IS IT SPRING YET?

SNOWFLAKES NEVER HAD SO MUCH FUN

Snow NEVER gets old for this girl. Stunning photography by #tonybiaggne.

SLED DOG

Our German Shepherd Bamboo on a snow day. Chasing two boys while riding down hills on their sleds can get exhausting.

OUTDOOR TORTOISE PEN

I always get asked where I keep my tortoises and if I bring them inside during the winter. The answer is I keep them outside in two different tortoise gardens from late spring through early fall depending on the temperature. The three tortoises I have do not hibernate so they head indoors during the colder part of the year. Two of my babies are African Spurred tortoises (they are the brown ones). The third one is a Redfoot (she is the blacker one). Now both my Spurred tortoises are male and they tend to charge after each other in an attempt to fight for dominance. It drives our German Shepherd crazy. If they are out in the yard together and she hears them fighting she will barrel out the back barking her head off trying to break up the madness. She likes peace among the animals. So my larger guy (Oliver Boo) has his own bachelor pad. Yoda (the smaller Spurred tortoise) lives in a swanky part of the yard with Paluka the Redfoot. Both gardens are far from each other so there's no lingering stress over fences or anything. All gardens have tons of shade and tons of space to sun in. They also include edible plants and fresh water. The best part of having tortoises is you will never have to partake in the mess of composting. When cooking we always have a "tortoise bowl" on the counter where all veggie and fruit scraps go. At the end of the day the bowl gets dumped into both pens and devoured by three very spoiled hard-shelled critters.

HUNGER GAMES

What do you do on a snow day while thawing out your frostbite? Ride your 100 lb. tortoise around while reenacting scenes from Hunger Games. This gentle giant is Oliver Boo. I'm referring to the handsome guy under the kid. I rescued Oliver from a crack house in St. Louis in 2012. He is a bulldozer and can knock down pretty much anything in his way. He has a sweet spot for apples and kale and spends most his time sunning in his turtle yard during the summer. The kid on top is known as "Fin". He's our youngest and can be seen riding not only Oliver but a skateboard up and down the streets of St. Louis. I will never get enough of these two.

TORTOISE AND THE PRICKLY HARE

I just adore the pets that roam our dwellings. I can not imagine my life without the pets I have had. In their own way they have done their part to help me become less focused on myself, and more focused on the amazing detail of life that roams around us. The above is Yoda (African Spurred Tortoise) and Twizzle (Hedgehog). We have had Yoda since 2007. I adopted him as a malnourished and deformed shelled hunk of a man. We've had Twizzle since 2012 when he showed up under our Christmas tree for my boy Sage. They are both unbelievable to watch.