Spring Comes to Colfax, the Rave Run, and Sam's Graduation Party

 

Tulips

So-- despite that crazy snowfall we endured at the beginning of May-- it's now spring in Colfax.


Need proof? NO MORE SNOW. We're wearing shorts and have screens on our windows. We've even had a couple of 80+ degree days that inspired us to turn on the air conditioning.


It's amazing what just a few days of warmth and rain can do for plant life this time of year (and for our spirits-!). Every day is noticeably greener, the plants growing so quickly their growth is almost visible. It's as if everything's rushing forward to make up for the delay our weather imposed.

Rhubarb!

Meanwhile, the kids are enjoying their last few weeks of school-- this year summer vacation starts after the first week of June.

Front view of the chicken coop

So what's going on in Colfax? Well, the chicken saga continues. Remember how we started the year out with ten chickens? Now we're down to three :(.


After my last blog we lost a couple of additional chickens to whatever it was that was invading the coop at night. Jon said that, whatever it was, the killer was no longer bothering to eat the chickens (as had been the case earlier). If we were quick, we'd find their bodies untouched under the coop.




Someone who heard about our situation sent me an article on how to figure out what's killing your chickens. Each predator leaves its own distinctive calling card.The article said that when chickens are killed but not eaten it's most likely a dog (I immediately thought "Why Teddy... you dirty rat")... but in our case, a dog killer was impossible. There was no digging around the perimeter... whatever was sneaking in was climbing over the TOP of fencing. Teddy in particular had an airtight alibi... he was in his kennel the night of every killing.


(I should add here that we never seriously suspected our cats of the dastardly deeds. They hang out peacefully with the chickens whenever they're loose in the yard, and don't seem to be particularly interested in them. They do, however, show a suspicious interest in the small songbirds that come to our feeders).


Back entrance where Jon installed a slotted door

Anyway! The article went on to say that other possible culprits (animals that will, like dogs, sometimes kill for "sport") are weasels, mink, and martens. Any of these could also have climbed and squeezed its way through the small gap between the wall and roof of our fenced-in chicken yard.







So we (okay, not "we", just Jon) devised a plan. First, he built a slot around the tiny back door to the chicken coop and slid a board through it. The only way to open the door (he figured) would be to slide up the board. Too complicated for a weasel, right?


Second, we locked our outside cats safely into the garage and set up a live trap with meat as bait. Maybe we'd catch our shadowy killer.

Third, in case the trap failed, we set up Jon's "trail cam", hoping to at least get a picture.

So in the picture below left, you can see the trail cam evidence we ended up with. What the heck is that?? Does anyone have photo enhancing software? Who do those glowing eyes belong to? Jon thinks he sees the outline of a raccoon, but I think it looks lower to the ground and more weasel-like than that... of course, a raccoon doesn't fit in with my theory.


Raccoon or weasel?

Two of the survivors

Needless to say, we did NOT catch anything in
the trap that night, nor any of the following nights. Our adversary always figured out how to get the food without getting caught, even though Jon tried some different things with the trap set-up.


On the bright side, the slot and sliding door system worked... at least for the first 3 nights.


But then a morning came when I found the chickens walking around in their yard outside the coop... and there were only three chickens. I thought maybe Jon had forgotten to shut the door, but upon inspection it was obvious that something had broken inside. The door had been pried up till it was up past the slot, and then it was simply pushed it in. Feathers were everywhere.


Mom and Dad happened to come by for a visit that day. After the kids were at school, I used a hoe to retrieve (what was left of) the latest dead body under the chicken coop. This body came out in pieces. The whole thing was so gory (ribs sticking out, exposed guts) that Dad insisted on helping me put it in a bag. So ended the life of the last of our "original chickens", an old bird at least eight years old.


We're hoping to keep these last three young chickens alive. Now when we close the slotted door we top it off with a peg that holds it down. So far the peg improvement is working. We still let the chickens free-range in the yard, though (not for the whole day, anymore... I usually let them out from about three in the afternoon till they retire to their coop perches about now (8 pm). So daytime predation remain a possibility.

Not easy being a tasty chicken, huh?



Posing by a purple tree

Moving along to other matters... what's going on here?

