One Berry, Two Berry...

My mom and Aunt Mary took Aiden on his first berry picking excursion last weekend while Andy and I cleaned our VT house before the closing on Monday. Like most toddlers, Aiden loves berries. Luckily, the Last Resort Farm (a short walk from my parents home in Monkton) has a patch of past-their-prime strawberries perfect for little pickers. We dressed him in all red so that he could smoosh, squash and macerate to his heart's content. He was apparently unwilling and/or unable to keep more than one berry in his container at any one time without eating it. It's a slow process picking a quart at that rate.

Mt. Kearsarge

I have been hiking up the closest mountain to us, Mt. Kearsarge, several times a week in between painting rooms in our new house. It's a short drive to the trailhead (10 mins) and a 1.5 hour hike up round-trip - well worth it for the expansive views of the white mountains! The summit is only at about 3,000 feet, which is pretty high by VT standards but not in NH. Anyway, it's good stuff.

We left the porch light at our rental house on all night by accident, and we had these two Luna moths on the side of the house in the morning. They stayed all day, probably wondering what kind of strange tree they had decided to roost on, and left the following night.

GoMini Blues and Moving Crews!

Here's a moving tip for all of you in the New England area... DON'T use a Mullen Moving Co. GoMini!!! Because we didn't know how fast we would find a house in NH, we had searched far and wide to find a PODS-type company that would deliver a storage container to be filled and then moved to our new location once we needed it. To be honest there were not a lot of choices, but we went with Mullen GoMini and ordered our 20' box months ahead of time, which they assured us they'd deliver on June 20th. You can probably see where this is going... Anyway, they called me up the day before it was to be delivered (I assumed to let us know what time it would be dropped off) and informed me that they did have (oh! well, gee, isn't that nice!) a 20' box but they had to get it from their MA office so the price of our contract (which had already been charged to my credit card) would be more than double. Nice. After an entire DAY of arguing with different people at every level of the company, we had gotten absolutely nowhere... and because they left us less than 24 hours notice, we really had no other choice than to go with them. It very well be a scam that this company uses to get more money out of people- they never let us know that this scenario could even be a possibility because they said this NEVER happens to them (yeah right), but yet they weren't willing to eat one cent of the extra cost. Aaaarrrggghhh! I'm still so mad about it.

Anyway, our very expensive box was delivered on the appointed day, and thanks to the roving Turner-Nocito-Bruhns work crew, we transformed it from this...

to this.... in just one afternoon. Most of our stuff did fit in the box, thankfully, so there isn't too much extra to transport ourselves. We would never have been able to get it packed so quickly with just the two of us and a toddler, so it was so great to have the extra help. Aunt Chris and Uncle Preston are masters of using every bit of available space!

Aiden played around and generally stayed out of the way while we were hefting furniture and boxes out of the house. He does like to hang out on the front porch steps, so we sort of had to navigate around him once in awhile. We had a nice BBQ dinner and drinks after we were finished, complete with a celebratory round of Brennevin shots (an Icelandic schnapps). There was no consensus on whether Brennevin is worse or better than Aquavit and GammelDansk, but all agreed it's a true punishment to drink. I think the definition on Wikipedia sums it up best: "Brennivín (see also Brännvin) is an Icelandic schnapps, considered the country's signature alcoholic beverage. It is made from fermented potato pulp, and flavoured with caraway seeds. It is sometimes called svarti dauði ("black death")."

Exploring

This past weekend we had a little opportunity to explore our new surroundings, since we have a small break before we will be spending the next two weekends packing the moving truck and cleaning out entirely from Huntington. We took Aiden to Lake Sunapee State Park on Saturday morning (forgot to take any pics, sorry!) and despite the brisk wind and 68 degree temperature he was determined to get as wet as possible. He loves it when we both take an arm and swing him way up in the air and let him crash down into the water with a huge splash. He could do it for weeks straight, i think. We cut him off when his lips started to turn blue and headed down the road to The Fells. The Fells is the lakefront estate and gardens of John Hay, who was secretary of state (i think?) under President Lincoln. Actually, part of this former estate is owned by the Forest Society, where I will start work in a few weeks. Anyhow, we didn't think Aiden would put up with a historical tour of the house, so we stuck to the garden paths and small ponds.

The Fells

Sunday was Father's Day, of course, and we had a quick visit from my parents on their way down to Manchester to fly Florida for a week. We gave them a brief tour of our new house (closing in 4 days! yay!) and downtown New London and had a nice Father's Day take-out lunch. Aiden is always very happy to see his "Ba-Pa" and "Ba-Pa" (grandma and grandpa both come out "Ba-Pa"). Then after nap, we scooted over to Mt. Kearsarge and bolted up the trail to the top (as fast as you can bolt carrying a toddler in a backpack up a rocky slope) because the park gates closed at 5pm. It was a cloudy day at the bottom but the top of the mountain was above all the fog and it was a gorgeous blue-bird sky. Wish we could have stayed longer, but those gates were set to close... oh well! We did see a golden-crowned kinglet and a blue-headed vireo on our way down though.

Happy Father's Day!

Some recent pics of Aiden...

