Jilly and Lupin

Jilly and Lupin are our dogs.

Jilly is blue merle Australian Shepherd that we rescued from the Delaware Humane Association in June 2009.  I peeked at her file and saw that she was traken from a puppy mill for abuse.  When we got her she was 5 months old. 

Jilly now weighs about 55lbs and is very healthy except for skin allergies that seem to be responding to daily fish oil pills.  She is very emergetic, loves to fetch and play tug of war.  She craves attention and food( we think she was starved at the puppymill since she was very underweight when we got her.





Lupin is a black and white bordercollie/sheltie? mix that we rescued from the Delaware County SPCA in September of 2010.  According to his file he was found wandering on the street with another border collie mix. 

At the shelter he was covered with fleas and desperately needed a bath. The SPCA took care of his fleas and neutered him.  He has a really sweet personality. 

Lupin loves to spin in circles when he walks.  He also wags his tail in a circle.  Running is his favorite thing.  Both dogs get along well and like to play together.  Jilly is the boss, and often has Lupin grooming her coat and ears.

Homemade Pasta

For Christmas, I was given a pasta attachment for my Kitchen Aide mixer.

I was so excited; I couldn't wait to try it out!  Frances and I made homedmade spaghetti for Christmas dinner.

The first batch of dough was a little bit dry and crumbly but we were able to make it work with delicious results.

Later in the week, I made lasagna from scratch.  First, I roasted tomoatoes, onions, red peppers, garlic and oregnao in the i=oven. 

Then I pureed the roasted veggies and added ground meat.

I made the pasta into sheets and quick boiled to tender.

Finally I assembeled the lasagna and baked.  Yummmmmm!

Nutcracker 2012

Nutcracker as performed by the Parkside Performing Arts Company
December 2012 at the Ridley Community Center

This is our final Nutcracker year since Grace is a senior.  She will dance as the Snow Queen, a Party Guest and as a member of the Corps of Flowers.  Henry finally agreed to join his sister on stag as a Party Guest in Act I.

Grace and her friend, Ryan, were the proud "parents" of Henry and Avery in Act I.

Grace was a beautiful Snow Queen!  Her Italian fortes were perfect!  The best part is when it starts to snow!

Fishing at Pine Flats

For Henry's seventh birthday this year, Grandmom promised him a fishing trip to Pine Flats in the Pocono Mts.  She was also taking Henry's two cousins, Jason and Lucas.


  Meg and I went along as well.  Henry and I drove to meet the others at a Wendy's in Wind Gap for dinner.  We arrived at the cabin in the evening and tried to head to bed at a decent time.  Grandmom woke us up before dawn because "That is when the fish are biting!" We gathered the fishing gear along with the required hot chocolate and doughnuts.  I was tasked with running to the Pickeral Inn for blood worms and mealworms.  When I fianlly arived at the dock, the boys were using salmon eggs and all were getting bites.  Henry reeled in the first fish - a blue gill.  We were practicing catch and release fishing.  Grandmom made the boys fish for awhile before breaking out the hot chocolate and doughnuts.  After a few hours we moved upstream above the beaver dam to try a new fishing hole.  Everyone was able to land a fish - mostly sunnies or bluegill with a perch or two. Henry caught the most.  Henry had a fabulous weekend with his Grandmom, cousins and Aunt Meg (who drove him home in her F150 - a true highlight!).

Halloween 2012

Halloween was strange this year.  Since we had had no school on the days leading up to the 31st due to the hurricane, there was no build up or anticipation.  I woke Henry up on Halloween morning and I had to remind him of the day.  His school was planning a parade in the afternoon and class parties.  We received a call the day before to let the parents know that school was on as well as the parties but the parade was conditional based on the weather.  I sent his costume to school with Henry and planned to go in at 1:45 for the party.  The weather was dreary all day with occasioal sprinkles.  Luckily the parade went off as scheduled.  It was very chilly and windy, but we got to see all the costumes.



 Henry was a Mummy.

Several local townships and the entire state of NJ had rescheculed Trick-or-treating for later in the week.  Our town had few trees and wires down and no lingering power outages. So Halloween was on! Henry and John headed out for Trick-or-treating around 6:30.  We got no one at our house.  Henry came home with quite a haul.  John said he was often offered extra candy because the turn out was light.  Grace went out a Katniss from the Hunger Games with her friends from school.  Frances stayed home with me. 

