Yay!

Snow Day

2012-01-27T18:19:00.001-05:00

There was no school today due to rain, snow and sleet. There was a chorus of cheering from the kids in the neighborhood, they forget that they have to make up snow days in the spring if they have too many. I remember the excitement of waiting to hear if school was cancelled when I was a kid. We couldn’t wait to get on our snow clothes and get outside to play. In high school we didn’t get snow days as it was boarding school and classes were held right there. Our one perk was that we got to wear slacks under our skirts as we had to walk outside to get to the classroom building, otherwise we could only wear slacks in the dorm.

We always dressed for dinner. Sport coats and ties for the guys and dresses for the girls. For church we always wore hats, gloves and hosiery and again the guys wore sport coats and ties. We thought it was extreme at the time and grumbled a bit but I think things have gone way to far the other way these days. When I see the get ups some kids wear now days it makes me cringe.

Why do some young men wear their jeans down around their knees? Can someone please explain that to me? Why do they think we want to see what color boxers they are wearing and how in the world do they keep their pants from falling off?! Good grief, if I tried that I wouldn’t be able to walk!

And ladies, please, we really don’t want to see your th*ongs when you bend over for something or sit in the bleachers at a ball game! Gag! I know I am an old fogey but some things just aren’t meant to be seen by the world. Speaking of, please cover up your boobage while you are at it. I was in a store recently and the gal at the counter was sitting down leaning forward and everything was hanging out all over. Don’t they have dress codes any more in the work place or does that violate someone's freedom of speech or some other loophole?

So, for all the griping and grumbling I probably did in boarding school I’m glad it was the way it was and we learned how to dress properly. Okay, enough ranting.

I love snow days because I stay home and usually a grandchild or two will come over. Today was no exception and Miss T and her friend K came over this morning and are going to stay until tomorrow morning. They have played outside, come in and dried their snow clothes in the dryer, gone back out again and started all over again.

We also like to cook as you all know. Now Cliff M. cover your eyes as this involves more pictures of food!

This recipe was given to me by Needled Mom my buddy out in California that I will be seeing next weekend! YAY! It’s braided bread and it was lots of fun to make and even more fun to eat hot right out of the oven! I think maybe I could’ve let it rise a bit more so that I could get the egg wash on more evenly but regardless it was to die for! Thank you Mary, see you soon!!!

I also got some quilting started. I got everything cut out and will start putting it together tomorrow. It’s going to be a beautiful poinsettia Christmas quilt. The fabrics are really nice and the pattern is soooooooo pretty! It was on the cover of Keepsake Quilting catalog a couple months ago. I will keep progression pictures in future posts.

So, I must get dinner on the table as the Hubs will be home soon. Have a wonderful weekend!

This is not about football.

2012-01-23T19:33:00.001-05:00

One way to lose readers of your blog is to talk about football. I have found this to be the case. This post is about football but in a very round about way, stay with me here. :o)
Saturday morning we left to fly to Boston to be in town for the Pats game this weekend. There was work involved but also time for some fun things too. Flying out of here can be challenging at best so we often are on small planes that I refer to as puddle hoppers. I’m used to it now but at first I felt like I was on a kite.
We took off without a problem and we all were doing our crossword puzzles, using Ipads, dozing, you know, all the things you do on a flight. About 45 minutes in the air one of the pilots came back and said there were weather issues in Boston so we would have to land in Providence Rhode Island. Okay, that’s not too bad, about an hours drive back to Boston.
A few minutes later he came back again and said we were going to have to land in Portsmouth New Hampshire as there was a possible problem with the landing gear freezing up. Immediately my overly active imagination was showing the runway being foamed by airport personnel so that we could glide in like a sled!
We landed without a hitch and went into the small terminal to wait for another plane to be readied for the rest of the trip.
You can see that the visibility was not good in this picture.
Well we waited and waited and finally one of the pilots came out and said that there was just one guy on to deal with this stuff and that it would be a while. The plows were out cleaning the runway and hopefully putting some sand down.
Waiting is not one of Hubs and Sons strong points so they decided they would rent a car and we would drive the rest of the way to Boston which in good weather would be a couple of hours.
Adding one more thing to the mix was that Miss T and I were going to fly back home the next morning as she had a travel team basketball game that she really didn’t want to miss and the rest were going to stay for the game and meet with some clients.
Well we hashed that over for a while and decided that if the weather was still good in Bangor we would head back home in case we couldn’t get home in time the next day. The pilots assured us things were still fine in Bangor and they were headed back there so we hopped on and went with them. The terminal people looked at us rather strangely as we came in as we had just left that morning!
The next day we went to her game and they won by four points which was nice as they had only won one other game all season.

We came home and did some baking and made homemade ice cream. Peanut butter ice cream with mini peanut butter cups in it. Oh my aching hips!
The Pats won and there was a lot of celebrating down on the field with my family right in the middle of it. Next thing I know I get an e-mail from Son with a picture of Mr. D in it! You’ve got to love technology. A friend of ours in Atlanta was watching the game, saw D in the midst of that huge crowd (he was sitting on Son’s shoulders to keep from being trampled) had his DVR on so stopped it and took a picture of the tv screen with his Blackberry, sent it to Sons Blackberry in Foxboro who in turn sent it to me in Maine! Is that cool or what?!

Everyone got home safely that night, the weather had cleared so all was well! :o)

Hey Dickiebo I can't get onto your site!

Can I help with the homework?

2012-01-18T14:43:00.001-05:00

Here is Miss T with her kitty Penelope. They are like two peas in a pod even when it comes to homework time. She sits there patiently waiting for T to get finished. She even came to spend the night here last weekend when Miss T spend the night. Noodles liked the company but Munchkin was in a snit and hid the whole time.

Miss T loves all cats. In fact she loves all animals and has a tender heart towards them. She was playing with my Ipad the other night and Noodles was a good subject to shoot.

She also took pictures of her Miss Matched socks. I guess they are all the rage now with the younger set, mismatched socks on purpose, they even come this way. We got these at the Miss Matched store at Universal in the fall.

I’ve been continuing to take down my Christmas decorations. It looks awfully bare without the lights and greenery on the shelf in the sunroom. I may put up some strands of little white lights all along the shelf if I can do it without them being seen.

We made little apple tarts and Miss T made her own crust from scratch. I’m going to put together a little binder with all the different recipes she has made for her. That girl loves to cook!

These rolls came out much better then my hockey puck debacle of Christmas Day!

It’s a few days later and I still haven’t gotten this posted yet. I just came home from having a nice lunch with two horsey friends over town. It was nice, we sat there for three hours! When we came out one friend had a ticket on her car………she was not happy. Then as I was driving home she called and said that it was a courtesy ticket. I had never heard of that, I thought a ticket was a ticket but guess not. Maybe it’s like a warning. She was happy!

Ever have those days when you just can’t think of anything interesting to write? I’m having one of those days. The End.

Your ham might cook a bit faster if you turned the crockpot on…..

2012-01-11T13:27:00.001-05:00

I write notes to myself all the time. Sometimes it helps and sometimes it doesn’t, like yesterday when I left myself a note to put a big ham in the crockpot for dinner that night.

I know sometimes when I get up in the morning I have 50 things to get done so I leave a note on the kitchen bar to remind me to do things. Sure enough when I got up I didn’t even get downstairs until 9 AM by the time I made the bed, picked up the bathroom and bedroom, sorted laundry, showered, did hair etc etc so when I came down and saw the note I scurried around getting the ham out, washing it, getting it in the Crock pot with some water etc etc

About 10:30 I thought to myself, I don’t smell the ham cooking yet. Guess what? I didn’t turn the crockpot on, just plugged it in! Good grief. Sooooooooo I turned it up on high and hoped for the best. It did cook nicely the way I like it with the meat falling away from the bones but it would have been very disappointing to have the Hubs come in for dinner and the ham still cold in the crockpot. Please tell me that you do things like that too!!!!

I did make custard and it came out fine. It’s so easy to make and my family loves it.

Best Baked Custard

6 eggs slightly beaten

2/3 cup sugar

Dash of salt

2 teaspoons real vanilla

5 cups milk scalded (I do this in the microwave)

Nutmeg

Heat oven 350*. Blend eggs, sugar, salt and vanilla. Gradually stir in scalded milk. Pour into 6 oz. custards cups and sprinkle with nutmeg. Place cups in a baking pan and pour very hot water into pan within 1/2 inch of top of cups.

Bake 45 minutes or until a knife inserted in center of custard comes out clean. Remove cups from hot water and serve either hot or cold. (We like cold.) You can find this recipe in the old red Betty Crocker cookbook on page 184. YUMMY!

We went to Mr. D’s first basketball game Saturday morning. That’s him in the green shorts making a shot!

We missed Miss T’s game, that’s her in the middle in the black uniform with her hands in the air. She made that shot so was very happy. Son takes pictures for us if we can’t be there which isn’t very often. They won this game 26 to 10, it was their first win.

We lost a dear friend last week, he passed away at the age of 81. His name is Lee Lamson and he was one of my most favorite people around. His sense of humor was incredible and he could have us in tears laughing so hard over a good story or joke. He was a kind man. Many years ago when I was still doing hairdressing I got a call from the funeral home that a family had requested me to come in and do the woman’s hair that used to be one of my clients. I was floored. I had never done that before and wasn’t sure how I would react to being in the prep room with dead people being prepared for their funerals. I was a wimp.

I called Lee who worked in the funeral business at times and said I just don’t think I can do this. He said yes you can, I will go with you! Get your stuff ready and I will pick you up so that you don’t even have to drive, I guess he could tell my voice was shaky.

So he did. And it was fine. He was cracking jokes with some of the other funeral staff and I began to relax and did the hair without keeling over! I will never forget his kindness in taking his afternoon to help me through that job. We joked about it many times through the years since but I sure needed someone that day!

I’m happy to know that I will see him again someday, it is comforting. He loved the Lord with all his heart. He is also Funsize’s Grampa so please keep her and the rest of the family in your thoughts and prayers. We miss him.

Miss T is getting off the bus here after school as Mr. D has a follow up check up at the pediatrician’s office. He is doing well since his bout with pneumonia.

Quite a few of you asked what a Sound Pipe is. It is a speaker system that hooks onto your ATV so that while you are out in the woods on the trails you can listen to the music that you have on your Ipod. The white parts are the speakers. You can also use it working out in the woods on the trails by running it off the battery as long as you don’t use it that way too long and run the battery down. It was a fun goofy gift that I knew he wouldn’t be expecting as he is hard to buy for. :o)

Christmas 2011

2012-01-07T18:52:00.001-05:00

We started out Christmas Eve Day having a Patriot’s party here on the ole range. We all like to watch the game so decided it would be fun to watch it together before the Christmas festivities began. Even Noodles got into the fun with Miss T.