Inspired by Aiden's cousin William, we decided to brave the barber shop with Aiden too! Here are some shots of him post-snip. We think he looks a lot older...like a real little boy hooligan!

Having a juice popsicle on the front porch of our rental house

Potter Place Depot in NH

Wow! a real train!

At Bucklin Beach in New London

Picnic Snack

A few updates...

Hello! Sorry that posts have been sparse lately...we are really in between two worlds (NH and VT) and we hardly know what stuff is where, including the camera, computer, etc., etc. We found a house to buy in New London, NH and hope to close on it as soon as possible. It's not large or terribly exciting, but it has a big yard and is right in the village of New London. Andy's commute to work will be a 1 minute walk, and Aiden's to daycare will be even shorter (across the street!). It will be a different world from our rural forest hideaway in Vermont, but hopefully the benefits (walking to the library, playground, restaurants, shops, etc.) will outweigh the drawbacks. We're apprehensive, but hopeful, I guess is the best way to put it.

Although I wasn't planning on jumping back into work right away, an interesting opportunity came up at a state-wide land protection organization, the Forest Society, and I decided to apply. A couple of weeks later I was offered the position, so there goes my lazy summer with Aiden! They would have liked me to start right away, but agreed to let me have a month and a half to get settled and get Aiden adjusted to life in a new place. So I start mid-July- I will be developing a program to train and assist land stewards in maintaining and managing the Forest Society's 150 or so preserves throughout NH.

So, it appears all the pieces are falling together for us. We know we should be grateful, because relocating can easily go much much less smoothly, but it's still difficult to handle all the changes and take a leap of faith that we will like this area as much as the one we're leaving . Stay tuned...

Aiden is getting much more comfortable around trucks and tractors!

And he loves his crazy sprinkler on hot days (thanks Grandma Chris & Uncle Kenny)

Andy catching the "big ones" out of my parents' pond

Ok, so Micah's trick of holding the fish way out in front of you so that it looks bigger.... doesn't really work for panfish

Lions and Tigers and...

BEARS!!! We've been feeding the birds at our house year-round for three years, and now just as we are about to depart for NH, a black bear (or two) has decided to notice. Last night I heard some noises outside, but being that Andy is in New London and Aiden and I are home by ourselves, I didn't feel like investigating too thoroughly. I chalked it up to a family of racoons and fell back to sleep. In the morning, it was evident that something larger than a family of racoons had visited the feeders. Several of the steel shepherd's hooks that hold the feeders were bent over at 90 degree angles! And of course some of the feeders are toast. I emptied everything and put it all away for good but will still be on the lookout tonight in case the bear comes back for seconds!

We spent most of memorial day weekend doing moving chores, but we decided to spend Sunday, the warmest and sunniest day of the weekend, at the Lake Champlain camp. Aiden woke us up early so we went to Dead Creek first, where we saw some of the old standby birds at this time of year (Savannah Sparrow, Eastern Kingbird, Willow Flycatcher, Yellow Warbler...) No Virginia Rail, of course. It was a lovely morning even though Aiden only wanted to lie in the dirt and make dust angels.

Song Sparrow with bugs for nestlings

Savannah Sparrow

Then we headed to camp, and spent a lazy day watching Aiden play in the kiddie pool, reading good books, and visiting with the Turners & Nocitos. Joe won the "Crazy Memorial Day Bather" award this year, as he was the only one besides Timber to jump in. I don't think there has ever been a Memorial Day camp opening where someone or other hasn't been convinced to abandon all reason and take the frigid plunge. It's been at least a decade since I have been in before June myself. Not that there's anything wrong with it...

Aunt Chris carding wool

When we haven't been packing...

Here are some shots from the past few weeks. We have been busy packing and getting things ready to move, but we do try to get to some special activities for Aiden when we can fit them in. Our house is under contract (phew!) and the closing is supposed to be late June, so we have a lot of work to do! No luck on a permanent house for us in NH yet, but we're still looking...





We hiked up Mt. Philo on Mother's Day- the state park is not open yet so you can hike up the empty roadway instead of the trail (easier for toddlers). Aiden hiked a lot of the way up himself.

Timber & Grandma on top of Mt. Philo

Then we went to a "Big Trucks" day in Hinesburg, where businesses park their big trucks in the school parking lot so kids can climb up in them and see them up close. Aiden is obsessed with trucks, but it turns out he is also afraid of them when they are 500x his size. He had a death grip on me everytime we got near a big truck, and refused to sit in the drivers seat of any of them. As soon as we would walk 15' away, he would point and say "Truck!" and want to go back. I don't get it.

The next weekend was International Migratory Bird Day (now how could we pass that up?). So we went and watched scientists from the Audubon Society trap and band songbirds. I don't think Aiden enjoyed it as much as we did, but he was sort of interested.... Until he got bit by an Indigo Bunting.

Female Rose-Breasted Grosbeak

Male Ruby-Throated Hummingbird (they didn't have a band that tiny so we had to let it go unbanded)

On the Green Mtn Audubon Society porch

Singing Chestnut Sided Warbler

Looking at a Gray Catbird

We also went to Shelburne Farms a few days ago, to let Aiden run around and pet the animals. He was less interested in the animals than in the kid-size-tractors (not afraid of trucks THIS size!) and the farm truck toys.