Wordless Wednesday....some farm pix from the neighborhood

A Busy Mom/Wife/Student/Blogger & a Possessed Camera

So, things are wrapping up for the semester at school: 2 finals down, 2 to go on Monday =  BREAK TIME!!! WOHOOOO! I am so ready for this!!! It's been really hard trying to find time (or a subject) for this blog and then to top it off my camera is possessed I SWEAR! I think I have mentioned this before....
Just last week we attended the wedding of one of  my most favorite "surrogate kids", the first of all my favorite brats to get married. I have FOUR batteries.....so we get there just in time and DAMNIT if 3 batteries are dead (I know I charged all of them too!!!) so * RELIEF SIGH * one finally works....then the camera starts doing weird stuff & won't work. I got 5 crappy pictures, that's it. To say I was pissed, is an understatement...the rest of the night was an absolute blast so I forgot all about the offending camera.

A few weeks ago I came across another blog called Along Life's Highway, The Yard Art Game. Another addiction has been born!! The basic idea of the game is capturing people's yard art on camera & getting points for items, well check it out & see the list.....& play too!  Let's face it, alot of us have some extraordinary stuff highlighting in our gardens, and some of us like some tacky sentimental as hell stuff to. So here's the chance to have some fun enjoying other people's idea of "yard art" and compete against others for a grand prize (well that depends on your taste, haahaha) at the end of the year. So after finding this incredible game, I have been stalking neighborhoods all over Hunterdon County with my camera. I never leave home without it and always have my batteries charged. I am now a No#1 not watching where I am going driver, so if you see me coming,  get out of the way, WAY out of the way. My camera has been just fine. So what the hell happened when I went to the wedding???seriously??? I just picked it up again this morning to give it another go, cause a new camera is not in my (99er) unemployment status budget, Christmas or not. DAMN! stupid thing is just fine this morning!!!! AGAIN. Its not like I just got a digital camera for the first time & don't know how to use it so I press buttons & spin dials & hope for the best....or like my husband does, ask for help AFTER doing all of the above......I am positive the thing is possessed, so I will talk nice to it & treat it like a king....yeah, king of the pains in my arse......

I took a picture of my Christmas Tree, finally done with it yesterday. Things have been so busy the boys just stopped at Home Depot & grabbed one.

Yup, this is our little tree. probably one of the smallest we've had, but no worries, in my book EVERY Christmas tree is beautiful. I love staring at it at night, just wish we had it up earlier before I here the dreaded "when are you gonna take that thing down already...". Next year I want to start doing the "live" tree thing. I  didn't realize how prepared I needed to be ahead of time for that, so we will give it a try next year & then we can plant them afterwards.

Being on a tight budget also leads way to being creative with what you have. Since Christmas will be here, I decided to make some luminaries for outside. I am an absolute fanatic about having Christmas lights, especially if you have children. Growing up when I was little in Staten Island, all the houses glowing with lights was incredible, something I will never forget, so I feel the need to do my part for someone else.
Below are my luminaries in the making. I already had everything: regular old craft glue, small paint brush, garland, glitter wire, bells and spaghetti sauce jars....

when I'm done adding the garland & bells, I'll add some sand (still laying on my picnic table from attempting  "leaf castings with hypertufa..) & a votive candle.  In a nutshell I just added some food coloring & glitter to glue & painted it on the jars, added some bells with wire, then glued on some garland I had laying around. I probably should & will spray them with some sealer.

Hopefully I get back here more often, but either way...Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas & an awesome New Year!

Wordless Wednesday: ...just around the corner

Thoughtful Thursday: The Cloisters, Part 2

Wordless Wednesday: The Cloisters

Since this isn't exactly garden season so I'm going to draw this one out.....see you next Wednesday!

