That'll do

There is a page on Ravelry, the incredible online fiber community, where all kinds of contests are listed. While many of the contests involve chance (post a comment and a random generator will pick a winner), some involve some kind of participation or skill. Two weeks ago a contest called "Name the Alpacas" was posted. That'll Do Farm in Grafton, Ohio ran out of names before they ran out of baby alpacas - crias - and needed two more names. The only requirement for the names is that they had to start with the letter "b".

My suggestion was Balderdash for the gorgeous black female and Bourbon for the handsome golden brown male. Much to my surprise, the name Bourbon was chosen! His full registered name is "That'll Do Black Forests Bourbon Buzz" but you can call him Bourbon for short - his friends all do. You can read the farm's droll account of the brias and their names and see photos of the gorgeous alpacas at their blog.

So what did I win? That'll Do Farm sent me a gorgeous skein of 90% alpaca and 10% Merino yarn in a rich dark brown/black shade. It looks just black at first glance, much like our cat Spenser, but look at the yarn in the sunlight and you can see the brown tones, too. I tried and tried to take a good photo, but this is the best I could do:


The photo does not show the subtle sheen of the yarn. It is gorgeous, decadent and soft. And get this: the 90% alpaca in the yarn came from Bourbon's mother, Charlie's Angel - that'll do, for sure.

A grand day out

Wallace and Gromit would have approved of what we did yesterday: we visited three farms on the Finger Lakes Cheese Trail. Yesterday was the 2011 Holiday Open House and all farms were open to visitors from 10 am to 5 pm.

Our first stop was 4 Tin Fish Farm, a goat dairy in Conquest. Owners Andrew and Kim have a small herd of Alpine dairy goats, and produce chevre and feta cheeses. Andrew took us into the barn to meet their very friendly and inquisitive goats. Aidan quickly made a new friend:


Andrew even let Aidan go into one of the stalls, where he was quickly surrounded:


Although it may not be apparent from the photo, Aidan loved being amongst the goats and we had a difficult time getting him to come out of the stall.

Doesn't it look like this goat is smiling?


Although there was no feta available, we tasted, enjoyed and purchased the herb chevre. Last night we topped our grilled hamburgers with the chevre and the result was delicious.

Once we pried Aidan away from the goats, we drove down to Auburn to have lunch at one of the restaurants that 4 Tin Fish Farm supplies, Bambino's Bistro. What a delight! We had a delicious, satisfying and very affordable lunch, and we would go out of our way to stop in Auburn to eat there again.

We then traveled down to King Ferry to visit Keeley's Cheese Company at McGarr Farms. McGarr Farms is a third generation dairy farm with Holsteins and Jerseys. We met Keeley, who makes a semi-soft Irish-style cheese in the washed rind style. She had both regular and reserve cheese available, and all three of us preferred the slightly sharper and more complex reserve. We bought a wedge, said hello to a few of the cows in the barn and headed to our third and final stop.

Finger Lakes Dexter Creamery produces probiotic raw milk kefir cheese using the milk from their Irish Dexter cows. The Dexters are more petite than many breeds and are very pretty:


I like the various rich colors of their coats:


Neither James nor Aidan cared much for the cheese, so we did not make a purchase. We pointed the car north and drove up the eastern shore of Cayuga Lake, enjoying the beautiful weather and the beautiful scenery.

Would you like some cheese, Gromit?

Spelling bee

Two days ago, Aidan participated in the Baldwinsville Central School District Oral Spelling Bee Championship, which determined the 14 finalists for the Post Standard/WCNY Regional Spelling Bee. Aidan was one of 54 students in grades 4 - 8 who participated and one of only seven grade 4 students who qualified.

There was a nice crowd in the Durgee Junior High School auditorium. We had no idea that all five grades would compete head-to-head, so I was even more nervous when the spelling started. Aidan's first word was "shamrock", which he spelled correctly:


In round two, he received and correctly spelled "praise" but was tripped up in round three by the word "quarrel" - he spelled it with an "i" instead of an "a". He handled it well and since he was by no means the first speller to go out, he was proud of his performance.

