Introducing Katie

iYule

We had a Christmas Party in the barn on Saturday and I did not manage to get the video camera out but we were not lacking for technology, there is no fireplace in the barn so I downloaded iYule (an HD fire complete with holiday music) onto our Macs (we have one at each end of the room) so that we would at least have the ambience - it was a big hit! Here is their example on YouTube:
Holiday ties are the male equivalent of a sweater vest and you know how much I love sweater vests ;)

Our Other Daughter Goes to MIT

Snow Day

as of now we have gotten 5 inches and it is supposed to keep going until at least midnight!

Jessie

Jessie is a Shetland Sheepdog.

God is a DJ

Daft Christmas

OK, it is not a true video blog but it was my first try so cut me some slack. This is my mom's house in Tampa which we decorated over the Thanksgiving holiday and I have to say a BIG thank-you to mom and Katie for running around plugging and un-plugging lights for me... I love you guys!

Let it Snow

It snowed today! I'm not sure if it is the first snow of the season because I have been in Tampa for the last two weeks, but it is the first one I've seen! We put this wreath up on the side of the barn yesterday...

Sunken Gardens

The more chances I get to visit Tampa as an adult (I'm using the term loosely), the more I am beginning to realize that my Tampa experience thus far was pretty limited. My universe revolved around school, sports and not much else. I could only drive for two out of the thirteen years that I lived there and it wasn't like I was going off on weekend adventures during those two years. In my mind Tampa is not a vacation destination, if we had an open weekend we did not spend it at local attractions, we left! Now when I go home it is like a whole new town, over the Thanksgiving holiday we visited Sunken Gardens, "a botanical paradise in the midst of a bustling city". OK, so it is no Busch Gardens but, more importantly, it doesn't want to be! Instead of trying to go hi-tech, this little park embraces its tacky 1950's-tourist-trap side and the result was well worth our afternoon.

Turkey Day

We have many Thanksgiving traditions, one of which is trying (and failing) to not eat anything after breakfast until the turkey is ready (around 3pm). In an effort to distract us from hunger - and to make the most of us being home from school - mom has delegated to my sister and me (and whomever else is at the house that day) the task of putting up Christmas decorations. I love icicle lights and so a couple years ago I decided that we needed a set. Believe it or not, I came up against a good deal of opposition to this decision but as the person who has to climb on the roof anyway, my vote is the only one that counts! I am happy to report that the icicle lights are up and pictures will be posted soon. The other picture is of Katie and I ravaging the sweet potatoes - their timing was a bit off (they still needed to cook for about 15 minutes) but we were too hungry to wait so we scooped from the outside of the dish where they were already cooked, yum...

Kacy and Blade's Engagement Party

I am in Tampa for the next couple weeks to take my NCLEX, convert some vitamin D and celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday. In the spirit of procrastination I drove up to Gainesville this past weekend for Kacy and Brett's engagement party! Laura and Patti planned it and they did an amazing job, it was really fun to see everyone again and to remind myself why I am in no hurry to start my job - thanks Becca ;)

London is the Place for Me

For Love of Dumplings

I found a recipie for dumplings last week and I have been to the grocery store three separate times trying to gather the correct ingredients. The directions call for "wonton noodles" which are apparently unheard of in Carmel, New York. Julie kept trying to describe them to me (she claimed to have used them in a recipie before) but I was having no such luck and the grocery store employees were no help at all. So yesterday on the way home from the pirate party, we stop by the grocery store and guess what Julie is able to locate in under two minutes - that's right, the damn wonton noodles. So for future reference, if you ever need to find wonton noodles they are next to the soy products in the refridgerated section - who knew? Apparently Julie did. It was well worth the hassle however because the dumplings turned out very tasty.

A Pirate's Life for Me

Julie's godson, Aden, turned three this weekend and we went to his pirate-themed party in full gear. It turns out that there was a miscommunication somewhere because we were the only ones (aside from the birthday boy) in costume - oops. Whatever, we still had a good time complete with dinosaur-shaped chicken fingers, cake and a treasure chest pinata! After the party we went to the grocery store (still in full gear) and then home to watch a movie in front of the fire... all in all, it was a pretty good Sunday.

