Drum roll please ... our new Wildacres garage takes shape!

foundation filled, ready to pour the floor

le cement!

The crane begins hoisting the wall sections into place.

Walls in place.

Rafters up.

Roofing begins.

Joel works on framing - first floor windows are in.

View from the back kitchen door.

The cupola arrives!

Starting to look like a garage!!

To be continued ...

A few updates on life at Wildacres

We've been a bit remiss in updating the blog, so here are a few of the high-lights of life in the world of  Mike & Katy:

Mike left Ingenix and is now with Accoalde, Inc. of Plymouth Meeting, PA. He's is very much enjoying the new challenges. If I do say so, he's the BEST VP of Analytics in the country and they are VERY lucky to have him! They are a high-powered, really dynamic group of braniacs - perfect for Mike! 

Katy participated in the 3rd Annual Candlewood Lake Dragon Boat Races on the 20th. Her team was all-female and they paddled their hearts out in all three timed-heats. Unfortunately, they came in last but lots of fun was had by all and they will be back next year with lots of practice under their PFD's!

Dragon boat racing is all about rhythm and synchronization, not strength. As you can see here, we need to work on the synchro part a bit...

Hurricane/Tropical Storm Irene caused quite a mess in CT this past weekend, with New Milford receiving about 8 inches of rain. There are still over 400,000 residences without power and it's predicted to be 5 days for full restoration. Luckily we fared rather well, only losing power for about 6 hours.

Thankfully, all of the 100-ft trees near the house stayed upright throughout the rather strong wind gusts. We did suffer one fatality: the end of the driveway. It usually develops a new rut or two after heavy rain but Irene left us a major ditch about 18 inches deep. Water was cascading down most of Sunday, creating a rushing waterfall and sending all our gravel down the street. A car stopped on Sunday afternoon and took a video of it. Tourists no doubt!

With our 4-wheel drive vehicles we are able to traverse the ditches to get out and we'd planned to repair the driveway as part of our overall house/property renovation, so we suffered only minor inconvenience. It's really quite fitting that the storm of the Century was timed with the Wildacres Centennial Upgrade!

The foundation for our new garage was poured mid-August and the garage components are scheduled to arrive in two weeks. It will be exciting to finally see a building in place. The added space will allow us to create an exercise area, an office area for Mike as well an extra bedroom for when the kids visit. Oh, and we'll be able to park our cars there, too!

We're looking forward to a visiting Jon, Jess and Eli in Endicott this weekend. Eli is growing so fast. It's hard to believe he's 19-months old. His cousin, Jazmine, born on July 4th, is very petite in comparison. It's a blessing having two such beautiful grandchildren and their wonderful parents!

Sunday we'll return home for a birthday-celebration dinner at with Nancy and Bob at The Hopkins Inn, overlooking Lake Waramaug. Nancy and I share a birthday and this is a 'milestone' year so we'll be toasting to memories and new adventures as we look forward to many more wonderful years as friends.

Guess where we went this weekend?

Jon, Jess, Eli & Mike in the pool.

Eli's ready for the pool in his adorable monkey swim trunks!

This is the life!

The Endicott Scofield's take a dip!

Neez n Toez for lunch. 

The Scofield men - all so cute!

Friends, Relations and a Celebrity in our midst!

We rang in the New Year quietly with a tasty dinner-for-two at The Fife and Drum in Kent and then home to watch the Times Square ball drop from our cozy bed! Welcome 2011 ...  zzzzzzzz.

We spent the first day of 2011 with our friends Mike and Katie and were treated to a delicious 'good luck' meal of pork and sauerkraut that Mike prepared. The men showed off their newest electronic gadgets: a Kindle for Mike S and a IPad for Mike B while Katie and Katy enjoyed their wine.

On January 2nd we dined at Ct , "Common Table", in Washington with our friends the Molinaro's and the Dubreuil's. Ct is a fairly new restaurant that serves only fresh, locally grown foods. The food was excellent and of course, the company was superb. A perfect way to wind down from the hustle-bustle of the holidays and begin the New Year. With friends like these, we're off to a great start!

The snowy weather during December kept Jack from visiting Wildacre's so we took a road-trip to New Jersey last weekend to celebrate a belated Christmas and take Jack out to dinner at his favorite restaurant, Luzzi's Hibernia Inn. The social-calendar stars aligned perfectly which allowed Kate, Chris, Steve and Marie to join us for dinner so it was a really fun January family get-together. On Sunday morning we had breakfast with Mike's brother Chris and caught up on the coming and goings of the Randolf-Scofield's.

Marie, Steve and a chocolate mousse!

A handsome trio, don't you think?

A Celebrity Sighting: Our friend Beth Molinaro is a part-time writer and recently had one of her stories published in "Chicken Soup for the Soul". Today she held a book signing at the Book Nook and Katy stopped by to congratulate her, bask in the celeb spotlight and get an autographed copy of the book. They sold out of the book, so I suggest you order a copy today. Beth's story begins on page 176.

Author Beth Molinaro, Katy and Diane Dubreuil at the book signing.

