New Arrivals!!

Saturday we made the mistake of going by Valleywide to pick-up some things for our garden, and they were giving away chicks. Now most of our neighbors have a few chickens for kicks and giggles, and we have been kicking the idea around for a while. Later, we were in Cal-Ranch, and they had ducklings. Well, we decided to grab a book about raising ducks and check it out! Turns out for us, ducks are a better choice than chickens. By the time we made it through the book Mitch was hooked! It was 15 minutes until they closed, and he decided he couldn't wait for Monday! This little guy likes to nibble on Mitch's beard.

We are keeping them in the kitchen in an old dog crate for about the next month. After then, they should be able to handle the backyard. Mitch is making a "duck house" under the deck, and they will be able to be free in the yard most of the day. We think these are Pekins or Muscovies. Hopefully Pekins because they don't fly. If they are Muscovies we'll have to clip their wings. Both are meat birds, so if things don't work out in the next two months we'll change their names to Thanksgiving and Christmas.

They're so sweet. They like to nibble on your fingers. Bogus stuck his head in for a closer look, and one of them jumped up and nibbled his ear. He jumped back a mile! Now he just sits in front of the crate and stares.

Here we are at the Rexburg Tea Party! There were a couple of hundred people there to protest!

These are shots of Noah and Grace dumping tea out of tea bags into the river.

Ahhh! My sweet little extremists!! According to the Department of Homeland Security my family qualifies as possible right wing militants and a threat to national security. You've got to be kidding me.

Mom's in the red coat right in front. We were listening to brief speech by the protest organizer, and yes, that is a Don't Tread On Me flag!

Sorry I've been MIA for a while, but I've so much to do and so little time!! To catch up, Noah lost his first tooth. Hooray!! It took about two weeks for him to finally let us pull it! We have also started sharing the benefits of one milking cow with some friends of ours. They can't legally just sell us the milk, so we buy feed instead. The kids love it! Grace always asks for the "cow milk" not the "other kind." The concept that it all comes from the same kind of animal is not really sinking in. Most interestingly, though, was today's tea party. First, if you don't know what a tea party is it might be time to get internet and cable in your cave, second, it was a good time. Tea parties are protests that mostly took place today (Wednesday) and are about curbing government excesses. We took the kids and went with Mom and Dad to let our voices be heard! There were more people than we expected, and we even got on the evening news! I've been so active in politics lately; I really didn't feel I could call myself anything other than a hypocrite if I didn't go and stand up for all these rights I've been teaching my children about. I've been studying the founding fathers, particularly Washington, Franklin, and Jefferson, and I am amazed and humbled and deeply grateful for the monumental task these men had to institute a new kind of government never seen on the Earth before. A government that operates only if the people take an active roll and maintain a strong moral center. They were guided in every step by the spirit, and the job they did was nothing short of miraculous. How fortunate are we to live in the country the Lord designed for the restoration of the gospel. I hope you will all take a more active interest in your local government. Without vigilance there is no freedom.