There was lots of yummy food.

We decided to make some gingerbread men.

Can we say ‘calories’? My hips are expanding just looking at this picture!!!

Lots of presents for good boys and girls. A signed Patriot’s shirt for Cousin K!

A new rolling pin for Funsize! Watch out Paul!!!!

Whoops! Caught me having some Coke. Hey, it could have been the fudge!

Mr. D’s favorite, boxers from Rainforest Cafe.

A necklace for DIL.

All my young people except Funsize who had to leave early for a four hour trip to visit her boyfriends parents up north.

Bringing in the new bikes that were hidden in Mom and Dad’s apartment.

Sons new Sound Pipe! Thanks Hollie for the suggestion, he really likes it. Did Colt like his?

A Pogo stick for Miss T.

Hunting clothes for Cousin K.

Fun playing a new game.

I received several special gifts this year. One was a book made for me by my niece Ashley. I was very touched by the amount of work she put into it and all the lovely pictures she tracked down. It is such a great idea if you want to do something special for someone. She used Shutterfly. She used every letter of the alphabet but I will put in just a few.

This one proves I CAN make good yeast rolls!

Funsize had a clock made up for me that I love. It’s me, Miss T and Funsize on the horses one day last summer. What a unique gift!!! I LOVE it!

My niece Ana did a collage for me with old and new pictures. I’m sure it took a lot of time putting this together. It even has my favorite picture of me and the Hubs right in the middle.

I am very blessed to have such wonderful caring nieces and nephews. Some live quite a distance away but these three live right here in town and I see them often. Can’t ask for much more then that!!

Welcome 2012

2012-01-02T20:26:00.001-05:00

How many times do you write the wrong year when it first changes? I find myself doing that many times until I finally get it through my head. Someone told me once that they go through their first month of checks and write the year in on all of them. Sounds like it might be a good idea for me.

We had a nice quiet New Years Eve here at home. We watched a couple of movies that were on tv. I had never seen the Jaws movies about the sharks back quite a few years ago so it was interesting although rather gory. The interesting part was to see the hair styles, clothing styles and the cars that they were driving. I must Google it and see what year those movies were made. That was easy, it was 1975. You’ve got to love Google!

The big thing that I noticed was that no one wore a life jacket while boating, water skiing or floating around out on a raft. Were we really that foolish back then? I have a hard and fast rule at the camp, NO ONE goes out in the boat without a life vest on. NO ONE. I know it’s not ‘cool’ but but that is the way it is. It doesn’t do you much good if you get thrown into the water and the life vest is under the seat. I can be such a dictator at times! ha!

Someone sent me a few pictures from long ago that I thought I would share with you. Yep, that’s me in the middle with the very curly hair, my oldest sister on the right and my next oldest sister on the left. I think this was taken in from of St. John’s Church here in town.

This one was taken at the beach somewhere, maybe in Canada where some of my cousins live. Again I am the one with the curly hair, I hated it back then but wish it was still that curly now. My mother was expecting my brother who is the baby of the family. After four girls I think they were pretty excited to finally have a boy. We didn’t spoil him or anything……

Here we are all grown up. I was the middle child which explains a lot…….. I would guess this picture was taken about 20 years ago. Oh to be size 10 again…….waaaaaaaaaaaa!

We went to the lake today to check on the cottage. The weather was so mild that I could have worked in my flower garden if I had wanted to. Everything looked fine and the alarm was on. Sometimes when the power goes out I don’t think it resets itself so we check often.

It was so peaceful there. The Hubs was working on his IPad and I was puttering around, making the beds up with fresh sheets, Swiffering, checking the food in the cupboards and bringing home things that needed to be eaten before next summer, cleaning the toilets as well water leaves a lovely ring and just plain enjoying myself. It was the opening day of ice fishing and there isn’t a lick of ice yet! I can assure you there are some fishermen that are pretty bummed about that.

Son brought over the Christmas pictures and downloaded them onto my computer after we got home so you can bet your boots my next post will be about Christmas. That’s a warning but I promise to only put in a few……….

Winter has arrived.

2011-12-28T19:20:00.001-05:00

It was a short winter. We actually had a white Christmas despite what the weather people said! Yay!

It was soft and fluffy, just the kind of snow to make a good snow angel in. Also the kind to get the ole’ snowmobile out and drag the grand kids around the fields on their new snow tubes!

DIL and I were in the warmth of my truck following them around to get pictures. Mr. D had had enough of the snow flying in his face so jumped in the truck with us! Is that the stink eye or what?!!

Then we did some sledding down FIL’s hill out back of his house.

Now the rain has come in from the west and there isn’t a flake of snow to be seen anywhere!!! It’s ALL GONE and the rain continues. WAAAAAAAAA!

I went down to visit my sister and just happened to have my camera with me as all good bloggers do. Her house looked so pretty with all her Christmas decorations so I took some pictures. My BIL always sets up a train set that he has had since he was a little boy. This year it took him 13 hours to set it up!

Her tree looked so pretty.

I asked her who made the mittens that are hanging on the wall behind the tree as I thought they were so cute………..she said “you did”! As I have said many times before, a mind is a terrible thing to lose!

That’s a pretty good blanket stitch if I do say so myself thank you very much!

She collects all things gingerbread men.

She got the toy soldier on the right at a Yankee Swap this year.

We had a wonderful Christmas. I told the Hubs that I would love to do those few days all over again! We had a Patriot’s party Christmas Eve afternoon to watch the game and then began the festivities at 5 o’clock. I don’t have any pictures yet as I had Son and my niece taking them and they need to give me a copy.

Christmas morning we went to church and took up a whole row as we all wanted to set together. We had two of our young men there that are home from the war and they gave testimony of a few of their experiences there. One of them was given the job of chaplain in some of camps and he really enjoyed that. They had opportunities to speak to some of the other soldiers of their trust in God. As the old saying goes, there aren’t any ath*eists in foxholes.

We came home and had Christmas dinner, and so that you all don’t think I had the ultimate Norman Rockwell day, my yeast rolls that my family begs for came out like hockey pucks!!!! I have no idea why, I have made these rolls a hundred times, could make them in my sleep but these were AWFUL! Then the next day when I was cleaning out my refrigerator I found the chopped onions and celery and melted butter that I had made ahead of time to put in my stuffing STILL IN THE REFRIGERATOR! Sigh………as I said, a mind is……………blah, blah, blah……. now how does that go?

Merry Christmas Everyone!

2011-12-20T20:35:00.001-05:00

Just a few more days until Christmas. The shopping is done, the packages wrapped and put under the tree. Must leave a space for Munchie and Noodles though, they love to lay under the tree.

The Christmas program at church was wonderful with the choir singing in the choir loft, Funsize playing the piano, the kids with their little choir robes on sang too and really sang their hearts out.

It’s nice to have the shopping done early so I can enjoy the season and not feel frantic and worn out. The cooking will begin tomorrow for Christmas Eve Day, evening and Christmas Day. We are doing lots ahead this year for Christmas Day and having a buffet instead of a big formal dinner. I don’t want to come home from church and then spend the rest of the day in the kitchen even though there are people that help it still takes a long time to clean up when you put on a huge dinner.

I’m enjoying the Christmas shows, even the ones that I have seen over and over. A Charlie Brown Christmas is one of my favorites and I went to YouTube to put one of the songs in this post but couldn’t figure it out. That’s nothing new for me.

It’s fun running into the stores just to look around at all the decorations and listen to the Christmas music. I am very aware of the stores that do play Christmas hymns and those that don’t. Also the stores that allow their sales staff to say Merry Christmas and the ones that don’t. LL Be*an staffers were told NOT to ever say Merry Christmas, just Happy Holidays. Sad. I may not shop there any more. I don’t think that will put them out of business. ha!

I even get a kick out of the ads on television that only come out at Christmas time. Remember the Clapper? The Chia Pets?

I enjoy my Nativity set. Every time I walk by it it makes me spend some time thinking about the real reason for Christmas. Growing up we had this little Nativity set that had a cardboard stable and plastic people and animals. I loved that set and could play with it for hours as it didn’t break, thank goodness. I rearranged the people over and over but always had Baby Jesus right in the front. I don’t know what ever happened to that set, I hope someone in the family has it still.

Sunday when we were singing Christmas hymns it took me back again to my childhood and how I loved the Christmas songs. Away in a Manger was my favorite growing up. My grand daughter was sitting between me and her Grampie and I loved watching her sing the songs. We used the hymnals as the screen couldn’t be down as the choir was up in the choir loft and it seemed good to use them. We didn’t have screens for the first 50 years of my life and I’m still not quite used to them. I think it makes people lazy, they don’t have to look up the verses that the Pastor is talking about in their Bible as it’s right up there on the screen. I prefer to look them up, I know, I am old-fashioned.

We have been enjoying the lights around town too. It’s been so mild here this winter it hasn’t been hard to get out and put up the lights and decorations. I remember one year in my last house my sister Linda and I put the lights on the shrubs in a blazing snowstorm! We had a blast even though we were covered with snow. We still talk about it and laugh. Fun memories.

When I look at my perfectly shaped fake tree it makes me think back to the trees we had as kids. I don’t think they had fake trees back then, Dad used to bring one home from the woods and we would decorate it. It wasn’t perfectly shaped but we loved it. I loved the bubble lights that my mother used to have for the tree. You can get them now, they call them ‘vintage’, I guess that makes me vintage……. :o)

My grandchildren have been making up bags for the Homeless Shelter in youth group. I gave them all the little shampoos and bottles of body wash that are in our hotel rooms that we don’t open. I learned that from Barbara Bush who said in one of her books that she used to save them and donate them to the shelters. I think it’s a great idea, just the right size to pass out to the folks that stay there, not too big to carry around.

Doesn’t look like we are going to have any snow for Christmas this year but we are keeping our fingers crossed. It actually was rather cold today and very windy. The horses didn’t even go outside as it was so blustery. They can run around the inside arena for some exercise and still be out of the wind.

Merry Christmas everyone! xoxox

It’s quiet on the home front……..

2011-12-19T16:35:00.001-05:00

It’s very quiet here on the Range. I have had one of my nieces staying here while some work was being done at her house and Miss T has been here as Mr. D has been sick but he is better so she went home and my niece is out for the evening. They thought he had whooping cough on top of the pneumonia but the test results came back negative for the WC. He’s such a little bitty guy, I hate to see him sick and the cough has been awful. Hopefully he will be able to go back to school for the three and a half days next week and be able to enjoy Christmas.

