16th Day in New York

Yesterday, my grandpa went golfing in the morning. During the morning, my grandma and I went to the Post Office and the Bank. When we got back, grandpa was there. Then, I made bacon and eggs. After lunch, my grandma went to a doctor's appointment and my grandpa and I went to look at a used truck at the Ford dealer. The truck was is a 2001 Ford pickup truck. It can seat six people and can tow a trailer. When we got back grandma was back. Then, my grandpa mowed the big lawn and I mowed the lawns around the house, the paths in the woods, the lawn behind the wood shop, and along the street. We had dinner at the Farmer's market.

Cooking in the Rain

Yesterday, the gardener came in the morning and I cut down a bush. Then, I mowed the area in between a flower bed and the fence. Then, I cleaned out the underside of the mower. After lunch, my grandpa and I went out the the woodworking barn and put all the scrap wood in the trailer to take to the burning can in the big lawn. It took 2 hours to burn all the wood. I watched it most of the time. It was also very hot. Then, I came into the house to take a shower. Later, when I came into the kitchen because we were having and electric storm and the T.V. didn't work, my grandma told me that she just put dinner on the grill. Right then, it started to rain really hard. I ended up cooking dinner on the grill again. This time it turned out much better because it was a slab of meat. After dinner we went to the ice cream store to get ice cream.

14th Day in New York

Yesterday, my grandpa went to play golf in the morning. Right after he left, I got up and had breakfast. During breakfast, my grandma told me that she wanted me to mow a patch of mixed weeds in the front yard. While I was mowing, I realised that the auto walk was slow, so I checked and the drive axle was wound up with long grass. I didn't stop mowing though, I continued and mowed parts of the back yard too. I decided I was going to clean it out the next day. Then, my grandpa got back from golf. After lunch, I helped my grandpa with his desk. Then, he mowed the grass in the fenced garden with the brush mower, so I could cut it down to normal grass height more easily. I grilled diner again, we had hamburgers. I had to get help with them. After dinner, we watched Antiques Road Show. Then, played Masterpiece.

13th Day in New York

Yesterday, my grandpa and I chipped some branches in the wood chipper. Afterwards, we put all the chips on a pathway. The pathway was about 15ft. long, but we only got about 7ft. of it covered. Then, my grandpa and I went to my grandpa's work shop and cleaned out the insides of the big lawn mower. We also lubed it. Then, we took of the decorations that were on the back of the tractor that prohibited me to use the trailer. We also looked at decoration possibilities for the big lawn mower. At around 5:00 PM, my grandma and I went around delivering the flyers for the Independence Day parade. After dinner, we played a board game called masterpiece.

12th Day in New York

Yesterday, I went to my aunt's house because my grandma and grandpa were going to lunch at some one's house. When my grandma dropped me off at my aunt's house she brought a T.V. and a VCR to go to the recycling place. My aunt had a fax machine, two T.V.s, and three printers that she wanted to take to the recycling place also. We took all the electronics to the recycling place. Then, when we got back I found out that they had a BB gun shooting range in their basement, so I shot BB guns for the next half hour. Then, my aunt, my cousin and, I had a bond fire in the back yard. For lunch, we had hot dogs and smores. After lunch, my aunt and I went for a walk in the woods. We saw a giant dead black frog. When I got back to my grandma's house I went fishing at the pond and caught nothing.

11th Day in New York

Yesterday, my grandpa went to a dentist appointment in the morning. During his dentist appointment, my grandma and I worked on our Independence Day parade by going down the street and seeing if the parade can start in front of some one's barn. When I got back, there was a note saying that my other grandpa had computer issues. He just couldn't print. When my other grandpa got back, I power washed the underside of the lawn mower. Then, we worked on the decoration of the tractor for the parade.

Chicken Problems

Yesterday, I got a call from home saying that the night before a raccoon got into our chicken coop and killed one of our chickens. It was Rita (one of the young one's). Later that day, I got another call from my mom saying that she put another layer of chicken wire all over the coop. I hope to get rid of the raccoon soon.

10th Day in New York

Yesterday, at 6:00 AM, we had another rain storm. The rain was going sideways. we lost electricity twice, but the total amount of time we were without power was 10 seconds. At around 7:30 AM, my grandma and I went to Ithaca to pick up my grandpa at the Toyota dealer. He was getting his car fixed. A little after we got home, the gardener came. After lunch, my grandpa brush mowed and mowed half of the lawns and I mowed the other half. We went out to a restaurant for dinner. It was called "Dorothy's Music Room". It was pretty good.

