Derby has passed

Dearly beloved,

We are gathered here today in great memory of our friend, Derby/Diesel - the beta-fish. He has lived and blessed so many lives, particularly the lives within GCTS, and my family. This is with great sadness that Derby/Diesel has passed into the great blue, he has followed the light, and has left his home. We don't know how old he is/was but he was well loved. Thank you Ian and Sally for bringing this friend into our lives and my family's lives. He will be missed. We will miss you, Derby.

Lunar Eclipse

Cool!

Birds Birds Birds

I love searching for birds, rare or common. It excites me! I went birding this past Sunday and Monday, it was great. I also saw two rainbows on Monday afternoon, pretty sweet. I think that I'm going birding again this weekend, so if anyone wants to come along, let me know. I also saw many buffleheads, goldeneyes, cormorants, and possibly a harlequin-duck! Birding is fun. I heard some chickadees this morning when I was sitting in my office. Great.

Hello. I’m not sure if anyone has clicked on the link “shrimp suck” but it’s a website that says why we should stay away from eating shrimp. “Shrimp is the #1 seafood in the U.S. Eating shrimp can be among the worst things you can do to the ocean. Bottom trawling and farming for shrimp can destroy the ocean. You don't want to be a part of that.” The site urges consumers to stop eating the country's most popular seafood, which is typically caught using turtle- and dolphin-killing nets. The reason that it’s on my blog is because I read it in Outside Magazine and it brings up a valuable point – everything we do and eat has an affect on the Environment.
That being said, I have a confession to make – I love eating shrimp. It tastes so good. Ivy and I ate some on Friday night at Legal Seafood and it was amazingly good. I had a trio of fish, and shrimp and scallops; so good! I do believe in caring for the environment but it’s not like I eat shrimp everyday. Agh, now I feel better. I’m gonna go eat some shrimp…just kidding!!

Skiing Adventure

So this is Ivy learning how to downhill ski...just kidding!
This past Saturday, Ivy and I trekked northward in search of snow and mountains. We found ourselves at Ragged Mountain. It's a nice mountain to ski at, although it is a long drive from the highway. I enjoy downhill skiing but I often go alone because Ivy doesn't like to ski very much because she doesn't know really how to ski. BUT she agreed to go skiing with me and was also willing to take a lesson. Fine by me! :) So Ivy took an hour private lesson, and her instructor even took her to the top! Ivy is good at skiing, she just needs to relax and enjoy the views. She had fun. I had fun too. It was a nice day to ski. Not too cold and it even snowed. Skiing in the snow making seeing more difficult though. I always say that skiing is like riding a bike, you just remember. I remembered but it was difficult. It has been a year since I last skied. I definitely didn't ski like the photo above but it was good. I think I'm done with Ragged Mountain. Too small. It's too bad that skiing is so expensive! Normally it would have cost $60 per lift ticket! That's crazy expensive! No thanks. Ivy and I had a good day though. I'm glad we went. Maybe we'll go again this season now that she's a pro!

It's Underdog!

So you would think that a movie about Underdog, an old cartoon, would be pretty stupid and not worth the effort to rent and then watch...wrong-o. Underdog the movie is so funny!! I laughed pretty much the entire movie.
"It's a bird, no it's a plane, it's a frog! A frog?!"
"It's no bird, no plane, no frog, IT'S UNDERDOG!!!"
What else rhymes with dog?
Great movie. So funny. Highly recommend.

More Birds

So today I and some friends went birding again. This time we went up to Plum Island. Our ultimate goal was to see a snowy owl but we figured we would see other awesome birds while we were up there, and we did. We did end up seeing a snowy owl but didn't know it until someone told us later...we saw it from a distance. But we saw many short-eared owls...like the picture above. As we were leaving the Park, we followed an owl along the road and it happened to stop and perch on top of a wooden stake, perfect for a photo without a scope! (Which I still need to figure out how to use). It was awesome. We saw tons of hawks too. Birding is a fun hobby. We also saw many mallard ducks in the marshes. They are so funny to watch because their butts float as their heads are under water searching for food. It was a great day to bird...despite a little wind and cold.

Greetings, and welcome to our blog. We are new at this but figured 'what do we have to lose' by setting up a blog? Asolutely nothing...so here goes:

So today I went up to Newburyport, along the Merrimack River, and went birding. Birding isn't catching birds or trapping them, it is simply watching and looking for certain birds. Today I was in search for Bald Eagles. Bald Eagles migrate to the Merrimack River every winter because of the open water. Today I drove north on 95 and drove along the River. Immediately I saw 7 Bald Eagles hanging out on a sand-bar in the middle of the River. I was pumped with excitement! I got my binoculars out and looked through them, and saw 2 adult Bald Eagles and 5 juveniles just hangin' out on the sandbar and in the shallow water. They were playing and washing themselves. It was a sight. Then I setup my scope and tripod to view the eagles through it. Much better than the binoculars! They were flying back and forth from the nearby white pine and paper birch trees along the River to the sand bar. They are so cool to watch. They are so majestic! I took some photos, but they didn't come out so well. I tried to take the photos through the scope but not so good. Oh well, it's the best I can do now.
Then I drove down along the River to a park and saw another Bald Eagle soaring in the wind. Today was a windy day to say the least! Cool.