Annual Weenie Roast!

For the past few years, we have had a weenie roast, hosted by Dick and Nancy, at the Love Shack.  The Love Shack is a little old place where we can get together, love shake baby......
But seriously, OUR Love Shack is a little one-room shack in the beautiful woods that we share with Potluck Farm (the intentional community adjacent to us).  It was named this because one of the Potluck Farm children was conceived there.... more stories to tell but we won't go there.

ANYWAY, it's a fun place for a party.  We had planned to have the party 2 weeks ago, but it SNOWED!  Crazy weather this year.  Today it was quite cool, but turned out to be a lovely day to roast weenies (and other goodies - corn, sausages, S'mores) over a fire and play some corn hole.

Weenies and Corn over the fire

Cooking those weenies!

Jeff and Anne

Joyce in the corn hole tournament

Corn hole crazies

Dave taking a shot (actually Karolyn was the hot player today with SEVERAL shots in the hole)

More weenie roasting!

That's a big weenie Marj!

Table O Food

Lucy and Meg

Cynthia enjoying a weenie!

Hmmmm do I have enough photos of people roasting weenies??

Rosemarie, Leslie and Gus (LOVE Rosemarie's hat!)

OK - this is pretty CORNY!

Yummy food table

Lucy and Carl

This week both Anne (from EB) and Gus (a neighbor of EB) have birthdays.  So Vonda made them a cake.

Dave in the corn hole competition - such great form!

Karolyn - the one to beat today  

Karolyn managed to get marshmallow all over everything... but that's what eating S'mores is all about

Termites and Easter Eggs

OK, so I know that termites and Easter eggs don't really connect but neither seemed worthy of a blog on their own!!!

We don't want to use sprays for termites at Elderberry unless we have to, so we have been using the termite bait systems around our homes.  But as we added homes, and decided to monitor our old barns, it was getting pricey!  So in true Elderberry fashion, we decided to do it ourselves. 
Mike figured out that the best way to dig the holes for the bait traps was with an auger and electric drill.  Richard had one as well, so while Mary and Carl flagged all the places to put them, Mike and Richard drilled away.  We still have quite a few to place, but we're getting the hang of it!

Every year, Mary's family does Pysanky eggs for Easter, so she has invited others to join in the fun and learn how to do it.  Pysanky is a technique that is a lot like batik-- you dye, and then decorate with wax, and dye again, doing as many layers of color and wax that you wish.  When done, the egg looks awful, but it's really fun to strip the wax and see what emerges!  Mary's grandkids joined in the fun, but a single dye color was enough of a challenge for a 2 and 3 year old!

Miles checking out the yellow dye

Evey's lips are red from trying to eat her first attempt!

Karolyn and Mary applying wax designs

Karolyn using a syringe to blow air into the egg, which forces the white and the yolk out - clever!

A colorful assortment!