Crambert

Who cares about flowers?

2010-08-02T10:05:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been a long time and I have a ton of flower photos. I'm sorry my life isn't very interesting and the parts that are, I don't take too many pictures of. So here are a ton of pictures of flowers. Again, I'm sorry.

In the spring, my garden was filled with Forget-Me-Nots and Siberian Wallflowers. It was really great for a few weeks and then they died back and left a lot of bare space. My co-worker Sharon gave me some perennials to help but I'll need to do some serious rearranging next spring and keep the Forget-Me-Nots from taking over everything.

I have three of these planters on our porch railing. They looked really great until I neglected them during a heat wave. At the moment they are pretty shriveled but I'm hopeful they'll recover.

These were the first of the Columbine to bloom. I'm not sure why but this one plant had these two very different blooms.

These Columbine came next. They have similar colors to the wild ones I've seen around here, but a different shape.

Finally these pretty pale Columbine bloomed. I'm excited to spread the seeds from all three and have more next spring.

This area used to be filled with little rocks. Since it's one of the sunniest spots in my garden, that seemed like a waste so I got rid of them. I was going to get rid of the big rocks and branches too, but after I cleaned them up, I decided I liked them. Some of the flowers I bought but most are from Sharon. You can really see it but there are tiny little Hens and Chicks in the bottom left corner.

This is one of the flowers from Sharon. I had seen Bleeding Hearts before, and actually bought one, which won't bloom until next year. I'd never seen these before though. They're called Burning Hearts.

My Black-Eyed-Susans are going crazy this year! I keep tying them up and they keep growing so tall they fall over again. I love these things and I'm going to try to spread them out among the Forget-Me-Nots next year since they are basically in two big clumps right now.

I love Coneflowers and I thought I might have some growing, but they turned out to be weeds. After two years of failing to grow these, I broke down and bought some. Two purple ones and....

... one pale yellow one. This is actually kinda sad and wilty looking, but at least you can see the color.

I had a couple of volunteer sunflowers sprout up in the front flowerbed, and being a good Kansas girl, I moved them to a spot where they could grow happily and this one is about to bloom!

I'm not usually crazy about roses. They are pretty but I just don't get all that worked up about them and they always seem like a lot of work. I didn't plant this one. My ex-neighbor planted it about three years ago and I know it has been mowed over at least once. All that said, I'm really fond of this little rose bush and I think they are lovely little roses. Maybe roses aren't so finicky if it can survive neglect and being mowed and still put out pretty pink roses.

The Cosmos, Zinnias, and Morning Glories I planted in the front garden are blooming like crazy right now. Every time I go out there, there are several of these big fuzzy bumblebees flying around the flowers.

My rioting flowers. I love them so much. Unfortunately, the Morning Glories had already closed up for the day. I'll have to try to take a picture of them some other time.

Spring!!!

2010-04-03T15:11:00.000-07:00

My first crocus ever bloomed today!!!!

Also, it rained for a couple days and now has been sunny and 70s the last few days (80 today!) and things are exploding! These weird looking things are rhubarb.

This little daffodil barely has leaves but it's putting out a bud already.

This is the same tulip plant I posted a picture of a couple weeks ago.

Here are the day lilies that were just poking through in my last post.

I am 90% sure this is Columbine, which I started from seed last year. Last summer however, they never looked anywhere close to as good as this looks now, much less bloomed.

I think this might be a baby purple coneflower. I have a ton of these coming up and same as with the Columbine, they never looked this happy or bloomed last year. Can anyone confirm that this is a coneflower? Maybe I have some lovely perennials after all, and maybe they'll actually bloom this year!!!

Long overdue and just plain long

2010-03-19T14:47:00.000-07:00

I've been neglecting this blog for a very long time now and as I was getting ready to blog, I kept finding more and more pictures I forgot to post, as far back as last fall. Soooo, get ready! Let's see if I can get everything in order.

Here is a lovely fall bouquet I gathered on a walk last fall, along with some pumpkins I picked at a local farm.

Later Chuck and Melissa came over and carved Jack-O-Lanterns. Chuck is so good at carving pumpkins, he can do it with his eyes closed!

Here are the finished pumpkins.

And the reverse sides.

And on to Christmas! Here is the cardboard tree we have had every year since we moved to Vermont. I can't believe this was it's fourth Christmas!!!

This year I made ornaments for everyone in my family, which means I made a lot of ornaments. Here are a few of them. Almost all the ornaments you see on the tree went to my family.

Presents. We mostly give each other a lot of little things we would have bought anyway but wrap them because it's more fun that way.

Christmas day I made verenika, fried potatoes, zwiebach, corn and pie (not pictured). I have to say, it was pretty delicious, but still not as good as Grandma's.

For New Year's Eve, Chuck and Melissa invited a few people over to the house they were house-sitting at (with permission, of course), and cooked some delicious food for a delicious potluck.

I think Melissa was trying to figure out which clock was right, since they were all different and we didn't have a TV.

Here's me and Amanda Ann. Isn't she cute?

A couple weeks later, we got to go to Kansas to celebrate a late Christmas with friends and family there. Here's my Mom.

And Dad.

Luke right after his bath.

And Timo. As usual though, I didn't get decent pictures of everyone, and I got a silly amount of pictures of Luke. He's such a little ham, he just demands all the attention.

Luke loves many things in life but three of his favorite things are hats, Veggie Tales, and Papa. Here he's got all three. He has made his usual demands of his Veggie Tales watching companions that they must always wear a hat. Unfortunately for Dad, my parents only own two Veggie Tales videos, which explains my Dad's glazed over expression.

Luke got this little cowboy hat for Christmas and promptly made everyone take turns wearing it. My head is a little too big.

Here is the only not-terrible picture I have from the Bartel Christmas. Grandpa reading the traditional story while everyone listens, takes lots of pictures and the kids act cute. It's so nice that they are able to "schedule Christmas" for when we are home and it's always great to see everyone and to eat waaaay too much verenika.

When we go home I sleep in my old bedroom. The first few mornings we were there, before I adjusted to the change in schedule, I woke up fairly early to see a beautiful frosty, foggy morning.

Another misty morning. I have some silly videos of Luke but I haven't uploaded them yet, so those will have to come later.

Back in Vermont, my aunt sent us this awesome quilt she MADE for us. I was pretty excited to get home from work to find such a great surprise waiting for me on the porch. This is the top.

Here is Mosley posing.

This is the bottom of the quilt which is lovely soft flannel, and which we use as the top most of the time, as Mosley finds the ties on the top very tempting to chew on. Thanks Annette!

Melissa and I have been going on walks lately since it has been really nice here the last couple weeks. We made this awesome diorama mostly out of things we picked up on our walk and a few other odds and ends.

It all started when we found these tiny little pine cones.

Meanwhile, Mosley has spent most of the winter being cute and snuggly.

And silly and snuggly.

And some more cute and snuggly.

I didn't bother to clean up the leaves this fall, somehow thinking some of them would blow away or something. Clearly they didn't and as the little snow we got quickly melted, our yard looked seriously horrible. I started raking a little before I remembered I wanted to take pictures so the flower bed in this "before" picture is already mostly raked. This is the front of the house.

And after.

House side before...

And after.

Garage side before...

And after. Clearly I didn't get all the leaves out. Some still were frozen together with chunks of ice/snow. Some were in places I don't care about and I figure some of them can decompose and help the garden out. It's sooo much better than it was though. It took a long time and Joseph helped me haul all the leaves back behind the garage, which was a huge job.

I knew some things were coming up but I was amazed at how much green stuff was hiding under all those leaves!

Last fall I dug out that long garden in the front of the house and lined it with bricks I dug out of the other garden (don't ask me why there were so many bricks in my garden). I planted all kinds of bulbs and they are starting to come up already! Here are some tulips.

And some crocuses! I also planted daffodils and miniature irises and they are coming up too. It's supposed to be pretty cold tomorrow so hopefully it won't set them back too far. I'm soooo excited about spring! Also, for those of you who care, I'll be at Winfield this year for the first time since 2004!! It's been way too long and September seems like a long way away still but I'm sure it'll be here before I know it!

Thanksgiving

2009-12-02T10:09:00.000-08:00

We spent this Thanksgiving the same way we have the last few years. All the cartoonists, etc. who aren't going home for the holiday have a big potluck. My job gives every employee a free turkey every year but lucky for me, some of my friends volunteered to cook it and bring it to the potluck. There was a very large turnout this year and tons of delicious food.

