vacation day

Brielles first game and club house

Brielle had her first game of softball today. She did not win but played very well and was satisfied with her teams performance. The other team had played two times before so had a little more experience. It was an incredible day for a game, our warmest yet this year. As I type this at 10:00 pm it is still 67 degrees out. The high today was supposed to be around eighty but I never did check it. Thanks to Mom and Ken for coming to the game and for a great lunch after.

Brielle is the fourth one in from the left in the back row(I am including the coach in that count). I am pretty sure she is the tallest on her team and according to her the second fastest. Brielle did a very good job batting but she likes to stretch for the high pitches. We are very proud of how she played and her positive attitude.

When we got home Brielle took a nap, I think she was worn out from all the nervous excitement of her first game, and then we got to work on her "club house". Brielle and a couple of her friends decided one day that they were going to convert one of the coops into a club house. I helped to convince her to use the old turkey coop. She did a considerable amount of cleaning and then we both painted the inside white. We have an old rug that will go in tomorrow and I haven't told her but I plan on making some stools and a table too. I had always planned on making a tree house, maybe this will do instead.

The painted tree is a mixture of latex paint and drywall mud. it is supposed to keep apple borers away from the tree. I lost one tree to them and had another rot near ground level. I'm not sure what was up with that one.

Helping Mom and visiting Grammy Lowden

I had the day off today because of the rain last night and the forecast for showers today. Mom asked me about cutting a pine tree by the log cabin so I thought today would be a good day for it. I also have been scanning some of Grammy Lowden's old pictures so I wanted to return those after finishing with the tree. I had to put the tree onto the lawn because of phone lines and power lines. I didn't have enough wedges so I had to cut several wedges and then a wooden pry bar. I may have been able to cut more of the hinge but I was nervous because the tree was so close to the house and leaned that way slightly. It is my understanding that the tree was planted by Mom and Sumner before I was born(at least 41 years ago). The tree was getting thin on top and when I chunked it up the top was getting that punky look to it. The but was surprisingly sound and I hope to get an Alaskan mill and saw it out, otherwise I will cut it into chunks.

After we cleaned all the chunks, brush, and Mom got the branches out of the apple tree (even though her back was bothering her), we went to see Grammy Lowden. I mentioned that I wanted to return pictures but I also wanted Grammy to identify people in all of the pictures. I brought the laptop to show Grammy the scanned pictures while Mom wrote down the info for me(thank you mom and Grammy). We did not finish so we will have to do it again soon. Grammy really seemed to enjoy going through the pictures, we all did! I took another album, this one was Grandpa Lowden's, to scan but the pictures are attached to the pages so I am scanning an entire page at once. This is a lot faster but I don't think the pictures come out as clear. If anyone wants a disk copy of the scanned pictures when I am done let me know. I hope to scan a bunch more and hopefully get some from Grammy Bradley too.

After I got home we saw a turkey go up the walkway so I went out and got a picture of them heading for the power lines. I hear them quite often but only see them occasionally.

Hawk Watch

One of the classes that Cassandra is taking is on birds. She has a science requirement and thought this looked interesting. For extra credit she could go on a hawk watch, so we all went. Except for the drive, first we went to Fryeburg Me. then another 30 min to hawk mnt. ( I forget the town), it was really quite nice. The people where very accommodating and considerate. The instructor could tell what a bird was when most of us couldn't even find it with binoculars! He tried to teach us the basics about Buteo, accipiter, falcon, eagle, osprey, harrier, vulture, and owls.
I would do it again if we stayed closer to home, larger binoculars would be nice too and maybe a high powered telephoto lens on a nice camera(guess I am dreaming). We saw mostly turkey vultures, a phoebe, a northern flicker, and red tailed hawks.

The picture that looks like it is of a swamp is of a swamp. I just liked how it looked.

Same photo only zoomed in to show the hawk.

Nice day with Mom

The pictures are out of order so this was the last part of our day. I keep forgetting to take pictures of Grammy Lowden when we visit but here we are outside of Lafayette Center after our visit. Mom and Brielle are a couple of zaney people. Grammy seems to be doing very well although she does not get around much without a wheel chair, pretty impressive for 97 years old. Her memory is far better than mine.

Hi folks I'm starting to get the hang of writing more often. It is slowly creeping back into me!

