The mad scientists is working on creating life.  He is crossing DNA of a plant with the DNA of a chicken.  Shhh,  he does not want  to be disturbed.

Wait,  the mad bone doctor is working on his patient.....

Joshua and I went to the Orchid show today at the Botanical Gardens.    It was breathtaking!!

We are getting ready to enter the conservatory.  We were both pretty excited.

These beauties greeted us as we entered the front door.

We saw some very unique orchids and some very beautiful orchids.

This unique looking orchid opens up to look like the photo below.

It reminded us of a bird's nest.

They had created fields of orchids.

Joshua loved taking pictures of the orchids.  He managed to "hog" the camera.  I'm really glad he did because he took some stunning pictures.

by Joshua

by Joshua

By Joshua

by Joshua

by Joshua

Our sweet boy just had his seventh birthday!  Where does the time go?

"I love cake!!"

Blowing out the candles on his birthday ring.

I planted peas, kale, onions and leeks today.  It felt so good having my hands in the soil.  I love how everything is so green in the greenhouse.  Lot's of seedlings popping up here and there.

"dirty hands"

Miner's Lettuce and Spinach.  We really love the taste of miner's lettuce.

I've been harvesting from the oregano all winter long.  I just love fresh oregano, especially on pizza.  There is a little chickweed in this picture as well. 

This Winter our snowfall  has been on  the lighter side for our area.  I guess the snow decided to fall in record amounts elsewhere in the country.   

We happen to really enjoy the snow and love to cross country ski,  snowshoe, and go sledding.  We have not done much skiing, sledding or any snowshoeing this year.  Yesterday,  it was a winter wonderland here.  Big fluffy flakes came down quite heavy at times.  It is beautiful.    However,  it's a very heavy wet snow.  So I guess we will be making a few snowmen or maybe a snowdog or how about a snowcow........

These photos were taken around 11:30 am.  It looked so pretty.

The view  from my kitchen.

 Last night,  I removed the snow off of the roof of the greenhouse.  The weather was calling for 4-8" of more snow during the night with another 6-9" today.  However, it has turned into freezing rain so we really did not get all the snow this household was hoping for. 

When I went to bed last night I was surprised by Joshua's pastel creation.  Such a nice surprise!

 

Today the weather was sunny and above freezing.  I planted onions, kale, and spinach in the greenhouse.  It felt good to have my hands in the dirt.  I've noticed in the last week the seedlings that made it through the winter have began to grow.  I probably will be harvesting miner's lettuce and arugula later this week. 

Everyone,  including the animals were enjoying the warmer weather.

Buster Brown is still nursing from his mama.     Because he is still nursing, I don't have to milk her each day and I don't have a ton of milk to figure out what to do with.  I hope they both are okay with him continuing to nurse.  It makes my life a lot easier.

Baybe is the sweetest steer!  He maybe big, but he is so gentle.

Buster the pony was waiting to be put back with his buddy Sally our other pony.

The ice on the pond has started to melt.  The sap in the maple trees was running today and we could see it dripping from a tree into the pond.  We really need to tap our trees!

The snowman we built the other day is hanging on.  The last couple of mornings,  Joshua has looked out to see that the snowman somehow moved in the night.  He has a couple of theories as to how this could be.  His first theory includes possibly iron ore in the snow and then there is iron ore in our stonewall which is pulling the snowman towards the wall. The second theory is gravity is making the snowman slide down hill. The third is a large animal is pushing it at night. The final theory is maybe, it is coming to life at night. I think the animal theory is right..possibly a primate. 

I found an excellent article, below is an excerpt from it.  Please click on the link to read the article in full.  It is from Psychology Today, September '09.  It was written by Peter Gray, a research professor of psychology at Boston College.

Seven Sins of Our System of Forced Education

In my last post I took a step that, I must admit, made me feel uncomfortable. I said, several times: "School is prison." I felt uncomfortable saying that because school is so much a part of my life and the lives of almost everyone I know. I, like most people I know, went through the full 12 years of public schooling. My mother taught in a public school for several years. My beloved half-sister is a public schoolteacher. I have many dear friends and cousins who are public schoolteachers. How can I say that these good people--who love children and have poured themselves passionately into the task of trying to help children--are involved in a system of imprisoning children? The comments on my last post showed that my references to school as prison made some other people feel uncomfortable also.

To read the rest of the article,  please click on the link:

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/freedom-learn/200909/seven-sins-our-system-forced-education

It seems the whole country has been getting a lot of snow storms but us.  Our latest storm dropped only about 5" or so.  It is melting off pretty fast.  Yesterday was the perfect weather for making a snowman.

The snow was melting fast and we both got a chuckle when two of our goats and our ram went running swiftly from the barn  Snow was sliding off the solar panels  and a thundering pile came down on their heads.  They were fine but very startled. 

Silliness with our snowman.

Joshua and I have been busy working on a movie for his rocket pieces he has created.  We haven't finished shooting  yet,  well, there has been a lot of yelling "CUT!" We decided to take a break from our movie and create some life size art.   I had Joshua lay down on a long piece of paper  and I traced around him.  I then told him he can do whatever he wished with the outline of his body.    He chose to color it in to match what he was wearing

Once he was completed,  he thought he should cut out his drawing.  We had a lot of fun posing with "Joshua the second." 
 

We are posing in front of our movie set....outerspace.

I did not realize that he had hung his art piece on our sliding glass door  I walked by it and jumped because I thought someone was standing outside peeping in. We all got a big chuckle out of that.