Say Hello to My Little Friends!

Just a short and sweet post to show you some of the little creatures keeping us company at The Homestead...

This is Stewart, one of our two resident bullfrogs:

Here are four baby Eastern Bluebirds in one of the two bird boxes we have on our property:

From a distance, I was able to capture a picture of their momma coming back to check on them:

Here are four baby House Sparrows in the second bird box. They are three or four days younger than the Bluebirds:

That's it! Have a great evening!

O Christmas Tree!

Finding a Christmas tree can involve countless hours of trudging through seemingly endless fields of overpriced trees. Of course, some tree farms try to assuage the pain of finding that perfect $50 Christmas tree by lending out saws, offering tree carts, and having refreshments for sale like hot chocolate intended to warm up customers whose eyes may be frozen. 

Fortunately, four years ago, we discovered a small, family-owned/run tree farm just south of Philipsburg, PA in Glass City where all trees are $15. It's a very no-muss/no-fuss operation. Each day (Friday through Sunday), the family brings a crop of fresh cut trees down from their fields and displays them for purchase. Customers are still welcome to trudge through the fields to select and cut down their own tree, which is what we did the first year we went there, but really it's not necessary. In 2010, 2011, and again this year, we found a wonderful tree among the pre-cut trees and every year it has been very obvious that the tree had been freshly cut (very little sap had seeped out of the cut).

This year, we decided to take Oscar with us for the ride up to Glass City.

Once we were in the truck, it didn't take Oscar long to go from "excited to ride in the truck" to "I'm just going to relax here while we make our way there."

"Oh boy, here we go!"

"You can probably just wake me when we get there."

The tree farm we visit is located on Glass City Road just off of PA 350. If you are headed north on PA 350 toward Philipsburg, you will make a right turn. Never fear; there is a sign for the tree farm on 350. 

This is the entrance to the tree farm. Customers drive up and around the owners' house.

$15 bucks for a tree? What a deal!

This way to the Christmas trees!

Cute parking sign.

This is the back porch of the owners' house.

Trailers full of freshly cut trees ready to be displayed.

Chris readies the Tundra by rolling up the tonneau cover.

Trees that were cut this morning are ready to be taken home!

Chris surveys the available trees.

We might have a winner...go ahead and spin it, honey!

Oh, yeah...that backside looks good. And so does the tree, LOL!

For another $5, our tree gets baled by the very friendly owners.

Christmas Tree 2012 is secured in the bed of the truck. Total cash outlay = $20. Total time spent at the tree farm = 10 minutes. BAM!

When we got home with our tree, I filled a bucket with water while Chris took about an inch off the bottom of the trunk. We got all of our Christmas stuff out of our attic and will be decorating this week. Our tree is in the garage for the time being. 

Meanwhile, apparently the search for a Christmas tree was apparently an exhausting experience:

"Wake me up when the tree is up and decorated!"

We'll likely have the tree up and decorated by mid-week. It's probably going to require a little trimming; it's a bit taller than trees we've had the last few years! I can't wait...it's gonna be a beaut!!!

A little dirt under my fingernails...

I spent the majority of Saturday afternoon planting all of the flowers I bought in the last 10 days. The Thursday before Memorial Day, I hit Home Depot for some impatiens for the front garden. Six-packs of impatiens were $0.98 each, so I bought 12 packs. That's right...when it came time for planting, I had 72 individual impatiens to plant. Surprisingly, once I laid them all out along the front sidewalk spaced "just so," the actual planting only took about 45 minutes. I alternated white and purple in two rows and I am hopeful that with a little rain and a little sunshine, they'll spread out and fill in the entire space. 

72 little impatiens along the front sidewalk.

To add a little more "curb appeal" to the front of the house, I put my double shepherd's hook in the front garden where the spring daffodils were and hung two pots - one with purple trailing lantana and the other with yellow trailing lantana. The flowers should both fill in the pots and trail over the sides of the pots and hang down quite nicely. I bought the one-quart lantana plants at Lowe's last weekend for $3.98 each and I already had the hanging pots.

Yellow and purple trailing lantanas.

