Holiday Greetings

Here we are at the end of the year, and I need to get caught up on at least half of it for the blog! Things have been such a whirlwind of activity since June, but let's pick up where we left off - and just hit the highlights.

Our main focus for much of the July and the first of August was working on the play Carousel. Jon had a solo and played several bit parts. He also grew a full beard for the production - and shaved it off closing night. Diane and I were in the chorus with various lines and extra singing through out. Diane also played the bratty Snow child at the end. We had a wonderful run, with 11 nights of full to oversold houses. Nothing like turning people away at the box office to raise the cast's spirits! The cast and crew of over 80 people were a great group to work with, and all very "professional"... you'd never guess it was a community theater production. Between the singing, dancing, and acting rehearsals we worked about 35 hours a week towards the end... it's no wonder we were all exhausted between that and our other full-time activities.

The other area that took a lot of time was preparing the barn for the Llamas and chickens. We finally got the chicken area painted and screened in inside, and the first of two outside areas for them enclosed the last week of August. (Which a horrible windstorm the end of November left in rubble. )

We decided that we were neither ready nor would be ready for the guinea hens this year. So we canceled that order and are thinking of spring instead. Since then we have found some flaws in our design, so a rethink is in order first. With all the time away from home, the garden suffered quite a bit. Jon's latest plan is to get an automatic watering system in - that should solve lots of our problems. Even so, we fared very well with zucchini, summer squash, beans of a couple varieties, peas of a couple varieties. Our tomatoes did ok and so did the carrots. Most everything else was hit and miss. Still I thought it not bad for a first year brand new garden.



As I was sick for most of the month of August, we tried to slow down. We had visits from friends, Diane celebrated with the other local homeschoolers by going on a Not Back To School Hike. And I went up into the North Woods on a Wolf Inquiry. We inquired and no wolves wanted to meet with us that night. But I did get to see my first moose (two in fact), a snowy owl, and possible the shadowy figure of a bear. I also found out that I do a reasonable imitation of a wolf howl. The two trackers we were with were quite impressed and invited me to come back and play again. Unfortunately, pulling an all-nighter at the end of a cold does cause relapse and I was not well enough to go back before they closed the inquiry for this year. Maybe next year, I can try again.

In Sept, we made a mad dash to get one acre of land fenced in for the llama pasture, which took up most of Labor Day weekend. Nothing like putting the "Labor" in Labor Day! The girls arrived on the 8th and were extremely upset over their address being changed. In fact, a few days after they had been with us, they decided to go walkabout on their own. We had just come back from a walk and were starting to undo their leads. Without any warning Panda suddenly changed direction, I was undoing her halter and didn't even see her turn, and whoosh she was gone out of the pasture with Willow hot on her tail.

They took off for the main road, which was the direction their previous owners had left by, but once at the main road they had no idea which was to turn. So they turned around and ran straight at me. I had gotten Panda's halter off before she left, but Diane had not yet taken Willow's off. I managed to grab her lead as she ran by. Once we had her, it was only a matter of time before we got both her and Panda back in safely. Since then they have settled in and seem to look forward to seeing us each day, especially at dinner time.

Introducing the llamas to Diane's chickens has been a real treat. Since the llama's area goes completely around the chickens outside area, the llamas spotted the chickens straight off - and the chickens the llamas. Panda and Willow went up to the fence to sniff the chickens. The chickens looked up to see the llama coming towards them and went totally insane. All the chickens went in one direction in a shared death march and the llamas took off in the other direction aiming for the trailer they had just climbed out of.

Since then Diane has held a chicken for the girls to sniff. Panda gave it a good once over, and has basically ignored the birds since then. She does make a disgusted grunting sound when she finds them in her bedroom. Willow gave the bird a good sniffing as well, but has not been satisfied. Being a do it yourselfer, she is quite sure that the bird will smell differently if no one is holding it, so she keeps trying to sniff or maybe pull out a tail feather. Hard to say as the chickens won't let her get close enough to find out. The chickens are unimpressed with the llamas as long as the llamas don't get too close. If they do, the chickens make an impressive amount of noise and flutter a very short distance away.

Sept also brought a major milestone for Diane - her 13th birthday. She had a couple of friends over for a quiet afternoon and dinner and cake. We also had the Maine Llama Association meeting here, as everyone wanted to see our new barn and how well the llama's were adjusting. The girl's previous owners came as well, and the girls were still mad enough they refused to acknowledge their presence until bribed with carrots - then it was only a nodding acquaintance. I think the fact that the previous owners did not have their trailer with them had a lot to do with the attitude.

