Merry Christmas and Happy Snow Days!

Hello! this installment finds us at home for 2 consectutive snow days in mid December. jack and I were able to get the tree up and bake cookies. We also did some cleaning up around here. We had rain and ice yesterday and it snowed this morning.

Here Comes Winter

Yesterday I was taking pictures of our Jack-O-Lanterns from this year and today we have a snow day!!! I was not prepared to hear that news this morning. It is not even November yet and we have had our first snow day! We may still be in school in July! This year the school board only gave us 1 day to make up snow days. All others must be added to the end of the school year!

Archery

Archery season has started here in PA. I have been out 3 times already this year. That is kind of a record for me. This morning I saw a lot a deer and even had one come within range. I was even able to draw my bow on him (a nice 8 point) he just would not take that final step that would place my arrow squarely in his vitals. Instead he heard my heart beating and took off!!!

Heat is ON!

We had to fire our outside wood heater up on Oct 2 this year! Our inside tempeture was only reading 62 degrees. So Pete fired up the stove and we have been toasty ever since! It will probably run through May.

Autumn Kayaking

Autumn Kayaking
Originally uploaded by s_h_a_w_n_g_13

Women's Kayak weekend

Last weekend, when it rained for 3 days straight, I went on a women's kayaking adventure down the Susquehanna. I went with a friend, Tina Champlavier, and we paddled 22 miles over 3 days. The first day we went from Tunkhannock to Falls (11 miles) it rained but not terrible. Then we stayed at the lodge at Camp Lackawanna outside of Tunkhannock. The next day we paddled from Laceyville to the camp.(15 miles) The rain really came down on Saturday. We again retired to the lodge and had a lot of good food. On Sunday we did a short paddle (5 miles ) from the camp to Tunkhannock (it rained again)

the weekend was really fun and I met a lot of new people and learned a lot about kayaking!! We also saw 2 eagles. What a beatiful sight.

Back to School!

Now that it is Oct 1st I figured I better do a back to school blog! Jack has entered 3rd grade with with Mrs. Morrison. So far he has enjoyed third grade. He is in class with 2 of his buddies Jessie and Brett.

My back to school has gone well also. This year we are dismissed early on Wednesday's for teacher in service days.

Labor Day wrapup

We had a great time camping out and picnicing over Labor Day Weekend. We had 3 families campout with us. we also had some day picnicers.

This is a photo of Jack giving my Mom a ride in the go cart! It was a truly memorable moment. The other photo is of our camping area. ( shown in the picture is Pearl Oelschlager, Gerri Smith and Cydney Dewitt)

We also got together with our neighbors the Loux's for a campfire, volleyball game and a quait tournament.

We hope to do it again next year!

labor day Campout

We are hosting a Labor day weekend campout. We have 12 people coming to camp and various others stopping by for picnicing. We are hoping for nice weather.

Camping at Lake in Wood campground

We spent the rest of our vacation week at Lake in Wood campground in Narvon PA. this is located on the Berks/Lancaster County line. We were about 3 miles from the raetrack. This is a premiere campground probably the nicest we ever stayed at. We had a unique rental a tree house cabin. Check their website here http://www.lakeinwoodcampground.com/facilities.html

They had a lake stocked with fish , two swimming pools, arcade at least 2 playgrounds, organized activities a cafe and mini golf. They also had another golf game called chukker golf. You had some heavy duty clubs and used a softball as the ball. pete ad I played this when Jack was hanging out with a buddy he met at the campground.

Our cabin had a double bed and a set of bunk beds a table, tv, mico., bathroom with toilet and sink, and a gas grill. You had to walk to the very clean bath house to shower but it was nearby and not a problem. You should check out this great campground.

NHRA at Maple Grove

On our vacation we attended the Maple Grove Toyo Tires Nationals. This is a NHRA Top Fuel drag racing event. We attended on Friday and Sunday. Friday is a day of qualifications of the pro classes and also sportsman ranks. Dare i say that I enjoyed this day more than the final elimination round on Sunday? Previously I could not understand why you would want to attend a race and not know who had won. However, you see a lot more racing and have a lot less crowd on a qualification day. We even got to see the dragsters run at night something that we have always wanted to see. There is also plenty of general admission seating on Friday. This photo is of Tim Wilkerson's funny car running in the final qualification run of the day.

