Eddie started with a lawn mower that he didn't use anymore and finished with a homemade utility vehicle! He lengthened the frame, added some big back tires, customized the seat so two can ride, and added a bed so it can be a useful scrounging vehicle. Now he has something to play on in the snow too! We had a snow day and he played in the snow!
Eddie has always loved John Deere Tractors. He would love to get an old one to restore. He has a Ford Tractor right now, but still hopes to someday own a Deere. When the John Deere Christmas Village came out I decided it was a perfect collection to start. It is an adorable village setting. The pictures are a little dark, but it is supposed to be night after all.
I can't believe it's been almost a month since I posted anything here. Today was our first snow of the season. We are only supposed to get maybe an inch or two and it's not expected to stick. It's funny that two days ago we had a record warm temperature of 63 degrees. The previous record was in 1998 and it was 53 degrees. So, I think we are due for the snow. I was shopping this morning and it started snowing while I was in a mall. It sort of puts you more in the holiday spirit. 
Today was a beautiful fall day in upstate New York. It was in the 60's and sunny. Around 3:00 this afternoon we were outside doing some yard work and winterizing. My husband noticed the first balloon over our pasture and we soon saw two more. We stopped our work and just relaxed as we watched them slowly float through the sky. We live in an area that is familiar with balloons. Check out the Adirondack Hot Air Balloon Festival. It is an annual event that is usually held the third week of September. 
My husband and I love old bottles. We have collected them since we first got married. This summer he made a small shelf that fits nicely on our bedroom wall to display just a small number from our collection. We have hundreds boxed up in the garage that we would love to display. A project for next year is to get them all out and cleaned up and displayed. I love seeing this every day! Collecting something and storing it away is senseless. We want to see what we have and enjoy it all the time!
We have friends that own a large old farm. There are several old dump areas way in the back over their long stone wall. They were nice enough to let me and Eddie look for bottles and other interesting things. We went for a little while this weekend, and this is what we hauled out. These items were very close to the surface so we know there is much more to be found. We love old bottles and already have hundreds of them at home. We have an open invitation to come back and look for more. They asked that we do let them know if we find a big treasure like a can of gold coins! We had so much fun and a relaxing time together. 
A couple of weeks ago my mother-in-law sent me a recipe for Zucchini Cookies. I finally got around to trying it. I had to modify it a bit since my husband can't have raisins or pecans. I used an extra cup of chocolate chips in place of them. I will put the orignal recipe below. Feel free to modify it as you wish. I think they taste great and so does my husband. My son did not like it at all! I think it was actually the cinnamon that he didn't like in the flavor. When he first looked at it though, he asked if I was trying to hide vegetables again. I told him that I was!
We know that my husband's ancestors arrived and settled in the Albany, NY area. They were among the Dutch settlers in the 1600's. On our way to AJ's away football game in Hudson, NY we spotted this store and, of course, I had to take a picture. I'm sure the owner of this store is a relative somehow. Here is a link to their website if you want to check them out! 
I opened our back door this morning to get a feel for the outside temperature. I actually said "Wow!" outloud when I saw this gorgeous sunrise. The pictures are pretty but they do not begin to compare to the beauty of the sky this morning. I was glad I caught it!
My husband made me this beautiful magnetic board. It is a recycled piece of metal from the top of a vintage refridgerator. The refridgerator was salvaged from my husband's Aunt and Uncle's home when they were cleaning out last year. It was already shaped perfectly with rounded edges. It is 13 inches tall by about 23 inches wide. He cut it off, drilled holes in it to hang and painted it with leftover sage spray paint. It is hanging in my basement studio. I love it!
