going for a hike

On Monday, the fam headed up to beautiful, sunny Winslow to check out Uncle Darren's potential new property, 28(?) acres on Patte's Pond. It was a sweet spot and totally calling for miles of singletrack to be built. Good thing Darren is so devoted to cycling. Err, maybe not.

B in her LLBean approved hiking attire.

Marcy and B looking at ferns and spiders (big dead trees)

the ass end of said spider

B and uncle darren (note, that is a bug catcher I'm holding, not a giant glass of beer sadly)

too tired to blog

entry roof

In my constant quest to not have anything be straight and easy on the house, I decided that we should have a sloped and angled entry roof. Good thinking, until it took a total of about 6 man days to complete. Woopsie. Maybe that is why the guys in the field always LOVE working on my jobs. Nothing worth doing is easy. Or is it, nothing easy is worth doing (I can think of a couple of arguments here! :) ).

rafters going up

and up

and up

hmmm, how we gonna cut this now???

tah dah!

Smelting

Friday evening I needed to set a smelt net to fish the overnight incoming tide. Earlier in the day I had picked up a little bug catcher/nature observing kit for Brynna. It was a gorgeous day so I decided to pick B up from preschool and take her with me. What a blast! She loved hiking along the bank of the brook looking for bugs and frogs and anything else she could find. What would have been a 15 minute set turned into an hour and a half exploring expedition. B didn't even notice that we blew through dinner time AND bedtime.

The net all ready to fish. I love this brook. It is a beautiful, quiet (except for the rushing water) spot.

She wanted to show Daddy how much fun she was having.

Mommy and B and the nest she built out of leaves, rocks, acorns, etc.

A little time for exploring nature...

A slug AND a smelt!

Checking out the smelt's mouth (no worries it was already dead when we found it). B is very observant - she had to count the fins and look the fish all over.

Putting him in the carrier (yep it was a male).

One of B's favorite finds - a HUGE blood sucker. I had to keep reminding her to not touch it (I had not salt on hand).

More exploring pics...

"I want to see him jump."

Letting the frog go in a nice quiet pool

Chillin'

"Building a nest"