Sadness upon waking this morning…looked out the window, holding a cup of coffee and what do I see but the birdhouse door wide open! *Gasp* I rushed outside in my jammies, in the pouring rain, in my socks to find the nest on the ground and the remains of damaged eggs: Two damaged and Two [...]

Spent yesterday morning on the rooftop of the pavilion at the Arboretum. Temperature: 45 degrees. Wind: 20mph. Weight of pebble bags: 50lbs. No hot tin roof here! Brrr! The rooftop offered up these amazing views of the Arboretum which is leaping into spring no holds barred. Click for a larger version: As you can see [...]

We’ve been keeping the bird feeders full in hopes that someone would move into the birdhouse we have out there. 2 weeks ago we noticed a pair of Eastern Bluebirds hanging around – going in and out of the box. Hummm. Indeed they were busy building this nest: Bonnie and Clyde – our new neighbors! [...]

Well, you know my week wouldn’t be complete without some crazy animal to rescue. As mentioned in the previous article, we’ve had lots of rain lately…and what do I see at the bottom of the steps one evening: Yes, a very grumpy snapping turtle! He wasn’t that big but boy was he agressive. I thought [...]

The weekend of my birthday and it’s Tulip Time in Pella, IA. An uber-dutch flower festival celebrating the town’s dutch heritage and marking the beginning of spring — all in a quaint town in Eastern Iowa. Isn’t that Vvvveird! And of course a road trip across the state wouldn’t be complete without Geocaching! We loaded [...]

Jenny had just finished cooking up some yummy pancakes when I’m walking near the back door and hear some yelping. Hum. That’s weird. It sounded weird, ya know, different. So I open the door and what do I see but a baby fox! He’s yelping up a storm – apparently wanting some of Jenny’s delish [...]

Just finished the design of the treasure map that I’ll be using to teach kids how to use a compass on Earth Day at the Brenton Arboretum. I spent yesterday morning out at the Arboretum getting the bearings and marking which trees, stumps and patches of thick brush I want to hide the treasure markers [...]

In honor of my friend Jenny’s 100th Cache Find,  I custom built a cache and stashed it at the Racoon River park. Very pretty views — the sound of the birds singing and water ebbing. Such a nice serene place only 15 minutes from home and 15 minutes from downtown Des Moines. This was the [...]

Jen and I out for a quick lunchtime cache. This one located right in the heart of downtown Des Moines – yup right next to the state capital building. I had found this one a few days ago, which reminds me, sure enough just as I’m putting this cache back in it’s spot, I see [...]

Thanks to Jen for the fantastic title of this cache adventure! Love ya – B out! Well, this is the last one I had to find to get all the clues for the Shape Shifters Mystery geocache series. I must have driven by this cache 6 times and 6 different days and times and never [...]