2022 Begins

Hi There.

I haven’t thought to update the site lately, been busy with work, the apartment, etc. Just this past weekend, I came up with an idea for a sort of income generating website that might help some people find high quality products and I have been working hard on that every spare minute. When it’s up and running I’ll post the link here. Things have been good lately. I started working on a new new hobby with crypto. We took a few mini-trips to Boston and stayed in cool hotels, been spending a lot of time hiking, taking walks, etc.

Now that it seems Covid has somewhat subsided and everyone here is vaccinated, we’ve been getting out a lot more which is really great. There are basically no festivals in the spring in New England though! The next random things I have on my calendar are a sandcastle competition at Hampton and something in Gloucester which are both in the summer time.

I have a couple of weddings this year to go to. My cousin PJ and my friend Keith are getting married and maybe 1 more. My cousin Dave moved to Australia, so I plan to visit him out there maybe next year. I plan to share with you all the fun things that go on in 2022! Talk to you soon.

Almost October

I’m excited for the fall. I keep a list of all festivals within about an hour drive and I’m looking forward to them. I was thinking it will be nice to have a calendar of which ones are happening each weekend, so next year I’m going to put one on the wall. This year Liz and I went to the Caledonia County Fair, a blueberry/strawberry festivals at Hollis hills farm, Appleseed County Fair at Red Apple Farm, and a few others. I’m looking forward to the Westminster cracker festival and there’s many other fall ones we plan to go to. We’re all sick this week. It was a bad head cold, but Liz tested negative and mine is coming back tomorrow… should be negative as well, but we’re in this weekend just in case. Hippo is getting real big! The vet said he’s 26lbs. Though, I don’t think he’s going to get much bigger. We were thinking he’d be between Beagle and Lab sized, but now I think closer to a beagle.

New Puppy!!

Hey everyone. We got a new puppy last weekend!! :) he’s 9 weeks old now and he’s a beagle, hound, lab mix. His mom was found at a “dumping ground” in Tennessee and they made the trip to Massachusetts where he was born. I can’t wait until we can go hiking with him. He’s really friendly and calm most of the time. He loves being around anyone and loves chewing on everything lol. I’m working from home still, so balancing that with taking care of him. It’s going pretty well so far. Here’s some pictures:

May 15th

It was my aunt and uncle’s 40th wedding anniversary Saturday. Next weekend we have a hotel in Boston, so I’ll send some photos from the mini-getaway.

Some photos from this weekend

Porch Garden Update

Starting a porch garden

I want to make a vegetable garden on the porch that’s also a nice place to relax. Just getting started now…

Tee shirts and candles

I’m thinking of getting a nice camera again and taking photos to make tee shirts from. These are quick samples of what the photos might look like from a free app I downloaded. I’d get better software if I really did it. I also started making some melt a pour candles with beesewax. I figure I can use most of them and give some for presents. I got some antique ball jars to pour the beesewax into.

6 months

It’s been 6 months since I’ve posted. During the pandemic, not too much has been going on. I’ve been working a lot at a new job and it’s going really well. I moved out of my house into a new apartment and Liz and I have been fixing it up and finding fun outdoor things to do on weekends… here’s some pictures from my last nights at the house, living in the hotel for 3 months and the new place. I’m very determined to turn one of our porches into a vegetable garden lol… so more to come on that!!! I’ll post again soon.

Sold my house

Hi everyone,

I finally sold my house. It was for sale since the spring and I ended up getting pretty much what I expected. At the last minute, I decided not to sell. I told the realtor to take it off of the market and I was going to fix it up through the winter, but there were two showings left. One ended up being a nice young couple of artists who fell in love with the house and they plan to restore it and keep it like it was in the 1700s. They have all kinds of plans for the house like I did one time and it’s nice to know that it will be taken care of. They invited me and Liz over to visit once they get it the way they want and we both like them a lot… so it went as good as I could have hoped.

I’m living in a hotel right now and working from home. Last night I found an apartment. I’ll be working in Marlborough and commuting from Acton/Westford. Liz will be staying with me a lot and if she decides to stay more, her son Aiden would have the Westford school district which is one of the best in Massachusetts.