Hurricane Sandy October 29-30

We survived Hurricane Sandy without losing power or sustaining any damage from wind or water.
The weekend before was spent preparing for the storm.  We stockpiled batteries, candles, water, etc.  The generator was moved into position and filled with gas.  We cleaned the yard of possible flying objects like toys, lawn furniture, etc.
Monday morning was very rainy and windy.  It got worse as the day progressed.

 

We spent the day playing games, doing crafts and trying to ignore the storm.  All the schools and colleges in the area had announced closures for both Monday and Tuesday.  Local authorities urged people to stay home. Businesses were closed.

Henry and Frances decorated plain white pillowcases.


























Our only pumpkin got a makeover with googly eyes, a lime-peel smile and an acorn nose.

We played Perfection, Lego Games and Millbournes along with Wii Just Dance.

Tuesday we made homemade soft pretzels.

 

Beaver Encounter

The weekend of September 28 through October 1 was the Wiedmann Women's Weekend. This year we stayed at Karen's cabin.  We had beautiful weather - in the 60's during the day, and into the 40's at night, and mostly clear. During the weekend we took several long walks.  We hiked up the back road and then down the power line.  It was here that we saw fresh bear tracks in the mud.  Four of us hiked into the bush and found Balancing Rock where Celia gathered ferns for her backyard pond.  On Sunday the Mossy Spring was our destination.  While at the Spring we discovered the Bear Wallow where we imagine bears come to cool off in the heat. 




We found Red Efts, a newly emerged Buck Moth, a Luna Moth Caterpillar, and lots of fungi.  No dead squirrels, though!

On Sunday, Karen, Meg and Celia had to head home.  That left Mom, Agnes and myself with plans to stay until Monday.

Around dusk we decided to go beaver hunting.  We got out the canoe, paddles, life jackets and dressed in our warmest coats.  We headed downstream to check out the dam which is now being built in a horseshoe shape.  We canoed upstream and checked out 4 beaver lodges along the way.  The water is quite high so we were able to angle in pretty close to each dam.  Agnes was in the back of the canoe, Mom in the middle, I was in front.  After making a survey of the lagoon we paddled back down stream and parked ourselves on some pickerel weed about 15 feet from the beaver lodge near Stillwater.  We sat there for 20 minutes or so waiting to see some beaver activity.  It was getting dark quickly.  Suddenly we heard chewing across the stream.  Agnes and I heard chewing; Mom didn't hear it at first.  We listened for quite a while.  It sounded like at least two beavers.  At one point we heard water noises at the lodge we were near and then a big beaver slapped his tail not far away.  Suddenly the creek was swarming with beavers clearly agitated that we were so close to the lodge.  They slapped and swam.  We stayed as quiet and still as we could while craning our necks to see where the beavers were.  Finally, the beavers gave up and we no longer saw or heard them. 

We had been sitting  in that one spot for about an hour.  Agnes told Mom and I to just sit still while she paddled us further downstream. (She is so the oldest sister!)  Agnes maneuvered the canoe silently toward the lodge between Karen's cabin and Stillwater.  As we got closer we could hear chewing quite loudly along with vocalizations that sounded like a baby whimpering.  Instead of stopping to take it all in, Agnes paddled us into the pickerel weed just feet from the lodge!  It sounded like the beavers were chewing just inches from the front of the canoe.  It was totally dark and we didn't have any flashlights but the Moon was on the rise.  Finally the moon crested the trees and cast our shadow over the beavers.  We were spotted! The beavers immediately stopped chewing and started slapping and swarming and making us feel like the invaders we were.  I must admit that I was scared.  One beaver looked big enough to overturn the canoe!  After listening to them chew, I wanted no part of those teeth!  The beavers tried to get us to leave, but Agnes wanted us to stay - so we did.  Eventually the beavers gave up and vacated the vicinity.  By now we had been out in the canoe for close to two hours.  We were all chilled.  My hands and legs were freezing! We reluctantly headed back to the cabin.  Thank god we had Celia's tomato soup to warm us up (Thanks, Celia!). 

Monday morning we headed back out in the canoe to see what the light would show.  We saw fresh chewed sticks on the various lodges.  When we stopped at the lodge at Stillwater,  I thumped on the structure to see how sturdy it was.  My thumping elicited beaver vocalizations like we had heard the night before.  They started out low then got higher and more panicky eventually stopping completely.  That was the only beaver signs that morning. 


 

I will put the link Agnes found that has the sounds on it.  This was truly an amazing experience.  It took alot of patience, sitting still and quiet, but it was worth getting so cold. http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/beaver/?source=A-to-Z