The Schweitzer’s Place

We are getting a u-haul trailer and moving our goodies to New Hampshire tomorrow. Thank God the weather should be nice to us tomorrow.

Our new place is a nice little apartment. Some serious downsizing going on! But we are telling ourselves that it is preparing us for A European Lifestyle. At least it will make the trip overseas a little easier if we don’t have all the junk we have today.

Live Free or Die – our new state motto. And who knows, we might score higher than a zero on the next election….

Here’s the Scene:

BRAD is upstairs on the computer working on a website while sitting in the bed. DEANNA is downstairs (doing something)….

DEANNA (yelling upstairs): Brad, I am leaving in 15 minutes!

DEANNA (Thinking): I am always waiting for him…

BRAD (yelling downstairs): I’ll be down there soon. I am just finishing something.

BRAD (thinking): She is always rushing me….

After 5 or 10 minutes, BRAD finishes up his work on the computer and changes clothes to get ready to go.

BRAD (yelling downstairs): Deanna, what are you wearing?
DEANNA (yelling upstairs): What I have on!
BRAD (sarcastically): OK, thanks!

This was a very nice trip on a beautiful fall day. There were quite a few people out and about as it was Columbus Day.

Our trip down to Rhode Island was interesting as the road signs on the way were quite a mess. In our attempt to turn off and stop at a visitor’s center, we found ourselves on the way to Worcester, MA (that is the wrong direction for those not in New England). After 30 minutes we found a closed building so we retraced our path and got back on track. That was about 45 minutes wasted there. . .

We arrived around noon at the main visitor center in Newport, RI. Many of the tours were already booked so we decided to take a short walk and figure it out on our own. We headed toward the Cliff Walk and took several pictures along the way. Downtown Newport is very pretty.

When we arrived at the Cliff Walk which is even more amazing. By the way the Cliff Walk was repaired by the Army Corps of Engineers in the 1970’s. Along the walk you have the ocean on one side and some of the mansions on the other side.  The mansions are huge and the walk is very pleasant. The cool fall day made for perfect weather.

Two hours into our short walk we were just over two-thirds of the way down the path and pretty far from downtown. We found a place to exit and headed back toward downtown for a bite to eat. On our way toward downtown a lady asked us for some tips and directions. Her language led Deanna to correctly guess that she was from Canada. It must be her college training in speech or something.

Back in downtown Newport, we found a small grill with a wide range of food. Since we were so close to the ocean Deanna ordered a pulled pork sandwich and Brad order a blue cheese burger. I guess we weren’t in the mood for seafood….

I finally published the photos from the Tiger Cruise with the other Schweitzer Boys. This was pretty fascinating. We were allowed to ride on the Eisenhower Aircraft Carrier from Florida to Virginia.

We waited for the ship to arrive.

While I was checking the weather in an attempt to plan my day I noticed the current weather was 97 degrees in Nothrborough. The high was going to be 79. I know it is silly, but I like to capture these abnormal events….

Anyway, I guess it looks like another day of relaxation. Maybe the sun will sneak out and I can do some kayaking. Maybe I’ll just be bored all day. Too bad Deanna didn’t sleep well last night or I could play with her. I’ve already been warned this morning to leave her alone.

It rained ALL DAY yesterday and we didn’t do much. We did stop at the gym and I ran home in the rain. That was nice…thankfully it was just wet rain rather than freezing rain.

Today I took the kayak out to A-1 reservoir in Westborough around the middle of the day. It was a little warm, a little sunny, and a lot of fun. The fish were pretty active and I caught 8 bass and 1 chain pickerel. Only one of them was picture worthy, but at least they were biting today. I guess fishing season is here now…guess where I’ll be in the evenings.

I went out with Will and he caught a nice one. Maybe I’ll get his photo and share it.

The last day or two we planted many of the seedlings that we started indoors. Today, I took off work a couple hours early and finished planting the seeds with Deanna. If all grows well, we’ll have all sorts of goodies to snack on this year. I think we’ll have a couple more plantings to fill in some gaps and tweak things a bit. But, we have a pretty good start here.

I’ve included a sketch of the garden that I hope to improve. I think I am going to give Google Sketchup a try to plot this out. But don’t wait around for that….

Now that we have our garden planted (at least mostly planted) it is going to freeze tonight. We hurried and created a make-shift cover for three of the garden beds. In the process of pounding in the stakes I smashed my hand. With our luck the sheets will blow off, ripping a plant out on the way. Then the rest of the plants will freeze and die. Well garden, it was fun while it lasted. We’ll give it another try if all gets messed up tonight. As long as we don’t get wind, it will be OK.

It was the first truly warm day in New England. When I took the car for a short trip it registered in the high 80’s. I almost felt too hot for a minute, then I remembered how much I like the warmth. It may take another day to get used to it, but I am glad spring is finally here.

We spent a good portion of the day working in the yard. This year we are building four different beds for a garden and a few pots with herbs and salsa necessities. The beds are simple square wooden border beds each 8 foot by 4 foot. We also built a compost pile with some 1/2 inch hardware cloth. It is almost full already, but that is OK.

Bailey and Brandon played in the yard all day. It was as usual — Bailey eating grass, dirt and whatever else he could find while Brandon played with a ball the WHOLE TIME. I know we will ALL sleep good tonight.

Today we posted a bunch of stuff on Freecycle and craigstlist. That is always an adventure. When you post free it seems that you created a cannonball race like event where the trucks and suburbans are involved. It is fun to watch a truck skid up to the front of the house and 8 people jump out to rummage through the treasure. I don’t know how they fit 8 people in the front of a truck or how they get anything else on the pile of junk already in the back.

At least we got rid of some more unnecessary clutter. There will be more going soon. Before you know it we’ll live in a newlywed, bachelor-pad-like house again. I can’t wait!