9th Day in New York

Yesterday, at 5:00 AM, we had thunder, lightning, and rain. During the morning, my grandpa went to play golf in the morning. My grandma needed to take a blood test, so we went to the doctors office and she got her blood test. Then, we went to the library to return the movie. At lunch time my grandma and I went to see Mr. Popper's Penguins. It was O.K. Then we went to Wegman's for lunch and groceries. On the way home we took the back roads so, it took longer than usual to get home.

When we were at Wegman's, we wanted to get salmon for dinner. My grandma want to get farmed salmon, but I made sure we got wild. It tastes much better. When we got home I asked her how she was going to cook it, she said, "I'm going to broil it,". I said that she should try grilling it. I ended up grilling the salmon. It was not great, but it was O.K.

8th Day in New York

In the morning I helped the gardener, by digging up weeds and emptying buckets of weeds. At 9:00 AM, my grandma went to a dentist appointment and my grandpa went to a meeting at the library. The gardener left at 12 noon. Then, I mowed part of the lawn with the push mower. Yesterday, was not full of projects.

My grandpa had to go to a meeting at the library during dinner, so my grandma and I had dinner without him. Then, we watched Airplane.

Fixing the Pump

Yesterday, my grandpa and I went to the hardware store in the morning and got a blow torch. Then, we went to the library to get a movie, "Airplane", they didn't have it, so we ordered it. When we got home we lit the blow torch and loosened up some rusted bolts on the old pump and got the top part off. We tried and tried, but we could not get the pipe unscrewed from the bottom part of the pump. We wanted the pipe off because it was not long enough. We also think that the pipe was lead. I suggested that they get a brand-new pump, but my my grandpa decided not to because it was "too expensive" ($70.00). I think it is worth it. At 4 PM, my grandma took me fishing so I could try out my new reel and my newly stringed pole. After dinner, we watched Antique Road Show.

Fishing with my Cousins

Yesterday, my cousins, my aunt, and my uncle came over for lunch and fishing. Right after they arrived, we all went down to the pond. We only caught about 4 fish. When we got tired, we went swimming and we raked the grass of the bottom of the pond. After they left, my grandma and I went to the sporting goods store and bought a new reel for one of the fishing poles and we bought 300 yards of 8 lbs. fishing line. When we got home, I put new line on one of the poles. After dinner, we watched Casablanca.

5th Day in New York

Yesterday, I trimmed some of the paths in the woods with my grandpa. Then, I took the top part off the old hand pump and found out that we need a new rubber disk, but I can't get the old one out. It was all rusted. Then, at around 5 PM, I went to the pond with my grandma to go fishing and swimming. I caught three fish. After dinner, we were going to watch Casablanca, but we ran out of time.

Mowing of the Lawns

Yesterday, I mowed the backyard, the side yard, the front yard, and a little area by the field on the ride-on mower. When I was mowing the front yard, I was making a sharp turn and my back wheel went down a step and I had to ask my grandpa to get it back up the step. I was almost finished then, it started raining really hard and I got soaked. When I came inside, I finished the organization process of the T.V. cabinet. After dinner, we watched Caddy shack.

3rd Day in New York

Yesterday, my grandpa and I trimmed the plants along the trails in his woods. We only got 1/3 of it done. Then, I organized my grandparents T.V. cabinet by taking everything out then putting it back in, in an organized fashion. Now, my grandpa has to drill more holes in the back of the cabinet for all the wires. After dinner, we went to a talk at the library about the local Indians.

2nd Day in New York

Yesterday, my grandpa went to play golf in the morning and came back around lunch time. Then, I watched my grandpa mow the paths around the field and through the woods. Then, the cleaners came to clean the house. At 4:30 PM, we left to go to the library and the farmers market.

Off to the East

Yesterday, I left for my grandparent's house in New York. We flew through Detroit. I didn't sick on the air plane (for once).This time we landed at Elmira airport. When I got to my grandparent's house, I talked to my grandpa about getting a new T.V. because he said that the sound goes in and out on his current one. His current one is 20 years old. After 5 minutes of talking, we were off to best buy to get a Samsung 32" LED T.V. Within an hour we were back a home and setting it up. Once we got it set up, I looked great. Then, we had a fire in the fire place. Then, I went up stairs and sat down on the bed for "just a few minutes". Then I was woken up by my grandma at 7:30 PM.

Triathlon 2011

Yesterday, I raced in the Silicon Valley Kids Triathlon. I had to swim 200 yards (8 laps), bike 6 miles, and run 1.25 miles. My time was 47:34.55.