our local recycling center.....

recycling is very important to our family. for the past 15 years we have worked very hard to limit the amount of waste that leaves our home. food waste gets composted or tossed into the woods for the critters to eat. items in decent shape gets sold or donated. if i'm really on top of things i can get my act together to freecycle items that are broken but that i can't bear to toss into the trash. but most of our trash gets recycled.

our township has the standard #1 and #2 plastic, glass and cardboard pick up. our school and church has the big bins for paper. everything else gets hauled to our local recycling center.

i love this place. its dirty. its smelly. it is home to a peacock that someone just left there one day. i volunteered there for a bit right before i had my first child...only stopping when my belly got too big to comfortably bag and haul the items!

if you don't know if something can be recycled - bring it anyway - chances are if it can't...it will be used for something creative. i've been known to pick through the trash and bring stuff home (like tyvek envelopes - and you'll see why tomorrow!)

while i love being there - the boys don't like it. they complain about having to go there (this particular day was really hot and the trash crammed into our car was pretty smelly so i couldn't blame them). they complain about having to sort the trash once there. then suddenly they get into it for a bit - fighting over who gets to smash our cartons with their feet and finding numbers my aging eyes can't see. but soon enough they are back to complaining again b/c they are sooo ready to be done.

so while recycling is a great thing to do - not buying in the first place is even better...and that is what i've been focusing on lately. in some areas i'm really good at using what i have first.....in others not so much. but i still feel we are doing more than most so that feels good.


so until we really reduce the amount of stuff coming in to our house -- off to the recycling center we'll continue to go!

how to eat fish with absolutely no waste...........

i can't personally vouch for this method (being that i am a vegetarian) but from i can tell from this guy here - it works!

on our recent trip to the mountains - we stumbled upon this water snack in the lake.  we followed it to this dead sunfish and for the next 20 minutes or so - we were mesmorized by what we saw.

the snake spent the first minute or so trying to decide the best way to eat this fish.

once he figured out that the best way to tackle it was head on - he got right to work

this snake literally stayed in one area just a foot or so away from us

he knew how to put on a show

every once in awhile he'd stop and pose for us - proud of his progress i am sure

sometimes he'd swim back just a tiny bit - maybe he was using the force of his body against the water to help push the fish further into his mouth - or maybe he needed some more water just as we would take a drink between bites.........

he was nice enough to give us a shot of just how wide he could open his mouth

another bow

and finally he was finished.  see how fat he is right behind his head?  i honestly thought i'd see a fish shape come out the back and make its way down this body.  i'm sure he would have stayed longer to let us watch it travel down this body - but by this time we had drawn a crowd (lucky for us they came at the very end) because crazy grandma lady came over and scared it away.

i'm so happy that the guy we were with came through and emailed me this pics! aren't they awesome! i'm not sure i'd be as thrilled had the fish been alive and i would have seen it being killed.....but i am glad this fish was not alive and we got to watch...esp the boys. they talked about it for days!

finally some sun at the lake!

so far this year everytime we've come to our lakehouse it has rained and i haven't been able to take a kayak out onto the water or go for a swim in the lake.  but not this time!  it is beautiful up here today! the sun is shining - there is a little breeze - cooler temps (well in the 80s as opposed to upper 90s at home).  we took a sailboat out this afternoon, swam a bit in the pool and lake and had a competitive game of bean bag toss on the beach.  a major highlight was watching a watersnake completely swallow a dead sunfish.  we got to watch it from the moment it swam up to the fish to the final moment when he got spooked away by some crazy old grandmom and swam away with a fully ingested fish no longer visible.  the worst part - I HAD FORGOTTEN MY CAMERA AT HOME!!!!!!  lucky for me some nice man took my email address and offered to email his pics to me (i really hope he does b/c he got some great shots!!!  it was like the snake was putting on a private national geographic show just for us)

since i have no camera - here are some pics from a month or so ago.........since i basically take the same pics whenever we come up here - i was planning on taking some different types of shots this time around - but alas i'll have to wait until next time.

tomorrow we get to visit with friends who have a house about an hour north of ours.

they have a lakefront house

and a boat.

we are really excited about finally being able to connect with them up here.

what do you do if your headache won't go away?

go to mom and beg her to please do "the mal occhio"

(yep - bad grammar and all - but that's how we've always asked for it!)

it works everytime.........

and no its not snowing here in PA - far from it

i just wanted to remind myself how much i begged for this heat 5 months ago!

its hard work being beautiful..........

with 100 degree heat (and oppressive humidity) outside the best time to weed the patio is 7am

...before the sun hits the pavers

...and as you can see before i get out of my pajamas

but lately i don't mind the work. 

its quiet at that hour

even though i'm not the only one working

and when its all said and done

i can proudly stand back and admire my work

more 4th of july fun

with temps in the high 90s

celebrating the 4th in a pool was a perfect way to spend the day

july 4th

find the red, white and blue in your day!