I also helped put on the second middle school workshop at the theater. We had twelve kids (ages 11-14) for three afternoons and had a wonderful time - I know because Diane and her friends gave me all the pro's and con's for the three days.

We ended the month by going a field trip to a corn maze and pumpkin picking patch with the local homeschool group. I also found the problem with having been a docent and giving tours in my former life BC (before children). I cringe every time the tour guide makes a fatal mistake. Even so, the kids had a great time getting lost in the corn maze.

The first of Oct, we went to Texas for my step sister's wedding and to visit family and friends. It was a very fast and furious 12 days, when we only stopped to sleep. We got home just in time for the auditions for Wind in the Willows. Jon played two roles. Diane played five roles that they pushed into two roles. And I volunteered to help with makeup - there were 26 faces that needed to be made up and a couple of them changed completely during intermission.

We had three other kids from our workshops audition and get parts as well, so Diane had a great time with her friends. There also ended up being 6 or 7 homeschooled kids involved in the cast and crew. I find it fantastic that even in this small town that we scored so many.

I was also asked to head up all of the children programs. The lady who ran, with my help, the middle school program left the theater. So I will be continuing that program and creating new ones as well. I'm finding this a bit daunting since before last winter's play I had no real theater experience. Let's hope this isn't a case of "the blind leading the blind".

Diane decided last year that she was too old to go trick or treating, so we stayed home again this year and played games and watched movies. I had hoped to have some of her friends over, but that didn't work out. Hopefully next year I can squeeze that in.

Now we are up to November. Rehearsals for Wind in the Willows ran the end of Oct, and all of Nov. I was asked to watch many of the rehearsal in my new position so I could see what we needed to work on. And it was at one of these rehearsals that I fell down 4 steps going up to the seating area. I was sitting in a chair, when suddenly for no apparent reason the chair went over the edge and down the steps - taking me with it. I was rather battered and bruised, but nothing broken.

The play opened Thanksgiving Day and unlike our last winter's play The Emperor's New Clothes, Wind in the Willows was a smash. Just like the summer production we played to a sold out crowd nearly every night, and a full house on the 2 nights we didn't sell out. The show ran for 10 performances over two weekends.





Jon was asked by the Maine Llama Association to run as Vice President in this month's election. Jon offered to debate his position, just like they had been doing on tv for what seems like forever. Since no one was running against him, the current board offered to let him debate a llama. But Jon figured he wouldn't win that debate. Since only one person was running for each office, everyone was elected. Jon will assume his duties the beginning of the year.

Diane was able to attend Splash this year. It's a program put on by MIT in Boston. Over all she had a great time, and picked up a new interest in the Greek Alphabet. There were several classes that left her wondering why she needed to go to college if the MIT students couldn't teach her anything new. I told her I'd get back to her on that one, and directed her attention back to the Greek forgotten letters.

As wonderful as this was Nov was a very hard month for us. Freya, our Siamese female cat, became seriously ill. After several weeks of nursing her, she took a very bad turn. We buried her the day before opening. Even now a month later, we are all still adjusting and missing her terribly.


Because of this I was unable to finish Nano (National Novel Writing Month - 50,000 words) this year. Both Diane and I started out strong, but as Freya became worse we lost interest in it. Both of us like the stories we started and intended to do more with them in the upcoming year. We also want to compete again next year.

A few days before Thanksgiving we had a terrible wind storm. We lost only a few branches, but part of our grape arbor and all of the outside chicken run. We also lost power for 24 hours. This rammed home the idea that we needed to get winter storm provisions finished up, and that laundry must be caught up at all times. A few days later a light windstorm took out the rest of the grape arbor.

With the playing starting on turkey day and the loss of our good friend, we choose to skip Thanksgiving this year. At first we just postponed, but as the days slid by no one was interested in it.

Which brings us to December!

After the play ended we had quite an ice storm. Lost power for another 24 hours and lots of branches.


We did have one tree come down on the llamas fence, but it did not take it out. That was the worst of it for us. Most of the state was hit and the damage is far reaching. We were lucky to get our power on so quickly, in many places it was out for days.

An early ice storm does not bode well for this winter. The ice usually comes the month of Jan. With snow in Dec and Feb - the end of time. They are predicting this will be a very hard winter for our state. So far the snow has been minimal. No more than about 4" at any one time, and it's gone pretty quick. Diane is excited as they are predicting a good snow fall tomorrow - so sledding season is upon us.