Blowing Leaves

We have a ton of grass so raking doesn't really cut it around here... this is a video I took of the boys using the blowers this afternoon. I took it through a window in the barn so it is a little blurry, but you can still get an idea of what a difference it makes!

"When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life."

Julie had a two day meeting in London last week and (since I have never been) she brought me along! I had an AMAZING week - she had to work the first two days so I entertained myself with all the tourist stuff, then she took the rest of the week off to show me around and introduce me to old friends (she grew up in London). It was the trip of a lifetime and I can't wait to go back!

'Tis The Season

Bowhunting season has officially begun and although I finished posting the 'No Trespassing' signs around the property we still have to wear bright colors when we are out in the woods, just to be on the safe side. Tapper has a tradional orange vest (like the one Guinness is wearing) but he got so big that it doesn't fit him anymore so, for now, he will have to settle on the neon green.

Horseplay

We had lots of people in town to visit this weekend so on Sunday, once everyone had gone, Julie decided that she wanted to unwind with a little horseback riding! Julie loves horses and rides whenever she gets the chance, I have really only ridden a couple times - like when you are on vacation and you have the option of signing up to go for the afternoon which really isn't horseback riding... it is more like your horse is out for a stroll along a trail it knows by heart and you just happen to be sitting on top of it. So when Julie asked if I wanted to go with her I was excited to get the chance to come, but I was expecting more of the same: a little follow the leader around an outdoor rink or maybe a field - it was so much cooler than that! For starters it was a super clear day without a cloud in the sky, we met the owner of the barn who was planning to go trail riding with a friend of his who was visiting from the city. He took us out for close to two hours on trails through the woods on his property, about a half hour in he decided that I knew enough not to fall off and so we go the chance to do some trotting and cantering on the trails! I know we weren't at full speed but I felt like we were flying through the trees at a full gallop chasing bandits or something, it was awesome.

Picking Chestnuts

As a kid, one of the best parts about coming up to Put for vacation was that you got to wear whatever you wanted. We were in and out of the water, in mud, in grass, running over rocks and sticks and yet these do-it-yourself outfits rarely included shoes. There was one thing our feet could not handle however - chestnuts. We didn't know what they were at the time, but the spiky little balls that fell out of chestnut trees were avoided at all costs because stepping on one mid-stride was the equivalent to getting about 50 splinters at once. My uncle Scott and his wife Sandra came up this weekend to visit and, after hearing about all of the stuff we have been getting out of the garden, Scott asked if we had harvested chestnuts yet this year. I told him I had no idea what they were or where they grew so he told me to go get some gloves and we set out for the far side of the field. It turns out that inside their prickly husk, those spiky little balls were hiding chestnuts! The trick is that you want to get them when they are ripe enough to fall off of the tree of their own accord, but before they have actually fallen because if they sit on the ground too long then squirrels, deer and other creatures will come along and eat the chestnuts before you can get to them. Apparently our timing was impeccable, as we walked over the wind picked up and the trees started raining chestnuts - Scott said that he could not remember ever getting such a good harvest. Once you have collected your fill of spiky balls you open up the husk to get at the actual chestnuts. Just like any other type of nut, chestnuts have a hard shell that surrounds/protects the part you want to eat, before you can cook it you have to score this outer shell so that steam can escape from the nut as it cooks. It was too hot that afternoon to roast our chestnuts over an open fire ;) so we opted for boiling (like boiled peanuts), roasting them on the stovetop and baking some in the oven. When they are cooked the shell splits open along the scored lines so you can peel it right off - yum!

Bernese Mountain Dog Parade

If you have never heard of a Bernese Mountain Dog its OK, you are not alone. Dad and Julie have two of them: Guinness (female, 7 years old) and Tapper (male, 3 years old) and that is the only reason I know anything about them... the breed is from Switzerland and I would have assumed that there weren't very many of them in the United States (I can never remember seeing one before Guinness and Tapper) - oh man was I wrong, it turns out that there is quite a healthy subculture surrounding "Berners", enough so that this past weekend we took part in a Bernese Mountain Dog Parade! It was in Connecticut, about a 40 minute drive from our house, and they were everywhere. Tapper and Guinness wore their barrels - little casks like you see on the necks of St. Bernards (also from Switzerland) when they are out on rescue missions - which were a big hit. My favorite was a 3 month old puppy, here is a picture of Dad's favorite, apparently this breeds' calm temperament makes them a natural for pulling small carts or wagons, a task they originally performed in Switzerland...