Here is what we contributed to the potluck. I went a little crazy this year but I'm glad I did because almost everything was gone by the end of the evening. So back to front, left to right we have homemade applesauce from apples we picked, zwiebach (or rolls), pumpkin pie, blueberry jam from berries we picked, pecan pie, vegan apple pie, pumpkin chocolate chip pie (Joseph's idea, and a good one) and apple pie.

When I was little I loved watching my Mom make designs in the top pie crust and now that I make pies myself, I love the opportunity to personalize the pies a little bit. It's a little hard to tell, but this is my attempt at a turkey. He's facing left.

These are zwiebach. Some people think they are just rolls that are shaped funny but to me they will never be just rolls. They are zwiebach, which my Great-Grandma taught me to make when I was 9 and which I have been making ever since. Both my Grandmas make them, aunts and cousins make them. It's a family tradition. Another tradition is a meal called faspa which is zwiebach, cold cuts, jams, salads and dessert. We had faspa for our wedding meal and the pecan pie I made is from the recipe my Grandma Bartel made for our wedding.

It was a good Thanksgiving and we'll probably spend Christmas in a similar way. I'm already thinking about what I want to bring. Then in mid January, we'll be going home to Kansas for late Christmas celebrations. I'm really looking forward to it. Somehow no matter how many comfort foods I make, it never feels quite like Christmas until I'm at my Mom and Dad's house with my whole family around the table.

Speaking of Christmas, I've been working on making a little present for everyone in my family. It's a pretty large crowd by now and it's taking a little longer than I thought it would but I'm pretty happy with how things are turning out. As soon as I'm done I'll mail them home and once they arrive I'll post pictures but until then you'll just have to wait in suspense because I don't want to ruin the surprise.

Fall!

2009-10-08T14:49:00.000-07:00

This summer flew by and was cool and rainy a lot of the time, but it was great anyway. I had a wonderful visit home that was the highlight of my summer. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera with me. It was amazing though. I spent the first couple days helping my family put up corn from the garden and then we all drove to Colorado to go to Family Camp with most of my Mom's side of the family. On the way, we spent a couple days in Denver and got to eat some really good Mexican food that I miss soooo much living here in Vermont. We went to see the new Harry Potter movie (a long standing tradition with my brother Tim) and I really tried to like it. Ever since I read the books though, the movies are harder and harder to enjoy. We also went to the aquarium, which was really fun, and surprisingly good for something so far from any ocean. Also, they have tigers there. I thought they were amazing, but tigers? In an aquarium? Then we were off to family camp for lots of hiking and good family time (the best thing ever) and introducing my nephew to toasted marshmallows. That's right, I got him totally hooked. I'm such a good aunt. Also, I got to see an awesome thunderstorm (another thing I miss since moving away from the midwest) which then turned into a very brief snowstorm. I got tons of great time with my 1 1/2 year old nephew and I even got some hugs and kisses. He's such a sweet little guy and I love watching my sister and her husband with him.

My garden had it's ups and downs. The slugs slowed down a little eventually and I got to eat a few things out of my garden. Of all the flower seeds I planted though, I still haven't gotten a single bloom except for the morning glories climbing the front of the house. I'm hoping some of the perennial flowers will come back next year and actually bloom, but we'll see. I might have to bite the bullet and buy actual plants instead of cheap seeds.

This huge branch fell on my garden and although my landlord kindly came and got rid of it quickly, it landed right on my tomato plants, and they weren't too happy about it.

Sooo, I spent an afternoon digging up this garden in the front of the house, where the sun shines a little more, and planted a whole bunch of bulbs. 25 crocuses, 18 dutch irises, 14 daffodils and 14 tulips. I'm really excited to see them all come up in the spring. All the bricks that line this flower bed, I dug out of my main garden last spring. I don't know why there were so many bricks in there, but I'm glad I found something useful to do with them.

Also this summer, Joseph and I used the internet to teach ourselves to make sushi. It's really not that hard and it's awesome and way less expensive than going out to eat sushi.

I also internet-learned how to make a yummy vegan chocolate cake in honor of the births of our good friends Chuck and Melissa (their birthdays are a couple weeks apart). I used this recipe and it turned out so well that I made a second cake for us after we sent home most of the leftovers with Chuck and Melissa.

I got a couple of my friends to put layers in my hair and I'm very happy with my new haircut. Here is the back of it.

And here's the front.

Joseph goes to a lot of conventions and I usually have to stay home, but I try to go to SPX every year. He has to work quite a bit, but for me, it's just a nice little vacation from work and a great chance to catch up with a lot of friends I hardly ever get to see.

I spent very little time here, behind the table. It's busy and cramped back there and I'm just in the way anyway.

So I spent most of the convention time with my wonderful friends, such as Melissa here.

Kristen and Jacie and I spent an afternoon just napping in our hotel room. It was lovely.

We also went shopping with Emily and baby Gus. It was a great weekend and I'm already looking forward to seeing everyone again next SPX.

Now it's fall here and it's really beautiful. The leaves are all starting to change and this afternoon I went apple/pumpkin picking with Melissa (but forgot the camera) and it was amazing out. For some reason, fall always makes me feel like a total Susie-homemaker. Is that a term everyone uses or just my family? Anyway, I made two kinds of soup in one day, I made blueberry jam, apple blueberry pie, apple sauce, and apple butter. Next I'm making pumpkin chocolate chip muffins. Maybe my body thinks I'm going to hibernate so it's just trying to fatten me up for the winter.

A new blog post just wouldn't be complete without at least one picture of Mosley. He got into a little trouble while we were at SPX but he didn't harm himself and he didn't destroy anything that can't be replaced. He just keeps getting bigger and now that it's getting cooler, he is getting even more snuggly, if that's possible. He likes to try to drape himself around your shoulders, like he's doing in this picture.

The biggest news in my family is that I have a new nephew!! James and Courtney had a baby boy on September 21. I haven't met the little guy yet but from the pictures I've seen and from what I hear, he's pretty adorable. I'm looking forward to meeting him when we go home next January.

Summer!!

2009-07-02T11:16:00.000-07:00

I have been very busy in my garden lately. Last year, the area surrounding our parking area was filled with weeds and pretty much nothing else. Some day lilies and a little rose bush were the only things someone put there on purpose. I was sharing a garden with a couple friends just up the hill from me, so I didn't try to take ownership of the weed patch. This year however, the shared garden wasn't going to happen and I really wanted to put some things into the ground. So I checked with our downstairs neighbors, who said they had no plans for the space. So I decided to go for it. It's a pretty good sized area, but because we live on the side of a hill, it only gets morning sun. I wasn't sure how well anything would grow, and I also wasn't sure how much money I could throw into it, so I bought a few plants, and a bunch of seeds, including a perennial mixture with cone flowers, black-eyed susans, columbine and a bunch of other stuff. I've spent a long time staring at all the little green things coming up, trying to figure out which ones are flowers, and which are weeds. The garden is on three sides of the parking area.

This is the right side of the parking. I've got some rhubarb, strawberries, jalapeños, and a few flowers here.

Here is the same spot a few weeks ago. The rhubarb took a long time to recover after I transplanted it from last year's garden. Most of the leaves died and I started to lose hope but all the sudden it started putting out new leaves like crazy. You can also see in this picture, I hadn't cleared out the whole garden yet. The entire thing was covered in that landscaping fabric you can see sticking out in the back.

Here is the garden along the back of the parking. It looks smaller than it is in this picture. You can park three cars facing this space. This is where I planted all those flowers. I'm sure I have a lot of cone flowers coming up, a bunch of lupines, and I'm pretty sure some black-eyed susans and maybe some columbine. Plus a bunch of mysteries. I just found out that most of that vine stuff hanging off the hill is wild grapes. I'm pretty excited about this.

See? Baby grapes!

As I was examining the grapes, I also discovered a big patch of wild blackberries!!! I love my generous hill even if it does shade my garden most of the day!!

Here is the left side of the parking. On this side, you can see the little rose bush that was already there. I planted some mint, basil, cilantro, lettuce, tomatoes, eggplant, and more flowers. I went to buy some flowers the other day and the lady there was so nice, she just gave me the tomatoes and eggplant. I haven't really cooked with eggplant before but I'm sure I'll find something good to make out of it.

Here are some of the flowers I bought from her. She told me what they are called but I've completely forgotten.

I love our day lilies and as I wait (somewhat impatiently) for the tiny seedlings I planted to hurry up and grow, I really appreciate the bright lilies making my garden look a little more like a real garden.

This isn't a great picture but this is the front of the house. I planted snap peas and morning glories alternating all along the front of the house. The snap peas are growing much faster than the morning glories and as soon as it stops raining long enough, I will go put up some string for them to climb.