It was a beautiful fall weekend. Yesterday, Eddie and I went for a drive to Hicks Orchard in Granville, NY. They have a U-Pick orchard which we didn't do this time. We stood in line for about 10 minutes to get their delicious apple cider donuts and hot apple cider. Their barn-shop is full of apple products, maple products, local honey and many fall decorations. It smelled wonderful in there. You could watch them through one window as they made cider. You could watch the donuts being made at the other end of the barn. The orchard had activities of all kinds for the kids. There were goats, a bouncy house, make your own scarecrow booth and much more. They were selling maple flavored cotton candy...which I didn't sample, but I imagine it's yummy. Hicks has grown over the years. They now have a wine tasting barn which is a great addition to their business. I'm not a wine drinker, but I know NY has many vineyards and good wine products. It was a fun day. AJ was at work, so he couldn't go with us...but he has been enjoying the donuts we brought home!
We stopped and watched this deer for several minutes on our fall drive today. He didn't seem to care that we were watching. He kept eating and looking back at us every once in a while. Other cars stopped and looked too. We pulled away as he was munching, oblivious to the need to fear us at least a little.
Today on our fall drive, we found ourselves in Bennington, Vermont. We spotted these four moose sculptures around the town. I love how they are artistically decorated by the businesses. I'm sure there are several more somewhere in town. These were the only ones we spotted! 
Eddie made us this set of lamps for our bedroom night stands. They fit great with our faux log cabin walls. We love decorating with things we make. 
My mother-in-law made these adorable halloween decorations for my son about 10 years ago. Every year I hang them around the house or from a string draped on one wall. This year I decided to make a Halloween tree for them. I found a branch and painted it black. My husband drilled a hole in the piece of wood as a base. It looks great on our back porch this year with our other decorations.
The first picture is of a sad old chair that my husband salvaged from a construction site he worked at about six years ago. We had it in our office for 3 years...it was not quite as dirty...but it wasn't pretty either. I got a new chair for the office about three years ago and this chair went out to the garage. It was there that it acquired the lovely patterns of grease, dirt and grime. Now that I have a little studio in my basement, Eddie thought I could use the chair. It is a very comfortable chair, but the look was a little less than inviting. I decided to cover it with some material that my mother-in-law sent me when she cleaned out some of her supplies. I think it looks great. 
This unique bicycle rack is just one of many throughout the small historic village of Schuylerville, NY. They are all painted in bright colors and make unique functional sculptures. They are made at the Bike and Board Shop on the main street of town. I just think they are a cute addition to a quaint old village.
Today Eddie and I went to an Antique Show at the Washington County Fairgrounds. It was giant! All of the buildings at the fair were filled! We walked around for at least two hours. We loved many of the old furniture items. I loved the windows, and many other things. I have never been to a show this big. We will have to remember to go next year...and maybe put a little money aside to splurge on something. I wish we had a bigger and more antique home that we could furnish with antique show finds! It was a nice day though! 
I love these salt and pepper shakers that I inherited from my Grandmother. They originally belonged to my Great-Grandmother. They are two sided, showing a Before and After view of a married couple! I think they are so cute. 
We have been enjoying our backyard campfire area for several years. Eddie has wanted to put a lean-to type of a cover near the fire pit for a while. During the past couple of weeks he finally made his vision a reality. There is a concrete slab under it that was there from when this used to be an operating dairy farm. He made the furniture that is in it too! A piece of lattice will be added as a back wall when we get the chance. I will also now have a place to store all of my campfire cooking gear! This has been great since he made it. We can sit under it during the day and it provides a nice shady area to relax. It also makes a nice area to sit by the fire even if there is a light rain. We have enjoyed it many times already!
This was our first harvest of our green beans this year. I was able to freeze 11 quart bags from this picking. I have a Foodsaver but I decided to try the new Ziploc vacuum seal freezer bags and they work great. The beans taste great and we are eating them with dinner often. I have also given some to my parents to enjoy. I am sure we will have this many at least one more time. 
