RV There Yet?

Cabin Food

steph — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 14:45:37 +0000

Do you find that when you’re camping, the food tastes especially good? That’s how it is here at the Cabin .
It might be because we can toast our English muffins by the fire -

Or it might be that I finally have a wonderful selection of cast iron pots (a little too heavy for RV life)

so I can try out “Roy’s Cast Iron Pan Apple Pie” -

Oh, yeah, that was good! Thanks, Roy!
Or it might be the blackberry bounty of the surrounding hills

that enabled my first ever blackberry pie!

Mmmmmm………
Even if it’s the breadsticks and pizza

right out of the DiGiorno box in the freezer that our son left behind,
it still tastes better at the Cabin!

Morning has broken, like the first morning….

steph — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 12:18:17 +0000

I love mornings at the cabin.
Whether it’s the crisp morning sun on the distant mountains

or a walk in the early morning mist, with the promise of a blue sky day ahead

or having your morning quiet time in front of the fire

Cabin mornings are the best.
And sometimes, when Morning at the Cabin looks like this -

That’s OK too!
It’s The Cabin.

Wanna go for a walk?

steph — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 22:41:36 +0000

It’s a pretty nice day here at The Cabin – want to take a walk to the pond?

Even the walk to the pond involves a nice path through the woods-

with some lovely wildflowers along the way.

See that washtub in the underbrush?

When I was a young un’, my grandfather and I (and any other grandkidlins’ that happened to be along) would stop there, tip the washtub over and dig in that special spot for the best fishing worms. We’d then head to the pond with our tin cans of squirming dirt and learn about putting worms on hooks and catching trout for lunch! Back in the day, Grampy Doc would keep the pond stocked with trout – today it’s populated mostly with bluegills, salamanders, frogs and a couple of turtles. Still fun to catch, but not quite lunch material!
Moving along memory lane -
Ah, the pond -

and more lovely wildflowers

And of course, the main reason I walk to the pond these days is to take my annual Cabin Picture -

And then a couple more variations -

This guy stayed still long enough for me to snap his picture -

Such color!
Instead of taking the trail back up to the cabin, let’s go back up the old road -

Over the hill, we come to another view of the cabin -

Wait – is that Josiah and Abigail, snatching a hug on the lawn?

Perhaps they’re discussing the disadvantages of sharing the one room Cabin, with all of its romantic seclusion, with your parents?
Or maybe they were just planning on where to go on these -

Who needs romance when you have ATV’s!!!!!
Before we finish up the walk – one last picture -

It might only be mid-August, but here in Vermont the signs of Fall are beginning!

Moving the Mountain

steph — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 13:55:47 +0000

OK, so it wasn’t quite the mountain, but still…..

Our cabin, while perched on a mountain top, is surrounded by quite a bit of lawn.

And scattered throughout the lawn are lovely rounded rocks, sticking their little heads up out of the dirt, ready to cause bodily damage to lawnmowers. (I speak from experience, trust me.) This year, due to the aforementioned “experience”, the rocks were given a nice coat of yellow paint so they were plainly visible to the oncoming mower.

However, my guy felt that the most offensive of the rocks (remember that “experience”) needed a more permanenant solution -
REMOVAL.
Get out the shovel, the pry bars, the tow rope and have the 4Wheel drive truck handy.

(see the yellow on the top of the rock – that’s what was showing.)

This is the cheering gallery -

OK, let’s try it from this angle

looks good….

keep up the power, Josiah….

I think it’s coming….

Nope.
Perhaps some additional consultation would help.

And the final big pull from our faithful truck -

Our Hero -

Now we just need to figure out how to fill that big hole, ’cause it certainly could do as much damage as the rock!

Contented

steph — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 14:45:13 +0000

We are here.

And when the sky is not so blue, and the book is not so good, and the naps are under control, I’ll share some stories of what we’ve been doing.
But for now -
Here is last night’s sunset.

Contented sighs being heard all around.

Girlfriends

steph — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 21:23:32 +0000

Girlfriends are the BEST!
And I, for reasons beyond my understanding, have been blessed with some of the BEST girlfriends EVER.
Really.
There are my Quilting BFF’s -

Before we hit the road six years ago, we met every Monday night and while our fingers were busy making quilts for our kids’ school, our hearts were melded together as we shared our lives over the quilt frame. We grew together as our kids went from elementary school to high school and then to college. We rejoiced at weddings and the birth of babies. Some nights we solved the problems of the world. We laughed, we cried, we prayed. These ladies are so very precious to me!
Seven of us met for dinner at a local restaurant, ate and talked from 6-9:30PM or so, and then hung around the parking lot finishing up our conversations for another half hour. It was a great night!
(And the picture is from our last gathering 2 years ago and is missing two dear friends – Janet & Nancy. I was too busy catching up (i.e. talking) to pull out the camera for a group shot. But I don’t think any of us have really changed!)
Then there are my Birthday Buddies.