The picture of me and Jeremy (she got side tracked by the cat and now it is bed time. I'll try to get her to finish tomorrow)

I got lucky and picked the right day to visit Mom. She had been invited to a small birthday party for Grammy Bradley and Brielle and I got to tag along. Dave and Ellie, Ralph and Ruth, Lester, and Louise where all there to celebrate her 89 th ( I think, there is that memory of mine) birthday. Uncle Dave showed Brielle how the bear skull works in the fire place. I wonder if there are very many of those in the world!? After visiting for a while we went north to see Grammy Lowden.

Brielle singing

Easter day

Easter started a little late for Brielle who decided to wait until Ciara and her boyfriend Kyle came over, which ended up around 10:30. She had a good time searching for eggs and she got a small basket with candy in it, a pair of sandals, and a bathing suit, kind of a tradition that the Easter bunny has graced us with. After visiting with Ciara and Kyle, sorry I didn't get a pic of Ciara, we went to Ralph and Ruth's campground for the Bradley get together.

We had a great Ham and egg, with lots of other side dishes, dinner and the kids flew around looking for Easter eggs. That is my half sister Kim Tyler helping Peter and Tara Roy's children with their egg hunt. I am not very good with kid's names,sorry, I am pretty sure Elie is holding Peter's youngest son. Grammy Bradley is next to him, she was in great spirits. Cassandra got to tell all about having her position eliminated and how she is looking for work with no success, so far. Ralph and Ruth's son Tenner is the one wearing his girlfriends head band. I was kind of far away and had a hard time getting a picture. He seems to be playing it up the way he has his hands up to his hair.

Brielle really likes to hook up with Paige, Nathan's daughter, at these family gatherings. This was the first time I had seen Kim with a "significant other" and Mr. non-social me never even introduced myself to him so I can't give you a name or any other good information.

Ello folks, yep that's right it is Easter so sit back and read, relax and learn please!!!!!!! SO WHAT ARE WE WAITING FOR !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!UH LETS SEE THE LAST TIME I WAITED ON EASTER WAS LETS SEE NEVER FOR THE LAST CENTURY!!!!!!!So lets move it!!!I did a easter hunt at the bradley camp ground and got 9 easter eggs mostly chocolata.Me and my cousins flew airplanes and they eventually all landed in the lake.We played softball some but I was not very happy when I got hit in the leg twice once by Jeremy and the other by Parker!!!! And ouch, did that hurt!!! Well bye then folks great typing for you!!!!!!!! From the one and only brielle bradley!!

Town Easter egg hunt + home coloring eggs

We had fun coloring eggs and then decorating them. I can only tell you that mine is the one with antennae. I don't know where Cassandra comes up with these kits. I like the old fashioned creativity. Brielle had her face painted at the town festivities. The girl who was painting was very good. Brielle is supposed to be a fire fairy.

They did the egg hunt differently this year. They usually have the little kids dig for eggs in a pile of sawdust. This year they just gave the little kids a head start on the regular egg hunt. After 15 seconds or so the older kids took off and Brielle ended up with two eggs. She was a trooper and I am sure she will make up for it tomorrow. I am always surprised at all the out of state plates and kids from surrounding towns who come to our tiny town to partake in the festivities.

Yesterdays blog today

Found that quote on a blog. I liked it so I thought I would share it. I have a mixed post that I was going to do yesterday but didn't manage it. The spoon and spatula I have already put in the blog but forgot I did( I just went back to check, woops). The draw shaves on the saw horse I made when I was still at Gunstock. I think I made six of them, giving at least three away. The small ones were made with old chain saw bars. The big ones are pieces of spring steel from the grooming tractors.

The night stand with the slanted piece(I did that on purpose thinking it would look nice, but it just looks like a mistake) is something I made for Brelle's room. I liked how it came out, except for the slanted piece.

I have made lots of trellises for the garden. They are pretty similar to each other but naturally are all unique. I made an arch trellis for the entry to the garden years age that will probably need replacing this year. I never treated it and the legs sat in the dirt so it has slowly rotted, getting shorter each year.

Early on the kids shared some of my enthusiasm for rustic work but it was short lived. We made miniature chairs one day. Brielle has hers in her hands. Cody put baseball leather on his seat. He still has the completed chair but Brielle's was never glued and fell apart, never to be put back together again. Mine suffered a similar fate.

Here are a couple of pics from work yesterday. We are in Manchester Mass. for these pics. We were right on the ocean. These courts are made with quick dri. I guess it is a silica based product that has some sort of binder in it that gets hard after it has gotten wet. All the courts we have worked on so far are this type. We went through the same process as the day before but we also put down the lines. Matt, my boss, is rolling out one of the side lines. Then we all nail the lines down with long aluminum roofing nails. Pretty exciting huh? At least I am working and learning and am outside enjoying the weather....