The chicks that I posted about a couple of months ago have grown up. It turned out that 6 of the 25 chicks were actually roosters. Until today, all of the chickens shared the large coop as well as common land to free range. Since we planned to keep 12 chickens for the purpose of egg laying and the others for meat, the roosters will be the first to go. In order for us to eat them, they must be separated from the hens for one month because we feed them all medicated starter. We need to have the roosters free of the medicated food for at least a month to be sure the meat is clear of any medication. In order to get the roosters separate from the hens, Eddie built this portable coop, called a chicken tractor. It is 12 feet long by 5 feet wide. There is a hanging waterer, a roost and a place for food. It can be moved around the pasture so that they are still able to benefit from the natural bugs and plants the others have access to. Their feed will be non-medicated and in a little more than a month, Eddie will get to practice butchering a chicken. He has found several online sources to help learn how to do this. One site that he keeps returning to is this one: http://www.butcherachicken.blogspot.com/ It is very informative and he has links to many other blogs and sites that are helpful. For more pictures of chicken tractors, you can visit www.thecitychicken.com 
I recently discovered the website http://www.freecycle.org/ and joined my local group. On my very first day I scored these great windows. The person had found them on the side of the road herself several years ago and never used them. They are moving and needed to get rid of them. Great luck for me. On the same day, I also scored a complete set of kitchen cabinets, countertops and center island. These were from a woman who has cancer, lost her job and has to sell her house to move in with her daughter. A kitchen upgrade was done to get the house sale ready and her old cabinets are now in her way. Eddie and AJ are going to pick them up on Friday. We will use them in the garages and AJ's animal area. I suggest that you check out your local freecycle site. It is great for getting rid of and acquiring great things!
After leaving the Renaissance Festival we stumbled on this great car show and diner. We stopped in for a bite and the food was great. I had a fish fry sandwich, Eddie had a pulled pork sandwich and AJ had a burger with the works. Great Drive-in Diner food. After walking around and checking out all of the cars, we headed home. A very full day!
We took AJ to the Sterling Renaissance Festival yesterday. This spring, when we asked him what he would like to do over the summer, his first answer was to find a Renaissance Festival to go to. I found this one from their website http://www.sterlingfestival.com/ and it looked great. It was about 3.5 hours away. We had a great day! The weather was perfect, about 70 degrees and sunny. The festival winds through paths in the cover of trees. There were amazing artisans, fun shows, delicious foods, interactive roaming actors and entertaining games. AJ spent $10 buying tomatoes to throw at a restrained rogue! Eddie earned a "woody" award for a bullseye axe throw and a "hammer" award for ringing the bell at the top of the tower. The quality of the artisans was great. Many of the visitors wore period clothing as well as the villagers. I took over 150 pictures and it was hard to choose just a few to put in this post! 
I was driving home from work and spotted this unique window leaning on a tree with a $5 sign on it! What a great deal! I am not quite sure yet how I will use it, but it is so cute. It is 64 inches tall by 16 inches wide.
I have been holding on to this cigar box since my son was born almost 15 years ago. It was a box of "It's a Boy" cigars that we passed out in celebration of his birth. It has been used to store several things over the years, the last of which was tubes of oil paint. I was inspired by Cathe Holden's project on her blog "Just Something I Made," to make this memory box to hold pictures and momentos from my son. I covered it with scrapbook paper and some duplicate photos that I had from when he was little. I used some upholstry tacks and string to make a latch for the top. It looks great sitting in my office and I have filled it with some of the things that were scattered about on the bookshelves collecting dust. He even thought it was cute! 
Among AJ's animals he has several turtles. He currently has four painted turtles and two snapping turtles. The top pictures are of a snapping turtle that he has had since it's shell was only approximately 2 inches in diameter. His shell is now approximately 7 inches around and he is very aggressive. AJ has a smaller snapping turtle in a separate cage.
We own a 1965 Custom 500 car. There are free cruise-in car shows every night of the week at local diners and ice cream shops. This was Thursday night at Ginny Rae's Restaurant in Hudson Falls, NY. We don't go to many of them, but it was a beautiful night so we decided to take a drive over. It's just a nice place for people with classic cars to gather informally and share their hobby. There are also more than a few car shows around the area every weekend. We occassionally go to those too. 
