The Mystery Square Revealed

Millie was convinced that this was her "mini patio" ....



She was pretty unhappy when we put this on it ....



It's our "stars and moon" fire pit. Not shown is a grill for cooking, a big dome spark cover, and a rainy weather cover. Kinda looks like a cauldron huh? ... I love that!



So Lea's back into turning ....



And I'm creating a lot of resin dust making PEG'S in "The Cave"



I painted the door to the cave black and the brick around it green .... must be some sort of childhood memory thing when I loved exploring the caves near my house.

So I'll leave you with the latest video of Sydny that Lea shot yesterday during her feeding time .... don't worry no worms ..... :)

Yoga Laughter

I think someone should start this at SMR .....

The Mystery Square

There once was an area in our back yard that I call "The Batting Cage" .... it was a garden, fenced in to keep the deer and birds out. Lea and I had other plans for half of it so a while back we tore it down. Now it's a few months later and in less than 24 hours we transformed the weed patch into something else. Here's the photos .....







and the "Batting Cage" then and now .....




I'm calling it the "Mystery Square" because what we're putting on it is on it's way to us .... for now I'll let you guess but when it comes I'll show :)

When we were done we figured the dogs and us deserved a little drive out to our favorite area to hunt for stepping stones. The road is a little rough in spots but the van does just fine .....



There's even an occasional house ....



Kinda spooky in places but actually quite beautiful. And yes .... we found some great stones.

The River Trail, The Pink Bathroom & Sydny (of course)

I've had several people ask to post a video showing our path to the river. It's starting to get covered in leaves ... just that time of year I guess .... but here's a little iPhone video walking up the hill from the river on the trail that you can't really see :)



And then there's the Pink Bathroom that we had on hold for a while. We're back at it and tackling the floor before finishing the cabinets/countertop (but we did buy the sink). I guess someone thought it was a good idea to put cheap tan shag carpet in the bathroom to help it sell .... WRONG! There's this very retro tile under the carpet so it seemed like a good idea to pull the carpet out. I think a few gallons of carpet adhesive was used to stick the carpet to the tile because it's a nightmare trying to get the carpet off and then there's this thick layer of glue stuck to the tile. We bought some adhesive remover which turns the glue into the consistency of 3 day old bubble gum. You know how hard that is to get off your shoe when you step on it? It's just plain icky! So here's some photos of our first day (today) of carpet removal.






Anyway .... Sydny gained 1 gram! She was 10 grams and she's now 11. She is however on a diet ..... she eats too many worms and needs to eat more vegies. It seems that if she eats too much then her body will grow faster than her shell .... so there's this important ratio to maintain. Lea built a frame to hold a combination heat bulb and UVB bulb. She needs the UVB to build and maintain her shell. Lea belongs to a "Box Turtle" forum and between the forum threads and live chat rooms, she's learning a lot about box turtle hatchlings. So here's some photos of Sydny's new housing arrangements. I think it's looking pretty cool!




Did you notice Sydny in the first photo .... she's sooooooo cute!

Where The Dogs Play

In response to Bobbie's question as to whether Lea's WindChimes are tuned .... well .... no ..... they still need some work but they do sound nice .... have a listen ....

Windchimes01 by OzarkRains

Sydny is doing really good. We need to do a PetCo run (no Petsmarts around here) to pick her up a few things. Lea and I were going to go to Jonesboro today but it was such a nice day and tomorrow may rain so we postponed going until tomorrow. Here's the most recent photo ....



and the most recent video .....



I'm really starting to believe that Lea and that box turtle are communicating ..... Lea ....."eat your worm" Sydny .... "ok mom"

This morning we all went down to the river to play .... well ..... except Lea who brought her newest video camera along to shoot a little stock footage. I'm not sure what possesses someone to take a $3,000 camera into the dogs backyard water playground but it's what she did. I, however, only took what I could fit in my pockets. Here's a little video ....

Wind Chimes

First off .... here's Sydny's new wading pool ....



Here's Lea making us a big set of wind chimes for our upstairs deck ....



And here it is on our deck as viewed through the window from our "bar" .....



and a few short hours later ....



And this morning's sunrise .....



I love my iPad and one of the things I do with it is read Kindle books .... however .... if we ever get a pool (yeah right) or put lounge chairs down at the river .... then I might consider getting a Kindle for reading at the water's edge .... hmmmmm .... maybe not .... I'm just not a lounging kind a gal but you may be .....

I Said I Wouldn't But I Am Anyway

Posting this video of Sydny that Lea shot yesterday .... yes .... eating a worm .... I know what I said but I lied :)



She's sooooooo cute!