Category: Family

Taking a step back in time

~ Chuck ~ Leave a comment

Okay. I’m not talking about that far back in time. Though, I’m sure my kids think that I witnessed the carving of the statue to the left in person (with a little encouragement from Susanna no doubt).

No, I do not lament for “the good old days.” I am a firm believer in the benefits of technology. Technology allows us to keep in touch with family and friends that are miles (kilometers for those in Sweden) away. I couldn’t imagine being able to do my job without using a computer. The Internet has made a trove of information (good and bad) available to us – I don’t think I could have so easily started my woodworking hobby without the resources available on the Internet.

However, I think nothing comes for free. With the Internet and computers we are given content. It becomes easy to become lost in the sea of content that streams into our houses through our computers and phones and TVs.

Susanna and I have been talking about that a lot recently. She has noticed that in her classes, the other students will get lost into their smart phones instead of talking to each other. All her class assignments are to be electronically turned in via the college’s online portal. I can feel the pull at work. It is easier to send an email off and forget about something, than actually call someone. I can see it in the boys- if we let them, their days would revolve around using their electronics.

But I don’t think work or even school is where the real problem exists. I think it is in our homes. The first think I used to do every morning was to check my iPhone. I would catch up on Facebook and email. Is my connection to the Internet so important that it is the first thing I check in the morning and the last thing I do at night? I have been starting to think that it should not be.

As a family we have been pushing to take a little step back in time – to when we weren’t so connected. We have started having “no electronic” days. Susanna has been leaving her phone downstairs at night. I have been (sometimes with more success than others) trying to avoid checking my email all the time.

Maybe our houses should be a refuge from the world that is overstimulated with media? Are we the only ones that feel this? What steps do other families do to limit the intrusion of electronics into their homes.

And yes, I do see the irony of spending my evening on the Internet typing on how I am trying to limit using the Internet and electronics at home.

Labor Day Weekend

~ Chuck ~ Leave a comment
Painting the Front Porch with Ben

With the passing of Labor Day weekend the summer comes to an end. The sticky heat of the summer is pushed away with the brisk cool autumn breeze. We are adjusting to the school year routine. Soon the leaves will fall from the trees, and all my neighbors will spend their weekends clearing their yards of the leaves. I prefer to let nature take its course, and let the winter winds push the leaves around the yard until they settle either into the woods behind the house, a corner of the garage, or into my neighbor’s yard, where they will be collected and put in their proper place.

I like to think of it as being efficient. Some may call it lazy. But regardless of my future laziness, this weekend was anything but. Saturday we all made our final journey up to Six Flags amusement park. We even brought Will’s best friend, Tyler, with us (because it isn’t nearly exciting enough to keep track of just two boys running around a crowded park). The previous two trips made very long days – getting home well after the boys wanted to go to sleep. We learned this time. Once the boys started fighting on what ride to go to next – well fighting more than normal boys that age fight – we packed up and headed out to dinner. Instead of a 7:30pm departure (as in the past), we were at dinner by 5:30, and home by 7:30. Everyone was still exhausted, but it didn’t carry into the next day.

We decided on Sunday to not rest. The weather was pleasant. It seemed a perfect day to work on painting the porch. It would have been a perfect day to finish painting the porch, but there was too much left to easily finish, and we didn’t want to work that hard. The boys worked on painting their part of the project, with a little help from Susanna and me. They decided the paint rollers were much better than using the brushes. I decided that it was okay that we would have to use two coats on the porch floor to cover up all the white paint they dripped on it. Don’t worry, I’m not perfect. I only decided it was okay to use two coats on the porch floor after getting very frustrated with Will and Ben several times about how much paint they put on the rollers each time.

Will painting the front porch

I started painting the trim around Will’s window (Susanna argued that it would look better to have all three windows on that side of the house with trim painted vice just having the two bottom ones). On Sunday I painted the right half of the trim, then supervised the boys as they tried to see how brave they were climbing up the ladder.  Neither made it half way up.

Today I was going to finish painting the left half of the window trim (and no – I didn’t need Susanna to point out that having the entire window painted looked better than just half of a window – I figured that one out on my own). Of course, when I got up there, the scroll-work around the trim was falling apart and needed some epoxy repair. So, no painting the left half of the window today – and we will have to live with a goofy looking window until the weather allows us to paint again.

Today’s plans (in addition to the failed plans to finish painting the trim) were to get the boat out of the garage. The first step was to get the boat back on the trailer. It took nearly a whole day of work to get the trailer out from under the boat. I figured that now that I had experience getting the boat off the trailer, getting it back on would be simple. It wasn’t.  But it wasn’t as bad as getting the trailer out. The most difficult part of getting the trailer out was moving the trailer with a flat tire. But I had fixed the trailer, and a trailer with two inflated tires is much easier move than one with only one inflated tire.

With a lot of work we got the trailer back under the boat, and slowly lowered the boat onto the trailer. And the tire that I had repaired promptly went flat with the weight of the trailer on it. Needless to say, the boat is still in the garage.

After lunch the boys and I went out and got a new wheel for the trailer. This week, my goal is to replace the flat tire on the trailer with the new wheel. My goal is to get the trailer out of the garage sometime this month.

