Thursday, June 24, 2010

Our new babies...

...well, not exactly ours. We put up some nesting boxes this year, and a pair of birds selected the one on our front porch to nest in. First we watched as multiple mating pairs fought for the location, then we watched this one pair busy themselves with finding straw to build the nest, and last week we noticed the momma bird staying in the nest more. Returning home from our camping trip we were excited to hear little tweets coming from the box. So we peaked in and saw three little chicks. How fun!



Camping at Loon Lake

Last week we took a four night camping trip to Loon Lake, a great campground! The weather was a bit rainy, and after spending the first day in the tent playing games we decided on each of the other days to drive down to North Bend to escape the clouds and enjoy the sun, wandering back to camp each night tired, overcooked, and hungry for dinner. It was a wonderful trip that we all enjoyed very much, everyone voted to come back again next year. Here are a few shots:

































Wednesday, June 09, 2010

Slugs

Has anyone else been having trouble with an abundance of slugs this year? Oregon has experienced an incredibly rainy winter this year, and as a result the garden has been chewed up by the slugs which are growing to enormous proportions and are feeding on the foliage day and night as there has been no sun to drive them into the ground. I've been setting beer out in cat food cans throughout the garden and each day I find a dozen of the buggers drowned. I've already lost two basil plants, four cucumbers, four zucchini - all eaten right down to the nubs. Last week I deposited 10,000 green earwig eggs and a batch of nematodes hoping to curtail the problem. A batch of lady bugs are on order to hopefully get rid of some of the other bugs that are bountiful. Is it just me, or is this year in particular being tough on gardens? Whatever the case I and my plants are looking forward to some sun!

It's been awhile since I last posted (I've been spending my time chasing slugs). But heres an update on whats been happening: We think we've settled on a new church home - Salem Evangelical Church. Two families in the small group that we host both had very cute babies within a week of each other - congrats Jason & Rachel, Tim & Haley. We'll be camping at loon lake next weekend (and it looks like we might finally get some sun). Christina and I are putting together a trip for ourselves up to the San Juan islands in september. David is about to become a teenager in a few weeks, and I'm starting to feel rather old because of it. Home school is finished for the year and Abby wraps up her school year next week. Abby went on a 2 day field trip with her class to Bend last week, she seemed to enjoy that very thoroughly. I'm going to try and get the sailboat out and ready for the summer soon. Trusting that we'll have good sailing weather soon.

I think that about sums up life lately.