paintball

Travelin’ Man

/ Shane / 1 Comment

I have been traveling a lot lately.

In the past few weeks, I have spent 3 days in Detroit, 1 day in Indianapolis, 4 days in D.C., and another day in Indy. Detroit and D.C. were for work, and they were a little rough. It was hard for me to be away from the kids, and (somewhat ironically) it was hard for Sara to be stuck with the kids (though Anna did come and help her get through the week when I was in D.C.).

On the weekend in between, I hit up a bachelor party (congrats Chad!) and played paintball at White River Paintball. It was definitely the coolest place I have ever played! They have some really awesome courses, including one with derelict cars and house trailers and two story buildings, and another that replicates Omaha Beach, including a shipping container “drop boat” that opens up into the teeth of bunker fire. The place was huge and busy, but very well run, and we never had to wait for a course.

Of course, the following weekend we were back to Indy again to see Rachael get her Masters’ degree (congrats Rachael!). We just went for the day, and we experienced some of the most inept parking garage management I have ever seen. An hour and a half sitting in the parking garage, unable to move! We almost spent more time stuck in the parking garage than the actual graduation ceremony! And at the end of it, there were actually cops directing traffic, and doing a terrible job. Oh well.

Sometime in there we also managed to plant the garden. It was super hot and sweaty the day before (85 degrees), but the temperature dropped precipitously in 24 hours, so we ended up doing it in a light drizzle, freezing our butts off in 46 degree weather! Evie and Oliver had to sit in the car because it was too cold.

Last year we had 6 tomato plants, so this year we decided to do 8. However, after we got them planted, we went to the farmer’s market and saw a Mortgage Lifter, which is our favorite variety. So we decided to squeeze *one more* tomato in, bringing us to 9. I should mention though, that really one of them is actually a tomatillo, not really a tomato.

In addition, we have lettuce, basil, strawberries, an eggplant (hopefully as good as the one last year), a jalapeno, and 3 red peppers. We have also constructed a pyramid over the strawberries for beans to climb. This will do double duty, saving us space in the garden by not having the beans taking up extra room, and also providing a little shade to the strawberries. Unfortunately we lost the bean seeds, so we haven’t actually planted them yet. The strawberries have around 20 flowers or so, so we’re looking forward to getting a slightly bigger crop this year!

I mentioned that we hit up the farmer’s market. It was the first weekend of the year, and the rain and cold temperatures didn’t leave anybody thrilled with the opening. I’m very excited that it’s back, and they’ve added some new booths for this year. Evie is excited too and is insisting on getting her basket moved from her tricycle to her balance bike.

So I think the traveling is over for a while. Hopefully we can get into more of a routine as the summer rolls along. Hopefully there will actually be a summer this year, considering it is the middle of may and it’s getting down in the mid-30’s tonight!

Labor-Day-Weekend in Review

/ Shane / Leave a comment

In order to ease our driving experience, we decided to leave on Friday night about bedtime, so the kids would sleep in the car. BIG MISTAKE! Neither one of them had much interest in sleeping, and they ended up staying up pretty much the entire way there. Oh well.

Saturday morning we picked apples at an orchard, for making into applesauce. This was something we did every year when I was little, so we thought it would be fun to continue the tradition with the kids (oh yeah, and stock up on delicious and healthy applesauce – high fructose corn syrup need not apply). It was really nice. We had perfect fall weather, sunny but a little cool. Now that I’m used to picking blueberries, raspberries, etc. apple picking goes pretty fast. Plus we picked some, but we bought probably more than half already picked.

When we were done with that, I went off and played some paintball for about 5 hours for a bachelor party. As always, paintball was a lot of fun. I got shot in the neck again, but it wasn’t as bad as last time. I took one in the pinky that hurt pretty bad too, but I didn’t really have too many welts or anything, compared to some of the guys. We played one game where the bachelor could only get out if he was shot on a little square on his chest. I think they counted 16 welts on his torso. Ouch! Anyway, it was a lot of fun, and a lot of fun to hang out with a bunch of old friends.

When I got home, we had to make applesauce late into the night. We made 35 quarts and 11 pints. Not all of it was just for us, but we took the lion’s share. I don’t know what our final count was, but it was substantial! We still haven’t found room for it in the pantry. It was quite the operation, with 5 people all working at the same time, including two canners going.

The next day we went do my dad’s house. The plan was to go swimming and close out the pool for the season, but it had been so cool that we figured it wouldn’t happen. However, the pool temperature was surprisingly pleasant. We also found some time top play Pretty Pretty Princess, and dad won both times…I guess he’s a natural Pretty Pretty Princess. We also came away with an alarming amount of produce, including 7 squash, 5 zucchini, and 2 pumpkins (although one of them is big enough to count for 2 or 3).

Since we were in the canning mood, we decided to come back for round 2: salsa. We had tomatoes from our garden, plus everybody decided to drop off more tomatoes; so many in fact, that we ended up not even using our tomatoes when we canned! But we made 9 1/2 pints of salsa, and again canned late into the night. We’re really putting our canning skills to the test this year!

Finally, Monday was Labor Day and we spent it the way Labor Day aught to be spent: grilling out. Some family friends came over and Evie entertained us with tunes while we ate (as usual). Unfortunately we had to eat and run, since we had the drive back, and driving with 2 small children takes a lot longer than it would otherwise. It was nice though, we were in no hurry, so we even stopped and did some shopping on the way home. Of course, once we got home we had about a zillion things to do, so I ended up exhausted (especially since I spent the previous two nights canning instead of sleeping).

So, in summary, dessert.

Yes, everywhere we went had desert. Not just store bought stuff, but homemade deliciousness. I probably gained 5 pounds over the weekend. But it sure was delicious! If you count all the canning, I’d definitely say this trip was all about food. What better reason to take a trip?