Summer- Part two

 We had a tough summer with the business so we made the most of it and did our best to enjoy the extra time provided.  Art took his annual trek up to Lake Umbagog with Zdeno and his friend Teddy this year, and we finally made it to Art's old family haunt Dolly Copp for a relaxing night and a vigorous hike up the Imp the next day.

We also discovered some local ponds including Heald Pond just south of us wedged between Temple, Wilton, and Greenville.  Zdeno loved to go there to swim, chase his ball, and hike around.  It was a hot dry summer and our pond was muck soup so it was a nice retreat.
 We had lost most of our girls last spring so we got two batches of chicks this spring.  This is the younger group in the heat of the summer relaxing in the wheelbarrow.  Our electric bill was insane keeping both greenhouse fans on most of July to keep them cool.  This fall we planted a peach tree and a cherry tree on the edge of their outside area to give them some shade (and treats) in the coming years.  Our three roosters seem to be doing well.  Baby Spice had to find another home because she bullied the older girls (and two roos) so badly that they never accepted her again.  She is happy and healthy with her new family nearby.  Our older batch had twelve chicks and we ordered 14 with the second.  After losses we stand at 16 chickens and three roosters going into winter.  Now that they are all laying we are getting around a dozen eggs a day.  Not bad odds, and glad we have three roos considering our past losses and the fact that the falcons still circle a couple/few times a week.

 We got to join in Art's sisters family trip to the beach down in Rhode Island.  We spent one day on the beach sunning and relaxing, and the next morning Pam and I took a nice kayak around while Arthur and Dale went clamming.  They had such fun!  They didn't want to come out of the water.  It was a really nice mini-break. 

 We spent some nice days at home with friends and family as well.  With our new screened porch finished we enjoyed long evenings on the porch, hair raising experiences sitting out there during storms, and long lazy mornings when we could.

 My parents came out earlier than usual this year.  We had wanted to do a road trip up to Maine and the Bay of Fundy, but our timelines made that a tough trip to face.  So we headed North instead.  We started the trip just outside Burlington Vermont with a tour of Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream then crossed Lake Champlain into New York before crossing the border to Canada.  We spent one night in Montreal.  Sadly, our timing was off so most things were closed by the time we got there and wouldn't open again before we left.  We did enjoy a nice walk along the banks of the St. Charles and through the old town before stopping for a bite to eat.  The next day we whisked off to Shcwinigen and then St. Paulin.  We stopped by a pellet manufacturer of ours to touch base and see plant improvements.  Our hotel in St. Paulin was a in a wonderful setting with plenty of hiking, biking, and kayaking options.  We all hopped on bikes and toured around for the afternoon.  We caught up with another pellet supplier for a nice dinner and a soak in the hot tubs.  The next day we set off to see the second pellet mill on our tour then headed off to Quebec City.  We stayed at the fabulous Frontenac Hotel on the Water. We walked around for the afternoon up to the fort and around the old town.
We stopped for dinner at a crepe bar that had a terrible (but delightful) french singer who butchered 1960-70 classic American songs.  We walked along the boardwalk that evening before turning in.  The next morning we went down to the lower area of the town and hopped on a river tour which took us around the banks South first then North to the waterfalls.  We enjoyed a leisurely lunch and some shopping before getting back in the car for the long ride home.  We did get to have a good part of the family together for the traditional lobster dinner as well.  The family is dispersing though, with Abi in NYC, Peter in Las Vegas, and now Jimmy and Lindsay in North Carolina.  The trip was entirely too short as always.  Zdeno did love spending time with his Grandma and Grandpa though and loves his Panda!

Summer

After a rainy May we went back to the old pattern of hot and dry.  Good news is that this gives us a lot of free time because the store is so slow.  Bad news is that the store is slow...  It's time or money, can't seem to have both at the same time. 
We have been working around the house though.  Hubby has been a machine in the yard and is almost done painting the house!  He has been pulling back deadwood and clearing debris from the ice storm and life in general.  Moving trees, seeding, ripping out weeds and seedling trees that have started to encroach on our house, clearing the area behind the greenhouse that we had a bobcat bed down in last summer and reinforcing the wall of the stream-bed.  I added a chicken fence since we have lost so many this past year.

