Scribble and Scrabble

Category Archives: Andy

Maple Season

by Heather | 1 Comment

We went to the grand opening of our friends’ maple sap shed this weekend. Chris and Melinda own Stoney Ridge Farms, about 10 minutes from our house.
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Lots of people came out to support them. There were tours of their production equipment (you need to boil the water out of the sap to get syrup) and a pancake breakfast inside. They have around 3,200 trees tapped and Chris welded a lot of the equipment himself.
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Outside there were tree tapping demonstrations and a presentation of the tools that are used.
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Ben even got a turn, I was surprised how interested he was. It may have been the power tools…
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Before we left, we headed out back to see the storage tank where all the sap is kept before it gets pumped inside to boil.
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I think Ben was a little bummed that there weren’t any animals on this farm, but he had a ton of fun playing in the mud with his friend Easton.
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And the tractors, the boys loved the tractors!
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I wore Cassidy in my Ergo carrier the whole time. She was unfortunately bundled in Ben’s old snow suit so a few ladies thought she was a he. It’s hard being the second kid.
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It was really neat to see all the family come out for our friends’ big day. Aunts, uncles, inlaws, brothers…all these people we’ve met at weddings and birthday parties were out helping. This is one of Chris’ brothers and his girlfriend.
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Chris and Melinda, you guys rock! Thanks for sharing your maple farm with us!
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They’re holding an open house again next weekend too, check out their website for more info!

Ohio or bust!

by Heather | 0 comments

A few weekends ago we headed to Ohio to visit our college friends Mark and Jenny. For the long weekend away my mom and Paul took Cassidy and Andy’s parents had Ben. Friday we went to a huge indoor market to pick up supplies for dinner. Afterwards we just hung out at their house and watched Ender’s Game.
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Saturday morning we slept in until 9, it was wonderful. After a big breakfast we headed out for a tour of Amish Country!
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Quilt shops, wine and cheese tastings, bakeries, country stores, Amish restaurants, oh my! It was the first time I’d ever pumped in a car too ;-) As nice as it was to not have kids that weekend, I was still tied to that darn milker machine.
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Telephone booths outside of the Amish businesses. They can use phones, just not have them installed in their buildings.
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It was so much fun driving around hitting special spots all day. Mark knew all the fantastic little places to visit. We got to chat along the way too, here we were talking about Andy’s beard. They hadn’t seen us in a while and were quite surprised by it ;-) Actually, one of the college students at church has given the beard the name Brutus. Quite appropriate. And for anyone wondering, no, I am not a fan.
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Such a fun day!
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Saturday night we went to an ice carving festival in town. It was cooooold, but some of the sculptures were so pretty.
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Before we headed home Sunday, the boys got a little target shooting in too.
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Thanks so much for the wonderful weekend guys!
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Football

by Heather | 0 comments

We were invited to a friend’s house for the superbowl but just decided to stay home this year. We’ve had family here this weekend, the kids’ dedication at church and then more family back at the house for lunch and hanging out this afternoon. So we were beat. I’m glad we just stayed here and had a quiet night as a family. A few gems from the evening:

Me: There’s a football game on that we’re going to watch soon.
Ben: No thanks, I don’t like that. Let’s watch Jake and the pirates.

Then later into the game:

Ben: They’re fighting over the soccer ball!

Finally, this sweet little moment with Ben and Andy. Ben wanted to be a football player so he grabbed his nerf football and helmet and snuggled in with daddy. He was tiiiired!

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31

by Heather | 0 comments

Andy turned 31 today!

As an aside I’m feeling much better, just a little tired from the weekend of pukies. I made Andy loaded nachos for his birthday dinner (my stomach didn’t quite feel up them though).
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Then there was carrot cake for dessert. Ben enjoyed singing happy birthday to daddy and blowing out his candles.
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I couldn’t resist giving him the card where the dog is giving the kitty a birthday kiss. Anyone who knows Andy knows he is not a fan of dogs ;-) Happy birthday hun, I love you!
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Circle of life

by Heather | 1 Comment

Yesterday on his way to work, Andy hit a patch of ice on the 490 and slid into the guardrail. He’s fine and the truck just got a smashed tail light. A little shook up and not sure if anything else was wrong with his Explorer, he turned around and came home to work.

Today he headed off to work again with tube sand and shingles (yeah, a little ghetto) for extra weight. He still lost traction and slid around three separate times on the icy 490. Finally he decided to turn around and come home again. On his way home he drove by a deer with a broken leg that was laying in the middle of the highway. He pulled into an empty lot and called the police. The sheriff arrived a few minutes later, assessed that the poor thing really couldn’t be saved and pulled it off to the side to shoot it. Andy promptly asked if he could have it.

Here is where you get to make fun of him for bringing home roadkill.

Seriously though, it was good, fresh meat. He brought it home (always prepared with a tarp in the back of his Explorer) and strung it up in the garage. This evening he cleaned and processed it, pulling meat from bone and stripping off the fur and fat.

It’s not pretty, but I think it’s amazing. People have been feeding their families for thousands of years this way…the life and energy of one animal given for the nourishment of another. There’s almost something sacred to the whole bloody, messy process.

Our neighbors probably have no idea what’s going on in our garage.
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Warming himself by the lights. It was coooooold outside today!
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So you’re scrolling through all these cute kid pictures on my blog and then bam, this. Haha, sorry. It sure will be tasty when it’s all marinaded and cooked though!
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Lazy Sundays

by Heather | 0 comments

They don’t happen very often around here, but we enjoy them when they do.
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