It took about two and a half hours to whittle the field of 54 down to 14. By the end, students were spelling words like "astrophysicist" and "slantendicular". I was spelling silently with the students and I held my own, thankyouverymuch. The audience seemed to hold its breath while each student spelled and we let out a collective "aww" if the student was incorrect. Even while Aidan was still in the running, I wanted each student to spell every word correctly even as I knew they were in competition with my son.

All students received a certificate of participation, and here Aidan receives his certificate:


Aidan had a great time, part of which I'm sure was due to missing the entire morning of class!

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Happy 500! Yes, this post is #500 in my little blog. It has been over four years since I started spouting off, sharing my stories and chronicling our lives. Here's to 500 more posts!

Food day

We drove into Syracuse yesterday morning to Saint Lucy's Church where we worked in the food pantry. Aidan's Cub Scout pack volunteers for several shifts throughout November and December, and two other families joined us yesterday. The food pantry is available to those who live in the immediate area around the church and, when possible, the clients are able to make choices among the food items available.

While some of us prepared shopping bags, the Scouts assisted the clients by pushing the carts and helping them select food items from the shelves:



Although there was quite a crowd at the beginning, we were impressed with both the staff and the clients; the staff members were pleasant and treated the clients with respect, the line moved quickly, and the clients were patient. James and I spent some time talking with several of the staff members to learn more about how their pantry is supplied and their needs. We agreed as a family that we enjoyed helping out and would like to do so more frequently, with or without the Cub Scout pack.

I suppose it is somewhat ironic that we left the food pantry and went to eat lunch. We chose Alto Cinco, a quirky Mexican restaurant in the Westcott neighborhood. The restaurant is tiny and we had to wait for an available table but it was well worth the wait. James had soft jerk chicken tacos, which were made even more delicious with mango salsa and chipotle mayo, Aidan chose chicken quesadillas, and I had the excellent California burrito. Yum! While we love living in Baldwinsville, we don't exactly have many interesting restaurant choices in the village so we take every chance we can get to try new-to-us restaurants in Syracuse.

We stopped at the Baldwinsville Library's used book sale on the way home. Aidan got "the best deal of my life!" by spending $6 of allowance money on 11 books. It seems our entire day was built around food: food for others, food for our stomachs and food for our brains.

See Aidan run. Run, Aidan, run!

Aidan was invited to participate in the Baldwinsville Elementary Schools Cross Country Championships, which were held yesterday afternoon at Durgee Junior High. Four races were run - 5th grade boys, 5th grade girls, 4th grade boys, and 4th grade girls - and each race was 3/4 mile long. Each elementary school group was designated by a different color and Aidan's school wore yellow:

(team photo courtesy of Van Buren Elementary)

There were 76 runners in Aidan's category, the 4th grade boys. They gathered at the starting line...


...and then they were off and running!


I snapped the photo just a millisecond too soon and missed getting Aidan in the photo.

As Aidan neared the finish line, he still looked strong:


I was so excited that I jostled the camera, hence the blurred photo. Or perhaps he was moving that fast!

Aidan placed 24th out of the 76 runners with a time of 5:26.18, and he had a great time. We were proud that he finished the race, finished strong, and that he was pleased with his performance, even though he did not win. When I asked him if he could hear me cheering, he said, "No, but I felt you cheering in my heart."

Love, love, LOVE that boy.

Halloween 2011

The Star Wars theme from the past two years continued this year, but with a change of character: Aidan chose to be a Jawa instead of Luke Skywalker. Don't know what a Jawa is? Neither did I until James and Aidan reminded me, so here is the definition from Wookieepedia: "...typically short rodent-like natives of Tatooine. They were passionate scavengers, seeking out technology for sale or trade in the deep deserts in their huge sandcrawler transports." So much for the days when my child dressed as cute, cuddly creatures.

Aidan as a Jawa:


Who knew that Jawas wear Skechers? Must have scavenged them...

Our friends Kelly, Mike and Ryan came over on Halloween night to share in the village trick or treating. Ryan was dressed as the Grim Reaper, another cute and cuddly creature:


James and Mike walked with the boys around the village while Kelly and I stayed to hand out candy. On a night with no rain, little wind and fairly mild temps, the turnout was great, and Halloween 2011 was all treats and no tricks.