A Blast From My Past! (Just call me Dumbass!)

When I mentioned to some folks that we started a family blog and they reviewed the entries, my good friend, and former boss, who resides in Alabama, Richard Schlinkert, saw the entry about the backyard and how we are planning to expand it to incorporate another koi pond and reminded me that there was a picture in existence from when we expanded the yard a few years ago which showed my skills at driving a Bobcat. (It's amazing what you can rent from Taylor Rental as long as you provide them with a driver's license and credit card!) I lost my copy and he was nice enough to e-mail it to me tonight.

I'm not always the most careful person and when you look at the picture below, there's really only one term to describe it which my friend Dennis Varner from Kentucky shared with me many years ago which is:

DUMBASS!

So, if you need any help with heavy equipment and are up-to-date on your homeowner's insurance, just give me a call and I'll be there to help and show you how it's done!

Another reason why we love where we live!

Earlier this week, I wrote that we really love where we live.

I wanted to touch on this subject further.

We've got some trails around the lakes behind our street that are great for hiking, running and mountain biking. Those who know me well know that cycling was a huge part of my life growing up. It kept me in great shape and was an escape from the day-to-day pressures and routines of life and damn near killed me in college. Once I moved to Boston, I stopped doing it.

When Sophia said goodbye to her training wheels this June, Sandy and I decided to get mountain bikes of our own so that we could take advantage of this and, as a family, this is something that we could all do together. Plus, it would get me back on the bike which is a part of my life that was missing. We realized really quickly that Sophia's Barbie bike just wouldn't cut it on the trails and she got a mountain bike of her own. (Seth and Kurt at Serious Cycles in Plymouth really set-us up well on bikes and gave us some great deals. If you live around here and need a bike, make sure you go see them!)

Since then, Sophia and I have done our best to hit the trails every chance we get. The picture below is an aerial view of where we live so that you can see how close this is to us and the route we take.


Sophia has done a great job of mastering the bike and the trails. Lately, we've had a lot of rain and this has produced some huge puddles for us to ride through. It's a blast!

We are so fortunate to have such a great resource as Morton Park so close to us. It lets us block out the outside world and spend that precious time together that we will have less of when Sophia gets older.

It's so amazing to see Sophia grow-up and to be able to hit the trails together and talk. We have great conversations about everything you can imagine. Some serious, some not so serious. Sometimes we don't talk much and focus on riding fast and hard. Sometimes we sing. Usually, at the end of the ride we talk about what was good and bad about it. The bottom line is that I get to share my love of cycling with my child and pass this on to her while at the same time I get to see her think ahead about how she is going to handle the obstacles ahead of her and execute her plan to make it from start to finish. Sometimes things don't go according to plan and she falls or has to get off the bike. Sometimes everything goes right and her feet always stay on the pedals. Two things are for sure - no two rides are the same and she always finishes. She's too young to realize it but she's gaining skills and confidences on that bike that will help her get through life. I am fortunate that she wants to do this with her old man. As Sophia gets older, I hope that she will continue to want to ride with her father. I have the feeling she will and, as she grows and faces new things, I hope that we will be able to hop on our bikes, hit the trails and talk. Maybe sometimes we'll just ride and sing.

We are truly blessed.

I have included a few pictures below from tonight's ride. If you come to visit, bring your bike and we'll hit the trails together!

It's Official! The Kozlowsky Family Backyard Certified As A National Wildlife Federation Backyard Wildlife Habitat!

As a family, we were really fortunate to move into a house with a great backyard. It had a lot of great plantings and landscaping and we've been improving upon it during the last three years and have been able to increase the number of animal species that live here. In addition to the robins, cardinals, black-capped chickadees, finches, hummingbirds, sparrows, goldfinches, bluejays, bats, snakes, insects, dragonflys, frogs, slugs, newts, moles and squirrels that we have seen, adding the pond has introduced fish and snails and attracted more birds and frogs. Plus, we've had multiple generations of birds born in our yard over the past few years and this year we saw the first baby hummingbird born in the yard appear. (As I have been typing this a sparrow flew into our kitchen and flew out and a few weeks ago a hummingbird flew into the kitchen as well and after he got tired from not being able to find its way out I was able to pick it up and carry it to an open window!)