The end of the summer

~ Chuck ~ Leave a comment

Today is the last day of summer break from school. At least for me. Susanna has school today, so yesterday was her last day of summer. The boys start on Wednesday, so they get one more day. But they go to their mother’s house tomorrow – so for me the school year routine starts tomorrow.

Summer break is fun. No school. The beach. Long family vacations. Yet, This summer was a little too crazy, and I’m ready for fall. I think the boys are as well. I’m guessing Susanna would be happy for a couple more weeks of summer; I don’t think she is looking forward to the cool weather (I know, crazy – a Swede that can’t stand the cold).

I took today off of work to watch the boys. We worked on scraping and painting the bottom part of the front porch. I’m very pleased at how the house colors are turning out. It is a little depressing to think that we won’t be able to finish the painting until next summer.

The trailer parts I ordered two weeks ago arrived today. I need two u-bolts to complete the structural work. They sent the wrong size. The invoice had the correct size, but the box had the wrong parts. A little frustrating, but after a quick phone call, the company is sending the right parts. Hopefully they will arrive before next weekend, but I’m not expecting it.

Will has his friend Tyler over today, so the boys are pretty occupied. The weather threatens rain, so no more painting. I took the opportunity to organize the workshop a bit.

The front porch in progress:

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The Next Big Journey

~ Chuck ~ 4 Comments

The past couple of years with Susanna has been a wonderful adventure. We have traveled to Australia, England, Sweden, Denmark and up and down the east coast of the US. We have built a life here in Preston – we have learned how to make our blended family work with Will and Ben. We have made a home together; we tore down a shed and built a patio; we repainted several rooms, and are working on painting the outside of the house. We have done many trips to New York City. Susanna finished her studies in Sweden and started working on her degree here. She has helped me focus on my work in the workshop, and I have a workshop that is cleaner and more organized than I ever have (okay, maybe not right now if you walk in there – but it is still cleaner than it has been years ago).

Yesterday we decided that we wanted to take the next step in our adventure together. We are planning a wedding for next summer. I love looking back at how far our journey together has taken us, and look forward to being able to reflect on where our lives take us from here. Rarely anything worth anything in life comes easy, and we have had to work hard to get to where we are.  But I am thankful to have had her help through the difficult times as well as shared in the many joys of life. It seemed that three years ago, there was an ocean between the lives we wanted together and the lives we were living; but now it seems that we are both on the same shore, and can look back together at the long journey to this point.

Porch Update

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The porch trim painting in progress

It has been a crazy busy summer. One of the big family projects this summer has been to paint the front porch. Susanna has been doing most of the work on the painting. Her sisters (Sofia and Rebecka) and friend (Linda) helped kick off the project, but I think it turned out to be more work than any of them expected.

The porch trim had been painted white, with the floor and ceiling (and base of the house) painted green. We decided to paint the trim to highlight the Victorian details in the house trim. I picked colors from the Sherwin-Williams historic color collection. The trim color is Rookwood Dark Green, with the accent color being Rookwood Dark Brown. Our plans are to paint the exterior of the house Concord Buff next summer, so the parts of the porch that are going to match the house color are being painted as well. So, for a couple of months the porch will standout from the rest of the house.

We have been getting comments about how nice the new paint job is turning out. Several people have stopped while driving or walking by to tell us how much better the house is looking. I can’t wait to see how the house looks when we are finished with all the painting.

The porch trim painted. The ceiling on the porch still has to be painted Concord Buff

We still have some work to do on the porch. It has only been painted down to the railings. I had talked to Will and Ben, and offered them each money to paint the bottom of the porch. Ben readily agreed. Will didn’t really want to paint, but then he decided he didn’t want Ben to get all the money, and agreed to paint.

With all the detail work on the porch, I suspect that painting the porch itself is about 1/2 of the entire house painting effort. We will attempt to finish painting as much of the trim as possible this year, and start with the walls early next year.

We have a couple house renovation projects in the wings to be started this winter – with the biggest being renovating the mud room and laundry room (which requires removing a chimney). I have also been making (slow) progress on the sailboat and in the workshop – I’ll write about that later. We also have some big events (personal) planned for next summer, but more on that later as well.

Will taking a break from scraping the porch. The walls below the railing will be Concord Buff and the floor will be painted Rookwood Dark Green.
Ben working on scraping the peeling paint from the front porch. After scraping the loose paint off, we will wash the prepared area with TSP and let dry prior to painting.

Confluence and Ohiopyle Pennsylvania (Vacation Part 2)

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The boys waving to the train as it passes our house

We had a wonderful week in western PA.  I’m writing this from home – I forgot my adapter to download pictures from the camera – as well as a poor (sporadic) Internet connection prevented more posts from the trip.

The last two evenings after dark we played many rounds of “flashlight tag” with all the kids (both the young ones and the “grown up” ones).

The second day was just spent hanging around the house, playing in the water.  I took the boys and we put life-jackets on and floated down the river from the back of our house to the takeout above Ramcat Rapids.  It would have been fun to run the rapids, I’m just not sure we could have made it home from below the rapids easily.   We even saw two Northern Water Snakes while we were wading in the river.

