Site work underway!

So this week we began the daunting, exciting and terrifying job of building our new home. Started on Monday with clearing and digging a hole. Thursday we were milling things up on site. By Friday we wrapped up loan stuff with the bank and on Saturday they hauled away our extra wood. We pour teh foundation walls on Monday!

The future front yard...
Our hole in the ground...
View from our hole in the ground to the southeast...
Our log pile AFTER we milled up about as much as you see here...
Seth and our future posts and beams...
What can I say? The man's got some WOOD!
A farewell to the remaining 2/3rds we didn't need to mill up...
All those years of playing with Lincoln Logs pays off...
This was the second completely loaded double trailer of logs we sold off.

Now, on to foundation walls, drilling a well and framing!

My new hybrid!

Driving down to town today I averaged 80 miles per gallon!! (Ok, it dropped to 46 mpg on the uphill way home, but still....)


With gas prices the way they are, I stand to save OVER $1500 in gas between now and the end of the year!!

Override Douglas's Campaign Finance Veto!

Jim Douglas said himself that he doesn't care about the facts -- that this reform would help make our elections MORE competitive, not less. Hear for yourself:

Gruesome Seth carnage and adorable Jordy

Two very different things, indeed. First, the cute stuff...



And loving his daddy...



And now for the carnage. WARNING -- not for the faint of heart. The left-overs of Seth's fingers after they got sucked into the stone grinder at work tuning skis on Wednesday...

Video of Jordy and Lucy at play

Some video of the two little ones at play.

More from the pack

And here I thought Stoli was going to be grumpy...the boys are getting along just fine.

Who says we only like dogs? Here's a visitor of a different kind, whooo was perched in the yard yesterday afternoon.

Our Best Xmas Gift

With mom...

With Dad...


With his new beggin' buddy Bailey at the kitchen's edge...


Catching some midday sunshine nappies...


And just lounging around with the pack.

Settling in to his new home

So Jordy is settling in quite well with his new pack. Lucy is only having a slight issue with not being the smallest anymore...it's a battle of "Who can be cuter?"

Jordy's Homecoming!

In the small window of 36 hours between Friday and Saturday nigth after teh first bout of snow and before the big noreaster hit last night, I drove down to NJ and back in order to pick up the newest member of our pack, Jordy!



Thanks so much to Jacki Lugg and everyone at RatResQ for helping save Jordy from an unfortunate fate and helping him to find his new forever home with us. For the 7 hour drive home yesterday, he started off in the passenger seat....for about 10 minutes...



...until he moved to his permanent snuggle spot for the rest of the drive -- my lap (not an easy thing to navigate driving a stick shift with a 25 lb. dog in your lap!). It was great bonding time for us.

Introductions to the rest of his new pack went well -- not a growl or grumble. Jordy's inquisitive nature is cute, and at least as of yet, has not gotten him into any trouble. He's a smart dog, and clever indeed. He'll keep us on our toes, and I bet he and Lucy will make a great team on adventures.

He slept last night wedged between Seth and I in bed, even after Stoli hopped up on bed with us this morning. Clearly, the king is keeping an open mind about this new little creature cuddling his mom. Jordy is happy, already well-adjusted and ready to settle in.

More stories to come!

Our new pup to be!

We pick him up down in NJ next Saturday!!!

Summer winds down

So it's been a while since a post, in fact, all summer. It's been that kind of summer. Hectic, feeling a bit disjointed and scattered, not enough beach time and a very big deal that has kept us busy and distracted since the end of June. What could that be, you might ask? Buying land.

Yup, Seth and I have finally found that right piece of property -- 5.7 acres in Moretown, Vermont. Beautiful terrain, rock features, a stream, and sun -- lot's of sun. Mountain views to the east and south. And the best part -- it's going to cut my commute more than in 1/2!

Closing is tomorrow!

Pictures at this point don't really tell the story, but I'll keep folks posted as to the progress we make throughout the fall (clearing and puttin gin the driveway) and spring into summer (building the house). Should be an adventure -- one that keeps Seth way too busy and me all too excited!

Spring sprang, then winter sprung back

So April came in like a lamb, with warm temps in the end of March enough to have our crocuses in full bloom. Spring had sprung and we collected four five-gallon buckets full of winter dog poopies from the yard, which had completely melted through. The nicer part of spring is pictured above. These are what's currently under 2 feet of snow in our front embankment!

That's right...winter sprung back and in the past week we've gotten over two feet of snow and are back skiing in the woods and getting face shots of powder! Who would have thunk! Just goes to show you that global warming just has everything about mother nature's biological clock all screwed up! Whatever the reason, I LIKE IT!

Utah in the Springtime

So that's Seth there in the dirt on the runout from one of our adventure runs in the Strawberry Fields section of Snowbasin.
In the 60+ degree weather, we enjoyed five days of springtime slushies at Powder Mountain (here), Snowbasin (above and below), Snowbird and Park City.

Seth pausing in the sunshine at Snowbasin.


Colleen relaxing in the chic base area of Snowbasin. Gold-plated water fountains...a little too over the top for us.

Heading up towards teh start of the men's downhill at Snowbasin.

The view of Snowbasin from Powder Mountain.

View of the Wasach Range from the air on the way home.

A few more snowy shots from earlier this week

What's out your window?

Out my window, all I see is white. Right now, the snow is over three feet high and covers the entire first pane of our first floor apartment windows! I particularly like this first shot, where you can see what the weatherman is showing us on the radar -- nothing but pow-pow-pow!

If the drifts get much higher, I may start getting claustrophobic. And windy it will be -- supposed to get gusts up to 40-50 mph tonigth and tomorrow!

A gift from Uller

Three feet and counting!

Today it's over Lucy's head deep with snow...

What can I say??? Thank you Uller for the snow we needed and so rightfully deserve...



Powder today -- deep, fun, and did I say deep???