We're proud of what we've done and even more proud of Sophia as she has developed a genuine interest in the plants and animals. We saw a show about the National Wildlife Federation and backyard habitats on Animal Planet and decided to see if we could get our yard certified to become one. We found out yesterday that our backyard meets the criteria and our backyard has been certified as a National Wildlife Federation Backyard Habitat.

While it might not mean a lot to most folks, it means a lot to us. It's pretty amazing to sit out back and, within a minute or so, have a few different types of species appear in the yard and we really enjoy every aspect of planning, planting and fostering the habitat. As time goes by we'll definately post more pictures. (expecially when we build the second pond slated for next Spring!)

- John

A Day Like Today Is Why We Love Where We Live

Today has been one of those perfect days that makes us appreciate why we love where we live so much.

This morning started off with a Pirate Cruise to celebrate the fourth birthday for one of our neighbors by the name of Jack. The Pirate Cruise is just that, a cruise where we look for pirates and buried treasure in the harbor. It's an absolute blast for the kids and the parents and we've been on three this summer. Captain Paul Quintal runs it and he does a fantastic job. (A few weeks ago we went on the Wednesday night harbor ice cream cruise and I'm bummed that the Thursday night wine cruises are already sold out for the season.) If you're interested, you can find more information at http://www.piratefun.com. The weather was fantastic and made it that much more enjoyable for a great day on the water.

After the cruise, we went to the 2006 Downtown Plymouth Waterfront Festival (http://www.plymouthwaterfrontfestival.com/index.html) which is just that, the annual summer festival down at the harbor. Tons of booths full of crafts, games for kids, face painting, etc... As you can see from the picture, Sophia decided to get a butterfly painted on her face.

The visit to festival was followed by lunch at our favorite weekend breakfast spot, The Water Street Cafe. Then it was home to work on the yard and build a stone wall. Everyone pitched in and it made the work go faster.

We decided to go back the festival and enjoy the amusement park aspect of the festival with rides and games. Sandy won two stuffed animals for Sophia at the water gun game and Sophia went on a few rides. Then it was a dinner of fried dough, funnel cakes and french fries.

To top it off there was a free concert by Plymouth Rock. The band was Parrot Beach, a Jimmy Buffett tribute band. We hung out a while and danced in the street. It wasn't exactly like being at a real Jimmy Buffett show but, considering that he probably won't ever be performing Live At Plymouth Rock this was as close as it'll get for us on the Plymouth waterfront. I was in heaven and it really was the perfect end to a great day.

We are really lucky to live here in Plymouth. We've got terrific neighbors, we've got the ocean five minutes from our house, a forest and lakes behind our street for walks and mountain biking and we've got the mountains for skiing three hours north. Today reminded us of why we live here and are so lucky to call this our hometown.

Now it's time to spend what few waking hours we have left together, as a family, just as we did the whole day!

Turkeys Everywhere And It's Not Even Thanksgiving

We live in Massachusetts - where the Pilgrims wound up and home of Thanksgiving. Today, it was easy to see why they choose to eat turkeys. Despite all the development in town, turkeys live in the woods and we have a family of them that roams the neighborhood from time-to-time and appears to be growing quite quickly. Late this afternoon, our daughter noticed the turkeys roaming in the yards across the street from our house. Here are a few pictures of them. In case you didn't know, turkeys can fly and at night they fly into the trees to avoid being attacked and eaten by the coyotes that also live in the woods. Gobble, Gobble, Gobble!

The Koi Pond

Last year, Sophia and I built our koi pond. It was a blast. The fish are growing quickly and we'll have to build a second pond next spring to accomodate them as they grow. Here are a few pictures we took last weekend.

Welcome

Welcome To The Kozlowsky Family Blog!

We've created this blog to allow our family and friends to see what we've been up to lately.

As events take place, we'll update this blog.