Finally, based on an idea I found in Lowe's Creative Ideas magazine, I did two flower pots with "shade-friendly" plants. I bought the two flower pots at Wegmans for $3.49 each last week. Each pot has a dwarf coleus, four wax begonias, and a licorice plant. I bought these plants last weekend at Sammis' Greenhouse in Centre Hall. I really like the selection of plants at Sammis'; the staff is friendly, too. In one of the pots, Chris added the little garden gnome I bought at Wegmans recently. (Chris sprayed him with Rustoleum clear-coat first.) I put a pot on each corner of the front of the porch. These should do well in the morning sun and afternoon shade.

Front porch "shade-friendly" pots.

My little garden gnome - he's so "cazh" with his hands in his pockets!

Finally, I put out my newest garden flag acquisition. At the end of April, I went to Ocean City, MD for a weekend with my parents that morphed into the ERAPPA "Summer" Board meeting that Monday through Wednesday. While I was visiting with my parents, we went to The Kite Loft on the Boardwalk. They have an incredible selection of garden flags in all kinds of themes. I probably had six different "favorite" flags in my hands while I was looking through all of them...until I found THIS one. THIS one became my favorite and came home with me!

Flip flops!!!

Around back, I planted some basil in a pot, as well as planted several plants in my large square pot. Both of these pots will eventually reside on the deck, but Chris is in the process of power-washing the deck ahead of staining it if we can string together a few nice days for drying. The basil and the plants for the square pot were also purchased at Sammis'. The plants in the square pot are rosemary, another dwarf coleus, some wave petunias, and calibrachoa. Again, the idea for this pot came from Lowe's Creative Ideas magazine. Subscriptions are free, so if you don't get it, you should! You can sign up to receive it at the bottom of the Lowe's Creative Ideas webpage.

Mmm, basil...and my big square pot for the deck.

A few other items of note "around the Homestead" from the past weekend:

Some "bunny" came by for a visit...

...and then hung out in the front garden among the foxglove.

Stewart the Bullfrog continues to enjoy live in our pond...

...and may, upon further inspection, be a girl. A girl named Stewart!

Our "left-most" bird box has BLUEBIRDS!
Here, Momma Bluebird sits on the nest of two babies.

The grapevine our friend Clay sent us last year is growing! Homestead vino, anyone?!?

It was fun to play in the dirt Saturday afternoon, despite how dirty my fingernails were when I was done. Besides, it's nothing a little soap and an old toothbrush can't conquer! 

A few dinner guests and a carpetbagger!

Things are really starting to perk up here at The Homestead. The daffodils bloomed, as did the grape hyacinths and a few red tulips. There's been a TON of activity on the bird feeders as you're about to see!

Mr. & Mrs. Cardinal and a House Sparrow

A Red-Bellied Woodpecker
(Yes, I realize his head is red, not his belly, but that's his name!)

Male Downy Woodpecker

A brave gray squirrel...clearly Oscar was indoors!

Oh, now he's showboating!

A few times per week, I put peanuts out for the Blue Jays and Tufted Titmice.

Hello, Mr. Titmouse!

The Titmice will sit in the tree over the pond and call/sing for peanuts!

Today, Chris snapped two pictures of our newest pond inhabitant. OH! But before I get to that...we have fish in our pond!!! We thought we'd lost all of them to a Great Blue Heron that we spotted at our pond last fall. Not so! There are at least seven fish in the pond - two large ones and five offspring. We're very excited that we won't have to stock the pond again this year. It seems we've got quite the fertile pair in the pond already.

So now back to our newest inhabitant - our newest carpetbagger - a juvenile American Bullfrog. We've decided to name him Stewart because, as Chris says, "If he gets big enough, we can make him into stew." (Hint: That ain't happenin'.)

Say "hello" to Stewart!

What a handsome specimen!

Here's hoping Stewart sticks around, although having seen photos of American Bullfrogs eating finches that got too close to the water in a pond (finches, y'all!), I just hope he leaves the baby fish and all of my birds alone!

Hug the people that matter!

So...I'm feeling a little contemplative today. Yesterday, one of our dear friends underwent heart bypass surgery.  (He came through with flying colors and is already on the mend!) It brought back a flood of memories from December 2001 when my dad - then 52 - went in for triple (became quadruple) bypass surgery. It was a hellish morning - with all of the waiting and worrying, not to mention saying "we'll see you in a few hours" in the pre-op area with all four of us in tears. I could imagine what our friend's wife and children were going through yesterday and I certainly did not envy them.   