I also headed into town to find some beer.  That was a challenge, the only package store in Confluence was several miles out of town, down a side road, attached to someone’s house.

The water playground above Ohiopyle Falls, PA

The third day was our big outing day.  We headed to Ohiopyle before lunch.  We spent an hour playing in the rapids above the falls.

Even Felix (the Rwandan graduate student that my dad and Barbara are sponsoring) swam the rapids.  He can’t swim, so he stayed in the shallows (there aren’t any lakes or big rivers near where he grew up in Rwanda).

We ate lunch at the Ohiopyle Bakery.  I would recommend the bakery for lunch to anyone visiting the town.  The prices were good, and the food was wonderful.  It was a short walk from where we had parked and played in the water.

After lunch most of the group wanted to go for a bike ride (Ben included).  Will, Felix and I stayed to play in the water.  We visited the natural waterslide  (and all went down the slide once – Will went more than once).  It was a bit rough, bouncing off the rocks on the way down, but fun.  I’m sure it would have been a lot faster if the water weren’t so low.   We even saw a huge snapping turtle in one of the natural pools in the stream.

After the slide, we went back to the rapids above the falls and spent the rest of the afternoon playing there until everyone else returned from the bike ride (Ben rode 6 miles).

The final night we walked over to the edge of the property to watch the bats fly out of the man-made bat houses on the property.  It was amazing to watch – I have never seen so many bats at once.  We stood about 20 feet from the bat house and watched them fly into the evening over our heads.

Yesterday we headed into Ohiopyle for breakfast and then drove home.

The natural water slide in Ohiopyle, PA
Will posing at the rapids above the falls in Ohiopyle, PA
Ben working his camera in Ohiopyle, PA

 

Trains, Trains, Trains (and a vacation from the busy summer)

~ Chuck ~ Leave a comment
Paddler's Lane Main House (image from Paddler's Lane website)

Sunday the boys and I drove to western Pennsylvania to meet my my dad and my brother and his boys.  We are staying at Paddler’s Lane Retreat near Confluence, PA.

The drive was as uneventful as can be hoped with a 7 and 9 year old in the car. We hit no real traffic (okay, a little on the way through NYC, but that is expected). We arrived late in the afternoon, beating everyone else here by several hours (it is a little longer drive from St. Louis than from Connecticut).

Yesterday was left unstructured so the cousins could all just unwind from the drive an play together.  In the afternoon we walked down to the river and spent a couple of hours playing in the river.

There are train tracks right across the driveway from the house (maybe 70m from the house) – and it is a busy track with lots of coal trains (and a periodic Amtrak passenger train). The trains have been a huge hit with the boys.  Every 30 minutes to 60 minutes a train runs by, and the boys all run outside to watch it.  At least they did yesterday, Will is getting a little bored with it today. Yesterday morning on of the trains stopped alongside the property. The boys walked over to look at the train, and the engineer came out of the train and talked to them (and gave them each a bottle of water).  The engineer said that he was stopped while they did track work, but couldn’t take the boys up in the engine to look around.

The river was fun in the afternoon.  A group of kids learning to kayak came downstream while we were playing in the water.  One of the kids flipped his/her boat on the single hole they were playing around in on the rapids near where we were playing.  This would be a great place to bring life jackets for the adults and some rafts to float the rapids.

Internet has been sporadic here.  And there is no cell coverage at all (unless I walk 10 minutes to the end of the driveway and down the road a bit).  But it nice to take a break from always checking email and the phone.  I’ve been leaving the phone inside all day.

Of course we had to find some internet… so here I am writing on the blog.  Pictures will have to follow later, I didn’t bring the cable to download pictures from my camera.

No real plans today – just hang out for a bit and let the boys play.  Maybe head down to the river if the weather warms up.

Family visit and a visit to the park

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My mom visited for the weekend. She arrived in the middle of our crazy summer (Sorry, mom!). On Saturday we had the Bross family (my Uncle Jim, Rhonda and Mary Ann) over for dinner (we went fancy, with hamburgers, corn on the cob and salad).

So in addition to getting to show off all the changes to the house that we made over the past year and a half, we got a little assistance in the garden. Much appreciated help weeding the garden from my mom, Rhonda and Mary Ann. Thanks for all the help.

By Monday, the house was empty of guests. Susanna didn’t have to work. The sun came out (for the first time in a week). We headed to Devil’s Hopyard State Park. The boys enjoyed swimming in the river (a nice change from the beach). After a bit at the park, we headed home, stopping to get ice-cream on the way.

The summer has been a bit crazy. I’m hoping next year I can plan the summer to be a little more relaxing.

Will enjoying Devil's Hopyard State Park.

Taking a break (and playing in the rain)

~ Chuck ~ Leave a comment
Will and Ben playing in the rain

We took my mom to the airport this morning after a nice (but short) visit with her.  For the next couple of days we have an empty house.  Rebecka flew back to Sweden on Friday; Linda and Sofia are visiting Niagara falls until Tuesday morning.

The summer doesn’t really slow down until after my trip with the boys next week, but a short break in the rush is welcome.