Bowls for Shawn's School Auction

Walnut	Cherry (top hat style)
Ash	Cedar (Chinese hat style)

Happy Birthday, Shawn

Take good care of Opa at your party and don't let him bring any Legos home.

Happy Birthday Admiral Grand Poppy

July 31, 2013 at Rittenhouse Sq.

May 25, 2013 at the Barony

 August 26 A useful hemlock box to put things in
Happy Birthday, Dad.

Gambol and I drove to Holly's for Dad's 83rd birthday party. Holly put on a beautiful spread of quiche lorraine, garlic bread, spinach/basil salad, and coconut birthday cake.  She is a terrific hostess.  

Gambol also did an impressive job of exploring but staying close and coming when called.  I was very proud of him. Holly and Mark's place is partially fenced but has a creek running through it that leaves a gap in the fence.  Gambol pranced right through the water to gt to the neighbors'.  They also have an overgrown area perfect for bunnies and other huntables.  What a marvelous way to spend an afternoon.  Gracie and Roxie joined in the fun too but Gambol was the hunter. I enjoyed the drive with him as my co-pilot.

Oma and Opa in paradise

July was a great month:  Jonathan and Elise were here from July 10 (happy birthday Jonathan) to July 27 between NJ and GA homes,

A new species of butterfly

At the Boalsburg tanks and art festival.

then Shawn and Lilly visited while Raj had a sports dentistry seminar in Phila from Aug 1 to 3.  The loft and foxholes got their work out.  Elise slept in the outer bird's nest because the closet gets too hot with the door closed.  Shawn elected to sleep in the tree house.  We picked berries and all the garden treats, flew a kite, and went to Farm Fest at the Grange Fair Grounds.

Shawn sharing blackberries with Gambol

Happy 4th Birthday to the Eastern Prince

May 16, 2013

Happy 3rd  Birthday to 

The Western Prince

Goodnight moon, goodnight Oma

Every boy and dog needs a job.  Jonathan decided one of his jobs should be to tuck Oma into bed.  We read 2 books, then he kissed me good night and turned out the light.

He also learned how to put his dishes in the dishwasher, to wipe the dog hair off the wood steps, and to help Opa load the log splitter.
Shawn's job was to use the handvac to clean up around the fireplace, only after the firebox was cold of course, and to catch any loose dustbunnies escaped from the 3 dogs.  He also helped Opa with the log splitter and to drive the tractor to move a load of stone to the driveway. He helped Opa decorate the outside Christmas tree for the birds.

Happy Birthday Oma

2011

2010

Cousins

Elise:  (8 months) Little Miss Sweet Cheeks Army crawls very fast to get whatever she wants.  She'll go around or through anything in her path.  She loves Cheerios and any other food bit placed in front of her; the dogs didn't take long to find their place under her chair. She perfected her kisses, so-bigs, and applause while she had so much attention. She prefers to warm up slowly to new people, but once she's established her comfort zone, her eyes sparkle when we come near.

Jonathan:  (3 1/2 yo) Oma has 2 foxholes for sleeping and one skunk hole (in the red bathroom) for storing stuff. He was very effective in finding Opa's woodsprites hidden in the forest...even the one without a nose. Santa brought many games, most of which were too noisy, like the Hungry Hippo marble game and we always had someone taking a nap.  The wooden trains, memory games and puzzles were the best quiet play.
Jonathan and I played restaurant:  first we made brownies, then he made me a virtual dinner of hugs and kisses stew and presented me with a check which he asked me to sign. We had a scary moment when Jonathan stepped around David's chair which was part of the fire blockade and put his hand out touch the stove.  Opa yelled  LOUD and scared everyone; luckily Jonathan was scared most of all.  Mom and Oma rushed his tiny hot spot on his hand into a bowl of cool water to stop the burn.  A few hours later as I was standing inside the barricade warming my buns, Jonathan told me in no uncertain terms to get out of there!

