Earth Hour

Last night was an interesting global experiment - have as many people and buildings as possible shut off all electricity between 8pm and 9pm. Being that my son's school was hyped on the topic, we also participated. And to my surprise, so did my 2 visible rural neighbors. We lit a bunch of candles, pulled out the Game of Life and played the old board game as a family. It was a lot of fun and the first time we all played a game like that together. Hopefully we saved some electricity, but more importantly it gave us a reason to all be together as a communicating family in quietness...that is a real rarity in today's modern world.

Raccoons at Night

We've been dealing with a small army of raccoons lately. Seems they have discovered our bird feeders and have decided to make them their nightly pit stop. If I wasn't such an animal lover, I'd probably have a problem with these little bandits cleaning up the seeds each night around 9:30pm. However, they are adorable and fun to watch. They seem completely unaware of our presence, even when we shine the flashlight on them. They simply sit up, stare calmly at us as if to say, "What's your problem?" The last 2 nights, they have been brazen enough to climb onto our deck and railing to invade a small hanging feeder. That usually stirs up the dogs (inside). If it's not chipmunks in the morning, it's raccoons at night now. It feels like the animals are closing in around our little island. I guess it's been a long, hard winter for them too.

Happy Easter

As you can probably tell, I've been away from the blog scene for a while now. I think just the shear length of this winter has closed me into my own private isolation. Being that there has been some sun lately and I did see my first robin (on the first day of spring), there may be some light at the end of this arduous tunnel. However, the next little while is sure in no hurry to warm up. Tomorrow is Easter and it should be loads of fun watching my son go on his annual egg hunt. He has told me that he's writing to the Easter Bunny tonight to make sure that the eggs are hidden in difficult spots. I'm sure that won't be a problem. Although I think he was a tad worried that he might not find us now that we've moved to the country. I assured him that any house with children is definitely a stop on the route.