To the Farm

Danny decided to take Friday off so we could get an earlier start. Naturally it tok us the beter part of the day to get packed. It’s always more of a project than we think it will be. We finally got on the road around 3 pm. It was 76 degrees out . I told Danny I felt like today was the first day of summer vacation and tomorrow would be the first day of winter vacation. Really strange to be in flip flops and t-shirts and packing up boots and coats. We stayed overnight in DC at Daddy and Fran’s house - they’re in NH enjoying wintery weather at the beach.
We had some excitement getting the house going. Ron had come up and turned the house on for us and plowed the drive (NICE). For some reason the heat just wasn’t working when we got here. Danny and Kristjan fiddled with the furnace a bit and then started a fire in the woodstove. Meanwhile I ran the washing machine empty to clean it out and when it got to the rinse cycle we suddenly found water pouring over the floor. Couldn’t find a leak so we figured it was just an overly enthusiastic burst of water into the deep sink. It’s been ok since. It was a bit chilly the first night (about 50 with only the woodstove heating the house). Danny got up in the night to add wood to the fire and tweak the furnace some more. By Sunday night he had coaxed it into proper operation.
The snow has been outstanding! Nice lake effect, big fluffy flakes. I have way too many cool pictures to post here. Kristjan has been out with his BB gun shooting soda cans. He and I made snow angels - falling back into the snow produced a nice puff of flakes but I didn’t realize the snow would stick to my glasses and came up looking like I was wearing snow goggles! Kristjan has also tried snowboarding/sledding down the hill (it’s a bit deep and requires more packing) and yesterday he made a snowman while we went to Walmart. That’s right - we went to Walmart on Christmas Eve. I don’t know what we were thinking - we didn’t stay long. The snowman is pretty impressive, seven foot 5 inches! And it was wet and rainy yesterday when he made it so that was pretty heavy snow. The snowman will probably be here until March! Fortunately, it cooled off again last night and it’s snowing again. Enjoy the snow pictures……

TOUCHDOWN!

Yes, my boy scored his first touchdown and unfortunately I have no picture because it was a night game and worse - are you ready for this? - although I was recording with my sony handycam, I missed it with that too! Arrgggh! Not sure how I did that, I was following the ball but ended up on the wrong side of the field. When I pulled back, there was Yeshi, ball in hand, in the end zone! Ah well, I did get nice footage of him recovering a fumble and catching a pass that was too low, he had to dive for it. Today we are driving up to Rock Hill for the state championship. The game is at 5pm so I probably won't get any photos of this game either but if I do I will certainly post some tomorrow! Since I can't stand to post without a picture to go with it....here's Yeshi making cookies for Thanksgiving and a couple of nature pictures.....

Happy Thanksgiving

Can you believe it? I didn't get a picture of our Thanksgiving dinner. Wow, I'm slacking. You'll have to imagine it. Just 4 of us this year. Me, Danny, Yeshi and Gloria, Danny's mom. This year I got smart and made just about everything ahead of time. On Monday I made all the potatoes and put them in foil pans in the freezer. Tuesday I made Cranberry dressing, Chocolate chip pumpkin bread and green beans. Cranberry dressing was really yummy - we usually don't have it but the recipe I used called for cloves, nutmeg and pineapple tidbits. Sounded good and it was. For the green beans I put fresh green beans in one of those ziploc steamer bags along with garlic, oregano and butter. Wednesday Kristjan baked The Cookies and I iced them. Gloria made cornbread stuffing so the only thing we had to do yesterday was cook the turkey, make gravy and warm everything else in the oven or microwave. Even the dishes weren't bad since I had used some of the foil pans and since we didn't have all the prep dishes to wash. Nice. We got to spend most of our time doing what's really important....watch football! Since I don't have a family picture for you here are some nature pictures from one of my recent walks around the neighborhood.

 

Fall Colors

As you may have guessed, South Carolina is not known for a spectacular display of fall foliage. At least not the New England variety. Here we do have a unique fall color - PINK. This is sweetgrass. Our area is famous for sweetgrass basketry. All along route 17 (which is called Sweetgrass basket makers highway) you can see stands where baskets are sold. Usually with the proprietor sitting there working on another one. The grass is ideal for basket-making. The blades are smooth and round rather than flat like most grasses. And in the fall the grass blooms a lovely bright pink. 

Here is a woman weaving sweetgrass baskets at the open air market in Charleston. This art has been passed down for centuries in families of African descent. Baskets like these were made by West Africans who continued their art after being brought to the lowcountry as slaves.  