Here’s some pictures of the last few weeks. I can’t wait until things get back to normal soon and I can travel more! :) I should have some extra spending money now, so I’ll plan some fun trips and I’m excited to post about them someday soon.

Workshop

I rearranged my living room, which I never really used, into a little workshop this weekend and re-finished a kid’s desk that I found at Re-Store for $10. I figure I’ll probably try to sell it though, as I won’t have room for it when I move. In the meantime, I have a place now to refinish things and make stuff inside the house until then! Oh, by the way, when you sand gum off a children’s school desk, you can smell all the flavors lol. There was cinnamon, bubble gum, mint, etc.

Update: I was curious what school the desk was from. Unfortunately, the only marks on the desk are Kenney Bros & Wolkins. Boston, MA. However, what’s fortunate is that someone is selling one on Etsy for $900… So it seems like my investment wasn’t a waste of time at least! I’m just kidding though. It wouldn’t be anyway, I enjoyed doing it of course.

Beautiful couple of Weekends!

It was a beautiful, but hot, couple of weekends. 96 degrees today! I have the grill going… took a bike ride on a local rail trail, experimented with making my own soap, Brewed Kombucha (more to come), relaxed, worked, cleaned, slept, made pies, etc. etc.

Abandoned Town

I went to a wildlife area today and hiked for miles and miles… I figured out I was in an abandoned old town from the 1800s

Some things from the weekend.

Oh and one of them is my good friend Jack’s new baby girl Molly :)

Groundhogs

So… the single groundhog in my yard must have been 2… because now there’s 4 of them lol

Chakra

I bought a set of Chakra stones on Etsy and it just showed up :) they’re nice for decoration, meditation and keeping natural things around the house. I’ve been collecting stones lately and I bought a hobby tumbler!… so some more shiny stones I’m polishing myself are on their way… if I can figure it out.

My House is up for Sale

I put the house up for sale. Just sharing some photos that I took today before it’s gone. I’ll miss it…I think the fruit trees the most lol, but I think it’s for the best for now. I plan to get an apartment or buy a small condo and save for a while. I’ll buy another house and plant new trees some day.

Bearsden Wildlife Refuge

I went on an adventure today to Bearsden Wildlife Refuge. I realized when I got there that I had been once before. Before my back surgery, I just wanted to get out into nature… I was roaming around in the car and stumbled upon this place. At the time it was very painful to walk. I walked about 1/20 of a mile (like a 3 minute walk) and then back to the car. It took me about 45 minutes as putting one foot in front of the other was difficult at the time. Well today I planned to go here but I had forgotten I’d been once before. I walked the distance I walked before in about 3 minutes and realized how awesome it was to experience the same place with a healthy back. I also realized that the first time, I was basically still in the parking lot. I never made it to the main trail… just to this sign:

This time… I was in a completely different mindset. I’m thrilled to be able to hike again and I went deep into the forest.

I ended up at an area where all the trees were cut down. It turns out they cut the trees down on purpose because some of the wildlife needs the young trees and bushes to thrive and white pines took over the area.

This is about an hour walk into the forest. I knew on the other side there was a pond and a river so I went to check it out and found some crystal clear water and streams feeding the pond.

I didn’t see the river at first… but I found a trail that headed that way and it turns out that there were train tracks that followed the river in a valley. I decided to try to take the train tracks back towards the car knowing I had a full charge on my cell phone and it was nice weather around noon…

Hiking down the tracks, I ended up about 1 mile from my car and of course…. there was no trail! Lol so I looked at Apple maps on my phone and found the car and just started walking towards it. Also of course, the car was on the other side of a small mountain. So, I just basically forged my own trail over the mountain and eventually about another hour later, I found my car. I was surprised, but this early in the season…. since the bushes and small trees have no leaves, it wasn’t too hard to just walk through the woods with no trail. It was a little adventure during a pandemic with no people for miles and was nice to get out in such nice weather today. Tomorrow is supposed to be even nicer, so if my feet will hold up…. I’m going to explore somewhere new. Hope you’re having a good time in the sunshine this weekend :)

Savage Hill