My resident Rube Goldberg watched this video exactly 27 times before turning to me with a maniacal grin and saying, “where’s the duct tape?”

My house, and my boy, might never be the same.

The song is from the new album “Of the Blue Colour of the Sky” by Ok Go The video was filmed in a two story warehouse, in Los Angeles. The “machine” was designed and built by the band, along with members of Syyn Labs over the course of several months. Syyn Labs calls themselves “a group of creative engineers who twist together art and technology. We build gizmos, whatzits, and interactive installations that encourage strangers to play together by lowering social barriers.”

Based solely on this description and their amazing machine, Syyn Labs now ranks WAY up there on my guy’s “cool places I’d like to work someday” list. They’re right behind Lucas Arts and Legoland. Oh, and if OK Go is looking for an almost 8 year old guitar player, he’s so in!

I have to tell you that I felt a little gullible when I bought this owl house. How on earth was an owl going to find this ONE little hole on this ONE tree?

The boys had asked and asked though, and we had long looked at Amy’s owls with awe and adoration. Finally, when a birder in our neighborhood confirmed that there were indeed Eastern Screech Owls in our area that readily move into houses, I caved.

Still, I felt pretty certain that it was a long shot at best, and tried to quell the hopes of my young birders just a bit.

Just as soon as the house arrived, Daddy hung it in the tree and then they all watched from the back door, thinking that an owl would surely swoop in at any moment. No.

The next day, before even asking for breakfast, they all rushed to the door, like Christmas morning, fully expecting to see an owl in their box. No.

This went on for days, until eventually we looked a little less, and hoped a LOT less.

Then, one fine evening we walked out the back door, not even thinking about our owl house, and I happened to look up.

Lo and behold, our “Whinny” had taken up housekeeping there. It had been only 15 days since the house was hung. Amazing. How on earth did it know?

Now, everyday, around about 6:30 we watch his/her head poke out. It sits, calmly, groggily, and looks about for 20 minutes or so and then will swoop straight down and out just before hitting the ground. It’s breathtaking.

We all keep saying, “I can’t believe it! A real OWL! Right in our backyard!”

Just as Amy said it would, it has become all owl all the time! It’s a real shame that they emerge just when mamas are trying to get dinner finished. Who can worry about such trivial matters when there is an OWL with lovely yellow eyes staring in the back door? They do so look like they know something that they’re not telling when they look at you with those eyes.

Just two nights ago, we set up the tent in our backyard and had a family camp, in honor of our boy’s birthday. We told stories and made smores and then we all snuggled in, even the dog. We made one big pile, like snakes, for warmth. One by one they all drifted off, all but me. I lay awake for ages, thinking, dreaming, content, and then I heard it…. the sweet soft trill of our owl friend, perched just above our tent. He sang me to sleep with the prettiest little lullaby I’ve ever heard.

Welcome, Whinny. We think you’re grand!

**** Some fun owl resources****

Moon of the Owls – Sadly out of print, but there are still used copies available. This whole “Thirteen Moons” series is amazing. Each one is lyrical and lovely.

Birds of Prey (a Golden Guide) – You know by now how much I love these little guides, right?

Kidwings – virtual owl pellet dissection

Owl Brand Discovery Kits – real pellets for real dissection

Barn Owl Nest Cam – In Italy (Texas, that is)

A little wordless story inspired by some of our favorite books, the A Boy , a Dog and a Frog series by Mercer Mayer (and of course, by Ryder and Jasper’s antics too!)

Once, on a chilly golden morning, much like this one, I stared for hours at this beautiful little face. He was the most amazing thing I’d ever seen – my very first, my very own, little boy.

Then I blinked and he was nine.

And you know what? It still amazes me, every day, that I get to call him my son.

Happy birthday, Luke. I am so proud of the strong, capable, generous young man that you are becoming, and I’m so grateful that I get to watch it happen.

Chipping Sparrow, Looking at Us Looking at Him

Yesterday, I was sitting near a window, reading Julie of the Wolves. This is rare, this sitting and reading… more rare than I’d like. Our little dog though had just returned from surgery (the kind that will prevent his ever attaining fatherhood) and he needed some quiet company.

