One project that I do want to comment on is the new ramp that Ben nearly single-handedly built behind the house!  With Mark’s help and instruction, Ben not only built a wooden ramp which is longer than the old temporary one, but he also mixed and poured twenty-two bags of cement to form a beautiful sidewalk at the end of the ramp!

I honestly think a better job could not have been done.  Ben is very shy about me sharing about this project, but to see him mix one eighty pound bag of mix after another, then pour it and begin again was incredible!  I think most men would have been slowing down after ten bags, but Ben just kept right on going!

Our weather has been very strange this winter. While the Old Farmer’s Almanac predicted a colder and snowier winter than usual, we have had precious little snow and the temperatures have been mild.  We are supposed to be getting some snow over the next few days and I will welcome it!  The warmer temperatures we have had, along with the rain, have made me feel so chilly!  Better freezing temperatures with snow than warmer temperatures with rain and drizzle!  The dampness seems to get into one’s bones!

We are missing riding the snowmobiles this year.  Last year, we were able to have had several outings by this time, but with no snow, it has been impossible.  There was some snow up on Tug Hill, but Mark read accounts where the warm temps made nasty riding conditions with puddles. Yuck!

I have been in cleaning mode the past couple of weeks, wanting to thin out stuff we don’t want/need.  It is crazy how stuff piles up on us while we aren’t paying attention!  Michelle has been feeling the need to discard old junk as well.  We need to make a trip to one of the Salvation Army Stores soon!  I think this is the closest I come to making a New Year’s resolution.  I have just become restless looking at all the stuff that has been building up over the years.  We even have things from Mark’s dad who passed away seven years ago this month!

How about you?  Have you made any resolutions?  Do you usually stick with them, or do they fall be the wayside?

Murphy has always been a bit on the “camera-shy” side….leaving all the glory and glamour of photography to his older “brother”.  Well, since Angus has been gone, things seem to be subtly.  Murphy now takes his place in a more prominent area most of the time, rather than hiding in some silly submissive mode!  And, on the day these photos were taken,  I think he was actually enjoying having the attention.

Here are my most favorite photos of my little Murphy.

And so, on this November Autumn day when the temperature has been warm enough to be unusual,  and the sunshine was poured out so wonderfully,  I am so thankful we have our Murphy.  It is so tough saying good-bye to Angus, but having Murphy does take a bit of the sting away….

I thought about this for awhile, then told him he ought to contact the Mennonite company that builds and sells lots of sheds in our area. He agreed this might be a good lead, so he called.  The nice girl on the line answered a couple of questions, then said she needed to talk to one of the guys that works there when Mark asked about trusses.  She came back with a business name and telephone number for Mark of the guy who builds their trusses.

Mark dialed the number and I sat in the room with him.  As the man spoke, Mark said he sounded like….but I couldn’t hear who he thought the guy sounded like.  As I listened, I thought he sounded like the guy who we hired to add the large addition to our garage in 2005.   The funny thing is, it was him!  Apparently, he is no longer doing building, but is now building trusses!

When the fellow asked for Mark’s name and telephone number, he said he did some work for him several years ago….Yup! It really was him.

I took a few photos of Murphy today with my little camera.  He went for a walk with Ben and I up in the woods and was so cute!  He must have picked up a zillion leaves in his “skirt”!  He also had them dangling off his nose.  We had taken along some treats for the wee one and he posed so nicely for the camera!  Problem is, the camera isn’t here at the moment, so perhaps I will post the photos tomorrow.

Today I am thankful for the beauty that surrounds us! God has given us such an incredible world, filled with so many blessings.  Today was a fantastic day full of sunshine and warm temperatures. It is hard to actually believe it is November!

Last Sunday, we had planned to take a little trip as Michelle begins college soon.  Tomorrow soon!  Yes, tomorrow is Labor Day and the United States of America rests and pays tribute to its laborers.  However, Rochester Institute of Technology begins their fall classes on Labor Day!  One of life’s mysteries, I guess….

But I digress.

Michelle went with her boyfriend, Jacob, to his church picnic last Sunday at the county park located just a couple of miles from our house.  She came home early at four,  and off we went on our little adventure. 

We drove to Allegany State Park where we stayed until Friday. Although we had planned to relax, we were busy every day! It was very nice, though! The weird thing in all this is that I really didn’t take many photos.  This was our little niche in the world from Sunday night until Friday noon.

