Okay, an update

No pics today, they're on the other computer and let's face it, we just don't take as many as we used to. Most of that has to do with Alice needing to grab the camera every time we want to get a picture. Anyway, we have a full-fledged two-year-old on our hands, with a little stubborn mind of her own. It's nice having someone else in the house to hold a conversation with, but sometimes she will just break down into a toddler tantrum. But really, she's a great kiddo and her little breakdowns are few and minor, and we love her right through them.

A month or so ago Alice had her first time out, and it happened at daycare. We don't blame Rebecca for giving her one, she (Alice) really shouldn't be hitting other kids. At that point we realized that she was ready for them, that she could understand what was going on a comprehend what actions led to it. We've also since realized that putting her across the room and leaving her there for a minute can calm her down out of the fuss she's in. So now she's had two at home, and another at daycare, and they really do work. The only problem is that she now gives Kingston, our cat, timeouts, and occasionally tries to give them to us.

Way back in the pre-parent days I wondered how I would do with discipline, but as with all things after you have a kiddo, you learn and find things that work. What you are doing is working with your child, discussing her behavior in a way that she can understand and explaining actions and consequences. It's not a one-way directive from the parent, "Stop." It's more of a conversation where you constructively talk about what needs to happen. I guess it's good that I married a Social Worker who has helped me to actually talk about things in a sensible manner rather than a) hold them in or b) swallow it up and stew on it.
I guess that's all for now. I'm debating whether or not to continue with this particular personal blog, what good it does me and my family. I initially put it up to keep family posted on Alice's developments, but after that first two years, the simple milestones are all but done and we're on to more gradual developments. I also think of this as a personal diary that I can look back on, but since I don;t exactly post often the effectiveness of that is questionable. We'll see if I keep it in the future. Until and after then, I'll definitely keep my other pages open, if anyone cares about what I'm listening to or what I'm doing in the cider mill/cellar.

TB

Busted Ice Cream

So This weekend, like too many others, the whole family was hitting a few yard sales. Julie picked up a bag of 'play food', plastic food toys, for a couple of bucks. These were rolling around in the back of the Element when a bit later Alice starts asking for ice cream. So Julie hands her the plastic ice cream cone and Alice tries to munch on it. Using her limited vocabulary to get her point across she says, "broken." Pretty frickin' smart, huh?

TB

Vermont Life Plugs LostMeadow

SO the current issue of Vermont Life (Autumn 2007...who the hell calls it 'Autumn, anyway?) gives my little cider hobby a two-sentence plug, one of which is my recommendations of commercial ciders from Vermont. I guess the cider season, five weeks away now, is officially starting as I hoe through the garage transforming it from a place to park, then to stash stuff all summer, into a sanitary cider mill. Cider hounds go here to get the skinny, then email or call me to set up your squeezin's. 2007 is looking to be a 'vintage' cider year, so this will be a great season to start cidermaking or to continue your tradition. Since things are starting up, I'll be a lot more active on the cider blog as the coming weeks unfold, free time be damned...

Oh, and about those VT (hard) ciders I listed, somehow my mention of Mac Jack from Grandview Winery in my town got left out. My apologies.

TB

Practicing
Originally uploaded by TerryB_VT.

Alice practicing her 4th of July March. 18 months and a little more.

