No further progress on the porch because it was, you know, Father's Day and my handy man has crashed after getting up at 5am for a 6:15 tee off....and I felt I should be kind because he was responsible for these two rug rats after all:



I think the high point of the weekend was buying a six pack of frozen rat cubs for Ember the Snake and wondering if our cleaner will find them in the basement freezer.

Progress continues on the front porch. Paul has finished boxing in the pillars and has added bases.


Jakob has taken to reading bedtime stories to Ember the Snake. He pulls up his stool, settles down with a good book and then shows her each page after reading. She is completely enchanted and watches intently.

I suppose I had better figure out her diet and pick up a few frozen mouse-icles. Perhaps it's not the pictures she's looking at and instead it's the allure of Jakob's wiggling little fingers.

A round of applause for Ember, the newest addition to our family. The fact that I'm welcoming a corn snake into our family home cheerfully because she's a GIRL and quite happy about it, says very much how there really should be support groups for mothers of only boys.

But she's kind of an ideal pet, though her tank smells like poo, in that she only eats once every 3 weeks (a frozen mouse or rat cub - which are more nutritious and will be Jakob's job to provide) and her cage needs to be cleaned every 3 months (sigh...my job). She's feisty though, I took her out to photograph her with Jakob and she was not enthusiastic about returning to her cage.

I like her, she's growing on me, and she matches Jakob's hair perfectly. Satchel on the other hand has not entered the room once to take a peek.

We are about to have a new addition join our little family and she's a girl! Finally, I am no longer the only female in the house. Her only flaw according to Jakob but it just can't be helped. Other than that, he considers her perfect.

And she is. She eats only once every three weeks, is reasonably anti social in that she enjoys her space and sees no need to have me entertain her on a constant basis and her clean up is minimal. And she's quiet - I type this as Arthur the cat yells at me for no apparent reason other than to let me know he exists and is in the throes of discontentment.

I will post pictures and reveal her nature when she arrives!

We have the beginning of posts!


And another tool joined our family, a biscuit joiner.