Births, Deaths and Marriages

It's been a mixed up week here, happy, sad, exciting, shocking, and that's only to do with our pets.  Here is a brief synopsis of the animal-related happenings this week:
1.  On Tuesday we realised that someone had put a young female in with the males.  Okay no big deal, she might be pregnant, and that's okay.  We were going to keep one of the baby girls anyway, the whitest one, but this one will have to do, we thought.  Until it was discovered that someone had also put a young male in with all the females.  That's not okay.  We are not prepared to keep all the females "just in case" they are pregnant.  Well fortunately we did some google-ing and found an early sign (read:practically immediate) of pregnancy, and non of our females had it, so HAPPY DAY they weren't pregnant, we checked again for the next couple of days just in case, but we're confidant.
2.  On Wednesday at about lunchtime, the mother rat had another litter of baby rats, 8 this time, but one died.  They were in the canaries cage (the canaries were in the rat cage), because that way we could separate the young males from the females, and because the bars are slightly wider than the rat cage, the babies all fell though to the bottom tray and the mother couldn't help the baby that had the birth sac still wrapped around it's face and by the time we realised there were babies (it's a very quiet event) the poor thing was dead.  Time for another cage swap - mama needs a cage with smaller bars.
3.  That afternoon, we had the canaries out enjoying some sunshine in their (rat) cage, and when I went to bring them in, our little female, Holly, was dead in her bird bath.  Very sad event.
4.  On Thursday morning the young rats were sold to the pet shop for $2.00 each, which, after tithe is taken out, gives the boys $10.00 each to save up.
5.  And while they were at the pet shop selling rats, the Mister and Master B selected a new canary, also named Holly, as was the female before her, and the female before her.  May they rest in peace.  She is the new "bride" for Harry, our male canary, hence the "marriages" in the post title.
6.  Finally, this afternoon I took the kids to a playground and when we came back home we had a surprise awaiting us.  About a month ago I bought a new guinea-pig, Ginny.  I thought she was a baby.  Turns out she was old enough to breed, because when we bought her she was pregnant.  We had no idea until Miss A went to hold her guinea-pig this afternoon and found a teeny tiny perfect little miniature guinea-pig.  Really, it's amazing how they look just like an adult guinea-pig only tiny.  Complete with a coat of thick hair, unlike rats, which are completely hairless, blind and helpless.  This baby guinea-pig is running around, exploring, acting like...a guinea-pig...
So there you have it, and exciting week with our animals, tons of surprises, hopefully no more for a while.

Break A Leg

My dear mother-in-law, the Mister's mother, broke her leg a little over three weeks ago, which is the reason there haven't been any updates for a few weeks.  We have been so busy doing school in the mornings and then rushing off to town almost every afternoon (except Fridays) to visit her in the hospital.  She broke her leg on a Thursday afternoon, tripping over after attempting to carry shirts to the ironing board without the use of her wheelie-walker or walking sticks.  She then had to sit on the concrete floor in agony and wait for someone to come to her aid, it was about an hour, we think.  The poor lady then had to spend three entire weeks in hospital - a place she hates!  She went to hospital on Thursday evening and had an operation on the Friday, to get pins, the doctors made her get up and walk using a frame on the Saturday.  She came home on Thursday three days ago, and is recovering quite well.

Oh, Rats!

The major thing in our house that keeps everyone occupied these days is the baby rats - all 12 of them! With 2 parents, and another young male keeping the father rat company in his cage that's 15 rats altogether.  It's funny, because 6 months ago if you had asked me if I would ever consider getting a pet rat my answer would have been a flat-out "No!" but possibly a mouse for Master B maybe when he's a teenager, since he's crazy about mice. Hmmmm.

These little ones are getting cuter by the day though, they opened their eyes on Thursday, so they've got a new lease on life now that they can actually see what they are doing and they LOVE exploring the cage, and spend a lot of time cuddled up with each other inside those cardboard tubes in the middle of paper towel rolls.  They are now covered with a nice thick coat of hair and they are learning to climb quite well.

Consider what they looked like as newborns

And now

The kids love holding them, er...usually only one at a time (the big one is a guinea-pig, by the way)

Super-cute wriggly balls of fluff

So, in about 3 and a half weeks, these little guys will be weaned and getting sold to the pet store, although we will keep one of the pure white females to breed with our pure white male.  Anybody want a pet rat?

