Pack is Home

Pack arrived in Hawley Pa. Monday July 21st at 9:30 pm!! He visited my classroom today and played music for my students. He will start work at "Sampson Construction" tomorrow.

Working At Dyberry Day Camp

I have been working at Dybery Day Camp, a camp for mentally disabled children ages 4 to 21, for the last 3 weeks. I am working closely with two children, the first whom, Sean, has aspergers, a disorder similar to to a mild case of Autism plus the person obsesses over one or two topics, in this case rocks and The United States Navy Fleet exclusively the U.S.S. Pennsylvania. Patrick, the other child I work with carries out long, in depth conversations with Master Chicken or one of his many other stuffed animals.
It is an interesting task trying to keep an eye on these two children at the same time. Sean sits in the sand box all day, looking for and inspecting rocks, while Patrick runs around the entire camp, talking to Master Chicken. I spend most of my day chasing Patrick around, stopping him from wandering out onto 191, and occasional checking in on Sean who is usually amassing large piles of rocks, sorted by size, color, and shape, or explaining the ballast tank system on the U.S.S. Pennsylvania to one of the non-verbal Down Syndrome kids.
So far my time at Dyberry has been a wonderful learning experience. It has boosted my confidence and ability to deal with socially awkward or difficult situations, whether they involve mentally disabled people or my family (sometimes i can't tell the difference.)

Pemaquid Point

We are tucked in Dunsmore's cozy cottage for the next week with Bob and Sue Shumaker. We are planning all kinds of fun fishing, kayaking. and hiking.

Chicks in Cherry Ridge

these are our fat and happy meat birds.
there are eleven of them , they grow four
times as fast as the little egg birds
and are only a fraction as bright .
intelligence is not really a desirable
quality in chickens, dumb and cooperative is ideal/thats our meat birds

How Does my Garden Grow?

the lettus
and other greens are coming in spectarularly, we have to eat big salads everyday just
to keep up with it. we are also eating alot of steamed kale and collards as well
the tomatoes are flowering but no green tomatos yet. small jalapeno peppers are starting to form on the pepper plants and cilantro is sprouting, hopefuly later in the summer we will be making salsa!
the cabbage and broccoli have grown enormous though they seem to be attracting slugs and other pests. we have eaten the first of the beats and beat greens steamed and there are plenty more of them to come. the carrots are still tiny but I have hope for them yet. the bean plants are quite prolific this year, they are flowering right now and it looks like soon we will have loads of green beans. it has been a good summer for gardens so far in nepa with lots of rain but not too much. Stop by for a tour!! http://podcasts.nytimes.com/podcasts/2008/07/02/03well.mp3

4th of july

An active fourth of july for the BrewsterBrown branch. Started with me running on Fri, losing the race to my running partner/nemesis. Followed up with Kate and Connor defending their title as fastest 5 yo boy and girl in Centerville. MTB ran on sunday, up in wellfleet, followed by day at national sea shore with all the in-laws. Great time had by a ll

4th of July

Fireworks. Sparklers. and Ribs on the grill!!! it must be the forth of July. Mag, Joel, Curtis, Jim and I went to George's and hung out with all the usual suspects plus some city visitors. curtis also had his buddy Cameron with him = they spent the time playinh banjo and yuke.

Much chicken discussion with donna . judy, mag, & joel - how to train the sumatra - it is very stubbon about getting back in the pen ,

Joel has much more free time now that he has GRADUATED from school!! = valdictorian

444Pm in the morning

hola,
Im just waking up after a smoky, semiconscious, period of laying in my living room. I listened to Steve Martins autobiography on audio book last night. I planned on listening to just one half but, unbeknownst to me, itunes had no such restraint in mind and was decidedly planning on playing both. Therefore after the first half was over, itunes, whose independent actions are beginning to scare, in fact it jumped the tracks and went right on with the remainder of the interestingly told story read b y the wild and crazy guy himself, keeping me awake until sunfish in the morning, O' sevenish. O' henry.
Love to send more afteriwakeupa bit.
love pack