I always end up chuckling about us spending time at campgrounds because of the fact that we live in the woods.  Most of the folks I have met at campgrounds are city dwellers who are so appreciative of the fact that they can escape to the sanity of a less stressed and hurried lifestyle, only if it is for a couple of days sometimes!

On Monday, we explored the park a bit.  Ben remembered how we visited Thunder Rocks this past winter on the snowmobiles and he wanted to return to see them now.  I am not sure we have rock formations like this around our area, so I forget how massive they are until we visit them again! (Hoping you don’t mind seeing our kids over and over!)

Fly Tweetie, fly!

After our stop at Thunder Rocks,  we passed by Science Lake.  Not sure how the lake came to have that name, but it sure is pretty. There were a couple of young men fishing there….the lake has trout in it. Please forgive so many photos…I could not choose which to show.  As you can see, this was a day of perfection, weatherwise!  It could not have been a nicer day!

Science lake is a manmade lake, thus it has a spillway to keep it from getting unruly!  That was quite a drop!

After visiting Science Lake, we were on to see the bear caves.  Yes!  There are many black bears living in the park, although I saw n’ary a one. Drat!  I would love to have some bear photos.  There is an area where campers take their trash that is filled with several dumpsters.  The area is surrounded by electric fencing to discourage said bears from pillaging!

I remember as a child seeing bears at a dump area of the park.  People would drive there in cars and throw food from their windows to feed the bears!  Yeah, hard to believe. 

That little hike to the bear caves was pretty strenuous for this “picture-taker”!  I was getting tired! We had to take out Little Bear (Angus) along for the walk, as Mark refers to him as a bear cub!  He enjoyed the cruise through the woods, too.

On Tuesday, we went to visit with my family.  It was another beautiful day and we really enjoyed the time spent together until dusk when the mosquitoes came out for their bloodlust fest!  These days were so much fun, but passed by much too rapidly….

Front: Mom, Dad, Mark, me and Fritzie   Rear:Randy, Ben, Michelle

Ben and I decided to take a little kayak adventure this morning.  Instead of just paddling along on the lake,  we decided to head on down the river.

As we passed by the Eagle tree,  we looked, but no Eagles to be seen. I did find this little bird seeking food while sitting on lily pads rather amusing!

The little bugger actually placed the lily pad in its mouth and picked it up, looking underneath for food!

We paddled out into the lake and turned into the river. There sure was a lot to be seen there.

Ben called out to me about a Great Blue Heron ahead.  He hung back while I paddled ahead, hoping to get close enough for a good shot.  Well….

That bugger lifted off! As Iwas photographing it,  I heard the strangest noise…Refusing to lower the camera, it was only after I had finished that Irealized the dreadful sound was the Heron!  Wow, could that thing make noise!

We passed by so many, many turtles! They seemed to be “hanging” off every floating thing in the water!  Some were very shy,  immediately going overboard as soon as the kayaks approached,  while others held their ground,  seemingly undaunted by me and the camera!

As we paddled along,  it began to grow hotter and hotter!  The hat on my head had to be removed as I thought I was going to explode from the heat!

We passed by some pretty awesome “still life’s”.

We had a good time, but as the heat increased,  I was anxious to get out of the water and to remove my life vest.  We paddled some more and even though we weren’t exactly sure we were on the right path, Ben assured me he was 85% sure.  Not that the 15% worried me….too much! 

As we moved along, the green algae increased.  I made a comment that it felt more like we were in a Louisianna bayou than the river and Ben smiled….he had the very same thought!  As we approached the launch where Mark agreed to pick us up,  we needed to paddle down a fairly short “corridor” of waterway.  We moved along at a pretty good clip..the algae was so thick, I can only liken it to porridge!  The stench was enough to propell the paddles at a nice rapid pace!

All in all, the scenery was lovely, but we shan’t repeat this adventure until some of the “green” disappears!

to post some more pictures yesterday, but oh my, what a day!

