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.

Our daughter Karen's Visit

Before Karen got here, we had a lovely day with Keith and Marie Richards. Keith is looking absolutely wonderful. We were so thrilled to see them both after the very difficult last year they have had. God is good and he has brought them through it all.
Just before our daughter Karen arrived, we also had a very nice visit with our grandson, Keenan and his friend Ben and sister Hollyn. Keenan left for college the day before Karen got here.
Karen is the next to the youngest and she is our California girl, so when she gets to the east coast, let us just say it is an occasion for our family. There are just not that many times we can have all the children and grandchildren together.

Above is a collage of our nine grandchildren

Row 1 Keenan, Troy, Steve,Mike, Garrett

Row 2 Luke, Izzy, Carissa, Hollyn

Our 5 children

Michelle, Brandon, Karen, Suzanne, David

This is our California girl

I promised Luke a picture of him driving the skitter. Last November his brother Mike was on the blog driving it.

Our eldest and youngest

Our two babies. When we adopted Brandon Karen said it was fine with her as long as she remained the baby of the family. So we have 2 babies of the family. Karen spent a lot of time taking care of this 6 foot 6 inch guy when he was a baby.

I had just finished making this hat and scarf and it looked so cute on Karen I decided to send it home with her. Where did you say does a California girl get to were a hat in scarf??? In Tahoe of course!!!!

Group hug!!!

We did do one dinner out that week-- a real treat for me.

We ate a few meals in the back yard. As you can see the RV is out and guess who is staying in there?? Nana and Papa of course. That way the children could stay up talking and playing games as late as they wanted and Nana and Papa could get some rest.

Troy fell in love with one of Nana's pictures and I told him he could have it. He was thrilled.

The children spent a lot of time talking and catching up with one another. This is always such a joy for Lee and I. Watching and listening to the closeness and support they give one another is just so special and makes you feel like maybe you did something right.

I don't know if any of you have played the game spoons but with our family it is tradition to fit a couple games in at each gathering.

The day before Karen flew back home my sister, Jill and her husband, Barry and my niece, Ashley and nephew, Nigel were over for a nice evening.

We have two grand children graduating this year. Carissa above and Troy below.

That means by next May of 2012, four of our nine grandchildren will have graduated from High School. Does that make us old or what???

This is our grandson Mike and Nicky the night before they flew home. They were both exhausted.
What a wonderful time we had with the family. These times together are so special and treasured by us both. The house seems very quiet now and the neighbors asked if the B&B is now closed for awhile. They could not get over all the activity down here 24/7.

Lee replaced the stone in the back of my rock garden with railroad ties and Luke helped. Mike did a great job of helping Papa mow the fields.

Jim, this picture is for you!!! The beginning of Lee's dry stone wall building.