On top of that, another dear friend of mine is going through a terrible loss - her best friend's boyfriend passed away yesterday afternoon. The best friend - R - came home from work when her boyfriend didn't answer his phone or respond to texts.  R found him seated at the table in front of his laptop; he was gone. I can't even begin to imagine...


Needless to say, I came home and hugged Chris extra tight last night. And I'm looking forward to hugging my parents when they come to visit this weekend. There are plenty other people who matter to me. You're probably one of them. So the next time I see you, I'll hug you. Be ready for it. And hug me back, OK?

Fire in the hole!!!

It's a quickie tonight, folks!  Remember the cannon I got Chris for Christmas?  No?

This one:

Well, we finally fired it for the first time tonight.  Twice, actually!  Enjoy!!!

2011 - The Year in Review

Wait, wait, wait...two posts in one day?  Yuppers!  

I just wanted to take the opportunity to reflect just a bit on the past year and share with you the highlights.  Last year, I did this by way of a photo album on Facebook.  Grabbed the best/most important pictures, captioned them, and lumped them together.  This year, I feel like my blog is the better venue for that!  

So, off we go!

January 2011 - Hmmm...what to say about January?!?  Not much!  Judging by my January pictures folder on my laptop, there wasn't much going on!  Chris went away the first weekend of the month for the annual ST.N Winter Meet.  Oscar and I stayed home and de-Christmas-tized the house.  Oh, and I shoveled snow!  It snowed the Saturday while Chris was gone and I got to shovel the driveway by myself so he could get the motorcycle back into the garage when he returned on Sunday.  That and Oscar had a lot of toys in January.  (He still does!).

It only took me about an hour to shovel the whole driveway.

Oscar and his MANY toys.  (And that's not all of them!)

February 2011 - In February, I went to Pittsburgh with the ERAPPA 2010 Host Committee one last time for our wrap-up meeting and celebration.  Following our wrap-up meeting at the hotel, we had a lovely dinner at the Capital Grille before going to the Consol Energy Center for a Pittsburgh Penguins game!  Beyond that, we had some snow and ice in February.  And one evening, we managed to capture a sunset in our backyard that made it look like the sky was on fire!

ERAPPA 2010 Host Committee "Last Supper"

Marc-Andre Fleury...swoon!!!

With Phillip at the Pens' game.

Ice, ice baby!

More ice around the Homestead.

Fire sky!

March 2011 - In March, my sister-in-law Casie turned 30 and my brother had a big party for her, so off to Baltimore I went!  While I was there, I got to see my brother and Casie's new house for the first time.  After that visit to Baltimore, it was back home to pack another suitcase because I was off to Halifax, Nova Scotia for the ERAPPA Mid-Year Meeting.  We had more snow in March, which always makes the Homestead look so pretty!

Casie - the birthday girl - in the center with Amanda (l), Kim (r), and me (back). 

Bill and Casie on the steps of their new home.

My hotel room in Halifax.

Enjoying a lobster feast on the last night of the Mid-Year Meeting in Halifax.

Signal Hill performs at the Lower Deck in Halifax.

Walking along the waterfront in Halifax.

Snow at the Homestead.

Oscar checks out the Winter Wonderland in the front yard.

April 2011 - Now it's getting good!  Alyssa and I went to Jim Thorpe to the Burlesque Festival to learn some basic burlesque dance moves.  It was so much fun!  The following weekend, Chris and I did our first motorcycle ride together for the year.  Mom, Dad, Bill, and Casie came up to visit for Easter and we hit up the local wineries.  And the last weekend of the month was the ST.N "Burger Run" up in Clearfield, PA.

The quaint town of Jim Thorpe, PA.

Ready to roll for our first ride of 2011.

Casie is a great winery touring partner!

Riding with Chris during the ST.N Burger Run.

Our riding group for the day at the ST.N Burger Run.

May 2011 - At the beginning of May, Alyssa and I went to Walt Disney World for a few days; it was awesome!  May also brought "more better" weather so Chris and I got out on the motorcycle a few times, including to the now annual ST.N Ride to the Rides.  I started this blog in May and began sharing with you the happenings around the Homestead, our two-wheeled adventures, and whatever else I felt like writing about.

