Building a fence

Our grand plan for our home includes a two story deck with hot tub, a pool and a privacy fence to enclose the pool. On the pay as you go plan the fence is coming before the pool. We are also wanting a place to enclose Caelun. We think of it as a big white baby cage. We bought enough fence to enclose the two street sides of our yard and installed it right after Clint's birthday. We have a few sections left but the siding came in and that took priority.

The first post

Our little helper

Bob holds the post while Clint shovels concrete

Caelun helps with his shovel

Bob "baby wrangles" So Clint and I can both work

Our big helper digs while Clint levels the post

Abbi is a big help

Lunch break

Almost past the tree

Clint takes a break after we turn the corner

From the front

Yea we have a enclosed baby cage!

Clints's Birthday

July 6th brought Clint's birthday. Being that it wasn't during school or during Mandy's wedding (Abby's) we were able to have a relaxed time. My folks brought over a cake and Subway sandwiches, and our neighbors Jerry and Amy Hall joined us, as did our long time friend Dawn Landis. Some of you will remember her as the maid of honor at our wedding. It was a nice relaxing day. Grandma Amy pushes Caelun on his newly installed swing,

while Jerry and Clint look at the Menards flyer for siding.

Amy, Clint, Dawn, Bob, and Jerry get ready to eat.
A cake for the construction man in my life.
Clint opens his cards while Del, Amy, and Dawn watch.
Caelun shows off his walking to Aunt Dawn.
Hi grandpa!
Yummy frosting!

Garden Helper

Caelun is definitely our outside boy. He loves the garden and even more he loves water. If I want to work in the garden and I want him to stay put, all I have to do is turn the hose on a trickle and he will play endlessly. I of course have to be prepared to change his clothes and give him a bath when I am done but all in all not a bad trade. In this case I got double duty- the roses got watered and Caelun was entertained. The large hot pink rose is one of Clint's two William Baffin roses we moved from Traverse City. When we moved them they were three feet tall. This by the way was quite the adventure since we moved them in my Ford Escort hatchback. We moved them with the trellis and they are now six and a half feet tall and the growing season isn't over. Bless our chocolate cake dirt.

Fourth Of July

Okay so I am a bit behind on the posts. We didn't do much for the Fourth this year. Abby was with her mom, so Clint and I took Caelun to see the fireworks the next town over at Sand Lake. The new camera hadn't arrived yet so the pictures of the fire works are kind of lame. Caelun enjoyed it. The best view is from dad's shoulders.

Vacation part IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, & XI

So I am going to finish up our ten day vacation with one big blog because I have lots to post about since we have gotten home and I am tired of thinking about all of the pictures I lost. Clint and I went back to using our old digital camera and after using the Panasonic it was really difficult. No word from the police. There were eleven petty larcenies in our little burg. We went on e-bay (blessings for e-bay) and bought the exact same camera- minus the vacation pictures. It came in the mail on Wednesday and yeah! I was surprised how much Clint missed it since the picture taking thing is really more of my hobby. So here is the vacation round up:

Part IV- the marble museum. VT and NH are known for their quarries. They use slate, marble and granite like we use concrete. We bought two grill stones for the grill, salt and pepper shakers, Clint got a business card holder for his desk, and Abby got a worry stone, and I got a rolling pin. The stone was unbelievably cheap compared to the prices here. We are considering bringing some home for the kitchen counters on our next vacation. Even with the increased gas prices it would be a deal. They had a box of scraps you can rummage through and take a free piece. Abby got a beautiful piece of white marble, i am not sure what it's intended purpose is yet. Clint got a piece of green marble to be used as a trivet, and I got a large flat thin piece- now three pieces for stepping stones under our rose arbor. Part V- Abby's Aunt Kris and Uncle Brian's. Abby has an aunt and uncle on her mom's side that live in NH. They have nine children so she has lots of cousins. They graciously invited us for the afternoon and dinner. Lucky for us Kris also keeps a blog and she took and posted pictures. http://yankee-mom.blogspot.com/ She posted pictures from our trip last year as well. If you click on relatives you can find that post also.

Part VI- VT Wildflower Farm "The seediest place in VT". We left Killington and headed to Burlington where we went to the The VT Wildflower Farm. Caelun slept in his stroller while Abby found a shady spot and read a book. Clint and I walked around and looked at the flowers. We came back from our walk inspired and bought lots of seeds. We will keep you posted as to their progress.

Part VII-Echo Aquarium and Science Center on Lake Champlain. I can not recommend this place enough. We spent an entire day here and there is something for kids of all ages. Both Caelun and Abby absolutely loved it. It is very interactive. I took some wonderful pictures but alas I can only show you what I found on the web. We enjoyed Lake Champlain very much but it is very small for a Great Lake. We were surprised that you could see across it. When we were discussing this several of the locals chimed in that they didn't realize how big the other Great Lakes are. Clint used a reference that worked pretty well. He told them that you could float VT in Lake MI and you can float VT and NH in Lake Superior.