Jack enjoyed spending time in the Powerade Fan Zone , which involves racing a video game to get qualified for a shot of racing in a funny car simulator. This is typically something that we would not have checked out on Sunday because the crowd is just too large! I actually was the 15th highest qualifier of the day. The top 3 got free tickets to Sunday. The emcee of the fan zone was a lot of fun and got the crowd involved.

On Sunday we started the day by arriving early and attending the Racer's Church. RFC (Racer's for Christ). Church was at 8:00 in the hospitality area between the Cat dragster of Rod Fuller and the Matco Tools dragster of Antron Brown. We heard a great message delivered by Chris Rivas ( Pro Stock Motorcycle driver). The congregation was filled with fans and competiers alike.

After church was over we headed to Del Worsham's pit to meet my favorite Blogger of all time Bob Wilber. See his blog here http://blogs.nhra.com/nhrablogs.asp?blog=csk He was very nice but did not have a lot of time to talk. I think he must be a very busy guy because we tried to catch up with him several times on Friday and he was not to be found. Bob returns every email you send him so I admire his dedication. My husband and I also finally found the Del Worsham t shirts we were trying to buy all weekend. I looked in the Fram trailer and could not see the Del shirt displayed. Finally after the 3rd round on Sunday I decided to ask them and sure enough they had them.

Then we met our friends the Mahoney's. Ray , Bev, and Shawn. We walked the pits with them and then settled in to watch the races. For some reason the day seemed to fly by (maybe that had something to do with no rain delay like last year) The kids didn't seem to have enough time to collect autographs. (much more time for that when it is raining) (I'm certainly not wishing for rain I'm just saying...) While I would have liked to see Del Worsham win we were quite happy to see Fast jack Beckman in the winner's circle at the end of the day. We hung around after the races and had Jack Beckman sign autographs for Jack and Shawn.

After this we headed back to our campsite and the legendary Tree house cabin we stayed in!

Rest In Peace Mickey

Our dear little Mickey was not able to recover from her heart problems. She entered cat heaven on August 13, 2008. This was the day before we were leaving on vacation and she was being cared for by a young girl who works at our vetrenarian's office. Cheyanne wanted to be sure that Mickey had someone to care for her at night when we were away so she volunteered to take Mickey home with her. Unfortunately for her Mickey's time ran out while she was watching her. We are so grateful that she would be willing to love our little Mickey so much.

This is a photo of Mickey with our dog Pepper.

Mickey comes home

Today when we went to visit Mickey we spoke with Dr. Bob about what he would do if Mickey was his cat. He said he would give her a chance but that his vet bills were considerbly cheaper than mine. He said she wasn't suffering but that she would need to be confined to a small area so she didn't over tax her heart. She needs to stay as un stressed as possible. So she has taken up residence in our bathroom. It is the smallest room in the house and if she makes a mess it is easily cleaned up. So far she has explored a little in there and hopefully she will get the hang of using a litter box. The photo is of her pre hospital days when she was allowed outdoors. For now she is on a house restriction. So much for having outdoor cats! Best laid plans and all that junk. On another note I froze 100 ears of corn for the upcoming winter. I got 12 quart bags plus we ate corn for lunch and dinner. I also had a lunch visit from some old friends of mine, The Lee's. They were on their way home from Cooperstown NY and stopped by to have lunch with Jack and I. So we had a very busy day today!

Mickey in Hospital

Today we visited mickey in the Hospital. Dr Bob said that her prognosis is not that great. He will begin to give her the heart medicine later today. Currently she is on antibiotics and some sort of lasic ( water pill) to keep he rkidney function up. When we went to visit we took her picture and as you can see she is resting comfortably and her eyes look a whole lot better. However, she does still have the whole heart issue to deal with and she has fluid in her lungs. (hence the lasics) So continued prayers for this kitten. We should know moer in a day or two.

Prayers for mickey!

