November and Dec. with the Rileys 2011

Nov. 13, my niece, Brooke was in from Las Vegas. We spent Friday making our holiday sticky buns together. It was Brooke, her sister Ashley and I. The girls did a great job. The following day we had what is known in our family as the annual Thankstweenie celebration. What we do is celebrate Thanksgiving in between Halloween and Thanksgiving when Brooke can be with us and then again at Thanksgiving. Both times the whole family is invited.

I thought this was a good picture of our daughter Michelle and our grand daughter, Carissa .

Featured above my sister, Jill, her husband, Barry, son, Nigel and daughters, Ashley and Brooke.

As usual there is never enough to eat at these affairs.

Brooke, Nigel and Ashley

Brooke and her very good friend Amanda. Best friends since High School. So she always come in to see Brooke when she is home.

Brooke who is handbag buyer for Zappos blessed me with this lovely Baggallini bag. My early Christmas present.

These pictures were taken at Thanksgiving. We celebrated Christmas with our children then since we were going to be away for Christmas.

Two of our grand daughters, Hollyn and Izzy.

The gangs all here. We had 17 humans that day and 3 dogs. Mass confusion and such fun. Each Holiday with the children and grand children is so special. We had a wonderful day.

We opened our Christmas presents after dinner.

Troy, Steve, Carissa and Lauren

Nicky is such a beggar on Thanksgiving day.

The following day Lee was busy with our neighbor lumbering our trees. Jim Tull will appreciate the amount of lumber we got off these trees.

This is our grandson, Garrett running the skitter. He takes directions extremely well.

Behind Garret is a solar field put in on land we sold to the county. They are generating electricity to support all administrative buildings. It has been extremely successful and they are planning on expanding it. Nicky and I often walk across this field and I have noticed that even on a cloudy or rainy day it still generates power. Heavy rain is the only thing that kicks it out.

This is a portable saw mill brought in by our neighbor.

We left home the Tuesday after Thanksgiving. It was beautiful and 64 degrees. We were not on the road long before the rain began and it got considerably cooler. We spent the first night in Virginia and it was cold. The next morning we took off and as we entered Georgia we started to see snow. Is was beginning to think we were headed in the wrong direction.

We stopped at a rest stop about 1 1/2 hours out of Madison (our stop for the night) and when we got back in the RV it would not start. It would not ever start with auxiliary batteries. Lee ended up jumping it. As we traveled down the road I found a dealer in Madison got their number and told them our problem. They said they could look at it tomorrow morning. They invited us to spend the night in the lot and offered to hook us up to electric and water. This is the second time we have been so impressed with Georgia hospitality. The next morning they hooked it up to the diagnostics and could find nothing wrong. It usually cost $70.00 just to hook it up to diagnostics but they didn't charge a thing.

Just before we had arrived in Madison, GA we saw the most incredible sunset. God had worked out the dilemma of where to go to have things checked out on theRV and then blessed us with this sunset.

Thursday we arrived at Don and Lois Waltz's house. You can see the RV parked in their driveway.

Of course, Lee could not be still so they worked together and took out a couple of stumps.

Anyone who knows Lois knows what a fabulous cook she is. What we didn't know is what a good cook Don is. We are so thrilled for Lois and her new kitchen. As much time as she spends in the kitchen she deserves to have a kitchen that is so efficient to work in.

Lois and Don have been painting the outside of the house and Lee and Don are taping the shades so he can finish painting them. Don't you just love that step stool?.

We say good-bye to Don and Lois being with them is like being with family. They are so easy to be with. Thanks again you two for a wonderful 4 days.

Nicky will miss hanging out with Toby.

Nicky getting a drink in the Waltz's backyard. When you're as tall as Nicky a birdbath is just the right height.

October thru Nov. 6 2011

What a busy time.  We're trying to see as much as we can with the children before we leave for Florida. All the canning is done and there are 2 major family get-togethers before we leave and of course the camper to get packed.

I did get a second opinion on my knee replacement and it appears that the reason it is taking so long to heal and that it has been so painful the first 5 months was because the knee scope and the total knee replacement were done only 5 weeks apart.  The surgeon I saw for a second opinion says he won't do 2  surgeries on the same knee in a year let alone 5 weeks apart.  He said I have severely traumatized tissue and it may or may not get any better than it is at this point.  I choose to believe that with prayer, continued PT and good supplements I can greatly increase my odds of getting this a lot better.

Issabella doing color guard

I'll try to catch you up with some of the things Lee and I have been doing.

We had a lovely weekend with our eldest son, Dave, and family in Pittsburgh.  The foliage was beautiful on the drive there.  Friday evening we went to the football game and watched the band perform.  What a great band.
Izzy is featured above doing her thing.  What a terrific band they have and the color guard just recently won in competition.  We're very proud at how hard Izzy works at this.  Our grandson, Garrett, featured in the collage above just loves scouts and is doing an excellent job.Their dog, Friday, had a nice visit with Nicky. 

Next we went to visit our youngest son, Brandon, who lives in West Chester, PA.  The town of West Chester is located outside of Philadelphia and is loaded with history. Just a lovely town to walk through.  We had lunch at a lovely restaurant in town and then walked over to the hospital that Brandon works at.  The bikes you see in the pictures are hybrid bikes.  They had a battery pack on the back. Really neat but very pricey.

