Blog Worthy

There is much that has happened in my life since last December that would be considered blog worthy. Most of it you can learn about through Kim's blog (see link at right). There have been some amazing trips, farm additions, and adventures. However what happened today definitely is outstanding enough to blog about.

Today was opening day for bow hunting season here in New York. I have been bow hunting for 9 years now. I have never got a deer in all that time. All that changed today. Today I not only got a deer, I got a buck. I not only got a buck, I got a monster buck. I not only got a monster buck, I got a ten point, 170 lb field dressed, most people bow hunt their whole life and never get a buck like this, buck.

Here are the pictures.







Seeing as how I haven't blogged in almost a year I make no promises for future posts, but we shall see.

Breaking the Ice

It has been so long since my last post that I thought I would just break the ice with a short narrative about a funny happening that occurred last week when Kim's parents came to visit for Thanksgiving.

The plan was simple. With Kim's parents coming to visit we were going to be a well oiled, well trained wood cutting, splitting, and stacking machine. We would spend the whole day Wednesday and part of Thursday and Friday out in the woods filling our stores to last us all winter. Long story short we really only worked half a day Wednesday due to weather and other extenuating circumstances. I really appreciated there help though and we did get quite a bit of wood put up for only half a days work. The short narrative is about what happened Wednesday during our endeavors.

Dawn found us all enthusiastic and ready to....who am I kidding we were still snoring soundly at that point. It was round about 11:00 when we finally got moving (of course this was due in large part to her parents not getting in till 3:00 am from Michigan). So we fired up the little 4 wheel drive Mitsubishi, our 1/4 ton pickup that has no working alternator, brakes, or bumper. Well, we fired it up after we pumped up the flat tire with a bicycle pump. We then gingerly drove it out to the woods to begin cutting. All was going smoothly and we were on our way back with a full load only a couple hours later. Upon coming down the hill and making the turn for home I saw that there was a van parked in our driveway. I remembered then that we had scheduled a follow up visit for our new furnace. I began wondering how long the poor guys had been waiting, however I only had a few moments to contemplate that before I realized that we were not slowing to a stop like we normally do. At this point my brain had to kick into high gear. With my wife next to me frozen with fear eyes squeezed tightly shut ("eeeeeeeee"), my mother-in-law on the other side giving running commentary ("Andrew we're not stopping, Andrew why won't it stop, Andrew look out for the Jetta, Andrew why aren't we stopping?"), and my father-in-law perched precariously on top of the wood with a birds eye view of the whole situation trumpeting a warning to the furnace people ("look out we don't have brakes"). I quickly did the only thing I really could think of. I dropped the plow and began grading our driveway. I then maneuvered the truck to pass ever so closely between my car and the garage (at which point my mother-in-law for some unknown reason says she reached out and touched the car). We took out a wheel barrel and two tires that were inconveniently blocking our way, they all went flying into the front yard and we kept on going. As we started into the front yard with the plow doing some unnecessary landscaping we began to go up hill again and the truck engine started to die. It was at this moment that it finally dawned on me why we hadn't stopped. The truck was still in gear and the engine had been propelling us forward the whole time. I took it out of gear and we came to an immediate halt directly in front of our spruce trees that line our driveway. At which point one of the furnace guys (who had leapt out of the way) commented....."perfect".
Thankfully no one was hurt and nothing was damaged (well except for my pride). The next time we came down the hill however my in-laws AND my wife decided to get out at the top. The second parking job was much better, and I came to a perfect stop precisely where I wanted to. Well before the garage, car, and front yard.

Life, my universe, and everything.....

Alright so I'm going to do a huge hodge podge update of all of the things (well not ALL) that are going on in and around my life. The only real issue is where to begin.

