SPOOLS

I got lucky while in Syracuse. There was an antique show at the fair grounds. A fairly small one compared to EXPO standards. There was about 150 booths. I love spools. I have been collecting them for years. I have over 140 in my personal collection and I usually have them all on display. I rarely find one I don't already have. At the antique show I saw these. There were many more bundles all stacked together and I thought it looked like a pretty holiday display possibility. The sign said $1.50. I assumed that was $1.50 each which is a really good price for one spool but the vendor saw me looking at them and said it was the price for the bundle. SCORE! I got four bundles and was tempted at the end to go back for more but I had already packed and my carry on was getting full of other great treasures. I like it when I find a great buy.

Winter Wonderland

I sat Wyatt out on the deck after we got back from our drive. He's not quite sure what is going on yet...he was sleeping in the car.

Looking down at the Indian River and this is the top of a falls. All that ice in the center of the shot is on the trees across from the falls. The splash has encrusted the bushes and trees in ice. It is a very pretty site in person.

Looking upriver from the one lane bridge in the town of Philadelphia, NY.

There are a lot of foundations on barns and houses made out of stone. In fact there are many stone and brick houses and buildings. They are pretty, I like the look. You can tell this part of the country is quite a bit older than the west where we live.

This pretty scene is right smack in the middle of a small town just across the street from the elementary school. Most of the barns have several lightning rods along the top and many have the glass or ceramic balls still on them. At the antique show in Portland just the balls cost a couple hundred dollars.

The green barn I went back to find. I have enough barns to make a nice calendar. Hey maybe that's an idea!

Barn Raising

Wyatt and I went for a drive and as we passed many neat old barns I decided to start taking pictures of them. I saw a green one before I had this idea so I 'm going back to find it today. It's very pretty here in north central New York State. We are only 15 minutes away from the popular Thousand Island area and Canada is just over the river.

Just up the road from Brandon's house. Site of an old mill.

A cop pulled up behind me when I pulled over to take this shot. Just seeing if everything was alright, he said.

Some of the pretty scenery...flood warning!

This one is interesting.

NewYork so far...

The reason I'm here. Isn't he just the cutest thing. I am having such a good time just holding him, playing with him and giving him cuddles. He won't be little very long so I am really glad to be able to come clear over here to spend this time with him.

Grandma brought Wyatt a toy!

This is Monica's fitness center. She is the Facility Manager of all areas of the indoor fitness center and outdoor fields. She runs the whole thing and is also a personal trainer.

Here's Brandon in front of work. An army base is like it's own city. It covers a big area and has all the businesses and services you'd find in a city off base. They employ lots of civilians, I suppose because the soldiers need to concentrate on defending the country and are always being deployed.

This is the BOSS center. It's an activity center for the soldiers. Recreation rooms, media rooms, a computer room, kitchen, and gathering space for off base activities. Brandon is a full time civilian employee. His boss is out on maternity leave. She just had a baby boy yesterday so Brandon is the boss of BOSS for now.

BLUE

On Thursday I will fly across country to Syracuse, NY. Then it's about an hour and a half to La Fargeville where Brandon and Monica have a house. I'm going to see this scrumptious little guy. In this picture he went to visit his daddy while he was ice fishing with the soldiers. His mom put some snow in his hands and he is deciding if he likes the feel of it. I suspect he will be in the snow a lot, after all his mom and dad met while snowboarding and they can't wait to get him on the mountain. Wyatt Bond you are such a cutie! I love those big blue eyes.

Buy in Bulk...Save Money?

We made our trip to Kennewick and met with Reality Homes. They had good information and options so we will probably go with them. I am going to cut and paste a floorplan I like and fax it over to them and we will go from there. Since we were going we decided to take the pick-up and buy some items at Home Depot. We could get OSB sheets there for $2 less each. We bought 40 and two doors. We would have gotten 50 but Gary was worried about the weight. Happy about our purchase we got on the freeway. In no time a semi merged onto the road and kicked up a rock. It dinged the windshield! The further down the road we got the more it spread until...POP...and there it went. No Glass Dr. can fix this. So we didn't save money,

we lost money because replacing the windshield will cost more than the $80 we saved on boards. Go figure!

WHOOO goes there?

Jeremy visited the property earlier this week to see what has been going on and as he approached the shop he heard blaring music coming from this little radio. It was his first radio that he got back in grade school....why it is still around, I have no idea with all the yard sales we have had. He wondered what was going on but felt he had better leave it alone. It serves a purpose. It is our owl deterrent. Since we put the roof on, an owl took a liking to the rafters and was in there every night. He was making a mess. We let him come and go for awhile thinking there was nothing to be done until the doors were up. Gareld saw the radio up in the storage trailer and decided to give it a try. It worked! The owl has stayed out. It may be scaring off the deer and elk too since it can be heard on the whole mountain but the owl has found another haunt.