My Quarter-Life Crisis

The past year has been a year of learning and experiment for Brian and I both. We moved to a small town in western NY, and Brian got a position teaching Kindergarten for the year (the regular teacher was out on maternity leave). We remodeled the house we were staying in (see "The Remodel"), which we discovered we like to do.

It didn't take long however, for us to miss Ithaca. We were selling Brian's photography (see link on the right of the page for his website) at a farmer's market in the area, and someone we've known for years approached us and asked us, "Why on earth did you leave Ithaca? That place was perfect for the two of you!" Well, it didn't take us long to realize that they were right. It's the perfect blend of nature, outdoor opportunities, photo ops for Brian, community culture, and beauty. We set our sights on coming back home.

Then, not long into our stay in Canisteo, I had what I call my "quarter-life crisis":

As many of you know, when I left my job last July I was planning on farming for a living. Well, I gave that a small try this past summer, and here's my prognosis:

Firstly: Although I love gardening, I don't want to grow any crops in mass.
Secondly:I'm more of a social carnivore, so raising livestock isn't worth it.
Thirdly: I am neither entrepreneur nor saleswoman. You have to be able to sell what you grow you see, and that would be hard for me.

So to sum it all up, the truth is that I love to garden. I want a good berry patch, orchard, and garden. That's all. It's a hobby; not a living. 

So I went to the drawing board ... for many years I have thought that I would be a great HS Earth Science teacher. Brian suggested though that I sub at the local school so that I could be 100% sure about my decision. I thought this was a good idea, so with the beginning of 2013, I began subbing with all grade levels at the local school. Two things happened: 1) I gained a ton of good experience and learned to work better with little kids. 2) I discovered that I do not want to work exclusively with 14-year-olds for the rest of my life. I'd end up being one of those teachers who hates kids. You've all met one of those, and I just didn't want to be one.

So...back to the drawing board again. I reviewed my past experiences. I loved my undergrad, but who wouldn't? Recreation Management and Youth Leadership is quite possibly the coolest major ever. I loved my job at Ithaca College; especially working with college-aged students. I don't want to sit down all day though, and I didn't want to work full-time; too hard to keep up with housework when we're both working all day. I couldn't come up with a plan until Brian gave me the idea: Go back to school to get a masters, and then teach at one of the schools in Ithaca. There are 4 schools in the Ithaca area, and all 4 of them have a Recreation program. I could adjunct and get an instructor position when I felt I could take on the time-commitment. Perfect.

After that, things kind of fell together:

Brian got a job at Ithaca City School District as a 5th Grade teacher.
I was accepted to SUNY Cortland in their Recreation Management Master's degree program.
We moved back home to Ithaca.
And ...

So we begin a new leg of our journey.

Gorp Bar

Brian and I are on the go a lot. We hike every day, and we tend to road trip at least once a month (this weekend: Boston and the REI Garage Sales!) This kind of lifestyle can make meals difficult sometimes, so we snack a lot. Even on non-travel days, Brian and I both snack between meals to keep our blood-sugar levels even. Brian is hypoglycemic, so that's pretty necessary, and I turn into a monster when I'm hungry; snacking helps.
There are lots of snack options, but gorp is our snack of choice. Gorp stands for "Good Old Raisins and Peanuts", but we use the term to refer to our homemade trail mix. It started with raisins and peanuts, to be sure, but it's expanded since then.

This is our gorp bar. In the picture below you can see each jar more clearly:

 Our ingredients:
Almonds
Butterscotch chips
Raw Peanuts
Dry Roasted Peanuts
Dried Cherries
White Chocolate Chips
Dried Craisins
Cheerios

The jar on the top left isn't part of the gorp bar. It's mate. I have a small tea bar next to the gorp bar. I love tea.

Anyway, back to the gorp bar. We found that raisins stuck together way too much, and they didn't last long before they tasted super grainy. Craisins, on the other hand, last as long as we need them to, and they taste better. I like raw nuts better, so I have raw nuts, and Brian likes the roasted ones. Cheerios are really added more for texture than flavor, but they're a nice addition. Dried cherries = heavenly.

I like the bar idea instead of just having it already mixed, because Brian and I can then have trail mix the way we like. For example, I usually stick with dried fruit and nuts, and Brian spices his up with chips and cheerios.We can also change out ingredients as we feel the desire. It's fun. It also looks nice. I love functional decorations.

Recycling Old Glass

Several decades ago, garbage disposal wasn't as convenient for country people as it is today. Now we just pay someone to pick up our garbage weekly, or we deliver it to the dump ourselves. I don't know if farmers weren't able to dispose of garbage elsewhere in the old days, but back then it was not uncommon for a farm to have a garbage pile. Usually, that pile would be separated into several piles: metal and glass, compost, and burnables. There used to be a burn pile on our property from the past farmers that owned the place, but the river washed it away (thank goodness). These garbage piles (the metal and glass ones in particular) are still out there, randomly placed throughout the forests of Upstate NY.