Besides gardening, I've been eating a lot of ice cream.

Also hanging out with Mosley. He is getting really big. He was four and a half pounds when we got him in December, and now is almost twenty pounds!

And of course knitting. This is a camera case I made for a friend. I made one for our camera too, but I don't have a picture. Ours is orange, yellow and green.

WARNING!! If you are squeamish, or if slugs gross you out, do not scroll down.

I have been picking obscene amounts of slugs out of my garden. Since my garden is shady, and right near a foresty hill, and it has been raining nearly every day, I have a major infestation. I decided to start counting them. I told people I had a lot of slugs in my garden, but I felt they didn't really understand how serious I was. Also, when you are picking that many slugs, it helps to focus on something else, like counting. Usually, I drop them into soapy water to kill them, put a lid on tight, and then toss the whole container into the dumpster. The first time I decided to count, I got 214 slugs. A few days later though, I was getting ready to pick slugs again, and I decided I needed to document this. So I just dropped them into this clear honey bottle, and skipped the soapy water. There are 477 slugs in there.

This is after I knocked them down, to show how full the jar is when they aren't climbing up the sides.

And the view from the top, just to give you a few more nightmares. I picked slugs again today and got 292 so the ones pictured are still the record for most slugs in one day. These guys are crazy. They totally destroyed my marigolds and have eaten most of my zinnia and sunflower seedlings. I'll keep picking them though, and I'm going to try some other natural remedies and hopefully I will be able to enjoy lots more out of my garden.

February Update

2009-02-22T11:33:00.000-08:00

Mosley is getting pretty big these days. He's more than doubled his weight since we brought him home two and a half months ago. He's learning a bunch of commands and he's really good most of the time. He spends as much time as possible napping on Joseph or me. He is so dedicated to snuggles that if you are cooking, or doing dishes, he often brings a toy over and sits on your feet just to be near you.

Often, if he is really upset, it is because he did everything right and he still wasn't allowed to sit with us. He'll sit politely (which is what he must do before being allowed on the couch), if that doesn't work, he'll bring a toy over and sit politely, sometimes he'll give a little bark or pat you on the leg to get your attention and then sit again. If none if these things work, sometimes he goes a little berserk. He tears around and around the room making the strangest little growl/grunting noise. After a minute or two he usually finds a toy to take his aggression out on and sits next to your feet. It's pretty hilarious.

Here's Mos in one of his favorite spots, relaxing on Joseph's lap while he works at his desk.

Here's Mosley with his Santa toy (which for some reason is Easter colors?) which he has de-thumbed. He feels it's unfair for his toys to have thumbs if he doesn't have any.

And finally, here is Moses at his craziest. He was extremely freaked out by this ab roller. I promise he isn't usually this insane. Right now he is fast asleep on my lap.

My Mom and Dad get here in just a few days and I can't wait!!! I've been planning for weeks and cleaning for days in preparation. Dad, I know you aren't the biggest fan of indoor dogs. I promise if Mosley starts going crazy like that, we will not antagonize him like we did in the video and we can put him in his crate until he calms down.

Here are a few plant cuttings I'm trying to root. This weekend we had a really nice sunny morning which makes me, Mosley and the little plants happy. See? Peaceful sunny mornings.

Home for the Holidays

2009-01-29T06:32:00.000-08:00

We got to go home for a week to celebrate the holidays a little late! Luke is getting so big and staying adorable. He's so great and it's so much fun to watch him figure things out. He was a little shy at first but he warmed up pretty quick.

Once he wasn't feeling as shy, he held my hands and we walked all over the place! When we were there he was just starting to walk by himself but if he held onto someone's hands, he could go pretty fast.

Every Christmas at my Grandparents' house, Grandpa reads a sweet children's book before we exchange gifts. This tradition also includes Grandma and Grandpa and probably a few other people crying as Grandpa reads the touching parts of the story. We kept that tradition but we had some other tears too. Thanks to Luke stealing the show several times and Grandpa accidentally skipping a line of the story, pretty much everyone got the giggles. This is a really shaky video because I shake when I laugh. If you watch the end of the video, Luke walks almost all the way across the room by himself.

Although it may not look like it in this picture, he warmed up to his uncle Joseph too.

He looooves Grammy and Grandpa!!

It's always so nice to go home and see everyone and always a little hard to leave. It was a little easier this time knowing that I'll be back for my brother's wedding later this year and that I'll have visitors before then. My parents are coming up in about a month and I can't wait!!! I keep thinking of more things to do but I'm also really looking forward to just hanging out at home with them. It's the first time I've played hostess to my family and it feels like a big deal. I'm also excited to introduce them to our puppy Mosley. My Mom's dogs are extremely well behaved so Mosley will be practicing his manners a lot this next month so he's ready for Mom and Dad's visit.

I think he'll be ready. :)

Chew Drag

2008-12-17T18:25:00.001-08:00

We don't let him chew every box in the house, only this one. It's his favorite toy.

Still no name

2008-12-13T16:38:00.000-08:00

No name yet.

2008-12-13T10:49:00.000-08:00

This is Joe. Yesterday Bec and I went to Springfield, VT to choose a puppy.

This is our pick. He's a Pug/Rat Terrier mix.

More photos on my Flickr page.

No, it's not the rapture

2008-09-19T05:46:00.000-07:00

This weekend is the Walnut Valley Bluegrass Festival down in Winfield Kansas. My family goes every year and camps out. This is the fourth year in a row I have missed it and the fifth time I've missed it since I was born. I feel a little like I'm away from home on the holidays.

When I was a kid, I was in Sunday School with my cousin Greg that my Aunt Donna (his mom) was teaching. They are the only ones in our family who don't go to Winfield, which Greg wasn't happy about. Donna was talking about the rapture which some Mennonites believe in and some don't. She told us that sometimes she tries to call several people and no one is home and she wonders to herself if the rapture happened and she was left behind. Greg added that really, everyone is just at Winfield. Greg told us later that he didn't get any dessert that day.

I hope everyone is having a great year at Winfield and staying dry. I love you guys and miss you. Somebody better eat a Navajo taco for me.

I know, I know

2008-08-01T14:06:00.000-07:00

So obviously my blogging is in bad shape when I go from one Kansas visit to the next between posts. What can I say? It's actually nice outside!

I was lucky enough to be able to go to Kansas for a week to see my friend/cousin get married and to visit my family. Joseph didn't come this time but that made it easier to come home, even though the visit was too short. I put a ton of pictures on my flickr account so you can go look at those by clicking on any of the ones I post, but I'm not posting all of them.

Tim just keeps growing! He is now six feet tall.

While I was there he bought a new bass that he has been saving up for. It's pretty sweet and he got a good deal too.

My amazing sister and my favorite nephew.

My sister and I at the reception. The wedding was really beautiful and I'm so happy for Mark and Amanda! I didn't take any pictures though because I just wanted to enjoy it.

Greg and Luke after Luke woke up from a nap with crazy hair.

Ben tried to comb it.

Luke loves being outside and fell asleep while my Dad was carrying him around the porch.

He is soooo cute!

My parents and me on my last day in Kansas.

Me and my best friend Kristen. This visit was the first time we'd seen each other in a year and a half and we didn't have nearly enough time. It was great to see her though.

I was sad to leave Kansas but it's nice to be back with my sweetie again.

Kansas Visit

2008-04-24T11:44:00.000-07:00

So I'm finally getting around to putting up a few pictures from our trip to Kansas. Basically all of them include my amazingly adorable and incredibly awesome nephew. His name is Luke. I adore him immensely. I'm very happy for his proud parents and extremely jealous of all the family that gets to hang out with him regularly. It's been at least a month since these pictures were taken and he has grown like crazy and started smiling and Laura (his mom) said that he laughed for the first time the other day. Obviously, I am smitten.

Aside from meeting Luke, I also got to spend a lot of time with some of my favorite people. It was an amazing visit. On to the pictures.

Here he is, so so sooooo cute. But of course you can see that.

Grandma Bev

Grandpa Chuck and Luke size each other up

Uncle Ben gets a turn.

Here he is awake.

My Grandparents, Luke's Great Grandparents.