On our drive around little Adirondack towns, we stumbled on this great antique shop in Hadley. We loved the milk bottle display! We collect milk bottles that my husband has dug up himself. We never buy bottles. We might take this idea of the bottle display and make our own version of it since Eddie can make metal do anything. There is definitely something for everyone in this shop, but we managed to leave it all there for someone else to buy!
#1: Roomy Farmhouse with big front porch
#2: Cozy Cottage with great back yard
#3: Rustic Cabin Mountain Retreat
Eddie and I decided to take a drive through some towns in the Adirondack Mountains of New York. We live a little south of where we drove, but some of the towns we drove through are actually towns that my ancestors are from. We drove through Lake George, Warrensburg, Athol, Thurman, Stony Creek, Hadley, Lake Luzerne and Corinth. We stopped at several scenic places along the way as well as out to lunch, antique shops, cemeteries, and town parks. I will add more posts with all of the great things we did on our outing. It was a great day for a drive!
I love this old picture of my father and his family eating watermelon in their back yard. My father is the boy standing in the center of the picture. Four of his six brothers and sisters are in the photo along with my grandparents. Two of his sisters aren't in this shot. This may have even been their fourth of July picnic! The photo was taken around 1952 when my dad was about 10 years old!
This authentic apothecary was one of the buildings on the grounds of the Shelburne Museum that we visited today. I loved looking at the old medicine bottles. I really loved the walls that are full of glass door cabinets and drawers! The things I could do with a room like this!
My son is 14 this year, he will be 15 soon after he enters school in the fall. He has his first summer job working at the Sox Market in Lake George, New York. It is in the factory outlet strip before you get into the actual village of Lake George. His job is to sell socks! That is basically all this store sells, with the exception of gloves and the occassional umbrella, flip-flop, scarf or other random accessory. 
Another popular upstate New York phenomenon is the Hot Dog Stand. In New York City they have the famous street carts, and Nathan's, but I am talking about long standing, locally famous and irresistable hot dog stands. Many of them are famous for their hot dogs with the "works." From my experience this is usually mustard, onions and the specialty meat sauce of the particular place.
Rookies Cookies and Cream
This is a picture of my current favorite ice cream stand. This picture was taken a couple of years ago. They have since added a huge chocolate/vanilla twist cone to their roof and a drive thru window. This is Rookies Cookies and Cream in Fort Edward, NY.
For as long as I can remember, going out for ice cream has been a way to spend time on a hot summer day or an after dinner drive. "Let's go out for ice cream," could be heard many days each summer in our home. The first place I remember going on a regular basis was what I called "the stand" when I was about 8 years old. I loved getting my cone dipped in the cherry coating that hardened. It was so good, but probably the messiest choice I could have made.
Our family moved to a little town called Tomhannock, NY and our new place to go was the local Stewart's Soda Shop in Schaghticoke, NY. They are a large chain in New York and I think they have spread to Vermont. They have "make-your-own sundaes" and I loved it when they brought out the tray with all of the syrups, sprinkles, whipped cream, cherries and nuts. Stewart's shops all have tables inside to enjoy your ice cream in comfort. We also sometimes drove about a half hour away to a restaurant called Bubbles, We would get dinner and always knew we could have ice cream too.
Stewart's
We moved again when I was in 8th grade. Our new ice cream places to go were the Stewart's shop within walking distance in Glens Falls and the very famous Martha's in Lake George. I loved the root beer floats at Stewart's. They had a root beer float flavored ice cream for a while. I can still taste it! Martha's was the place to go for the best soft ice cream in a variety of flavors. The lines were always long, but the wait was worth it.
Martha's
The Ice Cream Man
When my son was a toddler, my mother-in-law began making flannel pajamas for him. He received a handmade pair or two every Christmas. As he outgrew them, I did not want to get rid of them because of the sentimental value. She made them for him until just a few years ago. He is 14 now. One day, after coming across a large bag of the pajamas, I decided to make something out of them. I made a quilt and pillow for my son and I made a pillow to give to his Grandmother. I used all of the pajamas by cutting the material into squares. I used an old Pokemon quilt, that he loved for several years, as the back of the quilt. I had fun making it. It was my first quilt project and it is not perfect. I hope my son will cherish it as a reminder of both his Grandmother and me and the love we have for him.
