Mom's Night Out

OK, all the other gals have got their MNO photos on their blogs already so here are mine too. You will all be disappointed though because I only took four pictures the entire evening and none of them are all that interesting.

Still, we had a really great time. We ate well, laughed, had a million things to talk about, and they even made me dance. I was pleased to see how much fun we had together. We are all different in many ways but we are all homeschoolers, which is a deep and common thread that ties us together. And the real evidence that we like each other is that we didn't just talk about our kids the entire night! Afterwards, Sylvia, Beth, and I went to see Blades of Glory at the theater. What a treat--and who knew Beth had such an infectious laugh? I haven't laughed so much in a long time.






For much better photos see Beth's blog here Sylvia's blog here, or Crystal's blog here

Christmas Tree Canyon

Last week we were invited to visit Christmas Tree Canyon in northern NM. The canyon is owned by our friend Beth's family. We stayed in a log cabin with a fireplace, which was a good thing because the temperatures were near freezing.

Here the kids are jumping off the beautiful spiral staircase.





The kids had a great time exploring on the first afternoon while it was still relatively warm. Emma was a great tour guide.




Warming up in the cabin and having fun together.



The second day was even colder than the first--sunny but windy and only about 30 degrees. The first thing we did was climb into the hay loft in the horse barn. Here they are looking down at the horses as they ate.



Then they got to play on Emma's great-grandpa's old fire engine. They climbed to the top and turned the camera on us. We were cold!!!




The tennis court was a relatively warm place to play.


Scotty found his favorite thing right away.


We escaped early the following morning to avoid being snowed in. There was already snow on the ground when we left, and it continued all day afterwards! The nice thing about leaving early though was that we had time to stop at the Santa Fe Children's museum, a favorite destination.







Fun with the pin board. Can you tell who's who?







For more of our adventure see Beth's blog here

Chicks for Easter

They didn't come out of the eggs colored pink or blue or green but we did indeed have five chicks hatch here on Easter Sunday! And the best part is that the mother hen did all the work. No electricity, no turning eggs, no cleaning cages. With the new lamb and the chicks our farm looks like an Easter greeting card!

Here is Eliza holding day-old "Big-Eyes Junior" who is named for our rooster Big-Eyes, whom we suspect to be the father.



This one they named Doo-Doo.


Mama hen "Small Eyes" in her nest box. She is being a great mom. The kids will give her bits of food or a worm and she will put it down near the chicks and cluck for them to come over.


Here are Junior and Doo-Doo at one week old.





Mama with her chicks.

Really bad hair day

Yesterday we tried shearing one of our sheep, a first for both Chris and me. He held her while I did the cutting. We were supposed to have someone show us how but he hasn't been in touch so we gave it a try on our own. I was feeling very tentative with the hand shears I was using because I didn't want to cut her so I left a lot of wool on her. Not only that but the cut is very irregular so she's really got a bad do (Crystal would not approve--ha ha). But towards the end I started to get the hang of it so her right flank looks much better than her left. The next one should be better, let's hope. Feel free to laugh out loud at the shoddy job--I sure did!

Before:


After:

It's a girl!

Finally, a ewe lamb was born last Thursday. This one's a real cutie--lots of colors and very delicate.

What's growing here

Peas, carrots, and radishes next to irises.

The cold frame that we planted in January is now yielding a salad every day so we are finally enjoying fresh veggies from the garden again. We also have several broccoli plants thriving in here.


A few strawberries and spinach to get us inspired for the season.


Here we have more lettuce, more broccoli, and some beets started.


Inside we have tomatoes, basil, peppers, chiles, and a few random herbs and flowers going.





Eliza took this photo of the baby basil.

Dirty work

Eliza helped Chris put in some new turnouts for irrigating. They used mud to fix them in place, which is a job that a girl like Eli just can't refuse. It makes for a dirty dad and happy daughter.