Tom and Patti Saunders
Dog's Breath Acres 2003 Annual Report
2003 Annual Report
It was yet another year that went by too quickly (the pace seems to be accelerating), with lots of fun and a bit of sadness.
One of the big, continuing fun events of the year has been the time we spend with our new granddaughter, Kiara. Patti's been watching her for two or three days each week, so we're getting a closeup look at her growth, from a helpless baby to a helpless, sometimes stumbling, baby-talking, occasionally sleeping, hardly-ever crying, rug-crawling little girl. With the amount of time she's spent around us, Patti was worried that her first words would be, "Now, where did I leave my glasses?"; but not so, she's doing the normal "Mama" and DaDa" stuff.
As if having a baby wasn't enough, Allison and Mike bought a new house this year, and moved in in June. They're on about fours acres of nicely wooded land about 25 minutes away, with plenty of fixup projects to keep Mike busy. With the closing set for the middle of June, we let them take over Dog's Breath Acres to save a half month's rent on the place they were moving out of, and Patti and I took off on a camping vacation.
Our other kid Scott and his wife Joelene are in their second year of residency in the Hartford area. They've bought a house, in the so-called "milk carton" style, in Simsbury; and have one big dog, Zeus, rescued from the pound. Scott is going to be chief resident in his fourth year, which is how long it takes Joelene to get through her residency; after that their plans are up in the air.
It's also been fun and sadness with our third set of children, the pets of Dog's Breath Acres. New cat Phoebe has settled in quite nicely; she's quite gorgeous and friendly. Old Simon seems to have lost his puppy love for Phoebe; we think there may have been a falling-out of some sort between them, they hardly talk to each other anymore. Oh well.
The sad news is that we lost dear Miss M, Mandy, this year; her aching hips got to be too much. When we knew the time was coming, we started feeding her all the goodies and leftovers she always wanted. Luckily she didn't catch on to the reason for the feasts; her reaction was, "Well, it's about time you started to feed me the good stuff!" Our wonderful vet, Dr. Black, came over and put her to sleep in her favorite spot, on the porch, where she could listen to the Japanese basin gurgling and smell the air. We think she led a pretty idyllic life here at Dog's Breath Acres, but she probably thought it was a lot of hard work, being ever vigilant, protecting us from all those dangerous squirrels and bunnies. Dog's Breath Acres is for the first time dogless (probably not for long), but overflowing with cats, of all things.
There was more sad news in May, when word came of the demise of the Old Man of the Mountains in New Hampshire, one of our favorite spots. It was quite tragic for the residents of New Hampshire to loose their icon, but we've come up with a possible solution to their misery.
It was a good year for us on the trails, with lots of hikes all over the place. Plus a bunch of vacations: Havasu Canyon, Yosemite, and New England, plus a cross country drive from Arkansas.
During the year I managed to tick a few new birds for my life list; a Lucy's Warbler in Arizona, a Ruff, lost from Asia in Washington, Cordilleran Flycatcher in Eastern Washington, Brown-capped Rosy-Finch in the Rockies, Virginia's Warbler and Himalayan Snowcock in the Ruby Mountains, and a Hudsonian Godwit and a Red Phalarope out on the coast. (When Patti told her brother Lynn that I was off in Nevada looking for a Himalayan Snowcock, he told her, "Yeah, right, don't fall for that one!") Also went twitching for a Mountain Plover in the Pawnee National Grasslands, but dipped on that one. (That's birding slang for "looking for" and "not finding".)
I managed to see all my Bond cousins, Anne, Betty, and Mary, in the space of a few months, quite something. Anne and her husband Richard stopped by for a few days on their multi-month crisscrossing of the USA. We hit some of the sights, did a little hiking, a little too much eating, and a lot of reminiscing. Our son-in-law Mike would loose all his fear of flying if he'd just go for a drive with Richard at the wheel. And we had a fine dinner with Mary and Steve at their home in West Hartford, on our trip to New England.
Patti and I went to a rally for presidential contender Howard Dean in Seattle, where we had our picture taken. Click Here for a chance to play "Where's Tommy?"
And we cruised down to Oregon for Thanksgiving at Carol's and Ken's and Kate's and Ger's.