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....

Work and explanation

Sorry for the quality of the pics. They are taken on my phone camera.

We worked in Massachusetts at the myopia hunting club. There are five courts all in the same area side by side. We scratched and scraped the surface and removed the material along with lots of debris. Then it got rolled and power raked, in preparation for spreading new material on top. After we spread that it was power raked and rolled again. That was it for today. It doesn't sound like a lot but it was hard work. Power rake is what they call a piece of chain link fence being dragged behind a little lawn tractor.

The explanation is for my last post. I was just being selfish. I start feeling like no one reads the blog when there are no comments but I should write this for the enjoyment of writing, not for the feed back I get from it. So you can ignore my childish moment.

I can't get Brielle interested in writing in the blog any more. I am not sure if she will write anytime soon....Sorry. Maybe someone else should suggest it or maybe I should just leave it alone.

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Monday

Today was the first day working for Tennis Courts Of NH. We worked on a baseball field. We were weeding, edging, rototilling, raking, and adding stone dust to raise the grade where necessary. I guess after that is completed we are going to top it with the same red clay material that is used on tennis courts. This job is going to wear on my back and arms and I don't know what else yet.

Since the seafood chowder was a great "hit" I thought I would post another recipe that I like to make. Pizza dough. I got this from my friend Geoff Howe and I am not sure where he got it from.

Pizza Dough Recipe

1 1/4 c warm water

2 envelopes active yeast

2 tsp red wine vinegar ( you may want to play with this I was thinking of using less next time)

3 tbsp olive oil (plus some for greasing the bowl for rising)

4 c flour

2 tsp sugar

1 tbsp salt

Mix water, sugar, yeast let sit 5-10 min

Mix in rest of ingredients kneed and add flour till you have manageable dough

Place in an oiled bowl let rise 1/2 hour

Punch down and separate into 6 pieces(fewer for larger pizzas)

Let rest before using or freeze immediately for later use

We use corn meal on a cookie sheet, a pizza stone is supposed to be the best

Don't use too much sauce and put whatever toppings you like

Brielle does a no sauce mushroom and cheese, Cassandra likes mushroom and onion, While I lean toward Garlic and any of the meats and feta cheese plus mozzarella

Last few days

We went skiing at Gunstock on Sunday, there last day. It was warm out but very windy. The snow was too soft and it had not been groomed the night before. I think it would have been difficult skiing anyways because we got there kind of late in the day so the trails were really rough. We put in a total of two runs but it was nice to get out one last time, even though it hurts a little to go back to what I left.

Saturday Brielle and I hiked up Red Hill to the tower. It was a cloudy day but not to cold out, until we got to the top. We went up the tower and Brielle got chilled by the wind and never really recovered until we got home. All in all it was a fun hike albeit a little longer than Brielle remembered it.

Before we went hiking we started seed inside and out. Yes we are probably jumping the gun a little(see the snow behind Brielle) but we will see. The raised beds warm up earlier so hopefully we will get something. We started snow peas, broccoli, and radishes. I think we might (I might) be dreaming. We have to put the fencing over the bed to discourage the cats from using the fresh turned soil.



On Friday Brielle had A Disco themed dance. Even at this age hardly anyone danced unless it was the macarena, electric slide, cotton eyed Joe, or the hustle If you enlarge the dance pic a couple of the kids have scary red eye that I did not try to fix.

I built a couple of book shelves, here is one installed. The other one has to wait until we move our bed because the bed posts are too tall. I used a recycled pine board and some scrap red wood decking (for the braces) that has been here since the last owners had the house.

Here is Brielle dancing part of the Macarena song.

More of the common ground fair

There is an incredible array of artisans at the fair. I love the woodwork whimsy of the bird houses. This man does felting, it looks so simple but I have yet to try it. I would love to make some felt hats. There are felting classes at the fair that I will have to try. There are whole tents of artists who work with clothing, pottery, stone work, paint, etc, etc. Last year we went to the Youth Enterprise Zone tent. Wow what creativity and talent. We didn't realise it was only going to be there for part of the fair so when we went back it was empty. Next year we are going to buy some things from them and support their work!!

There are lots of animals and a lot of interest in spinning yarn from a large variety of animals. There is a large tent where you can buy big bags of wool and I think next to that tents is the Wednesday Spinners where you can watch 15-20 people spinning yarn. For some reason I really enjoy watching them work. It seems like it takes a delicate touch.
Face painting is one of the things Brielle has done every year. They have an incredible number of volunteers for the fair. There is info on the website if you are interested in doing so. Ken volunteered as an EMT last year. The face painting is done by volunteers and is free, like most things in the children's area. Sometimes there is a fee for craft lessons but not generally.

As I have said before, this is not a typical fair. This fair encourages hands on learning and participation. There is a tent dedicated to everything Native American, from arts and crafts to drumming (see picture).The other picture is, (I believe) the International folk dance and Baltic womans choir. They where fun to watch and obviously loved performing. Brielle is playing in a bucket of seeds, probably at the Fedco tent or maybe Johnny's Select Seed. You might wonder if she should be, but there are a couple of bushels set out every year just for that purpose.

You see a lot, and hear a lot, about recycling. They actually are not going to sell bottled water at the fair this year. Instead they have set up water stations all around the fair to get people to refill instead of dealing with all the waste generated by the bottles. Great idea!! Every time I go to the fair it makes me want to eat better and work at being "greener" in lots of ways. I don't necessarily succeed but it is important to keep thinking about it and working at it. The picture of brielle on the recycled tires got me going on this tangent. You can also see the compost tumbler in the background.

The first year that I went the guy with the owl gave a presentation. Unfortunately I have not seen him since. There are presentations for a wide variety of subjects so it would really be worth your time to check their web site.http://mofga.org/ The man with the owl also had some hawks and other owls. It was very interesting and informative. The picture of the white bird is a carrier pigeon. Soon after the man gave his talk and let anyone who wanted to pet his bird, he released it. I don't recall what part of Maine he was from but the pigeon had a ways to fly to get home.