He and his Dad went with the Patriot’s to Philly a week or so ago and had a great time. It’s so nice that they can sometimes travel with the team. He loves it and it’s a nice lad/dad time.

They had a chance to explore Philly a bit, I think I have posted some of those pictures already.

The Liberty Bell.

Down on the field before the game. He always wears his old fashioned helmet to the games.

Getting some autographs from the players.

He teases me about liking Vince Wilfork! I told him that Vince gives good hugs. Miss T told Grampie last week that I had a boyfriend…….

I guess Grampie already knows! ha!

Okay, enough about football.

The boys are fat and fuzzy. Nick had a mishap in the pasture and I had to have the vet come with his portable x-ray machine and check his ankle. I was very relieved when it turned out to be a wrenched ankle and not a fracture! It has been so warm that the pastures are muddy and the horses get running and playing in it and it is hard on their joints. He had to have a shot in his ankle joint and some IV medicine and seems to be much better. Little Bud had a snotty nose so I had the vet come check him as I worry about pneumonia with him as he is so old but it cleared right up with meds and he seems to be doing great. Kipper and Scoot are the wooly mammoths with all the hair they have even with this warmer weather that we have had all fall and winter. I have their blankets ready for when they need them though.

I had all my Christmas lights on last night and the rest off as I watched a Christmas story starring Reba McIntire. I have lights in the living room, kitchen, sunroom and dining room. It was so pretty and soft. I like the Hallmark Channel as they have nice shows this time of year. Yes, I know they are rather predictable but I like a story that ends well. :o) Also when you watch Hallmark you know it is family friendly and you aren’t going to be shocked out of your knickers with your grandkids watching with you!!!!

I have been thinking about Lori aka Barn Goddess a lot lately. She was one of my blogging buddies that passed away last year very unexpectedly. All of you horse people knew her and there is an update on her blog in the comments written by her sister if you want to read it. Mikael @ Mikael’s Mania was kind enough to let me know. All you horse people know Mikael too and that she is having some health problems. Thank you Mikael for e-mailing me!!!!!! Get well very soon!

I guess we aren’t going to have any snow for Christmas this year. Waaaaaaaaaa! I don’t like an open winter like this, hopefully we will get some snow soon. Hope you all are getting all those last minute Christmas things done, I keep thinking that I am done and then think of something else. Guess that is normal eh? Merry Christmas from our home to yours!!!

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas…

2011-12-15T20:15:00.001-05:00

I’ve been doing a little more decorating now that my duties as seamstress for the Christmas program are finished. I use the term ‘seamstress’ loosely as I am more of a quilter then a dressmaker!

Here are some of my cookie jars.

I finally got my mantle done. (without flash)

with flash

Miss T is staying here as her brother is sick with pneumonia and has been rearranging my village in the sunroom. She thought the firemen looked at bit bored so decided to make a fire for them to fight.

We looked out the window the other night and who should appear but Mom Raccoon and her humungous babies! The black one is still very black and so pretty! They munched on some miniature marshmallows and a turkey carcass that I had frozen from Thanksgiving (I threw that out on the ground) and off they went and we haven’t seen them since. There is one more in the side out of range and they are all as big as momma!

Miss T decided to move her little table in the sunroom by the tree as that’s where we spend most of our time now.

Can it be that there are only 10 days left before Christmas? When I was a child it seemed like December went on for-EVER! We moaned and groaned trying to get Mom to let us open just ONE gift a week ahead of time. That didn’t work….. Christmas Eve we could open one and then the rest in the morning. We would keep waking up earlier and earlier each year but had to stay in bed until 6 o’clock A. M. Then the paper and ribbon would fly! All those months of Mom getting things ready for us were opened in less then a blink of an eye! What fun times those were, I have tried to recreate them for my son and now my grand children.

How do you like Miss T’s new earrings?

I thought I would have some pictures of our Christmas program for this post but of course I forgot my camera that night………of course……

It was a beautiful program, well worth all the hours spent preparing for it, rehearsing and decorating. There is something about a Christmas program that really brings the true meaning back into Christmas. I get so aggravated when I am out shopping and the clerks in the stores can’t even say Merry Christmas. I feel like boycotting the stores but we don’t have that many here so I would be up the creek or have to shop online. I have asked some of them outright if they can’t say Merry Christmas and they say they are supposed to be politically correct……….grrrrrrrrrrr…………One place complained that their Christmas bonus was called that. They could refuse to accept it if they want as far as I am concerned but don’t force the rest of us to have to say ‘holiday bonus’. Good grief!!! Okay, rant over……….for now……

Last year this is what it looked like at Christmas time! This year the lawn looks green and lush and could use a good mowing! It’s been amazingly warm. I’m not complaining mind you but I did get all the snowmobiles registered this week so I hope we get to use them!!!!

No I didn’t fall off the face of the earth…….

2011-12-07T09:09:00.001-05:00

It’s been weeks since I posted anything. It has been unbelievably busy here on the Range and I honestly haven’t had the time or energy to do a post. Being away so much this fall took a lot of time that I usually put into my Christmas preparations so I have been playing catch up.

I love to decorate but this year I decided not to try to put out everything Christmas that I have gathered over the years. I did get my villages put up as I enjoy them so much and can keep them up well after Christmas.

I have the tree put up in the sunroom and Noodles and Munchie have been enjoying sleeping under it. Munchie is behind Noodles.

I’m enjoying the wrap around shelf that I had put in the sunroom. Makes the room look so cozy at night with the lights on.

Mrs. Squirrel chowing down on peanuts and sunflower seeds out on the deck.

Love this little wreath that I got at a craft fair last year.

Sassy snowmen are everywhere!

Looking in from the deck.

I had to put up a small tree in the living room so that it would show from the street as the one in the sunroom is on the back of the house. The ornaments on this tree are all the color gold. Lots of them are vintage as a friend gave me a big box of old ornaments that he had in his basement. I was tickled pink to get them! Thank you Jerry!

I will get some pictures of the outside when it stops raining. The weather here has been so warm for December! I’m wondering if I am going to put any miles on my snowmobile this year!!!!!

I have been working on doing the costuming for our Christmas Pageant at church. I had three shepherds and Joseph costumes, six angel angel costumes and some other things to make. We have the church all decorated inside and out and it looks lovely. This is such a special time of year to celebrate the birth of Jesus. Love singing the old carols and listening to the special music by the music committee. A gal sang Silent Night last Sunday and it gave me goose bumps as it was so beautiful. Wish the Christmas season was longer, not the gifts and all the hustle and bustle but time to think about the real reason for the season. Turn your computer on to a nice Christmas station and sing along with the carols. I can do that here as the only ones to hear me are Noodles and Munchie and they don’t care if I am in tune or not!! :o)

Blackberry Farm

2011-11-16T08:24:00.001-05:00

We are home from our wonderful trip to Blackberry Farm in Tennessee. I could’ve stayed a few more days very easily, it is one of my most favorite places to go. The Hubs was in classes part of the time but I was free as could be.

The horses there are amazing. This one I wanted to sneak into my suitcase and bring home.

I did a lot of riding while there. The first day I took a private two hour ride into the mountains. It was a bit daunting to look down from the small trail that we were on as it was extremely steep! I knew the horse was used to it so I didn’t try to over ride him but let him chose his way. He was a quarter horse and very sure footed thankfully.

The Hubs and I took a ride the next day and I rode a draft/thoroughbred cross and was HUGE! He is a fox hunter and I was concerned that he might be ready to run but he was very quiet and fun. It was a bit chilly, ten degrees cooler then usual for this time of year so we were really bundled up. I had on FOUR layers! He doesn’t look it in this picture but he was almost 17 hands tall!

I liked this horse, of course I have always been partial to appy’s.

They had interesting bridles on. They are Tucker’s and the bit and cheek pieces unhook and it leaves a halter on the horse. Very nice for when you go trail riding and want to stop for a picnic and can tie your horse without having to carry a halter with you. I had never seen them before but I am going to check out the website and see how much they are.

The grounds are amazing as well. They have 4200 acres right in the Smokey Mountains and everything is kept beautifully.

This house on the left is the spa and then the barn on the right.

One day we ate outside and there was a bluegrass band playing. I thought of my parents when they sang the Tennessee Waltz as that is one of their favorite songs.

There was a lady that had beautiful quilts and wall hangings for sale.

Butter beans, I had never seen those before.

The Hubs chatting with a friend.

We had fun playing with the truffle puppies. Their parents were imported from Italy and their job is to dig up the truffles. They were about six weeks old and were so playful and snuggly. Something else to sneak into my suitcase!!!!

Have more pictures but I had to buy one of those toss cameras one day as I FORGOT mine! Grrrrrr…….. I guess I have to take it to Walmart to get it developed……

We never did make it to Dolly World. We drove in and it seemed very quiet and then we saw the sign where this time of year they don’t open until 2 in the afternoon. We had a function to go to that night so didn’t have time to wait until 2.

Pigeon Forge is a thriving town with lots of theaters with different kinds of shows to go to. Again, we didn’t have time to go to any but will probably go a few days early next time we go to Blackberry Farm so that we can see all the sights.

It was a great time, so much to be thankful for. A beautiful part of the country, I’m so glad we get to go there even though the Hubs has to work part of the time while there. Works for me!!! :o)

Horses

2011-11-04T18:36:00.001-04:00

The snow is gone, it lasted about a couple of days. If there isn’t enough to snowmobile in or ski on forget it! A couple of the neighbor kids built a snowman, I wish I had taken a progression of pictures afterwards as he slowly got shorter and shorter until there was just his scarf laying on their lawn.

The boys went back to the stable the day we left for Florida so have been there a few weeks. I can’t tell you how many times I look out the windows to check on them in the pasture here and then remember they are up the road a couple of miles. We miss them terribly but it’s the way it has to be in the wintertime. They did go a few weeks earlier then usual due to our vacation. :o(

My sister was here visiting so we went up to see the boys, give them carrots and give them lots of hugs. This is Jon, he belongs to one of my neighbors who also boards there. He is about 20 and is a Morgan. He’s a good ole’ boy and was quite the show horse back in the day. That is Lil’ Bud in the background.

Here is Nick coming to get his treats.

Kip scratching some itchies, they all are getting so fuzzy!

I think Scooter walked up behind me and surprised me. Nick looks like he is snoozing…….. It was very windy that day, the wind comes right off the river which is at the foot of the hill.

