Austin Project - Waterwise Landscape

Dearest Family,

Sorry it has taken so long to post! I kept thinking I would have a picture of the finished product, but I'm realizing that transitioning my front yard to a Waterwise landscape is going to be an ongoing project :). The winter storm two years ago was really hard on our ash trees in the front yard. They were ending their life anyway, and with the harsh (for Texas) winter conditions they never recovered. Without the shade from the trees, our St. Augustine grass was dying off. 

The city of Austin has a rebate for homeowners that turn their turf grass into Waterwise landscape, so I applied and received approval to start the project.

First, we covered the grass with large sheets of plastic to solarize (kill off the grass and weeds). Ideally, we would have done this in the middle of the summer, but the rebate program has specific date requirements. We left the plastic on for four weeks (wish we could have kept it there for a few more weeks, but we didn't have much time left before the completion deadline).

A friend helped me till up the remaining grass one weekend, and we had some dirt and mulch delivered from a local landscape company. I slowly worked on putting down weed barrier and then the mulch. Thankfully, the city gave me an extension until the end of November to finish getting the mulch down. I planted two trees and some of the plants and will plant (or transplant) the others in the spring.

Spencer is enjoying the new path and walking around on the mulch is giving him lots of opportunities to practice his balancing skills. He still loves to be outside and sometimes sat in the stroller while I was working (he wasn't feeling too good at the time). I'll include a few pictures of him so you can see how much he has grown!

This weekend I'm planning to add a metal border to the side of the front yard that we share with our neighbor. Eventually, I'd like to have a border all the way around. I look forward to sharing updated pictures with you as I get more plants in.

Happy Holidays to everyone! May you and your families be healthy and have lots of occasions to laugh and smile this Christmas and New Years!

Sending love from Austin,

Hannah

Givan Update

Not much to report from SoMD. I've started looking for other jobs since my grant wraps up in April of 2023. We've been pet sitting a lot. My coworker's cat, Mango:

Mad face because she's tiny and you can just scoop her up when you want. She was purring though

Dog sitting for an ex coworker:

"Mapache" watching The Rings of Power

"Max," a 124lbs husky. He's on a diet, but he still gained 6lbs since we last pet sat him.

"Morbo", a husky-German shepherd mix. He loves me

We went to the National Aquarium for Theresa's birthday! They still have some dolphins as they prepare a real sanctuary for them. Even though they don't make them perform anymore, they do work with them when they feed the dolphins and we just happened to be there at the right time.

The puffins were also a lot of fun!

Theresa just got back from a trip to Las Vegas, courtesy of her sister and her sister's very generous industry. She really enjoyed The Mob Museum and attended both a food science expo and the Las Vegas Comic Con.

It's bald eagle season here! I'll see 2 or 3 a day as I commute and at work. Here's a (slightly icky) picture of one taking advantage of some roadkill (I'll spare you the picture I took of the only copperhead snake I've seen since we moved here because it was, thankfully, dead):

Christmas in July

Peanut Clusters

(Microwave or conventional)

1 (1 lb.) Bag salted peanuts

1 (12 oz.) Pkg. Chocolate chips

1 (1 lb.) White Almond Bark

Melt the Chocolate chips and white almond bark in a pan, then add the peanuts.  Spoon out on wax paper and let cool.  

MICROWAVE:  Melt chocolate chips and white almond bark in microwave, 3-5 minutes (depends on your microwave how long, start at 2 minutes and go from there) or until softened, then add peanuts.  Spoon out on wax paper and let cool.  

Enjoy!  

The NYC New Normal

Hello from NYC and the Rutherford Family! 

We are well on our way to a new normal after two years of upheaval. Our theatrical world is still very much affected by Covid-19 as is NYC, which continues to be a city that takes many precautions to protect its people. 

 This year has seen a reopening of Girl from the North Country and a re-reopening. 

Kurtis began the 2021 year working in film/TV (you can catch him on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, ep 4 I believe), then the fall of 2021 brought Just Like That and learning a few new tracks at Ain't Too Proud and Six. Then, he jumped in to GFTNC and joined our family of players here as the props head. In January 2022 we closed the show, but did return at the end of April for a final hurrah. 

Mom and Dad came out to visit and look after Aurora in rotation while we did yet another tech period for this show and joined the list of Broadway productions being brought to film. No doubt, this filmed version of our show will soon find its media platform and each of you who were not able to attend in person will get the chance to watch the show if you would like to. 

Aurora continues to grow. She has been in a dual language kindergarten program this year and will move on up to 1st grade next year. As she does an after school program, she has made many friends in all grades and often runs through the crowd at drop off in the morning yelling hello to all those along the way. She is also quite the conversationalist and often uses vocabulary well above her age bracket. Her speech therapist has very much enjoyed having her as a student. Unlike our midwestern school schedule, Aurora still has a month of school to go with her last day being June 27th. She loves school, but is also looking forward to summer break and the plans she has for spending time with us and others! 

Our long time nanny and friend, Amy, officially finished out her nursing program this year and receieved a job at a local public hospital in the Bronx so we have enjoyed watching her transition in to that. The pandemic led us into more of a friendship/occasional sitting relationship, so we've had a lot of fun just spending time together and allowing her and Aurora space to continue to grow their friendship. 

I must say that it has been a hard year. I think I've said this multiple times on this platform, but one of the reasons that I recall Kate and I talking about this blog a long time ago was so that everyone could get updates about one another and share some of the good/bad things happening in our worlds. Certainly watching from afar, I recognize that everyone seems to be having a hard time with 2022. We keep holding out hope that somewhere in the next year, something will turn the feelings around, but I've had many conversations with friends about how this is just our new normal and we kind of have to keep moving forward through the slog. There is no going back to the way things were before the pandemic and there is a lot of change that has happened in the past two years. For the first time in my life, I am often left feeling a bit more hopeless than I ever have before and finding a hard time shaking that feeling off, even being triggered by things in ways that I had not been prior to the pandemic. If you have been feeling this way, I guess I just wanted to say that you are not alone. 

We've been practicing the golden rule with Aurora: Treat other people the way you want to be treated. But, sometimes, I have to remember a word, grace and remember that this means that you must alsot treat yourself the way that you really want to be treated, allowing room for everyone to falter and return from the moments that are less than perfect to still feel like we belong and to allow ourselves to feel like we are good inside. 

What a learning experience. A few pcitures attached for a bit of light at the end of a heavier post. Sending you all love and wishes of well being!