Here's a picture taken at my first-ever 5k jogging event. It was a night-time "experience" at Valley Fair in Minneapolis, called the Rave Run.  The 10,000 or so participants ran, jogged, or walked around a lighted path through the grounds at Valley Fair. People wore glow-in-the-dark bracelets and accessories, and many went all out with colorful costumes and wigs. There was music and dancing afterwards.

 
 I've been training for this for several months with fellow Colfax ladies Elisha and Jessy. Elisha made us matching t-shirts with a cool logo on them, that she designed herself. We drove over together and stayed within eyeshot of each other all along the path (Jessy and I followed Elisha's electric bow).

Elisha, me, and Jessy

It was no problem keeping up with the crowd of runners. After waiting in a big thick line for so long, when the music started thumping and they started letting people take off in groups, there was a lot of excitement. I think the adrenaline just kind of propelled us along.


The trees on our way were backlit in an array of wild colors. The walls we passed were illuminated so that our own shadows were part of the show. At different points along the way bystanders cheered us along. Toward the end they clanged on cowbells. It was so much fun. Jessy had the biggest challenge, because she was dealing with a sore and swollen ankle. But we all made it together.

Along the Rave Run

This was one of the first years that Minneapolis had a Rave Run (there have been others around the country), so there are still a few bugs to work out. There were a couple of areas in the race where there were "bottlenecks" and we had to stop and wait for our turn to pass through. Also, it didn't end up being a full 5K... for some reason they had to shorten it slightly. No one recorded our times and some of the more serious runners didn't like how so many people stopped along the way to take pictures.


The worst part, however, was trying to leave the parking lot. We were there for 45 minutes without even being able to inch out of our parking spot. But then we finally wised up. Instead of waiting politely for our turn ("Wisconsin nice"), we backed up and found an alternate exit. With that sly move we were out of there in less than 5 minutes.

We followed "the bow"

So the race was over, we'd hung out with the dancing crowd for a while, and we'd even managed to escape the parking lot. We were ready for some food and maybe even a margarita!


Easier said than done. There was a Ruby Tuesday's by our motel, but they were short-staffed (people leaving warned us there was only one waitress), so we moved on. By this time it was almost midnight, and in our eagerness to get to the race we hadn't had any supper yet.


Next we stopped at a Mexican restaurant (again, conveniently located within walking distance of our motel). As we entered a big group of people left, and it seemed like they were looking at us kind of funny, but hey. We were hungry. We made our way to the counter, only to be told that they had been super busy that night and were all out of meat... except for chicken. At that point in the evening we were semi-optimistic about our chances of eating so decided that after our great feat we weren't about to settle for a lousy chicken taco. So we left.


Gradually it began to sink in that it was past midnight and there weren't an abundance of places around our motel serving food at that hour. Someone recommended we stop at Mystic Pines Casino, since they serve food until two in the morning. It meant a short drive, but we were willing to give it a try.


So we found the place... or so we thought. Nope. Our waiter informed us we had actually found a smaller, look-alike casino that didn't serve any alcohol. Back to the car we went.


Place #4 was definitely the casino we wanted... the one that served both food and drinks till 2 in the morning. Unfortunately, in our haste we parked on the wrong side of the building and accidentally entered an employees-only zone. We should have realized that something was wrong... the entrance didn't look very welcoming... kind of like a prison, in fact. And people were staring at us. Someone who was probably trying to help us asked "You ladies want to gamble?" but we ignored him because we thought he was being fresh or trying to scam us or something. We didn't figure out our error until the guy at the front desk asked to see our security badges.


Feeling like the geeky Wisconsin moms that we are, we giggled our way back to our car, then drove around the building to the customer parking. A valet parked for us and this time the entrance was well lit and welcoming.


I haven't really been in casinos before (just once on my honeymoon, and then for only a couple of minutes because I lost $10 in a slot machine in about 60 seconds, hated it, and realized that gambling was not for me), so I was amazed at how large it was. Rows upon rows of machines, and people sitting in front of those machines, and bright lights, and a crazy busy carpet. Three types of people stood out to me: the security guards (very serious and alert), the fun-lovers and first-timers, and the gamblers (who I would characterize as grim, expressionless, and focused... straight ahead at their machines. Not talking to each other, each like their own solitary little island). They might have looked differently earlier in the night, but that's how they looked at almost two in the morning.


