Memorial Day

How about a blast from the past?


In the not so distant past, we did some work with a bulldozer at Jake's family property in Hornby.  Now, I use we in a very loose manner, since the most work I did was to help paint trim, and sleep.  Jake's friend Nate jumped into the 'dozer cabin and had a glorious 2 days playing with the heavy machinery and moving dirt.


The first day of our adventure opened with the boys tearing down a tree that stood in the middle of the water-logged field between the road and the cabin.  once that was down, Nate began to move dirt around and started to dish out the pond space.  At the end of the day, we had a bit of water starting to take over the small indentation we'd created:

Day two was a bit rough since the top layer of soil was absolute SLUDGE.  And by that I mean super-saturated mud so thick the dozer was sinking quite a bit!

While Jake and Nate were conferring on how to proceed with the mud and dishing out the pond, Indy and I found a useful way to keep ourselves busy!

About 4 days after we'd finished playing in the mud and Nate had made his final passes with the 'dozer, Jake and I came back to investigate the height of the water in our pond hole.  We'd been quite skeptical from the beginning about what height the water would in fact reach, and thought that the picture below would be the view we'd see for years to come....

About 2 weeks later, we saw that there was clearly more water pouring into that old water-logged field than we'd expected!

While we were up there, we started trying to smooth out some of the ruts that the 'dozer had left behind with Jake's pick and the garden hoe.  We made some headway, but mostly I looked around for interesting pictures and frogs.  The water is still so cloudy and green from all the reflected light off the trees that this photo was too good to pass up!

Yeah, I know...

.....Long time, no write.  I've been bad; it's been months.  Needless to say, I have plenty to share in the form of backdated posts, however I will wait to do that and give you a current update.

My major bike ride, the Tour de Cure (in Watkins Glen, NY) will be here in less than two weeks!!! I'm a little apprehensive, since it'll be a very big ride for me, but I'll be having a great time doing it with the wonderful boyfriend in tow.  I have several rides that I've done recently, though most of them don't come with pictures.  Honestly, that doesn't bother me overly much because it simply means that I'll need to do those rides again.  Luckily I haven't found a single route that I don't like.  

About 2 weeks ago, I rode around Keuka lake in the Tour de Keuka.  It's a similar ride to the one I'll be doing in the next couple of weeks, but the funds go to JDRF the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.  It was about 97 degrees out and the 46 miles seemed to drag on a bit, but finishing felt incredible.  I spent most of the ride alongside a lawyer, Greg, from Florida.   He was visiting his parents (who have a cottage on Keuka lake) with his wife and kids, and decided to do the ride on a whim.  He had wonderful encouragement and advice for me and helped push me to ride harder and faster (Jake was off with the front of the pack going about a bazillion miles an hour...).  

Bicycling always makes me feel so good about myself, that I often am led to the question of what am I going to eat?!?! (once I get home).   Recently this has blossomed into a few different things.  I made "refrigerator pickles" and promptly fell in love with them.  The recipe came from a blog link on Tastespotting, one of my absolute favorite gold-mines for recipes.  Once I come up with my own spice blend, I'll submit it there and post pictures here!  (Maybe some intermediary ones firsts...)  I also made Amish zucchini bread which is delicious.  I brought some to my cousin Amy's bridal shower, and everyone gobbled it up in the space of an hour or two!

Tonight, I made scones.  I love scones.  The English Rose is one of my favorite places to go when I'm home, and their scones don't have eggs so they became an instant favorite in my house since my grandmother and mother were/are both afflicted with an egg allergy. 

Yes, stolen from the web, but honestly the best shot I could find of the English Rose!
...And to the right, my scones.  Before they were covered in butter and munched!

I made blueberry scones tonight (because Jake LOVES blueberries) and they taste fantastic.  I used some  frozen berries picked last year or the year before at Jake's Uncle's property.  We love to go berrying there and I think we're due for another berrying date with Jake's grandmother!

My garden also deserves an update.  I'll have to add photos of the foliage, but as you can see, both my garden (the zukes) and Jake's mom's garden (cukes & pepper) are thriving nicely.  Which really is an understatement but alas, it's too late to take photos outside..