Category Archives: Family Life

We decided to take Zoey on her first walk at the Denison Bio Reserve. She had never been on a leash before and we weren’t sure what to expect. She was very well behaved on the 30 minute walk and probably only tugged once or twice. She was very content walking with Nikki and Jonny and keep pace with them or them keeping pace with her.

At the end of the walk we wanted to give her a drink. At the shelter they have a dog bowl and a hose to fill it with fresh water. We turned on the hose to fill the bowl and someone was having too much fun with the hose.

A video of her at the end of the walk can be seen here.

So has bonded well with everyone and loves to play. We are all enjoying her very much. She goes on rides all the time and travels very well in the car.

After Phoebe passed, Nicole start to aggressively look for another Golden Retriever puppy. We were thinking the process was going to take several months as we would find a breeder who was going to breed for a litter. Instead Nicole found a breeder that had one puppy that wasn’t claimed yet. After a couple of weeks of talking to the breeder it was decided that she was going to be a good match for our family. The Breeder was going to be Ohio this weekend, so Nikki and I made a road trip up to Toledo to meet her. We fell in love at first sight and decided to take her home. She rode in the car very well and is very confident and friendly. She even slept well the first night. The entire family loves her and she will be a welcomed member of the family.

Here is a short video of her playing with Jonny this morning.

The Hamilton family, Stephanie’s boyfriend’s family, had found a litter of kittens while they were preparing to move a couple of weeks ago. They have been taking care of the kittens, but last weekend was move day and they are temporarily moving to a condo while their house is built. They couldn’t take the approximately 10 week old kittens with them, so Stephanie asked if we could foster them while finding them new homes.

We started with three kittens 1 male and 2 females. The male found a new home almost right away. Stephanie, of course, has grown fond of the dark tourtoiseshell kitten. Our neighbors, who like cats as well, had recently lost their 19 year old cat and were looking to get a kitten or two for their young daughters. I think Stephanie has convinced them to accept at least one of the kittens. Stephanie is happy about that as she will be able to visit the kittens often and watch them grow.

Today was a very sad for our family. Our beloved dog, Phoebe, had to be put down today. We found out she had cancer a few weeks back and it finally got to be too much for her. She was a special member of the family and will be missed dearly. We had a special morning with her though. Nikki made her scrambled eggs with cheese and a little chopped steak. We then took her for a walk at the Denison Bio Reserve which was one her favorite places to go, except this time she was off leash and led the entire walk.

We miss you Phoebe.

It’s been a long time since I wrote anything on this blog and it’s about time I did. Nikki and I went for a hike today. We got up early and left the house before 8:00 to head to Hocking Hills State Park south of Logan, OH. It took a little over an hour to get there and we both decided to hike one of the spots we have never been before. We hiked Rock House and it was a nice little hike. It was only a mile, but it had some pretty steep paths. There is a little cave in the middle of the hike on the side of a cliff.

After we completed that hike we hoped back in the car and headed to Ash Cave.  That was another short hike where kids and dogs were having fun making noises into the cliff walls to hear the echo.  The cave acts as a parabolic antenna and amplifies every noise being made.  We didn’t stick around long before finding a trail that lead up to the rim for the hike back to the parking lot.

Yesterday was Nikki’s Birthday and I would like to wish her a Happy Birthday! We didn’t do much special for her birthday, she wanted to clean the house and get rid of some old stuff we haven’t touched in a while. We cleaned our bedroom, closet and file cabinet. We took the stuff from our file cabinet to the mobile shred-it unit that was stationed outside of the Granville Market. We made two trips to the Denison recycle drop off station to dispose of some old magazines and made a trip to Goodwill to drop off some clothes we don’t wear anymore.

The last couple of weeks Nikki and I have been trying to go out as often as we can to either walk or ride bikes. Friday we took a walk on Sugar Loaf hill in Granville with our dog Phoebe. We saw a twin fawns on the walk and were able to get within 10 yards of them. We tried to take some pictures with our phones, but it was just dark enough where the pictures turned out blurry.

Saturday we took a bike ride on the bike path from Wildwood Park towards Newark and Cherry Valley Road and on the bike path we saw twin baby raccoons. They were very busy on their way to who knows what, but they were walking right along the bike path and oblivious to us as we walked next to them after parking our bikes to take a closer look.

Less than an hour later we were to meet the kids in town and pick them up and head to Bob Evans for dinner for Father’s Day and Nikki’s Birthday. We got to CVS to pick the kids up and found out that they were still on the Denison Entrance Road with a pair of Red Tail Hawk chicks. There was a college student there with them and they had apparently fallen out of their nest a couple of days before. The student was on a visa to be here for school and didn’t know who to contact to have someone care for the chicks as the parents had abandoned them and were only taking care of the one chick left in the nest. We found someone on a Saturday who is registered with the state to rehabilitate raptors and release them back into the wild. We made a phone call and she was not able to come pick them up until tomorrow and asked if we could take them for the night to keep them off the road. We happened to have a small aviary in our back yard and a tote in our car to scoop up the chicks for the night. As promised she came the next morning and took the chicks who were both still doing remarkably well after a little bit of ground chuck as prescribed by the raptor rescue lady.  We hope both chicks will survive and be released back into the wild.

We would like to wish Fathers that we know a Happy Father’s Day and hope everyone had a good day with family and friends.

Last week Nikki and I celebrated our 19th wedding anniversary. I got out of work 15 minutes early and we went to a movie theater and saw the new Star Trek movie along with our youngest, Jonathan. The movie was good and we all had a good time.

Stephanie started her volunteer work for the National Honor Society. She is volunteering at the Humane Society. She cleaned out litter boxes and helped with the cats her first day there. She is also raising quail chicks we received from Nikki’s cousin and husband who raises them and releases them on his farm. She also is attempting to hatch some in an incubater.

Work is still going good for me.  I am working on my third project now and this one is a large one and is going to take about 4 months to complete.  It is using all new technology to me, so it should really keep my interest high.  I am hoping to pick it up quickly and be productive very soon.  We are already starting a prototype to prove out some theories and get a better understanding of the new technologies and how they work together.

Well, the kids were done with school yesterday.  It’s official now.  We have two in high school.  A senior and a freshman and another in college.  We are really getting old.

I’ve now been working at Ohio State University for three weeks and I am still enjoying it. The work keeps me busy and so far the demands have been very reasonable.

I finally got my motorcycle in the shop earlier this week to get an oil leak resolved and I picked it up today. I am ready for the riding season now and maybe my next post will include some information about a ride.

Jonny had a home track meet this evening against Licking Valley and Heath. He ran well in the 100 hurdles and won that event and then raced in the 400 meter and won his heat, but he was beat by 1/10th of a second in time by one of his teammates in another heat, so he took 2nd. His thrid and final race was the 200 meter low hurdles. The video below was taken on my phone and shows the results.

Jonny_200_Meter_Hurdles

Tonight is the 2013 Granville Prom. Here are some of the pictures that were taken before the kids all left for prom.

We found some pictures of the kids at prom as well on the Newark Advocate web site.  The pictures can be purchased for print from the Newark Advocate web site.