ANIMALS!!!

I am super excited about the fact we live so close to a really unique attraction to NY.  It is called Animal Adventures. It has animals from all over the world and they are available to be pet and fed and you stroll around the park. They are always improving and exhibiting new animals.

We have seen and touched animals that we would have never had the opportunity to do anywhere else in the world. What a fantastic resource. I am super thankful to the owner/founder Jordan Patch. He is an animals super hero.

McCaws

Alpacas

White Toed Lynx – Canadian

Female Hyena

White MCcaw

Alpaca

Camel Kisses

Marty the Camel

African

A little Tongue from Olie

Capabera

Kangaroo

Prairie Dog

Scottland bovine

Jacob Sheep

CSA – Our first

When we moved back to NY, I found a great CSA that picks up at a fantastic local foods market near our home.  We have been bogged down by so much vegatables I have little room in my fridge and some of it is going to waste. I love veggies, but when I get funky ones, I just have no idea what to do with them. I am looking forward to later on in the season when less greens and more actual veggies I can cook right away will start appearing in our boxes.

We are loving the fact that we already paid for all this in advanced so very little grocery money is going towards veggies now.

I also grabbed several chicks months back and raised them free range. They went to processing last week and now I have a freezer full of chicken. I am taking another batch in for processing soon as well.  I have meat rabbits, that I hope will be having kits in a month, so I can then have a freezer full by winter, of rabbit.  Hoping this will help cut down on meat purchases and be better for us health wise and money wise.

 

At the Races….Drag Races that is.

June 2015

I am fortunate enough to have several race tracks in our surrounding area. I really wanted to play with my camera and this was the perfect opportunity. Cool Cars! Smoke! Lightening speeds! All around good time.

I brought R. with me so she could play with her camera, too. I didn’t get to play with my shutter speed since I left my tripod at home, but I still got to experiece following cars along there path and seeing some great cars!

B-29 Bomber

June 2015

We were very fortunate to have had the B-29 Bomber, the last one in operation, come to our local airport for a viewing. It was a very coolsite.

I got lots of neat pictures of it and the C-47?. We were able to go inside the under belly to see the bombs and inside the cockpit. We didn’t get into the cockpit since the climb was too much for us, but it was totally worthe the hour or so wait.

The entire time we were there, they were maintaining this beautiful plane like royalty.  What a treat!

Car shows galore!

I have been to several car shows in the last few months. I am not particularly drawn to cars, but I am trying to improve  my skills as a photographer. Cars are an easy teaching tools. They don’t move, well, when parked anyway. They have great reflection properties. And they can’t complain. 😛

Here are some of my favorites from the Greene Cruise Ins and the Port Crane Fire Dept BBQ.

Fireman Field Days

June 2015

Our favorite fair is the Firemans Field Days is Appalachin, NY. It is simple and fun. This time I brought the girls with us. I laughed so hard riding the twister ride over and over again my cheeks cramped up. LOL

I introduced the girls to fair food. DEEP FRIED OREO COOKIES! Nom nom nom nom.  T. got to shoot a BB Gun and Paint gun, which made him happy.

We got there way early on the opening day due to lack of proper advertising for the event, so I took some realy neat pictures of the empty fair grounds and rides.

Having fun with the Family – B-Sens Hockey

May 2015

Knocking teeth out. Blood on the ice. Darth Vadar on the runway.

Whaaat??!

Okay, we had lots of fun this winter and early spring at our favorite local hockey teams arena. I brought my parents a few time and we got to see some gruesome action on the ice. We also had a great time at the Start Wars event they held before the game. T. even got pictures with several of the characters.

First Visit to the Zoo!

April 2015

It has been over five years since we have had the pleasure of enjoying this lovely small local zoo. It has just opened for the season and I plan on attending several events they have planned for this year.

It was so fun getting acquianted with the old and new animals.  I also was fortunate enough to have had my parents along with me, as well as R. We got to play with our cameras. The days weather was perfect and the animals did their best to cooperate. Netted cages really suck for autofocus. 😛

Here are a few of my favorite images of the day.

Working backwards

I am going to be updating the blog. That will involve posting lots of pictures along side short posts regarding the events since we moved back to NY.

