Braefield Farm: July 2005

2 Licenses and A Permit

Well, it finally happened.. Carrie passed her Driving Test! I was there and believe it or not she nailed the parallel parking.

And doesn't it figure that within a week of Carrie hitting the road, the 12 year old Montero died.

To add to the excitement, Polly now has her Driver's Permit. John took her out driving the day after she got her permit. He had Polly jump on one of the busiest highways around Philly and drive to heavily congested area around the mall. Apparently she did very well, I think all these years driving the tractors around the farm have paid off.

I was reading a political website and ran across this comment. I thought it was funny.

"But get this.

My 16 year old daughter had her license for precisely 12 days and 3 hours when she failed to brake appropriately upon arrival and slammed the family van though the garage wall into my bedroom.

She was unhurt. The damage was repairable.

Tonight, 5 months later, she backed out of the garage and hit the basketball hoop. In a panic she shifted gears forward and rammed back into the garage. Into... the... garage... wall.

I love her - I swear - but Kirsten, why do you hate the garage??"

and this response

"Heh, your story brought back memories of my newly-licensed 16 year-old who backed out of the driveway and managed to rip the outdoor faucet off the next door neighbor's house (read: giant flood) and then the following week backed out of the driveway straight into the side of an old Porsche.

It belonged to her visiting friend's Dad, his prize "antique" car, which we wound up buying from him to keep from having to report it to our insurance company. The wrecked "antique" porsche sat around for about five years, while my spouse pondered restoring it (yeah, right) and then it was finally hauled off to the junk yard.

Kids!"

There was another license obtained in the Evans's family. Polly passed her New Hampshire Boating Test and is now licensed to drive most watercraft in New Hampshire.

Another Nancy

My mother brought me a picture of my Aunt Nancy's granddaughter Nancy. Nancy Elliff is 13 years old and is mad about horses. This is her school picture. I hope Carrie and Polly will meet her one day, she is their second cousin.

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Nancy/sidestory

I was always told that my mother and her sister Nancy had made a pact to name their children after each other. I was named, Nancy Barbara, after my Aunt Nancy and my mother Barbara. Aunt Nancy however apparently changed her mind when her daughter was born, my cousin who should have been named Barbara Nancy is Rebecca.

The Driveway

If you look back in December, I talked about how we had to cut and move the driveway between the house and the garage. The old driveway was just too close to the new addition.

This is what the driveway has been like since December 2004.

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Last week Victor and his crew from Willistown Paving came to pave the new driveway area. Thank you to Jim Bernhardt for the recommendation, they did a great job.

These pictures show the prep work and final paving of the driveway section near the house.

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We also paved the driveway section from road. This part of the drive had been a dirt road and we have had problems with the road with washing out. This section is about 800 feet long and this picture was taken on Monday when it was being paved.

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Polly is training at Mt Hood

Polly left on July 11th for Mt Hood, she will be coming home on July 23rd.
This is Polly's sixth year training at Mt Hood with Dave Gregory, from the Mt Washington Valley Ski Team.

This picture of Polly was taken in the summer of 2003 at Mt Hood.

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The Terrace

We started work on the terrace in late June. John and Polly graded and leveled the space using gravel and stone dust for the base.

Polly and I worked out the flagstone pattern, shown in part here.

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John and I laid the flagstone over the 4th of July weekend. John finished the perimeter cuts the next weekend.

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All that's left to do, is fill the joints. We have to wait for time when there is no rain predicted for 24 hours. We've been waiting for 10 days so far.

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Happy 4th of July

Today is the 1st anniversary of this website. If you look on the right side bar you will see the archives. Click on July 2004 to see where I started

Catch-up

Since you last heard from me;

Carrie flew home from school and was met at the airport by her friend Jason. Jason stayed for a few days and is back at Cornell for the summer. Margaret took this picture of Carrie and Jason.

Carrie & Jason

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Carrie and John went to New Hampshire to bring Polly home from school. They stayed on the lake at Waialua. John, Carrie, and Polly had a chance to see John's parents and his sister Anne's family, they were up over the weekend to open camp. John and Carrie attended the Holderness Commencement, attendance was mandatory for Polly. This picture is from Carrie's graduation at Holderness School, Class of 2003. I think Carrie looks exactly like John in this picture.

Holderness School 2003

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My mother and sister came for a visit, this was the first time we have seen my mother since June of 2004 when she was here for Polly's commencement. I have always liked this picture of my mother, it was taken in New York City circa 1962. I'll include an old picture of Sue here as well.

Mom circa 1962

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Sue circa 1958

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We celebrated our 24th Wedding anniversary on June 6th. This is a picture taken at our wedding in 1981.

Albany New York 1981

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We had a joint birthday celebration for Polly ( May 9th), Nancy ( June 7th), my mother ( June 15th ), and my sister Sue ( June 20th ). This image says it all for me.