Back to the grind...

...Well in my case school and my job, which I mostly love. Yep, that's right. I started work again this week after being on leave for 14 months! I can't even tell you how valuable my year with Corbin has been. I am so glad I got the chance to spend a whole year with him every day watching him grow. I feel so lucky. And I have also been itching to get back to work but not full time. And now I have the perfect combo of both. I am working 3 days a week, Tues. Wed. and Thurs. and get to be with Corbin for 4 days in a row with him! Corbin also has a GREAT nanny. I feel so comfortable with him being with Melissa that it has made the transition so much easier than a childcare center. He gets to be either at our house or his buddy Brody's house. Both places he knows and feels comfortable with. He will be with Brody all three days and then I will take Brody on Friday's when Becky is at work. It's a great situation. He already loves Melissa. Yesterday when she came over, he wanted instantly out of his high chair and to play. Today he didn't even cry when she put him down for a nap. It makes leaving him SOOO much easier. Next week is a day of meetings then students start school on Wed. It will be 8 hours away from Corbin leaving maybe even before he wakes up. I will keep you updated.

Here is a picture of what Melissa has to look forward to on bad days :-) (This is on her wedding day in the beginning of Aug. )

Old Friends

NH number two. I will let most of the pictures do the explaining... it was so great of all our friends and family to host us. Thanks Joan and Sarah, Leslie and Steve, and of course Kat! We only stayed in one place for 2 nights in a row! Corbin as usual was a trooper. I am so impressed with my good childhood friends farm. Kat is one amazing woman! It was really cool to see what she is doing, which is A LOT! And we got to be there for her farm party for all her CSA members and customers. It was great to see the people who support her. And of course there was also my 8th grade reunion. Of a class of 30, 10 of us showed up. Pretty good turn out :-) It was fun to see some people I hadn't seen since 1993!

Check out those crazy tall tomatoes!

Corbin of course loved the tractor! And in his farm boots!

We spent 2 nights at Kat's families lake house on Lake Sunapee. It was perfect lake weather. And Corbin loved jumping off the dock!

We got to meet Camden too. Lindsey's sister, Caren, and I were friends ages ago in elementary school and recently have reconnected through blogging and facebook. And then Lindsey and I connected again too. It's amazing what you instantly have in common again when you have a baby the same age :-) Lindsey, her husband Scott, and Camden all live in the dorm that my brother was born in at Proctor too. Crazy small world :-)

Kelcey's mom Linda came over to the Wilmont Farmer's Market to meet Corbin for the first time. He was instantly in love with her and wanted her to pick him up the whole time :-) I wish I had a picture of Kat's stand at the Market when she opened. But we got there late. Bummer. It was her all time best market day. It was still cool to see her stand though.

Enjoying an apple from Tyler. Corbin learned how to say apple. He doesn't really pronounce the p's yet, but he tries. We can now add that to his words duck, dadda, mama, uh oh, owie, and now apple.

Ollie (Jill J's son), Corbin and Shelby (Tuesday O.'s son) at my reunion.

Corbin thought Ollie's cars were cool.

Andover Elementary and Middle School 8th grade class of 1993! Tracey K., me, Kim G. , Jill S., Jeff C., John L., Darren G., Sean K., Jill J., and Tuesday O.

Abby and Sabe came up from Boston for a visit at the Lake.

Kat and Corbin picking wild blueberries.

Poe and Sienna had to get in on the action too.

One requirement of being in Andover in the summer is going to swim in Elbow Pond. My favorite place to swim. It was fun to take Corbin there and swim with him. The water temperature was perfect, of course.

We finally headed back to Cornish to drop of Marilyn's car and say good bye. Grandpa was out on the scooter this time!

My great Aunt Marilyn and Corbin and I.

Again, it was so great to see everyone. And thanks for hosting us all. We needed more time to see more people... next time.

Hang on little tomato

Catch-all garden catch-up post

Erin will surely put up a second NH post soon, but I thought I'd sneak in an update. The garden has been quite productive. At times we have trouble keeping up. [cough cough zucchini cough cough cucumber]

We u-picked a few raspberries for jam, but all our frozen ones were from our own plants. That's the first time we've had that level of production. It's good, and I'm looking forward to increased production in coming years.

Pickle power! The week before we left for NH, I did this:

That's bread-and-butter on Monday, dill beans on Tuesday, pickled chard stems on Wednesday, and dill pickles on Friday. I don't like pickled things, myself. But I like making them. The cukes are backing up, so I've got to make some more soon.

I picked most all of our transparent apples and made six quarts of applesauce. The big tree is looking loaded, but they won't be ripe for a while still.

Zucchini, zucchini, zucchini.

The corn has been frequently consumed...by raccoons. We've decided to give up on corn and dedicate that space to something else. The raccoons always get it, and we rarely do, so what's the point? Better to have carrots or something.

Green beans, green beans, green beans. Frozen a bunch.

Froze broccoli, too.

The artichokes got away from us a little bit. We've eaten about six or seven, but two or three have gotten past us. So they'll be flowers, which are stunning and an acceptable substitute for eating.

Lots of chard, lots of kale, and I've planted more.

Hoop house tomatoes are doing well. Lots of cherries, and a bunch of romas, and others poking along. They keep falling over, though, so I need to get some stakes out there.

Here's what we came home to yesterday:

A place I called home

We are in NH this week. I grew up in NH and lived there till I left for college at 18. Since my parents don't live there anymore, I don't to come "home" any more. My dad's side of the family still lives here. My grandpa is 90 and hadn't met Corbin, so I decided it was time to come home and show him off. It's kinda like old home week. I have many more post to do but thought I would start with this one.

Some of you probably don't know that for 2 years of my life we lived in this Cabin in the woods. My parents left Proctor when I was 5 and decided to move into their one room cabin with no electricity and only cold running water. To live off the land. We lived here for 2 years before they decided to go back to Proctor for many reasons. This place hold many many wonderful memories. When my grandma got sick in the early 90's my grandpa cleared some land above it and built modular home above the Cabin. He and my Aunt Marilyn still live there.

Walking down the old driveway.

There used to be a big old deck here but it's gone now. My parents put the roof on the summer I was born. My mom was 9 months pregnant roofing in the hot NH heat!

Corbin was feeding me an "Erin" apple.

This is the apple tree my parents planted 30 years ago! My placenta is buried underneath.
Pretty cool to have Corbin eat an apple from my tree.

I showed Corbin where I used to poop :-)

It's a two seater with double doors!

The old hay rake.

Corbin really liked my grandpa's scooter, Rita.

Grandpa Red, Corbin, me, and aunt Marilyn in the background!

Corbin liked to kiss great grandpa's scratchy beard!

My grandpa was over joyed to meet his great grandson! He has 4 great grandsons! My cousin Ethan, has 3 boys but he has never met them. He just loved to watch Corbin run around! I am so glad we could make it out here to see them.