My sister is not a horse person so it was brave of her to get in the pasture with all of them. Guess Scoot had been rolling in the mud, one of his favorite pastimes.

Just seeing all this hair makes me dread shedding season in the spring and this isn’t half of it for Kip. He gets enough hair for 5 ponies.

Isn’t he as cute as a button?!

This picture should have been cropped……ahem……

Their favorite rolling spot…….

Scoot is one big boy!

You can see the river on down behind the trees.

They can go all the way down to the river if they want but not ‘in’ the river, it is fenced off.

Lil’ Bud is getting a bit of a sway back and saggy belly but at almost 24 I think he looks pretty darn good.

I’m meeting my friend Ann this morning at the stable and we are going for a ride. I will ride Scoot and she will ride Bud. We found out last week that Scooter has no intention of going in the river! All our horses have always walked into the river when we ride to get a drink or to paw the water and get us all wet but he wasn’t having any of that!! We will ride down there again today and I’ll let him have another looksy.

Last night the Hubs and I went to a play at the Opera House. It was The Marvelous Wonderettes a show about four girls that sang in the 50’s in high school and then went on to their 10th year reunion and how they all had changed. It was all music from the 50’s and 60’s and they did a fabulous job!! There was a lot of toe tapping going on! At intermission they served the most delicious oatmeal chocolate chip cookies I have ever had in my life!! Sure would like to have that recipe!!!! Wish I could have taken some pictures but that was a no-no. Don’t they know that we bloggers want pictures?!

Our First Nor’easter of the season.

2011-10-31T12:11:00.001-04:00

Well we managed to get through our first bad storm of the season unscathed. We didn’t lose any trees unlike my SIL who lost several big ones in her front yard! The wind was bad so the power kept going out during the night but the generator would kick on so we didn’t lose any heat or water. We wondered if Mom and Dad would get out on their flight Sunday morning but they were only a half hour late due to deicing and 16 minutes late getting into Clearwater.

We only got about three inches of snow which was nice as they were predicting at times up to a foot of the white stuff. My sisters that live west of here each got a foot, but they live in the snow belt so that wasn’t unusual. The sun is shining today and melting what snow we have which will make it nice for the little trick or treaters that will be coming around tonight.

I took a few pictures of my decorations as I will be taking them down tomorrow and putting up Thanksgiving. This first picture is the coffee table in the sun room and notice the pillow that I won in Needled Mom’s Halloween give away last year. I LOVE that pillow with the candy corn on it! That is Noodles laying on the floor, he is bored as the project is done and there are no workers here all the time to play with him!

I have lots of things sitting on the self I had made in the sun room. There are outlets all the way around the shelf so that I can plug in things.

This is the dining room table.

This is under the tv on the table. The little candles are battery operated and flicker when they are on.

This is the fireplace in the living room.

This is on the kitchen counter just some things that I put together.

I got this little cupcake holder at TJ Maxx and love it! We used it at the HAM Halloween party which I will be telling you about shortly.

This is the kitchen table. The pumpkin is a soup tureen again from TJ Maxx.

Here are the little guys that hold all my trick or treat candy.

This little guy I have had for YEARS. Back in the day when I was still doing hair one of my clients made it for me in her ceramics class. It lights up and blinks. I think he is soooooo cute!

The weekend after we got home from Florida the kids held a Halloween party fundraiser for HAM which is for the Hemophilia Association of Maine. This is close to our hearts as one of our dear friends has a little boy with the worst case of hemophilia in the state of Maine. His name is Devin and he is three years old.

Tthe kids started working on the decorations before we went on vacation and continued when we got home. They put a ton of work into this. Most of the things were made out of cardboard that they painted to look like something else.

They used a pulley to make it look like this Rhino hit the tree.

This whole thing was made out of cardboard, even the black trees.

This was the mad scientist booth.

There were different characters at each station.

Devin driving the Rhino (with some help)!

Getting the pool shack ready for all the food we had.

Putting up spider webs.

All these pictures were taken in the daylight but believe me it was must spookier in the dark with the black lights on and the music and all the people dressed in character. We had about 150 people attend and we raised $900. for HAM!!!! It’s our dream that they find a cure for hemophilia, SOON! We had a great time and I am proud of the kids for spending so much time on such a worthy cause!!

Universal part 2

2011-10-28T19:13:00.001-04:00

The Portofino Bay Hotel is designed like an Italian village. It is very pretty there with numerous yummy restaurants to choose from.

Here’s Mimi and Bampie will the grands. We love sharing grandchildren with them.

We had lots more to see at Islands Of Adventure.

The Harry Potter section was amazing.

I haven’t read any of the books but it was fun seeing everything.

I didn’t dare go on the ride the first day we went but Son and grands did and it was wild. I figured I would give it a whirl the last day and it wasn’t open!! They were having mechanical issues. :o(

These were the talking pictures.

Then on to Jurassic Park. It has a roller coaster that takes you through some water and I did not want to spend the rest of the day walking around in wet clothes so we opted out. It’s one thing if it is 90* and your clothes dry out in an hour or so but where we had been walking around in the rain for two days we really didn’t want to add to it.

The kiddos wanted to rock climb so up they went! Even their Dad joined in.

Whoops!

We always try to pick up a couple of new hats while there for Crazy Hat Nite at Awana.

We happened to notice this little guy munching on something. We also saw one at the pool munching on a cherry from someone’s drink!

There was much, much more that we did for the week that we were there. One day the kids, Son and the Grampies went over to Disney for the day while DIL, Mimi and I shopped for Christmas. The best part was being together and making memories.

Well guess what? We are supposed to get up to a foot of snow this weekend! What’s up with that?! Mom and Dad are supposed to fly out Sunday morning to go back to Florida so now we are wondering if they will have a flight. Bangor International has one of the longest runways in New England as it was once an airbase so if the planes can make it in from where they are coming from we can usually get out snow or no snow but we’ll see….

We are headed to Tennessee next month to Blackberry Farm where we went two years ago. I can’t wait, they have the most gorgeous well bred horses around for us to ride. The Hubs has classes part of each day but there is plenty for me to do there on my own or with one of the other wives. Anyone know what the weather will be like in Tenn. in November????

Universal vacation part 1

2011-10-23T19:46:00.001-04:00

Here we are the first day of our vacation. Can you tell it was raining cats and dogs and everything else?!

We didn’t let that stop us though, the Hubs got us all ponchos and umbrellas and off we went.

It was a warm rain but at times came down so hard we had to get in out of it. The park looked rather ghostly with so many in white ponchos.

Here we are waiting for the rest of the group to finish looking around in a gift shop.

The next morning it was still pouring so we decided to hit a mall that we like and hoped it would clear off by the afternoon. We always go to Shelpler’s for boots, jeans and other horse attire and related things.

Here is Mr. D and Son. Don’t tell Mr. D he is in the gal picture!

Here is Son and DIL.

Next we went to Ron Jon’s Surf Shop. I like to get the kids Christmas things there and it’s a fun place.

Hey! How did they get that picture of me????!!!!! Snicker, snort!!!!

I loved the surf board rugs, would be great for a place on the ocean.

Next we were off to Bass Pro Shop. We hit it right as they had some fun things to see and do.

How do you suppose one of these little guys would like Maine?

Hey, I’d like to have this set up in my back yard although it would be a bit chilly in January. :o)

After two days we finally got some wonderful sun. My grand kids love to feed the ever present ducks and herons. They especially like popcorn and Fruit Loops.

We grabbed a buggy ride over to Universal Islands of Adventure.

This poor guy had a BIG load with all of us!

We decided on the way over to have lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe. The food was good but it was much too loud for this grandmother! :o(

OF COURSE the first ride they wanted to go on was The Hulk. I was the camera holder as I don’t do big roller coasters……I thought of you Tina!

How would you like to do this at 65 mph??????

This isn’t a very good picture but it’s these extremely high towers that you go up in a seat and then it drops you like a rocket back down. Once again I was the camera holder, do we seem to be getting a theme here?

I did do the Mummy ride, it was wild but you didn’t go way up in the air and turn upside down. :o) Then on to Spiderman, teacups, the Hulk again, and Jaws.

Jaws was fun and the fake shark was quite realistic looking, for a fake shark that is. The ride was even supposed to be in Maine! Yay!

Then we went to an animal show and it was adorable! Now this is more my speed!

There were a bunch of dogs that did some cute things and the music was Who Let The Dogs Out and then the pig came out with this on. He was the star of the show.

Look at the size of that skunk!

When pigs fly.

This was one of the 26 labs that played the part of Marley in the movie Marley and Me. This young man was chosen out of the audience to help with some of the skits.

Mr. D went shopping with Grampie and bought mugs for everyone.

We always like to eat at Trex restaurant. Amazing animatronics. There were dinosaurs everywhere moving around!

We love Legos and what they do with them at Downtown Disney. I can’t imagine how long it took to make these displays. These were all new since the last time we were there.

Continued next time. :0)

To think I brought sunscreen.

2011-10-10T21:12:00.000-04:00

Here we are in the soggy south! Sorry no pictures yet but I don't have them on my IPad yet. I have been enjoying getting caught up with a lot of you since we've been here at Universal in Orlando. one has to take a break from all the fun and kick back and just veg out a bit. I think we must have walked a dozen miles in the park, IN THE RAIN! Ihave been making plans to build an ark in my spare moments. In the almost 40 years of coming here we have never seen so much rain.

Come to think of it there was a ton of rain when we were in New York last month also when we were in Dallas last year.......I'm beginning to see a bit of a pattern don't you think? Maybe we should go to Texas again, I hear they need rain badly.

Can't wait to show you the pictures of all of us in our plastic ponchos and holding our cheap umbrellas. There were so many people with them on it was rather ghostly looking around the parks.To think I brought sunscreen! HahahaHahaha! We don't care though, we're all together and that's the main thing.

We are at the Portofino Bay Hotel. we stayed here a couple years ago and really liked it plus Miss. T likes to feed the ducks that are swimming around in the lake. We go over to the parks by boat, walking or my transportation of choice which is the little buggies that are powered by someone peddling. The kids love it and it's the fastest way to get there. I admire the men and women that do the peddling, it's not easy and they go rain or shine.

Monday morning was delightful with lots of blue sky showing through. It only got better as the day wore on. The sun was finally shining and we tossed aside our ponchos. We headed to the park and went on a few rides. My crowd likes roller coasters but I set those out. They are crazy high, fast, turn you upside down and inside out. D and I had fun feeding the little sparrows that are always around those places while we waited. We went on some more rides andthenheaded over to the new Harry Potter section. It is just amazing. I have never seen any of the movies or read the books but have seen exerpts on television and this looks just like that.

