May in the country

We've had a busy, happy May. What a blessing! The weather has been so wonderful that we've spent almost all day every day outside. We've eaten our meals and done school outside, trying to take advantage of every moment before it's too hot. I think it soon will be!



Anyway, here are a few pictures to show you what we've been up to. First, we observed a squirrel behaving very strangely several days in a row. David found the skull of a fox (or something small like that) a while back, and it was out in the yard. We noticed that it kept showing up in different places in the yard, and finally saw a squirrel picking it up and trying to carry it!! He would move it a few feet and get run off by another squirrel. We saw him do this for several days. We were floored. Turns out to have a simple explanation, according to our neighbor and landlord. Squirrels nibble bone for the calcium! Well. I have certainly learned a lot in the few months we've been here in the country! I'm loving it, too.

We've also got our garden growing well and are quite hopeful about it. I'll take pictures for the next update so as not to overwhelm you with too many in this one.





Our neighbors' chicken had babies! They are adorable, and she brought them into our yard this week. The distant shot is in the neighbor's yard, and the close shot is looking out our kitchen window.

We've also seen quite a few pairs of Summer Tanagers that seem to be nesting in our yard. The only other time I've ever seen them was at the bird banding held down at Ft. Morgan, so we've really been enjoying that! I've had some good views, but not while I've had the camera with me, of course...







On Memorial Day we visited friends who had baby goats born that day! We got to hold baby goats and milk their mothers. We also had homemade ice cream made with goat's milk. Delicious!



Here's a picture of two of our own baby chickens, quickly growing up!



Lastly, can anyone identify this cool looking caterpillar we saw this week? I could probably find it online and will hunt for it if nobody identifies it for me.

Remember, you can click on any picture and see a larger version.

I do plan to update again before another month has gone by. Maybe I'll post some artwork then. I've been sketching and painting outside in the afternoons; almost like having an outdoor studio!