Rockwell and the Giant Iguana

Hmm. Looks like Rockwell made a new friend.

I love this picture. I bet its going to be a family classic. It comes with a story too. A few minutes after this was taken, Melinda was feeding it, and she tried to feed it too small of a piece, and the iguana bit her finger. She probably would have been fine had she no jerked away.. but she did. So now she can say she had to go to the hospital for an iguana bite. Nothing serious, no stitches, just antibiotics.

Like I said on facebook, only cool moms let their kids play with wild iguanas. I gotta give Kathi that.

Melinda sends dad a movie.

Here is a video of Melinda showing us her bedroom in the VI. Good to see video!

melbedroomvi12

Chicken facts 7,8, and 9.

7, They seem to lay at the same time each day. Ours seem to lay around noon.

8, They seem to have matching schedules.

9, They can lay more than one egg a day (!)

Hannah and mathcounts

Update 2: A picture. With that perfect ambivalent 13 year old’s expression!

UPDATE: She came in 6th place in the whole state! I’m so proud of her. Way to Go H.

(Where is mom so I can tell her….)

So, Hannah is at the mathcounts state contest as we speak.. She just made it into the final round! GO Hannah!

Chicken Jumping

So, It turns out chickens like Italian bread so much they will jump for it.

When I loaded this, I did not realize its common to train chickens to do things! Check this video out!

My first 5K

I have been inspired by my kids interest in racing lately (They have a kids triathlon that they are going to be participating in next week)

So, I just finished the Augusta “Heart and Sole” 5K race. I have never done one before. My time across the line was under 28 minutes!

OK, 27:59:47 or something like that.

Still, for just getting back into running, that’s pretty good if you ask me.

My Chickens and I.

Recently, I got another chicken from Arthur. Its a long story, but the picture you are about to see is a study in nutrition.

What happened was, Arthur made a deal with one of his tenants. Arthur had a building on one of his rental properties that made the perfect chicken house. It was about 16×20 feet, with a yard out the side that the chickens could run in. So Arthur purchased 100 chickens mail order, and this guy was going to keep them and share some of the profits of the eggs or the chickens themselves when they where grown. Arthur even sprang for the feed. Well, I went to check on his chickens the other day, and there where non around! the place was barren. the fence in the yard had a knocked down section, and there was not a chicken in sight. It looked like it had been that way for a couple weeks. Anyway, I went and reported this sad news to Arthur, and he contacted his tenant and asked what happened. The guys said,” Oh, they are around, they are ranging in the woods and around the house”. and he asked Arthur if he wanted him to bring a couple over. So a couple days later, a lone chicken shows up.

And that is how I adopted one more chicken

The Chicken on the right is the sister to the chicken on the left. they both came from the exact same brood. They where born on the same day.

Isn’t that interesting? The only difference is the chicken on the left is truly free-range, and the one on the right (Melinda’s Chicken) is well fed.  Even their colors are different. Melinda’s chicken is a deeper gold. That said, the skinny chicken still seems healthy, and I sure she will catch up to her sister quick enough.

In other Chicken news, since we have a new chicken, I have to keep the new chicken in the coop to keep her from running away. This needs to last a couple weeks give or take. so, when I let the chickens out in the morning, I close the coop back up, so the new one does not run away.

Well, since then, around noon, when I go in the yard to walk the dogs, and check up on the chickens, the black one (Rockwell’s chicken) sees me and stands near me wherever I go and makes chicken noises. (“buuk bucUUUK”). She even leaves the other ones to stand near me. (Unusual).

I figured it out! She likes to lay  around the middle of the day, and she wants back into the coop so she can lay her egg!

too funny.

Still not done.

Hey, I can’t ignore this stuff. If it sound a little outrageous, trust me, it does to me too.

Hannah just competed in the VI Mathcounts competition, and came in 6th place out of 100 students!

Way to go HannaH!

Either out of all the students (public and private) on St Croix, or all the students in the VI,  I need to find that out. Either way, it was quite a feat! Here is an interesting thing.. Her friend from the apartment complex she lives at came in first place. I’m glad she has smart people to “hang” with…

In other interesting news: I mentioned Hannah has a “reef Ecology” class before… They just got their itinerary for next week.

Get this. Her next outing is a nighttime bioluminescence study on kayaks.

What is this kid going to do in high school, thats what I want to know.

I’m not done yet.

I’m not done bragging, that is.

Rockwell just got his ABA (American Bicycle Assn) magazine in the mail.

Turns out Rockwell is ranked 30th in the state in points, and 3rd in his age bracket! In the whole state! Whats crazy is he only started racing this last summer, so he missed all the points that come with the spring series! Oh, and BTW, he did that using the tracks loaner bike.  Kathi said he is really missing his bike. One funny anecdote… Kath said that during the duathlon, the bike section of the race was a loop in a parking lot with speed bumps. While some of the kids where slowing down to go over them, Rockwell was jumping them at full speed. Funny. Sounds like Rockwell.

Also, he was promoted from the novice category to the intermediate category, so he will probably be racing against older kids when he gets back.

Anyway, here is Rockwells name in the magazine: (Click for larger picture)

Sigh, yet more parental boasting

Does the boasting never end? Of course not, I’m a parent.
Rockwell and Melinda participated in a duathlon (run bike run) this weekend.

Melinda came in first of the girls in her age bracket! Actually, she was a 1:09 faster than the next girl in her bracket! 7th overall out of a field of 13 kids.
Incredible.

Rockwell placed 2nd in a group of 14 7-8 year olds, 10 seconds behind the leader (who had his triathlon dad following him the whole way pushing him, who also had a expensive bike, while Rockwell rode a loaner huffy)
Rockwell was in the lead after the bike section (ha) but lost a couple seconds on the last lap. (I believe the timing of the last run is wrong on that results sheet.)

I thought that was exceptional for their first race the ever participated in…

Rotary Mid-Isle Duathlon Feb 12, 2012 results (PDF)

It sound like they have the fever too, Rockwell had fun and cant wait till the next race, and Melinda wants to do the kids triathlon next month!