This is a very quick highlight of the second half of our year. So much more happened and we were constantly busy. Jon is taking these next two weeks off and we are hibernating in preparation for next year.

We wish all of you a fun and happy holiday season! And may the New Year smile upon you and yours!

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The Barn

This last month, we have basically been working on the summer play, wrapping our home school year and waiting for the barn to be finished. Here are pictures of the barn in various stages from May 22 to June 22.

The windows are on the south side of the barn. The inside is broken into 3 sections. One for Diane's chickens, one for the llamas, and the third for equipment, office and tractor.

The third picture is of the back of the barn. You can see the garage just beyond it to the south. The house is on the other side of the garage, facing back towards the garage and barn.

Originally our plan was to put the barn behind the barn, not next to it. But the price of gravel went way up before we started. So we decided to put it beside the garage. The llama's pen will wrap around the chicken's pen to help protect them from foxes, etc.

The chickens will have two separate outside pens to rotate through. We are hoping that will help keep them with some green stuff to eat. I'm sure they will also go romp through the llama's area to help them keep
the vegetation down. We have been told that the llamas and the chickens should do fine together.

I've been putting these in order of how it was built. Here are some of the pictures from the inside of the barn.

The llamas will be next to the stairs at the front of the barn. This should make it easy to load them into the trailer and to take them out for packing down to the pond. The chickens will be at the back with the tractor across from them. We put in a double door for the tractor.

The chickens will have an exit on the side and the back to allow them into whichever pen they are to be in for the day. They will have access to the outdoors all the time. I guess that makes them modified free range.

Here is a picture of the back when it was nearly finished. As you can see the north side has no windows. We are intending on putting the compost bins up against this side of the barn.

Here is a great picture of the south side of the barn with it's windows and dutch doors. Then the inside picture to match it. Jon has been working getting it wired for the electricity this week. Then next week we will work on the plumbing.

The builders are just about finished with their part, then Jon and I will finish it off. We are guessing it will take us about a month to finish since we won't be able to work on it full time and we are still in rehearsals all next month.

The big openings on the front and back are for garage doors. We planned that way for easy cleaning. We will put a sliding wall between the llamas and the chickens. This will allow us to use the tractor to clean out the barn quickly.

Here is a picture that shows the upstairs, where the hay will be stored. On half will be open to let in the light from the upper windows. On the chicken side, we will cover it with mesh to keep them from taking over the whole barn.

With any luck the next barn pictures will include animals living there. We have arranged for two llamas so far. Our goal is three to start with. Currently our "llama layway" consists of Panda and her daughter Willow. I don't have pictures to share yet, but as soon as I do they will be up here.

Willow is just over a year. She is white with lovely dark reddish brown patches on her back, and her face. Panda is reddish brown all over with a white face and white down her front. They will be joining us in August. But Diane's chickens will move in as soon as we get their living quarters ready. They will be sharing their living space with guinea hens. The guineas will be arriving in late July. While our area has few ticks, the guineas will help ensure it stays that way.

That's about it for the barn. The garden is doing very well - in parts. Quite a few things are growing very very slowly, but we remain hopeful.

Spring time craziness

Time to get caught up again. We have had a lot happen since the last entry.

First a quick update on Diane's chickens. They are doing great and all have made it to pullethood. Our neighbor took his 9, so we are down to 18 layers. However, we think it will be 17 layers, because one of them is really looking like a rooster. Here are two pictures we took back at the beginning of April. They look like full grown hens now, but I don't have any recent pictures.

The garden is off to a great start. Here is the site we chose to use. The stick is the middle of the garden. That was the middle of April. Here is the layout for the garden. Both of these pictures were taken while I was standing facing south next to the woodshed. The shadow in the second one is the house. As you can tell we are doing raised beds, which meant bring in lots of soil mix. Not shown in the second picture is our area for the trellises. But you can see those in the third shot. You can also see some of our frost hardy plants already in the ground. Since this last picture, we have finished filling the beds, putting in the fruit, and many of the vegetables. But that did not happen until May. I don't have current pictures of the garden either. Jon's folks are here and they helped us with the last big planting. There will be one more after they leave, and then several smaller plantings through out the growing season.



