K and I had the chance to go sailing off the coast of Maine last weekend. Her college outing club sponsored an overnight with the Outward Bound base out of Wheeler Bay north of Bath. We sailed on open boats that were modeled after the old whaling boats. We sailed until after dark, anchored and cooked on the boat, slept on the boats, and then took turns doing a “night watch” to make sure the boast wasn’t drifting or a storm wasn’t coming in. The skies were clear and we were treated to some of the best stars we have ever seen! Despite being a frigid morning, I took a dip and then K proceeded to ‘captain’ out ship for the rest of the day before finally guiding us back to base.

It was a great mini-trip and it was fun to reunite with OB. In addition to getting to see how another base and field operates, we had fun trying something totally new. Knowing that the heritage of the OB lay in sailing made the experience that much more special.

Holy Smokes time has been zipping by! It is hard to believe that it has been a full month since we have posted last... school is in full swing and ada is operating at top speed! We promise a more detailed updated soon- but in the mean time we thought we would share this picture from a recent ultrasound. The picture is the new baby's profile (looking up). Kara is 20 weeks now and is over half way through the pregnancy!

Summer is coming to an end for us. We are spending the holiday weekend home and are taking advantage of the extra time by turning our monster harvest of tomatoes (90 at one time!) into sauce and the wild Maine blueberries from earlier in the summer into jam. School actually begins for us on Monday so we are happy to enjoy the cool mornings, free time, and relative quiet before our new crop of boarders arrive!

Where to begin? The last several weeks have been a blur of activity- from visiting a family reunion in the Poconos, to wrapping up summer camp, finishing tutoring, spending lots of time in Maine and hosting several rounds of guests at the Mancoon. It was a fantastic end to our summer. Ada continues to get bigger and her vocabulary is exploding. We are now back in MA getting ready for opening meetings next week and reconnecting with the other returning faculty. Enjoy the (78 slide long) slide show! There are some pictures of the completed addition towards the end. Oh… and by the way, Kara is pregnant!

So many BLUEBERRIES!

This weekend we trekked into the countryside to find a very out-of-the-way blueberry farm. A super nice couple owns several hundred acres of low bush wild blueberries and opens their property for "pick your own" for a select few weeks each summer. The place was gorgeous, the views were incredible, and there were more blueberries than I have ever seen! Ada ate herself silly! She would squat in a section and chow down, get up find a new patch and begin eating again. We used a 40 tine blueberry rake to gather over 30 pounds of berries. We then used the winnowing machines to separate the berries from the leaves and twigs. The freezer is stocked!

Enjoy the pictures!

some pics from our plot at the community garden

We have been busy since school has been out! In a few short weeks we have been to all of the New England states for mini-vacations... Enjoy some pics of Ada during these early (and hot!) days of summer.

(As always, you can double click on the picture for a full screen version.)