wild (life) adventures

I've been so busy with end of the (CC) year stuff that I did not have time to post about our back yard wild life adventures last weekend!  We started the day last Friday with a cat rescue from the neighbor's tree.  This poor kitty had been stuck up there for more than 48 hours.  Both the fire department and animal control said they don't rescue cats from trees :( and that eventually he would come down on his own.

This gives you a better perspective of exactly how high up he was in that tree.

Finally, after we had listened to his pitiful cries for two whole days his owners found him and brought their ladder for a daring rescue.  It took some coaxing, but I am glad to report that the rescue operation was a success!

Then, that afternoon the boys discovered a swarm of honey bees in our tree!  A quick google search led me to a local bee keeping couple who had already relocated one swarm that day and said they could come right away to help with ours!  It was a field trip in our own back yard!

So this is what 15,000+ bees looks like when they are protecting their queen and waiting for their scouts to find them a new home.  Pretty amazing!

The bee keepers got all suited up, climbed up the ladder with their vented Rubbermaid, and started shacking the tree branch.

A lot of bees made it into the box, but a lot fell on the ground or stayed in the tree, so they got out their bee vac and started vacuuming up the rest of the swarm.

They said they were pretty sure they had gotten the queen because so many of the bees were all over the box - the bees are drawn to the pheromones the queen releases.

Bob and Susie were so patient answering all my many questions and not minding us all standing by and watching the whole process.  It really was fascinating! 

mini field trip

We are lucky to have a wildlife preserve within walking distance of our house and last Sunday they held a free educational event teaching kids about how to protect the watershed area that we live in.  A couple friends tagged along with us and we got to pretend for the day that we had 8 kids instead of 6 :)

After all the activities we did a mini hike through the woods and watched the turtles in the lake.  Addie found this large (for her) walking stick and insisted on using it instead of  the more appropriately sized one her sister offered her.  She's pretty cute :)

playing school

This post is a bit over due.  Last Thursday, instead of coming home to write about our trip to Jamestown, I came home to a sick husband who ended up needing an emergency appendectomy :(  It was a rough weekend (for him) but he is doing much better now.  I am thankful that he followed his instincts and went to the ER before things got really bad!

My niece's 5th grade class had a two day field trip to Jamestown and Williamsburg last week and we got to join the class for part of the trip.  In our nearly 8 years of living here we have visited Williamsburg many times but for some reason have never gone to Jamestown, so when my sister called and said they were coming down for a class field trip and family was aloud to tag along we jumped on the opportunity.

My niece and sister on the beach in front of the glass house.  That is the Jamestown ferry in the background.

Building a new longhouse (they called them something different, but I can't remember what!)

Making rope, Powhatan style.

Learning to tie knots before boarding the Susan Constant.

The Susan Constant.

Bellow deck- we need to build these in our house so the kids can have some privacy :)

A bed in a Jamestown fort house.

Ready to fight :)

The James River

Glass blower at the Glass House.  He was making an ink well, like the one at the bottom of the picture.

An attempt at a group shot before we headed home for the day- this was the best of the bunch.

We loved having my sister and niece come stay with us for a night and getting to experience what a "real school" field trip is like.  Jamestown was fun even though it was very crowded (lots of school field trips going on) and the kids want to go back again when there are less people there and they can really explore.