Towards the end of April, we gave up on trying to paint the inside of the house ourselves. Between planning the barn and garden, and getting things ready for each, we just are out of time. We started with Diane's room and then did the living room. We sponged painted the far wall of her room and the slanty ceiling pieces - that we did ourselves. Then had the rest painted purple. I was hoping to show what it looks like, but we haven't gotten her room fully put together again. Even so, here are pictures of her room as we were doing it. There is white primer on the walls covering the interesting yellow color. There is no such thing as a "bad" color. But it is amazing the difference a color you do like makes to a room. Her room seems so much more cheerful now. I've included a picture of what it looked like when the previous owners were still here. As soon as we get it up completely back together I post those pictures as well.



Here is a picture of how the living room looked before, and then two of it in the process of painting. Jon nearly has the bookcases finished. He still hasn't had time for the doors. They look wonderful. This picture is with the primer, not the actual color which is dark green. As you can see the house will look quite different after we are finished with it. We hope to continue with the painting in June, but first we must meet some other time lines.




We also had the barn started. Which is something we have waited for in anticipation. Not only will it house Diane's chickens, which are currently living in the garage. It will house our llamas. The painting and the barn started the same. But the week before Jon and I cleared most of the trees from the area where the barn is being built. We were hoping to build it behind the garage, but with the cost of everything rising, we decided to build it next to the garage on the far side. I thought I had taken pictures of the area before we started, but I can't find them. So here is one taken last fall just before snow hit. The barn is being built just to the left of the white tarp. The second one kind of gives you an idea of how it is located with the house. Third picture is the footings. The last two show the last two days of progress on the barn.


That really sums things up. We have also joined the local homeschool group and are getting involved there. I am helping with a 3 day teen workshop for community theater. Rehearsals for the summer play start in a few short weeks. And soon we will be doing Llama Drill Team at a local fair. As I said, Jon's folks are staying with us for two weeks and will be leaving on Memorial Day to go home. We have not been lazy to say the least.

Guatemala - Habitat for Humanity

Well, this was definitely a trip to remember!

Some of our business associates have been going to Guatemala for Habitat for Humanity for several years now, and while it's been on my list of "to do's", it's just never made it to the top... until this year.

For those of your who don't know, Habitat for Humanity is a world-wide organization that helps families to build houses who would otherwise not be able to afford to do so. There are millions of people world-wide who are either living in tents, cardboard boxes, or living 10 people to a 2 room house. Most of those people have no way to afford a house with electricity, water, and indoor plumbing, but Habitat makes it possible.

Why Guatemala you ask? Why not help those people in the United States who homeless? Well, to be frank, we've got it easy in the U.S. Even the lowest level of living in the U.S. is much better than what the majority of those in Guatemala face. The average income per person is only $1,680 U.S. Dollars, and there is a housing deficit of about 1.5 million people there. That's a lot of people without homes!

So, what did I do? Well, there was a group of about 60 of us that went this year. We worked on building a total of 10 houses, and I helped build a new house for a wonderful Guatemalan couple, Nery and Lucia and their 1 month old baby boy Nery the 3rd. The colony we worked at was in Zacapa, in the town of Teculutan. We actually worked more with Nery's father, Neddie, since Nery worked a full-time job and couldn't get off (or be fired). We completed about 3/4s of the house, and the next group to arrive will finish it off for them. The house is nothing fancy, just a 4 room cinder-block house, but compared to where they're coming from, it's a palace!

It's really hard to express in words what it means to help someone in this way, and all I can say is it's something that everyone should experience at least once. They warned me when I went that you don't just do this once. Once you've done it, you'll be back to help again.

One of the things that impressed me most about the Guatemalan's was their pride in their community. When I think of a poor country, I think of streets littered with trash, and run-down dilapidated buildings everywhere. And while there was their share of run-down buildings, the towns and streets were relatively clean. Giving someone the hand up that Habitat does, and not just a hand out, let's people take pride in their community and their home. The quote from the unknown author "Give a man a fish; you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish; and you have fed him for a lifetime" is evident in the lives of these people.

And it wasn't all hard work while we were there, either. We visited the Mayan ruins in Quirigua as well as some beautiful waterfalls. We also got to enjoy a lot of the local food and culture, including an art museum and natural history museum, as well as dancing and singing from local artists.
















So, will I go back again? I definitely want to! The colony in Teculutan is just about finished, so there won't be any more houses to build there. But they are already looking at other land, and there are other places throughout the world that I'd be happy to go to as well. Just the experience of working with the caliber of people who volunteered their time and money to do this, and the sincerity and happiness it brings those that benefit from it, make it more than worth what I put into it!

What have we been up to lately...

