We Interrupt Our Regularly Scheduled Pics!

We interrupt our Vacation Story with a few moments of life since we got back.
Below you will find pictures of our life once we returned.
We needed the Vacation to give us a break before we started all the things we have to do with the rest of the year.
WE still have a long, long way to go on the rooms that Amanda and Peggy are using but with all their stuff moved in, it has added some more challenges.
Before I can do anymore in there, we needed to finish a project we started many months ago.
You may remember the big Yellow Door we installed? (Ironically the color is growing on me ((shudder))
Well, the installation didn't go as well as we hoped.
Dave and I decided the only recourse was to tear the whole thing out and start over.
You will see a pic of that below.
The pressure was (and is) on to try to tidy things up around here because of The Oakes Family Gathering (There are pics of that below as well)
and my Parents are coming at the end of July and they will be bringing some very dear friends with them as well;
Henny and Nanny who live in the Netherlands will be coming with my mom and dad (Lord Willing).
Deanna and I haven't seen them since we got married 17 years ago.
Well we get pictures and we have chatted with them online and on the phone but you get the idea.
Our hope is to build a little screen porch in front of the big yellow doors which will let in some much needed air this summer.
I would love to have that finished before my family gets here but I don't know if we can swing it.
Dave of course is helping me but with his working on his garage and my having to work at the factory, time and energy is in short supply.

Anyway, there is a kind of poetic story in the pics below.
You will see the work begun on our door and then the storm clouds.
Then a rain picture and after that, some fantastic rainbow pictures that went right over our house.
I had to take a series of pictures to get it, because it was so huge.
Not only was it a full (from side to side) rainbow but there was actually the beginnings of a second and third on each side.
After the Rainbow pictures you will find a few pictures from the Oakes Family Gathering picnic in our back yard. Note what kind of day it was.
I am sorry that we didn't get any pictures of the Sunday Oakes Family Gathering.
I understand Dottie took a few so perhaps I can get hers.

Tune in next time when we will return you to our regularly scheduled picture tour of our vacation to Canada

May You Be Reminded Of The Power of Gods Love Every Day!
Will

Back to Work!

Just Sittin', Chattin, & Enjoying the Day!

Sun, Shade and Food!!

lots of food! A lot more than you can see here!
...and a lot of insects (sigh). Still, it wouldn't be a
summer picnic without the insects...(I didn't come up
with that myself but it puts a happy spin on it!)

Sittin' in da shade...

It was hotter than we hoped so instead of having a
bonfire, we moved to the nearest tree.

Oakes Family Gathering is over......

Just a quick update on what has been happening around here. We had the Oakes Family Gathering this last weekend and it was a great time. Lots of work from my family who were quite generous with their help (I don't know many hubbys that would allow their wives to do this and work that hard to help her put it on).
We had about 30 people here on Saturday for a cookout and 49 people on Sunday for the potluck. I was able to cook lots of food and that made me very happy.
The only bad thing happened on Saturday night and that was that our "inside cat" Gabby was scared by the kids here in the house (they had decided that a pillow fight in the family room was a good thing). Gabby ran when a pillow hit her and through some type of series of events got outside and then continued to run from all of the strangers around. She was missing until yesterday. We had been searching everywhere up and down the road. I happened to walk down the road and then up the neighbor's driveway. I called her name and got this wail from a scared kitty. She came slinking out of the shed at the back of his yard yelling at the top of her lungs. She jumped at every little shadow and noise until she made it to me yelling all the way. It was like watching "Homeward Bound" the movie. She is quite happy to be home and tries not to let me out of her sight. We are all quite happy to have her home. The "not knowing" what has happened to your pet will kill you. Who would have known that this little 5 lb. fur faced critter could mean so much to our whole family?
Well, I need to go and fill the hummingbird feeder and head out for work. Jacob is helping Grandpa build a garage and right now they are working on the foundation. Jacob gets to work with a pick ax and boy is he proud. Jessalyn is learning to make homemade bread from my Mom and homemade jams etc. They are both having a great time doing it. Will and I could be showing them some of this stuff I know, but we are "just" their parents. We are not the same as the grandparents. They're fun.......we're just Mom and Dad.
I have a meeting tonight for Cranfest to discuss an emergency evacuation plan. We have to find a way to evacuate Cranfest in case of some type of disaster. That means many different plans depending on what area has the problem. The problem really is getting the people all back to their cars, not the getting them out of town. People get lost and cannot find their cars on a normal day. Add panic to the situation and they will just be running with no clear idea of where they are going. The county has a paid position for an evacuation plan, but she has never even been to Cranfest, so it has been dropped in our lap. Just what we need another thing for our "to do" list with a little over 90 days left before the festival. Oh well, we'll just have to get busy.
Have a wonderful and blessed day. I'm sure that Will is planning on posting more pictures tomorrow.

Because I Promised!

I promised more pictures on the Blog this year and I especially promised pics of Niagara.
Here you go.
Below is the next handful of pictures from our vacation that already seems like so long ago. The work going on around this house right now is staggering and it gets worse before it gets better. Taking the time to post these is certainly worth it though, as it brings to mind the many smiles and great times we had.
I still have many more pictures to post but no, you won't have to suffer through all 400 pictures! Also, I remind you again that these pics can be enlarged by "clicking" on them.
Please try to remember also that they were taken with a lowly "point & shoot" 2 megapixel camera that has been working great for all these years so I haven't bothered to upgrade it.
(which is a nicer way of saying I'm too cheap! ;-)
May the Lord God Almighty Bless you Mightily!
Will.

