Happy Birthday, Wiley!

Our big-little guy turns 10 today! What better way to celebrate than with a trip to the LEGO store!

Basketball 🏀 too

Graydon made his 7th grade basketball's B team and has been having a blast playing with several other kids who are athletic but who don't play basketball as their primary sport. It's amazing how few shots actually go in the net… in his first game, Graydon was his team's leading scorer with… four points.

The prettiest wood

We have some beautiful sections of 12" or more (~30cm) diameter elm. Daddy set up the lathe that has been collecting dust in the garage for years and is teaching Graydon how to use it. (The piece in the photo is a practice piece.)

Pretty firewood

The big stack in the previous photo is live oak. It will take 2-3 years to dry and be ready to burn, but then it's about as "bois franc" as it gets. The prettier golden coloured wood in this photo is elm. It will be ready by next winter, but doesn't provide anywhere near as much heat. Much of both piles were salvaged from neighbors' discard piles.

More aftermath?

At least we ended up with years' worth of firewood.

“Aftermath”

That was the name of the contractor who came through with a giant truck and trailer and a crane arm to remove the brush we stacked on the curb.

For Posterity

 

A screen shot of our magnolia tree from Google streetview taken sometime last summer. We're going to miss the wonderful shade and the tire swing, too. 

Wintermaggeddon #2

Hmmm, two "freak" winter storms in three years? Maybe they're not such "freak" occurrences anymore… many neighbors were out of power for almost a week and we were lucky to lose "only" 2/3 of our beautiful magnolia tree…

Meanwhile in Texas

We officially have a teenager now. He had a party with other teens (and tweens) that took over the yard.

Big cousin!

On our last evening in Montreal, we got to visit with cousin Ryan. It's great to have big cousins to look up to (occasionally literally).

Cross country skiing was on the menu, too

We got the ol' cross country skis out for Graydon, who really wanted to go, and then all three of us (Mami, Daddy, and G) thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Sometimes you just need an instigator…

The many beautiful winter views

This is looking upstream above the falls at the workshop.

Skiing Day 2: everyone took the chairlift!

Skiers big and small need silly breaks

Guess who learned how to ski?

Tired snowshoeers

We had a good time, but waited a bit too long to take this photo…

Steaming snow pants

You think maybe they were a little bit wet?

Vive l’annexe!

We enjoyed our time eating meals and generally hanging out in the annex but also staying in the main cabin overnight.

Visiting Granddad

First stop on our trip to Montreal after Christmas: visiting Granddad in his new home. We did lots of laps around the hallways.

Tante N visit

We did some work rebuilding a shed while Tante N visited over the holidays.

A Belated Merry Christmas

Consider this the missing holiday card!

The Sound and Furry

Sorry for the long hiatus from the blog. Many have asked about it. Probably similar to there being no Tanner (jr) holiday cards this year, things have just been a lot all around. But this is an attempt to leave all the sound and fury behind and start again!