Indoor Pond?

Hmmm, it seems that the backyard is not the only area collecting water right now! This photo was taken in the workshop and as you can see there is an awful lot of water in there. After the January thaw when our basement had water in it, Adrian plugged up the drain in the workshop because of a yucky, eggy smell I could smell every time I came in the house from outside. We traced the source of the smell to the workshop and since it was dried up and the drain plugged, no more smell. However, that meant that the water coming in right now had nowhere to go. I finally found the drain and unstopped it with Andrew holding the flashlight so I could see what I was doing. We watched the water go down for several minutes. Once the majority of it drained, we started working with the shop vac. Altogether we have sucked up more than 80 gallons of water over the last few days! That's not counting what went down the drain initially. At least it stayed in the workshop area and not the main part of the basement! Whew!

Tomatosphere

We've signed up to take part in a neat experiment and we're really excited to start!

Tomatosphere is a project that investigates the effects of the space environment on the growth of food, which is a factor in any long-term space missions (eg. Mars). Thousands of classes across Canada and around the world have been taking part in this project, growing the tomato seeds and submitting their results.

Our tomato seeds have arrived (just today!) and we are to germinate and keep records of them then submit the results to the website which is in partner with The University of Guelph, The Canadian Space Agency and Agriculture Canada, probably not in that order, but Adrian and I went of UofG so it got priority! We won't know which packet of seeds was treated until we submit our results. One set of seeds will be "control" seeds and the others will have been "exposed to a simulation of aerocapture that seeds will experience when entering the atmosphere of Mars. Aerocapture is a spacecraft maneuver that reduces the high point of an elliptical orbit by entering the atmosphere at the low point, using drag to slow the space vehicle. This maneuver saves fuel compared to the direct use of a rocket engine. Aerobraking puts the seeds under pressure and may increase the temperatures to which the seeds are exposed."

Now to get out to the hardware store and pick up the supplies!

Our Temporary Pond

Each spring we are blessed to live by the water. The melting snow coupled with the large amounts of rain we've recently had have turned much of our backyard into a temporary pond. Thankfully, it doesn't last long, but it does look kind of neat out there. It gives us a little glimpse of what it would be like to have our very own pond. The boys have been excited because the temperatures were dropping not long after this photo was taken and they have visions of skating in their own backyard! Unfortunately, the winds were so strong the only thing the ice was good for was breaking up, a current endeavour of our boys and their friends.

April Fools

This is the first year the boys have taken an interest in playing pranks on April 1. Andrew spearheaded the movement in our household and has made our morning rather interesting. He has taken a real keen interest in pranks this year, so the others had to join in, of course! He put a plastic water bottle, half-filled with water and left open, on the top of Nick's door (Nick discovered it and managed to "disarm" it); put tinfoil across the inside top of the shampoo bottle; set out a little "search for 4 paper monkeys" for us - except there were only 3 monkeys to find; told me a riddle (Name the only green mammal there is.); set all the bedroom clocks ahead an hour and says there is more to come. Nicholas set out a monkey trail for his brothers, too; poured a cup of water on Matthew's bed (that one did not go over well as I had to strip the bed and will have to dry everything - well, I decided I might as well wash the sheets while I'm at it). Matthew and Nicholas also tried to have a water pistol fight upstairs. Nice.

I'm not sure what else is in store, but I'm hoping good behaviour is part of it!

Hello Sunshine!

Wow, there really is sunshine out there today! Spring seems a real possibility. I am really not a winter person. I have a serious lack of energy and a definite need for soaking up heat. Spring brings with it such hope and I'm more inspired to do things. With this kind of weather I'm thinking of the things we want to put out in a yard sale in May, the trips we are hoping to take and getting things organised for day camp. Already local people have been asking when it is and when the forms will be out. Hopefully they'll get their forms in early since we ended up with a short waiting list last year! I'm praying we have enough staff, which all the people involved in running the camps are praying for as well.

Today we walked over to the library to pick up some books and videos. Matthew thoroughly enjoyed splashing in every puddle he could find and since I had put my snowpants on I didn't mind walking along with him! He'd been bugging to get to the library ever since he found out the DVD he wanted was in - "Spiderman: Venom Saga." He is happily watching it right now. His current favourite movies are Spiderman 3 and Transformers. Funny though, when he asks to watch Transformers he only really watches the last twenty minutes or so of it - you know, the exciting end part! He likes the action of the robots and has even dug through the dozens of little cars we have around the house to find cars that match certain Transformers. We didn't have a yellow camaro with black stripes for Bumblebee, so he was happy to have me paint black stripes down a yellow corvette. Adrian was most amused by this last night.

After we got back from the library I took Panda for a little walk to get the mail. She is still hobbling around with her back leg up in the air. Every time it seems to be getting better and she is putting weight on it she gets silly and races all over the place. Then it's back to hobbling. Poor thing. On Wednesday, the boys and I went to visit my Dad and Skylar. It was a beautiful day for driving and we had a great time. The two dogs played and played! Panda ended up being so tired that she had a sleep under the table for a while. Jazz kept trying to get her to play and all Panda would do is lie there and half-heartedly paw at Jazz. She slept all the way home and was pretty tired yesterday. Today she's mostly back to her normal, energetic self.

Finally!

Matthew officially has a gap in his mouth! He is so happy to have finally lost a tooth!

Hard at Work

We got another dumping of snow and here is Nicholas hard at work clearing our driveway. He knows I'm expecting friends to scrapbook this afternoon and thought he'd get out there and get working. Normally when there is this much snow a friend of our neighbour's comes over with his tractor and plows our shared driveway. But we don't know when he'll arrive and it likely won't be until after the ladies have left. Nicholas likes to help out around the house and yard. Hard work doesn't scare him away - he loves the challenge. I did put on my coat and boots and help him after I snapped the photos! The snow was heavy since it's fairly warm today.