Ok, so this is hardly a great photo of any of us, but I'm posting it anyway. The reason being that this is my entire family. This visit home was the first time that all of us had been in one place at one time in nearly three years. Soooo, in case anyone who doesn't already know who is who and actually cares, back row left to right is Ron, James, Tim and Ben. Middle row is Greg, Chuck (Dad), Bev (Mom) and Andrea. Front row is Laura, Luke, Wes, me and Joseph. I realize that I have a big family. I know when I tell people that I am third out of seven kids that they will be surprised. I know that since we are now thirteen people, that seems like a lot to most people. Most of the time though, it doesn't really seem like we're that big of a family. When I see this picture though, I know that we are.

It was a really great visit and I am hoping to make it back this summer. In the mean time, spring has finally decided to come to Vermont and there are lots of other things to look forward to here. I love the summers in Vermont, swimming in the river and getting ice cream cones, gardening with my friends, just being able to be out in the sunshine again. I'm getting new glasses, which I am excited about. Joseph graduates in a few weeks. This is a little bittersweet but we are happy that some of our friends are sticking around. Right after that, we are moving down the street to a slightly bigger apartment. Things I'm looking forward to about that are: two small closets instead of one, a full sized stove, more space in general, and most of all, a bedroom.

Let the count down begin!

2008-02-20T09:29:00.000-08:00

We will be in Kansas in a mere 16 days.

Yay!!!

I got a haircut, but not a scare cut

2008-01-28T16:50:00.001-08:00

I love John McCutcheon. I grew up on his music and I truly am quite fond of him. But seriously, that song... I get that stupid song in my head every time I get a haircut, or talk about haircuts, or think about haircuts. I really did get a haircut though. But first, one last knitting project.

This is a scarf I knit for Kristen with some fat yarn I got from that farm I visited last fall. Originally I was trying to knit with some wooden spoons but my knitting teacher loaned me some big knitting needles so it wouldn't take me a year to make one little scarf.

Also, we found this amazing chair for really really cheap at a local used furniture store. It's perfect. It has springs in it so it rocks but unlike many rocking chairs, it's not to tall to rock comfortably. It's squishy but not too squishy. It's perfect for reading, knitting, or watching movies. I love it.

Before

After! Yay!

I cut most of it myself and Joseph helped me get the back right. I was inspired by Amanda Ann's awesome new haircut she got when she visited home. Mine isn't quite as drastic but I still like it.

Knitting like mad

2008-01-07T11:21:00.000-08:00

I keep meaning to update this thing but then there is just one more thing I want to take a picture of before I do. So I'm just going to have to go for it.

Here in Vermont we have had a lot of snow. Basically since a day or two before Thanksgiving, the ground has been covered and most of the time, quite thickly. Sidewalks have snow walls a foot or two high and it's tough to see around corners because of the mountains of snow. Here's a few pictures of the snow.

It may interest you to know that these pictures were taken from our rental car after we dropped our car off at the shop. Why was it in the shop? Because I was in a small fender bender which I blame almost entirely on this beautiful snow. The fact that our car doesn't have snow tires might have had a small part in things too though. In any case, this was all about a month ago and everyone is completely fine, including our trusty little car, Douglas.

I hate being cold so I've been spending almost all my time indoors lately. To keep me busy and to help me feel a little more productive than just playing video games all day, I knit. I've been knitting a lot lately and I love it. I'm very into small projects that go quickly enough that I don't get bored or discouraged. I am planning on making a sweater soon though. Anyway, since I knit my purse, I have knit two scarves, one turtle, one elephant and one convertible glove (the other one is on it's way). I'm feeling very productive. So, here are the ones I have photographed so far.

Here is the turtle. I made him for my nephew, who is due two months from yesterday. Can you tell I'm excited to be an Auntie?

His shell comes off!

After I finished the turtle, my friend Jake started knitting an elephant. When I saw the pattern I couldn't resist so nephew-to-be is getting two toys. One for Christmas and one for his birthday.

Joseph asked if I could knit something like this for him. So this was his Christmas present, though it was late, and not much of a surprise since I made him try it on every couple of rows.

Here he is, my handsome husband, showing off his new convertible glove with the top back.

More pictures to come soon. Really. I'm so serious.

Autum in Vermont

2007-11-02T10:30:00.000-07:00

Once again, Vermont managed to produce an amazing fall. It's past it's peak now but I managed to get a few pictures of the leaves.

This lovely yellow tree is across the street from our house.

This is behind our house.

This is also across the street from our house. Also, many of the trees in this picture are technically in New Hampshire.

A week or two ago, my friend Amanda Ann and I drove out to a farm. We had heard tales of a fabulous yarn sale taking place there. It took us a little while to get there since we took the long way but it was totally worth it.

See how happy we are?

Also, it was a beautiful drive.

When we got there we thought we might be at the wrong place since there weren't any signs, just this house.

And this amazing barn. Pretty soon though, two ladies walked out of the house carrying big bundles of yarn and looking very happy and we knew we were in the right place.

My understanding (and I could be wrong) is that this family raises the sheep, then sends away the wool to be spun. Once a year they have a huge sale with piles of yarn in their living room, and for very good prices too.

Here are some of their sheep.

These pictures really aren't even close to showing how beautiful it was that day. It was perfect.

Here is a small portion of the yarn piled into their living room. The other great thing about this place is that when we got there, there was this music playing a really strange assortment of bad music. I realized after a little bit that there was a keyboard in the corner set to play all the demo songs it came with. It was hilarious.

Amanda Ann made out like a bandit. I got about half that much yarn but I'm still set for a while.

Susie Homemaker

2007-10-24T07:28:00.000-07:00

I've been on a huge Susie Homemaker kick lately. I made applesauce with Amanda Ann. It's very good but I don't have much freezer space so I couldn't make as much as I would have liked.

Also...

I made Blueberry freezer jam, Raspberry freezer jam, Banana muffins and Pumpkin Chocolate Chip muffins.

Besides all this, I have started knitting again. I'd only made a couple of scarves but a few of my co-workers wanted to take a knitting class together and I decided to take it too. This is the pattern I am making. Right here

And here are a few pictures of my progress so far.

I'm pretty excited. It's going to be great. I've actually started the inside pocket since I took those pictures. It's the ivory thread in the pictures. I already have about four more projects lined up but the next one is something for my nephew who is due to arrive pretty close to my birthday. I can't wait to meet the little fella.

Actual recent stuff

2007-08-30T09:39:00.000-07:00

Our garden is producing. All at once we have things to eat out of the garden. Just one at a time for now but soon we'll have tons of tomatoes and beans and carrots.

A while back we dug up this assortment of tiny onions and garlic. Amanda Ann's landlords who not only let us use the garden but also tilled it for us had transplanted them in the spring and they died before they got very big.

We also have these very happy Zinnias (Amanda Ann's favorites) and my Black-eyed Susans are promising to bloom any day now.

After a very hot day of weeding in the garden, we went for a swim and on our way back found this tiny little frog hopping along the path.

Good old Douglas recently got brand new Vermont tags which he sports in the front as well as the back. Although I think they are kinda ugly after the beautiful Kansas plate he used to wear with pride, he does look handsome. Also he's happy we were forced to repair him in order to pass inspection.

Kansas Vacation Part 3

2007-08-30T08:59:00.001-07:00

While we were home we got to spend an evening with some good friends. I worked for this family while I was in high school when Levi was just 2 and the twins were 6 months old. We've stayed close to them ever since and Callie and Carson went to the preschool where Joseph taught.

Here's Callie being the adorable camera ham that she is.

The night we were there she was trying out riding without training wheels.

Levi supporting his favorite team. Thanks to 3 year old Levi, I know all the words to the Wildcat song, although the melody is a little fuzzy.

We sat on their porch as the sun went down and the kids climbed really high in a tree.

It was a beautiful evening and reinforced my beliefs that porches are awesome and everyone should have one. Somehow Carson managed to avoid the camera all night. We miss you guys.

While we were home we got to go to Thresher's Ice Cream. This is a tradition in my Dad's family that after the harvest and baling are over, we all get together with everyone who helps and the landlords that rent fields to us. Then we eat ice cream. Each of the farming families brings hand-cranked home made ice cream and each family has their specialty that they have perfected over the years. It's pretty awesome.

Papa and Joseph played bean bags, which has been their biggest source of bonding.

My Uncle Dwayne and brother in law Greg formed the opposing team.

Auntie Ruth in her natural habitat, not missing a shot.

I was pretty sad to leave Kansas but I had something at home to look forward to.

That's right. Harry Potter. Yes, I know I could have read it in Kansas too but this was my own pre-ordered copy I had been waiting for and I needed something to look forward to.

Obviously I was excited, and rightly so. Joseph and I read it out loud to each other in three days. We'd take turns reading while the other cooked or did dishes and stopped as little as possible. It was a good thing to come home to.

