I have no words...

I'm not even sure how to present this. This Friday I was sitting in my upstairs office, in front of my laptop knocking off a few of my to-do items for work. As I sat there, I was using hand exercise grip squeezy thingy. It broke. I was horrified. I was devastated. A little background. I've had this for about 20 years. I know I got it from my brother, probably left behind when he moved out. I brought this to college with me, had it with me at my apartments and at my house. Its probably why I don't have much problem with my wrists considering how much time I spend at the computer /keyboard. I would squeeze this thing on a daily basis, while watching TV or whenever. I'm at a loss now that its broke.

So I ended up talking with my brother that morning, and I told him about the hand gripper, I assumed he would remember it seeing how it was his originally. Turns out he still had its twin (which I did not know existed), and kept it in his car. He used it frequently like me, but while sitting in traffic ect.

That brings us to later that day. Doug called me up, assured me he was very serious about what he was about to tell me... on his drive home, he pulled out his gripper exerciser to squeeze off a few. {SNAP!}

So in summary.... two brothers. One in Goffstown NH, one in Washington DC. Both using hand exercisers roughly 20 years old. One kept his in a car, with extreme range of temperatures. One kept his in a climate controlled house. On the same day, roughly 8 hours apart, both of the hand exercisers broke. And broke the exact same way. I can't think about it too much, I get the creepies. This is a picture of Doug's...

Old MacDonald Had a Farm...

Everyone who knows me, knows who my good buddy Dan is. One of his passions all his life is horses. It wasn't until the past couple years he has found a situation where he can own and be around horses. Matter of fact he bought a house that was a stones throw from the barn I'm going to introduce you to. The barn is called Live and Let Live Farm. Its a non-profit shelter for horses and a few other misc animals. You can read about all their good doings on the website. And if you are looking for a good non-profit to donate some of your excess money to, these people do a lot of good, and they always need money. Anyways.

When I go to the "Barn", I usually help feed, or clean pen's. Not any pen, only Tanks. Dan's horse. We'll meet Tank a little later. This last Saturday I was there to help feed. The horses start with usually two flecks of hay each, then a bowl of the crap pictured below. Its a mixture of beet pulp, and grain. Different horses have different requirements. I just put the food where they tell me, but this stuff is heavy and noxious.

After the feeding, had to go around and pick up all the food containers. I'm guessing there are 30ish horses there. All different sizes shapes and colors. On our way making the rounds, there was a small horse that had its lead left on. Why? No one knows. He was ok, but was just stumbling on the lead and it was a nuisance. So Dan stepped up to help the little guy out. Problem was the horse didn't want to be helped. Thankfully someone brought carrots (me) and horse love carrots. So the first picture is Dan convincing the horse to come get a carrot. The second picture was soon after when Dan got a hold of the lead. Dan doesn't take no crap from a small horse, as seen in the second picture. It looks worse in the picture than it was. The horse just fought for a second, and Dan released the lead. Everybody walked away happy and healthy.

Being a barn/farm, there are other animals around. I saw these cute little bunnies hidding out in the back of the barn in one of the stalls. Available for adoption if anyone is interested.

The bunnies neighbors were even cuter. This litter of Lab/Golden Retreiver mix puppies were sawing them off, no cares in the world. The mother was PROTECTIVE! I did get a little one on four time with the pups when they mom was out on the town. So cute. Someday. The place was a mud pit, as most places are this time of year. I'm not sure what the yellowish/green is, but being surrounded by horses and other animals I have an idea. Good thing it was my left boot that has the hole in the side. Nice legs, huh? This is Sir Thomas. Also known as a BIG horse! He is a 14 year old, 17 + hand draft Belgian gelding (according to the website). Its taken a while to be comfortable being this close to a horse, but they still are pretty intimidating. Dan and I have a joke that they are just like big dogs. Let them smell your hand, and they will let you know if they are cool with you or not. Ned! This is Ned the donkey. Huge fuzzy ears. I love fuzzy ears.
This is Tank up front. Tank is a big horse too, just not as big as Sir Thomas. Tank is Dan's horse, loves carrots and is a good horse (as far as I can tell). In the background is Captain, and 14+ year old former police horse. Tank bullies Captain around. Captain likes carrots too. Thats the pen that I'll be cleaning. I guess it hasn't been cleaned since early winter (before everything froze). Here is a better picture of me and Tank taken last March. When you lead a horse, you should always be on the left. Why? No clue. But thats a rule I learned.

Culling Time

I've decided to try my hand at growing some vegetables this year. I took two packages of seeds and put them in one tray. I went a little overboard on the number of seeds in the tray, so Saturday I had to cull some of the crop.

For those of you haven't started your seedlings, now is the time :) See you at the farm stand!

What are you looking at??

Awww....

Turkey for me, Turkey for you

These are the granddaddies of our yard. By far the largest turkeys that hang around our house. They weren't in the mood to puff up, so I'm still working on that picture.

Chicken Erika and Quiznos

This was a nice weekend. Started with a snowfall, which kinda stunk. So we were pretty much housebound for Saturday. We puttered around, I worked on the evil half of the basement, Erika worked on the nursery. Saturday night Erika made my favorite food in the WHOLE world. Chicken Erika. The picture here is from 2005, but its the same. Just a casserole with Rice, chicken broccoli, cream of mushroom and cream of chicken, and topped with crushed ritz crackers.

