March 10 (+2) on 10

She's getting braver. I don't know if it's the super-awesome fish treats, or if the kids have learned to be quieter around her, or if she's going senile. My vote would be for the fish treats.

Fish, Ellie? FISH!???



He's the mechanical-minded one - asked for a toothpick and went and got himself a light. Then he announced that if he spun the wheels backwards all that junk caught around them started to unwind itself. Not too bad for a six year old. Then again, he's always had an interesting connection with cars... ahem... having been born in one.



Our drive to church. Kind of bleak. Kind of still winter. Endless month of March. I'm totally okay with it this year, which is unusual.



Ye old styrofoam cup, always begging to be mutilated.

Peek:



And a peek back:



You have muddy pawprints on your sunroof too, right?

See the reflection of the little girl feet?



This was right before his head smashed into my lens... which smashed my camera into my glasses. My new glasses. My only-four-days-ago I got'em glasses. My I-gotta-go-back-and-get-them-adjusted already again glasses. My this-is-exactly-why-I-got-two-pairs-of-them glasses. I win, dear readers. I win.



She's three. But she's almost four. And when it gets deathly quiet, it's still a dreadful thing. Blue sand dunes all over the kitchen floor? True story. I lose.



Just try, ladies. Just you try coming through that door.

WHAM!



And there's most of the menagerie. What should we add next? Turkeys? Goats? Emu?



The spoiled floppy purring one. And there. All the cats made it into one blog post.



Did I mention she's still a handful? Some nights this is the only way (without tears) I can convince her to head into the bathroom to get ready for bed.

February 10 on 10

He's creating a masterpiece drawing on the iPad. What kind of masterpiece, you ask? The kind with a rocket ship that suddenly lights on fire so all the frogs have to jump out and then you draw parachutes on them, of course, because frogs can't fly very well on their own. Mouth open concentration required. Cute sister optional.



We were in a blizzard warning, or blizzard watch, or prepare yourself HERE COMES THE WIND, or church and 4H cancelled or something like that. I was confused. But then I saw Marshall hunkered down in the chicken coop and figured something must be brewing. The critters always know.



More creative concentration in full swing...



Then, instead of a blizzard, the sillies arrived. What else do you do on a so called Snow Day when someone "accidentally" smashes a plant?

Mom: "Hey, all you need is a toga!"
Kid: "What's a toga?"



I call this one: "Brave children onward through the snow"
Alternately titled: "Mom kicked them straight out the front door"



Kids outside, peaceful house inside, my Ellie slinks out of the attic temporarily.



Two hours later, he's nowhere near ready to come in yet... and by the way, for all my Southern friends, it was so warm out the dog was panting. True story.



Prelude to bedtime. How do you comb a Dad's hair when he hasn't got any hair to comb?



It's obvious what this is, right?

What, you can't tell?

Hello. It's a Christmas Tree.



The commute to my virtual office is a short one. Blowing snow and ice has Interstate shut down? Whatever.

Not all online chat agents barely speak English and live in India. Sometimes they live in the middle of North Dakota. Some forward-looking companies want their customers to have someone knowledgeable to walk the aisles of their online stores with them, except, in a less creepy way. And if you (by some act of God, or perhaps lack of regard for normal safety standards that most humans have) smashed your Nikon D90 at an off-road race in SoCal... I'll promise we'll get along okay, even though I love Canon. And I'll tell you the Mack Diamond warranty might be nice for "normal and abnormal wear and tear" but it's too bad it'll only cover your gear and not your personal injuries. And then I'll sell you a sweet new Nikon camera.

I am really loving this job, it's such a perfect fit for where I am in life right now.



Oh, and dual monitors? Kicks butt.

Finished hibernating

I walk back into our house, with sun-kissed skin and wind-whipped hair, and a basket overflowing with outdoor scented shirts and pants fresh off the line. That comforting old-farmhouse-wood smell has returned in our front entryway. There is green grass beginning to grow around the yard. If my windows weren't all caulked shut, I'd have every one of them wide open. Barefoot mud-splattered kids shriek as their bikes whiz down the driveway. I convinced one boy to take his training wheels off yesterday and he is proud.

It hardly seems worth mentioning this weather anymore. These oddly warm days that feel like May (or even June?) have become such a fixture that they almost feel normal. February, really, was the only month that looked and felt like winter. It's easy to endure one month. It's easy to forget that this weather is an unusual gift.

The frost is already out of the ground, and with it, a gigantic beetle that had had enough of hibernating.


I have no fear (unless spiders are involved).

Those of you who live in more... ahem, tropical climates, may not agree that this is a large beetle. It's all relative, I guess. Around here, they don't come much bigger than this. We were sufficiently impressed.

