Frogs!
About a week ago, Nana and Papaw came for a visit and we walked along a new greenway trail together near the boys’ school. The temps were great and there were lots of other people out walking on the trail. And while we walked we could hear some frog sounds, and excitedly I said to Evan, “are those frogs?” “Yeah, Dad, and they’re NOT spring peepers, either. Those are wood frogs.”
During this week, we began to notice we could hear frogs at the window close to the boys’ bedtime. It sounded far away, like the frogs were down past the woods somewhere near the little creek we call “salamander creek.” I asked Evan, and when he listened he said he was sure what kind of frogs they were.
On Saturday, close to bedtime, I took the boys on an adventure. We got on our boots and jackets and I packed my digital recorder. I recorded our walk down to the creek, across the creek and up the hill and then through the briers to where we could hear the frogs the loudest. We stood there for about 8 minutes taking turns holding the microphone. Below is the recording of the frogs. We are trying to identify the species and are not sure about it yet. From other recordings we’ve listened to, it sounds the most like the Western Chorus Frog but we don’t believe they live around here.
We listed through these two CDs without finding a match:
The Frogs and Toads of North Carolina, Michael Dorcas
The Calls of Frogs and Toads, Lang Elliott
If you listen closely, just about exactly in the middle of the recording, you can hear a very excited Grayson enjoying the moment.
If you have ideas about what kind of frog this is, let us know!
A green lawn mower
About a month ago, I got a new lawn mower. I hadn’t really thought much about electric mowers, perhaps believing they wouldn’t have enough power or a long battery life. But really, I just didn’t know much about them. But I got interested, and checked models available online. I read that an Earthwise model has a strong 24Volt battery (lasts an hour), and so does a WORX model. It takes me about an hour to mow the yard, so it began to seem plausible that an electric mower could work for me.
I didn’t want to get something like this online if possible; I wanted to find someone who would sell it from their shop and, more importantly, would stand behind it with service if I needed that later. I called through a list of W-S and Triad garden centers, then I called Sedgefield Lawn & Garden Center in Jamestown (map). They do sell electric mowers. They had models in their shop for me to look at, from Earthwise and from WORX. They have a local distributor for both brands. I chose the WORX mower because it is lighter and I felt better about its quality and the ease of getting it serviced as needed. They kept the mower to assemble it and charged the battery, and the boys and I picked it up the following Saturday. Sedgefield even mailed me a card that week thanking me for my business!
Now for the best part: in the past, I generally had headaches, burning eyes and sneezing fits whenever I mowed, no matter the season. Maybe it’s not so surprising. But since using this mower which doesn’t spew exhaust in front of me for the hour it takes to mow the yard, I haven’t had any of those symptoms and it’s also much much quieter. And it has plenty of power and more than enough charge to last for my yard-mowing. The removable battery charges easily overnight. It makes mowing a pleasure!
Best Pics of 2008
We’ve been going through images from the past year, trying to select our favorites. We have so many pictures that show birthdays, blueberry picking, applesauce making, fantastic trips, and lots of pictures of boys doing favorite things, reading and biking. Could we narrow it down to twenty? Nope. Could we narrow it down to forty? No! The gallery below shows the results, our favorite 83 pictures from 2008… Enjoy!
One wheel is all it takes
I used to have a unicycle, long ago, maybe when I was 14 or 15. I can remember lots of trying and not too much progress being made for a while; though it was enough to keep me trying. I did learn to ride it and I was proud of the fact that I could do this thing (I knew no one else who could ride a unicycle).
Now, it’s many years later, and I requested a unicycle for my birthday this year. Andrea may not have known whether I was serious, but she took me at my word and gave me one! It sits and waits for me to ride it , and I practice when I can. So far, my top distance is about 20 feet, and usually I go about 5 before falling. But I have to say, it’s a thrill to ride it and I will keep at it. It’s a thrill to learn something new in a setting where the boys are learning, too. They are out riding their bikes as I practice on the unicycle, and they are excited by it. They shout, “go again, Dad!” and I try again. I fell off today and scratched my finger, and it was Evan who ran in to get a bandaid. 
Here’s me riding today. I got pretty far…
Bike ride at Salem Lake!
We took the boys to Salem Lake on Sunday, with Evan riding his own bike and Grayson riding the tag-along behind Daddy. This was a SEVEN mile trail!
We rode with our friends, Stephanie and Taylor. Taylor was riding her bike, like Evan. We all felt so good to be able to make it all the way around the lake!
Turtles are welcome here!
The boys were outside playing this morning, before it got really hot. Andrea looked out the window and saw them near this box turtle. They hadn’t seen it yet.
Then Evan drew this very cool picture of himself and several turtles in our yard:
Biking as a family
We went biking together as a family today. Was it really the first time? It was the first time we were all riding our own bikes for the duration of the trip.
The Three Weissmanns of Westport
Beatrice and Virgil
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Catching Fire (Hunger Games, #2)
The Girl Who Chased the Moon
The Ambiguity Advantage: What Great Leaders Are Great At
The Complete Book of Pilates for Men: The Lifetime Plan for Strength, Power & Peak Performance
The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals
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