Kansas Vacation Part 2

2007-08-02T16:23:00.001-07:00

This is Becca this time. I'm totally going to drag this out as much as possible and do at least one more post after this. So this one is about my family. I'm really terrible about taking pictures while I'm with my family because getting out the camera makes everyone self conscious and tends to ruin the conversation. I did manage to get at least one picture of almost everyone, though not quite.

I had a really really really really great time visiting with my family. I feel so comfortable with them it's almost easy to forget that we don't hang out all the time. I made sure I got one on one time with everyone which is always worth juggling schedules for.

We went home at the height of the gardening season there so I spent a lot of good quality time with my Mom putting up corn and green beans. The tomatoes, cucumbers and zucchini were all just starting to really hit their season. We also picked up a box of apricots Mom ordered so she could freeze them.

Here is my Mom on what we thought was the last night(more on that later). I suddenly realized I had hardly taken any pictures at all so I took a few. This one is a little dark but it's the only one I got of Mom.

For my one on one time with my Dad, we went to my favorite local mexican restaurant. Then we drove to Wichita and reserved tickets for my whole family to go see the new Harry Potter movie together. When we got home he took me out to one of his fields near our house to show me the pond he put in. It's really beautiful. I didn't get to swim in it but it even has a beach. Dad took a couple buckets of sand out so you can walk in without the mud squishing in between your toes. It was great and I'm really happy Dad could get away for a whole afternoon even though he was in the middle of baling and getting ready to sell some hogs. I didn't manage to get a picture of Dad except one which goes with a different story so I guess you'll have to wait for that.

My favorite sister had me over to her house for lunch. We made a really amazing pasta dish with a bunch of fresh herbs and vegetables from her garden and we will probably never be able to duplicate it since we were making it up as we went along. It was great though. We also went with my Mom to visit my Great Grandmother and later we walked downtown to do a few errands.

Here is my sister. Why does she have that silly grin you might ask? It's because she's going to be a Mommy. That's right. I'm going to be Aunt Becca sometime around my next birthday. We're all really excited. So far as I've heard, the only two things that have made her nauseous are the two things that are most abundant in her garden right now. Tomatoes and squash. Luckily she hasn't had much trouble at all though.

And here is the proud father-to-be, relaxing while he still can. Greg has been keeping busy working in construction and consuming Harry Potter in both movie and book forms. Not to mention several home improvement projects in their new house.

My brother Ben and his lovely wife Andrea had Joseph and I over for lunch and as is our habit, we stayed all afternoon. While we were there Andrea was able to find some really great bargains at an auction next door and my Grandparents stopped by to fix the air conditioning and give away extra green beans from their garden. For the most part though, we sat around and relaxed together, drinking terere and eating some Fla-Vor-Ice (which we are addicted to now).

Here they are at my folks' house. Aren't they adorable? Someday guys, someday we won't live so far apart.

Ok, now it's Tim time. First off, Tim is super tall. He is fourteen and he is already 5' 10" tall. I'm 5' 3" so, yeah.

Here we are the first night we were there. See how tall he is? I can't get over it. He's not supposed to grow up while I'm gone.

Secondly, he found out shortly before we got there that he is allergic to wasps. Here's how.

He got stung. His hand looked like a balloon or a cartoon or something.

He was going to camp on our second-to-last day there so since it's a good ninety minute drive, we decided that I would take him to camp so we could hang out. It ended up being a bit of a fiasco. He is such a good sport though and I was just happy to have a little extra time with him so we viewed it an adventure and had fun.

We got going a little late to start out with and then we had to stop and get gas. Then we stopped at Sonic to get some limeades. So things are going pretty well, we're a little on the late side but we figure that just means we won't have to wait so long in the line to check in. Besides, we're drinking our limeades and listening to Sufjan Stevens and it's a beautiful day.

Here he is, things are going well.

Then, because of a small misunderstanding about the directions, we miss a turn. Ten miles later we are both 100% sure nothing looks familiar so we pull over and figure out where we were supposed to turn. So we head back, find the turn. We're laughing about things though. Now that we're on the right road, we're good to go.

Here he is again. Now we're cruising.

Then we hit a detour. Not a huge one but a few miles out of our way. By this point we're both a little giggly.

Then the accelerator stopped working. I pressed on the gas, nothing. I floored it, nothing. I pulled over as it starts to shake. We pop the hood but neither of us knows what we're looking for and nothing is smoking so we get back in and start it up again. The accelerator works a tiny bit but then it starts shaking more, making strange noises and the "service engine soon" light comes on. We pull over again and start walking towards the nearest farmhouse about a half a mile away. Halfway there a farmer pulls over and asks if we need help and offers to let me borrow his cell phone. While I'm on the phone with my parents, another farmer pulls up behind him. It turns out the second farmer owns the house we were walking to and he offers to let us sit in the air conditioning there while we wait for my parents to come and get us since they are at least an hour away. He was very friendly and we made awkward conversation and sat on his couch for a while. The doorbell rang and we thought it was my Dad but it was actually some friends of my parents. I guess they had been dropping their son off at camp too and my Mom had managed to get them on their cell phone so they picked us up and took us to the camp. We were even in time for Tim to swim.

Here he is right before I had to say goodbye.

So I sat around for a bit and then my Dad showed up with the pick up. The plan was to take back roads and if the van wouldn't drive it, he would tow it with the truck.

Here is the van, gathering it's strength for the return trip.

Here is my Dad, figuring out the best route to take home.

The van seemed to be driving alright when my Dad got there so my Dad decided to drive the van while I followed in the truck. The truck is kinda fun to drive simply because it's huge. It doesn't however have any air conditioner.

Here I am preparing to drive the huge hot pickup back home.

It ended up not being bad at all. The van drove perfectly fine. That is of course, until we were about 10 minutes from home. It pulled the same routine. This time though, there was a big parking lot to park it in, and a truck to take us the rest of the way home.

So that was my adventure with Tim.

I got to spend some good time with Wes in the afternoon when he was home and we also visited him once but I failed to get a picture of him. He is also being disobedient and growing up while I'm gone though.

The next day my parents took us to the airport and we found out that our flight home actually no longer operates so we'd have to go home the next day instead. This ended up working out alright and gave us the chance to say goodbye to a few people we would have missed if we left as scheduled. It also meant I was able to help load some hogs.

A year or so ago my Dad switched over to selling his hogs to Neiman Ranch. I hope I'm spelling that right. Anyway, they are raised outdoors without any growth hormones or antibiotics. Also, a semi comes and picks up our hogs instead of us hauling them ourselves. This has been something Dad has been working to make easier and while it's still somewhat challenging, he has a pretty good system. My brother Ben works for my Dad so he was there to help. Also my sister-in-law Andrea rode her bike out to help because she's just that nice.

Here we are, all suited up and ready to go.

Turns out we are a pretty good team and things went pretty smoothly. It might also have had something to do with the fact that we were loading all the hogs on to the lowest level of the semi trailer but I don't know about that.

Ok, this is probably my longest post ever and I still have more to post about. I'll quit for now though. Obviously I had a really good visit.

Kansas Vacation Part 1

2007-07-20T13:47:00.000-07:00

Here are some of the photos I took while we were away in our hometown.

Adam plays the drums.

So does Josh. He also takes pictures of people taking pictures.

All of our hands lined up. Which hand belongs to which brother?

The family dog, James (Jamie) Brown.

Hi Kathleen.

Hey Khanh.

While Kathleen drove me and Bec and Khanh around we saw a van with this sign on the side of it. Which was really convenient because I was looking for some wireless service and Kathleen was looking for some fragrance products. It really worked out perfectly.

Josh thinned my hair a bit. Afterwards I trimmed his and we both felt refreshed and light headed.

Right before I took this picture (we were at a drive-thru restaurant), a kid rode by on his bike and called out to his friends, "Let's ride around and look for change! I just found a penny!"

When I got home I went to eat a bowl of cereal and was blown away by the super size of this freaking bag! By the way: 'Scooters' are small o's, similar to Cheerios.

My aunt and uncle recently (like a month ago) had this baby, Emma. Bec and I got to spend some time with it. She was amazing and adorable, and pretty quiet for a baby. She pooped in her pants when it was my turn to hold her. She was all red and squirmy, but she never cried, just stuck her tongue out and made faces.

Adam's band played at Borders while we were in town so we went to watch. They were pretty great, and surprisingly loud for a bookstore crowd, which was nice.

Tubbs keeping it steady.

Becca will post more pictures of the trip later.