I know I’ve mentioned these dear friends before and it was indeed wonderful to be celebrating our (non) birthdays by enjoying High Tea together and then catching up into the night. These are friends that know all my “stuff” and still love me anyway.
And then there’s Janet -

She and I met on the first day of preschool for two of our children (who are now 29). In those early years we were together so much that her youngest daughter (a babe in arms when we met) to this day calls me Mom. As the kids grew and we lost some of the connecting threads (school changes and the like), we still managed to maintain a special kindred heart friendship. We both count Janet and her sweet hubby Joe as some of our closest friends – the ones you might not talk to for a couple of month, but it doesn’t really matter. You know that they know that you know you’re there for each other! (Plus, now that we know our house fits in their driveway, they know that we’ll be back!).

I can’t even begin to list out the wonderful girlfriends I’ve made in the last six years – Jo, Rosie, Naomi, Lilly, Dolly, Nancy, Joan, Anne, Ellen…..

Or the friends that I seem to have been re-connected to as I blog around the country – like Lynne and Deb.

But these may be the most special of girlfriends -

Because when you’ve been blessed with sisters that are also best friends – well, it doesn’t really get any better than that!

Girlfriends – like I said, I have the BEST!

Sitting still

steph — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 21:48:55 +0000

and catching our breath.

It seems like forever since we’ve been in our house with the slides out, a little bit of power to run the A/C and the coffee pot, and a little free time on our hands.
We had a great visit with our kids in Lancaster,

an excellent (though too short) visit with my sister, hubby and some of their family north of Carlisle -

(L-R – Me, Niece Chris, Sister Joie – sure do love those ladies!)
and an all around great time re-aquainting ourselves with the beauty that is Pennsylvania.
But I must confess, that it is LOVELYto be sitting still, not only catching our breath and catching up on chores, but more importantly, catching up with friends!

(They’re reviewing the morning’s yard sale finds!)

Oh, and sleeping in our own bed!

Life in Lancaster

steph — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 18:32:33 +0000

is good.
It’s very good!

We’ve had a great week hanging out with our kids and since they have been doing that “work” thing, we’ve been left on our own during the day to nap, read, and visit with local friends. It’s been a wonderful combo! So, in no particular order, here are some highlights of our life in Lancaster.
Shoe Shopping
(You didn’t know this would be quite so exciting, did you?)
So while shoe shopping for me was a bust (Abigail managed to snag two cute pairs), we did manage to be at the outlets when the fire trucks came barrelling in on what seemed to be (judging by the 8 fire trucks that arrived on the scene in short order) a major conflagration. We saw no fire or smoke or even smelled any smoke, but just about every fire company in the area was there. And we were (literally) first on the scene.

No news at 11~
Out with friends
We love when we can connect with friends during our travels! We have a couple of SOWER friends that live in the Lancaster area, so we were blessed to be able to see Ann and her son Brad for dinner one night.

We hadn’t seen them in over two years, so it was a real treat!
Plus we were able to get together with our Alaska buddies, Jay and Naomi. We were able to combine lunch with a stop at the local “market” where we picked up some yummy stuffed pork chops for dinner and then another stop at a local produce stand where we picked up the best sweet corn I’ve had this season. It was a delightful day!
The Girls

Gia – age 1 1/2

Libby (short for Liberty) – age 7 months
and

Macho -found as a kitten where Josiah works, and named before they realized she was a girl.

Although the dogs live happily in their crates during the day while their folks are at work, we enjoyed having them down with us on occasion. And with the nice fenced in yard, it was easy to just let them out to do their business. Of course, the trick is to let them out, but keep Macho in. She got out once, made a beeline for the only hole in the fence and disappeared from view. I was able to lure her back, but the next day as I was being extra careful to close the door behind the dogs, I managed to lock myself out. Of course, Gary had just left to get the tires rotated, so I busied myself with a nice walk, some weeding and some general backyard clean-up. So while I was reasonably productive, I mostly was glad I had gotten dressed before I let the dogs out in the first place!
The pets were great – but we were reminded how glad we are that we have chosen to do our lifestyle pet free. It’s much more fun to just borrow the mayhem!
Around the House
We thought there would be a nice long list of chores for us to do while we were here, but it turns out that the house is cosmetically in pretty good shape and most the changes that the kids have in mind were of the nature that requires planning and a budget (and maybe a larger crew). Pretty much we’ve been doing little odds and ends (like the afore mentioned weeding) but mostly we’ve been collecting ideas of little projects. So last night we had a night on the town -
Lowes – (for a modest housewarming shopping spree.)

