Catching up still.

After Gangie headed back to Ohio, she tagged Grammy and Pop H in.  They brought Leanna with them for a quick visit the second half of this past week.  We had a lovely time chatting, shopping, walking, and holding Emmett.  The dogs gave us no end of smiles, too.

I'm not sure Grammy filled her grandkid tank, but she got some fuel in it.  Hopefully enough to get her to Greece.

Maggie cleaned the house for us, even the hard to reach places like behind the dishwasher and under the counters!  I seriously thought she was going to get stuck a couple of times.  The dogs were great.  They got along and were nice to the kid and seemed to have a pretty good time even though they weren't the center of attention.

We didn't do much eating out this time, but we did get to Ithaca Brewing Company one afternoon.  Dude's first brewery!  He didn't imbibe though.  Just hung out and enjoyed the camaraderie and the ambiance.  We ran into our friends Summer and Brian and their young one, and then Zach's family showed up!  "Figures." was all Zach had to say.  

Margaret delivered, and Erik welcomed, Wilhelmina into the world on July 12!  So cool.  Brooktondale grows.  We kept in touch by texting until Friday, when we went over to meet the new Frank.  She's about 7 lbs and looks so tiny compared to the Dude.  But look at that hair!!

On Saturday, we organized the family and headed up to Geneva at the North end of Seneca Lake to meet a guy about a bike.  It was a lovely drive and we were really intrigued by the city of Geneva.  It was very historic looking.  I assume it was a mill town and trade center when the lakes were used for transporting goods.  There are some incredible looking old mansions there and beautiful parks.  We definitely want to go back and do some exploring. 

 We decided to take advantage of being there and drove down the West side of the lake to hit FLX Wienery for lunch.  Dude's first trip to the hot dog stand! 

Dad and Dude.

Just gorgeous.

We got home later than we expected, but still managed to get some gardening done, trued the wheels on the new bike, and did a lot of feeding and changing the kid.  All in all, a nice few days.  Back to work tomorrow.

Mothers Day Weekend

These photos are from this weekend and the days leading up to it.

Dingy helped me fix the riding mower.  The nice thing about having dogs is that one is never without a helper.

 This is from Matt's last day.  My first student teacher experience was... ok.  The kids really liked him and even wrote a song and a story for him.

 Matt adopted some of my less effective practices.  Here, two students are sitting in my chair.  Instead of asking them to move out of a chair they shouldn't be in in the first place, Matt is contorted around them to work on the computer, setting up the next lesson.  Hilarious.

 Eva helped me "prune" the smallest of the apple trees.  Veneta had lots of helpful advice, too, but didn't stick around for the picture.

 We went to the Plantations and Sarah took us on a wildflower walk.

 Mom and I competed for most pictures taken.  Here a vortex opens as I take a picture of Mom taking a picture of a flower.

 Wildflowers are much too small for me, so I wondered around IDing trees.  Ash.

 Beech

 Basswood

 White Poplar

 This is the larger of the two apple trees that I pruned.

 Had to have a beer before I cut all the branches off.

 Sarah mowed the lawn while I pruned trees and weed whacked.

Jonas helped with the pruning.  Veneta gave me lots of great advice.  We had a great weekend.  I didn't take any pictures of the Migration Celebration at the Ornithology Lab and all the awesome raptors we saw, including the merlin, eagle owl, kestral, golden eagle, barred owl, great horned owl, and some crazy peregrine falcon hybrid.  We went to the Farmers Market and Hopshire Farm Brewery, too.  Had another great weekend with the moms.

New Years, or there abouts

 Saturday I helped my friend Sam move some stuff into storage.  Across the tracks, over a one lane bridge tucked away on a no name street, I found this!  Sarah and I returned later in the day to check it out.

 Inside we met Frederic Bouche who is a fourth generation vintner, and the first to move the operation stateside.  He makes just two ports.  A red and a white.  But he has a beautiful and interesting collection of artifacts from the old winery in France.  Above is a home made smugglers belt.  It would hold 18 bottles worth of moonshine.  We both were enamored by Frederic and really appreciated his time and the incredible port that he makes.  I wish we'd've taken more pictures, but I guess we'll just have to go back again.

 We took a break from running errands to have a bite to eat at the new and improved Ithaca Beer Brewery.  Sarah and I have already begun saving bottles to make a clever up-cycled decorative divider like the one they have.  Yes mom, if it works out we'll build you one, too.

 This is the patio that is going to be so fun and entertaining come spring.  There are hop plants all over out there and the beams, poles, and strings will act as an elaborate hop trellis.

 Sarah enjoyed a flight of their heavier, winter beers, and looked lovely doing it.

 We drove past Buttermilk Falls on the way home.  It is apparently hibernating.

 Ummm... Sunday(?) we went skiing.  It was a lot of fun and already better than all of last season.

 Monday we went out for a little ride.  The horses are unshod and the ground is a little precarious.  I thought we were going to call it quites, but then Sarah saw the sled.

We had a lot of fun working with Rambo.  We remembered from the lariat days that just because the rider thinks the rope is not a snake does not mean the horse thinks the rope is not a snake.  And let me tell you, a horse reacts just like you would if you came upon a 30' snake that was striking at your neck! We got to work with the rope and dallying and pulling and backing and not freaking the heck out and jumping sideways... LOTS of fun!

So as you can see, after a little bit of time, things were going well enough to add a rider to the sled!

 Here is Sarah having a go at it as well.  We started with just the sled, then added the rim for some weight, then added a rider.

 Rambo was such a good sport!  You'd never suspect he was gonna be 30 this year!

 This is Erik's kid, The Bandit.  I think he's been introduced on the blog before, but he's acting more and more like a human being.

 A pretty cute one too.  He really likes my hat and kept putting it on and running around even though it comes down over his eyes.  He didn't scream or poop much while we were over for the New Years dinner and drinks which was cool, too.

 We took a potato soup that Jennifer gave us a recipe for.  Everyone found it delicious!  Sam grilled some moist and flavorful venison and made a great cashew chili.  We also took a bottle of port that we'd picked up for the occasion.

 This is from this morning after the dogs and I went out and played in the yard and brought in some firewood.  Indy had to warm her tootsies.

 So she could go back out and play some more!

 And go for an awesome hike.

This little guy is a common redpoll!  He is at the very back of my bird book and there was a whole flock of them on the feeder that Sarah was watching.  The red spot on their crowns is brilliant!  There were eight of them on the feeder a moment before I took this picture, but you'll have to just enjoy this guy and know that he is the bravest (or hungriest) in his flock.

Looking forward to another great year.