Visitors Round 2 - Part I

We were lucky enough to have 3 friends from home come visit us after Meg left! I've known them since high school....Matt for way longer than that! We had an awesome week taking advantage of everything Vermont has to offer. There is so much to cover, I'm going to divide their trip into 2 posts! Given my role as the fabulous tour guide (right friends?) I did a much better job on their trip taking lots of pictures. Here you go....

Maegan arrived first, on the same day as Meg left...



Liz and Aaron flew in the next day - We started with a tour of Church Street, doing the tourist thing :)



Next we headed to the lake for a few days to escape the heat! Mom you will be excited to see that we made use of the fish bottle opener - probably a few more times than we should have :)



We spent LOTS of time relaxing on the porch and soaking in the view.



Everyone tried their best to conserve water, including using the outdoor shower, to avoid filling the septic tank. Here is Liz about to enjoy the Princeton spa experience.



"Talkin 'bout my beeesst friend." The boys were reunited at last. Here they are on their sunset kayak ride.



We rode the ferry over to Essex, NY...This is the same ferry we were stuck in front of a few days earlier :)





There was of course wine tasting at the Charlotte Village Winery. They also make delicious fruit wines here - the dry blueberry is my favorite!





Matt was able to break out of the office early to join us! Notice how I haven't mentioned my working at all? Ahhh....the summer life of a school OT.



We visited Montreal - only an hour and a half drive from us in VT! Maegan was really excited to use her new passport :) While we were there, everyone spoke to us in French. Luckily Liz speaks French so we didn't always have to reveal the fact that we were tourists, which made us feel cool. Ha!



In Montreal, we saw beautiful window boxes...



We also saw this car covered in fake grass...exciting stuff I know.



Don't worry, the fun didn't end there - be back soon with the rest of the week!

Meg!

Our first visitor (although she's not really a "visitor"...summer visits to the lake house are nothing new for her) was my sister Meg! She came up for a few days while my mom was still at the lake. It was so nice to spend time as the 3 of us! It was also nice to spend time as the 4 of us when Matt came out for the weekend :)

I must say I am ashamed of myself for taking ONLY ONE picture with her the entire time she was here. I WILL do better when she's here in August (and when my mom is back in a week). The truth is, she's a busy working girl (unlike some of us) and needed her rest. We had such a nice time relaxing time at the lake with my mom that I didn't even think to get out my camera. So here is our ONE pic from her trip.



I'll give you a quick run-down on some of our activities :)

We enjoyed a few beautiful sunny days! Lucky Meg they weren't too HOT (it's 95 here today - yikes!). On one of those days Meg assisted in fixing the doggie dock. The dogs don't have a good way to get in and out of the water around our dock so my mom lovingly built a doggie dock for them. Mr. Boo's favorite activity is now to stand on the doggie dock while chewing his sticks. He broke it the 2nd day.



Here's how it works....



She loves it!



We hung out with the grandparents...






Went antiquing and then had lunch here - too cute!

My mom taught us to play a new game and I'm hooked! It's so fun!



We had an adventure on the boat with my grandpa - we broke down in front of an oncoming ferry and had to paddle/then accept a tow from a sailboat in order to get out of the way - oops! A boat is not a bad place to be trapped while out on a hot sunny day though.

We ate dinner here...



We were out one day running and another dog bit Willow - Meg was quite traumatized by the event but Willow came out with only a small bite mark that's all healed up now.

We also ate cheese, drank wine, read, ate more cheese, talked, and ate cheese yet again. Yum - you can't live in Vermont and avoid eating and drinking :)

I was so sad to see her leave - I have the best sister anyone could dream of! I tried my best to convince her to just move here but she's a southerner at heart and I couldn't talk her into the long cold winters :)

Love you Meg! I can't wait for August!

I'm Back!

Hello blog readers! I hope you all had a happy 4th of July weekend! We have had a fun-filled 2 weeks with family and friends. We didn't actually go anywhere but I've been out of touch for a while! I promise I'll be back soon and will update you, starting from the beginning :)

Another Garden Update!

We ate our first garden produce the other night - lettuce! I didn't take a picture of the beautiful salad we made but it was delicious!

Despite the deer incident (and a few slugs as well), the garden is making progress!

Here are some pics...

Mom posing in front of her accomplishment :)

Zinnias - the pan to the side is the remedy for the slugs...beer!



Lettuce



Squash





I don't have pictures of everything but the basil and tomatoes are coming along as well! Hopefully we will have even more to enjoy by this weekend :)

Happy Father's Day!

I am posting a Happy Father's Day post a little bit late because my Dad was out of the country on the actual Father's Day!

Sooo - Happy Belated Father's Day to both my Dad and my father-in-law!

I am so lucky to have such an amazing Dad. Thank you for your support, love, and years of guidance that brought me where I am today.



I am also thankful for my father-in-law - You have been such a positive and supportive presence in Matt's life and now in mine as well!



Here are some more photos of the guys!









Love you both!

The Deer Problem

So I reported on our deer in the garden problem a while ago. They sure do look cute but I lost my love for them when I moved to Virginia and they started jumping unexpectedly in front of my car at night. Then our poor baby beans were nipped to shreds. We discussed the deer problem over dinner the other night. My aunt had some interesting methods of deer repellent that she's tried in the past that I verified are also recommended on E-How.com.

1. Sprinkle human hair (or dog hair) around the garden perimeter - we wouldn't have a problem finding that!



2. Have a male urinate around the garden perimeter - I'm sure Matt would be willing



3. Hang bars of dial soap around the targeted plants (in our case the beans) - sounds easy

She didn't find that those methods worked. Her method of choice is #4:

4. Spray deer repellent - this works well but washes off when it rains and will need to be reapplied. It also smells terrible.

I found some other methods online that were recommended.

5. Scare the deer away by shooting them with a pellet gun, slingshot, or "chasing it with a stick and hitting it hard" - I'm not sure this will work for us...



6. Coyote Pee - where do you even buy that?



7. Powdered milk scattered around - sounds like this would wash away in the rain as well

8. Place empty cola bottles over sticks - the noise will scare them away?

9. Build a fence at least 8 feet tall - too late, our is already built and not that high

10. Feed them - hm...sounds risky

After considering all the options, my mom decided that she was going to build a fortification at the back of the garden where she believes the deer are jumping in. She added some height to the fence and tied gold ribbons around the string.



She also added some protection around the bed of zinnias and lettuce...



Fingers crossed that these extra steps work!

OK Magazine

One day about a month ago I unexpectedly began to receive this magazine at our new house. It's addressed to me, but I didn't order it! As far as I know nobody else ordered it for me either. I know it's a trashy read (even worse than US Weekly, which is what I usually buy), but I'm addicted and I hope it doesn't stop. I also try not to believe everything it says but the pictures don't lie, right?