Update on the Abandoned Barn



Mom & I, plus my dog, her dog and my daughter's dog, went upstate NY to visit my uncle & other family who lives up there. They are all between Rhinebeck & Hudson on the east side on the Hudson River. After going to church....the cutest tiniest church ever..in Germantown, we stopped at Mom's younger brother's house. He had just started on his retirement plan: Yellow Lab puppies! They have been a BIG fav of my Mom for years so we HAD to see them! They also had a 13 week pup who looked just like Mom's late lab Prince when he was that age....I thought for sure we were going to be dog napping.......



Momma Calypso & babies





13 week old Sam

Soon it was time to get back in the car to continue our adventure of the day. Mom & I are great travel companions & have no problem with just a general plan & improvising along the way. Next was getting our brood of three out for some exercise....nobody was really thrilled being around a new momma bear....so they wanted to stay in the car. We drove "down river" with the idea that we would stop by my cousin Brian's house in Rhinebeck...YUP...just a mile past where Miss Chelsea Clinton got hitched... After going through Tivoli we decided to take a road we never been on before and that is where we found an entrance to the "Tivoli Bays Estuaries". We decide we wanted to go down by the river, so kept on the dirt road (Kidd Lane) when we passed by the abandoned barn. We figured we would check it out on the way out to see if there would be any cool stuff for some "garden art". We got to the end of the road, got out and followed some stairs down to the bay. I never get tired of the view of the Hudson River, it's gorgeous there! We hiked up & down between the gorges, over bridges and then I saw something cool: evidence of beavers! So next we had to find where they were. The dogs, The Pep Boys: Manny , Mo & Jack ( as we were calling them that day) were having a blast.

view from the first gorge, beginnings of the Catskills across the Hudson river

Mom decides she needs to be on the other side of that stump while Trey & Romeo wonder if its a good idea....hmmmm

That's me staying on the high side

AHA!!!!!! Beavers would be living in these parts! Doesn't take much to thrill me...



FOUND THEM! These guys are pretty smart, any tree they chew down just rolls on down to the water, wait for the tide to come in & its easy floating it around. I'm impressed.



















 

Don't know about you, but I think they were making an artistic statement here. That's Mom's dog "Romeo the Fearless" teacup Yorkie. He goes EVERYWHERE, even been to a few weddings, just recently christening in Brooklyn. Everybody loves Romy....he even has special permission to come in the local Hunting & Fishing Store...how's that for being manly???

The boys crossing another gorge bridge

TREY! :  my daughter's newly adopted dog, the yuppy puppy who lives in a third floor apartment. Hanging out with his grandmother & great grandmother he is becoming quite confident  & the brave woodsman/dog. He is having the time of his life!



Snack Time.....Nana (Mom) Rocks! Everybody LOVES Nana!!!!!



Manny, my puggle, believes he is part mountain goat.....he decided he was going to go all the way out to the end of this tree, with Trey following......just about had a heart attack when I turned around and saw them...its actually quite a drop below them!



Heading back to the car



just thought this was kinda cool looking



last bridge before getting to the car



and now..back to that barn.....


So what I was able to find out so far: I'm not positive about any of this, but, I believe the property along the river was originally owned by Bard College. The area north of the college has trails & bridges throughout and on some of the trails you can even get a guide from the college. I'm not entirely sure if the college still owns the land or the state??? I haven't actually been able to find out anything about the barn except that they are considering fencing it in to keep the vandals out. WHO ME??? I'm a scavenger, please, there IS a difference!

In front of the barn the land drops and its completely overgrown all around so its impossible to know what else could possibly be there. It would of been nice to see it from the other side to really appreciate just how huge it really is. This picture just doesn't do any justice to how much more there is. It was scary realizing there was a basement under us to!! I mean, I know man makes garages in many levels and all, but outside that it freaks me out.
So if you are ever upstate NY riding up Route 9G, heading out of Red Hook going North to Tivoli...look "Hudson River National Estuarine Research Reserve".. http://www.dec.ny.gov/lands/4915.html  (Tivoli Bays section)If you go a little further and make a right onto "Kidd Lane" you will come across the dirt road entrance (on the left) that goes past the barn.