This month started off with Jon going to Guatemala. Diane and I did not go, as neither of us does well heat. Guatemala gets much hotter even in March, than either of us can handle without becoming ill. You can see Guatemala on the map - it's in the lower right section.

As soon as Jon got back, we pushed in to high gear on our projects. We finalized the colors for about half the house and got the paint. I am hoping we can start painting before the end of the month.

We have been in contact with the contractor for the barn and that is moving forward. His team will put up the outside and we will customize the inside. Llamas have some similar needs as horses, but many are different. So we decided it would be easier to do that part ourselves.

The garden is moving forward. We got the lumber to make the raised beds, and our seedlings are looking good (they'd look better if Diane's cat would stop sleeping on them). She's all for sharing as long as she gets the best sunbeam. Our biggest concern is that all this white stuff is gone before we transplant the cabbage in 3 weeks. Another good reason for doing raised beds - the ground won't be frozen.

Diane's cherry tomatoes are doing well, as is her cabbage. The first set of onions is up, and the second should start sprouting any day. The broccoli is also doing very well, even though it's not in the picture. Diane's herbs are doing so so. The three that chose to grow are doing really well, the other three aren't growing at all even after a second planting.

Knowing that Diane's chickens should arrive Mon-Wed; we spent yesterday getting ready for them. She has wanted her own an egg business for about 5 years now. Back in January we got them ordered. She got 4 each of Buff Rocks, White Orpingtons, Spangled Hamburgs, and Araucanas (Easter Chickens). A neighbor agreed to fill out her order (she needed 25) and got 9 Rhode Island Reds. They are all supposed to be females, but we will see. The deal was though, that he couldn't take them now, so she will be raising his chicks as well. Here is the expandable hatchery we set up for them yesterday. It's in the basement as the barn isn't ready, and the garage and mudroom are not insulated.

With this being Maine, we wanted to experience a real Sugaring (collecting of maple sap and making it into syrup). We had hoped to have some maple trees on our place to do our own. We have the trees but they are too young. I found a place about a half hour away where we can help gather the sap, and then return another day to boil it into syrup. We decided this would be a great chance to hit the hardware store and get the extra lumber we need for the bookcases and the chick feed.

Just before we left the house, the post office several towns away called. Her chicks had been delivered to them, since the closest post office to us was closed today. We canceled the Sugaring and headed out to get her chicks (picking up some feed on the way). In case anyone has ever wondered, no, chicks do not like taking a car ride. They told us about it the whole 45 min's on the way home.



We know better than to bring an animal into the house without introducing it to Freya. It completely stresses her out and makes her ill. So we very carefully showed her the chicks. She decided they were too small to eat and they smelled funny. You have never seen a more unimpressed cat. It was very much - call me when they are big enough to eat.
We also very carefully showed the chicks to Amore - Diane's cat. Amore didn't know what to think of them. She backed away quietly. She wasn't afraid, but definitely confused by them.

Next step was the put them in the hatchery. But you can't just release them. You have to "drown" them first. You hold their beaks under water until they drink.
Not wanting dehydrated chicks we drown them.

After that we released them and let them wander about finding their food and getting warm under the heat lamp. The reason the pictures are so red/pink is because of the red light in the heat lamp. I've included one sepia print here as to make it easier to see the chicks.

At one point, Amore came down into the basement with Jon. I held her and let her observe the chicks for bit. Then Diane picked up one and let her sniff it. Amore gave it a good sniffing and decided right there and then - it was evil and to be avoided at all costs. After all she had lost her basement privileges and her Diane in one puff of fuzz. To make matters even worse, Jon was late starting the fire in the wood oven for her. Needless to say, she has spent the rest of the day pouting.

Diane has spent most of her day down with the chicks - singing and playing her zither (lap harp) for them. And reading chemistry to them.

February's News

February is always the longest month of winter. Everyone is sure we are doomed to the cold forever and there is no hint of spring in the air. Cabin fever also starts setting in. So we try and make Feb fast and furious. We don't have many pictures this month, so I stuck in a bunch of Diane's snowman's life.

We went to the 25th anniversary of Cats for early valentines. Jon and I had seen it when we lived back in Texas. It was a good production even if it did take place in the civic center in Augusta, where they play basketball. The seating could have been better though. The stadium seating ran along the side with the stage being at one of the short ends. So it have elevated seating you had to sideways to the stage. If you sat on the floor you had to dodge around the person's head in front of you.

