Back in Eggs

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When Neil was doing the farm chores this morning, he noticed that there were two eggs in the nest box. It seems as though our girls start laying right around Groundhog’s Day each year. I am thrilled to have fresh eggs again, and I’m sure the girls are happy to have more daylight. Now if we could just get rid of some of the snow in the backyard, they would have more room to roam around. Seems with their older age, they don’t like to stand on snow. Can’t say as I blame them. I wonder if there are any crazy chicken people who put little booties on their girl’s feet.

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Gaming to Change the World

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I was listening to NPR on thursday and they had a segment on how video games can change the world. Hear it here. They had Jane McGonigal on who just came out with the book Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World. It was discussing how video games are so much more than the stereotypical shoot and kill ones. She talked about how she helped develop a fast-growing type of video games that turn the players towards positive social goals such as fighting depression, obesity, etc.

She mentioned a free game that is still available online that she developed for the World Bank Institute that challenges the players to address issues such as climate change. It is called Evoke and you can see it here.

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Winter Fun part 2

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Today might win the gross winter day award here in Brooklyn with storm drains clogged with slush and the street corners filling up with several inches of slushy rain. I keep trying to remember to think like a kid, so I put on rain boots and enjoyed stomping in the puddles as I took Lindsay to school.

Here are some photos from a visit with my in-laws up in the Berkshires. We enjoyed the wintery day by snow shoeing on and around a lake. After that, Lindsay and her grandparents made a delicious pasta fagioli in their big colonial fireplace.

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Winter Fun part 1

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If you live in most of the US, you will probably be surrounded by snow. It’s easy to grumble about how hard commuting, parking, etc. is. I am guilty of it as well. Here’s a video a friend of mine made with his kids. They live in Minnesota and when we spoke to him, the temperature was -27F. And, no, that’s not with windchill factored in. Kind of puts whining about 18F in perspective, eh? We tried it on one of our coldest days and it mostly worked. Take a peek.

His daughter says it’s steam, but I’m pretty sure they made snow.

Cold Weather Fun from Martha Lazar on Vimeo.

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Coating of Snow

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Here are some photos from today’s snow of 15″. Everything was covered with a heavy, wet snow. New Yorkers, who are usually freaked out when confronted with nature, are now taking all this snow in stride.

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Birthday Fun

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Yesterday was Lindsay’s 7th birthday. We celebrated at a local bowling alley with a big group of her friends. It was fun chaos. Lindsay asked for a bowling ball-shaped cake, so the blue ball was just for her.

And to continue the silly fun, here’s a ridiculous video that we’ve been laughing over.

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Beautiful Dusting

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After a lot of talk of 20″ of snow and school closings, we got much less. They said we got 9″ in Central Park, but I think we got about 6″ here in Brooklyn. Much to my daughter’s chagrin, school wasn’t closed. She was told that if she slept with her pjs inside out and a spoon under her pillow, there would be a lot of snow. She felt totally cheated this morning. But the walk to her school was beautiful.

My chickens hate this weather. They don’t like standing on the snow, which is seriously limiting their range. I’m going to have to dig my way out to them later this morning.

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