Flying Cats!

Racu and Miss Adventure surprised us both by playing in the snow on Saturday without any hesitation whatsoever. We were especially impressed with their aerial acrobatics in the pursuit of snowballs...

Sunday Sketch

Here's the sketch for today. I've decided to do a mini-comic story that popped into my head during a hike this afternoon. This is just the first page, but stay tuned for the continuation of "A Cautionary Tale..."

Candy fried eggs!

This is hands down the best novelty candy item I've seen in a long time: gummy fried eggs! They look like eggs but (fortunately) just taste like gummy worms. The prank possibilities are nearly endless.

This was one of several great discoveries made today at a local country store. In addition to an entire aisle of homemade candy items, they had one of the most complete selections of grains/sugar/spices/random baking and canning goods of any place I've ever seen. They had several things I couldn't even figure out what you'd use it for, such as saltpetre! I thought it was just for blackpowder, but it was next to the baking supplies, so I'm hoping it has some culinary uses too (although, maybe if you're doing flambe....hmmmm, more possibilities). The best part was all of the supplies were really affordable! We'll definitely be going back even after our time in the Land of Giant Spoons is done.

After careful thought...

and consideration, we finally have agreed on names for our two secret agents that defend us from those who would impinge on our territory (i.e. mallards and buffleheads). Meet Quack and Jack!

Winter pics

Spring teased us a little a few days ago- a reminder of how nice warm weather is. I think I'd have a hard time living where there aren't any seasons though.... I'd miss scenes like these below. We had an ice storm this week, too, with a solid day and night of freezing rain. The path to the barn was at least an inch thick, and very slippery... a bit scary to walk on. Fortunately it melted quickly!

(Dis) Harmonia

Another major fixture of the Land of Giant Spoons are the ladybird beetles, which can be found wandering around almost everywhere (but most commonly near the windows). This particular species, Harmonia axyridis, or the multicolored Asian lady beetle is a common pest of houses in the Northeast. It's an invasive species introduced from, appropriately, Asia. They aren't dangerous, but are a textbook definition of "annoyance pest," mostly due to their large numbers (see the picture below). I've been using the old "pantyhose filter over the hose of a vacuum cleaner" to clean them up in the worst spots, which works very well. Here's a link for more information: http://www.ento.psu.edu/extension/factsheets/multc_asian_ladybeetle.htm

Sunday Sketch

Here's the sketch for this week. Just a quick little bit of Racu looking in through a window (not a rare occurrence by any means).