Gardening

2007-07-01T16:21:00.000-07:00

I keep almost posting about my garden but then it grows and I want to get more up-to-date pictures. So I just got back from taking the latest batch of pictures and I'm posting them now before the garden has time to grow again.

Here is the garden near the begining. I guess I don't have a more recent picture of the whole garden but it doesn't look quite so empty anymore.

Here is the baby corn just one week after it was planted and it had just sprouted. It was about as tall as my thumbnail.

Here it is just one week later. My family grew corn in our garden every year I was growing up but somehow I am still shocked at how fast it grows. Here it is almost as tall as my hand.

And here it is today, about two weeks after that last one. It's at least a foot or a foot and a half.

And now to break up the boring string of plant pictures, here is one of Joseph waiting for me to finish taking pictures of the garden so we could go get ice cream.

Here is one of our two sweet potato vines about a week after we transplanted it.

Here it is today. Look how happy it is, even though it lives in New England. Hopefully it's happy under the dirt too.

Here is Amanda Ann lovingly watering the marigold seeds she had just planted.

Here I am admiring the baby marigolds tonight.

So far, after we planted everything we haven't had much work to do so whenever I go over to garden, we drag it out as long as possible and sit around by the garden chatting. One day this pretty butterfly came to visit us and pose for the camera.

And here are some cool flowers growing down a cool stone wall.

Back to the garden. When we set out on this little adventure, we really had no idea what to plant where. We'd both helped our parents with their gardens for years but didn't know what to put next to what but after asking around and doing a little research on the internet we decided to try companion planting. One thing everyone seemed to agree on was that tomotoes and basil like each other. So we planted basil in between our tomatoes. Here they are.

Another thing we decided to try is called Three Sisters. You make a little hill, plant some corn in the middle and then a couple weeks later you plant climbing beans around the corn and a vining plant like squash, cucumbers or melons around the beans. The beans climb the corn and the vines keep pests out and everybody is happier. So here are the bean seeds about to be planted.

Here is a view of the hill from the top. We made three hills, two with crookneck yellow summer squash on them and one with cucumbers. So far the squash is coming up great but only one cucumber plant has come up. I think we are going to have way too much squash.

Here is a really cool flower Amanda Ann has in her house. It looks like it has to be fake. I love it.

Joseph and I both like a song called cherry bomb and have been listening to it a lot recently so it seemed fitting when we were picking out some hot peppers that we buy this one which is called a cherry bomb. We also got a habanero plant. So far the habanero only has a few buds but here is the cherry bomb with three babies. I believe they will turn red when they are ripe. Sorry the picture is blurry.

Last but not least, here are the carrots being adorable and taking their own sweet time to grow.

Here I am dreaming of all the fresh produce I will soon have for free.

In less than a week I get to go home for a little over a week and visit family and friends. I'm giddy with excitement. It's a good time to go home too. I get to celebrate both my Grandfathers' birthdays and meet Joseph's new cousin. I get to celebrate my parents' 30th wedding anniversary. Plus, I get to see the newest Harry Potter movie with my 14 year old brother Tim, as that is our tradition and good traditions shouldn't be broken. I might even get to watch him learn to drive a little or at least see his brand new learner's permit. It's going to be a very good week.

Catching up

2007-06-10T08:50:00.000-07:00

I've been meaning to post for ages now but between my schedule and Joseph needing the computer a ton, I just haven't gotten around to it. So, first off, here are some pictures I took when spring was just getting started. Most of them are gone now but they are pretty and were such a welcome sight after winter.

These pretty little flowers grew all over our yard.

These lovely tulips grew in front of our house and as soon as they were done, they mysteriously disappeared. They were replaced by, in my opinion, not terribly nice annuals. Oh well.

This orchid did not grow in our yard. Joseph brought it home from a drawing class.

In other news, Joseph cut my hair. When I was in DEO, my dear Laurel cut my hair regularly. After she moved back to Iowa, no one would cut my hair and I couldn't bring myself to pay for a hair cut. So I decided to grow my hair out, at least partly out of cheapness and laziness. I did love my long hair but it was getting out of hand and the ends were awful. It had been, after all, over three years since it had gotten so much as a trim. Here is a nice picture my friend Jacie took of Joseph and I pre-haircuts. This is in Burlingtion on our way home from Montreal.

Here is the chopped off hair. I measured a lock and it was 10 inches.

Here I am with my still long, but much shorter hair.

That's all the pictures for today but I hope to update soon with some pictures of my brand new baby garden. Actually it's not strictly mine, Amanda Ann is letting me help her plant a garden. I am extremely greatful. I really hope to get to eat things out of it but in all honesty, I am happy just to hang out barefoot in the dirt on a beautiful spring evening with a good friend.

One other thing, I am going to my first comic convention. Mocca is June 23 and 24 and Joseph and I are making the trek to NYC along with many of our CCS friends. I'm pretty excited as I've never been to New York before either and we will get to see lots of friends old and new.

2007-04-15T07:51:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was our 23 month anniversary. To celebrate we developed a roll of film we've had floating around since our honeymoon. It's moved with us three times.

I love our digital camera but there's nothing quite like getting pictures back, having no idea what that little envelope might contain. It was fun. Here's a few of them.

Here's Josh about two years ago. He looks super young. We miss him.

Here's me and my Mom the day of my wedding. This picture makes me happy and sad. I love my Mommy and it was such a pretty day but I miss my Mom and I miss pretty days.

Our honeymoon cabin, taken from down by the lake.

This is Joseph on an island all his own.

Am I beckoning someone or making a rude hand gesture? You decide.

Awww, so in love and... such a huge arm.

Here's my honey on the back deck of the cabin. It's very weird to see him without all his hair which is currently pretty long. I'll have to take a picture soon.

2007-04-15T07:38:00.000-07:00

So it's April here in Vermont and it won't stop snowing. Actually, it's rained some this morning but we're supposed to get 10 inches of snow by sometime tomorrow. It is still pretty I guess but I'm sooooo sick of winter. I need spring.

These pictures are actually from a few months ago but everything looks the same. This one is early on during a big snow.

Here is the same car after a few hours.

That is our bathroom window behind that pile of snow. We can see out of it a little more right now but maybe not by tomorrow.

A couple weeks ago it warmed up a little (mid 50s) and robins and red-winged blackbirds showed up. The poor things are still here, singing from the tops of snow covered trees. I know how they feel. I'm ready for spring too.

Christmas time is here!

2007-01-30T10:56:00.000-08:00

So this is obviously very late to be posting Christmas-type pictures but I'm gonna go for it anyway.

I wanted a tree but couldn't bring myself (or our budget) to fork over $20 for a three-foot tree (which was all we had room for). Joseph and I went back and forth over it, mostly as my sentimental nature swelled and I regained my senses again. Finally, we realized that we already had all we needed, thanks to Joseph not tossing out the cardboard from the futon we got a while back. Here it is, in most of it's glory.

I later added a popcorn string, a paper star and some paper snowflakes but I haven't uploaded any pictures of that yet, maybe later I will.

On Christmas day we had a quiet little celebration with our friends Bryan and Amanda Ann at their lovely home. Some of their relatives had sent them some food and I managed to get a couple things from work so very little actual cooking was done by us. We were very grateful for that since Amanda Ann and I both had to work the day before and after.

Here is us not cooking in the kitchen.

Our tasty spread.

She's my friend. Isn't she adorable?

Here we all are, ready to enjoy our dinner. That's Rodger in the front, hoping there will be scraps.

After dinner we compared hair to see whose is longest. I won, but just by a little bit.

Then we played Taboo while Rodger took up more than his share of the couch, as usual. Thanks to Bryan and Amanda Ann for having us over and putting up with us. We love you guys.

Bringin home the bacon

2007-01-29T07:54:00.000-08:00

I've been meaning to post some pictures from work for a long long time but I just haven't gotten around to it. Here they are, finally.

This is Deni working on condensing the cookies for the catalog so they don't take up so much space. This is about a quarter of the cookies we were mailing out at the peak of our season. Our record day we mailed out 4,000 cookies. Since then, things have dropped off significantly and we've been sending out more like 50 cookies and are down from shipping three days to just two.

The rack beside her is one of the oven racks. They hold 15 sheetpans and we can fit two of them in our rotating convection oven.

Here's some pretty Raspberry Linzer cookies. These are tasty but freakin time consuming, since you have to cut out tops and bottoms for each cookie, spray the tops with water and sprinkle with sugar before they bake, and then put jam on each one.