Sweetgrass Basket History

Jumping on the bandwagon

I'm jumping on somebody else's meme. I'm supposed to put up the 6th picture from my sixth album. Gee, I wonder who might be the subject of that photo? The odds favor my little Ray of Sunshine....with his cousin Ivy.

And then I got to wondering about five of five -

and four of four - 

three of three -

 

two of two -

one of one - 

Erev Sukkot

Here's the completed Sukkah - I'm really happy with the S'chach (roof) which we made with Palmetto leaves. They are great. It really feels like a genuine Sukkah in the wilderness. Yeshi put up the lights and then Danny and I did the roof. I'll add some more decorations tomorrow but we had the essentials for the first night. Lit our "Off" lanterns about 30 min. before we went out to eat and no trouble with the bugs. Forecast is no rain for the week. Huzzah!

Sukkot w00t! and muddy football players

Here's our Sukkah going up. We've spent the last week trying to locate reed fence because - you guessed it - we left ours in Va Beach when we moved. We tried Home Depot, Lowe's and even our trusty Sweetgrass Ace Hardware, to no avail. Just when we figured we were going to settle for a wood frame, plastic mesh and sticking all manner of grass, reeds and brush into it....I took one more lap around Lowe's and there, in the garden center stood a whole pallet of reed fence! Oh joy, rapture! So we picked up two of them and today when there was a (brief) break in the rain Danny and Yeshi got the frame up and then while Yeshi was at football practice Danny and I tied the reed fence to the frame. Then we drove over to Park Island (just a few blocks from us) where they are building a bunch of new homes and scavenged for palm leaves. Well, ok, I did cut fresh ones but I took them from several areas so they wouldn't be missed. I think a lot of the stuff will be cut out when they build the houses. The leaves will make excellent roofing material. Naturally it started raining again while I was trudging through the swamp but the big palm leaves kept most of it off. When I first went in to get them Danny yelled out to me to watch it (he was only wearing flip flops and I had on sneakers so I ended up doing the cutting) because he saw a really big spider. Turns out it was a little brown crab. They were all over the place and went skittering in every direction as I slogged through the squish to get my palm leaves. Tomorrow - hanging up the lights and decorations!

Oh yeah, don't let the look fool you. He had fun practicing in the rain. Apparently some rolling in the mud was involved. Gee, getting muddy playing football? Who would have thought? Note the gray sky - yeah, it's still raining.  And the pants used to be white...

Aaaaaah.....Fall!!!!

Phew! Just when I thought we couldn't possibly take any more heat. It's been wonderfully cool the last few days.Highs around low 80's and even down into the 70's during the day - 60's at night. The AC is OFF. My goal is to keep it that way until next summer. I've had my fill of $350/month electric bills. 

I love fall. The weather is perfect, bugs are on the way out and my favorite holiday approaches - Sukkot. What could be better than a holiday in which you build a fort? Although we don't really have any fall colors to speak of (yet) I thought I would post some from previous years.

4 generations, scenery and super models

Four generations of Crandalls - on the right, my Dad: Great Grandpa Joel, me, my daughter Atalya and little Ray. On the left Yeshi and Great Grandma Fran. 

The view from the Port Jefferson, Ny - Bridgeport, CT ferry.

My son, Yeshi, in his supermodel phase.

Great Grandma Sara, Ray and Atalya.

Ah, the love of a brother and sister.....

And the winner is.....

Smilebooks was having a smiles of summer contest so I sent in this picture and was one of the fourth place winners. If you go to smilebooks.com you will see my name listed under 4th place winners. Unfortunately they only posted the pictures of 1st through 3rd place and I thought everyone should see the cuteness of my grandson Ray with his Great Grandpa Joel. I think these guys are definitely first place material! 

Ray's First Birthday

Although I know I probably shouldn't try to catch up on my blog....I have to at least put in Ray's birthday before jumping to the present. So here are some from his party "on the day" (remember he did have a party at Grandma Sara's also). Here's Uncle Yeshi doing his thing. Ray loves the tossing in the air.

And here he is with cousin Luke figuring out how to get at that laptop.

Luke had a shiner from running into a table and decides the bag of frozen peas he had for the injury would make a good present for Ray.

Ray loves the fish that Grandma Gloria crocheted for him.

Great Grandpa Joel lights the candle.

Uncle Yeshi is funny.

Mmmmm, frosting.....

Cuddles from Great Grandma - she kept heading Ray off at the stairs. He'd even start up a stair or two and then look to see who was going to come get him....