An Update

I've been pestered from many directions about writing a new blog, so here it is!

This morning was the first weekend morning in a while where it wasn't raining, so I decided to ignore the leaves in the yard and take Diesel for a walk on the Black River Trail.  My mom and dad did this trail when they visited, and they told me how nice it was.  It's entirely paved and super well maintained.  The trail runs along the Black River, which I like to call the Raging River of Death because it has some crazy looking rapids.  The section of the river along the trail is fairly calm, though.  There is a hydro power plant at the end of the trail, which was pretty neat.

This afternoon, I went to see the new James Bond film, Spectre.  I really recommend it, it was very good!

My mom just sent me a text message with the following picture, created 23 years ago tomorrow.  I don't think a lot has changed since I was 5!

Tomorrow I will be mowing the grass and raking more leaves.  I rake leaves every day on my lunch break and have spent about 10 hours each the last two weekends raking.  It is never ending! One of the trees is hanging onto its leaves still so I will probably be raking until the snow starts falling.  I'm just glad there hasn't been any snow yet!  Here's some pictures of leaves so you can feel my pain:

Winter is Coming

This weekend I got my first taste of New York snow.  Luckily, it was just a small amount and it didn't stick.  Still, it was enough to make me dread the upcoming winter.

Over the past few days I've been busy raking up the leaves that are falling.  We have an acre lot with 10+ mature trees on it.  The trees are great in summer and provide a lot of shade, but now it seems that they have endless leaves. Raking is a lot of work, so this weekend I plan to mow over the rest of the leaves and mulch them.

After our taste of winter last weekend, I decided that I needed to stock up on everything I'll need to make it through the winter.  I ordered a set of Carhartt quilted bib overalls (in pink!) and a pair of snow boots.  The boots are rated down to -32 F...Hopefully that will be enough.

Some days I wish that I could go live with my sister in Phoenix where it never snows.  What are you doing to prepare for winter?

Cider Tasting

Brian leaves for a 9 month deployment this weekend, so I took Friday off to spend the day with him.  We decided to drive about two hours south of here to visit Beak and Skiff Apple Orchards in Marietta.  Beak and Skiff makes 1911 Cider and Spirits, and I've tried their Cider a few times since living in New York and really like it.  They also have a huge apple orchard where you can pick your own apples and a cafe/bakery and general store on their property.

Their facility was really beautiful, and we were surprised at the amount of people that were there on a Friday afternoon.

1911 produces several apple ciders, two apple wines, and vodka and gin that are distilled from apples.  Apparently distilling the vodka from apples allows it to be gluten free.  We were able to taste all of their product and they were all quite delicious!

After visitng the orchard, we headed to Syracuse to go to the mall.  Syracuse is home of Destiny USA, which is the second largest mall in the US (behind the mall of America).  They have a lot of shops and a lot of fun attractions - a go cart track, dave and busters, comedy club, and ropes course among others.

Today is Brian's 30th birthday (happy birthday sweetie!) and we celebrated a little early. Some of his favorite gifts were a nice bottle of scotch, new tumbler, and whiskey stones to keep it cold.

I'm going to miss him so much, but it was fun to spend some extra time together before he heads out!

World's Worst Blogger

Well, after a multi-year hiatus, I think I have officially captured the title of World's Worst Blogger (or maybe I am tied with my sister Dana?).

The big news in the Moose household is that this past July, we packed up our belongings and moved across the country from Colorado to New York.

Moving such a long distance is stressful and incredibly frustrating at times, but we arrived in one piece and had no major damage to our belongings, so we'll consider it a win.  After everything was packed, all our worldly possessions only filled up about a quarter of this truck.  We decided to have the Army move us rather than doing it ourselves, and I think that is the only way I will do it in the future - much less work than doing it yourself!

The drive across country took three days, and was quite the adventure with three vehicles (one on a trailer), a cat, and a dog.  I had the pleasure of driving with Miss Kitten, and was very thankful that she only meowed for the first few hours, and then preferred to hide under her blankets for the majority of the trip.  If you've never stayed in a hotel room with a cat and a dog, it can be quite the experience.

Diesel guarding our hotel room

My driving partner

 In New York, we made a big step and decided to purchase our first home.  It's a home that was built in the 1930's and has been remodeled inside within the last few years.  It sits on over an acre of land and we absolutely love it.  It's been so fun to try to make this house our own.

Our new home!

We still like to represent Colorado even though we're far away!

Brian leaves for a 9 month trip to Korea next week.  This is slightly scary for me since it will be the first time he's left that I haven't lived close to family.  I look forward to learning more about our new area while he's gone - hopefully I will survive the harsh winter here!