Oreo Bunny Update

Here are Oreo's litter of baby bunnies. She had six and raised them all and is a very good mother. They were born on March 4th, so they'll be 4-weeks old this Tuesday and ready for 're-homing' next weekend, 4/5.



Of course Emilie doesn't want them to go and wants to keep them all. Well, we're not doing that but I make a deal with her... here's the deal, I said she could keep two of Oreo's babies if she agreed to let us get rid of the guinea pigs, all of them.


Much to my surprise she agreed and accepted the deal, yippie!! Here are the two babies that she wants to keep. I believe the brown one (r) is a male and the grey one (l) is a girl.

Presence vs Presents

"Children need your presence more than your presents." Jesse Jackson

If you agree with Reverend Jesse Jackson, please click the 'Sign the Shared Parenting Petition" icon to be taken to the American Coalition for Fathers and Children website and sign the Statement of Support.

R.I.P Little Buddy

Sadly, I must report that Tootsie-Roll, pictured above, has gone to the great big guinea pig cage in the sky.

Although, the most traumatic piece was that Emilie was the one who discovered ole Tootsie-Roll lying outstretched and stiff as a board. Needless to say she was VERY upset and still is.

I adopted this dude from Craig's List in early 2007 and never asked how old he was. He could have died of old age, could have had some terminal ailment or perhaps the cold New England weather from garage living was the cause or some combination of these.

He fathered (4) babies back in July 2007 with Riley, (3) babies March 1, 2008 with Squeaky (his daughter from July 2007) and Riley is due again anytime now, she's huge. So, there's no doubt he sowed his wild oats.

Alas, rest-in-peace old chum. It was difficult watching the trash truck haul you away...

Pineapple Angle Lush Dessert

Oh, it might look like the leaning tower of pizza but don't be fooled. JoAnne and Emilie whipped up this bad boy for Easter and it was goooooood! It's called Pineapple Angle Lush. The recipe can be found at kraftfoods.com or by clicking the link above.

And here is JoAnne and Emilie's handy work once again. Good ole fashioned colored Easter eggs. The dark colored egg is one layed by our chickens - either Ethel, Lucy or New Honey. The others are store bought. Our chickens are brown egg layers and as the commercial jingle goes, 'brown eggs are local eggs and local eggs are fresh' and you ain't gonna get eggs any fresher that ours. However, brown eggs are not the best or preferred for coloring and you can see why. One of the white store eggs came cracked, so we went to the bull pen (baseball term) or rather the chicken pen to have an even dozen.

Frye-Alator Makes VARSITY Team

Breaking News - This just in...

Once again I am happy and VERY proud to report that Stephanie has made the 2008 girls high school VARSITY Softball team! She was one of only four sophomore girls to make the varsity team.

Also, on a similar note Stephanie's been asked, has accepted, will be going to and has already purchased a beautiful pink dress for the WHS junior/senior prom on May 9th. Yes, I know I know, she's only a sophomore, so you can understand my trepidation. Perhaps more on this later after I've had more time to digest the whole situation...

Visiting Tom's

We've had some wild turkey's visiting us recently. There were (7) one evening making their way from the backyard to cross the street, and more than likely go to roost for the night. A couple days later, first thing in the morning, we had three visiting and eating a breakfast of spilled bird seed from the bird feeders, see pictures.


Above is a strutt'n Tom striking a pose.


This picture shows what's known as the 'beard' hanging from it's chest. The beard is actually a tuft of feathers that grow from the chest. Both males and female turkey's have this beard but it's much more prominent on the males. The males are typically larger birds with spurs on their legs that get bigger with age.


Here's another Tom making his way along the side of the neighbors house on a chilly morning with smoke billowing from the chimney.

Determining Dog Life Expectancy

Popular myth suggests that "one human year equals seven dog years". This is inaccurate on two scores, since dogs grow rapidly the first two years; the first year or two years represent some 18-25 years and 4 years per human year after that. This ratio varies with size and breed.

No one formula for dog to human age conversion is scientifically agreed. Here is a rough approximation:

Morea Easter Bunnies 2008

Oreo has joined the ranks of motherhood again. She had (6) and they were born on Tuesday night March 4th, so they're 11 days old today and just starting to open their eyes. She had six babies during her last pregnancy so she's consistant and a good mother. These babies are going to be beautiful;their marking and coloring are stunning.



Here's mother and babies in their nest box. Yes, the cage is small but it serves the purpose for now and allows me to bring them in the basement (maternity ward) to the dismay of JoAnne.

Here is an updated picture of Salt and Pepper's litter of 9. They're getting big and up for adoption now!

The Shared Parenting Petition

Please participate in this new campaign and sign the SHARED PARENTING PETITION.

Click the "Sign the SHARED PARENTING PETITION" icon below to be taken directly to the petition.

Your help is needed to demonstrate the public support which exists for Shared Parenting. For years public officials have heard about the millions of people who support Shared Parenting and family law reform. Unfortunately they rarely see this sentiment expressed, which leads them to question it's existence. We need to demonstrate that support in a tangible way.

The goal is to generate as many electronic and physical signatures on the petition as possible. Thereafter ACFC will print and bind all the signatures into a book which will be presented to Congress as part of the DC Rally 2008 weekend.

Petition results will be further parsed for use in activities related to framing public policy not only at the national level, but at the state level as well.

Once you've signed the petition, please help PASS IT ALONG.

The American Coalition for Fathers and Children

New Lawn-Mowing-Machine

The ballots are in and the decision's been made - we're buying a new lawn-mowing-machine!

We've chosen the Craftsman 24 hp 42 in. Deck, DYS 4500 Lawn Tractor, see below! After you say Craftsman 24 hp 42 in. Deck, DYS 4500 lawn tractor you need to grunt like Tim Allen. You know what I'm talking about.

We chose this specific model because it has a 'Handy cup holder'. Cmon, I need to put my beer someplace. You have no idea just how much beer I spilled over the years using my other tractor simply because it didn't have cup holder. So you see I am actually saving money by stepping up into this new model...

Rock on - bring on the warm weather and grass cutting season!

They're Here! Well Some...

Guinea Pig Update:

Squeaky popped out three piglets one week ago today (03/01/2008). They greeted us on Saturday morning when we went down to check the maternity ward. She is doing a great job for a first time mom.

Riley is now a grandmother with the arrival of Squeaky's three. However, she has yet to have delivered her babies, which is surprising since she is huge and getting bigger. I was guessing the two would have their babies around the same time but I was mistaken.

You see in my previous post I wrote that the expectant mothers were approximately 63 days along in their pregnancies. However, 63 days is the approximate time that I put the male in the same cage as the females and not necessarily how long they've been pregnant. Apparently he took a fancy to Squeaky and hooked up with her first. Riley, having been through the pregnancy process before, prolly fought of his advanced knowing full well what was to come. Ah, but you can't fight mother nature and of course true love or perhaps animal lust. Stay tuned...