Friday, June 30, 2006

Spiders, spiders everywhere


One thing that I was warned about when I arrived in NC was that there are 2 spiders that you need to stay away from, the Black Widow and the Brown Recluse. I was told by several people that they have never really seen either around here. I have seen plenty of spiders and some that I had never even seen in books. However, recently I found what I thought was a black widow. Today, I spotted another black widow while I was watering my roses. This time I was positive of what I saw. I always knew what the body shape was like for the Black Widow but Thought that it would be harder to spot the red hourglass on the underside, but it was very easy to spot and was a really bright red color. I called my sons over and showed them (Every spider that they had seen they called either a Black Widow or a Brown Recluse.) We watched it crawl on the rocks and then I sprayed it with pesticide. It crawled into a hole and disappeared. We saw another spider that was smaller and had the same shape but had orange colored circles on the side of the abdomen. After reading more about the Black Widow, I think I saw the male Black Widow. I don't have a fear of spiders and will generally leave them alone outside, but I could not allow this type of spider to be that close to my house and where the kids would be.

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Wednesday, June 28, 2006

To swing or not to swing?

After moving to NC, we found out quickly that our children needed more of an outlet to burn off energy than just a big backyard. So after much consideration we decided to get them a swingset. We went to Creative Playthings to get a nice wooden swing set that they could enjoy. Since they already had a treehouse, they did not need the fort that comes with most of them. Here is what the yard looked like before.
It took a couple of hours for them to set up the swing set but the yard was quickly transformed. We got the rubber chips for under the swingset so that they have a nice soft place to land when they fall off the swings. Here is what is looked like after they were done.
The wonderful thing about having a swingset in the backyard is that they finally have the motivation to learn how to swing on their own.

See more pictures here

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