Blueberry Hill

Mom and I visited Leo and Kristen this weekend at their new home. It is in a rural area of Pennsylvania in the northern Poconos. The dirt road isn't on most maps. Google can't find it. Mapquest locates it, not quite correctly, but pretty close. I was concerned that they were going to be living amongst moonshiners and crackers, but was very pleasantly surprised to find that all of the houses in their area are quite nice. Their house is very nice and is much larger than it appears when it is first approached. There is a good size porch on the front and a large deck on the rear. There is an enormous lower level that is already divided into a room to be used for computer / office, an entertainment room with a nice bar built in, an exercise room, a room that was to be a home theater, a large furnace room and a large workshop with built in workbench with two double doors opening to a driveway outside. I'll post some pictures when I figure out how. There is a hill behind the house that starts out with lawn, then low shrubs and then trees and shrub. Exploring the hill I found that the shrubs were mostly low bush blueberries. I partook of one and found it edible, the news of which prompted Mom to appear with a plastic container to collect them.

It is incredibly quiet there. Hardly a human sound can be heard. We sat on the front porch in the evening and listened to a couple of wild turkeys calling. The tom frequented their backyard and we even saw him pursuing the hen, although she seemed to be uninterested. We heard a fawn calling for its mother and Kristen professed to hear the deer walking in the woods. Although Mom, Kristen and Leo all reported seeing deer on the hill, I saw only one. I did see many in other places on our visit. I got up in the middle of the night to use the rest room and decided to have a look outside. The stars were astounding. There was no ground light, only pitch black as a backdrop. We wish Kristen and Leo the very best in their new home and hope that their family has many years of happiness on Blueberry Hill.  [You can view some pictures of Leo and Kristen's new home at www.flickr.com/wvkol ]

The Great American Shelving Adventure (Part 6)

My Goodness! It has been a long time since I have written anything here. Much is going on. A new roof is being installed on our house, Leo and Kristen are moving (tomorrow in fact), Pippi has finished elementary school (congratulations) and I have started on the last phase of the Great American Shelving Adventure. This part consists of building the toy box of secrets. I can't say anymore otherwise it wouldn't be a secret. I have doped out a plan and cut the wood. Now I must plan some more before starting assembly. I tend to build things with only a sketchy plan and then build as I go. Sometimes that works. Once in a while I forget something along the way and I have to re-construct as  I go. Anyway, this box is turning out to be a lot bigger than I expected. Oh well, it has to hold a lot of treasures. Maybe I can post a picture when it is finished, if I can still remember how. No, I can't post pictures during construction - the box has secrets.