AP and me at the Polynesian for our dinner at Kona.

AP and me in Italy at EPCOT.

Chris checks out the map for the ST.N Ride to the Rides.

Riding a roller coaster at Knoebel's with Chris, David (the one with his finger in my ear), and Jerry.

Chris, Ken, Ed, and Matt wait in line for the Flyers at Knoebel's during the ST.N Ride to the Rides.

June 2011 - Pretty much from June on, if it happened and it was blogworthy, it wound up here on Pineapple Ponderings.  In June, Chris and I did several rides, including my favorite one for the year - a weekend ride for his birthday!  I traveled to Connecticut for the ERAPPA June Board meeting and I rode up to Erie, PA to do a site visit for a hotel for a KAPPA meeting in 2012.  

Heading out from Kissell's on a Nittany Road Riders (NRR) ride.

Having lunch with the NRR crew.

Coming home from the NRR ride on Marengo Road.

Entering Shenandoah NP on Chris' birthday.

The birthday boy enjoys some gelato on the walk back to the hotel.

It's funny.  Still.  Six months later.

Chris' birthday cake.

Lighthouse Park in New Haven, CT.

The beach at the park in CT.

All smiles on the beach at Presque Isle in Erie, PA.

House boats in Erie.

The one of the lighthouses in Erie.

July 2011 - At the beginning of July, AP and I went to Pittsburgh for the Billy Currington/Zac Brown Band/Kenny Chesney concert at Heinz Field.  Hours after returning from Pittsburgh, Chris and I hosted several of our friends for a Fourth of July cookout, sleepover (LOL), and motorcycle ride.  We took several other rides, including a ride to the Motorcycle Safety Foundation summer picnic.  I changed the rear tire on the Concours.  And I ended the month with a vacation at the beach in Ocean City, MD with my parents, Bill, and Casie.

Going' coastal, baby!

Setting off some fireworks with our friends FOJ weekend.

Taking a stretch break on our FOJ ride.

Riding with Dan & Ann, Jim, and Kris to the MSF picnic.

New rubber ---> mounted!

At the beach!!!

August 2011 - In August, Chris and I did a one dinner ride before I did a bit of travel with my friends Karen and Rachel.  We went to San Francisco for our friend Katie's wedding.  Chris sold his Suzuki V-Strom.  We went to Aviation Awareness Day at the University Park Airport and to the Centre County Grange Fair.

A Thursday night dinner ride with Chris.

With Rachel and Karen at Katie's wedding.

Katie and Alex exchange vows.

Karen and Rachel in Ghirardelli Square.

A little freaked out in a jail cell at Alcatraz.  (This photo was taken during my TAN phase this summer.  I had no idea how much sun I got at the beach until I saw pictures from this trip and how tan I was compared to my friends!)

With Rachel on windy Angel Island.

With Rachel on a San Francisco cable car.

Chris checks out one of the planes at Aviation Awareness Day.

Enjoying Sunset Ice Cream milkshakes at the Grange Fair.

September 2011 - My "baby" brother turned 30 and my mom turned 60.  I went to Baltimore for my mom's birthday weekend.  Chris and I did a ride over to the Piper Aviation Museum in Lock Haven.  And I dyed my hair before packing my bags at the end of the month and taking my mom with me to Halifax, Nova Scotia for the ERAPPA 2011 Annual Meeting.

With Baby Billy on the day Mom & Dad brought him home...over 30 years ago!

Mom got a Kindle for her birthday.

Arriving at the Piper Museum in Lock Haven.

Enjoying the exhibits at the Piper Museum.

Chocolate-cherry hair for the fall/winter.

October 2011 - Boy, oh boy...October flew by in a flash!  I spent a good bit of the month living out of a suitcase or a sidecase.  I was in Halifax for a week with my mom for my conference.  Twelve hours after Mom and I landed at University Park, Chris and I set out on a five-day motorcycle trip with our friends Shane and Andrea (2nd best trip of the year!).  Later that month, Chris and I went on the ST.N Fall Camping Trip.  Following that, I traveled to Gettysburg for the KAPPA Fall Meeting.

With Mom at the President's Reception in Halifax.

With Mom at the Casino in Halifax.