Son and the grand kids stood in line an hour or more to go on the main ride there but the Hubs and I set that one out as it has a lot of motion and makes me woozie. they were disappointed in it and said it was a rough ride. Today there was a two hour wait to get on it!

We came back to the hotel after lunch and went to the pool. The rest of the crowd came shortly after too as it was quite hot. DIL's parents are here with us so Mimi and I had fun swimming with the grands and coming down the water slides with them.

Tonight we went over to Downtown Disney for dinner at the T-Rex Restaurant. It is an amazing place that is something out of Jurassic Park. The food was good and the atmosphere fun.
We went to the Disney Store as I had built up quite a few Disney Dollars over the year and wanted to get some Christmas shopping done. The place was mobbed but we found a few things to put under the tree come Christmastime.

The kiddos fell asleep on the way back. I'm not surprised as they have gone nonstop since leaving Maine on Friday night. Guess I will publish this even though I don't have access to my pictures but I will put them in when we get home. :0)

Rain, rain, go away!

2011-10-03T09:10:00.001-04:00

We picked the apples from our two trees on Friday and I made a yummy apple pie. It was gone by morning so I guess I will make another one today. We didn’t get many apples but more then usual, the deer didn’t seem to need them this year, usually they strip the trees as they aren’t very tall yet. Nothing smells any better then an apple pie baking in the oven. I know the Yankee Candles smell good but there is nothing like the real thing!

We had our Paws On Parade on Saturday morning. I didn’t even take my camera as it was raining so hard!!! Despite the rain over 300 people and their dogs showed up! This is the back of my shirt, it actually says ‘18th’ Annual.

You can go to www.bangordailynews.com and see how hard it was raining and some of the cute dogs. We raised $55,500.00! YaY! It was a lot of hard work but well worth the result. We raised $15,000.00 more then last year and with the economy the way it is I think that is pretty good! It will sure feed and take care of lots of homeless animals, providing them with vet care and training if they need it.

Bangor Waterfront goes to wet, soggy dogs at humane society fundraiser

By Judy Harrison, BDN Staff

Posted Oct. 01, 2011, at 1:15 p.m.
Last modified Oct. 02, 2011, at 5:33 p.m.

Gabor Degre | BDN

Lucas Fowler of Dexter stands in the rain with his children Kelsey, 8, and Caleb, 6, as they were awaiting the start of the 18th annual Paws on Parade at the Bangor Waterfront Saturday. Buy Photo

BANGOR, Maine — The Bangor Waterfront went to the dogs Saturday morning for the Bangor Humane Society’s annual fundraiser.

Tall dogs, short dogs, skinny dogs, wide dogs, fluffy dogs, smooth dogs, rain-coated dogs and naked dogs participated in Paws on Parade. After their jaunt around downtown the dogs all had one thing in common — they were wet. Nearly every tail, however, was wagging.

More than 300 pet owners attended the event, according to Suzan Bell, executive director of the Bangor Humane Society. The event raised $55,500, about $15,000 more than last year, she said.

“This is our biggest year in 18 years despite the rain,” she said.

The money raised is essential, but it is only about 7 percent of the shelter’s $800,000 annual budget, Bell said. Over the past two years, the number of pets at the shelter has increased by 20 percent because of the recession.

“We have more animals in need of extended stays due to veterinary needs or behavioral issues,” she said of the challenges facing the Bangor Humane Society. “ We also have more animals who have had little or no training. We must use resources to train them before they can be adopted.”

In addition to staff from the shelter on Mount Hope Avenue, about 40 volunteers helped set up for the event and register participants.

Copied from Bangor Daily News website.

The highlight of our weekend was the wedding of our nephew Billy and his new wife Kaylin!!! Once again the rain interfered and the outside wedding was inside but it didn’t for one minute diminish the joy and fun of the event.

Three generations, my brother Bill, Dad and Billy.

The first dance.

Mom and Dad in the foreground.

Here’s a better shot of them. :o)

I hope to have more pictures coming as my sister is going to send me what she took. It was a lovely wedding with special touches that made it so personal for Billy and Kaylin. Billy’s Mom made the cake and it was adorable so I hope my sister got a picture of it and more of the decorating. Best wishes to the happy couple!

Hey, how about those Patriot’s?! After last weeks debacle it was good to see Tom Brady back on his game. My favorite guy Vince Wilfork made another good catch and run. This guy is 350 lbs. but still can pick ‘em up and put ‘em down! :o) It was nice to have the big new sunroom to watch the game in with friends. There was plenty of room for everyone, including the cats!

Yep, that’s Vince’s autograph.

The boys are going back to the stable on Wednesday. Waaaaaaaaaaaaaa! It’s a little earlier then usual as we are going to Florida for a family vacation on Friday. I HATE it when they go back and miss them terribly. It’s only 5 or 6 minutes to the stable but it’s not like just looking out in my backyard and seeing them and walking out to the fence with apples and carrots for them any time I want. Needless to say they will be extra spoiled this week!

Finally, back again!

2011-09-22T20:19:00.001-04:00

I’ve been on a bloggy break since we got home from New York. The house has been upside down with the construction and I haven’t had a minute to myself without people in and out with questions etc…. Thankfully it is soon to come to an end as they are just finishing up a few things inside and the outside is coming along well.

We are very happy with the results and know we will use the new rooms a lot. We have always loved our little sunroom even without it being winterized but it did get a mite chilly out there with just the gas stove in the wintertime. That is about my favorite time of year to be out there especially if there is a nice snowstorm blowing around us. Love watching the snowflakes drift down.

So……the little sunroom is gone and a new bigger one is in it’s place. Noodles has already claimed his chair and spends lots of time snoozing out there or watching the birds. Munchie has had a hard summer with the workmen here, she is very afraid of people she doesn’t know and will hide all day until they leave. So for three months she has spent most of her time under our bed or outside under FIL’s porch next door.

The horses have been a constant source of entertainment for the crew. Scooter is king of the hill and lets everybody know it. Kipper got his little fat behiney kicked the first day so keeps out of Scoots way now. Nick still thinks he’s the boss so there are a few confrontations here and there. The vet was here on Friday and I mentioned that Lil’ Bud seemed a bit off so he gave him a good check up and found out that he has cataracts. I wasn’t expecting that! He still can see well enough during the day to get around, be ridden etc…. but can’t see well at dusk or at night. We will monitor it but he is way too old to be put through a surgery. If he should start bumping into things we will address the situation but the vet said this is usually a slow progression for which I am very thankful!!!

Have any of you watched The Pioneer Woman’s cooking show on the Food Channel? I caught two of them but was gone the other two Saturdays that it was on. I guess there are only going to be four for now. It’s cute but that gal sure loves to cook with butter! I think I gained a few pounds just watching! Everything looks yummy though I will admit!!!

Here’s a few pictures I took tonight of the sunroom, I will get the pictures from upstairs next post. In this one the girls have moved the coffee table over and are doing homework. I love how the top lifts up and makes into a table.

Looking the other direction. That white spotted blanket is Noodles’, that’s his chair……..

This is looking towards the dining area and the other set of doors goes into the dining room. There used to be a window there but we took it out so we could have two archways plus it didn’t make much sense to keep the window looking into the sunroom. Both archways are the same even though the right hand side looks wider.

I finally got a place to put my antique sewing machine that belonged to my Aunt Joyce, it has been down in the basement for several years.

Guess I’d better get the kiddos in bed as this is a school night. Miss T and one of her friends is spending the night. Homework is done and baths taken so they are ready to hit the hay!

Will try to get back into the swing of things now and get around to visit you all. Happy Fall!

The Big Apple

2011-09-08T19:21:00.001-04:00

It’s been quite a while since I last posted. Not for lack of activities going on around here as the construction crew is still here alive and well. They told me yesterday that they may be here until Thanksgiving and I promptly fell over in a dead faint. Well, not really but I felt like it. Not that they aren’t a good crew, they are all very polite and helpful and try very hard not to fill the rest of my house full of sheetrock dust but it is almost impossible not to have it flying around. I am very allergic to it so have been spending lots of time outside.

This week we have been away so that was a help. We had to go to NYC on business for a few days and other then the torrential rains it was a lot of fun. At the last minute before we left to head out I grabbed my rain coat. Good thinking on my part for once.

Tuesday night we were supposed to go to a Yankee’s baseball game so headed over with two other couples. The cab driver had to take an alternate route as there was flooding and everyone else did too. The traffic was horrendous! If we have more then three cars go by our house in a day we think there has been a lot of traffic so NY traffic just overwhelms us.

We finally arrived and took a tour of the stadium. It is an amazing place. We were planning to eat some dinner there before the game and I was thinking hotdogs, hamburgers, fries and Cokes but there was not a hamburger in sight. We started out with sushi (bleck!), crab legs (YUM), duck, tenderloin, fish and lots of other appetizers that the wait staff just kept bringing!

Then on to the buffet which had delicious foods of all kinds. I ate too much as did everyone else but the game was delayed so there was nothing else to do. :o) It was just raining cats and dogs!!!

Finally about 9:30 we called it a night and headed back to the hotel never dreaming that they would have the game. They did. At eleven o’clock PM they started the game and it went until 2:30 AM!!! We were fast asleep and thankful for it. It was worth going just to have the nice meal and to see the stadium.

The next day we went to see Sister Act on Broadway in between meetings. It was very well done, the costumes were wonderful and the language was fine unlike our experience with another show…….. The singing was amazing, such talent there, and to think there are shows going on all over the place with different people with the same amazing talent. Some of the others went to see Memphis and said that was good as well.

I didn’t take many pictures, just a couple from our room on the 12th floor and you can see how dreary it was there with all the rain.

I can’t imagine being surrounded by big buildings all the time. The first thing I did after getting home this morning when I finished unpacking was to take Scooter and go for a nice trail ride. It was beautiful, the air was fresh, everything green from the rain, just a lovely ride. I guess I will never be a city girl. :o)

This and That

2011-08-30T23:59:00.002-04:00

We are still in a state of construction here on the Range. I think the crew is going to be here until Christmas, well at least Thanksgiving! They are a good bunch though and didn’t even flinch when I asked them not to have a radio blaring while they worked. To have it loud enough to be heard over sawing and hammering it has to be LOUD and seeing as I don’t have real doors right now, only plastic, it doesn’t filter out much of the sound.

These are pictures I took off Dad’s camera. The outside of the addition is now all sided and painted and the left hand side deck is torn off. The poor raccoons must have been surprised when they came by on their nightly visit! Sorry this is a little blurry.

