Bog Walk

     We went camping last weekend, our first time this year. I enjoy camping less each year. It is a pain in the butt packing, everyone complains, it is harder to make meals, and when you get home you have to spend a full day unpacking and catching up on laundry. 
     I do it anyway because it can be a little fun, and Corey and the kids love it. 
     This trip we went to Lake Bemidji State Park. 

     Corey had camped there when he was a kid, but it was my first time. We borrowed Corey's parents fish house for Nora and Corey and I to sleep in, and the older girls set up a tent. We brought the kayaks and Corey and Lauren went for a paddle. 

     While they were kayaking Peyton caught about a hundred tiny frogs and toads.

     Nora stayed busy going down the slide at the park. Once I watched her do it and knew she could manage by herself I sat back and watched. No helicopter parenting here you know. I stopped counting the 18th time she went down it. 

      We kept seeing signs for a "Bog Walk" so decided to check it out. There were signs marking different plants, and there were quite a few I didn't know we had in Minnesota. 

    I had no clue we had native insect eating plants here. Lauren knew that of course. 

     These are pitcher plants. The tube with liquid in it actually had a tiny bug in it. 

     Pey spotted some ripe blueberries. 

 
      It was actually kind of neat. Lauren is not in any of these pictures because they had a page of "The legend of the Ladyslipper" posted about every 15 feet along the board walk and she had to stop and read them all. 
     Saturday we went to town to take in the Art In The Park festival. 

    Nora really loved it.
 
 
 

Flea Market Chickens

     Every year a town near us has a two day flea market.  It's usually more about visiting than shopping. This year while we were there we found some people selling "laying hens" that were a few weeks old, almost the exact age of our chicks. We didn't order any hens with ours, only males for butchering. Corey called his mom and we decided to get a couple. We got a small dark grey one with really pretty feathers and a white turken. There was no guarantee that these are hens, the seller was just going by the size of their combs. We'll see, I guess. 

     We now have three turkens. They are just so ugly I can't help but love them. I have visions of keeping one of the roosters and breeding our own next year, except that I don't think anyone wants a rooster.
     Introducing them to the flock went just fine. 

 
 

Animal Rescue

     Within the last week the kids have "rescued" a bird, a turtle, and baby mice. 
      While we were camping last weekend a baby robin was hopping around near the showers and our camp site. It was too young to fly and we didn't hear or see any concerned parents. When it hopped through our camp site and right up to the tent, Pey caught it. 

    The poor thing did not appreciate being manhandled and let us know about it.

       It was really noisy and had a really big mouth. 

      Nora was afraid... I let Pey hold it for a little while and then made her let it go. She tried to find it some worms but had no luck.

    Monday night Lauren and Peyton had a sleepover at Grandma's house. When I went to pick them up Tuesday they were using a paper towel soaked in milk and sugar to try to feed 3 baby mice they had found. We took them home and lauren tried feeding them milk and egg with a pipette. 

      We assume the nest had been hit by the lawn mower over the weekend as it was broken open and the babies were cold. They must have gone too long without their mom and exposed to the elements because by mid afternoon all three had died, despite the best efforts of the girls.

     Wednesday on our way home from visiting the chickens and grandparents we found a small turtle on the road. We stopped and moved him off into the grass on the side of the road. 

     Good deed for the day accomplished. As for the other "rescues", the kids know there is only so much you can do, and sometimes you have to let nature take it's course.
 

Hand over the chicks

     I haven't updated the blog about the chicks for a long time, and I'm so sure that everyone wants to see pictures of small chickens and children, so here goes. When the chicks were a little over a week old we took them to their permanent home, the fish house at the In-law's.

 We loaded them up in a storage tote and hit the road.  It doesn't really look like 30 chickens.

                                                                        June 12th

     We put down wood shavings for bedding and brought their little heat lamp.

    It took no time at all for them to settle in and start pecking at every tiny piece of exposed insulation we hadn't managed to cover. 

                                                                                     Just out of arms reach

     The kids were sad not to have them in the basement any more, but they were already big enough that they could jump out of the kiddie pool and free range.

                                                                  Sad to say goodbye 

     When we got back from Wisconsin we went over to visit. These pictures were taken 8 days later. They grow so fast!

                                              June 20th

    We put them in the tote to carry them out to an enclosed area of the yard so they could eat mosquitoes and grass. 

                                                                                     One of the Turkens

     It was a nice visitation.

 

Professor

She put on Lauren's 3D glasses. Trying to copy Peyton?