The art of body steering

The kids wanted to get out and ride the bikes. So it was time for a training session for Liam.
We initially took the pedals of this bike to get Liam to get the hang of balancing without training wheels.
He was getting it, but needs to keep on practicing. So he can get the confidence to balance and put all the pieces together and finally learn to ride.
He's got the body steering down pat. If only the handlebars could reach his shoulders.

Only the strong survive

It was Hurricane Irene coming thru. Before it hit the Carolinas it was a Category 3 storm, but by the time it reached the Jersey Shore it was a Category 1 and after it got to NYC it was reduced further to a Tropical storm.

It was bedlam for the days leading up to the storm. D batteries were all bought up.
Bread was sold out. We managed to find a bag of potato buns. Somewhere else in the store and put it back on the bread isle.


It sure looked lonely on the empty shelves.
Luckily for these guys we found it and put it there.

Cuz it was the last bread in the store.




The storm hit our location around 2am this morning. It sounded like a really loud dishwasher. Power went out around 3am and didn't come back on until 10am. Although we are about 45 mins from the shore, winds still reached around 100 mph. Small trees were bent over, nearly uprooted.

We were the fortunate ones. Others in nearby areas were experiencing flooding and longer power outages. People's homes were flooded and some needed to be rescued by boats due to several feet of water surrounding the home.


Walking to the store we realized what we thought was a bush, was really the top of a small tree that had nearly been ripped from the ground by the strong winds.







In times like these it was test of will and survival of the fittest, where only the strong survive and others. Well...they try their best to stay awake and turn to mushrooms.

A stitch in time, saves 9

A few years ago I had 9 stitches in my right knee. And we took them out ourselves since we were going to be in the US at the time.
Same time as currently.





And today it has been 9 years.
Almost a decade.
And still going strong and getting better.
I've probably said this before in some form or another, but any relationship is work. If you don't put anything into it, what do you expect to get out?
The work has to come from both parties. Not just one.
All for one and one for all.
Or life will be lousy.

Money is no solution either, but don't get me wrong. A Lotto Max cheque would be very welcome in our house. But if you're not happy to begin with, money just makes that fact more evident, and life just gets worse.
But if you are happy, and happiness is a state of being and of mind, it's not something attained by external means, then money can enhance it. It's not the cause.
If you don't get what I just wrote. Then you've got some figuring out to do.
For us, we've figured it out. But we work at it all the time. Practice, practice, practice.

If the grass isn't green on your side. You've got to figure why it's not green, and then make it green. Can't keep looking for a perfect lawn, when you've got to find the tools to maintain the lawn in the first place.

I just got to figure out how to rid myself of those nasty grubs.
Every year they keep wrecking our lawn.



Forget Facebook, that's just a time waster.
Sitting down to watch a good movie, is where it's at.

Gone Fishing

It was a sunny and beautiful day to go fishing.
With rod in hand and a scowl on his face.
The only camp Kieran has asked to be put in, was a fishing camp. So here we are. Fishing. At Camp Kranjec. I normally don't go with Kieran, since he goes with Dedek. It grosses me out putting the worm on the hook. Let alone holding the fish and pulling the hook out. When I would fish with Tresa's dad, I don't think I caught anything. I didn't want to touch the fish.
But Dedek was not around today, and so I faced my unwillingness to torture other living things in the face, just so that my son can fish. So I wore my thick rubber work gloves and brought a pair of pruning shears, so I can cut the worms in half. Unlike Dedek who does it with his hands. I bet he can snap the neck of a chicken without blinking. The guy grew up on a farm. It's either the livestock or starve.

In any case, you know what's gross. Even after cutting the worm in half, both halves were squirming still. Yuck. Luckily I only had to cut 2 worms. When Kieran catches a fish the worm is mostly intact. Luckily for me. Because it makes my skin crawl putting the worm on the hook. Cause you can't just stab it and let it hang. The fish just eat the worm and don't ingest the hook. In any case I got used to it. Sort of.

So here we are. Fishing. While I was untangling the basket he made with his fishing rod, Kieran got the boat together. Bucket of water for the fish that he catches, seat backs for the paddle boat, worms, and a rod for me just in case I wanted to fish. Good stuff.
Not sure if you can see, but there's a fish just beneath the surface of the water.
It's mostly small mouth bass, or rock bass. But Kieran caught a pumkinseed fish or a common sunfish. They typically live together with the bass that is more predominant.

This is Toady.
Kieran caught this little guy. I was surprised he would touch this thing and not the fish. But Tresa told me he held the fish the other day. He also told me he would put the worm on the hook if he knew how to do it. I'll let Dedek teach him how to do that.

As for the little froggers, there were tons of them on the grass in the shady areas. We caught about 6 of them and made an island in a bucket. But Toady got away.

Click me for fish photos