The babies on the railing and Mom on the right corner. Notice they have already taken a cushion off the chair.

Peeking in the window. This deck is all gone now and we are waiting for the new one to be built.

Here is Mom and Dad’s cat Buffy. She is about ten or eleven years old and they rescued her in Florida when she was on deaths door. She has thrived ever since and has been such good company for them.

Noodles likes to sneak in and sleep on the bed. It was much to our surprise when he and Buffy were on the bed together. Not that they fight but they keep a safe distance between them most of the time.

Here is a shot of Dad in front of the front garden.

And a picture of Mom. The flowers don’t look this good now after Irene blew through.

We have been picking up from Irene’s destruction. We just had one hydrangea tree like the one behind Mom to stake up as it had blown over. Son had several trees down at his house that will have to be sawed with the chainsaw. It is blocking the path to their house from ours so I have to make a detour and go under a thorn bush. I think I am going to take my clippers with me next time a trim them back! Other then a few branches and leaves down it wasn’t bad. Lots of rain though but that will soak in fine. Not like Vermont that just got hammered by the storm. I feel so badly for those people!
On a good note Scooter continues to blend in with the family. Actually I think this is Kipper and Nick with their fly masks on.

Here he is. He’s a Big Boy!

Well it’s almost midnight so guess I will hit the hay. I never stay up this late, must have gotten a bottle of Diet Coke with caffeine instead of without!

Hurricane Irene

2011-08-29T11:50:00.003-04:00

Well we made it through the storm without too much damage. A few branches down, one hydrangea tree tipped over but I think Dad and I can prop it up, most of the apples on my trees are on the ground unfortunately, we lost our power for ten hours but we have a generator so that was okay. No big trees down, no damage to the house, the barn is fine, the boys had fun out in the warm rain so we have a lot to be thankful for.

A few places around town got a little more damage but nothing serious. The American Folk Festival was in town and they had to cancel all of Sunday’s performances due to the high winds but managed to squeeze a lot of them into Saturday. Son and DIL were at Gillette Stadium at the Country Music Festival and came home Sunday morning and didn’t hit heavy rain until about a half hour before they got here. Again lots to be thankful for!!!!

Today is bright and sunny, with that awful humidity gone! Yippee! The day before the storm hit it was like walking into a wet blanket it was so humid. The men are here working and happy for the cooler, drier air. The construction project continues on………..I keep telling myself IT WILL BE WORTH IT…..

I didn’t get any pictures as my camera batteries were dead but Saturday morning four of us went trail riding. All four horses in my barn went out together and loved it. No one likes to be left in the barn when we go out but I always give them some hay and treats to keep them busy.
Miss T was on her pony Kipper, I was on big Scooter, Funsize was on Nick and my nephews wife to be was on Lil’ bud. She had never ridden before but did a great job. She practiced in the ring for a while before we left.

Funsize and Miss T did some racing and even though Kip was running as fast as his short little legs could go he couldn’t keep up with Nick who is half Thoroughbred! :o) When we got back Mr. D and a friend did some riding in the ring so the horses got their exercise for the day. They loved being out in the heavy rain yesterday. It was a nice warm rain and warm wind so they were happy as a clam as there were no bugs to bother them and they got a good bath.

Hollie over at Life In A Small Town had a good post today that was about what I have been thinking about a lot lately. So many people that I blogged with for a long time are now either on just FB or have stopped all together. I miss them and their comments and keeping up with their lives. I know the reasons for some of them stopping but some I don’t and probably never will and it makes me sad. I am so thankful for all of you that have kept with it and continue on even if it’s not as often as we all once posted. I know when I started four years ago I posted every day! Every day! How did I do that and what did I write about? I’ll have to check back!!!

Horses, horses and more horses.

2011-08-20T20:43:00.001-04:00

Another weekend, another trip to the coast. It was a beautiful day, a bit humid here but nice on the coast. We met up with 12 other members of the family on the Hubs side and had a wonderful time at The Jordan Pond House eating lobster stew and popovers. FIL went with us and we gabbed all the way down and back. I forgot my camera which was a bummer but it’s the first time all summer so guess I can’t complain. :o)

Have been riding about every day except when it’s too hot or raining. Scooter is such a sweetheart and learning more every ride how to be a western pleasure horse although he does try to herd Kipper once in a while. Kip is about the size of the cows he used to herd. :o)

Nick heading out into the pasture.

Cousin K on Scoot.

Funsize loving on Lil’ Bud.

Grampie, Kipper, Miss T and Son.

Mr. D giving Daddy a ride in the Gator.

Scooter and Lil’ Bud look so much alike except Lil’ Bud has a white strip on his face.

Cousin K and Miss T getting ready to go on a trail ride. Doesn’t seem possible Lil’ Bud is almost 24 years old!

One day Mr. D and I went to the tack shop. He needed a new helmet and some new boots.

Trying on boots.

Trying on helmets.

This is the one!

He was all ready to ride now with a little help from big sis.

There are always chores to do…..

The flowers are still blooming but are past their peak.

Cone flowers

Cleome

Purple coneflowers.

Just starting to bloom.

More coneflowers. I have them in pink, purple, white, yellow and mango.

Brown Eyed Susans.

Son and DIL.

I hope you all are having a wonderful weekend. Tomorrow after church we are headed for the lake. I bought some plants on the way home from the coast today and want to get them into my lake garden. Summer is fast fleeting so we are trying to enjoy every single minute of it! :o)

Busy, busy times.

2011-08-13T08:40:00.001-04:00

Yay! Football season, or should I say preseason has started! I knew they would settle their differences before it was time to start. There was just too much money involved with too many people to let a season slide by without playing.

Son, Mr. D, Cousin K, Jo-Lynn’s hubby and son all went down for the game. It was exciting as the Pat’s won quite easily. The highlight of the night was meeting the players! D, Cousin K and Cousin D got a chance to go down on the field and high five the players and chat a bit. I got a call from Mr. D that he got to meet Tom Brady and got a hug! He was pretty excited about that!

D is number 70, the little one! Here they are waiting for the team to come out. Tom Brady told him that he likes his leather helmet. There will be more pictures to come, we haven’t downloaded them all yet.

Here they are waiting to go on the field.

Some of you asked me about the doughboys. I guess in other areas they are called funnel cakes but it’s always been doughboys here in Tundra Country.

You take a couple loaves of frozen bread dough and let it rise. It takes quite awhile so sometimes I even set it out in the sun to help it along, covered with some saran wrap. When it’s big and puffy heat your cooking oil in an electric fry pan if you have one or just on the stove in a heavy pot. The electric fry pan works better as you can set the temp at 400* and they don’t burn.

You pull pieces off the loaf of dough and flatten it out like in the picture on my last post and put it in the oil cooking both sides until they are lightly browned. Have butter, cinnamon and confectionary sugar ready for everyone to put on their own doughboy. The butter melts in with the cinnamon and sugar and it is just delicious! Calories optional…………. Let me know if you try it! :o)

On the way home from the team penning last week we took the back way looking for some nice photo ops. We hit the jackpot.

Fields of corn were everywhere.

Beautiful streams.

What kind of tractor is this Donna?

Cat tails.

I had a bit of a mishap this week on my lawn mower. I was about a mile from the house mowing the carriage roads when my mower slipped down a little slope pinning me to a tree. I didn’t have my cell phone (first mistake) and I only had on sandals (second mistake) and I couldn’t get the mower dislodged from the tree.

Finally I got myself out, without a scratch, (thank you Lord!) and walked home to get some help. Dad was there and two carpenters who offered to come help us get it unstuck.

If you notice the limb that is half way through where I sit you can see my dilemma. It was touching my ribs but didn’t make even a scratch! If it had slid further I most likely would have had some broken ribs or worse.

Dad had to cut the limb with a chain saw as there was no way to move the mower.

Next we had to pull the mover out but couldn’t find out where to plug the wench in. We WILL find out where the plug in is for future reference!!!

We finally got it out and I went on my merry way, very thankful for not being injured other then my pride! I will wear boots and have my phone with me from now on. If I hadn’t been able to get out around that limb that was sticking into me I would have been in big trouble. Guess this was a wake up call!

Well we are off to the lake later for the pig roast. First Funsize, her boyfriend Paul and I are going for a trail ride while it’s cool. Scooter is doing really well and enjoying his laid back lifestyle!

Scooter and me, Kipper and Miss T and Funsize and Lil’ Bud.

Team Penning

2011-08-08T10:52:00.001-04:00

Another busy weekend around the ‘ole Range this week. The weeks are clipping off so fast I can hardly stand it. As much as I adore Fall I do love those lazy days at the lake with the family, sunshine, doughboys, ribs, corn on the cob, fishing, swimming, boating etc etc etc…Miss T was so tired after Saturday at the lake that she went to bed at 6:30 when they got home and slept till 7 the next morning!

We got the dough to rising when we first arrived at the lake so that it would be ready for the afternoon.

Doughboys cooking in the electric frying pan. YUM!

The kids love to ride in the tube behind the boat. It’s a grandmother’s job to be nervous about it and I keep my eyes focused on them ready to jump in at a moments notice. Not that that would do much good but I like to think I can still swim like I used to ‘back in the day’.

It was The Hubs birthday so we celebrated with a cake and ice cream.

Grampie and D fishing. They caught tons of sunfish.

Getting ready to jump off the dock.

The next day was very overcast and not very good lake weather so we decided to go to the team penning competition to see what Scooter did in his former life. It gave me insight as to why he does what he does under certain circumstances like rushing the canter. When you are chasing those cows your horse goes into overdrive!!!! Now he is being retrained to be a grammie walk, trot, lope horse which is a much easier way to make his living!

It was fun watching everything though, the horses know what they are doing as do the riders. I would never try this as I would land in a heap on the first turn! :o)

There were lots of folks from Canada down for the weekend. I thought of you Pea! I was wondering if you were going to come galloping out with the Canadian flag but it was another gal. Darn! Then they came out with the American flag and a young girl sang the Star Spangled Banner. She did a really good job!

MOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

The cows were frisky! They changed cows every few runs so that they didn’t get overtired.

It was a fun morning watching all the people and their beautiful horses. I think Scooter was probably thinking how nice it was to be home grazing in the pasture instead of chasing cows!! :0)

Pound, pound, hammer, hammer, saw, saw…..

2011-07-28T14:12:00.001-04:00

It’s very noisy here today. That means progress! Yay! Should go to the lake but there are always questions to be answered so I need to stay around home as much as possible. They are putting in the insulation today so that we will be warm and toasty and working on the plumbing.