TB

Dipshits

I went to a housewarming/birthday party for a college friend of mine this past weekend, John Armstrong. John’s a good shit, and his circles and mine overlapped just a bit, but we always seemed to get along well. I bump into him in Montpelier every now and again and it’s good to stay in touch. So, at his party I knew there would be a few other college folks I knew, at least to some degree. Caught up with Adam Tarmey, still up to his old tricks. But the focus of this rant is this other dude I only knew by face, and who I remember as being a bit full of shit in college. I think he sold weed back then, or maybe glass pipes, or whatever, and thought himself pretty cool. Anyway, talk ran to my being in the apple business, and this dude mentions that he lives up in the Champlain Islands; we chatted a bit about local growers up there. Then he mentioned that the daughter of one prominent grower was buying an (already operating) dairy farm across the street from him, and started flogging her operation with the usual pseudo-environmental ‘I know more about this than you’ bullshit. “Industrial Ag” was coming in, global warming was going to advance further with their big tractors, and the manure was going to cause all sorts of health problems. “I know what you mean,” I told him regarding the smell, “I grew up on a farm.” I also work around a dairy farm, live up the road from a big farm’s crop fields, and even occasionally lend a hand when needed. But you know what? You move across from a farm and you deal with a couple of weeks, or even days, of shit spreading. Farmers know what they are doing nowadays or they aren’t in business, they don’t need some stoner dipshit telling them to use a methane digester because they read about it in an online forum. Armchair ‘consultants’, I find, rarely know what the guy with dirty hands has to do to produce the food they eat, often without turning a profit most years. So I dropped the conversation, and let him go on about how biodiesel is going to save the world and how the fish hatchery in Grand Isle needs to put in his solar collectors and such (I really doubt that he is an engineer).
Whatever. At this point I was just annoyed by the guy. What made me a bit pissed with him was when it was time to go and he hopped into his 10 MPG F250 to drive the 70 miles back home. Spare me the hubris, buddy. Spare me the hypocrisy. Spare me the bullshit.

TB

Everything's slow in coming...

It seems I have no time nowadays. In the 'off-season', I can post
semi-regular updates to my non-existent audience of what's going on in
TB's life. Now, with the growing season cranking along and my work busy
as hell, I can't seem to remember for myself whether or not I ate lunch
on any given day. Add to that that I'm on dialup at home, and slow
dialup at that, and I don't post much.
So, Alice is kicking ass, heading towards her 18-month mark She's a
mouthful of words and it amazes me how her mind can pick things up so
easily. "Alice, where's the window?" and she points right to it, even
though it's a word we've never 'worked on' with her. She also has
figured out wonderful things like how to climb up on the kitchen table
too- fun.
As for us parents, we're cruising along in life but it doesn't seem
about us any more, so there's not a lot to report. The orchard is
coming along this season, and it looks like we'll have some kind of
garden unlike last year's mess. We're looking to paint the house this
summer in our non-existent free time. Planning a party/BBQ for Aug 4,
our annual one it seems. Oh., and our friend Nicole and her baby Sadie
(and husband Jay who works nights so we don't see as much of him) plan
to come to 'Camp Bradshaw' this summer. Basically it's our sandbox for
the kids and Margaritas for the parents.
What else? Mindy Farnham is getting married this summer, we're going to
that on my birthday. Have tickets to see Wilco on June 30. Hey, Jason
and Heidi Goodrich are expecting this summer, we'll have to touch base
with them.

Guess that's it for my update. Read the other blogs if you want, but
they aren't getting updated too much these days either.

TB

Not a bad place to work.....

At bloom time in the orchard I suddenly become aware of how fortunate I am to work where I do and not be sitting in a cubicle somewhere.

2007 Bloom Pics from the University of Vermont Horticulture Research Center:

Old friends and new...

I hung with my old pal Nate Flint last night.  He lives in Utah, has pretty much since high school, so we don;t see each other much.  I may go to his wedding this summer, we'll see how it works out.  It was good to see him, and good to see how we've both grown (up). Also yesterday we bumped into our neighbors that we don't know so well, a young couple  (well our age-ish) with a little girl, Amelia.  It's funny how kids bring folks together, since we're setting up times to get together, not just the tykes, but ourselves as well. We've lived in the sticks of Calais for five years come July, and still aren't tight with the community.  Sure, we know the folks on our road pretty well, thanks to Lisa's monthly potluck idea, but Julie and I both commute too much to work to hang much outside our house/yard once we get home.  Did I mention you can't see another house from ours?

So while I try feebly to stay in touch with old friends, we are reaching out to new ones.  We went to a party at master woodworker Steve Chase's  last week, it was nice.  There's another downside, besides time and gas spent, to sitting in our cars for two hours each and every day, but dammit we live here.  Margaritas on the deck at the Bradshaw's (but a gin and tonic for me, thank you) this summer for our neighbors, and kids playing on the lawn.  Not a bad life if you ask me.

TB