(and the tub was NOT in the budget!)
Hot Diggity Dog for dinner

A drive through downtown Lancaster

and our final stop -

What Else!?
Tonight we head out to a Barnstormers baseball game, and then tomorrow we wrap up our house chores (Josiah will be learning how to pull and re-install a toilet. A good skill for any homeowner!), enjoy a quick visit from Toby and Tammy and the other girls on their way to the shore, and then get ready for our next destination – a couple of days with my sister and hubby up in Perry County. We have a couple of light switches to change out, and a faucet to install, but I think we (and I use the term loosely) can pull it off!
Yes, tis true,

Life in Lancaster is good.
It’s very good indeed!

Pennsylvania Welcomes You

steph — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 03:28:19 +0000

After two years away, I think I’d forgotten some of the things that I really love about Pennsylvania.
Like the beautiful rolling hills, in all of their green splendor -

Or the majestic barns that dot the countryside.

But as much as we were looking forward to seeing good ol’ Pennsylvania terraine, it is really the friends and family that we were going to be able to see as we crossed the state that had us excited!
Like my college roommate!

Forty-one years ago we were put together as roommates because her last name started with DR and mine started with DW. Our lives have taken different paths, but still the bond that was formed back in 1969 remains. We had a delightful visit with her and her hubby – Thanks, Deb for sticking with me all these years!
And then there was a sweet visit with my nephew Mike, his beautiful wife and their kiddos!

We were delighted to spend a couple of days with them, parked in front of their home. I confess it helped with our Ellie-Hayley-Maddie withdrawal symptoms to be able to play with the little ones. We should be getting to seem them a little more regularly in the future since Mike (well, the practice he works with) has consented to be our family doctor. We both got a clean bill of health (ok, so Gary still has that subdural thingymabob, but with no symptoms there really isn’t anything to do!), so we seem to be good to go for another year or so. It was lovely to see Mike and Robyn – we hadn’t even met their littlest one!
And right now we are in New Freedom, PA where we’ve been able to visit with two of our close SOWER friends. As an extra bonus, two other SOWER couples joined us for a pot-luck last night. What a fun and wonderful evening!

I’ve got to tell you, these are some of my very favorite peeps!

Tomorrow early we will be heading a bit north to Lancaster, PA where we’ll be spending a week with our son Josiah and his wife Abigail. We’re so looking forward to seeing them, their “new” (100 year old) house, and their puppy dogs! We’re totally ignoring the “3 Day Rule” (fish and company begin to smell after three days), but I think they might find something for us to do during our time there. I mean after all, Gary is coming with his tools!

Better get to bed – we want to be in Lancaster for worship with J&A!
Sweet dreams!

A couple of things….

steph — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 18:35:41 +0000

before we move on.

The Garage Sale

One of the first things we did at our son’s house was to help them with a garage sale. Since all proceeds were going into the Vacation Fund (read “gas money” if you’re Toby, “more treats” if you’re under eight), the girls wanted to help with a lemonade stand.

I mean, really, who wouldn’t buy a little lemonade from these girls?

And there was only a little bit of drinking the profits!
Maddie was also pretty interested in being the “cash register”.

Gotta watch those little fingers!
The Sewing Project
I thought it would be fun to do some sewing with the girls since we were hanging out with them for several days before we went camping. The girls were quite fascinated with the whole sewing “thing”, and I had a hard time getting a turn!

It was a little more of a project than I thought it would be (it had been years and years since I had done any real garment sewing and there were just a few interruptions along the way) but I did manage to get the outfits done. Of course, I didn’t take an official picture of said outfits, but Ellie and Maddie wore theirs on the airport run to get Mom and Dad.

The Jumping Machine
So, what do you get when you take all the pillows off the living room sofas and make one big pile with them?
A Jumping Machine!

They assured me Mom lets them do this all the time.
Honest.

OK, that might just be the last post of grandchildren for a little bit. Thanks for hangin’ in there while we were busy being Grams and Pops.
It was a pretty fun gig, don’t you think?