Then sunday came. We did errands to Target, Home Depot, and BJs. Nothing too exciting. We wrapped up our trip by stopping at Quiznos. I've always been more of a D'Angelos man myself, but I really enjoy Quiznos. The biggest problem I have with Quiznos is that they refuse to post nutritional information about their food anywhere. You can't find it on their website, in their stores ect. You can find places that estimate it, but you get nothing from the Quiznos corporation. Who does that now a days? And if you don't share your nutritional info, you must be hiding something. And the more I think about it, the more annoyed I get. I'm not the only one. I think we are done eating there. At least make a very rare occasion... wow, this post got off track... anyways, here is the picture from the very yummy, but horribly bad for you sub. It was a Peppercorn Prime Rib. (picture by Erika)

Cozy

Just a quick post. Here I am hunkered down enjoying our (hopefully) final snow storm of the year. Other than my hands, it was quite cozy. I was listening to two owls talking to each other, and turkeys way off in the distance.

Mom and Dad

Mom and Dad - Alaska 2006

Dreams VS Reality

Our house sits on the edge of about 60 acres woods that rarely has other people in it, so I affectionately call it 'my woods'. I like 'playing' in my woods. Thats what Erika calls it. 'Playing' consists of doing anything from collecting firewood, to moving dirt ect. I just like spending time out there, it gets me away from the computer and it always peaceful. Since we moved in about 5 years ago, I've been wanting a place to sit in the woods. A place to read, a place to sit and just enjoy the woods. Ideally there would be some sort of shelter. So after years of pondering, and a year sitting under a crappy tarp... this picture below is what I dreamed of. Beautiful huh?

Ok, not so fast. Here comes the reality part. Late summer of 2006 I finally decided to move forward with the plan to build something for real. Up until this point I had a big tarp strung from some trees that gave me a nice place to read when it rained, but beyond that... it wouldn't have survived the first snow fall. So I called my good buddy, jack-of-all-trades, Dan. I shared with him my dream (see above) and he was all for it. Fast forward to Oct 18th. Some might know, that is when Erika told me that she was carrying my child. As soon as that happened, plans changed a bit. To build something like the pictured above would be very costly. At least more than I was really willing to spend, especially with child on the way.... So lets just say the plans were changed a little bit...

Welcome to my reality... my harsh reality.










This is my shelter in the woods. Basically a lean-two. It sits right on the corner of my property, the opening facing North. You'll notice I still have a tarp for a roof. The roof is a spring project. In the first picture you'll see the winter configuration, with a place for a fire and fire wood. It actually gets nice and toasty in there. Second picture is looking at the corner of my property, beyond the rock wall is the oodles of woods. Turkey territory. Third picture is just another angle at the utilitarian-hut. Its very basic, but does what it is suppose to. Someday I'll have something like the picture we started with... someday....

My Girl

We've all hear the saying "A way to a man's heart is through his stomach.". Its not that I disagree with that, but I am lucky to know the way to my wifes heart. And it happens to be through her tummy... as seen here in a small sample of photos taken over the years.

Turkeys and Robins

Chances are if you've been to our house, you've seen Turkeys. Wild Turkeys are a daily occurrence around here, and not just a few, but dozens. One day a couple years ago we had over 60 turkeys in our back yard. Usually there isn't that much traffic, but we see them enough that there isn't that 'wow' factor.

Throughout the day it isn't uncommon that Erika and I will call each other just to say hi, or tell each other something that happened ect. So today I was sitting in my upstairs office and as I looked out the window I saw 9 robins sitting in one tree. I had to share such a a wonderful harbinger of spring with my wife so I called her and told her about it.

Later that day she mention how funny it is that we get excited about a few robins in tree, but seeing a large flock of wild turkeys isn't worth a call anymore.

We do love our turkeys though, we probably take them for granted. I especially enjoy watching them when they are in the woods, it just seems more natural. Here is a picture of some of our turkey friends hanging out in the woods. We had a brief blizzard this afternoon and they just hunkered down and waited it out.

Bigger is better. . . .

As exciting as this is, its almost embarrassing. The pictures speak for themselves.

Before:

After:

We've already taken it for a test nap with Dixie in tow. It was heavenly!

I'm back

Sorry about the lack of posts. I know the 4 of you who actually see my blog have been dissapointed. I'll be better...

Anyway, if you've read Erika's blog, you know a new bed is on the way for the two of us. VERY exciting. Having a consistently bad back, a new, firm but super-comfy bed can't do anything but help. Its very exciting! I got a new bed a few years ago, but it was a full size, so when Erika and I lived together after we were married (in case the kids are reading this), my full size bed was sent to the guest room, then the basement never to be seen of again.



Enough of that. This weekend we visited a place called "Lots for Tots". Its a place that has all used stuff, for very cheap prices. It was full of adorable clothing. We have been good about not buying too much clothing for the boy, because we don't know what we'll need, and it will probably be pretty rare that he'll be dressed up in cute outfits for around-the-house life.

That said:

I couldn't resist. After all, the Redsox are already down at Ft. Meyers. I just need to make sure I don't put him down in the woods when he is wearing his camo, may not be able to find him again. (The redsox outfit was $2.99!!!!!)

Check back soon, more exciting posts on the way!