This is a prayer request for our kitten named Mickey. She has always been the small one. Over the last two weeks she started with what looked like a cold in her eyes and nose. Then she stopped eating and drinking. She has always been very quiet and not very playful. Today we took her to the vet (Dr. Robinson in South Montrose) he at first diagnosed a respritory infection. She needed to be hospitalized because she was dehydrated and had a low body temp. We stopped back to visit Mickey after we ran some errands and Dr. Bob pulled us aside and stated that he had done an x-ray and it turns out that Mickey has an enlarged heart.( I think they called it cardiomyopathy) At this point we are not sure if there is anything that we can do for Mickey so we are praying and asking for prayers that she may be healed.

Week at Bible School

Hi! jack and I have just returned from a week at Vacation Bible School at our old church (Advent Lutheran Church in Harleysville PA). We attended with Sophie my niece and my sister Shirl. I was slated to help out as a photographer, a job I could handle. At the last minute the lady in charge of recreation got sick and they had me fill in there. (Yikes 80 kids to entertain each day) Thank goodness for a great teenager, Austin Shollenberger, he had done it before and knew what to do to entertain the kiddies!

Tuesday I had a Dr. appointment so I missed the festivities at Bible School. We had dinner with my other sister Karen, Perry and Aiden. We went to the Greshville Inn and had a great time visiting.

On Wednesday Jack went to spend some time with John and Joan Feldi and they went on a creek walk with Michah. Jack said that was his highlight. I watched at her horse riding lesson where she was riding Molly. I also delivered some antler mounts for Pete to my cousin Tom. I dropped them off at his parents house and visited with Harold and Jean for a short time. Then it was off to meet with some other people about a gas lease.

Thursday we got together with our cousins at my Aunt Edie's house. We had a swim party and a great time was had by everybody catching up on the things going on in our lives. We also got a cool picture of a butterfly.

When we returned to Shirl's house Uncle Jay was waiting to go to Sonic. Sonic is a drive in burger restaurant. We had a good time pressing the button and asking for more food! I 'm not sure I would like to eat in the car all that often. It was certainly a novelty.

On Friday we headed home to prepare for Bible school at St. Pauls lutheran church in Tunkhannock!

New Additions to our Family

Wow! I can't believe it! For the first time ever I am a cat owner. We had 2 beautiful kittens dropped off at our house today by a friend of mine! Welcome Mickey and Missy to the Waldenberger household! Pepper got along great with the kitties! I can't believe it! I guess we will have to call these two the Girlz! ( Since Bob Wilber has the Boyz)

Uncle Gus and Jack go to Steamtown

My Aunt Carol and Uncle Gus from Maryland have arrived at my Mother's house for the 4th of July weekend. Uncle Gus has brought along a lot of his model railroad trains to set up with Jack. He also is planning to take Jack to Steamtown. This is a great opportunity for Jack and Uncle Gus to get a chance to get to know each other better. They both love trains and hopefully they will have a great time. ( I know that Jack was really looking forward to his time with Uncle Gus) Last night we

dropped Jack off at my Mom's house to stay for 3 days. When Carol and Gus arrived at 9:00 pm , after an all day drive, Gus and Jack started setting up the trains. Mom had to chase Jack to bed at midnight. It sounds like their adventure is off to a great start!

Beautiful Summer

What beatiful weather we have been haing in Susquehanna county Pa this summer. the humidity has been bearable and we have been getting a decent amount of rain. This should make our garden very happy. I know it has been making me very happy!

Barnegat Weekend

Here are some photos from our wonderful weekend spent with our dear friends the Feldi's. As you can see we all had a great time and enjoyed some great hospitality from John and Joan!

Endless summer

Well our endless summer in the Endless Mountains has begun! Actually, it is not really endless. It is only 73 days to be exact. Now that we have ticked off 13 days from that we are only left with 60 days. I may have to reconsider the title to this post--maybe I should call it the summer that is flying by!

We have been busy this June traveling to graduation partys and birthday partys. This weekend we will enjoy some time at the shore. John and Joan Feldi are hosting us at their lovely Barnegat Nj home. Their house is located right on the bay and it is a lovely place to relax!

Here at home we have planted some food plots for the deer and turkey that reside on our property. We have one plot of clover , ryegrass and trefoil, and another of corn. We also helped to plant clover, corn and a brassica mix at the Loux plantation.

We have also planted a garden for our own consumption. Corn, zuchinni, tomatoes, peppers, cabbage, eggplant, cucumbers, watermelon, cantalope and string beans. Hopefully, we will have a bouttiful harvest later this summer. We also constructed a makeshift fence around the garden to keep out groundhogs and rabbits.

