Windy...

... but not windy enough I guess! It sure does show how awesome a Dad that Dan is!
He made up for the lack of real wind by running REAL fast!!! :)



My smiling pups and son, Rael. Rael's sunburnt and trying to stay out of the sun.



My old pup Frodo and young son Rael in our front yard. They're SO cute!!



My other old pup Samsam, and he's smiling too! :)



A short visit from Kris and Bear, enjoying the company and Dan's sprinting in the parking lot.



Bear trying to make a break for it instead of going home for a nap!

Springtime biking

My happy boys. It's hard to believe that it was so cool before, as it has been reaching mid 80's these last few days.

Some wild flowers discovered on a hike up one of the trails in the LG area.















Everything became green so quickly in our neighborhood. And it's so hot that I am glad I did the Spring yard clean up beforehand!

Too hot to do much, too hot to take more photos, even! It amazes me every year how one can't stand the 70 to 80's temperatures early Summer, and then complains about the cool temps below 60 degrees in the Fall...

:)

Johnstown bee trip!

I have a hive I won at a bee seminar in Albany. It is a very beautiful hive, made from cedar, with a nice copper covered peaked top. It's a gorgeous English country style that will look great in my garden. Once I get the cast off (this Friday is not soon enough), I plan to set it up, even if it remains empty for a bit; it'll at least leave me a large corner of my living room emptier than it's been all Spring :)

So in order to get a bit more comfortable with my hands literally in a hive -- well, with my ONE hand in a hive, anyway -- I tagged along with a couple others to a bee workshop in Johnstown. It was a "bee removal" from a tree. When people say they can remove bees alive, they do it but to the detriment of whatever the bees have housed themselves in. In this case, it was a hollow tree.

Here is Dan the Beekeeper (not Dan, my husband) whacking the heck out of a tree stump to split a side off. He had already done the prep with a chainsaw earlier, leaving time for the bees to calm again before using a sledgehammer to finish the splitting while everyone was there. You see the hive body/box on the ground to the right?



I am amazed that the bees weren't more agitated. They were very mellow bees -- the exact type one would want in a backyard apiary.



Once the side was removed and the comb was exposed, using a knife, widths of the comb were cut and removed and placed in frames. We had to make certain that we maintained the "up" of the comb, putting the top on the top of the frame. I was surprised that rubber bands were used to hold the comb in place until the bees attached the comb to the wooden frame! Apparently the bees will chew the bands off when they are no longer needed! Cool!



Unfortunately, my camera's batteries were not up to the day's pictures and it kept shutting off on its own. So all I have is the beginning of the sledgehammer and the removal of the side with the comb attached to it.



After this point, we were all quite busy. I wore a bee hat/hood and long pants and a long sleeved shirt, no gloves! I have read that less bees are killed without gloves and that agitates the bees less in return. One has more dexterity with no gloves. On this day of transferring the bees from the log to the hive, only one person out of the seven there was stung, and that person was the Master Beekeeper who had his hands IN the hive the most!



I know my sense of fun varies from many...



...but I tell you it was exciting fun!!

homeschool fun

pj's at noon? yes! oh what kids can do with some paper, tape and imagination! :)



Here's a disguise done with electrical tape LOL

GF-LG bike trail fun

While we were offline, we were busy. And what else would you expect?!

Whilst most of the other kids were trapped inside in school, we finally traveled the GF-LG bike trail. It's all uphill from behind the Great Escape until you reach Rt 149, then it's all downhill until you reach LG.












It's March 20 and you see the snow alongside the trail? I also saw the first dandelions of the season along the trail as well. Seeing dandelions was a great topic of discussion at a bee keeper seminar the following weekend.



This is the Gavinator cruising along downhill and our first view of the lake from the trail. We are minutes from an ice cream lunch!! Yay!!






The boys victory dance: the trip uphill from LG to this boulder on the trail at Route 149 was ALL UPHILL and we were DONE. It's a good thing we had the calorie-filled (albeit unhealthy) lunch of Stewarts' ice cream cones to fuel our three mile uphill travel...



It was thirteen miles round trip and it started raining as we were loading the bikes onto the car's bike rack. It was a beeyootiful afternoon!! :)

the reason why

...I haven't been online sooner is: (( drum roll please (but it's not as interesting as that, really)))

We had no computer able to get online, so we canceled our internet service! Although we would have been online again sooner if it was not for a fractured right thumb. The narcotics to relieve pain were not helpful in reminding to get the computer repaired or a new one purchased. It was broken stick fighting.

It is easier to list the things that I CAN do without my right hand: I can walk around and use the toilet, although even THAT was problematic until I purchased pants that have stretchy waistbands. Three days of asking my husband to zip and button or tie my pants after using the bathroom. And slip on shoes became a must as well. When you have to ask your children to tie your shoes every hour or so, it gets old fast.

It IS getting easier as the shock of the loss of all my hobbies and Spring planting plans were immediately put to the wayside. Our Autumn plans to travel also might be postponed until Spring of next year.

