Monthly Archives: April 2010

Planting Trees

Each spring we get trees through Oneida County Soil and Water Conservation District.  We have mainly planted spruce trees as windbreaks, but also some white birch and lilacs.  This year I ordered 50 spruce trees, 10 lilacs and 10 red oaks.  The trees came in on Saturday morning.  I traveled to Schoharie on Saturday for our High School reunion meeting and left for Bellevue, Nebraska on Sunday morning.  Kathryn ended up planting all the trees with a little bit of help.

Ice Skating Birthday Party, Trillium & House Progress

Eric has had this week off from school.  Kathryn did her Wilderness First Aid Training for her new part time job at Potato Hill Farm Educational Center.  On Thursday night Eric enjoyed a sleep over at Jen & Mike’s.  Friday afternoon he attended a birthday party for Olivia held at the Westmoreland Community Center.

This evening we had our 1st cookout across the road and spotted a bed of Trillium with a couple of really big plants.

The home remodeling continues.  This week some of the replacement oak flooring was put in.  The bathroom space was gutted and work began on installing the shower tub.

Kestral and Eric’s Closet Organizer

We have a kestrel family living nearby and frequently see one of them sitting on a nearby telephone wire surveying the pastures for grasshoppers, frogs and small mice.  This past weekend we got a close look as the kestrel camped out on top of our laundry post looking for pond dwellers.

Our major home project this weekend was assembling a closet organizer for Eric’s room.  Once having done one of these I am sure we could assemble the 2nd one much faster.

We also stripped wallpaper in the living room, cut up some of the nail-less boards and got the windows washed with help from Kaitlyn.

Learning the Little League Thing

Eric had his 2nd baseball practice (Minor League B).  Practice mainly consisted of one coach pitching and one coaching helping the kids hit and everyone else hanging out in their position in the field.  Each kid stood in batting until they got 3 hits and ran to 1st base on the 3rd pitch.

Below Eric lined up as a mid-fielder deep behind the pitcher and then demonstrates his swing.  He seems to be a line drive hitter.

After the 3rd hit, drop the bat and run to 1st.  After a minute of standing cool on 1st base Eric peeked over to see if Dad caught all the action.

Right now baseball is fun and he is enjoying learning new things.  It certainly is less work (running) than soccer.

Weekend Report

Our weekend began on Thursday evening.  Eric had his final swim lesson at the Holland Patent pool.  He is doing basic strokes; crawl and backstroke.  He is jumping off the diving board.  He is treading water and learning to dive off the side of the pool.

From the swim lessons I took him to his 1st little league baseball practice.  It is playing Minor League B in which the coach pitches to the kids.  He played short stop in the field and took his cut at batting and made a 3 hits out of six or seven pitches.  The practice was cut short due to lighting.  The next practice is scheduled for Tuesday night.

We continued our home remodeling.  I removed the TV sliding tray from our entertainment center moved all our computer equipment into the entertainment center and co-located it with the desk in the living room.  We working on getting the layers (and layers and layers) of wallpaper and plaster from the foyer.

I removed nails from all the molding and wood which had been pulled out of the house.  Eric and Trevor sorted through the wood pile claiming boards to use for their log cabin.

We did two coats of paint, ceiling and walls in Eric’s room – Barely Beige on the walls and one wall of a dark, brick or Spanish red.  Saturday night Eric slept on the coach and despite the room being finished on Sunday night the fumes were too much to have him sleep there Sunday evening. His closet is opened up and is the last item to be completed.  Yet to be completed is the painting, installation of the shelves and drawer unit and the sliding doors.

Tiger Cubs: End of the Year

Last night was the last Tiger Cubs function for the year – a pack meeting where they got their Tiger Cub badge and awards for completing chapters 4 & 5 in the Tiger Cub book.  Eric, Josh, Mitchell and Janaru acted like they just won an Olympic Marathon – they were dancing around with their arms in the air.  It was cute.

They remembered the past two meetings and told the pack leader about their nature hike (beaver chew, a white pineapple tree – no wait make that a white pine tree, minnows and skunk cabbage) and getting their picture in the newspaper.

We may attend the June 6 picnic weather permitting.

Easter Weekend

Eric had vacation on Good Friday and spent the day at Trevor’s, riding his bike and crashing into wood and brush.  Saturday Kathryn went grocery shopping and Eric went out for lunch with Molly Skelly and her boyfriend.  We largely spent the day picking up the house, moving furniture, sweeping, mopping and recovering from the construction.  Even though the walls were exposed sheet rock it was nice to get our living room back. Late in the afternoon I drained the hot tub and hooked up the warm water to Eric’s Slip & Slide.  He held Slip & Slide competitions (Speed, Distance, Stunt and Freestyle) versus imaginary competitors.  I sat in the lawn chair with a cold beverage and announced the events.

Sunday we were joined by the Barb/Joe, and the tribes of Ed and Billie Jo for Easter.  First, up was an Easter Egg hunt to recover the 74 eggs stuffed and hidden by Kathryn.  Next we enjoyed a feast of salmon, orange roasted pork loin, scalloped potatoes, salad, broccoli, and blue berry muffins followed by dessert of pies and jellyroll.  It was yummy.

We managed to get everything picked up after our guests left and crashed for the night.

April Fools Dinner

For the past 28 years we have done an April Fools Dinner.  The format is crazy attire, sloppy food, eating dessert first, and using kitchen utensils.  Below you can see our table setting; no plates or normal bowls.  Eric and Jim are properly dressed for the occasion.

First on the menu is pudding; scooped and eaten from coffee travel mugs by Eric and Kathryn .

Next is spaghetti – whatever way you can get it in your mouth.

Now why doesn’t this catch on as a National Holiday?

Tiger Cubs

Eric has been in Tiger Cubs this year.  It is the earliest year of Boy Scouts.  Right after the den started meeting, the den leader quit.  The overall coordinator asked if any of the parents would take on the role of den leader.  I declined but offered to lead for a month and/or help out in portions of meetings.  In the confusion some of the boys bolted to the Floyd den, but Mitchell, Josh, Janaru and Eric stayed.

With a small group we were able to complete all five chapters of the Tiger Cubs handbook and thus the boys will be earning all beads/badges/awards for this level.

Last night we took a nature walk along the nature trail which parallels Cincinnati Creek in Trenton Town Park.  We found and discussed thorn apple trees, white pine trees, and pussy willows.  We saw mallard ducks and red-winged blackbirds.  We looked at skunk cabbage, beaver chew and old golden rod.  We discovered last year’s bird nests and Janaru detected minnows.  After wards we made a picture frame which will contain a picture of the boys taken right before the hike.

With Little League baseball and AYSO soccer soon to start I am glad Scouting is winding down.  I had a better time doing the activities with the boys than I anticipated.  The small group size helped.