The chickens are growing and doing well.  We lost our little Chipmunk who was an adorable english hen, but we have settled with 10 older girls and two roosters (4 months old), and ten babies (almost 2 months old) of which one is definitely a rooster since I ordered a pair of brahmas and one other suspected roo in the bunch.  Subban is our top roo in the coop.  He is very large and very gorgeous.  He watches me as closely as I watch him but so far we are ok.  Little Buttercup, my Orpington Rooster is a different story.  His name was changed to Loki for a reason.  I can't tell if he's just excited to see me or if he is posturing or if it is an attack but he runs at me every time I come into the coop.  He may be looking for treats?  Jury is still out on him...  Baby Spice has officially snapped.  She spends most of her time in a laying box.  If you take her out she will attack anyone, any chick, or nothing at all just because.  She also has a crazy head twist that she does and she cackles.  Very creepy and very sad.  She used to be so sweet and her Momma- Little Miss Sunshine- was an angel.

My Barred Rocks are two of my favorite new chicks.  They are so sweet and cuddly.  Molly is my love sponge.

Velma, our white silkie holds her own in the adorable white fluffy pet category.

 Our only layer at this point is Suzy.  Baby Spice was until the babies figured out they were bigger than she is and put her in her place.  I am hoping they start laying soon!  Should just be a few more weeks...





We traveled a great deal at the beginning of the year so we have been laying low spending time close to home and spending time with Art's Dad.  He is very sad still but seems to be getting more active and we have enjoyed spending time with him. 

We have spent nights over there and enjoy going around the seacoast.  We even took Z back to the beach we stayed at last summer.  He had such fun chasing his ball in the ocean that day :-)

Dad has been staying over with us this summer a few times which is really great.  He even babysat the chickens and Zdeno when Art and I went on our mid-summer adventures.  I think he has almost as much fun with Zdeno as Z does with him.



 

Zdeno has lived in the pond this summer which has been great except no rain has made our little pond more of a mudpit.  He will come out black as night (EWWWW!) but loves to be hosed off and cleaned up ;-)  He turned two on July 2.  He is not a puppy anymore.  He eats much better and seems to have lost most of his fears.  He has been a good boy.



We did a little get together here on Mother's Day but the family shifted the focus to Father's Day at Pam's for our first big family get together of the year.  Dale took Art and his Dad out on a fishing boat in the morning and they each caught a striped bass.  They were huge and wore large smiles that told us all we needed to know about the adventure.  Great visit with family.

I missed Lindsay and Jimmy's engagement party as I was in Las Vegas with my Mom and Rachel for her high school graduation trip.  I did not think that one through.  Las Vegas at the beginning of July was 110 degrees F!!  That is beyond ridiculous HOT!  I did take a hike with Peter and got to spend some good time with him down there.  It sounds like he is doing well and enjoying his job.  He is back in school. 

Won't do that again but we had a great time walking around, seeing shows, shopping, doing the spa thing and just hanging out!  My Dad drove down later in the week for a few days which was really nice.  We took a drive out to see the new bridge at the Hoover Dam.  My Dad took us for a helicopter ride to view it.  Our first time, but he told us stories of when he was stationed in Cheyenne and used to be transported on a Huey.  Very fun :-)

My Mother's had bad knees for a quite a while now but she is delaying surgery.   She is trying a procedure where they inject chicken fat between the knee joint to lubricate it.  Sounds almost as painful to have the treatment if you ask me.  She is still playing tennis and golf though.  Good for her!  I do hope she has the surgery soon.  I have only heard positive things about how well those types of surgeries work.

My Dad is going in for surgery today.  He has been getting sick for the past couple of years at least.  When he walks for any distance after eating especially.  He has continued to play tennis but having someone pause to toss their cookies is not comforting.  After I don't know how many doctors and tests one of them actually found something.  (more than the idiot ear docs here in New England who are incompetent and inept.)  They found he has two hernias which they are going in to fix today.  Hopefully that will make him feel much better and he will be able to be active as he likes :-)

Outdoor Living

One of our favorite places in our first house was a cute little farmer's porch that had been enclosed.  It was quite small but we had a hanging porch swing and many good memories reading the Sunday paper and having coffee out there.
When we moved to New Hampshire it was high on our list to have a screened porch.  First of all the bugs will carry you away if you sit outdoors with no protection and Art had fond memories of the porch they had on his family's house growing up.  Sadly, just months after hubby completed the porch we moved. 
The house in Temple has been a work in progress.  We have replaced floors, windows, moved walls, added spaces, re-finished almost everything and one of the last projects but most anticipated was the screened porch.  We have been talking about it for years; do we put it off the kitchen, the south side of the house, or the bar?  How big do we make it, what kind of roof...
This year we finally got our dream.  The porch we have been planning for and wishing to have.  It is a great outdoor space and I think we will spend as much time out there as possible.  I'm sure we'll put a pellet stove out there to extend our outdoor stay :-)

Fenway 100th Anniversary

We in New England have been blessed with bright sun and warm weather this spring.