 Most of the State Land here used to be farms. When the farms failed, the state took ownership of the land and turned it into State Land, which is just basically free land for anyone to use. Although 50 or so years ago the land was bustling farm land, you can't tell now. The woods spring up quickly here. But occasionally you'll run into some vestige of the once farm. While we're  hiking along, we'll often run into an old road, a rock wall that once marked property lines, a house foundation, an ornamental pond, or a glass pile. One day, we decided to investigate one of these glass piles in the hope of finding some decorative glass.

You've seen old glass bottles at Antique shops. They sell them for $10 a pop! We like the look of antique glass bottles, but weren't willing to pay the price. Well we were in luck. This pile was full of great bottles still in one piece.

 

I obviously procrastinated finishing this job, since it's been 6 months since we did the picking, but a little cleanup (a few of them soaked for a while), add a few corks if you want, and voila! Antique recycled glass as a decoration.

 

Eve Power

We have 100 acres behind our house. There are fields and a hill laced with roads and trails. You would think then that we use those 100 acres for hiking, but the truth is, it's fairly inaccessible for at least 1/2 of the year. There is a creek between our house and the hill; a sizable creek. The creek is low enough to cross with our car intermittently, and in the summer it's warm enough to cross in sandals. In the fall is hunting season, so we can't use it then, and in the winter, it doesn't freeze over, so the hill is mostly unusable.

Luckily, the Finger Lakes Trail is nearby, so we've been checking that out. We know the FLT in the Ithaca area well, but around here, it's mostly new territory. There is a section of the Finger Lakes Trail here that I have come to love. It is a limited use highway, and at the top of the hill are wind turbines.

Eve Power, a wind power company, has tons of them up around here. I love them. They are incredibly beautiful and serene.

You can see Brian and Atticus in the bottom of the picture above. The turbines are pretty big.

It's my favorite place to take Atticus on a walk. We'll get up there, and I'll just let  him roam while I sit and listen to them and watch them. When they're moving fast, it sounds kinda like a plane passing overhead. When they're moving slowly, you can hardly hear them at all.

When wind power first came to this area, many people were up in arms against the idea. They were convinced that the propellers would move so fast that they would chop up birds as they migrated...bahaha. What a joke. If a bird hit a wind turbine, that would be a pretty stupid bird. People also said that they would make really loud propeller sounds. Also a joke...like I said, when they're moving fast (and only then), they sound like a plane passing overhead.

At any rate, I'm a fan of wind power. Not only are they clean energy; they also add something to a landscape. They have become part of the skyline for me; I would miss them if they weren't around. 

We Found a New Playground!

When Brian and I lived in the west, Southern Utah was our playground. There's so much to do there, and it's breathtakingly beautiful. Seriously, if you haven't been, go. Just amazing. Moving back to NY though creates a huge gap (called the great plains) between us and our favorite playground.

Now don't get me wrong, there is so much to do in the Finger Lakes area. The lakes, gorges, creeks, etc. afford tons of good water stuff to do, and there is tons of wonderful hiking. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about getting away from civilization...going somewhere you can get lost. It's seriously impossible to get lost in upstate NY. Walk 1 hour and you'll reach at least 10 houses even in the remotest area.

The Adirondacks, however, are another story. It's the largest park in America. It covers a huge chunk of Upstate, and it's all pine-laden low-lying mountains. For some extremely strange reason unknown to us, neither Brian nor I ever went to the Adirondacks growing up. So, itching for an adventure, we decided to gives the Adirondacks a try...

Do you see the Grinch-like pine trees in this last picture! All of the pines looked like that. It was fantastic.

The snow came up to Atticus' back, so he had to dive to make each step. He had a blast, and we were all exhausted by the end of the first day.

In the winter, cabin rentals are tons cheaper, so we rented a little heated (yeah!) cabin so that our clothes could dry overnight.

Everything was just draped in snow and icicles. It was so breathtaking up there.

One thing we have especially missed about the west is boulders. Central NY is all shale and slate, which is beautiful, and we obviously love it since we live here, but we have missed large boulders and slabs of rock. When we entered the ADKs, we began to see boulders, so we're excited to give bouldering a try there this summer!

We tried a new kind of trail food:

It's a tortilla (and I got the soft kind so they wouldn't be tough when they got cold) with peanut butter and nutella on it, rolled up. Amazing. My new favorite trail food. It gave me the energy I needed, but wasn't super sugary or tough. You could do so many combinations with this as well: pb and honey, pb and jelly; maple syrup and pb, we're even thinking of making a pizza-type one...the possibilities are endless here.

Such a wonderful trip! It rejuvenated me the way I hoped it would. We'll definitely be back soon!