No Bears

I went out this afternoon to trespass on one of my favorite pieces of property to trespass on. I had several motives. The main was to have my camera when I see bears. However, when I have my camera I never see bears. Which is a bummer, cuz when I get mauled by a bear, I'm thinking it would be cool to have pictures.   Alas, no bears. This picture is prime bear territory, but no bears.

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Spooky!

Last Friday the Weddle children carved a pumpkin. Jacob did the nose, Belinda did the eyes and Elizabeth did the mouth. It was a very well carved pumpkin and lit up very nicely. They even ate roasted pumpkin seeds later that night.

But then something tragical happened. This morning, as the kids were going out to get in the car for school, they noticed that the face of their jackolantern was missing! Something ate its face! Educated guesses tell us it is deer, who eat pretty much everything except anything that's in the woods. More fun guesses tell us it was probably a monster who ate its face. Ooooo, spooooooky!

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Daily Rituals

Every single day when the children arrive home from school, each child does the exact same thing for the first half hour. Every day. I do not make this up. Every single day since school started. Every one. Without fail. For half an hour. Each day.   Jacob will stand on his head on various pieces of furniture. Belinda will do very weird looking cartwheels. Elizabeth will lay on someone.   Every day. Half an hour.

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O Happy Day!

What a day! The first day of school dawned sunny, humid and warm. The kids were up at 6:45 and ready to go by 7:08. They got to school and dropped Jacob off, who departed with little fanfare and the typical Weddle-male "can do until I realize how much this stinks by second grade" attitude. Jacob is now going all day to school and coming home on the bus with his sisters.   Elizabeth, who put her backpack and supplies in her locker last Thursday at orientation, was rudely greeted by her backpack being gone. Which produced the following lecture from her father, "I told you! I told you last Thursday not to leave your backpack. But no, you knew din'tchya. Just a harmless little locker." They eat stuff I tellsya. The backpack was later found in another locker as someone went around switching people's stuff.   Belinda was also rudely greeted by finding out she was in the wrong class, causing her to get into her new class pretty much as the last kid. However, this was a thrilling moment for Belinda's father because Belinda's new teacher is Mr. Ashbrenner. That's right, a Mr! Down with excessive femininity in public schools!
 
Mom and Dad high-fived in the car and enjoyed their day. Kids made it home on the bus. Only mishap of the day is that Jacob decided to have hot lunch with the typical Weddle-male "Hey, if it looks good; eat it" attitude.

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Pileated Woodpeckers

Pileated woodpeckers are huge loud woodpeckers that are not the easiest birds to find. However, the Weddle's have a few living around them, some of which nest in their yard.

The last few days there have been two flying around being noisy. Today, one would go to the suet feeder and get some suet, fly over to another Pileated and shove the suet down its throat! Not something you see every day.

The photo is not very good because it is taken through the window and the flash went off. But those two black blobs on the small tree leaning to the left are a Pileated woodpecker feeding another one!

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