So we sat and I read and petted him. I was thinking, of course, about Julie’s adventures with the wolves and how she had to learn to communicate with them in their own language. I was also thinking about our Jasper and how he has instincts all his own. He knows that he is supposed to claim his bit of earth. He knows that something deep in him is wary of larger animals, especially male dogs and those towering humans. He knows that we are his pack and he knows his rank among us. He knows these things without having been told. Something inside him understands without words.

As we sat there I happened to look up from my reading and out the window. A male house finch was perched near a bird house which hangs by a bit of rope-like twine. He deftly removed one long strand and flew away. He will not build his nest, but he will supply much of the material to his mate. His job will be gathering and singing – his version of provision and protection. No one told him it was time to do this. No one told him how. He just knows – a deep, inexplicable, wordless knowledge that he cannot, would not, disregard.

All of this has me thinking. Where have our instincts gone?

Don’t get me wrong, I do realize that some of the most wonderful things about humankind are results of our ability to rise above our instincts. We will help the weak or the needy without regard for our own preservation. We will make beautiful music, poetry and art that have little to do with our survival. We have the ability to reason and think beyond our biology.

But…

in all our ability to think past the great drive to preserve our genetics, I wonder if have we LOST the ability to listen to our instincts?

I think of how long it took me, when my first child was new, to stop listening to the advice and reading the books and summon up my own powers of instinct. I think of how often I still wonder if I am doing the right thing. A mother wolf never wonders, does she?

I think how so often I find myself chasing after an idea, forcing an issue, long after, deep down, I knew I was going the wrong way. All those birds and butterflies beginning now to head north – they never doubt the direction they’ve taken, do they?

I wonder just what I would know, what we all would know, if we were able to hear those long forgotten voices within. That voice we call instinct. I wonder what it would be like to just know.

***********

I hope that you’ll join me over at Simple Homeschool today. I’ve written my first post there and it flows nicely into this discussion of instinct. It’s all about RE-finding your homeschooling direction when you seem to have lost your way. I think that really it is a great topic of discussion for all parents, not just homeschoolers.

You’ll never guess what happened.

It snowed.

Like real, REAL, snow. Not just pretty white flakes that fall and promptly melt, but the kind of snow that stays on the ground and sticks around ALL. DAY. LONG!

The kind that you can make respectable enough angels and forts and snowmen from!

Okay, I realize that this might not seem like a big deal to those of you who live and breathe snow all winter, but to us… to boys who have never ever made a snowman… to people who don’t recall ever having a snow that lasted past noon… to us this is nothing short of a miracle.

It’s a pure, white, honest to goodness miracle.

We didn’t even have proper gloves, and we sure as heck don’t own snowpants. So we’d play until we couldn’t stand the cold and wet anymore, then we’d run in and throw our pants and socks in the dryer while we huddled under blankets. Then when our clothes were nice and toasty again, we’d go back out and do it all over . We did this all day long.

And I’m pretty sure that we’ll wake up tomorrow with cheeks that are sore from all that smiling

I can’t tell you what it means to me, to us, these trips of ours to the woods.

We get outdoors a lot at home. We know lots of good trails and we often ramble along our favorite creeks. But there is nothing, nothing at all, quite like the feeling that you could walk and walk and walk into these woods, into REAL woods, and never see a soul.

Nothing compares to that shivery feeling that you could get lost here. Good and lost.

There is no music like the first frog calls of the season and the ripples lapping at the bank of a lake that you have all to yourself… well, you and the ducks and the geese of course.

There is nothing that fills the soul like seeing the sun set over the golden grass and knowing that only you and your dearest companions will see just this sight in just this moment.

“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.” – Henry David Thoreau

One of the most vivid memories I have of my great grandmother is kneeling at her side on a summer day as she showed me how to excavate potatoes. I remember the smell of the earth, the softness of it, and the complete surprise I felt at discovering that real food had been hiding under the dirt all the time.

I remember how she cut them into long fat strips and fried them in a cast iron skillet. I remember how hard she laughed when I declared, “They’re even better than Ore Ida!”