These are Bianci although I think the catalog called them Almond Cloud cookies. I think they are cool looking. They are scooped and left out so they develop a crust. Then they get covered with powdered sugar and smushed. They are a little too sweet for me though.

An army of gingerbread men. We could fit 8 dozen on one sheet pan once they were baked.

Some beautiful bread. I think this is 5-seed.

This is a small batch of coffeecakes. We often make twice that many.

Our convection oven I mentioned earlier. It's bigger than the one and only closet in our apartment.

This is our 60-quart mixer. It's awesome.

This amazing machine is called a sheeter. It's basically two conveyer belts with a roller in the middle that can be adjusted to different heights. I love this thing. We use it to roll out everything from sticky buns, to cookies, to pie crusts. We also use it to roll layers and layers of butter into our croissant/danish dough.

While we all work in one big room together, it's somewhat divided by this huge oven into the bread end and the pastry end. This is the bread end's oven. It has three levels, each with their own steam injection. Each level is stone and the oven can hold over 100 baguettes or about 90 of the round loaves pictured above.

This is one of the bread ends spriral mixers (they have two). I'm not sure what the capacity is on this monster but I know we often mix up 90K of baguette dough in it. On this mixer, the bowl spins as well as the dough spiral which is on one side of the bowl. I hope that makes sense.

These were pumpkin cheesecakes before I forgot them for about an hour and they were destroyed.

Finally, all of my co-workers but one. Back left is Lisa who works on the pastry end. She is having a baby this summer and she makes me laugh. Next to her is Russ, who is from Wisconsin. He drives the delivery van and helps out on the weekends. He's pretty funny. Next to him is Jefferey who is my boss and one of under a hundred people in the US to earn the title of "Master Baker" and yes, I am serious. Next to him is me, obviously. Front left is Frank who works on the pastry end. He used to work for the Ritz Carlton until he left them for King Arthur Flour. Next to him is Martin who works on the bread end. Martin is a pretty cool guy who listens to bluegrass, plays the banjo and just moved to White River with his wife and two beautiful daughters. Martin used to be an investment banker in New York City and before that, was an opera singer. I'm not joking. Next to him is Christoph who works on the bread end. Christoph is really nice and is getting married next weekend. Next to him is Peter who drives the van during the week. We are really lucky to have him. He a cheerful guy and ready to jump in wherever he is needed, from washing dishes, to rolling baguettes, to cutting or scooping cookies, to just about anything else. He's one of the very few people I know to have actually grown up in Vermont, and the only one in this picture. Not pictured is Sharon who works on the bread end. She is pretty cool and she goes biking a lot and is taking off a couple weeks in the spring to plant her garden.

Happy New Year

2006-12-27T17:06:00.000-08:00

Spring Fresh

2006-12-16T22:15:00.000-08:00

It snowed and stuck around for the first time a few weeks ago.

Douglas David Supreme Estabon blending in.

The Parking Lot/ Pseudo Forest that is our backyard.

This is my lady friend who keeps me company at the laundromat.

I recently updated this blog's template, but it lost a bunch of the personalizations I made to it. I'll fix it when I get the time. Someday.

Becca is Pretty

2006-11-27T20:54:00.000-08:00

And she gave me a hair-cut.

Living Things

2006-11-21T14:54:00.000-08:00

Recently I fell in love with a Chihuahua. I know what you are all thinking. I used to hate little dogs too. They are yappy and irritating and Chihuahuas are ugly. At least, that's what I thought until I met London. Our friends JP and Jacey have a Chihuahua named London. I've only heard her bark about three times. She is sweet and snuggly and she takes naps on my lap when we go over there. She also is hilarious and has cool fight moves. My personal favorite is when she runs up and attacks and then swings around and hits her opponent with her butt. Oh, and she's friggen adorable too.

Obviously I was smitten. I was also very excited because I've wanted a pet for a while but since Joseph is allergic to cats and I had previously hated small dogs, I didn't think a pet was an option. Again, London changed that. Suddenly small dogs were back in the picture. I also knew that the lady who lives upstairs has a Chihuahua (though it is ugly and yappy) so I thought we could talk our landlord into it.

So I went on a little crusade to get a pet. To make a very long story short, I found one I wanted at a nearby shelter and then it didn't work out for several reasons.

1. Joseph wasn't totally sold on the idea of a third living thing in our tiny apartment.

2. After three days of discussing it with his wife and going back and forth, our landlord decided not to let us have a pet because that has been his policy for about a year now after several bad experiences with pet-owning renters. He said he felt bad and would be willing to reconsider at some point.

3. The adoption fee was a good bit higher than I was originally told.

4. Finally, someone else adopted the dog.

So, since a cuddly furry dog isn't in my near future I've been trying to make do with what I've got around.

Here is a picture of my one and only plant. It almost died when I first got it but it likes the window and looks much happier now.

It's basil by the way, and I haven't eaten any of it yet.

While we were helping one of Joseph's profs move, I noticed the biggest earthworm ever squirming it's way through the grass.

We thought about taking it home but it was pretty wiggly and kinda gross so we decided not to.

Oh well. I'll just stick with basil for now I guess.

Becca's optimistic about our heads becoming attached, I'm unnerved.

2006-10-24T22:15:00.000-07:00

FUTONishing!

2006-10-07T10:26:00.000-07:00

Here we have Becca following the step by step instructions with great craft and care.

Here's the futon after we slept in it.

Here are some unrelated Photos

2006-10-07T10:10:00.000-07:00

This is from my walk to class:

This is our friend Gabby cracking up while playing Ping Pong (the official sport of CCS).

Here is our car Douglas in our lovely backyard.

When our downstairs neighbor had to move out he decided to put all of his crap on the front yard with a sign:

He was a tasteful man with class and style. We're sad to see him gone.

And in case you were wondering what our door looked like:

Becca and I had ice cream cones the other night. And if you dare not believe us here be proof!

Fall is all up ons here.

We think that is a prison there in the distance. Becca thinks she can see the razor wire from here.

2006-09-20T10:18:00.000-07:00

Recently, Joseph accidently dropped and broke a mug. I thought the largest piece looked like a throne so I made a king to sit in it. This is Good King Fredricks.

Hot Spot

2006-09-19T20:15:00.000-07:00

White River Junction - South Main St

Obviously this was taken as a series of photos and then pieced together. I was waiting on a train and thought it would be fun to get a shot of the busiest place in town.

Feeling Regal Every Time I Get Dressed

2006-09-15T12:18:00.000-07:00

These are the lion heads that serve as the door handles to our clothes cabinet.

2006-09-15T11:33:00.000-07:00

Today Amanda Ann and I went back to the farm where Joseph and I got blueberries a few weeks ago.

This is our friend Carlos DeSario the Garden Knome under a blueberry bush.

We picked not only blueberries but apples and raspberries as well. We weren't familiar with any of the apple varieties that grow here so we tasted fallen apples of all kinds until we settled on the best. It was Macoun by a mile.

These are our pickings and Carlos on David Douglas Supreme Esteban, our car.

Amanda Ann wouldn't let me take her picture but this is Bryan and Amanda Ann when they were driving us to get our flat fixed the other day. We'll get a better picture soon.

This is the view from the road leaving Riverview Farms, it was taken with our phone's camera.

This is the same veiw taken with our awesome new camera. Yeah for good cameras.

I was very very happy that the weather was gorgeous today. It's been cold lately and it was supposed to rain all day. Halfway through our harvesting though, the sun came out.

Camera Phone Pickin's

2006-09-12T13:36:00.000-07:00

As Bec mentioned earlier we will have a better camera soon enough. In the meantime we've been using my phone's camera, and I just recently cleared all of the pictures from it. These are some of those:

Wolverine Hair Attempted

Adam and I trying to look berserker and failing hard.

Wood Floors in our Vine St. Home

Most of this floor looked great, but the part over there where I was sitting with my wheely chair had tons of dents from the non-round wheels.
Parts of a Whole

Becca playing with the camera.

Caped

This is at the park by Lake Michigan (I think) where we stopped on our way to Vermont. I was a little chilli and draped myself in Bec's sarong. I used my powers for good.

That's all.

2006-09-11T10:15:00.000-07:00

I really am only writing to tell you that I'm sorry I'm not posting more. I keep thinking that I will but I put it off until I have a picture to put up with it. Soon we will be getting a camera with which we can post much better pictures, more regularly.

In the meantime, things are going well. At work they are training me to help out with some of the bread work so that I can help wherever they need me and I'll be spending most, if not all of Thursday on that end of the bakery.

Joseph is currently at his first day of classes but I'll let him tell you all about that later.