Speaking of warm and toasty:

It is getting hotter again. Not as humid this time which is nice just blue skies with puffy clouds and temps in the mid 80’s. Perfect.

We headed to the coast again this past weekend. We never tire of the scenery and of course the seafood. Burp. Sorry about that……

We met up with the Hubs sister, BIL and the triplets. It doesn’t seem possible that they are 18 years old. I remember perfectly the day they came into the world three months early. They were tiny, weighing in around a couple of pounds each. We drove to Boston to see them and SIL who was doing amazingly well.

Now they are college bound this fall and other then Charlie the dog it’s going to be a very empty nest for SIL and BIL. (I may have to send Noodles down to keep things hopping.) They turned out to be the nicest kids you could ever want to meet.

Brett-----Lauren-----Neal

Lauren is a chip off the ole’ block like her Mom and me in the horse department. She is an excellent rider and does lots of things that I am afraid to do like JUMPING! I always enjoyed watching her lessons when we got a chance to go visit them in Massachusetts. She is a sweetie.

Brett is going into Christian Ministries at college and hopes to be a youth pastor when he graduates. He has a wonderful sense of humor and writes like a pro. I always thought he might go into sports journalism as he knows more about sports than just about anyone I know!

Neal is a runner and is headed to the Midwest to college. He takes lots of ribbing from his uncle the Hubs and can give it right back. We never got to see any of his meets in Boston unfortunately but kept up through e-mail and pictures. We are proud of them all!!

Here they are with Grampa. Sure wish my MIL could have been around to watch them grow up but she passed away a few months before they were born.

This is Charlie. He will now be the king of the roost. He is a super dog and has curly hair on his back!

Here is the whole family with Grampa, even Charlie down in the right hand corner. :o)

The Hubs with his bib on getting ready to chow down on that lobster!

The ferry was just coming in while we were there.

The tide was out.

When the tide comes in this is completely covered.

This is on the way home, part of the bay that runs into the ocean.

A lot of the granite used for counter tops comes from this area.

Got up the next morning and found these sleeping critters on my deck. They had pulled the cushions off the chairs and were nice and cozy!

Even Mom raccoon was there with them, that’s her in the background hoping for some peanuts or marshmallows. They aren’t going to know what to think when the old deck is torn off!

On Saturday we were at the lake and it was beautiful there. Friends dropped in and we were all sitting out by the water watching three boys having a ball jumping off the dock next door. All of a sudden they threw their swim suits out in the lake and proceeded to swim nekkid. The rest of the afternoon. In full daylight. With people all around. Good grief they weren’t toddlers either, they must have been around 10, 8 and 6. Too old to be swimming a-la- nu*de!!! The Mom came down and we all thought that would be the end of that but she was laughing and snapping pictures of them. I guess I am an old fuddy duddy but I don’t think that was appropriate. In this day and age with things being put on the Internet I wouldn’t want to take a chance that my kids would show up on there. You never know who is lurking around. There, rant finished.

Not to say that there wasn’t any skin*ny dipping back in the day, but never during daylight hours with an audience!! Good grief!

Heat Wave!

2011-07-23T07:25:00.001-04:00

Do you know how unusual this is for us up here in Tundra Country? We are setting all kinds of records for heat with no real relief in sight. Thank goodness for air conditioning! I know for a lot of you this is just a normal part of summer but for those of us who like temps in the 70’s it’s a bit daunting.

It’s been way too hot to ride the horses, they have been sweating just standing under the fans. Scooter is doing well. Funsize and I rode together one day and he was much calmer being out with Lil’ Bud rather then with Miss T racing and tearing around on Kipper. He wanted to run too but I’m not really into that much any more especially where he is so big and strong and my balance just ‘ain’t’ what it used to be.

The project continues on the sunroom. They put the radiant heat tubes down one day this week and then covered them with some kind of stuff that looks like soupy cement. I think they called it Jipcreek. I will be sooooooooooo glad when it is done and the crews are gone.

We are working on Paws On Parade now at the humane society. I do most of my work from home making calls to get sponsors. Noodles is such a good helper holding all of my paperwork in place! He knows how much we love all of our animals at BHS and wants to raise lots of money to take good care of them. :o)

He also likes to help me in the barn. Scooter is rather curious about him. I’m glad he knows enough to hide under the Gator when the boys are around!

Scoot is a big boy, he must be close to 16 hands. He is so good with T and D, they just love him and he will put his head right down so that they can scratch his head. The vet says that he is too chunky but so am too I so we make a good pair! :o)

The raspberries are ripe now. I love to just stand there and eat them. I have to walk right by them when I go to the barn so I keep them pretty well picked. This one was gone two seconds after I took the picture……..

We are going to the lake today and tomorrow after church we are headed to The Lobster Pound with family that is in town for the week. Son, DIL and the grands are going to Boston today to see a Red Sox game tonight. I hope it cools off as it was about 120* on the field this week!!! I’d rather be at the lake!!! :o)

Coastal Maine

2011-07-18T08:58:00.001-04:00

What a great weekend we had at the coast and the lake. It was glorious weather with temps near 90* inland but much cooler near the water. Mom and Dad stayed home and took care of the boys. Scoot continues to settle in and the grands LUV him! They came in the other day and said they found his itchy spot and it’s on his forehead. He puts his head right down so that they can scratch it with their fingernails. :o) Funsize and I tried to get some good pictures of him but he was pooped from our ride and the ole’ ears were just not going to go up for us.

We took a ride to the Jordan Pond House in Acadia National Park for lobster stew and popovers which is always a treat. I’ll meet you there in a few weeks Jo-Lynne! Yum! There is a very interesting pergola outside of the entrance and it is covered with wisteria early in the season. It makes for lovely cool shade while waiting in line to get into the restaurant.

After we ate the we rode around a small part of the park and got some pictures. I love all the stone over passes. These were put in during the Depression by John D Rockefeller to create jobs for folks in the area.

The rocky coast of Maine. We do have beaches but mostly the shoreline is like this.

Always lots of boats.

I would like to have walked out on this little peninsula and just soaked up the view.

Something caught my eye and it was mom duck with two ducklings.

Here is the very patient Hubs waiting in the car for me. xoxox

There are lots of wonderful Inns to stay in.

Mountains surround the park.

The next day we stayed at the lake with lots of friends and family joining us. Again it was gorgeous lake weather. We decided to make some ice cream with the grands sooooooooooo with direction book in hand and the ice cream maker we started the process which according to the book would take about 20 minutes once we got all the ingredients in.

Miss T breaking the eggs. Yep, six.

DIL reading the directions and of course I was putting my two cents worth in.

Mixing things up.

Who had that camera!!!

See that little arm around me? Oh how I love those grand kids!

Stirring up the ice and rock salt.

I wish I could show you yummy ice cream being consumed by all but after letting it churn for two hours it still wasn’t thickening. We finally put it in the freezer where it remains………..

Six cups of heavy cream----$9.54

three cups milk-------------$1.00

Six eggs-------------------$1.30

Sugar----------------------$1.00

Rock salt-------------------$1.79

Fun of the experience with the kids----------PRICELESS!

(Remember that ad?)

The construction continues here at the house. I am VERY WEARY of it all to be honest. Having people in and out from 6 AM till 4 PM every day is exhausting, plus all the sawing, hammering etc… It wasn’t so bad until they took out the big doors and windows and covered them with plastic, that doesn’t cut the sound at all now….. I keep telling myself that it will be well worth it when it’s all done. :o)

It’s going to be a scorcher today. My sis and husband are staying at the lake this week so I may go down and sit with them a while. They are predicting heavy rain and thunder storms this afternoon so I’m keeping an eye on the sky, don’t want the boys out if there is a storm!

Horse? What new horse?

2011-07-12T08:59:00.001-04:00

Okay, I know I am a worry wart. I think that comes under a grandmother’s job description doesn’t it? D gets so caught up in the excitement of the catch I’m always afraid he might tumble into the lake headfirst. He didn’t really like me hanging onto his PFD (personal flotation device) I think we used to just call them life jackets, but he was a good sport about it. :o)

It was just glorious weather on the Saturday before the 4th as you can see by the beautiful blue sky and puffy clouds. It was actually the best day of the holiday weekend so I was glad we chose that day for the family get together just in case the 4th tanked.

The Hubs spent his time going from the front of the boat where T was to the back where D was helping bait hooks and taking off some of the more feisty sunfish.

My nephew and his soon to be wife were out in the canoe. They are getting married in October.

Funsize and my sister Jill.

Son bringing in a new thing to haul behind the boat and thrash the daylights out of anyone willing to go for a ride. I did that last year…….my bladder just can’t take it………ahem…….

My BIL who always mans the grill. Thank you Ray!!!!

The Hubs driving the boat. I like to just sit or stand and enjoy seeing all the cottages along the shoreline, the loons and the young people having fun at the beach. I don’t care a bit about driving.

I love this one with Grampie and D fishing together.

It’s a whopper! Well sort of…….

Just look at those beautiful clouds!

Time for a nap!

A little target practicing under Dad’s watchful eyes. Not bullets, just tiny paintballs, not even the regular size, these splatter very easily. Hmmmmm……I wonder if they were shooting at the garage?

Who is that masked kid?!

Another sleepy kiddo at the end of the day. What a great day!

We have a new family member. He’s here on a two week trial but I think we know what the answer is going to be. :o) He is sweet and gentle and BIG!

His new barn name is Scooter in remembrance of my friend Barn Goddess and her horse Scooter. It’s funny, she has been on my mind lately, before we even knew this horse was in the works, so it just seems appropriate that this will be his name! We have two weeks to try him and make sure he is a good fit for our family. So far so good!!!!

T giving him a bath. He got kind of sleepy as you can see. Keep your fingers and toes crossed that everything keeps going as positive as it has so far. :o)

4th of July weekend

2011-07-05T13:52:00.001-04:00

We had lovely weather for the holiday weekend. It was sounding iffy at best but we only had one thunder storm and that didn’t last long.

It was wonderful growing up in the country, much more rural then where I live now. We had two little stores and a post office, a small school for grades kindergarten through eight and a town hall. We were always busy as kids playing outside, riding our horses, going to the lake and building stuff in the woods.

On July 4th there was always a big celebration and parade. This has been going on for years, I was just a child when I first remember going to it. It has grown over the years and now people come from the surrounding communities. It’s not fancy, city folks would probably snicker a bit but it’s a fun day and I wouldn’t change a thing.

I think of Cliff when the tractors go by, I’m sure he would know the name of each one, right Donna?

Antique cars

A few horses.