I Have Harry Potter Hands

As much as I love having nothing more pressing to do than cut trails through the woods and teach Dad and Julie how to use technology, my life plan reqires me to find a job as a nurse in an intensive care unit (ICU). As of November 15th I will have the nurse part covered, I am still working on the job part... Here is my dilemma: when you are a nurse in an ICU you care for only one or two patients at a time because they are so sick that they require all of your attention and brain power, if you live in a small town (such as Stormville) and by extension work at a small community hospital, you cannot start working in an ICU until you have a year of experience as a floor nurse. This is because smaller hospitals have smaller ICUs which employ fewer nurses who are so busy that they can't be expected to train a brand spankin' new graduate nurse (yours truly) on top of caring for their patients. I can see how this argument has merit, but I HATE working on the floor. The floor is where the nursing shortage is, since these patients are less critical they don't require as much individualized care (like complicated dressing changes) and as a result, floor nurses can be assigned as many as eight patients at a time - so you don't do cool stuff AND you have to do eight times the paperwork! I feel like nothing more than a giant pain pill dispenser when I work on the floor! The only way to avoid working on the floor and get directly into an ICU is by getting a job at a bigger hospital where they can afford to run special training programs for new graduates who want to work in ICUs. Bigger hospitals also have bigger ICUs meaning more patients to learn on and more nurses to learn from. So this past week I flew to Los Angeles to interview for jobs at UCLA and Cedars-Sinai. UCLA is a big teaching hospital with a great ICU training program, Cedars also has a training program AND it is where all the famous people go when they get sick ;) I stayed with one of my sorority sisters, Ashley, who works as a nurse at UCLA. I interviewed at both hospitals on Tuesday and then on Wednesday we took a tour around the city and got to see all the cheesy tourist stuff like the big Hollywood sign, Rodeo Drive and famous people's houses - it was awesome. My favorite part was Grauman's Chinese theatre where all the stars have their handprints and footprints because I found the prints for all the Harry Potter actors! You will be happy to know that my hands are the EXACT same size as Harry Potter's, now all I need is for my scar (from the stick incident) to get a little bigger and a little more lightning bolt shaped...

I Feel Wicked

I have heard a ton of good things about Wicked over the last few years, so when Dad asked what I wanted for my birthday I figured I should take advantage of being this close to Broadway and asked him if we could go see Wicked... you know how sometimes things get too built up and then they can't possibly live up to your expectations? Well this play was NOT one of those things! It blew me away, go see it if you ever have the chance - it is AMAZING!

Property Line

Up until now the property line (which separates our land from the DEP and our neighbors) has been something of a mystery. Sure dad knows its vague location but you were never going to get anything too specific out of him. Well, as I bushwacked my way along this mysterious invisible line (guided by surveyor's marks and old maps) posting 'No Tresspassing' signs, I decided that it was high time for us to have a path there. So I set off with a couple cans of neon spray paint to mark off this path. This is a slow process because you have to stop and mark every tree that you want cut down so that whomever comes along behind you with their clippers and chainsaw doesn't have to stop and think about which way to go and which trees to keep - marking doesn't sound like much but it makes the cutting part much more streamlined. After the path is cut and logs and rocks are cleared it looks great. Here is a picture of Guinness and Tapper on a section of newly completed path. The leaves are raked to the side so that the path-maker can be sure they are not missing any stumps or rocks as they go, this also gives the path a very clear outline. However, fall is fast approaching and all of those lovely green leaves you see in the pictures will soon be blanketing our brand new path making it MUCH harder to find and follow! So dad asked me to come up with some sort of marking/symbol we can put on the trees so that we will always know where the path is. The Appalachian trail is marked with white dashes but these are pretty hard to see in winter when everything is white, plus they are a bit boring given that I can pick anything ;) I haven't made a final decision on what to use yet but here is my first idea:











I love it because it is used as a symbol in Harry Potter but it doesn't show up too well on the trees (I think it is too intricate) so I am going to keep designing...

