Rock Climbing

A few weeks ago, we visited my sister Rachel and her husband Dan. We always have fun when we visit them. They have 5 beautiful children (no really, you should see their baby Adam...I just want to put him in my pocket) who are extremely playful. Brian always ends up wrestling with my nieces and nephews whenever we visit any of my siblings, which gives me plenty of time to talk. It's a nice arrangement.

Dan is an optometrist. He owns a practice in their small town. Above his practice is a storage space. This space came with his practice, so he used it for storage for a while. A few months ago, he came up with another idea: a rock climbing wall! Dan is from Salt Lake City, near which are several great climbing places. He grew up climbing, so living in a shale and slate-ridden state has made climbing pretty impossible for him since he moved to NY. The ceilings in that storage space are 17' tall, so there's plenty of room for climbing; more than I can handle anyway. I took the pictures while the kids and Brian climbed. The exposure is totally messed up in these pictures, but here they are:

 This is my nephew climbing. He just loves it. He climbs up the corners of their home every chance he gets, so it was no surprise that he made it farther than me.

 This one is just impossible. You literally had to cling to that overhang like a frog/monkey/insert a wall clinging animal here. Brian managed it pretty well. We're excited for warmer weather so that we can really attack this.

 Here's another nephew rocking it on the incline. I swear they must have spiderman fingers or something.

 Here's my beautiful sister Rachel doing the climb. I was there to hold her adorable infant so she could climb...I think I got the better end of the deal there.

 Isn't that great! You can climb to the sun!

It was loads of fun. It's not insulated up there though, so I quit after a while and retired to the wood stove in their home. I think in another life, climbing would be a favorite hobby. But alas, I live in NY, where the closest real natural climbing wall is 4 hours away. So, I'll settle for hiking, canoeing, swimming, etc...I don't have it so bad.

Chair Caning

A while ago, Brian and I purchased some antique kitchen chairs at an antique store for $3 each. It was a steal, so we ignored the worn seats. They could hold someone, but they needed re-doing. I've never caned before, so I purchased enough rush to re-do this one:

First, I stripped all of the old caning off. It was more obnoxious than I planned, but I got it all off, leaving just the frame:

 

I have the directions to re-cane hanging on the back of the chair in this pic.

Before you can start caning, you have to soak the caning for a while. The directions I used said 2 hours... wish I had checked elsewhere. It was so soggy, it wouldn't hold its shape, and I had to be careful not to rip it. You only need to soak it for about 20-30 minutes, just until it doesn't crack when you bend it. This will make the process a whole lot easier than what I went through.

Once it's soaked, you cut off a reasonable length of rush, and start working. Please see this website for directions, if you want to do it. It was the clearest in explaining the pattern. I'd also recommend some youtube videos. I really liked this guy's video. His is real neat and clean looking. Mine didn't go nearly as smoothly as his. Here's how it goes:

The reason why you have to cut off some of the caning rather than using all of it at once is because everywhere you weave the caning, the entire piece you're working on has to come with you. I learned this the hard way. Once you've got a shorter piece (still long though), it's much easier. You weave from corner to corner, slowly working your way in. Here's how the first couple of rounds looked:

From there you just keep going. 

After you've got quite a bit on, you fit in triangles of cardboard for extra support. These are not necessary, but they add to the structure of the chair.

Here's what it looks like with all of them in:

From there you just keep going. If you're working on a square seat, it's easier because it'll just work out. My seat is slightly trapazoidal, so it wasn't so easy. I kind of made it up at the end, but the video I mentioned earlier shows how to do this with ease (really wish I'd looked at that video before starting!). Here was my finished product:

The caning was so wet that I'm still waiting for my seat to dry, but it looks great! I'll be doing the other one soon, and I'll try to do that one right. Will report about that one later.

Capturing the Moment

For Brian this year for Christmas, we focused on giving him tools to move forward with his photography hobby. He's made do with ok gear so far, but since he's done with classes, he'll have more time to focus on it, so we decided to give him presents for his photography. Brian's parents got him photoshop. I can't wait to see what he'll be able to do with it. The program is way over my head, but he gets all of the software lingo, so he'll decipher it quickly I'm sure. I also got him a carbon fiber tripod (got a smashing deal on it). It's super lightweight, but it can hold his camera with a large lens on it (his last tripod couldn't). They thought of everything on it.