I remember too hearing her say that those potatoes had been planted on Valentine’s Day. It’s what was done. In our neck of the woods, the day of love was also the day for planting ‘taters!

It seemed strange to me then, that people would spend their time thinking about dirt and potatoes instead of chocolate hearts and lacy cards on Valentine’s Day, but it makes more sense to me now. What says love, real love, more than working together toward a common goal, appreciating the little square of land thats all yours, and laying in your hopes for happy, well-fed tomorrows together? I kind of think that planting might be the perfect way to declare familial love. Don’t you?

We missed Valentine’s Day by a long shot when we planted Granny’s birthday garden last year, but we resolved, then and there, that we’d do better this year. And oh did we ever! We still didn’t quite land on the right day, but we got a whole lot closer, and that’s progress, right?

We took a little road trip last week to reacquaint ourselves with the woods, to soak in the company of our favorite granny, and to get some dirt under our nails.

We passed miles and miles of dark bare fields on our way, many of them being plowed up and turned over by determined farmers in their blue tractors. We sat around Granny’s table and caught up on family news while we cut the eyes from seed potatoes. We put our backs into it, hoed the rows and dug the holes.

We were, as always, so sad to say goodbye when our visit was done.

As ridiculous as it sounds though, it makes us all smile, even now, so far away, to know that there are potatoes hiding underground, reaching for a new spring, and that in just a few weeks it will be time to plant the tomatoes.

I can almost smell the vines now.

I hope your week is off to a good start, friends!

There are four new pairs of wellies in this house… and they have opened up a whole new world to us…

… a very small, very magical world.

We’ve been creek walking… and bringing home mini monsters in jelly jars.

We’ve been huddled ’round the microscope, holding our breath and watching, completely smitten with the weird and wondrous things that live in the water… things with horns and tails and bodies that envelope and absorb their prey.

And yeah… I think that no matter how hot it gets this summer, they’ll never, EVER, be tempted again to drink the water straight from the lake or river. Lesson learned.

In the case that you’re interested in investigating some smaller than small life forms too, here’s some of our favorite resources and refereces:

1. We have two microscopes. Both were gifts. One is very very fancy and one is this very modest starter model. I have to tell you that while the fancy one is really neat and very powerful, the “lesser” one works just about as well for our purposes. So, if you are thinking of delving into the microscopic world but don’t want to spend an arm and a leg, I think that you’ll be very pleased with this starter version.

2. A World In a Drop of Water – a fascinating look at common water critters and the history of microscopy.

3. The World of the Microscope – a perfect companion to a new microscope. Lots of ideas for experiments and investigations to be found here.

4. Adventures With a Microscope – A small book packed with information – 59 activities for microscope exploration!

5. Pond Water Zoo – why oh why oh WHY don’t they reprint this one? We keep on borrowing it and one of these days I’m going to have to break down and fork over the cash for a copy of our own. It’s that good.

Here’s to small wonders!

We’ve had so much luck with our bird feeders that we thought it was high time we had some houses in our trees too. Besides, there are some fellas in residence here that are always itching to use the tools, and really what more classic boy project is there than a birdhouse?

Our most frequent visitors are chickadees, so, after a good deal of searching, we decided that we’d try these simple little houses made from PVC pipe. I would have preferred wood, but we don’t have all the right tools for that, and these looked manageable for young craftsmen…. with some help that is.

We used a different kind of end cap for the top, so it’s harder to see in the photo, but it IS closed. We also put a little petroleum jelly around the part where the top fits into the pipe to help weatherproof it a little.

Now, as we’ve just hung them, I can’t vouch for whether or not the birds dig ‘em, but I can say this… they’re super easy and offer lots of opportunity for kid assistance.

Earlier today we noticed a little chickadee fella poking about the house. You can’t imagine the faces pressed against the window, and the hushed squeals, “Go in! Go in! It’s nice in there! Come on PLEEEEAAAASE?!?!?!”

Needless to say, our fingers are all firmly crossed.

Have you guys had any success with bird houses? We’d sure love to welcome some feathered residents, so any tips you have would be much appreciated!