Its Offical, She is a Genius

Bonfire Sunday

Attention mom: I am sorry I forgot to wear ear protection in the chipping video but you will please notice that I am wearing some very attractive safetly goggles to protect my eyes from any potential flying sparks at the bonfire. I was deprived of fire in Gainesville so now that the weather is cooling down we are going to make every effort to take advantage of our multiple fire pit/fireplace opportunities.

Chipping

I had an awesome birthday yesterday and one of my favorite parts was making a video! I haven't made one since I left Gainesville so yesterday I got out Dad and Julie's new video camera and spent most of the morning figuring out how to get the video off of the camera and onto my computer. There are clearly a ton of cool things to film up here so once the process of 'recording, transferring to computer and editing' is streamlined I am going to get them to start. This video will give you an idea of what we have been doing up here lately and it will give you a bit more appreciation for everything that went into making the path around the lake!

Sidelined

We live on about 80 acres but those 80 acres are surrounded by about 2,000 acres owned by the DEP (Department of Environmental Protection) which means that we basically live in the middle of a huge national park, this is great because it means that no one can ever build around us and we will always feel like we are in the middle of nowhere. The only thing we need to legally cross onto DEP land is a permit for "recreational use" which they sell to the general public, it is like a fishing license but for hiking. Unfortunatley, the DEP also sells hunting licenses for their land and every now and then a stray hunter will wander onto our property while tracking something. Hunting season starts in October so I have spent the last couple days putting up these 'No Trespassing' signs along our property line. Yesterday I was doing a particularly heavily wooded area and as I was climbing uphill I managed to headbutt a sharp stick that was pointed downhill. It hurt but I didn't think much of it until I reached up and found a piece of the branch sticking out of my forehead. As soon as I pulled it out I realized that I had a bit more than a scratch, my first thought was to put my finger over the hole but all that got me was a bloody finger. I knew I had to cover the hole because 1) I was about a 15 minute walk from the house and I didn't want to be covered in blood by the time I got back 2) because I was still in the middle of the woods and I could just picture myself tripping and getting the cut/hole all dirty and 3) because head wounds bleed alot. I really didn't want to use my shirt because I didn't want blood all over my shirt so instead I pulled my visor down around my forehead and just pulled it really tight. I got back to the house and warned dad that I probably looked much worse than I was. He promised not to freak out, cleaned me up, determined I didn't need a stitch and took a picture so that I could put it on my blog ;) Thanks dad! Here is a picture of the visor - it is pretty gross, I think I'm gonna have to throw it out. I made it through the rest of the day with a bandaide but it got stuck in my hair and taking it off was more painful than headbutting the stick so after my shower I devised this lovely homemade one.

More Pie

Did you know that anything you make with an ingredient from the garden is healthy? Trust me, it doesn't matter what else you cook it with because it retains the 'good for you' label - how could it not be, it's fresh! This weekend I made some rhubarb pie. The rhubarb was a little bit smaller than the stuff you find in the grocery store but it still tasted wonderful.

Message from Hogwarts

Dad and Julie are part of a group that has monthly cocktail parties during the summer. They have roughly the same group of friends at each party, one couple will volunteer to host that month and then everyone shows up from 4pm to 6pm one Sunday afternoon. It is very easy, very low key and everyone really enjoys them. The host couple usually invites one or two new couples to join - people they know but that everyone else might not know - which is a great way to meet new people when you live in such a spread out community (our driveway is a half mile long... that doesn't exactly invite new neighbors to "drop by"). Earlier this summer (while I was still in Gainesville) Dad called me up after one of these cocktail parties and said that he had met someone I might be interested in meeting once I got up to NY. He couldn't remember the guy's name but said that they had got to talking and it came up that he records the audiobook versions of the Harry Potter books. In case you have forgotten, the final book in the Harry Potter series was released this summer so Harry Potter hype was at an all time high. I not only knew who this guy was (Jim Dale) but I had his audiobook versions of the first six books on my ipod as a refresher (and to tide me over until the seventh book came out)! Even if you aren't a huge Harry Potter fan, you've gotta be impressed with Jim Dale. He doesn't just read the stories, he has a unique voice for every single character! He actually holds two Guinness World Records: one for having created and recorded 134 different character voices for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (book 5), and one for occupying the first six places in the 'Top Ten Audio Books of America 2005". He is a big deal. After I relayed my excitement to Dad he must have mentioned it to Jim (embarrassing, but totally worth it) because a couple days later I received this voicemail on my cellphone... the video is a little over the top I know - but it is not everyday that you get a message from Hogwarts ;)

If you listen closely, as 'Dumbledore' is hanging up he says "I knew a dragon once called Redfield..." And if you were wondering, yes, the "cocktail party" on my calendar was one of these summer cocktail parties and yes, I got to meet Jim Dale - he really is awesome.