This year we also planted another apple tree and a peach tree. Blueberries were another addition, however, I think the deer may have had an early treat with the bushes! These photos of the apple trees are from earlier this spring. Now they have leaves on them, however, I don't believe that we will get apples this year. Maybe next year!

I am taking the leap from dial up to DSL next Monday so I look forward to being able to

recieve and make phone while on line. I did not ge tthe fastest DSL out there but it should be significantly faster than the old dial up format! As I like to tell my friends--Welcome to 20 years ago!

Dinner Party Success

As you can see from the photos I was not able to do my dutch Oven pot roast http://papadutch.home.comcast.net/~papadutch/dutch-oven-recipes.htm at the fire pit. It was way to windy to start a campfire. So I comprimised and did the cooking in an ash tub

by our Outdoor wood stove. In actuality I think it worked out better this way. I was closer to the kitchen and I was able to run back and forth from my real kitchen to the dutch oven with no trouble at all. The roast beef turned out very good as did the veggies! I can't wait to try the next recipe. I also baked a loaf of crusty bread in my inside dutch oven. It turned out well but I neglected to take pictures of it. You can find the recipe here http://www.motherearthnews.com/Real-Food/2007-12-01/Easy-No-Knead-Dutch-Oven-Crusty-Bread.aspx

Dutch oven Dinner Party

Today we are hosting a Dutch oven Dinner Party. This is my first shot at cooking with the camp dutch oven. So call it poor planning that I didn't schedule a practice run. I am serving Byron's Pot roast, http://papadutch.home.comcast.net/~papadutch/dutch-oven-recipes.htm find the recipe here. Also a no knead bread to be done in a dutch oven in my oven. That recipe came from Mother earth news http://www.motherearthnews.com/Real-Food/2007-12-01/Easy-No-Knead-Dutch-Oven-Crusty-Bread.aspx

Wish me well. Oh yeh I also am making an apple pie and a chocolate cake. (And i still haven't finished cleaning the house!!

Dutch Oven cooking

This christmas my husband bought me a cast iron dutch oven. I have had a lot of fun cooking with it. Check out this blog for more information on Dutch oven cookinghttp://marksblackpot.blogspot.com/2008/05/dutch-oven-herb-fettuccini-with-creamy.html

In 2oo4 I went to a B.O.W.(Becoming an outdoorswoman) event that the Pa Game Commision put on. One of the classed that I took there was outdoor cooking. They showed us many campfire recipes. One of the neat things that they showed us was a camp dutch oven. It has legs and a lid with arim around it so you can cook with either hot coals or charcoal. I bought one the other day and i am planning to cook a beef stew in it for a dinner party at our house this weekend. Wish me luck!

This is a photo of what happened to the hub.

Uh Oh!

All went well with the Carbide fun kart on Saturday until the hub sheared off and the tire went flying through the field! We need to make some phone calls regarding this and hopefully it will be considered warranty work! Yikes!

Carbide Fun Kart

Here is a photo of our new toy! This was a reward for Jack for doing so well in school for the last 3 years! We hope to have a lot of fun with this cart! Jack's legs need to grow a few more inches to reach the pedals!! looks like fun dosen't it?

CONTACT!!!!!!

On May 14, 2008 the Springville Hornets had a game against the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Jack was batting 3rd in the lineup. After much coaching to keep his feet in the batters box and to go out there swinging he finally made contact with the ball and got a fair hit. The ball was fielded to first base and he was out there. We were so excited for his success. We are looking forward to him getting a hit and getting on base! Go Hornets!!!

May brings baseball and lots of baseball!! Jack has baseball practice Tuesdays and Thursdays and games on Wednesdays and Sundays. So until mid June we will be spending a lot of time at the baseball field. I , for one, really enjoy watching the games and also watching as Jack learns so much and becomes a better player. This photo is of Jack from last year when he played on the Phillies. This year he is a Hornet! I hope to post some new pictures soon!

School is also winding down. Next week we need to prepare the Activity banquet. Then it is only 3 short weeks until summer vacation. One thing is for sure you can sure get used to working the school schedule!