No, gambling's not for me.


Just before the nick of 2 we had our food (nothing special but acceptable, considering the hour). I was too tired to have that margarita I'd been thinking about earlier, but Jessy and Elisha each had one beer. We talked and laughed until we made it back to our motel and crashed for the night.


And thus ends my Rave Run story!


Moving along... here are photos taken at my nephew Sam's high school graduation party. Sam is the youngest son of Jon's sister Sally.

Sally and Larry's youngest, Sam, graduates

Party was in Holcombe at the Lion's club building. Pictured here: Virginia (married to Grandma Jane's brother John), Dorothy (Grandma Jane's sister), and Tammy (one of my sisters-in-law)

Look at that hat-! Luke and Kelsey with their boy Harrison

Grandma Jane pushing Cooper (one of her great grandchildren) in stroller

Jon's cousin Peggy with one of her grandchildren (Riley)



Jon's brother Brent pushing his granddaughter Macy and my Leila on a swing (Nathan's pushing from the other end)



Jack came to the party with us because he was staying overnight

I'll close with a cute picture of Jack that Jonathan sent. Lately he's been doing this eye winking thing when you want him to pose for a picture. Also, if you look closely, you can see he's drawn all over himself in blue marker. Never a dull moment ;).

Mischief doesn't get any cuter than this

May Blizzard, Grandma Jane's 80th, Susan's Visit, Preschool Prom

 




Tuesday

So. When I started this blog last night I was still raving about the four days of spring we enjoyed earlier this week. It was up to 75 degrees. Most of our snow had melted and the grass was greening up; red buds were sprouting on the trees and our perennials were sending up green shoots-- yada, yada, yada. Bliss.

Thursday

Here's what we woke up to today:  almost a foot of snow. And it's still coming down fast. School was cancelled, our sun umbrella was crushed and all of the cute little lawn ornaments we'd fished out of the garage this weekend are buried under mounds of fluffy white IRONY.








Grandpa Jon made Jack a basketball hoop

This new snow won't last long, but still... it's not what we want to see. At least April gave us a few golden days...



"Grandpa" made this playhouse, too



Jon tests out the hammock




Iggy finds a cat-like place to nap

Nice while it lasted-! But so it goes... and why else do we live in Wisconsin but to complain about the weather?


Moving on with "other business"... the last time I posted, I mentioned that a calf born to one of our cows had us worried:  the mom cow seemed disinterested in her baby, and the weather was wet and unwelcoming. Well, I'm happy to report that while mom cow spent a lot of time away from her newborn, she apparently made regular trips back to feed her,  because the calf is doing fine. Now she's big enough to chase after her wayward Mom and hang out with the other calves, as in this photo:


Also, for those of you on Facebook who saw me post about our "disappearing" chickens, here's an update on that, too. Within a period of about a week, we lost 3 from our flock of 10 chickens. The first two were killed on different days while locked up in their coop... something had climbed over the top of their fencing and found a gap between the fence and the roof. We suspect that killer was a raccoon who'd become a regular visitor to our house. We were able to trap the raccoon, and the night raids have (so far) ended.  But then a third chicken was killed in broad daylight by an unknown predator, while free-ranging in our yard. It's body was carried off, so we're thinking it may have been a fox. We're addressing the problem by letting the chickens free range for shorter periods of time and trying to spend more time outside with them. There have been no new chicken fatalities this past week, so we'll see...

At this point, Jack and Iggy are NOT suspects

One fun April event is my mother-in-law's birthday...  and this year "Grandma Jane" celebrated her 80th. As in previous years, Pat and Ann (her son-in-law and oldest daughter) hosted a birthday party for her at their cabin in the woods. All of Jane's children and most of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren were present. One of those grandchildren was my stepdaughter Susan, who drove all the way from Kentucky with her husband Jay.