We proceeded in the way my Dad always did with me. He gets the credit for my love of small critters. Ye Olde Insect Identification Book failed to deliver what we were looking for, though. Thank goodness for The Great Internet.

It's a Large Diving Beetle, we decided. Not to be confused with the Small Diving Beetle. Yes, we measured him. With a florescent yellow ruler that didn't make it into the picture. And yes, we're pretty sure he's a boy. And these pictures look like they could use a bit more red or something, no? Oh well, I'm not gonna fix them now.



All the kids held it (even if one held it very briefly and screamed - it still counts).

We even had a bit of drama. It was swimming around in our tub (you don't let gigantic beetles swim in your tub?) until somebody pulled the plug. Luckily one of the boys was quick to snatch it out of the water, although I have my doubts that it would have fit down the drain anyway.

A lot of the bugs from my childhood ended up pinned in a display box.

Not this one.

Sister was concerned that the stinky slough wasn't a good home for him.

The boys convinced her it was okay.



It's mid-March, people. In North Dakota. I looked a year back in my blog just to remind myself of what we have. I should be close to going stir-crazy, exhausted with this frozen tundra. Instead? We're soaking up an amazing early Spring.

March 10 on 10

A very good day.

7:42am
So tough to stop playing long enough to eat your breakfast. Such is life.


8:46am
One of the boys has been begging to do this experiment.

The time is an hour off because we've been pushing our clocks ahead gradually all week. The Daylight Savings change is too hard on the kids (one in particular) otherwise. Today we ran the full hour ahead, which was much less confusing for this mom rather than the odd minutes we were off the rest of the week.

10:03am
Already a gorgeous day outside. The beginning of what is supposed to be amazing weather this week.

When the sun is this lovely, these birds sometimes toss a wing up in the air and flop a leg to the side, to soak up as many rays as is poultry possible. And they don't care one bit how ridiculous it looks.

10:46am
Okay. Not only did we have sun... we also had mud. Lots of mud. Did I mention glorious?


11:51am
Just part of a busy builder's pre-lunch project.


1:13pm
An exercise in symmetry?


2:48pm
So I gave the kids mini-marshmallows and toothpicks and told them to go crazy.


3:45pm
This. Wielding two and a half pounds worth of camera with my right hand. Holding a curious little Bantam upside down with my left hand. Dangerously close to my minimum focus distance, which calculates generously to a depth of field of less than half an inch. *dramatic curtsy*

Didn't bother to sharpen for web, but heck yeah, I nailed my focus.

4:39pm
Sad story here. I'd like to pull out my free-pass "damn thyroid excuse" please. I'll be spending some money on seeds this year, and I bought a nice plastic storage box so I don't end up with soggy seed packets again.


6:43pm
Squishy mud + crazy jumping + snow pants + little girl who wasn't going to waste time going to the actual bathroom when she can just do it in her pants. Clothesline. Fantastic day.



Linking up with A Bit Of Sunshine Ten on Ten Project

January

My husband left the weather forecast on the computer, just to be sure I saw it first thing when I walked into the kitchen... the luxury of a laptop. Instead I force my eyes away from the screen as I shut it. Denial can be such a beautiful thing.

I step out into the darkness.

The morning feels crisp, but it's just cold, not COLD. The door behind me closes and instantly its window fogs over. I watch for a moment while my bundled kid disappears from my view even more as he breathes on the glass. That distant growing humming squealing squeaking of the school bus echos off the barn. He's ready and waiting. I speed through a list in my head, and yes, I do believe we remembered everything today. I turn and head towards the barn.

I've got garden dirt all over my hands in January. It makes me smile. I'm sorting through these living treasures in my warm house. The paper grocery bag crinkles as I roll them around, choosing. My potatoes have sprouted, but they're still usable. I make my selection, and then have mud running over my hands as I rinse them off in the sink.

Next summer's garden is on my mind.

Two and a half bulbs of garlic remain in a lunch-sized paper bag. Onions too, some mine, some from a neighbor, some trying to grow. Carrots from a pink plastic bag that was tucked into the least accessible corner of my fridge last fall. Broth from my freezer, from my crock-pot, from my own chicken, from my hand. Soup that fills my soul. A higher level of satisfaction than simply cutting, chopping, stirring the pot. Providing.

The forecast mocks me from across the room. I want to check my email, and I can't continue this blissful ignorance. My eyes go straight to our low for tonight. It's that number.

I groan.

It's that big fat curvy number that even the hardiest of us prairie dwellers must admit is... well, sort of cold. It's that number where I weigh the risk of someone getting his tail feathers in a heat lamp and burning the whole barn down, versus the benefit that little bit of heat might give.