As an aside, we bought yet another rodent today.  A little female guinea-pig to be my pet, and to be company for Miss A's lonely guinea-pig.  

Rock On

We generally try to go "somewhere" and do "something" on Sabbath afternoons, whether it is a walk along the beach or a nature walk through a bush trail, but last Sabbath afternoon, we missed on our outing, due to the Mister having had a plantar wart removed (rather viciously, I'm sure he thinks) from the heel of his foot.  Certainly walking long distances, or even short ones, was not going to happen. Although he managed to hobble around at Church, by lunchtime his whole leg was aching, so I will share with you some pictures of our afternoon's outing from the previous Sabbath, which I had meant to post earlier than this...oops.

We actually went to one of the local dive sites where there are some nice rockpools, the kids had great fun splashing some toys in them.  So, without further ado:

The pictures really don't do it justice, the sponges and tiny reef fish found in the rockpools truly are beautiful to look at.
Here's a couple of photos from the little circus we went to, also.  Before the show started he gave the kids a demonstration of feeding the monkeys and had a bit of a chat about them.

In other happenings, we decided to get another male rat because the daddy one is lonely now that he is in another cage, so we bought a little pure white one.  His name is Snowy.  It's funny how you forget how small little animals are when you first got them; we went to put Snowy into his new cage with Mousie (the daddy), which isn't specifically a rat cage, but a "small animal" cage, and he just escaped right through the bars! Well, we were ready for him luckily and he just went right into someone's hands, but that meant that he would have to go in with the mummy and babies until he was a little fatter.  Unfortunately for him, mother rat decided that he must be one of her babies and, despite obviously being weaned, she forced him to suckle along with the other babies.  he resisted very strongly at first, but by the next morning mother rat had won the fight and he was found with all the other babies, drinking milk, despite protesting often with loud squeaks.  This morning however, we were finally able to put him in with the other male without him escaping, and the two of them seem to be good friends, snuggled up together in their little hammock.
Well, such are the mundane details of my week.  I have started posting a few pics to my instagram account, if you're interested, mostly it will be about the home schooling stuff we do day to day.
Cheers, have a good week!

A Very Sheepish "Hello"

Well, it's been almost four years since our last post, how positively slack of me! Not that there's been anything major happen in that time...let's see if we can have a quick catch-up...(although you probably are aware of most of this)
*   We have a new dog, border collie x blue heeler, named Shadow.  We got him from the RSPCA when he was 8 weeks old, he's now about 2&1/2 years old.  He's supposed to be our "snake dog", you know, for protecting the yard against snakes.  So far he has proved to be a bit useless at that, but very good at finding ways to be a nuisance (this post is not short enough to list them all, trust me).
*   We bought two canaries, a male and a female, named Harry and Holly.  That night we had an earthquake. Holly died the next day, it was all just too much for her - moving house and then earthquakes and all.  So we got another female, also named Holly.  Eventually they will have babies, and that will be fun, but for now they entertain us with their gorgeous, cheerful singing.
*   We had two (female) guinea-pigs, one each for Miss A and Master B.  Master B's died.  Master R became old enough to have one, so we bought two more (females). Then those two both died earlier this year.  We subsequently bought them two rats, a male and a female.  Which leads us to the next...
*  We bought two rats, a male and a female.  They are able to breed every four weeks - YIKES! That is okay with us (well, maybe not EVERY four weeks) because it will be a good way for the boys to earn some money - the pet shop has said they will buy the babies...which leads us to the next...again...
*   The rats have had their first litter of babies! There are ten pink little wiggly jelly-bean looking things with arms and legs wriggling around and squeaking on the bottom of the cage right now.  The proud mummy and daddy have been separated (apparently she can get pregnant again the very same day/night, that might have happened already).  Interesting tidbit - having a neutering operation for a male rat will cost $190.00!!! We bought a new cage, as well as rat toys, guinea-pig igloos, and tasty rodent treats (no, I did not taste test them), and it all still cost less than that! Plus we have the option of more rat babies whenever we want.
*   Home schooling is still happening, and we love it! The college they have been enrolled in since Aleena was old enough for preschool has undergone some curriculum changes over the last couple of years, so we're moving onwards and upwards and doing our own thing, more of that over at the Jo's Home's Cool blog, if you're interested.
*   Our house seems to be full of animal cages!
*   The Mister is no longer really doing the fish thing on the farm.  It's just not cost efficient when you factor in freight costs, electricity, etc.  But...he does grow some awesome strawberries (among other things but the strawberries are sooooo good).
*   My baby died - that's Ankle (my puppy dog) by the way.  He was sick and on heart medication for about a year,  He died on Christmas Eve, about ten minutes before midnight.  It was a blessing that he didn't die on Christmas, but we still had to bury him on Christmas day.  I still cry for him almost every day.
*   The kids are growing up pretty fast, Miss A is 10, and quite a responsible young lady, Master B is 7, soon to be 8, and into everything boyish, trampolines, lego, kicking balls, teasing siblings... Master R is 4 & 1/2, and also very much a boy - a cuddly, jealous-for-attention, "helper"-in-the-kitchen, addicted to watching "little bear", stuffed-toy-elephant-collecting, thinks-himself-independent, boy.
*   Miss A has a couple of pen pals from around the world now, one in France, one in the USA, possibly one in the UK, and possibly another in Russia (we are waiting for responses) plus a good friend (also a homeschooler) she writes to who lives about 20 minutes away, we visit with them fortnightly.
Well, that's probably all you care to read for this post. I am going to head over to the homeschooling blog to update that, and then I am going to sleep.  I've had a big day. Might tell you about it tomorrow night...*yawn*

