Kathryn enrolled Scout in a dog training class. It is a good opportunity to work with the dog and get her socialized to other dogs and people.
Scout enjoys the attention and excels at sit and laying down.
Nearly finished the new back deck bridges the gap between the ipe decking tiles on the south side of the house and the garage/mud room.
It provides a very sheltered area from the wind and we moved the table and chairs to this area.
Inside work continues on the attachment. The knotty pine is being modified to 1/2 height with a chair rail. A frosted glass pocket door is being installed in place of the curtain. Hopefully, the frosted glass will provide light, but some privacy from viewing all the way down the hall. Linoleum is being installed within the attachment. The bathroom is on the immediate left with the laundry next on the left across from the large closet.
We shipped Eric off to school today. He took it well.
Yesterday his buddy Trevor was over in the afternoon while his mom, Ellen, took his younger sister to an kindergarten open house. Kathryn said she heard this exchange: The cynical third-graders Eric and his friend Trevor, commenting on Trevor’s sister’s kindergarten orientation today:
“Those kids are so excited about going into kindergarten…”[a sad but wise shake of the head], they just don’t know!” “Yeah and then by the time you get to third grade it’s too much work!” [said most emphatically].
Thursday night all the AYSO soccer coaches met at the HP Library for discussion and to pick our teams. I am an assistant coach working with Doug Wynne this year. Our U10 boys team has 13 kids. This year they play 7 v 7 with a goalie.
Friday I worked. We got the lawn mowed and I worked in the garden. I cleared out the pole beans and picked tomatoes. The tomatoes have continued to produce and we are getting overwhelmed with cherry tomatoes. We have 4-5 decent sized pumpkins, a dozen or more acorn squash.
Saturday was hot and humid. I moved dirt fill from the pasture to the north side of the new attachment as settling had occurred. We ran to the HP Farmer’s Market and bought corn, eggs, plums and raspberries. We made a connection with Jennifer Romer to acquire meat chickens for our freezer. At Turner Lumber we bought lattice for under our back deck and materials for the 12’ x 12’ tent platform to be built at Cookout Corner: 8” concrete blocks, deck hangers and nails.
Kathryn picked elderberries and made several jars of elderberry tonic: elderberry juice, honey and brandy.
In the afternoon I pulled nails from the rest of the 12’ 2”x8” which will form the joists for the tent platform. Kathryn worked on cleaning out the attic and organizing the upstairs family room.
Saturday night Kathryn, Eric and I went to Pizza Hut in North Utica. It was a night of violent thunderstorms to the south of Utica including a tornado which crossed over the NYS Thruway. Service was slow and we played pitch while we waited for our chicken wings and pepperoni pizza.
Sunday was hot and humid. I awoke early again and watched TV. As Eric and Kathryn awoke we watched the Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole and ate leftover pizza for breakfast. Eric and I installed our old wooden steps pond side. Eric helped install the left over decking slabs under the dog fence to keep the pipes from rusting. In the afternoon Kathryn was trimming our bushes on the west side of the house and was stung by several ground bees. She shed her shoes and shorts and came running in the house to shower and apply vinegar. Simultaneously our neighbor Gary drove in to discuss running drainage tile into our pasture and digging a small ‘duck pond’ in the SE corner of the pasture.
Monday it rained all day and Eric had his buddy Jack over to play. They have used the pool, despite the cooling temperatures. When we set it up in July we were concerned it collapsing due to the bulging, but it has worked out well.
I read Game of Thrones; the first in the series of Fire and Ice by George RR Martin.
We squeezed in one last trip with the pop up camper this weekend. In total we got out with it on five occasions:
We left Friday noon and planned to stay through Sunday, depending on what Hurricane Irene did.
We had nice weather on Friday afternoon and Saturday. Eric and Trevor rode bikes with other kids from the campground and went swimming. One of the games was tag where Eric and Trevor tried to sneak up on the adult reading on the beach. It involved commando type tactics and getting really sandy.
Fortunately a quick plunge back in the the water removes most of the sand.