With the new ERAPPA board.

Riding the Dragon with Chris on our October five-day trip.

Chris, Shane, Andrea, and me at the Dragon (Deal's Gap, NC).

With Chris, Jeremy, Rachel, and Sara at Spruce Knob during the ST.N Camping Trip.

With Chris at Blackwater Falls on our way home from the camping trip.

With James Getty as Abraham Lincoln - our featured speaker for the Fall KAPPA Meeting in Gettysburg.

November 2011 - November was nice.  Most of my travel was over...well, work travel, that is.  Chris, Oscar, and I took a weekend trip to Ohio to Iron Pony Motorsports to check out some winter and heated gear for me.  Oscar celebrated his 10th birthday.  We went to Baltimore for Thanksgiving with our families.  And we did a motorcycle ride on the Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend.

Oscar is waiting for his daddy to come back to the car during a rest stop in West Virginia.

Iron Pony Motorsports in Ohio...it's huge!!!

Oscar, Chris, and I all got a good night's sleep in the king size bed!

Oscar's birthday cake

Oscar waits for his birthday cake and ice cream.

Oscar dives into the shopping bag for his birthday presents.

Chris enjoys Thanksgiving Dinner at his parents' house.

Various members of Chris' family around the dining room table.

Chris' family in his parents' living room.

Our November ride to the Marion E. Brooks Natural Area.

Enjoying the birch tree scenery on a lovely Saturday afternoon in late November.

December 2011 - December was another nice month.  The only travel I did this month was a day trip to NYC with AP as chaperones for the PSU Blue Band tuba players so they could perform in the Tuba Christmas concert.  Chris and I started the month with a motorcycle ride on the first Sunday of the month.  I am going to try to ride at least once a month EVERY month.  Chris says February will probably be the biggest challenge.  The day before AP and I went to NYC, Chris and I rode over to Mifflinburg to the Christkindl Market - lots and lots of German Christmas goodness!  The Sunday before Christmas, we hosted a Christmas Open House here at the Homestead.  Many of our friends stopped by throughout the day, including our friends Jerry & Leisa all the way from Pottstown and our friend David all the way from York.  My last day of work for 2011 was Friday, December 16th, so Chris and I had two weeks together, which was wonderful!  We visited Chris' uncle Denny and went shopping over at Lycoming Mall one day.  We went to see a model train garden in Castanea one evening.  We took a ride to Cabela's over in Hamburg, PA and stopped by Hershey's Chocolate World on our way home.  We drove to Johnstown to visit the Flood Museum and the Heritage Discover Center.  We made the best of our two weeks together (and it's not over yet!).  Our Christmas Day was a "Christmas for two" as we did not travel this year.  Tonight, New Year's Eve, we're watching the rebroadcast of the Penguins' hockey game from this afternoon after enjoying a nice dinner of grilled bison steaks, basil pesto couscous, and veggies.  It's going to be a low-key NYE for us, and that's A-OK!

Heading out on our December ride.

It was a lovely December day for a motorcycle ride!

Mifflinburg Christkindl Market 2011

Even the carriage horses were decked out for Christmas!

Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree in the background as the PSU tuba players make their way over to Radio City Music Hall.

502 musicians participated in Tuba Christmas for 2011.

After the "big" concert, the PSU students put on a few wandering concerts of their own on the streets of New York!

Lots of yummy food in the kitchen for our Christmas Open House.

Even more out in the dining room, including...

A big ol' platter of Christmas cookies!

The model train garden in Castanea, PA.

The Johnstown Flood Museum

The Heritage Discovery Center

Our 2011 Christmas tree.

Chris shows off his new pork pie hat.

Merry Christmas for Two!

My boys on Christmas Day 2011.

Finally, here are a few of my favorite pictures of Oscar from 2011. 

Oh, woe is me...my life is so ruff!

Just like when he was a puppy - snuggling in the chair in his daddy's lap.

Snuggling with Mommy on a snowy Saturday morning in October.

Handsome boy!

Oscar's 2011 Christmas picture.

In a seemingly ordinary year, it turns out I have a lot of great memories and a "whole lotta" people and things to be grateful for - most notably my two boys, Chris and Oscar! 

Good bye, 2011.  Hello, 2012!  Happy New Year!!!