Labor Day Hike

Sean had to work today so it was just the girls and me. Since Quinn is used to getting up early we were all up before 6 even though I would have preferred to sleep in until 8. We had a nice breakfast of Zucchini bread (isn't everyone eating tons of Zucchini bread this time of year?) and headed down to Reservation road to Hike Pawtuckaway's Boulder field.

There are tons of caves, and the girls enjoyed some spelunking in them. The rocks are huge and of varying levels of difficulty for climbing. Most of the climbing is the free climbing sort - no ropes required. Quite a few, in fact I'd say all of the good rocks have chalk residue from previous climbers.

This is Ali on top of the Lower Slab (yup we New Englanders sure can pick romantic names for things can't we) Check out the next picture for some perspective. Ali's in the same spot, can you see her?
We turned around after these and did some more cave exploring, and then we came home. Next time we're taking Dad 'cause he'd be able to give Ali some boost up to better rocks and maybe free me up from Quinn carrying duty enough to pack a lunch and some drinks and we could picnic up there.

Pawtuckaway is such a neat place. There are so many glacial deposits, every trail is a winner. I love it there!

Swap Shop

The town of Deerfield has had a swap shop at the transfer station for many years, but recently it's become overridden with too much junk and not enough maintenance so the board of selectmen shut it down.

I see a swap shop as an essential tool in decluttering, recycling/reusing.

Several other people in town felt the same way and we petitioned the selectmen to re-open the swap shop. They agreed provided it was attended by volunteers every time it was open, and that we keep it clean and organized.

Our grand re-opening was June 28th, and today was my turn to be the attendant.

I had a great time. The lady I worked with was a treat, I met some new people and I scored some cool items too (as well as got to play with some neat toys I left there for someone else to take). Quinnie got a little toy car, a child sized recliner and a child sized adirondak chair. I got a metal thermal coffee cup a wicker laundry basket and the Stitch N Bitch book. All of these items were in supreme condition - very gently used, if at all.

I'm so glad I volunteered.

I'm not dead

I have been so wicked busy and I am so looking forward to school vacation. So what the heck have I been up to? Well....hiking, knitting, planting, lots of field trips, swimming...My plants are almost all in - just a few more to go (no pictures regrettably - I'll get on that soon I promise). I made birthday presents for both my sister and my Mom who have birthdays coming up this summer (no public pictures until they receive their gifts). Here's a peek at some of the highlights of May and early June...

Aren't they gorgeous? Quinn and Daddy hiking at Bear Brook State Park on 4/23/08 - Sean and my 14th anniversary.I saw the Yarn Harlot in North Hampton MA with my Mom - We had a blast!We finished the NETA Afghan. I blocked it and delivered it to Sheryl Amaral of Spin-A-Bit for it's raffle tour.We got some chicks - Quinn LOVES them!And lastly, Ali will be going to environment camp this fall and needs some gear. So I've started making some things...she'll need a hat, some mittens, some fleece pants and rain pants (we'll buy a rain coat), another wool sweater, some more socks (of course). I'm going to have a good time getting all this stuff made up for her (and I'm hoping she'll help with the pants - she likes to sew).

Hopefully I won't be away for so long again.

Clutter or the Environment

I've got some serious issues with clutter. This is the thing, I have serious issues throwing stuff away. I mean I can throw things away, like food packaging and old receipts and junk mail, but about the time when Exeter (NH) started their pay per bag system I started to realize that the world's resources were finite and that we should reuse and reclycle everything possible. That said I started to keep alot more things than I did before, the number of my trash bags went down and I felt OK about what I did throw out. But there are a lot of things you can't recycle, don't really have a use for, and they just kind of acumulate. Add to that a move to a house with ample storage for some kinds of things (a huge barn and a garage) and not sufficient storage for other kinds of things (food, toys, books and cooking tools), plus family and friends effectively dumping their stuff (broken tools, crooked bookshelves, cheap acrylic yarn, games we'll never play) on us I have reached the point where even I can not stand it. It wouldn't be so bad if my toddler would leave the stuff in it's place, but I came home last night to a whole box of books strewn all over the office. I've kept these books because they are my favorites. I have whittled and pared down the collection 'til it only fit in ONE box and I'd like to have them all stored neatly on a bookshelf I have yet to build in the hall. I haven't built the bookcase because the wall is wavy and it'll need a fair amount of recon before I can put square wood against it. We don't have the cash flow to facilitate such a renovation so the books sit in a box waiting for a bookshelf and get strewn when Mommy's not looking. This is just one tiny example oth the thousands of things I have in my house that are cluttering up my life. I know some things I truly want to get rid of, so much so tat I rounded them up to bring them to the swap shop at the local tranfer station only to find out that the selectmen have decided it's no longer a good idea to have such a place and have closed it indefinitely. I suppose there's always freecycle, but that takes so long to unload things - I couldn't even give my perfectly good leather couch away - that it's not even worth posting. A yard sale would be a monumental undertaking at this point. So what options do I have left? I can pitch the stuff as I come to it in my cleaning/clutterbusting endeavours, or I can put it in boxes as I come to it and see if someone could possible come by with a U-Haul and spirit it away, or I can pray for a house fire.

I don't know. It's just too much.