When Ethan came down to help us with the grass-forest in the backyard, he brought Bristol and Everly with him. They rushed at Sue and wanted to play as Ethan off loaded his 52 inch deck mower and started reaping through the grass.

Sue and the girls watching the geese at a pond in Farmington.

It was supposed to have rained overnight and through the morning, but, though it was windy and chilly in the 40s, it never rained. Today was the day we planned to take our inaugural kayaking adventure, but with the wind up and so cool, we decided to just wait until the weather was nicer.

As we entertained the girls inside, Ethan did a great job knocking the grass down, even double sweeping and bagging it up. That was a lot of grass, and it would have taken me probably a full day to rake it all up - around an acre and a half at least. Thanks, Ethan!

Since Sue had wanted to go up to an antique sale in Wolfeboro, she offered to keep the kids with us for a couple of hours so he could get some stuff done at his house. We played kick ball out in the yard with them for awhile, all the time Beau chasing after them or the ball.

Though still overcast and chilly, it didn't bother the girls. After doing a toy pick up inside, we hopped into the car and drove over to the pond the Farmington Fish and Game club is at. Sue told the girls there might be some ducks or geese to see, and they thought that would be fun.

When we got to the pond, there was a mother goose watching over 4 or 5 of her brood as they pecked away for food at the water's edge. The girls loved it, and Sue let them each take a picture of the family before we got back in the car. It was only about a half hour drive up to their house, but just as we got to Alton they both said they were hungry. Since it was almost noon, we grabbed some burgers at McDonalds at the Alton Circle, and then continued up Route 28 and through Wolfeboro.

For a Memorial Day weekend, traffic wasn't too bad just then. We figured most of the vacationers came up Friday because that was really, really busy - as were parts of yesterday, according to what folks told us. But not too bad on 28 as we swung through downtown Wolfeboro.

After dropping the girls off at their house, we visited the Wolfeboro Antiques & Artisan Barn. What a great place! And their prices seemed for the most part to be very reasonable. We spent about a half hour browsing around. Sue found an antique orange squeezer, and I bought a beautiful large copper pale that we may use for kindling wood and paper for the wood stove as opposed to our current wooden basket.

Sue took Beau for a short walk when we got home. By the time she got back, it was time to start the party! I lit a fire in the wood stove because the air had cooled off so much that it was actually quite chilly in the house. We had several sets of lively backgammon with our wine before I had to get into the kitchen to cook.

I had selected a recipe featuring a mild Italian chicken sausage stir fried with onions, garlic, zucchini, sweet yellow bell pepper, cilantro, mushrooms, and cherry tomatoes. I served that over a bed of curry brown rice with a touch of coriander and cilantro. Good meal with some nice wine and great to relax after what turned out to be a really busy, and tiring day.