Would the group at the "Falls" be called the Fallen?

From Right to Left:
Dave, Dottie, Jacob (in hiding), Deanna, Jessalyn,
Annette and Jim.

Guess where...

Niagara!

Traveling from here ...

The American Falls are on the left and out of view on
the right is the Horseshoe or Canadian Falls. Keep in
mind that these pictures are taken from the sidewalk.
I don't know why I never realized that you could just
walk down the street and see the Niagara Falls! Guess
I just never thought about it much...

...to here!

Doesn't look like a very big boat...

until you realize that every little blue dot on that boat
is a person with a average height of 5'10" or so -
and it's a double decker!

Human Sardines (in fresh water)

For some reason the people on the "maid of the Mist"
boats wear blue rain coats. They sure pack 'em in there.
It was really interesting watching the boats struggle
against the current. Yet, after watching them from the
street level, I had absolutely no interest in actually riding
in one of those boats.

Horseshoe Falls

If you look down and to the right you will see all these
people in in rain coats. It helps you appreciate the scale.
I have pictures taken from down there that I will post
later

I can't help wondering...

Why doesn't it run out of water? Is there a handle
somewhere that needs to be "jiggled"?

The people and the mist give it some "scale"....

Just walkin' along the street...

In this case, Family cometh before the Falls.

After Staying at Uncle Walt's and Aunt Dorothy's for a couple of days it was time to move on.
When you say the words "New York" I (like most people I suspect) think of New York City.
Now it's nice to know that I will have other, much prettier images in my mind whenever I hear the words: New York.
New York State is Beautiful.

In fact you can even use the word "Quaint" in some places.
Deanna & I loved driving through "Cuba" New York; and no, it's nothing like the country...(duh).
In Fact the homes and gardens/lawns were just beautiful and surprisingly quiet.
It was a nice reminder of what suburban America is supposed to be like as we drove towards the Canadian Border on our way to see the Niagara Falls from the Canadian side. The pictures below should set us up so that the next time I post (Lord Willing) I can show you the pictures of that.
One of the benefits of Niagara Falls is that even if you think you have ten thumbs like me, your pictures come out as if you actually knew what you were doing.
Until then may the Lord ever increase his Blessings upon you!
Will

Racoon...Or Bear ?!?

Walt was telling us how a bear was at his screen door
not too long ago. Then I saw these marks on his porch
insulation. Dorothy said these are from a raccoon that
got in her porch but I wonder if she was just trying to
keep us from being scared...

Time to say goodbye...

Dottie, Annette, Jim, Mark, Becky, & Dorothy I'm not
sure Where Dave and Walt got off to...

Things we saw on our way out of town...

I had never seen a wooden silo quite like this one...Yes
I said wooden...

Empire City Farms; Hmm..must be a horse stable..

This is a Horse Stable??????

It's Good to be a Horse in New York State....

Leaving Cuba New York...

The sign says: Rock, Paper, Scissors Tournament!
Wow! These Guys know how to Party!

Crossing the Canadian - U.S.A. Border

We're Gettin Close!

Next time: Niagara Falls!

The American Falls; Seen as we drive by.

More pics From Spraques

OOPS!

See, this is how it's supposed to work: I put my photo's in reverse order (last ones first) so they will be in order when you view them. I put these below in and blogger wouldn't let me put any more in. I will try again later. What we have below is some pictures from a restaurant and maple syrup farm called Sprague's Farm. If you look close you can see blue tubes running from tree to tree down a fairly good size hill. They collect into a stainless container at the bottom. They have it set up now as more of a tourist/maple museum kind of thing with some cute little curiosities on the side; like the maple tree with the wooden face. I have some pics of the processing center I will try to show you later when this stu...er..uh..blaste...I mean ...dar.... uhm... blogging computer is feeling more cooperative.

May your day be much more fruitful; and go much more according to plan than this blog post turned out! :-)
Will

To New York! and not the city either!

But first we stopped by this Big lake...



Really Big Lake!





Then it was on to Uncle Walt's and Aunt
Dorothy's place in Portville New York:

Nice huh? This is the view from their driveway.
More pics later, Including Pics from Niagra
Falls !

Day One!

We left at about 6:45pm; literally from the
parking lot of where I work. Dave and I took
turns driving through the night.
When it was about 6:30am we started looking
for breakfast.
We passed lots of restaurants but none were
open yet.
We didn't really want M*Donalds and/or fast
food.
I don't remember seeing any on the road we
were on anyway.
Finally we came across this little
Diner where the "a" was missing from the
word "Restaurant".
Still, there were more than a few cars,
so we risked it.
We are all very glad we did.
The Nest. or Nestaurant as it is sometimes
called was inexpensive, friendly,
and best of all
Served fantastic food!
We all had something different and no one
had any complaints.

The picture above is of Jessalyn and
Jacob Standing in the parking lot.
Don't mind Jacob, He wasn't realIy giving us attitude.
I only have a couple of pics of him with his normal
smile.
The rest, well, either the Sun was
bothering his eye (remember he had hurt it),
or he was goofing around.
Of course Jessalyn was happy to Pose...
Will.

Lighthouse, Sail boat, and Fishing from the pier

On lake Eerie. Nope, don't know the guy but he wasn't
going to move so I could take the picture...

Eerie looking Jessa

What I meant to say is Jessalyn looking over
Lake Eerie... Really! I did! New Pic tomorrow
If the Lord is willing!
Will.