"Have a Look At This Little Beauty..."

Yesterday morning, as I went out to feed the chickens and goats, I found this lovely little snapping turtle laying her eggs in my garden. It was so exciting. I felt like Steve Irwin as I watched her ... "Have a look at this little Mum ... Isn't she goooorgeous?".


I watched her lay the eggs into a hole she must have been digging since sunrise, lay the little white eggs into the ground, then gently cover them back up with dirt using only her back legs. When she was through ... she unceremoniously turned and walked away. (See ya kids!)

However, all that reproduction stuff must have made her a bit dizzy ... as she thought she could take a shortcut back to our pond by tangling herself up in the goat fencing. I did my best to try to pull her away from the fencing (while also trying to keep all my digits) but she proved way too strong for me. I didn't want my goats to lose their noses with their insatiable curiousity ... so I had to spook her a bit back onto the right path.

She is now back in her pond and we have 100 days to wait until her little one-inch babes start crawling from out of the ground. Perhaps I will create my own little Crocodile Hunter episode on that day :) Meanwhile, I have already built a bit of a barrier around the eggs so that the dogs don't get them. The "Crocodile Hunter" would be so proud of me.

Looking forward to the birthday of about 2 dozen little finger biters ....

Love,

Jodi

Read More

Goat Meets Butterfly.

We are all a bit under the weather around here ... but I just had drop in for a moment to post this sweet photo of our goat, "Me" and her curious interlude with a butterfly in our yard:


Hope you all have a great Friday ...

Love,
Jodi

Read More

For the Birds.

(Last post before we leave for DisneyWorld :)

We used to keep the after-Christmas tradition of burning our beloved Christmas tree ... outdoors ... on New Years Day. It was our way of setting fire to the "old", and welcoming in the "new". We always had quite the fire-pit in our backyard, and would gather around the burning tree for warmth as we took in the sights, sounds and smells of the new year.

But in our new home, we have yet to build a fire pit, so we had to come up with another idea. And frankly, I like this one a whole lot better, as it totally jives with my "giving" theme. It is not a new idea - to be sure - but it is new to us ...

... we found a way to give to the birds ... furthering the functionality of our well loved Christmas tree. We dipped pinecones (collected in the fall) into a pasty mix of flour, water and corn syrup. Then we rolled the dipped pinecones in some bird seed ... let them dry overnight ... then strung them on rope. Voila ... gorgeous birdseed garland!

We then took our tree outside ... wrapping the homemade garland all around it ... and placed it right in front of our kitchen window so we can admire the feathered friends who will eventually flock to it.

Good for the birds ... and fun for us. A new tradition is born.

So, what did you do with your tree? There are so many after-Christmas traditions out there ... and I would love to learn more of them.

Well - we are off to DisneyWorld, provided the Maine weather allows for it. There may be a snow storm during our scheduled flight, so please pray that we get there safely. Thanks!

We will be staying at the Port Orleans Riverside Resort inside the Magic Kingdom. What a great place for taking photographs! I look forward to showing you some :)

Enjoy your week!

Love,

Jodi

Read More

Photographing November: Part 2.

I am learning to fully appreciate November ... and am finding the "life" and beauty within it ... thanks to my previous post on the subject.

What does your November look like?

Love,
Jodi

Read More

The Indoor Pond.

When I began this "unschooling" adventure with my son ... which essentially began the moment he came home to me ... (see You Are Your Child's First Teacher) ... I thought of all sorts of ways that we could keep wonder, creativity and opportunities for self-learning within our home. We keep lots of musical instruments, books, blocks, puzzles, rocks, seashells, crayons, and oh so much more ... scattered in baskets throughout our home. But something was missing ... we needed a habitat ... something where we could house living things ... and watch them for a little while before setting them free and replacing them with another local pond find. So, we searched yard sales and found this $1 aquarium. Auntie found some aquarium goodies at another yard sale for $1. Voila! ... throw in some pond water and plants, a few pond snails and we created an instant indoor pond for viewing the occassional frog, turtle, or fish that we capture from our "outdoor" pond.

You might wonder how my three-year-old is able to part with these creatures after we watch them for a while ... Well, at this age it is fairly simple ... you just tell them that the frog/fish/mermaid really misses their Mommy and Daddy and so we have to put them back where their parents can find them. Isaac totally gets that, and would never want to keep a creature from its Mommy.

Anyway, friends of ours have started their own "unschooling observatory river tanks" as well. Their tanks were also yard sale finds ... and are currently housing several river fish.

This is such an inexpensive and fun learning experience. No filters or other tank gadgets. Just a tank, some river/pond water and fauna & a bubbling do-dad thingy (for circulating the water). You can feed your fish with commercial fish flakes (as my friends do) or you can just keep replenishing the water and animals so that feeding isn't necessary (what we do).

Let us know if you give this a try.

Enjoy your day.

Love,

Jodi

Read More

Fun With a Frog : A Story Told in Pictures:

Love,

Jodi

P.S. Any last minute submissions to my photo giveaway? I will be posting a winner on Friday. Thank you.

Read More

Owls in Corinna.

Thanks to the Corinna Library and the Chewonki Foundation, Meaghan, Isaac and I have learned more about owls than we ever could have imagined. And we got to see some live ones too!

I never gave owls much thought before, but now I find them absolutely fascinating. I want to head out into the woods to photograph them. I never knew that Maine had such a diversity of them. To see more photos from the "Owls in Maine" presentation, please check out my Flickr stream (to the right).

What kind of fascinating animals do you have in your area? Or maybe, like me, you have yet to discover them all :)

Love,

Jodi

Read More