorable conditions.

Anyhow....without any further adieu:


White-breasted Nuthatch- Male


American Goldfinch- Male


American Pink-Baby- Female: at rest


Future Bird Watcher


In other Leo family news....The garden is coming along nicely...lots of green 'maters and some little peppers. TONS of blossoms on the squash and pumpkins. Harvested a bunch of herbs, beans, spinach, lettuce, a few peppers, and a crown or two of broccoli so far. Strawberry season has wound down, but the red raspberries are just about ready, and the blackberries and blueberries are ripening up like champs.

I ran into an old family friend today who asked me "How's life at 'Quiet Cove'?".
Quiet Cove. I like that.
I think I'll make up a sign.



Have a great week!

Consider The Ravens

"Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap, which have neither storehouse not barn; and God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds?"
Luke 12:24 (NKJV)



I'm getting old. I know this. I'm fine with that. Honestly. All anyone needs to know about me to know that I'm getting old is what my new favorite hobby is.

Birdwatching.

yup. Love it.

We have a bunch of feeders and bird houses dotted throughout the yard, and I've taken quite a liking to identifying the different species of birds that I spot, either by sight or song. Chrissy and the kids bought me a Birds of Massachusetts Field Guide and a pair of binoculars for Father's Day. It turns out that there have been over 460 different species of birds spotted and recorded in MA. This field guide lists 121 of the most common species. There is a checklist in the index of the book, where you can check off a species that you have spotted. Starting now, I'm checking off birds that I spot, but only ones that I spot in my back yard. I've spotted 24 different species, just since Sunday. I tried to get pictures of some of them, but most took off before I could get to the camera. Here's a few photos I was able to snap of some less shy birds:


American Tree Sparrow- Female



Common Grackle- Male



House Finch- Male



Eastern Bluebird- Male



Eastern Bluebird- Mr. and Mrs.



Great Blue Heron- Gender not known. In flight.



Northern Cardinal- Male. Playing "hard to get".


More to come!

Found Him

Spotted him this morning while taking out the compost. He stuck around just long enough for me to run in and grab the camera.

Fail