Category: Leslie Milby

My children scream a lot. Luckily, most of the time it’s for ice cream! While we love visiting all the local creameries, there’s also something a little fun about making our own. With all the kitchen gadgets these days, sure, we could add an ice cream machine to the arsenal but when you’re doing it the old fashioned way, it might as well be truly old fashioned. You’ll need to gather a few basic supplies. The coffee cans might be the trickiest — you’ll want a larger size — usually in the 30-ounce range, and then a smaller size around 9-11 ounce size. If you can’t find the larger size in your regular grocery store, try a bulk or office store as they sell larger sizes (and plus, who doesn’t need more coffee?) Now, some companies will trick you into thinking it’s the tin kind but you might find they are instead a thick silver cardboard. Feel for the ribbing and make sure you have the right material for your ice cream “maker.” You’ll also want some thick, waterproof tape like duct or electrical tape. The ingredients are relatively simple — so simple in fact, I loaded the supplies into our “glamper” for a project to keep the kids busy when our toes weren’t getting wrinkled in the campground pool. You’ll need ice, a pint of half and half,...

The mudroom at the Milby household houses more than just a substantial amount of mud. Our delivery men have seen it all. This month, it’s a tadpole sanctuary. This particular project started out how many do: Very innocently visiting family at their new home. The pool had been vacant for a while and had turned into something of a wildlife refuge, complete with a snapping turtle and tadpoles galore. Who am I to resist such a fun project? My husband of course, was saying, “we have hundreds in the back field,” which sounded like an exaggeration, if not an outright lie. However, a field study done the next afternoon would show that sure enough, the massive amounts of rain lately left a puddle absolutely teeming with tadpoles in our back field. For your own, you could also look along the edges of ponds and in temporary pools or puddles that will likely dry up deeper in the summer. My small but mighty crew and I chose a small number from each spot, because like kids, it’s easier to keep track of just a few. If you get too many you start calling the wrong name a few times until you land on the right one. Also, the Department of Natural Resources requires you to have a permit if you possess more than 25 tadpoles of any species at one...