We have a new arrival!

Yes. I caved. We now have a dog.

This is Harvey. Yes he is ours.

Apparantely he met my stipulations of no longer being a puppy

and being trained

and being free.

Yippee me.

No seriously, we are on day 3 and so far so good.

Just one container has been a casualty and I was distracted by a house full of kids.

Details?

We got him on Valentine's Day. He is a yellow lab. He is 4 1/2 years old. His origianl owners are from Europe and needed to return. They would have had to quaranteen he and his sister for 6 months so they preferred to find new owners. They did but then just before they had to leave it didn't work out. They contacted their vet who is also the vet for a friend of ours. Our friend was willing to take them both until new owners could be found. We decided we could be those new owners. To one. But we know where his sister Hershey went so they can remain friends. Or siblings. Or however that works in dogland.

Anyway. We have a dog.

A little science anyone?

We had an interesting day yesterday... (warning - potential grossness factor!)

All in the name of science and learning I thought I'd share two incidents that happened. The first occurred as I went to take out the garbage and recycling to the curb. Oops, in the garage I found the reusable bag that we had stored all of the trash and recycling from the car ride home. We like to bring home anything that can be recycled as we know that the restaurants won't. I usually have a bag for trash, for the green bin and for recycling in the car that we then easily dispose of once we get home. Well, dinner had been Swiss Chalet. And that had been Sunday and it was now Thursday morning. And it had been hot. Very hot over the last few days. So yep - I shrieked. There was a lot of white moving going on let me tell you! So once I had collected myself, I (much more calmly) called the kids to come and take a look. After showing them and explaining what it was I then cleaned out the containers and bag - very quickly and carefully. The wet bucket I dumped down the sewer. I can't believe how many there were. YUCK!

Onto science incident number 2. I've been really disturbed over the last month or so that there have been what appeared to be mouse droppings on our table in the back yard. One of those things that gives you the heeby geebies thinking you have the little critters running over your things. Especially where you eat. There have been no signs of them in the house but still. And it is a nuisance - always disinfecting the table, keeping the kids clear, making sure you aren't dropping the droppings on the deck. You know.

So yesterday I have all the kids (7 of them) ready to go swimming and of course it is warm and there is no shade there. So I go to put up the umbrella. and there are droppings. So I clean it up. Then I open up the umbrella and there are about 3 wasps under the umbrella. I quickly grab the spray and (gasp I know - sorry Sarah) but I sprayed them. I hate them around the kids (and to be honest, me). Anyway, I then notice this dark blob that is not moving. Upon further investigation and then some jumping up and down in spine tingling heeby jeebiness, I realize I have just sprayed a BAT.

About a month ago when I went to open the umbrella a small bat had been hanging in amongst the folds and I obviously disturbed it and although it scared me, I thought oh well and away it flew. I don't really have anything against bats. They are just a little freaky and startling. Usually more scared of us then we are of them. So then I realized that the droppings were from the bat and I had probably just killed it with the spray. By this time the kids were wondering what I was up to and came to investigate. Once I realized it was actually living and was in fact still sleeping (and Drew convinced me to just let it be???) I did just that. But there is something about eating your lunch under a sleeping bat that just didn't sit right so we didn't. And if it continues to make its home there, well... Let's just say I won't be eating there a whole lot. The kids continued to check on it over the course of the day and it was still there until we checked after dinner. There wasn't any sign of it there today.

So there you have it. A few lessons for the kids. A few lessons for me. I tend to startle easily but once I get over it I really do find the animal kingdom rather fascinating. All a part of the circle of life. Shall we sing?

Weekend getaway

We spent a lovely weekend away with our friends Mid D and Little D and their kids at their cottage. It is on a remote little island in the middle of Georgian Bay without electricity. We arrived mid evening Saturday and stayed until noon Monday so that the kids could get back for a birthday party.

Surprisingly, the no-electricity thing was kind of refreshing. (The company was pretty good too).

Drew made us breakfast each day on the propane stove.

The kids wore their life jackets most of the weekend (The island is mainly rock, slippery and steep in some places) - and spend most of the time exploring, picking berries,

climbing trees,

and swimming.

We saw lots of wildlife - frogs, huge tadpoles, birds, garter snake, a water or fox snake and bats.

The kids asked repeatedly to go to the small cabin where they went up and down the ladder to check out the loft.

All in all though, a nice relaxing weekend (other than the bats), great company (if they still like us) and it did make us appreciate all that we have. I admit though, it made us wish our own cottage was just a little bit closer.

Thanks D's!