I'll Pencil You In

Katie called this weekend to harass me for not updating in a week. I have been bad about it because I really haven't been inside long enough to upload pictures! Fall is coming and the weather is awesome so I have been entertaining myself with various outdoor projects (which will all be blogged about soon). Kacy and I were talking a few weeks ago and we had a conversation along the same lines, she was telling me all about grad school and her new job and we were trying to coordinate a possible visit with a weekend she doesn't have to work. I jokingly pulled out my calendar to see what weekends I had free (they are all free, I have no obligations and it is awesome) and found that I had only one thing written down:

If you look closely at September 16th you will see "cocktail party". Life is hard.

Master Tree Finder

Thanks to the local Putnam County library I am now an official Master Tree Finder. Why is this important? Well after the success of the garden Dad voted that the next enterprise should be a distillery or a winery, Julie voted for raising chickens or some cattle (for eggs and milk, not to eat) and I voted for the much more attainable goal of maple syrup. Conveniently, since I am the only one without a job, mine is the only vote that counts! So I became a member of the local library to get access to their books on maple sugaring and I learned all about the whole process. It is actually pretty simple (in theory) but the tree sap doesn't get sweet until late winter so all I can do now is prepare. The most important part of the process is making sure that you are tapping the correct trees (hence the 'Master Tree Finder') so I went around and spray painted little white dots on 6 big Maples while all the trees still have leaves (because the easiest way to identify a tree is by its leaves - trust me, I am a master). I also ordered a tapping kit with all the other random odds and ends the process requires. So now we are ready!

Pumpkin Products

The bounty continues... the newest garden export is pumpkins! I was a bit surprised to see them this early in the season but it turns out that this is the time of the year for growing cooking pumpkins (as opposed to the jack-o-lantern types you carve at Halloween) the difference being that these are smaller and sweeter than the bigger version we are used to. We had two ripe ones so far, yesterday I used them to make a batch of pumpkin cookies, roasted pumpkin seeds, two loaves of pumpkin bread and a pumpkin pie! We had people over for dinner last night and I forgot to take a picture of everything beforehand so it will have to be a testament to their tastiness that this is all that is left!

Berries are Made of Awesome

If you think you love strawberries the most, you are wrong. Kacy Taylor loves strawberries the most - yet another reason for her to come up and visit.

Raspberries and Strawberries!

I am definitely a fan of the garden. The berries are just starting to ripen, you can see some green ones in the pictures. My next goal is to look up how canning works...

Kayaking in the Lake

This was more of an exercise in relaxation than a true workout... Dad has been trying to convince Julie that if they got another kayak they could have some cool day paddles on all the lakes around here. Julie has never really kayaked before so she wasn't too excited about the whole thing until Dad brought the kayak out to the lake a couple nights ago for a practice run. We took turns paddling around and scaring frogs while listening to Enya on the iPod, Julie (who had probably been picturing something along the lines of white-water rafting) agreed that this was an activity worth pursuing.

Thirsty?

We did a day hike on the Appalachian Trail yesterday (Labor Day), this involved dropping a car at the end point and driving a separate car to our starting point. We decided to bring along sandwiches for lunch from a local deli that regularly serves AT hikers, and while we were waiting for our order I started reading a 'guest log' that the owners let hikers sign when they stop for a meal. I would have signed but this is the time of year when thru-hikers are passing through upstate New York (the hikers who are doing the entire trial from Georgia to Maine this summer) and I would have felt kinda wimpy signing next to all of them ;) We brought Tapper and Guinness along but they weren't exactly built for hot summer weather...

Potatoes

Today we picked potatoes. You will notice that some of them are pretty beat up, this is because digging up potatoes isn't quite as straightforward as it sounds. The problem is that we were digging them up with little trowels and we knew what general vicinity they were in but we weren't exactly sure where or how deep they were so every now and then one would get stabbed. Even with a few casualties we still found enough to have them as a side dish tonight.