I had such hope we wouldn't go there this winter.

-20F

And the wind. There it is, an Extreme Cold Warning.



I think I have a garden to plan.

A few things

Way too many orders of business for one blog post. But what the heck, here we go. Feel free to bail out at any time.

1. Scavenger Hunt at Ashley's
I've *ahem* lost the battery charger for my big camera. Tragic (or fortuitous?), I still have my old camera. And after falling off a 100 year old chair, which earned me a 5 inch long dandy of a bruise on my thigh, and tossing that XTi across the room where it left a quarter inch deep gash in the table... it seems to be working better than ever. Lucky, lucky me.

Stacked up:
(this was taken with my full frame)


Winter Wonderland:
Look! We got some snow! What a bizarre winter.


Sweet:
I think Arnold has a girlfriend.


Hole:
Hey Bean, were you trying to get that cupcake into the big hole on your face? You missed.


Frozen:
I mean, not really.... frozen. That hen could be in my freezer, you know. Not that I would do that, or anything.




2. Clickin' Moms

Friends, that button on the side of my blog, the one that looks something like this...


That's an affiliate link. If you decide to become a member, and if I have been the one to introduce you to Clickin' Moms, please... please. For the love of all things photography.... click through my button when you join so I can receive credit for referring you.

If you have questions about the forum, email me. oldnicholsfarm(at)yahoo(dot)com

I'll convince you that your photography will become fabulous overnight, and you won't have to put any work into it whatsoever (at all). Ha. Hahaha! But really, it is an amazing resource.



And, yes, they have a week-long trial membership for only $10.


3. Flickr

I thought it was obvious by now, but apparently not.

I. am. on. flickr. Add me as a contact, friend, whatever. Really, it's okay.

When left-clicking is enabled for a photo on my blog, it'll take you straight to flickr to see activity/comments on that image over there. If you care about such things.


4. Project 52

There is a tab (button thing, click!) under my blog header that says Project 52. This is my little year-long photography project for 2012. Just something to keep pushing me. I'll update that page with a new photo weekly - probably Saturdays since I am a master procrastinator.


5. Carsen's Courage

I love this beautiful lady. I love her sweet family. I love her adorable kid. Her selfless determination to give him the very best of every opportunity is inspiring to say the least. Life isn't easy for Carsen, but what he has overcome already... brings me to tears.



I'm not only lucky enough to know them in real life, but to be related.

Kelly is hosting a Thirty-One bag giveaway - a great excuse to check out her blog.

If nothing else, read this post: Carsen's Courage.
(if you click, read the entire page, and have a box of tissues handy)

Friday in random

Beans in the crockpot.

Not The Bean. That would just be wrong.


{not winter - July}

Banana muffins in the oven. I set the temperature to 350 degrees and it bounces to 450 and then 225. It's a wonder I manage to successfully cook anything in there. I've generally stopped complaining about it because shopping for a new one will be painful.

Cats in a pile. This is what they do when it feels like winter. Just outside the barn, in the sun, out of the wind. I'll never get a good picture of it, because they scatter when they hear the door. When the cat-heater is involved, it's similar to this:


{imagine a couple more felines and you've got it}

Winter in North Dakota?

We've had days here and there that felt like winter, and most of one week with a couple inches of snow on the ground that looked like winter. Really, it's been a gorgeous November, December, and first part of January too. We've gone below zero (F) maybe twice. I finally gave up on my last mini-greenhousesometime in early December. Parsley, if you must know.

Overdressed in January:



Now that it finally feels to me that our unseasonably warm days might be over, and winter has possibly tried to settled in... this is still not bad for mid-January here. Not bad at all.



Selfish me wants to say, "We totally deserve this after the last three winters (and Spring flooding) we barely survived dealt with." But it's far from over yet. Or maybe the last few years have been so harsh that I've completely forgotten what winter can be like.

Internet in warp speed!

Last night we actually measured what we're getting with our Wildblue Satellite Internet. Yeah, that's right. I'm finally gonna come right out and say it. They're way over-subscribed and their service stinks. We should be getting 0.512 Mbps downloading and 0.128 Mbsp uploading. That's what we're paying for.

Guess what we actually have?

It doesn't matter if you don't even know what then numbers mean. It's still impressive. We measured at 0.17 Mbps downloading and 0.05 Mbps uploading. That's what we have.

But Monday! Oh, sweet Monday when our fiber optic is hooked up and we're set free from this pain... 20 Mbps glory that I can't even imagine!

Liar in confession...

Forgive me. I lied, and I'm pretty sure I knew it. This image is really my favorite of my best from last year.