The photo above is one I took walking along the boat lauch in Penn Yan and if you click to enlarge it,  it really is a cool picture…it looks dreamy…surreal! It was taken late in the day.  Which reminds me…

As I was walking to the place where I took this photo,  I passed a Mennonite man and woman sitting in folding chairs.  They looked like they were relaxing as their kids (I think there were maybe four youngsters) were fishing!  There were two or three nice looking tackle boxes sitting by the parents..the tops were open and they looked like they were full of all sorts of fishing goodies!  The mom gave me a great big friendly “Hi!” as I passed by.  What a great way to spend a Sunday summer evening!  The kids were so excited and as I walked away, one of the boys came with his pole to show Mom and Dad the “sunny” he caught! Wish I would have taken some photos of this family.  I know they would have given me permission, too, as Mom had her camera sitting in her lap!

Yesterday was quite a contrast to a relaxing Sunday, believe me! 

Ben woke up and asked if we would take him to the doctor.  His ear was so sore, he said it was beginning to hurt to eat.  Well, taking a child to the doctor is usually no problem,  but Mark’s insurance just changed….and not for the better, I can assure you!  Mark called the insurance company, trying to decipher how the new insurance will work.  After that call, he needed to talk to the (separate! ARGH!!!)  company that covers prescriptions.

Mark called Ben’s regular doctor…the pediatrician he has seen since birth.  Well, they could get Ben in at 4:15, but Ben was hurting, so we hoped to find something sooner.  Mark made a few calls, thinking perhaps we could find a doctor in Canandaigua.  The pediatrician is near Rochester which is about 40 miles from our house.  Finally, someone Mark called suggested we take Ben to Urgent Care.  Mark called the center and they said it was really quiet…if we came quickly, it might be only a 45 minute wait.  We usually end up waiting half an hour or so at the pediatrician, so we decided to try this instead.

As we drove to Urgent Care, Ben said he could hardly even hear out of the ear that hurt.  We got there and sat down.  They took Mark’s insurance information and in ten minutes!!!!!, Ben was called in.  He actually saw a physician’s assistant who said he has something similar to swimmer’s ear.  The ear drum looked good…the canal was swollen. He was given antibiotic drops as well as a steroid/anesthetic drop to use.  I think Ben felt better after hearing this was a pretty common thing.

We then went to WalMart’s pharmacy to get the prescription filled. Yikes! Ben felt so bad, he stayed in the truck, waiting. (and sleeping)  It was 82 degrees and I worried about him in the heat!  It took nearly an hour before the presciption was filled.  We finally were on our way back home.  This little adventure had us gone for about three and a half hours….if we had gone to Rochester, I cannot imagine how long that would have taken!

When we got home, we found out that the router for our computers died!  Mark talked to a guy at Time Warner because somehow that service got goofed up.  The guy told Mark we were fortunate to have gotten four or five years of service from our router since they usually only last about two or three years!

So…this post comes to you through the cell phone used as an incredibly SLOW modem!  To upload the photo above “only” took about five minutes!!!

As soon as we pick up a new router,  I will post some more photos.  We have a dentist appointment this afternoon, so I don’t imagine we will be up and running again until this evening! Ah, the technological blues….

I wanted to go kayaking yesterday, but the kids had friends over for a few hours.  The kids stayed until after six, so Iwas bummed.  I really wanted to get back out on the water.  Living within five miles of the boat launch makes me antsy! Ben must have taken compassion on me and decided to go out with me.

We arrived down at the lake and I brought along the Nikon D-80 with a (cheap) 70-300mm lens. (And I did  make sure the SD card was IN the camera!) As soon as we pulled into the parking lot, I got so excited!  One of my Eagle friends was perched in “the” tree at the south end of the lake! Needless to say, I was off and paddling in a hurry with the camera sitting on my lap!

Here are photos from last night…

The Eagle opens its wings and pants to cool off!

As you can see, the water was so still and it was awesome going out late in the day.  Who would have known? We weren’t out too long….not much more than an hour, but oh, what agreat outing this was!

Mark used the monitor after doing several of the sequences and it said that one of the codes had not cleared.  Mark called the garage he generally goes to and asked about the codes.  The manager of the store insisted that any vehicle the age of our truck must pass ALL of the codes.  So, Mark called another garage where he was told one code not read would be okay.  The Chevy garage agreed with the second evaluation. 

Frustrated beyond his limits,  Mark called Albany to speak to someone in the DMV.  He was connected to a rather stern sounding man who had quite the sense of humor!  Mark asked him the same question and he said right away that one code not read is fine and dandy.  Mark asked if he was sure and he insisted his job is instructing garages in the state as to the laws.  He also told Mark all of the information is no secret….it is all published online!