Part VIII-Horsford's Nursery. Clint and I really enjoyed this. The kids hung out on a hammock while Clint and I looked for plants we can't readily find in MI. We came home with a couple which actually made getting back into the country from Canada a bit interesting. We had to produce receipts, and swear they came from VT not Canada. We also came home with a catalog the size of a phone book.

Part IX the ferry. We took a ferry across Lake Champlain from VT to NY. It took twelve minutes, and you never loose sight of land. It was cool but not like taking the Badger across Lake Michigan to WI. Clint hadn't done the ferry thing before so it was particularly interesting for him.

Part X NY. We drove through NY and got to see the Adirondack Mountains. We stopped and looked at waterfalls and John Brown's grave which is outside Lake Placid. The grave is located on his farm and the buildings have been preserved. The historical significance was well documented. Abby was nonplussed, Caelun slept, but Rover found it interesting.

Part XI Uncle Lee's and my cousin Stephanie's open house. After leaving NY we headed back to MI stopping off at Flint for my cousin Stephanie's college open house. She just graduated from UofM. We stayed with Uncle Lee in his wonderful five thousand square foot house. Abby had the third floor secret room behind the swing out book shelf all to her self. Lee gave Clint and I the master suite. Talk about five star accommodations and it even happened to be our anniversary. The next day we headed back to our wonderful little burg. It is great to go on vacation and travel and it is also wonderful to come home.

Vacation part III- Billings Farm

Located in Woodstock VT is the Billings Farm and Museum. It is a working dairy farm, with Percheron horses, chickens, and sheep. This was a real highlight for the kids. The cows, horses, and chickens are are available to be petted. Abby REALLY dug this. I wish I could show you the pictures. She almost forgot to run away from me taking her picture. I did see some irony that we drove 800 miles and paid admission so the kids could pet a cow. One of my dear garden club buddies is married to a third generation dairy farmer and they live about four miles from us. I said to Clint, "Aren't you glad we came all the way to VT so the kids could pet a cow?" he responded "yes honey because those cows have mountains behind them." True true. The scene was truly bucolic. The people working at the farm were just wonderful. They told stories and answered every question we could possibly come up with. The animals were as friendly as house pets. The museum was like walking though my dad's barn and garage. Dad, they have your corn planter on display in a case. The best part for Clint and I was the 1890's Gothic farm house. We thought we had the siding color all picked out for our 1820's Gothic farm house and this made us reconsider. Actually we went and bought siding yesterday- I will keep you in suspense until it gets here.

Moo

Big rear-ends- Percherons

More rear ends- it's milking time.
They milk Guernseys.

The Gothic farm house that inspired us.

Vacation part II- Woodstock VT

Our next stop was Rutland/Killington VT. As most of you know Clint lived in New England- NH to be specific- right after he graduated from MSU. Every so often when he gets bogged down in the craziness of life he wants to in his words,"Go look at a mountain and be reminded that anything difficult I have going on is pretty insignificant." We took a vacation out there last year at his suggestion and I fell in love with it. We went back to the same hotel we stayed at last year- same room even. It is an efficiency with a full kitchen and I mean full right down to the dishes and the silverware. We got a particularly good deal because it is a ski lodge. June isn't exactly prime ski season so the rate was really good. After the difficult school year with the "broken baby", writing new curriculum with out a text book, teaching an over load due to his friend and colleague passing away from cancer, one of his students being critically injured in a car accident, oh yeah and there was that whole first year teacher thing, Clint really needed that mountain. The only difficult part for the rest of our vacation entries is our van was burglarized the night we got home. My camera with the SD card containing all of the pictures post Niagara Falls was on it. My purse, my cell phone, the kids portable DVD player and a case with lots of DVD's were also taken. Our neighbors have all apologized for not being awake in the middle of the night and catching the culprits. We have a wonderful neighborhood. The police seem optimistic that we might get the stuff back. Apparently they have some suspects. We shall see. The pictures are the worst part. Everything else is just stuff. Thanks to the miracle of the internet I can give you a glimpse. Clint and I really enjoyed the architecture. Owning a house from the period of many of the houses in Woodstock gave us inspiration. I can't show you Caelun and Abby on the covered bridge, but pictures of the bridge exist. Use your imagination.

The first day in VT we just hung out mostly. We went to the town of Woodstock a few miles from Killington. This is a town that the Rockafeller family vacationed in and patronized. Clint and I went to look at the old houses and be inspired.
We spent some time hanging out on and walking across this bridge on Mountain Road. There is no metal in it anywhere- not even nails. Neat stuff. This link is a slide show of some of the buildings in Woodstock. It is late fall in the slide show, so imagine the trees full of green leaves- and you will see what we saw.

An Autumn Walk in Woodstock Vermont, Wide Angle