Yesterday my husband discovered these beautiful Iris flowers growing in the front corner of our property. We have lived here 10 years and we have never seen these before! We don't usually go to that part of the yard, but I'm so glad he found them! Seeing them brought back some memories. When I was small, my mom had a huge row of Irises across the front of our yard as a natural fence between the yard and the road. I have very vivid memories of her cutting them and placing them in vases throughout our home. 
Growing up, I remember my Grandmother having souvenir spoons on two racks, a bit smaller than the one above, hanging on her dining room wall. She also had an extremely large wooden spoon and fork on the same wall. I thought that the spoons were very interesting and I looked at them often. As a teenager, I began collecting spoons of my own when my family went on trips. My Grandmother died when I was 12 years old. When my grandfather died, I was 17. I then inherited my Grandmother's spoon collection that I had admired so much. I continued adding to this collection myself. I bought some in Spain when I went with my class as a high school senior. I bought them on every trip I took throughout the country through college and later. My sister and my friends would buy them for me when they traveled. I have spoons from several countries and almost all 50 states. I have them from tourist attractions such as National Parks and Amusement Parks.
"Abscrapture"
We own 9 acres of our own, with a pond. We are neighbors to a farm that uses the land next to us for his show cows and pregnant cows. They use his pasture and also ours. We let him use ours to help us by keeping our pasture grass short and give us the feeling of owning cows without the expense. It helps the neighbor by giving his cows more area to graze. My husband started walking through the farm's back pasture this winter on his snowshoes. This spring we started walking it for exercise. The perimeter of the pasture we walk is approximately one mile. We can see our house from the pasture, but it's really another world out there in nature. We have seen horses owned by horse farms that also border us. We have seen deer, turkey, rabbits, cows, the bull and other little critters. The pictures above are things we have seen on our walks. It's great to get back to nature in our back field. We can see distant mountains and walk among the wildlife. We would rather take daily walks here than on sidewalk lined city streets. Fresh air is very relaxing. 
Although I have not had anything published, I am a writer. As a teenager, I kept journals and wrote poetry. In college, I enjoyed the research papers and writing assignments in all of my courses. After college, I took a course in writing children's stories, and helped my sister with her college research projects. For over twenty years as a speech pathologist, I have written lessons, goals, progress summaries, quarterly reports, evaluation reports, stories to use in therapy and endless lists. I have written letters to parents, letters to teachers and letters of justification to agencies. As a mom, I have co-authored and edited many reports from the life of raccoons to the life of Mohammad Ali. As a hobbyist I have written several children's stories, started a cookbook, and proposed a non-fiction book to several publishers. Currently I am enjoying this blog as an outlet for my need to write. As you see from the pictures, I have helped other writers by buying their books. I know everything I need to do to write books and get them published. I have all the knowledge I need for marketing a published book. I have all the sources for using the best words, using the most proper form, and ways to profit from writing. The only thing missing is the time to write. I squeeze it in whenever possible, but my paying job, family, and activities of daily living seem to always take priority. I have a long term goal and a short term plan for my writing. I will get my current stories sent out to possible publishers. I will also pursue my current projects with a new enthusiasm and priority. I will be published.
MINK
RABBITS
MINK
RACCOON
SKUNK
This is our classic car. It is a 1965 Custom 500. It's in the Galaxie family with a little different body design. My husband is the second owner of this car. He purchased it in August of 2003 for $580. The car was originally purchased in October of 1965 from A.B.C. Motors, Inc. in Cliffside NJ for $2,018. The man traded in a 1958 Ford Tudor for this car giving him a $218 credit towards it's purchase. It was owned by the same man until it was passed on to his son. His son stored it in a barn until deciding to sell it in 2003. 
