DC Trip with sister Janice and her family

The Washington Monument from the other side of the mall. Growing up, I always thought this was the Pentagon. As a child, my dad took occasional business trips to "the Pentagon", and this is the image I saw in my head. John laughed at (with?) me when I first called it that, and he still gets a laugh out of it and can't resist poking fun at me every time he sees it.

The very famous and powerful spot where MLK gave his "I Have a Dream" speech.

Asa and Natasha at the foot of Thomas Jefferson.

It was a very rainy and chilly weekend in DC. That didn't stop us from visiting all of the must-see spots. After a two day DC visit, we drove back to Pennsylvania - a 2-hour drive. Janice, Steve, and Natasha stayed for almost a week. I can't believe it, but I didn't get any pictures of them at our home!

Back in PA, we visited an Amish home - which is now a museum site where we learned a thing or two about the Amish. I was able to show them Wehrly's auction, Brown's Orchards, Perrydell Farm, our goats, and the simple beauty of our valley.

Asa Lost a Tooth

Asa lost his fourth tooth today.


He plans to leave the tooth fairy this note.

Not sure how that will work out...

24/7 badness

Three Nigerian Dwarfs

Last Saturday three new arrivals joined our farm family. Apple, Acorn, and Turnip; two month-old Nigerian Pygmy goats. Unfortunately, they are not friendly right now. They are very scared of us and won't come near unless there is food involved. I am hoping that with time, patience, and food treats they will learn to accept us as part of their family.

These goats will just be pets - at this point. They are a miniature breed, so will always be small. This is part of the reason I wanted them. They should be much easier to handle. However they do have horns; we'll see how that goes. People that have goats with horns swear that they'd have it no other way; people who have goats without horns say they'd have it no other way. Supposedly the horns make great handles if needed.

The bucklings (Acorn and Turnip) will be castrated later this month. Castrated males are referred to as wethers. They are more gentle and don't have that strong smell like unaltered males do.
They are very healthy and happy so far. The thing I will concentrate on the most is spending plenty of time in their yard and letting them get used to me. They love Fritos, so I'm hoping that the best way to a goat's heart is through it's stomach. We'll keep you posted.

A Warm Day in February

The boys have the day off for Presidents Day. It is a really nice day (for February) being partly sunny and in the upper 50's. We spent some time outside to enjoy this short-lived weather. We had a picinic lunch in the backyard, the boys rode their bikes and we took a walk on the trail. We found some of our favorite signs that winter is on it's way out the door: Snowdrops - our first flowering bulb of the year.

The winter-ravaged gourd from our summer garden.

Even this way, it is beautiful.

Boys' Art

Asa's masterpiece. He really enjoyed this project.

Jake's valentine

Jake's first experimental collage

Jake's second work

Jake's magazine collage

Ice Storm

Ew! The weather here in the valley is awful. Today is the second day that school has been cancelled. Yesterday because of snow; today because of ice. Our power went out for a short moment this morning, but went right back on. I am worried that it will go out again for a longer period of time. John is staying home from work for the second day in a row too. The boys are playing games and doing artwork and watching movies with popcorn. They are glad to be missing school, although at first Jake was upset because he was going to miss a Valentines Day party in his classroom, but he got over that pretty quickly. I think it's a baking day. Cookies? Lasagna? Hmmmm.

Some recent family pictures

brothers

The first snowman of 2008 made with the neighbor kids and Dad.

Asa in his classroom on the 100th day of school. The kids in his class dressed up like 100-year olds.

A nice day outside.