My mom and I got him a photography bag for hikers. This might sound like a simple contraption, but that bag has more features than I expected. I didn't get a good pic, but there's this fantastic pocket in the side of the bag for easy removal/placement of the camera (you can see it in this picture). This pocket is padded specifically for a camera, an extra lens, and a few other extras. It also has a cinch mechanism so that you can tighten it if you'll be running. Then the camera won't jostle the tiniest bit. There's a main compartment for gear and stuff, a top pocket for smaller stuff, two small pockets on the hip strap for filters and other gear, a space on the side for quick tripod removal, and a connected rain fly in case it starts raining. There's also a compartment for a bladder so that it can be a hydration bag as well. It also has an emergency whistle on the straps, just in case. It's just awesome. It's a good thing he opened it last, because once it was open, he wouldn't put it down! In fact, I've barely been able to separate it from him since. He wears it everywhere.

Yep, there he is wearing it again on our hike to Taughannock! Taughannock Falls is the second highest falls this side of the Mississippi, or something like that. They're pretty, and it's a nice wintry hike.

Usually in the winter the falls are surrounded by loads and loads of snow, mounded up to surprising heights. This year however, the warm weather has left the falls nearly untouched, save for icicles and a thin blanket of snow on the ground. It was incredibly beautiful. I think I like the waterfalls here more in the winter. They are just awe-inspiring.

My First Non-White Christmas

Ok, that's not entirely true. I did have one brown Christmas when I was living in Texas on my mission, but it doesn't really count because on a mission, your focus is different.

Otherwise, I've enjoyed a beautiful White Christmas every year. I don't require a lot of snow for a white Christmas; just an inch or two will do. This year though, we didn't even get a dusting to last more than an afternoon, so I found it difficult to get into the Christmas spirit. I didn't realize how dependent I was on the snow to feel like Christmas is on its way.
We went and cut down our Christmas tree, as is tradition, but the only reason we wore gloves was to avoid the sharp pine needles. The sunlight streamed through the warm 50 degree air into our home while we decorated the tree, so I struggled to feel it even with Christmas music on.

But we cleverly put a quilt over the window, drew it to a close, and suddenly our home became a haven of yuletide cheer.

I love our Christmas tree. We stapled strips of red and white gingham to those cinnamon-smelling pine ones and used them as ornaments, draped the tree with a popcorn wreath, and used old lath-board to make a star. The final touch came from wild red berries on bushes on the trail near our home. We placed those on every bough, and we ended up with a stunning Christmas tree.
And as we decorated, I wondered if in the tree world, being selected as a Christmas tree is an honor. It is in honor of the birth of the creator, after all. 

We replaced all of the leafy pictures with snowy pictures, and replaced the summery woodprints with wintry ones.
That's our way of enjoying each season. As the seasons change, we change the decorations of our home. Then you feel at home with the weather outside.

When we moved back to NY, several people asked us how we'd deal with the long winters. My response was always the same. First of all, NY winters are really not so bad. It's the Alaskans I wonder about: dark all day? No way jose. Then secondly, when you decide to live in a place with a real winter, you just need to decide to enjoy it. I made that decision a long time ago.

So we decorate our home for winter; even after the Christmas decorations come down. You can't really see the prints in the picture above, but they are all rural winter pictures; usually of farms since we have a particular obsession with them.
We also picked an outdoor and indoor hobby for the winter so that we have something to do that we enjoy. We love snowshoeing perhaps more than hiking (and there hasn't been enough snow to use them yet, grrr), and we love enveloping ourselves in a good book. We also enjoy good wintery food. All of that together makes for a wonderful winter season. We look forward to winter now; we love it!

Enjoying the Fruits of Our Labor

It has been forever and a day since I last posted. I don't have any great excuse...just been taking a break. After all of the Autumn harvesting, I usually take November and December to enjoy the fruits of my labors. Because the cold settles in about then, those months are usually consumed with cozying up, reading good books, eating good food, etc. The warm weather has lasted unusually long for Upstate NY, so I spent much of November and December outside on walks; in sandals no less!

 There is a trail near our house that we walk as often as possible. It's an old railroad track, so it is flat and pleasant. The spikes and rails have been long removed, leaving a soft, dirt path. It's used only by bike and pedestrian traffic, so it stays clear and free of street soot. It goes right by a local lake (really a big pond), accompanied by a beaver damn and overhanging trees. I love this trail.

Brian always brings along his camera and takes pictures at the lake. I don't know if I've mentioned that he takes nature photography as a hobby. He's actually quite good at it, in my opinion, but the praise of others has assured him that it's not just me being biased.
We use photography as an excuse to get out and hike. It makes it dual-purpose. So every time we go on a hike, he brings along his camera to catch some pretty thing along the trail.
Anyway, my time of enjoying the fruits of my labors was fun! I enjoyed canned fruit, cozying up despite the warmer weather, reading good books, and got outside alot, which is just about my favorite thing to do.