Jane, my mother-in-law

Susan with Leila and Harrison

We had a great visit with Susan... I am always amazed at the effort and time she is willing to give each individual person in her family. She's confidante and role model for 12 year-old Emma, who looks to her for advice; loving book-reader and surrogate mom for 5 year-old Leila; devoted daughter to her daddy and friend to me (as well as co-founder of our two person discussion group). And the list goes on and on, with Jonathan, Michael, David, Logan, Grandma Jane, etc... all of us having a special connection to Susan and considering her our own.

I know it meant a lot to Grandma to have Susan present at her party... for one thing, she was able to get a picture of her with all of her granddaughters:

Left to right: Allison, Jessica, Brittany, Grandma Jane, Leila, Lisa, Susan, and Emma




It was snowy that day but already starting to warm up, so we had lots of fun indoors and out. The highlight, as always, was seeing how all the children have grown and watching them interact with each other. I also enjoy seeing how Jon's nephews and nieces-- most of whom were children when I met them-- behave now as adults and parents. It's fun to see the different family resemblances and everybody together at once.

Kelsey, Harrison, and Luke Meyer

Having trouble getting out of "caption" mode. Anyway, I was going to add here that this was the first time I met Harrison Jack Meyer, and I absolutely loved him. What a friendly, happy, chubby-cheeked baby. Very bright eyes and a snuggle-bug. His daddy Luke is Jon's sister Sally's middle son, so that makes me Harrison's great-aunt. 



The potluck meal at Ann's was great, as always.

Still in caption mode. Sigh. Anyway, I wanted to compliment the cooks who brought such a great variety of healthful and delicious foods to the table. It was nice to see fresh fruits and vegetables alongside the hot dishes.

Jon's sister Ann, our hostess, is pictured in striped shirt under the window

Nephew Joe's wife, Nicole, places a birthday crown on their daughter Lauren's head

We didn't just have birthday cake for dessert, as you can see!

Grandma Jane with most of her grandsons (I think David and Josh are the ones missing in the photo). Standing in back: Nathan, Steve, Joe, and Andy. Seated around Grandma: Michael, Alec, Nick, Adam, Luke, and Jacob. On floor in front: Eric and Jonathan.

Grandma with most of her great-grandchildren: Brent holding Harrison (Brandon not present), Malia holding Cooper, Ellie (but Jamison's missing), Leila (shouldn't be in this photo-- she's a granddaughter), Jackson (wailing), Brooke and Audrey (Lauren's not pictured either). And Blythe and Casen are missing. So I guess this is about half of her great-grandchildren!

Jane with her seven children: Eric (standing), Phil, Mark, Sally, Jon, Ann, and Brent.

Brooke and Audrey, Eric Sime's girls

Emma entertaining the little girls with bubbles

 

Blythe (one of nephew Josh's sons) helping cut the cake

 

Jody and Eric with grandchild Casen (Josh's youngest)
 

 



We also had a surprise wedding shower for Kelsey

Anyway, Grandma Jane's birthday was a fun day for all and we were glad we got to spend it with her.


Susan was able to spend a lot of time with Jack during her visit. She helped me watch him during his weekly overnight stay at our house. We also did some fun things like go to the little antique store and sandwich shop in Colfax that I like. Unfortunately, both Susan and Jay came down with some kind of bug toward the end of their visit... that seems to happen every time we visit each other: the cross-country exchanging of the germs. Here's a few more pics from their visit:

Jon with Susan and Leila

Preschool Prom

Susan and Jay

Recognize the dress? It's her flower girl dress from Susan's wedding

Remember when Susan wore big bows on her head?

Leila and her "king"

Dancing



Loving Susan up

Okay, now I'm stuck in caption mode again. I was going to explain that Susan and Jay were with us long enough to help us take Leila to her preschool prom. The kids dressed up and had a "dance" in the high school gym (which had been decorated for the "real" prom, so looked very fancy). They wore crowns they'd made in class... every boy was a "king" and every girl a "queen". They danced to the hokey pokey, chicken dance, etc. while the parents just shamelessly took pictures.

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

I'll close with a picture of my other daughter, Emma, with a couple of signs she designed for an imaginary business. She wanted to combine her love of moustaches (they sell moustache duct tape and other accessories, so it's kind of a design fad) with her love of hot dogs. I was impressed with her creativity and the way she pulled it all together.

Okay, that's enough "bragging" about my kids for one day. Happy May!