 

Lincoln's first published work was written in the building in the lower left corner.

The two collages above are scenes from West Chester.

Lee has been busy with many projects here.  He just finished building a portico for my brother.  It is beautiful. 

The portico

Lee has also continued to work on what I call his man-cave in the lower half of the barn.  Jim Tull will appreciate these pictures because he saw the barn before Lee started this project.  What this truly is for those of you who have not been able to figure it out is a root cellar for storage of fruits and vegetables and a room to hold canned goods which will maintain a certain temperature.

 

Storage area outside root cellar

 

For those of you who have been here we also re-landscaped the entry way.

You've seen our two grandsons, Keenan  and Troy, on the blog playing soccer.  Keenan now plays soccer for Geneva College in PA. Troy's high school team were district champs last year and just missed it this year in a double overtime game. The winner was determined by penalty kicks. What a good game it was and two very equally matched teams. It sure was cold though.

The game was played at the Hershey stadium see the roller coaster in the background.

Troy being introduced.

The Saturday before Halloween we were hit with a one day snow blizzard.  Two days before I was out in the yard in short sleeves and then bang it hit. It was 4-10 inches in this area but melted so quick.  It was a beautiful sight on the mountain the next day.  I've never before experienced fall foliage and snow covered trees at the same time.





Just prior to the snow storm this had been the view from our sun-room and I remember thinking, look at the heat coming off the pond, it's going to be really cold soon and about 4 days later we got the snow storm pictured above.



We are very much looking forward to seeing all our family  friends again.  Won't be long now!!!

September 2011

I really don't know where the month of September went. It really flew by. The end of August we had all 5 children and their families here-what fun!! It was exhausting but fun. After they left the following week my good friend, Renee, took me to the Hershey Spa for the day-a belated birthday gift. What a time we had. Renee and her husband Ted are in the collage above along with pictures of the grounds outside the Hershey Spa. As soon as we arrived we changed into robes and slippers and went to the quiet room for coffee and muffins. After about 45 minutes of just relaxing, we were called in for our full body massages. I'm not in Heaven yet but it sure felt like it for an hour. Next it was back to the quiet room for more refreshments and conversation. Our next call was for a facial. All I can say is WOW did that feel great. This was followed by a lovely luncheon and then a stroll around the grounds. After that we hit the sauna the pool and the hot tub. We made a full day of it and had dinner on the way home. Renee just spoils me rotten and I don't seem to be able to stop her.
In September tropical storm Lee hit and this area of PA had some of the worst flooding since Hurricane Agnes back in the 70's. We had had so much rain for the month and the ground was so saturated that everything was run off. This is the lane on our property and the bridge was underwater during the night.

The pasture lands along the road were pretty much flooded.
My sister who lives in town, on a hill, not near the streams had flooding. The run off was so bad sump pumps could not keep up with the water.

The picture below shows photos that we were laying out to dry before they were totally ruined. We saved almost all the photos.

All the houses in this area looked like this. What people could salvage was in their garages.

Lee and I went over to my sisters and in 2 days we were able to remove 4 foot of dry wall and the wet insulation from the basement.

They had 1 foot of flooding and we had to go up a full 4 foot to get totally dry wall.

Job is done and now the drying out begins.

I have been busy putting up applesauce and apple butter. I probably have about 30 quarts to go yet. I swore I'd never do all this canning again but times are already hard and food prices going up so fast.

Jim Tull, this picture is for you. This is the prep work for the posts for the Pergola that Lee is building for my brother.

Lee mixing his concrete.

This is where the pergola is going to go.

This is a picture of the deck that Lee put on my brother's house. It turned out really well.

NOW I WANT YOU ALL TO TAKE A GOOD LOOK AT THE PICTURES THAT FOLLOW AND TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK THIS IS THAT LEE IS WORKING ON.

Back at the beginning of the summer he told all of us he was going to put a root cellar and cold storage room in the bottom of the barn. That way when times get hard we will be able to store our canned goods and produce from our garden there.

In my younger days I was known to put up about 250 jars or more of assorted fruits, veggies, jams, etc. but it is not something I really choose to do in retirement unless absolutely necessary sssssssooooo the purpose of the room is what???? We have all come to the conclusion that it is Lee's MAN CAVE.

Lee, painting the dry wall in his man cave.

We along with my brother, Graham, sold a piece of land about 3 years ago. It was purchased by Dauphin County for the purpose of building a Solar field to pay for the electric for the administration buildings of the county. They had the grand opening of the facility today (Oct. 3).

This is an aerial view of the property we sold with all the solar plates. We live just to the north of this on the same property.
The dedication ceremony follows.

There they are pulling the switch on. Even on a cloudy day, like today, it is generating electricity so one can only imagine how well it does on s sunny day.

Of course, all the local TV stations were out the film this new endeavor.


We so look forward to winter in Florida this year. Staying home last winter was hard but it helped to pay for our lovely trip abroad with Jim and Jane and I would not trade that for anything. We did, however, miss all of you and look forward to seeing you soon.