I would like to say upfront, I love being back here so that I can care for my family and friends. I do miss all the luxuries I had available to me in Iowa and the very close friends and connections I made there.
The transition back has been fairly easy but reconnecting with old friends is a challenge since many folks here just don’t have the same vibes I do. Never did, so its not a surprise to me. I just with that was a little easier and folks would actually take some time to welcome us back and make an effort to connect, rather than me always reaching out. It gets tiresome.

I love being near mom and dad. I even visited my brother. That is a rarity and one I enjoyed very much. Lots of doctors appointments between us all that keep me busy alongside the schoolwork I prepare for T. and R.&J.

I am fortunate enough to live back on five acres of land with a decent barn. I am building my homesteading skills back up by raising meat rabbits and meat chickens. After fencing gets funded, I will start meat goats. I have enjoyed getting dirty, wet and sweaty again. I know that sounds strange but I have lived an alternate life these past five years and it is a relief to get back into the activities I thrive in doing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fiona, our Saint Bernard finally passed away back in June of 2014, since then I have filled that void with a teacup yorkie, Precious, and two chihuahuas, Minnie( build like a tank) and Carly ( long hair carebear).
They have been expensive to keep and maintain but they are loveable critters.

We’re Baaack!!

Jones Park, Vestal , NY

The big move back to NY is complete. It was a long and arduous process. I am still not content with our home purchase and living situation, but we are here and I am thankful for that.

I am able to take care of my parents, at a sacrafice of my son T. The services in which he needs are nil in NY. We knew that going in, but at least here we have the opportunity to rebuild our community with our homeschool coop and church.
For the last 5 years, not having either community available has made life very challenging. I am happy to be able to rebuild relationships and reshape them as all our lives have shifted in one way or another since our absence.

I hate to NY paperwork crap we have to complete for homeschooling. Such a beauraucratic waste of time, but it is easy enough. T was homeschooling as a 9th grader doing approx. 6th grade level work in IA, but here I am more app to document him as 8th in hopeful persuits of closer to accurate learning ability. No matter what I teach from here on out, it won’t make much difference to his life. It is pretty much stagnant as far as acedemics. Now is the time to focus on Life Skills as much as I can. One can only hope he will be independant for even a small portion of his life in the future.

I am now able to care for and help my dearest friend(Jacqui) daughters, when they allow it, as well. I was fortunate to be able to move so close to them. I love them dearly and wish I had never moved away and missed a minute of their life and Jacquis.

I don’t have room to spread my office and art supplies anywhere in the new house so I feel very contained and trapped here with little outlet. So I am slowly getting aggitated and trying to find outlets that aren’t fighting about stupid things that have little to do with the actual issue at hand. 😛 I know, silly, but it still happens. I learned about SoulCollage and I love that. I had fun doing a Zentangle and enjoyed that too. I have joined a very large Fiber Arts Guild, Lamb to Loom that thankfully meets at my church, I am very much enjoying. I am missing more than my fair share of Photography Club meetings and haven’t entered a single image in the Competitions, but I really like the format. Winters are not an easy time to pull me out of the house and then add the stress of moving, I have hiberanted a little. Not a good thing for me, even as an introvert.

I was admitted in to the Lourdes Hospital for about week from severe stomach pain and vomitting. I am now the proud owner of a medicaid card and lots of holes in my arms. It was super stressful and its not quite over yet. I have lots of follow up appts and such to make sure other issues they found are taken care of before I get so old it will be much harder to recover from. Hernia! yay! Not!

Now I must figure out how to get S. a birthday gift, T. a birthday party planned, Ostara set up and celebrated, dogs spayed, my surgery scheduled, psych appts for T. set up, house furntiure purchasing, plumbing and electrical work scheduled and paid for, care for T. during my recovery, and school work and classes continued. I am falling behind on everything but mybrain fog is making things slip and am becoming very unreliable. My mess, I will clean it up.

Did I mention I have not had any time to network, so that means no business can be thrown my way. No one knows I exist as far as design work. Sad but true. I must find work, so I can become independant. I feel like a kid living under someone elses roof and not being able to care for myself and my child on my own. Pathetic.

I am happy to be so close in vicinity to B. now. He attends Ithaca College as a sophmore. He is a smart guy. I hope he succeeds in what ever path he chooses. Soon he will be home for a week and I have no room for him. That makes me very angry.