Shawn: (18 m) Reverse kisses (slurps) and loves 2 Buddies. We had a 4-car train on a track around the Christmas tree which lit up his eyes. Oma made sure we had plenty of boo-boos (blueberries) for Shawn. Shawn rocked our giggles with his duck walk: he bent his knees, put his head out and arms back like wings and raced around.  When we laughed, he threw his head back and belly laughed. Later when I tried to make him do it again, he'd grin and say no! which, of course sent me back into fits of giggles.
Shawn's learned that trains say, "Whooo whooo!" and loved to play with the plethora of them in the loft (both on and off the fancy train table).
He finally started saying Oma and Opa and knew exactly who they are.
I think Jonathan taught Shawn what a dinosaur is, how to say it, and that it says, "roar!"
He was on the constant lookout for bock-bocks and would point them out whenever one was in sight.
He loved flicking the kid-height lightswitches in the foxholes off  and on, though not enough to sleep there... yet!
He'd join us in the carriage house after J2 & E went to bed so he could play with blocks, red Rx bottles, etc. a little longer and not get hushed (he was on Chicago time, afterall) .

Hardwick Family

Puri Family

Reading: Decision Points George W. Bush.  **** not on Kindle... I forgot how heavy a hardback book can be!

June Review

From the Baron:

The month of June was pretty exciting for us. Right out of the gate was the birth of Shawn Devin Puri on June 8. The Baroness drove out to Illinois June 18-24 to play "Oma" and watch Shannon and Raj settle in as new parents.
We are making some progress on the new construction of our main house. On June 5 we competed the loan application with a local bank. We attended a design meeting between our architect and our builder, mostly to tie things together and cover any disconnects between our design, which is focused on conventional framing techniques, and the actual building, which will be use timber framing and structural insulated panels. The appraiser came out to our property on June 24 and I gave him the grand tour; I think that visit went well and the appraiser has all the information he needs. We hope to get the loan closed in mid-July so the builders can start on the basement foundation before the end of the month.
The three grape vines are 5-6 feet high now and we installed the second trellis wire at the 6 ft level. Two of the vines had the tips of their leader branch nipped off, which slowed their growth. I thought it might be deer browsing the tips, but the damage may have been caused by birds perching on the end of the vine. I put up some plastic snow fencing in a circle around the vines to give them some additional protection. Now that the vines are at the 6 ft level, I will tie them to the trellis and as the season progresses, the vines should start hardening up with woody growth, replacing the green stems that are present now.
The new hop vines are wrapping themselves on the strings that I put up. Out of the 4 hop roots that were planted, 3 have survived. The fourth root put up shoots twice and seemed to be going fine, but the shoots died off when they got to be a foot or so long. I put the strings over the roof of the chicken coop, so as the hops grow they will move up to the roof top. The tallest hop vine is now almost 9 feet tall and just now approaching the lower edge of the roof. Soon the main shoots will form side branches and those will produce the hop cones. Since this it the first year for the hop vines, the cone production will probably be pretty sparse.
Yesterday we harvested our first 4 tomatoes--the small yellow cherry tomatoes. Our new cherry tree produced some cherries, but the birds were quick to clean them out. We managed to salvage 3 cherries, the first fruit we have had from the new trees. We also picked some of the first blueberries of the season. We have a half a dozen cultured blueberry bushes and this year's crop seems to be a very good one--the first good one we've had with these bushes in 3 years. Our other tomato and pepper plants have fruit on them, but harvesting that fruit is still a few weeks away.
We started mowing our meadow last weekend. With all the rains we have been having up here in Pennsylvania, our meadow has been too wet to drive the tractor over it. Because the deer drop their fawns in mid-June, we normally hold off mowing until the 4th of July, so we are not really too far behind schedule.
The Baroness's 14 new chicks are growing quickly and are mixing in with the older laying hens without too much trouble--just an occasional pecking order adjustment. The chicks sleep in the chicken tractor and the hens in their coop, but during the day the hens and the chicks will go into the other's residence and check it out. We definitely have a few males in the new flock (they are beginning to crow), so those guys' days are numbered and will they get processed for dinner fare in September.
We are still working with Gambol, our year old Brittany, attending his novice training class. Gambol has a routine when we let him outside. He sits at the door and after we open the door and give him the OK, he runs out the door, under the bird feeder hanging from the tree right in front of the house, runs in a circle to scare up chipmunks or squirrels, and then heads back to us.