Well - the Fuchster clan is finally getting close to entering the wonderful world of homeownership. We just completed our inspection, and things are looking good. We took lots of picutures - here’s a few to give you a general impression; we’ll post more soon.
Here’s the front and side:
Another one, zoomed out a bit:
Here’s a view of the backyard with a feature that is currently causing some debate:
And here’s a view of the backyard (from the 3rd floor) - the buidling in the picture is the garage:
So it turns out that our new midwestern home is a fairly active bald eagle nesting area in the winter - so adding birdwatching to our growing list of hobbies (like attending RV shows - another story for another posting), we trekked out to the great river road over the weekend to see some eagles…and we actually did (shockingly).
Somewhat curious about this bald eagle population, we learned how their numbers increased over the past 30 years. Habitat management? Apparently not. According to the Fish and Wildlife service, the answer is discountinuing the use of DDT and making killing a bald eagle a felony conviction - and if you work for the Fish & Wildlife service and find yourself having to explain this to a crowd, it’s imperative that you use your best “tough guy” voice and point menancingly in the air when you say “DDT & A Felony Conviction.”
We now wonder if this is a universal principle for saving all endangered species…save the whales? Stop using DDT and a felony convication. Wow! It works. We might be onto something…
The girls had never seen an eagle before and here’s the first thing we saw when driving into a State park - kind of set their expectations way too high for eagle viewing:
Anyone thinking we actually were able to take a picture of one is giving us way too much credit for being even somewhat competent photographers. So unfortunately, all we have are pictures of the girls on one of the locks that helps control the flow of the mighty Mississippi:
The locks attract tons of seagulls so Grace and Lucy think they actually saw hundreds of eagles today:
This is the closest we could come to getting an eagle picture (besides the big inflatable one):
Looks like Luce is officially a “kid” having turned 2 on Jan. 8. We’re still sorting through Christmas photos but here’s some video of her. She hasn’t taken up smoking but she certainly blows out candles like a smoker (who would’ve thought that blowing out 2 candles could be a 10 minute ordeal?)
Time 00:00: Lucy looks at the ice cream cupcakes with some skeptism
Time 00:15: Lucy successfully blows out the first candle and works on the second one
Time 08:30 After trying to blow out the second candle for a little over 8 minutes, Lucy finally asks for help
Time 09:59 Lucy gets a little help from her mom and the second candle experiences its final flicker
