Jumping into June...

 June starts out with our wedding anniversary on the 1st.  The girls surprised us with a delicious chocolate bundt cake to celebrate our 27th year.

The 2 youngest are doing their impressions of business men...

 A gentleman from our church owns this little firetruck and takes it around to various shows and parades.  Marc tagged along with him to a tractor show.  On Flag Day the 2 youngest rode on the 'little firetruck' at the Annual Unadilla Flag Day Parade.

 Dad took Jonathan to his last swimming lesson of the session and got some pictures of our little fish.  One of his favorite things to do in the pool is diving to touch bottom of the deep end (11 feet).  He's been successful several times.

 Ian turned 7 on the 6th.  Here he's walking around with his birthday money tucked in his hat as he tries to decide how to spend his 'millions'.








Katelyn had her last concert of the spring season with the Little Delaware Youth Ensemble.  She's looking forward to the fall season and returning to the stage with her friends.

The Merry Month of May...

 May is one of my favorite times of year.  Flowers are blooming everywhere and everything seems so green after the starkness of winter.  Here are a few of the blossoms from around the farm...

May is also the beginning of the Jackson family "birthday season".  Wayne starts us off and then we quickly go through all the gang with the grand finale at the end of July.  Here is Jonathan on his 9th birthday with Ian and their designer birthday hats...








One of Jonathan's favorite activities is climbing trees.  This little oak was just a twig when we first moved here.

 Memorial Weekend was extra special with a visit from our dear friends Phil & Nancy Perry from Maine.  Nancy and I have been friends since we met out freshman year of college (can it really be 30+ years!?!).  The weekend flew by and we hope they'll be able to come again soon.

How Time Flies!  I can't believe it's been March since I last added a post.

I also can't believe that this past weekend Nathanial graduated with his bachelors degree in religious education with a concentration in Hebrew from Davis College.  Those four years certainly flew by!  We are so proud of how hard he's worked to earn his degree.  He plans to go on to seminary in the Washington D.C. area in the fall.  We're enjoying having him home for a bit without having homework.

 Matthew will be graduating this coming Saturday from New York State College in Oneonta with a bachelors degree in Mass Communication.  He's not planning to attend the ceremony, but that doesn't change the fact that we are very proud of him for all he's done over the years.  Matthew is hoping to work at Family Life Ministries in Bath, New York, but will be working locally until he finds a permanent position in his major.

Marc will also be graduating from Riverside Home School this year.  He wants to continue with his farming and is currently taking classes with a professional blacksmith.  Marc hopes to learn the art of blacksmithing and creating useful items to sell

Jonathan had to try on big brother's 'weird hat' and remind us that the time will fly and he'll be graduating, too!

Spring has Arrived!

The last few days have been perfect weather wise. We've been listening to the peepers for over a week, and the flowers are beginning to bloom. I've got some seeds started, the garden has been tilled, and new flower beds are shaping up nicely.

Today Jonathan worked on putting together a birdhouse with Dad...At night he is busy creating with Legos. This is his latest creation...
Sunday Wayne got some pictures of 'his girls'...
Raven thinks she's a lapdog...
With the right motivation (a bagel) these 2 can be very focused...

Welcome News

In today's paper the owner of the Drive-in said they will be rebuilding and hope to have a new screen installed by May. With that news, the area has lots of happy drive-in fans.

Death of a Local Icon

In August 1998 we arrived in Unadilla. Wayne drove us along State Hwy 7 without telling us how close we were to our new home. (We had only seen the house via video. He had flown from England in May of 1998 to look at the house and signed a contract.) He was waiting to see if we'd recognize it as we drove closer. I got sidetracked by the fact that there was still a family drive-in theater in existence. He had to interrupt to show us that we were at our new home.

When we first moved here you could clearly see the movie screen from our back field, which made walking the dog at night very entertaining for Matthew. The trees in the hedge row have grown to block the view, but over the years the drive-in has been a place of memory making. Matthew had his first paying job as a cook at the snack-bar and gained the nick name "skunk whisperer" by providing skunk removal. (Thanks to Grampa Goss who told him the tricks of the trade.) It was a favorite activity for our kids to meet friends at the drive-in with lawn chairs and blankets, bug spray, and homemade popcorn to experience a movie as only a drive-in allows. The business has been on the market off and on and each time the sign came down, there was a sigh of relief from the kids.

The other night we had strong winds. None of us really thought anything about it since such storms come through every so often, but the next morning revealed a death in the neighborhood that shook the whole area...
Somehow summer won't be the same without hearing the occasional rumbles and cheers, the cars lining up along St Hwy 7 to get a favored spot in the field, or the surge of cars leaving at 10:30 (after the first feature) and 12:30. A sad farewell.

Friends

These 2 boys are never far apart. They're either pestering each other or planning their next adventure...
and these 2 dogs are becoming friends. The girls were thrilled when they caught the two of them sleeping so closely together "without being staged!" and had to record the event. Even though Captain grumbles and complains about Raven being so rambunctious, he certainly does his part in chasing her through the house, barking and growling...with his tail wagging furiously.