I guess I will start with the thing that I'm currently looking forward to the most. The "Count down to Colorado" (also known as the "Finally going to Phoenix) is now in the home stretch and we are only 2 days and 9 hours away from taking flight. Kim and I are taking a weeks vacation (yes thats right I said a whole week) and embarking on a multi-leg journey. We are flying to Colorado to see my cousin John and ski for a couple days. Then from there we fly to Phoenix to spend 4 days with Rob, Laurie, Risa and Brandon (for those of you who don't know who they are: brother / sister-in-law / neice / nephew). We are very excited and looking forward to this greatly. I'll try and come back with lots of pictures, of course when I say I'll come back with them it will be because Kim took them not me.....she doesn't even let me touch the camera! :(


Keystone resort....one of the places we will be skiing.....jealous? :D




House affairs are finally starting to come together. One would think that after living somewhere for over half a year (six months, 3 weeks, and one day to be precise) that you would have all of your belongings unpacked and organized in a reasonable manner. I suppose, however, that I shouldn't be to shocked by our lack of finality on the issue considering that we lived in the house on Burchman Drive for almost four years and we have (since our move) found boxes that were packed back in Michigan prior to coming to NY. Also, any of you that were at that house and remember seeing the state of our office are probably not surprised either. I am proud to say that we are only one room away from the completion of the unpacking and organizing of our "new" home. Unfortunately the one room remaining.....you betcha...its the office . We did finish installing the wood stove a little over a month ago and have been benefiting from reduced heating bills ever since. Back in November we knew that the wood stove was going in and we put up about 2 cords of wood. This amazing feat was accomplished through the help of Kim's family who were generous enough to spend their Thanksgiving break helping us, Thank You so Much. The only problem we are facing is the realization that 2 cords of wood (especially when about 3/4 of a cord needs to season still) is not enough to sustain us through the winter. We are down to almost zero wood, however with the help of the trusty chain saw that I received for Christmas, and as soon as the weather breaks, we will trek out to the back woods and bring back some more fodder for the fire.

Onto the Farm. Kim went out yesterday and took some great pictures of our snow covered fields as well as some of our wonderful loving animals. The chickens and Charlie are missing but you can follow the link on the right to her blog and see the rest there. I really am enjoying the goats.In fact we are officially in the goat business. We are going to sell their offspring and begin a small scale dairy goat operation (milk, cheese, yogurt, and anything else we feel inspired to do). We are in the information gathering stage of getting the appropriate permits and certifications necessary. They are very intelligent creatures and very loving.


Sometimes very frustrating and mischievous but the good far out ways the bad in my opinion. Another interesting note on the farm is that the tractor is currently in the garage and being "worked on". I have several of the panels off and I am going to do some general maintenance on it, such as change the oil, hydrolic fluid, and possibly the serpentine belt. I also have to check the hydrolic lift system because it is leaking somewhere. Its times like these that I really wish my dad lived closer as he and I would have a wonderful time working on it together. I will try and get some pictures of the poor girl while she is on the operating table, of course that will be difficult without the use of the camera. ;)

Work....well work is work. I still love working at the academy with the kids and watching them grow and mature. I still really enjoy being the gymnastics coach. It is really one of my passions as you may have noticed in an early post. We went on our first tour last weekend to Albany. The kids did an amazing job and made me very proud as always. I will also try and get some pictures of that up as well (others generally take pictures there so I should be able to scrounge some up). Adam is coming along nicely in the business office and should be running it on his own quite smoothly come next year. I have two business trips planned in the next month. That on top of my vacation, oh boy the school is gonna think I fell off the face of the earth. I am traveling to Andrews University and Union College at the end of February. I will be at Andrews for two days Feb. 26th-27th then on the 28th I fly to Nebraska and will be at Union till March 2nd. I will be recruiting task force workers for the school for the 07-08 school year. My second trip is March 12th-20th when I will be going to Southern Adventist University and Orlando Florida. I will be at Southern the 13th-14th then in Orlando the 15th-20th. It will be nice to see friends and family on both trips.

Well I think that about brings you all up to speed on my life, universe, and everything. I look forward to hearing from you all.

Love to all that want it and my condolences for those that don't.
Farm Hand Fish

Warning....Unpopular Opinion Below

So many things have happened since last I blogged. However every time something happens that I think to myself - "I should blog about that" - I just can't bring myself to do it. I just don't like this whole concept of blogging. I know it's really quite lame of me to be criticizing something using the very medium which I am harping on. However, I wanted to let all of you out there, that happen upon my blog every so often, know why it is that my posts are so few and far between. If people in my life really want to know what's happening with me they can pick up the phone and call me or even shoot me an e-mail (which I am much better at returning now by the way....no really Katie I am :D ).
Having said that I will continue to blog and probably more frequently than I have, but I still want you all to know that I do this under duress. Duress from what you ask...I really don't know. The peer pressure to post on a blog perhaps. The sheer magnitude of those of you in the blogging community that enforce your warped sense of reality upon the rest of us. Not really sure to be exact. I will join the mainstream of newspaper article type updates about our lives and happenings - avoiding the cumbersome and somewhat vulnerable nature of carrying on real relationships founded upon spending time together and talking about the deeper issues in life. In addition I hope this will be the one and only time my cynic comes crawling out of its hole long enough to be heard, but we'll see.
For all of you that do come here on a regular basis your patience has been....well I don't know that I would say rewarded but....at least now you know I'm alive. On a happier note if you leave comments it's sorta like we're talking :D
As my dear brother would sign off.....ttfn.