From a business standpoint it is killing our sales, and from a volunteer firefighter perspective hubby has been very busy fighting wildland fires but alas people love warm weather regardless of the side effects.  But I digress.











My sister in law Sue works for Welch's juice company.  They made a deal with the Red Sox to do a Guinness World Record attempt for the largest toast.  They chose the 100th Anniversary of Fenway Park to do the toast.  We were among the lucky few that got to go into Fenway early that day so we could place a sparkling juice under each seat in the stadium for the toast.






Sitting up on the green monster was a treat.  We were allowed just about anywhere in the park except the green monster after the game started.  The only thing we didn't have were seats.  So we ended up on the Budweiser bar deck above (right?) field.






It was a real family affair.  Sue brought more family members than anyone else, and to boot my nephew's sister in law also works for Welch's.  So Sue had ten family members and Kevin's sil had another two with her group!  We had a great morning wandering around the empty stadium after we had placed the juice in record time ;-)







 I am not much of a baseball fan but we had a good time hanging out and enjoying the day.    It was a good ceremony with so many old ball players turning out, the Boston Pops, and an F16 and P51 flyover.

Welch's had also rented a floor at Jillian's across the street.  After a while we went there for some beverages, snacks, and to play pool and rest. 








Art's Dad had a great day and since we were exhausted at the end of the day I bet he was doubly so.  But he never showed it.  Good day start to finish except the Boston Sox lost to the Yankees.

Sydney

We didn't have nearly enough time in New Zealand or Australia but I think we made the most of what little time we had.
Our hotel was in a pretty good spot again.  The Solar Tours tour company has yet to steer us wrong.  We had a balcony at the Cambridge hotel in East Sydney.  You can see the peaks of the Sydney Opera House in the distance.  We spent the afternoon on a double decker bus that tours around the city.  It is a great way to see all the highlights in one quick round, then you can hop off and on the bus at places you want. 

 We rode around in the afternoon and got off near Circular Quay that evening to walk around before heading to the observatory.  We also found a little family owned Italian place nearby for dinner.  Not lamb but delicious all the same.

The "Coat Hanger" was a pretty impressive bridge. 







Not quite as flashy as the Zakim bridge in Boston but very elegant as bridges go.




It was even more impressive at night.

We didn't make it in for a tour of the Opera House but it was a beautiful building.  I never realized that the roof was all tiled.  Amazing.

One of the unexpected surprises were the wild cockatoos that were flying around not only the Blue Mountains but also around downtown Sydney.  Our bus driver said they were a pest.  Unbelievable.  They were very cool!

We did take a bus up to the Blue Mountains.  Art's cousin had recommended that if you could only see one thing that was it.

We saw the Three Sisters rock and took a tram across a great ravine that was reminiscent of the Grand Canyon covered in jungle growth with wild cockatoos flying around.

There were breathtaking heights and falls galore.
We rode on a very steep rail-car into the canyon and hiked around a bit before going on another tram to complete the tour.

We were fortunate enough to be able to hike down to Wentworth Falls.
It wasn't a big walk but it was gorgeous.

The weather was perfect this day!

Koala bears sleep a lot, and in interesting positions wedged up in trees.

He was a lot softer than we thought.
Very woolly and warm.

Feeding the kangaroos was high on my to do list at the Wildlife preserve.

I thought they would just munch the greenery inside the cone so a little joey surprised me when he munched a big bite off of the cone!

They were happy to let you pat them.  Except for Momma.

She wouldn't let me pat her baby.  She gave me a dirty look then hopped off.

We spent a lot of time here...

I saw a lot of creatures I have only read about.
Wallabies, Kangaroos, Koalas, a Tasmanian Devil, Kookaburras.

We took a ferry back to Sydney that night.  An amazing coastline and a wonderful sunset.

A lot of colorful characters helped shape Australia.

One last meal before heading home.
Left Sydney at 1:20pm and arrived in Dallas at 1:45pm.  Longest 25 minutes of my life (somewhere near 15 hours in reality).
Another five hours to Boston, then shuttle and ride home.

Thanks for the memories!