Our car had another flat in one of the same tires that went flat shortly before our move out here. Stupid tire. Lucky for us, we have some great friends here who let us borrow their car for the morning so I wouldn't have to drive on the spare all the way to work and back. Thanks Bryan and Amanda Ann.

Picking

2006-09-02T09:55:00.000-07:00

Friday Bec and I went picking blueberries and raspberries. I'll let her tell you about that.

Just off highway 12, River View Farms

Again, this is from our phone's camera, so it's of the worst quality.

This is Becca. This was the best place we have gone to yet! Blueberries for 1.75 per pound! The weather was a perfect 75 and sunny. The blueberry bushes were overflowing with fat juicy berries. I made my first blueberry pie ever that evening. We took it over to Bryan and Amanda Ann's apartment. They are two of our new friends here and they are pretty awesome. We ended up staying until 3 AM. It made for a great weekend.

Beenis

2006-09-01T11:10:00.000-07:00

This is the bee I killed in my comic. Behold him in all his majesty.

His name is Alejandro Chernov. He wasn't even squished. That's the best part.

Brown boogers, Blisters and Blueberries

2006-08-30T10:42:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I made pastry cream at work. This involves stirring large quantities of a pudding consistency concoction over high heat for a long long time. This gave me five mini blisters bringing my work related blister count up to eight. Hopefully soon I will have built up strength and calluses to prevent further blistering.

Today, I made brownies which involves sifting over 27 pounds of brownie mix. I blew my nose when I got home. It was gross.

Many of my co-workers, well aware that I am new to the area, have taken it upon themseleves to overwhelm me with ideas of great things to do around here. The most recent thing that has gotten me very excited is that there is a very cheap pick-your-own blueberries/raspberries/apple farm about 10 or 15 minutes from here. Also, just down the road is a farm where you can buy fresh milk that is actually cheaper than the grocery store. I really want to go get some right this second. But Joseph is gone. Oh well.

White River

2006-08-26T16:18:00.000-07:00

James told us about this little picnic place on the edge of White River that always seemed to be empty. We packed up our camping chairs (thanks Ken&Amy), and some chips and headed that way. I had every intention of swimming until I felt how cold the water was, so I drew while she read to me from Dress Your Family in Courdoroy and Denim by David Sedaris (an old favorite). Becca thinks she may have seen a bald eagle, and I think I may have killed a bug with my eyelashes.

Smashing Becca's glasses with my head on a Saturday.

This picture was taken with my phone's camera. I'm satisfied with the quality, but am unsure if it costs me to email it to myself.

Our last days in Kansas

2006-08-24T14:02:00.000-07:00

My brother graduated from high school. He is now going to K State. Adam is in high school. He is a Junior (that's 'grade eleven' for the Canadians in the house).

Lil' Brudders

This is in my grandparents back yard at Josh's graduation party. Adam is preparing his pants for the intense volleyball action that is sure to ensue.

Douglas David Supreme Esteban

Our car Douglas David Supreme Esteban. Except no substitutions. Here he is parked in one of Chuck's fields. Having already endured a round-trip to Canada, with a new engine to show for it, and about to take on a 1500+ mile drive to Vermont, our friend basks in the sunset, awaiting to take us faithfully to our next destination.

I can't for the life of me remember why I'm not wearing pants...

This message has been brought to you by your local Ford dealership. Stop in today.

Then along came Summer. 2006 style.

2006-08-24T13:11:00.000-07:00

There is no reason not to be doing this!

When preschool ended for the summer I started working at Prairie Harvest half time, and Child-sat for the other half. The above photo is two of the five kids I watched.

As most of you know Becca worked at Prairie Harvest from March 05 to August 06 as the one and only baker of fine products such as bread, muffins, cakes, and all kinds of crazy crap. She was an invaluble asset to the store, they could not have run without her.

So in May of 06 we took a little drive to Winnipeg (that's in Canada folks (that's a whole other country)) for Ben&Andrea's wedding.

To Canada

I'm not entirely sure where we are in this photo, but I remember it was very very foggy. But the extra driving challenge was good because it helped me stay awake after Chuck and I had drove through the night.

Behold the glory of Tain Castle!

We stayed with Ben in his great (and regal) new place. The wedding was lovely, and there are many many photos to prove it:

Techmology

However, we have none on this site. Maybe soon.

Andrea-at-light-speed

Here we have Ben&Andrea opening their wedding gifts. Andrea, having fully realized the commitment she has made quickly attempts a super human escape.

Bec and I marvel at the spectacle

Apparently I marveled, but Bec seemed to have expected this.

I don't actually remember much about the drive back to Kansas, other than me going the wrong way around Kansas City the one time Chuck took a nap.

But we made it home after another eventful yet relaxing 'holiday' to Canada. Some may remember Becca and I making a similar vacation the summer before; on our honeymoon. Both trips were marked with similar events: Weddings, Slurpees, nice weather, quality time with Good'ol Benson (that's what I call Ben. Recently. Just now.), samosas, and car trouble.

Post Canadian Car Trouble 2005

After driving the 1000 miles to Winnipeg, and then back, our engine gave out somewhere in Iowa. We took the bus home, leaving the car in Iowa to have the engine replaced and returned to collect it a few days later.

One year later:

Post Canadian Car Trouble 2006

After driving most of the day, we arrived in Kansas to take our car and selves home (we had rented a van to take to Canada). But I couldn't shift out of park. After an hour or two of testing wires and cords we found the problem. We fixed it. I drove home and took a nap.

Childrens!

2006-08-24T10:09:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures of the kids from the preschool I used to work for. There are more at the Flickr site.

Ms. Kristin teaching while Gabe... stares at a wall?

Here we have one of the afternoon classes sitting by the tree behind the play house. Our classes were ten to twelve kids, and there were two classes a day: one in the morning and one in the afternoon. This class had a big range of ages. A couple of the girls were five, and the little boy Ms. Deb is holding was two.

Kristin and Elizah

Her daughter, not a student.

Hey everybody! Welcome. I'm Diego and I'll be your host today

This guy...aw man. This guy cracked me up constantly.

Claira Beara Curly Haira

At the beginning of class we'd play a bit, and then gather around for Circle Time. We'd talk about letters, colors, numbers, and the date. Then I'd read a story.

I know not mercy! Only rage!

After Circle Time we would have snack, and then Play Time. Ian here was actually being, believe it or not, a worm.

Probably a dinosaur

Eric (the guy on the left) drew a turtle for me one time.

There is paper in my hand!

It's true. After some time to play we'd have Project Time. It usually involved glue. Or paint. And of course, paper.

Seriously kids, shut it up.

Sometimes we'd listen to songs, or try to identify certain sounds, maybe from an animal, or vehicle.

I will support you my friend

If the weather was nice we'd go outside. The kids in one of the afternoon classes would play a game called Rocky. This was essentially Tag, but who ever was 'It' was called Rocky and those being chased would taunt 'It' by shouting, "Rocky!" I actually witnessed the evolution of this game, from the beginning of the year, and as far as I could tell they were initially trying to pretend to be the characters from Rocky and Bullwinkle but got bored with that and began to chase each other.

Blake

As previously mentioned; there are more pictures at my Flickr site.

House on Vine St.

2006-08-24T07:04:00.000-07:00

We have no pictures of our current place or surroundings but will post them as soon as we do. In the meantime we are testing this new blog here. Let us know how you like it.

These are some pictures we took before we left Kansas. They are already full size, but clicking on them will take you to my Flickr account where you will find the other photos posted in this blog as well as some of my older comics.

Last, I'd like to apologize for the dates and times on the pictures. I forgot to change the settings on my dad's camera.

The grass will soon overwhelm the wife

When we first moved into our little house on Vine St. we had no lawnmower (or ambition to groom the yard) and therefore let the grass grow for weeks before finally succumbing to the dirty looks of our neighbors and mowing.

House Front
The Front of our house shown actual size! There's our plants Harvarton, and Blendermin. I didn't just make those names up...

House Back

Two-pots-and-flaps-of-siding-missing-from-the-wall seems to be the design theme of the front and back of our house. I think this was the one and only time I ever went outside. We had a red back door?

Fungus Amongus

The yard left uncut and flourishing on its own suprised Bec and I by producing some big'ol mushrooms right there in the front yard, close to the mailbox. As you can see, the biggest of them are as big as the house. It was a pain to try and park between them, but they sure did keep the bird crap off of the car - though - I'm not sure what creatures thrive on mushrooms, but that crap never did come off.

Bec - Pre leap into drainage ditch

If you close your eyes; it's almost like beach side property.