Retreat day

Phil in his "coming soon" shirt from Aunt Lilla.

Here we are at 22 weeks.

On Sunday we had a "retreat day" - we had brunch at DeWitt Cafe, then went on a walk at Lick Brook in the Sweedler Preserve.

The Tribe

A miracle gifted me these dear friends on the same day I met Phil.
Now we have also been blessed to be 2 weeks apart in our pregnancy journey.
In these photos, Tasha is about 16 weeks, and I'm about 18 weeks.

The fellas of course think all bellies should be celebrated.

 Here we all are.

 Here we all are inexplicably leaning on Tasha.

Easter weekend

Phil tried to demonstrate his diapering prowess by diapering the Moose-puppy with a bandanna.

Moose is not impressed.

Gemma is also not impressed.

Family portrait in the County Park.

April storms

The apples bloomed, the pears bloomed.  Then it snowed & snowed.  School was canceled.  Tree limbs bent and broke, whole trees topped over.

But it was beautiful to behold.  

Yurtlandia cabin construction

It all started the week my mom visited

And here we are at Toughannock
Land cleared, concrete footers poured.

Morning light, with backhoe in the distance.

Concrete block piers, built up from the footers.

In other news:

One resource says the baby is now "turnip-sized."

I find this funny & inaccurate, as I've seen turnips in a such a wide range of sizes.

It's like saying the baby is the size of a lump of dough.

King Cabin

A wonderful weekend at the King cabin, with family & friends, a ton of food, and a surprise hot-tub! There were 22 of us all together - the biggest crowd I've ever experienced at the cabin. We all packed in, and we packed in a lot of fun.

Breakfast preparations - every meal we all sat together.

Bow-drill tutorial

Nice walks by the creek

Smiling kids in the hot-tub

Rowan & Kayden entertained us by jumping from hot-tub to frigid creek, then running across the huge lawn to jump back into the hot-tub. Repeatedly.

Matt is the only one missing in this photo.

This really is one of my favorite places.

Austin Dam

On the way home from the King Cabin, we stopped by the Austin Dam. It's a crazy piece of history, nestled in a remote valley in Potter County, PA. It broke in 1911, aparently due to poor construction and heavy rains that year.

Phil, being a squirrel, and Rowan, being part mountain goat, were not much deterred by this sign:

But I could tell it was on Rowan's mind when he showed me the "cave" he discovered, declaring that it was definitely where he would go if he ever needed to hide from the police.

After I snapped some photos, he reminded me not to show those to any police.

abundant

Lots of rich and wonderful changes here on Philosophy Road and Yurtlandia.

Phil Squirrel has started classes at TC3, hoping to lay the groundwork to apply for nursing school in Fall 2013.

We are also laying the ground work, literally and figuratively, for setting up a small cabin on our land. The yurt will remain - it is such an important part of our homestead - it will be great lodging for visitors, living space, studio space, etc.

The cabin is 16'x25', with a full loft. We are ordering a custom design from WoodTex, and hope to have it here late this summer.

As all those plans were taking shape, we realized another big change was on the way for us. This blessed little critter that has been quietly growing...

... and should also arrive (custom designed) in early September.

a bit of time in PA over the holidays

snips of Florida holiday warmth

excursion to Highland Hammock State Park.

Quick visit to St Pete's Beach at sunset on our way to Tampa.

grateful

A few final snaps from the sit spot challenge month.

Grateful today for full moon nights, branches crossing blue skies, wind-chilled face, the smell of earth.

neighborhood pranks

This is what Paul & Kathy found in their basement last night.....

This is what we found in our bath-house this afternoon....