Armed with this latest round of information,  Mark made an appointment with the first garage. (with the wrong info)  The only reason he went there is because the store located a few miles away was booked solid until Friday.  So, off we went, hoping the monitor that Mark had was correct in its reading. 

We waited in that store for well over an hour and then the manager came out with the paperwork, showing Mark that “no codes” came up.  Well, isn’t that something?  Mark didn’t say a word, as the manager was pleased as punch that he knew everything there was to know!  Unfortunately,  the state software doesn’t tell if one code is unread…it is only a pass/fail reading.  The manager is unaware of this. Mark tested the codes immediately after the inspection and sure enough, one code still is not being read.  The man at the DMV said the code that isn’t reading is a stubborn one as it is temperature sensitive.  Our weather has been pretty cold, so this code is hard to get a reading.

Afterwards,  I went grocery shopping for the first time in about three weeks.  It was nice to be able to shop without having Mark and the kids getting the things we need. 

After putting the groceries away late this afternoon,  I saw a flock of turkeys out back.  I raced up and grabbed the camera…

As you can see, these birds really blend right in with their habitat!

After they left, I wondered if they left any big footprints in the snow.  I walked up to where they were.  They had scratched all over, looking for food!

Although my feet are not “big”, they certainly are not “tiny”!  Look at the size of that footprint to the right of my boot!

As I walked back down the hill toward the house, I smiled as I came upon this….

One of those birds had dirty feet and left behind some handy dandy markers….follow the arrows to the wild turkeys!

I didn’t get much accomplished today, although I did do many things!  I am tired of doing menial things…Mark had recorded several episodes of Sarah Palin’s Alaska and I think seeing the beautiful Alaskan countryside is just making me even more antsy! One of the episodes involved traveling by helicopter to a glacier where a fellow resides with his team of sled dogs! Let me tell you, it was fascinating!  Having visited Alaska,  I can assure you there simply is no place like it on earth.  Unique. Beautiful. And very enticing!

On top of seeing these television broadcasts,  Michelle and Ben were friends with a family who moved from Middlesex to Alaska a couple of summers ago.  I have been reading a bit about their adventures and that is even more of a draw.  As you know, I am not afraid of cold or winter or wintry weather.  Every time I see or hear about Alaska, my heart does a little *ping*!  Oh, it would be so lovely to return there again.

This morning, after shoveling through about eight inches of snow in front of the garage, I came into the house and flopped down on the bed to relax and put my feet up for a few minutes.  I had just flopped when Ben came running into the house and yelled, Mom come quickly!  Too tired (and perhaps a bit too engrossed in a word game) I questioned Ben what he wanted.  He told me there were hundreds and hundreds of geese flying overhead.  I smiled.  Perhaps my love of all things outdoors was having an effect on my kids?

Well, it is back to the blahs.  We do have to drive Mark’s mom to the doctor tomorrow for an appointment.  We have not been to Rochester in what seems like forever.  Tomorrow will be a busy day and that is fine with me!

Once again, one of the day’s highlights was the Buffalo Sabres beating the Minnesota Wild this evening. It was a nailbiting game, but we pulled through and won!  Way to go, Sabres!  I know they must have been tired after yesterday’s afternoon game, then flying to Minnesota.

I am going to show just a few photos of Ben’s room.  He has been busy working on it and it really does look pretty classy!

The lamp on the shelf to the right was a gift I found for the new room at The Hobby Lobby.  I love the gold color, but was not sure Ben would.  He says he does like it though. You can see his new headboard and the futon below his loft bed.  He has a “railing” he is going to install on the bed that is unusual but pretty clever.  We’ll have to wait for that, though.

These pictures aren’t the greatest as we took them tonight with flash. But, you can get the idea! Ben decided he did not want to use his closet space as closet space!  Instead, he moved his guitar, bass, and two amps into the area.  It does look pretty cool.

The last photo is of the headboard Mark and Ben built together.  It really is a nice touch to the loft bed.

There is still more work to be done and we need to find furniture that will fit nicely an not emphasize the “postage stamp” size room.   In the meantime, everything is coming together so nicely.  Good job, Ben!