The town fire truck and many, many more things to watch.

Our old family homestead is still standing and it always brings back so many memories to see it. I don’t like the modern door that they have put in, I remember the big old heavy door with the big key to lock and unlock it.

The barn is just about falling in. It makes me sad as I remember the hundreds and hundreds of happy hours we spent in the barn playing and tending to the horses.

The side porch used to be open and we had a big wooden double swing that we loved. We could really get that thing going. My room was the second floor one with the bay window. There were hardwood floors in the living room that my mother would clean on her hands and knees and polish with a paste kind of polish. The living room was right under my room and also had the bay windows. I remember how the sheer curtains would flutter in the breeze in there in the summer time. Probably where I got my love of sheer curtains. :o)

Of course anytime we go to Burlington we have to go see my uncles cattle. They are so cute and they come running when he yells to them.

This is Chucky, he is eight days old. What a cutie!! There was one three days old but she stayed out of sight. :o(

To think they grow up to look like this! I need to cut their bangs!

More to come but duty calls. Why is there always so much laundry after a long weekend????

Button, button, whose got the button?

2011-06-27T11:16:00.001-04:00

I am a self described buttonaholic. They don’t have to be anything fancy but I do prefer the old ones. I keep several jars of them in my kitchen, this bunch being in an old Mason jar.

I keep some on top of my cupboards and this one bugs me because it isn’t full. Little OCD much???!! I am feeling the need to go shopping at some of the thrift shops and antique places around town to look for some more.

Now this jar is full the way they should be. :o) This jar does not cause me angst. Doing the happy dance! :o)

I come well by it as my mother and my grandmother saved buttons. Before my Grammie (on my mother’s side) passed away she spent hundreds of hours putting buttons on cardboard covered with some kind of material. Her trailer home walls were covered with all of them and I always loved looking at the latest ones. When she passed away the buttons were divided up amongst us and I am happy with the ones I have.

There may be some of value but most are just everyday buttons that came off old clothes and lots that were given to her as people knew she loved doing this. I think she used cereal boxes for the cardboard.

When I was in the tote bag business I used a few of the big ones on my bags which I regret. You can see some missing places in this picture below.

There is one in this lot that has an old B & A Railroad button which is probably quite collectible to the right person but my Grampie on my father’s side worked for the railroad so that one is special and will never be sold. It’s the one with the piece of paper under it'.

These are treasures to me that I will keep forever. It’s so nice to have things passed on down from our parents and grandparents. I also have a quilt that Grammie made that is amazing. It was made out of old men's suits and is awfully heavy but the stitching is AMAZING~ Will post pictures of that next time.

The kiddos continue to ride each day that the weather is good. Mr. D has all of a sudden this year taken to the horses and just can’t get enough of them. I call this one of Miss T the ‘no fear’ photo!

Taking Mrs. Mom’s advice and having her ride just using her legs and seat! It works! Thanks MM!

Please don’t anyone tell D that he has on a girls helmet!!!!

I love this picture even though Lil’ Bud looks pregnant!

Bare back is where it’s at!!!! :o) So great for teaching balance.

Haven’t gone the no reins route with D yet. This old horse is so patient, I wish I could clone him about 15 years younger. Look at those heels, D has that down pat.

Helping little brother. Makes my heart smile~!!

Got to go do some mowing as the rain is coming back in on Wednesday. We’re hoping for a good day on the 4th for a big family outing at the lake. Don’t even have the boat in yet as it hasn’t really been lake weather on the weekends yet. Let’s keep our fingers crossed.

Love you Funsize!! xoxox

Who stole my sunroom?

2011-06-21T19:27:00.001-04:00

The cats and I are wearing earplugs as there is a lot of banging and clanging going on around here. My sun room is gone and they are now in the process of rebuilding it.

You may notice that they put a railing across my sliding glass doors so that I would not walk out through there and land on my head.

It’s hard having everything in such a mess but it will be worth it when it is all done as it is going to be winterized and made just like a part of the house with heat, good windows and no breezes blowing through in January! :o) We have all of the family get togethers here so it will be nice to be able to use it for that at Thanksgiving and Christmas. It is going to be bigger which is nice as it seems to be the place we congregate.

Miss T and I have been doing a lot of trail riding this week as the weather has been good. Our weather pattern is such that it is good during the week and then cold and rainy on the weekends!!! We did get to the lake on Saturday but I didn’t have my plants to set out so took a nice nap on the sofa while the Hubs reclined in his new recliner chair for Father’s Day.

Miss K is coming along good with her riding lessons. In this shot she is collecting rocks that I place on the fence posts and she puts them in the little bag attached to the saddle horn. It’s just to practice stopping and starting and bending over to reach the rocks to work on balance. It’s a game she and Miss T like to play.

Little Bud is such a patient ole’ boy. My camera had died but after this they rode bareback together, T was facing the back and K was facing the front! It was a hoot! Then they practiced Round the World and walking with their arms out from their sides. I would like to have a dollar for every time I say ‘put your hands down’! ha! I have tried everything, come on horse people give me some ideas!!! I’ve done the hold your hands down like you were playing a piano, holding an ice cream cone, even with your belly button etc etc… HELP!

More flowers are in bloom now. It seems new ones open each day. This is a new little clematis that I put in last year and didn’t think it would make it but it is blooming like crazy.

The old fashioned roses are in bloom now and smell soooooooo good!

The bridal wreath that I planted on each side of the gate that goes into the barn just exploded with blooms this year!

Wild daisies in the raspberry patch.

My nemesis Mrs. Raccoon that has been living in my hayloft finally brought her babies out today. They are so cute and cuddly looking but I wouldn’t dare touch them! She has three and also a bob tail! I wonder what happened to her tail?

They had better enjoy the seeds and peanuts now because when this deck is torn off due to rot, there won’t be any seeds on the new one. I’d say they’ve got about a month before the crew tackles that job. :o) They are cute though aren’t they???!!!

The glorious days of summer!

2011-06-12T07:44:00.001-04:00

We have been having some glorious weather here in the NE hence my absence from the computer world. There is nothing like being outside in the sunshine with your hands in the dirt planting annuals or putting in some new perennials. Here are some of my early bloomers. Lupine is growing profusely in my front garden even though I pulled a lot of it out last fall. I love it but it can take over so it shall get another thinning after it finishes blossoming.

I have several varieties of columbine, I love this new white one that I put in this year. So delicate and lovely. Here are a few more.

My coral bells haven’t blossomed yet but I love the rich color of the foliage.

I put in lots of petunias. This is a new variety that is supposed to spread nicely. I’ll do before and after pictures later on in the season to see if they do what they are supposed to do.

Hummmmm…bunnies in the garden, the best kind they don’t eat the plants!

Even the weeds are pretty, I love these little buttercups.

These yellow daisies bloom all summer and fall as long as I deadhead them.

My bleeding heart is a bit skimpy this year, maybe it was the rough winter we had.

I always put something in the ole’ bean pot. Actually I would rather it was some nice bean hole beans with lots of molasses and cooked in the ground! Oh, and don’t forget the nice hot biscuits!

Summer also brings fun times with the boys. Miss T and her best friend K come over and ride often which they love. Today they were riding Lil’ Bud who is 23 years old and such a good boy for kids to ride.

K is just starting to ride and is building her confidence. Miss T is going along for support. :o)

Miss T loves to canter. Whoops! Got to get those hands and heels down but the lead is right! :o)

Hugs for Bud.

And nice scratching too.

Good job K, she’s riding by herself now!

Every horse deserves to be loved by a little girl!!!!

Yesterday Miss T and I went trail riding, she rode Kipper and I rode Lil’ Bud. I wish I had had my camera as it was beautiful out in the woods. Next time!

Horse Stuff

2011-06-01T08:44:00.001-04:00

What a big yawn Nick! I guess the trip home wore him out. It’s only about three miles…… He and Kipper came home on Saturday and I will go get Lil’ Bud today. Seems so good to have them home and to be able to look out my kitchen window and see them grazing in the pasture or hanging out in the barn under the fans with their eyes half closed. They have had lots of attention!

Miss T has spend most of her free time in the barn with them, braiding their manes, brushing, washing, laying on them and daydreaming, riding, leading them around the yard and neighborhood, loving on them and bringing them carrots. I think by the looks Nick needs his teeth brushed!

We went to the vet last week as Nick and Kipper were showing signs of a little lameness which is a first with Kip since we have owned him. After X-rays and blood work it seems he has some kind of condition from a tick or some other bug. It tested out not to be Lyme disease, some kind of a different strain so he is on 20 pills a day for 10 days to clear that up. I put them in my food processor and grind them up then put them in applesauce in a big ole’ syringe (without the needle!) and pop it into his mouth. He doesn’t seem to mind. He is still on half a gram of bute twice a day to keep the soreness at bay.

Nick had X-rays and blood work and his test came back negative for Lyme. He is on injections of Adequan once every four days for three more doses for joint support. He is so good, I don’t even have to tie him, he stands right there and lets me stick him with that darned awful big needle! I hate doing it but if it helps his hocks them it will be worth it. He may have to have an injection in his hocks as well but we’ll see how he does.

We’ve been going to Mr. D’s baseball games. It is a hoot watching the little ones learning how to play. D really enjoys it and we enjoy going.

Miss T had her Chorus program the week we had the kids while Son and DIL were in Florida. I didn’t have a very good view even though I was in the second row but enjoyed it very much. They both had a patriotic program this week that was fabulous, we loved every minute of it! Also had the Awana closing program a while back so we have been busy going to things! :o)

Awana Closing Program.

Chorus.

We had a fabulous Memorial Weekend. The weather was gorgeous!!!! We went to the coast Sunday after church and ate at our favorite restaurant. I had lobster stew and seafood newburg, my two favorites there. Also the bread pudding is to die for………. I did bring most of that home…….but now it’s gone……

On Monday the guys went fishing and Miss T and I did horse stuff plus some sewing. She is making her mom a wall hanging for her birthday which is in July. We got a good start on it using my Go to cut out the die cuts that she wanted. I got started on another wall hanging and made a booboo so had to start all over again. Sigh………. Note to self: don’t try to do two things at once.

I have most of the pieces re-cut out and think it’s going to be lots of fun! Will post it when it is finished.

Time to get the horse trailer hooked up and head up and get Lil’ Bud so that all my boys are home together. Will try to get around visiting, the days have just flown by and I have not spent much time at my computer. I must admit that being outside in the warm sunshine calls my name. The lilacs are in full bloom and the scent is just heavenly as well as the lily of the valley, with an aroma that is just D-licious with a capital D!!!!!