In the middle of the month, we went to tryouts for the summer musical of the community theater. This year the musical will be Carousel. With all the other things we have going on this summer, we decided to aim at small parts or the chorus. Diane will be one of the Snow's children. Jon will play the part of the captain. And since there aren't any small women parts - I'll be in the chorus. They do try outs now to get in as many local people as they can. In June will be the "summer" people's tryouts and callbacks.

We attended a miniature show, with plans on building some of our own mini's next winter. I doubt we will have time before then.

The garden planning was in its 5th or 95th revision by that point. But by the 23rd, we started some seeds indoors. We are planning on following the square foot gardening method and using raised beds. The dirt here is mainly clay and not soil. It seemed smart to go with raised beds and bring in good soil, than to spend a year or two trying to fix what we have.

We came up with several layouts and decided on a compass rose plan with a bed of strawberries in the middle. On the north end, we will have trellises and an arbor for grapes, as well as corn. Diane will have her own squares and she is planning on have mainly purple veggies. We can't wait to see what her purple dragon carrots will look like.

We are also participating in PAR - plant a row. Except for us, it will be plant a square (actually several squares) - we never have been very good doing things the same way as everyone else does them. The idea of PAR is you plant extra seeds, and the veggies you get from them go to the local food bank. This will also be what Diane will be using for her community service project this summer.

Jon was able to nearly finish the bookcases. We need to get some more wood for some of the shelves and to make the doors. But other than that, they are finished and looking great. Here they are at various stages, including the mocked up doors for the front.


Jon and I debated over several things in the barn, but we finally decided where to locate it. It will be back behind the garage. And after several drafts we finally have a good idea of what the barn may or may not look like. By the end of the month, I had picked out the colors for painting the house, and was trying to decide if that is really what we were going to paint.

And to finish this update up - since it is rather light, we decided to share a picture of one of Diane's science projects. It's the best of the bunch, for some reason they didn't come out. But she made several elements from the periodic table (she's studying chemistry) using homemade dough. This is fluorine.


The protons are brown, electrons green, and neutrons are blue.

January's News

I’ve fallen rather beyond. It’s amazing how busy we can get and have very little to show for it.

To start things off – the rash Diane and Jon had turned out not to be the chicken pox. It lasted about a week, was gone a week, then came back. It left for two weeks then Diane got it again. We are pretty sure it’s from the hot tub and are working on resolving the problem. Otherwise the hot tub has been wonderful and we use at least every other day/night.

We have had a lot of snow this year, and it has yet to melt away so we can see the ground. There are some places under the trees that have melted off and we see patches of pine needles. So we are hopeful that spring is coming. Even so, looking out the back doors of the dining room – all you see is white, white, and more white.

As for January, Jon had an unexpected business trip to Washington, DC come up. Diane and I went with him. He had one day of meetings and one day of sight seeing, and Diane and I had two days of sight seeing.

Diane was in charge of the camera and she took pictures of the White House and the Washington Monument. She also took lots of art pictures. Here is one from the sculptures outside the “new” American Indian Museum.

The big red piece is on the mall itself and the black on is outside the Hirshhorn Museum. Unfortunately we don’t have the names of the pieces. Diane had taken pictures of the plaques, as she always does, but they were too blurry to read.

We came back and I celebrated my birthday. Nothing big, out to dinner and family games at home. The next week we went to a Chihuly exhibit. For those of you who have not seen his work, you really should check him out. He and his team do HUGE masterpieces in blown glass. We also discovered one of the disadvantages to traveling around the country so much. We have been able to see whole exhibits of just his work. We have seen room and room after room stuffed full of these organic looking glass pieces that look directly from the sea or Mars or something. So the quiet, but very nice, exhibit of modern glass blowers was a bit of a let down. There were probably 30 pieces total and less than 5 were Chihuly’s. We weren’t allowed to take pictures, but you can see a lot of his work on the Internet.

We finished off the month, we a weekend cruise to Nassau. It was for business, but with time to go into the city on the day we docked. Here’s a picture of the ship and one of the Governor’s House. Since she got to baby sit a younger friend, she had a great time. Life’s rough when you spend most of the day at the pool.

Jon also started taking Spanish lesson from a lady who was in The Emperor’s New Clothes with us. He wanted to get in as much as he could before his trip to Guatemala in March for Habitat for Humanity.

The bookcases were coming along, but with so much other stuff going on, they were not completed as soon as we had hoped. We also rounded the month out with making plans for our garden – both fruit and veggies, making plans for the barn, and picking colors to paint the inside of the house.