Everyone likes to play Red Rover, Red Rover.
We cooked over the fire and Kathryn made her Dutch Oven lasagna. Kathryn doubted Trevor’s ability to eat three helpings saying “If you manage to eat all that I will tap dance on the table!”. Below Trevor takes the final spoonful.
Kathryn pays off her bet by tap dancing on the table.
Listening to the weather band radio caused us to pack up on Saturday night and leave at 8pm so we didn’t have to pack and drive in the wind and rain on Sunday morning. Even though it did not turn out to be such a violent storm in that neck of the woods at least we didn’t have to pack up in the rain on Sunday. About all we missed was the fun of sleeping in the camper! The boys were disappointed but we stopped at Mercer’s on the way home — ice cream takes care of a lot of tears!
Although everyone was sad to break off the camping trip early it proved to be a wise decision as the rains started around 3am Sunday morning.
This weekend we did a little fishing.
Catching some not very big sunfish.
Not very big…..
Sunday night we went fishing in our pond. Eric caught a good size catfish but he wasn’t too sure about getting close to it.
Last night the Volley Llamas won the Adirondack Lanes Wednesday night Volleyball Championship. After finishing 2nd in the nine team league during the regular season the Volley Llamas won three matches:
After losing the 1st game to Hakuna Matata 25-20 the Volley Llamas carried small leads through the next two games to win. Part of our playoff strategy was to play four men and rotate additional female setters to avoid fatigue. We played our best games at the right time. We played an excellent defensive game as I cannot recall us giving them points by hitting the ball out of bounds or serving out.
The team photo below was taken earlier in the summer. Front Row: JoAnn, BillieJo, Kathryn 1. Back Row: Jayson, Ron, Rich and Jim. Not shown is Margaret.
The night of the banquet we got our t-shirts and Ron, JoAnn, Jim Kathryn, Rich and Margaret were in attendance.
I think we have gone camping every weekend since Billie Jo’s wedding so this weekend I stayed home. However, Saturday Kathryn took Eric, Ed and Izzabella to the Renaissance Faire in Sterling.
Eric participated in archery, went through the maze with Ed and Bella and won an prize by climbing the rope ladder and ringing the bell at the top of the climb.
I stayed home and mowed my pasture. I didn’t get it all mowed earlier this summer so some of it was very thick and required slow going. It wasn’t a bad thing just to be home and sitting on a tractor.
My garden is doing OK. Acorn squash are threatening to overtake everything. Tomatoes are coming on – I am getting 6 or 8 medium sized tomatoes every 3 days. Yesterday I picked several cucumbers and we have lots of green beans. There are 4-5 pumpkins turning orange and lots of volunteer gourds.
We are getting rain this AM, fortunately they got roofing shingles from C&D Staten Island Roofing on the garage and addition last week and so I am hopeful they will be able to continue working today. At least everything inside isn’t getting wet.
When I left this AM they were working on a roof for the front porch (facing the road) and tacking trim on the eaves. Maybe they will do more siding. We are waiting on delivery of windows, doors and the shower/tub unit.
Kathryn, her friend Jean Krager, Eric and Dakota left with the pop up camper to go to Sturbridge Village for a a couple days. Driving over today, maybe visiting the village this afternoon and tomorrow and returning home on Wed AM. We are lucky the pop-up is small and easy enough that Kathryn feels comfortable taking it places. She is pretty good about backing it into sites, too.
Wed night and Thursday night we have our volleyball playoffs – then our summer volleyball is done. Our Volley Llamas team finished the regular season 2nd in the Wednesday nine team “recreational” league. Kathryn and I played with a different group on Thursday nights. Our Sand Fleas team finished 4th in the more competitive Thursdays. I will miss it, but appreciate having the extra couple of nights available.
On Tuesday the crane arrived and lifted the trusses into place over the garage. The end truss and wall for the south were the first to go up.
Eric and Trevor watch as the last truss (and northern wall) go up to be nailed into place.
Eric shows off his back flip into the pool. He has used the pool a lot.