Again, awfully sorry about not posting in so long, I feel very sheepish and very baa-aaa-aaa-aaa--aaad, yes, that is a baa-aaa-aaa-aaa-aaad joke, sorry again.

The Tooth, The Whole Tooth

Quite an exciting event for one member of our family transpired this week - Miss A lost her first tooth!  It was actually quite a drawn-out process, it has been wobbly for weeks, and the new tooth was clearly visible growing up behind the baby tooth.  The new one has come in quite crooked, due to the stubbornness of the baby tooth taking it's own sweet time coming out, but I expect it will move into it's proper place in time.  It's been a busy year of "teething" in our family, Miss A has cut a couple of molars, and this new one, and Master R has been cutting teeth for a few months - the earliest out of the three children.  Here is a picture of Miss A proudly showing off her new gap, with the new tooth coming in...and a few more pics just for fun.

Master B playing with hoops in the backyard, he's learning a lot of tricks with them.

Unwrapping birthday presents during a picnic at the beach

Master R - AKA:Sir Drools-a-lot

Hmmm, a little overdressed for the beach?

DON'T FORGET TO CHECK OUT OUR HOMESCHOOL BLOG...IF YOU'RE INTERESTED

What in the World is This???

Well, I already know, but would you care to take a guess?
Here's a hint: It's from the animal kingdom

Miscellaneous, Mixed, Varied and Assorted Photos

Sabbath afternoon doze

having a ride at the shops

one of master R's first "meals"

A ride in the swing at the park

very messy eater

Friday night sparklers - a tradition at our place

face painting - he was a bunny

looking cute as ever

another bunny

2 bunnies

Master B napping whilst Miss A and I are at Adventurers

Christmas 2011

On Christmas Eve last year the uncles, aunties and cousins from the "Cole" side of the family met up and enjoyed a great time together over a picnic lunch (even if the weather wasn't so great).

Uncle Trev with Cousin Ki

The kids had great fun blowing bubbles

Aunty Roni with Master R

A Walk in the Park

We like going to a few of the local parks or the beach on Sabbath afternoon if it's a fine day, just to have a stroll and enjoy some quality family time.  L has fun with his camera, sometimes he takes a couple of hundred photos of just one outing - the joys of digital photography.  There are so many nice photos that get taken on such excursions, here are a few of them.

L and I just noticed how uncanny it is that these two photos show the boys in almost the same facial postion, the tilt of their heads and the expression on theit faces are almost the same.

This one is blurry - because I took it - and a photographer I am not

Miss A loves posing for photos, and with an amatuer-cum-semi-professional photographer for a father she gets plenty of practise!

This photo is one of L's favourites

This is a nice "action" shot

This photo and the one below were taken on Miss A's 6th birthday - we went to the beach and had breakfast (pancakes) on the beach.

This is the photo we used on Master R's dedication certificate

This one was taken on a recent trip to Hervey Bay.  The children enjoyed a very l-o-n-g walk along the pier.