This weekend we will be attending th NWTF hunting heritage banquet. I am very curious to see

what it will be like. It is also Mother's day. My Mom plans to attend Jack's game on Sunday.

Lizzie's Lifesavers

My cousin, Kim Wilson, has invited me to join her daughter, Lizzie Wilson, on Lizzie's Lifesavers. LL is a team of walkers who plan to walk in the Crohn's and Colitis foundation walk a thon. The walk will raise money for digestive disease research. Hopefully, they can find a cure in our life times.



The walk will be held on May 31st in Philadelphia. I am looking forward to walking with Lizzie to find a cure!! If you would like to donate to our cause please click the following link!



http://www.active.com/donate/takestepsPHIL07/DWalden7

What a weekend!

What a beautiful weekend it was. We hiked on Saturday and I got some pictures of Canadian geese. We also saw some wild turkeys.

On Sunday Jack tried to fly a kite and Pete and i pruned an apple tree. I also cleared an area in the woods directly behind our house to put some minerals out for the deer. Hopefully, we will get to see some wildlife out our backdoor. The weather couldn't be better. We enjoyed spending time outdoors this weekend!

Black Bear from Flickr

BLACK BEAR Plays with shadow
Originally uploaded by SparkyLeigh

I found this photo on flickr.com and thought it would be worth adding to my collection. thank you to the great photographers at flickr.com

Hags house

This photo was taken by a remote camera that my husband built from plans from the internet. We found the plans at www.hagshouse.com this is a very helpful online community of people who are interested not only in remote camera building but in the outdoors as well. Check out the forum.

Mike's paintings

This is a link to my Brother-in-law Mike's paintings that he has for sale on a website called artist rising.comhttp://www.artistrising.com/shop/artist/38813/Michael-Forzato.htm These painting are remarkable because he is confined to a whelchair and can only move his left arm a little bit! He did these paintings using a special device that is fitted to his left arm.

I hope you have enjoyed looking at his work!

Hidden Creek Winery

We made our first trip to a winery today. We enjoyed the tasting (and buying) at Hidden Creek Winery http://www.hiddencreekwines.com/index.html near Laceyville PA. Ruth and Russ Leichliter were great hosts and made the experience worthwhile for everyone in our group. Ruth also made our kids feel right at home! Jack is looking forward to returning again. We tasted many wines and came home with three. Our favorites were the Strawberry, the Dragonfly, and the Peach. We enjoyed sampling the others also. The wineries signature wine PA Bluestone was very unique. It is blue in color and is a sweet Catawba flavor.

NWTF

In my last post I mentioned my affiliation with the National Wild Turkey Federation. They are a great organization dedicated to the preservation of turkey habitat, hunting and heritage. They also have great programs for kids, women and disabled sportsman. This is a link to their website http://www.nwtf.com/ check it out .

TGIF

Hello and welcome to the weekend!! Here we are looking forward to a blissful 2 days with no work. What do the days hold in store for us? How about spelling words, science projects, haircuts ands grocery shopping! Monday is looking pretty good. Just kidding. I'm sure we will fit some fun in there sometime this weekend.

I have been hard at work helping to plan the National Wild Turkey Federation annual banquet. The banquet will be held on May 10th at 5pm at the Montrose VFW. The NWTF is a great organization which has many wonderful programs. Not only is their focus on Turkey and Turkey hunting and habitat, but they also have kids, womens and disabled sportsman programs as well. Currently, the NWTF is trying to help set up an Archery in the Schools proram at Lathrop Street. Hopefully, this program , which has been successful at Choconut, will have as much success at Lathrop Street. So contact me if you would be interested in attending the banquet. There will be lots of good food, raffles, auctions and other giveaways. It promises to be a memorable evening!

A little about me.

My name is Donna as you probably guessed from my Blog title. I am a married mother of one son. We moved from the suburbs to the country 2 years ago and we love it! I enjoy being outdoors, wildlife, cooking, reading, crocheting, hiking and riding 4 wheelers. I learned about Blogs from reading Bob Wilber's blog on nhra.com.

Welcome to my blog

Welcome to my blog! I was set to start a blogging class this evening however it was cancelled due to weather. We will try again next week. I am hoping to learn more about websites and setting up websites from this class. I am looking forward to anything that I can learn! Until the 11th have a good day!