Creatures of the Night

Last night as we were doing our evening routine of barn chores we took Sam out with us. We have been experimenting with him by allowing him to walk with us without his leash and so far he has been doing really well. Goes straight to the barn with us and then comes right back to the house, no problems. Well last night there was a problem. After going out to the barn nicely with us and being only mildly annoying we headed back to the house. Well Sam decided to head the opposite direction and take a detour around the neighbors house and then back again. Since we had no leash or other means by which to entice him back we went inside. I grabbed his collar and Kim went looking for treats. As I made my way back out I saw him dart across the street into the other neighbors field. This greatly annoyed me as he is now crossing the street at night time. So I put on my best "bad dog" voice and yelled at him to come home as I headed in his general direction. To my shock and surprise he listened suddenly he started heading back my way at a brisk trot. As the words "Good Dog" were just escaping my lips a horrific and highly recognizable smell came slamming into my nostrils. It was then that I noticed Sam was drooling and his eyes were all watery. I couldn't believe it my reject dog had gotten sprayed by a skunk. However now my brain had to cope with a second problem because Sam was now headed toward the door at a mighty clip trying to find the comfort of his own home and I was in no position to keep him from getting there. As I hastily made my way to the house to keep Sam and his new found scent out Kim heard him coming and threw wide the door to welcome the wayward dog home. I yelled at that point to not let him in and just as the words "why not" were on the verge of escaping her lips the same horrible realization that I had moments before become privy to dawned fully upon her in the form of that horrific smell......SKUNK!!!! All I can say to this is yuck. Sam spent the night in the barn and tonight we gave him a vinegar, peroxide, lavender bath. So pretty much now our basement smells like wet dog-lavender-skunk......mmmmmmmmm tasty.

"The knee bones connected to the hip bone......"

Yesterday I underwent a life changing experience. This has changed my life in two ways. First I have now officially without a shadow of a doubt made the leap to full farmer status. Second I am now the perpetrator of a quadruple homicide.
The official number of animals that we have now is 13 not 17, and I no longer here the sounds of crowing coming from the barn this morning.

I began the day yesterday at 10 am setting up all the necessary tools and items needed. The final product was packed away in the freezer last night at around 7 pm. I must admit that this was potentially the nastiest thing I have ever had to experience and I hope to never have to do it again. From now on all my chicken will be purchased at the supermarket and all of our hens will be purchased fully grown and laying.

I will not gross everyone out by laying out the details for you and discussing each and every step along the way. I will say the entire process was one that was smelly, sticky, and emotionally scarring. I am somewhat glad that I can say that I have done this now once in my life however I am still not far enough removed from it to say it with too much confidence. Well more to come later. I think I need to go find a corner curl up in the fetal position and find a happy place.

p.s. I'm sure most of you are perfectly fine that this particular post doesn't have pictures with it.

Tractor

Well we finally received our tractor after much waiting and gnashing of teeth. It is actually a little bigger than I remember but that is a good thing since we want to be able to do hay with it next summer. I am truly starting to feel like a farmer but I'm pretty sure I like that. I'm looking forward to getting some work done with it. We need to find a bush hog that will fit it and that is turning out to be quite difficult but we will continue to work on it.

The tractor is an International 560 (circa 1960) it is a 65hp tractor

with a two point fast hitch with lift,

and a front loader with a bucket and snow blade attachment.

It also came with a three bottom plow,

and 10 ft drag.


None of the above pictures are our actual equipment but they give you an idea of what we have. I will attempt to get some pictures of the actual tractor and other aspects of our farm this weekend as I will be taking the school's camera home for a few needed pics. Its all very new and exciting to us but we are learning as we go.