Ed wanted to make a helve hammer, but didn't have enough pieces, so he made this instead. It is powered by his foot and serves a similar purpose for the time being. Since building this hammer he has modified it by putting some padding on the foot pedal to make it a bit more comfortable. The hammer part is an old sledge hammer with a pipe on top filled with lead for weight. He has made some metal bowls with it like the ones pictured above. I use the ones above on my dining room table. I change out the contents of the large bowl for the season.
Ed made this Tumbler out of my grandfather's old air tank and scrap metal. It is currently powered by a drill mounted on the base. He puts our small hooks and other small metal items in it with bolts and nuts to clean off the slag from our pieces while giving the pieces a bit of a texture from the tumbling. 
Ed built this metal brake to bend our bookends. It can also be used to bend metal for other projects. The jack hasn't been placed in it at this point. Ed had just painted it.
This sign was made for a family near Saratoga,NY. We live by Saratoga, NY which is famous for its horse racing and horse farms.
This was a custom project for a local man. It represents his brother and son on one of their fishing trips they took together with a dog. Both of them have died and this will be part of a memorial he is making for them. On each of the ends it has their initials and date of their death. He will be placing a water feature in the center of it and displaying it in his yard after he paints it.
This sign was made as a gift for neighbors of my husband's parents in Florida. They own horses and cows.
Australian Tea Tree Oil Uses
My husband built this bridge this past fall for a man who owns property in the Adirondack Mountains. There is a bridge currently spanning a creek on his property that is no longer safe. He comissioned my husband to do this custom bridge building project. The bridge is 10 feet wide by 33 feet long. This spring it will be put into place and covered with wood. We have been invited to his property this summer. We will take a picture of it in place. It is a cool thing to know that he built a bridge that will be in the Adirondack Mountains for many, years. This is the largest metal project he has done.
Marie Condon Gray
AJ's FIRST PROJECT ON THE LATHE
SOARING INTO SPEECH
A Whack on the Side of the Head...How you can be more creative!
Fonzie the Veiled Chameleon
Tiger and Lilly the Bearded Dragons
This is Shredder. We got him from our pond about three years ago. At that time he was about 3/4 of an inch long. We put him in the 55 gallon fish tank with all of our other fish. Over the next couple of years he grew and ate all of his tank-mates except for our platy. When we first got him we called him "Kitty." This name ceased to be appropriate when we saw how he attacked and ate all of the feeder fish that we gave him. He also eats frogs, worms, and pond fish pellets. He never did eat the platy. The platy died of natural causes and Shredder did not even eat him then. Shredder is currently living with some snails that help keep his tank clean. He is about 13 inches long now! My husband's hand is near him in the top picture for a size reference. We don't know for sure if he'll keep growing or be limited by the size of the tank. Whenever my husband goes near the tank, Shredder comes to the top lookng for food. 
When we buy steel for our metal products, we usually buy sheets that are 4 feet by 8 feet. We could use sheets as large as 5 feet by 10 feet, but they are difficult for one person to handle. We order steel from a company in Plattsburgh, NY. They are delivered on a big flatbed truck. My husband and the driver unload them onto our tractor and my husband places them on boards in the garage. He then moves each one by hand and places it in the upright steel rack that he built. He has the rack placed near our plasma cutting table which allows for easier placement of a sheet on the table when he is ready for it. I think it's really interesting how he can turn a blank piece of metal into so many interesting items! 
The lonely autumn bench 
Items in my mom's etsy shop ForeverFavorites
Hand Forged Leaves and Letter Opener
Homemade Coal Forge
South for the Winter
REX
My Husband built this New Outhouse for my birthday
Some of our 2008 Corn Crop
The Neighbor's Miniature Donkey and Some of the Cows
AJ in the Cornfield
Our Water Garden
Some of our Pumpkin Harvest 2008
Fawn in our Pasture
Beautiful Icing on Trees
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