The fracture of my hand required not only a cast, but percutaneous pinning to fix. I get the pins pulled this coming Friday, I hope. And then another three to four weeks with another cast or stiff brace -- I might be able to take a real shower before the weekend!!

Spring Hike

A mid-week day hike in early March with beeeyootiful weather! It was a trail beginning at where the old Vischer Ferry would cross the river -- before any bridges! It was a very nice walk with friends, although there was too much litter in the water!

Here is at the trail head where the boys find a decomposing fish stuck in the tree roots above the waterline.



Surprisingly there was still enough ice for the migrating geese to rest on. They moved away fast even though the boys were nearly 200 feet from them.



Here are Rael and Gavin crawling around one of the rails left behind from when the ferry ran everyone across the river. It has grown into the tree!



Sammy the pup, Sam and Gavin walking along the trail that runs along the river, between the river and the canal.



Lots of loud geese are still afraid of us...



Our first view of the dam:



My Samsam, Elizabeth, and the boys ahead. The rocks were very cool -- shale on end. GREAT for skipping on the water!



At the end of the trail was recently uncovered beach. Truthfully, it was quite saddening that the water level was as low as it was for Spring melt. Maybe it is more at higher altitude?



The Gavinator: always climbing, if he has anything to say about it!



Sam and Gavin climbing higher.



The river over the dam, end of the trail.



Wow it was hard to get those boys away from the easy to toss skipping shale out into the river.



Everyone was QUITE tired when we arrived back to the car!

ok,ok, here's my haircut...

In case you haven't seen it yet on FB or elsewhere



I send this now only two months after the inital cut (when I have already had a trim) because my sister in Florida mentioned that she had to drive all the way to NY, braving winter storms and traveling with an infant, in order to see it! lol

Winter visit to C'ville!

My sister, brother-in-law and two sons visited recently. She was much better with her camera than I was however, so only a few pics here. They do have an awesome sledding hill behind their house where all the children (old and young) went down. My sister and I also went cross-country skiing.

They just missed the terrible snowfall around DC on their way homeward by hours!

Whatever would posess...

...a person to cut ALL of their hair off in the middle of December. A person who lives in the Northern Hemisphere, with the recent average temperatures hovering around twenty degrees Fahrenheit? It's almost too cold to enjoy the snow. no snow packing activity is possible, but there is sledding! (Even though I have yet to do that with my children yet this year, sad as the case may be.) Not having entirely the appropraite gear to not feel the less than freezing temps is the main problem.

Fortuitously, my Secret Santa from work gives me this wonderful hat. It completely keeps me warm, is totally "my thing" in today's market/looks, and has allowed me to comfortably have short hair during the winter months. So...

I cut it off. I cut it all off. My hair is mostly gone. I actually think my hair is much shorter than two of my three make children. It's called something like a 'pixie cut,' but my cut just stands straight upward in the air. It waves, heck, it SHOUTS hellooo! Most likely, and I am hoping that, it is just the after shock from the difference from the weight of long hair to none with such shortness. See, it has been nearly a week since the haircut and the seemingly-shocked coif is *still* standing straight up. My awesome husband, being the wonderful person that he is, thinks it is great. He tells my I look "fey." In other words, other worldly or elfish or the like.
Too bad that the time I have been considering a hair cut (since Spring) does not factor into the amount of time it takes for the hair to adjust to the cut. If it doesn't calm down the slightest bit, I might just have to highlight it hot pink or something to compliment it. Hm. So: maybe you should look for pictures!

I might have just been better off with a trip to the tanning booth (I know, god forbid!). However, this might be the first time I am having a serious bout of seasonal affective disorder or something...

Boys and "Theatre"

We braved the wintry weather mix yesterday to go to see the Beauty and the Beast at the Cohoes Music Hall. It was a Rotary fundraiser event so we HAD to go with Dan's Dad (just joking). Dan did not go because he really doesn't like musicals, except Spamalot, that is.



There was this handy stage step that was ideal seating for munching the yummies that were offered pre-show as well as well as for a great photo-op!



The boys were able to meet Santa again. However, this time they just knew it was a Santa's "Helper" as it was getting closer to Christmas day and "his beard wasn't real." Gavin gave him a chocolate chip cookie because he might be too busy with the kids to eat. What a sweetie!



The boys especially liked seeing all the costumes of the players. It was a good time and I really enjoyed sharing a bit more of my history with my sons: How I did musicals in high school, traveled to NYC to see Broadway and off Broadway shows, inspecting the sets and costumes... I was practically in tears when the "Be our Guest" number was done! The energy was AMAZING and I loved it!!





The theater manager gave me his card and told me that in the future if the boys and I ever wanted to volunteer there (seating, handing out programs) then we could see the play for free and get to meet the cast afterward back stage!

So, apparently I may be a late-blooming or closet stage-junkie, who knows? :)