Tonight we're joining Marc and Diane at the Chamber of Commerce Crystal Gala dinner-dance. Although Mike has a bit of a cold he's got his dancing shoes out and polished so stay-tuned for some rug-cutting craziness to show up in photos coming to a blog near you!



Fast forward to the start of Winter 2011 at Wildacres.

So, winter is upon us now and winter means some colder weather, some snow and maybe even some more snow. We're CT Yankees and we're used to it, right?

We were in Upstate NY visiting with Eli and his parents when the December 26th snow storm hit our area and by the time we returned home life was back to normal in CT. As we began the New Year appaarenly word got out that we were back in-town and on Friday, January 7th, 12" of snow fell overnight and the wind was howling at over 30 mph.

This table on the deck had a pretty, layer-cake look before the really high winds began.

The snow ended on Saturday morning, the wind died down, we shoveled the walks, the sun came out on Sunday and Wildacres looked beautiful! The birds were back in abundance and life was peaceful.

Enter: Snowmagedon, aka Storm Benedict, aka the Farmers Almanac prediction =  a LOT of snow!!

On Tuesday night, January 11th, CT was hit by a significant storm that dropped over 2-feet of snow during the overnight. We awoke on Wednesday morning to a hushed, sparkly, snow-blanketed winter-wonderland at Wildacres.

The feeders were wearing really high top-hats and there was not a bird in sight!

Our neighbor Joe arrived bright and early in his John Deere backhoe to clear snow from our driveway, although we had no plans to leave the house.
Working from home is a real blessing on a day like this!
Every business and school in CT was closed and we hadn't seen a town plow truck yet. Mike shoveled on and off for most of the day to clear a path all around the house. My hero! Luckily the snow was the light and fluffy kind as the mounds along each side of the front walk got quite high.

Here is the same layer-cake table on the deck. More of a multi-layer cake now!

The view from the back kitchen door across the deck. No grilling would be going on that night!

Here's the view to the Northeast at about Noon. Even Snowmagedon is beautiful at Wildacres!

One day it's 2010 and 'poof' - it's 2011!

After the excitement of our wonderful wedding weekend we relaxed for few days and before we knew it, Thanksgiving was upon us!  Friends Alice and Doug, who live up the hill a piece, joined us for a really fun celebration. Turkey, all the trimmings, lots of laughs and great fellowship. We truly have much to be thankful for. Here's Doug being thankful.


Mike had been working for several weekends to make sure that all of the outside lights were hung just right.  I think he's now eligible to apply for Apprentice Electrician - lots of trees! Our Annual Open House was just a week away, so we had to switch to high-gear decoration mode to put up our many indoor trees. Boxes, boxes and more boxes came up from the cellar and items were put into every nook and corner of the house. Trees, lights, figurines, Nativities and more lights - we LOVE Christmas! Lot of lights and of course, lots of holiday merriment to enjoy along the way! Wildacres becomes a Fairy Cottage for the winter.

On Sunday, December 5th we hosted a festive and food-filled gathering of our friends, old and new, from near and far. We love to entertain and the Open House never fails to get everyone into the Spirit of the Season!

Mr. and Mrs. Claus greet their guests!

Bob and Nancy squared with their cookies!

"Lush Life" played cool jazz all afternoon - so great!

Guests mingling ...

Guests mingling in the kitchen ...

Roger and Sharon enjoying holiday cheer!

More mingling!

For the 3rd year Katy presided over a Wreaths Across America ceremony on behalf of her local DAR Chapter. It's a lovely tribute to the memory of servicemen and women. Ceremonies like this are held all across the US to coincide with the Arlington wreath laying.


Kate and Chris were able to visit Wildacres for a few days the week before Christmas. It's always wonderful to spend time with them and this year we had TWO reasons to celebrate and be joyous with them: Chris passed his exams and the half way point in his P.A. studies at Seton Hall AND .... they are expecting a baby in July!! So Eli will have a cousin, the yet-unnamed Baby Borders - what a blessing!

We spent time chatting, eating, lounging and catching up. They were off to Georgia to spend Christmas with Chris' family. It's not often that his family is able to gather from their homes around the world, so the baby Borders announcement was an especially nice present. But wait there's more ... Chris' sister, Kari and her husband Jonathan announced that they, too, are expecting a baby in July! Blessings abound!

Chris, Kate and Mike

The Carol Sing on the New Milford Green

Soon-to-be Mommy and Grandpa Mike.

Mr. and Mrs. Claus in outdoor mode.

So, dear reader, we need to take a break. Blogging is tiring stuff! There is still more family visiting, friends and fellowship and of course, the ringing in of the New Year! More to come soon ...

From Match.com to Matrimony!

Saturday, October 23rd was a beautiful day. Sunny and warm with great foliage colors at Wildacres - just prefect for our wedding! It was a wonderful day filled with laughter, family, friends and more love than can be expressed with mere words.

Wildacres Upper Lawn prior to the ceremony. Musicians tuning up!

 

Jon & Nancy our Best Man & Woman along with Chiara & Chloe our Birdseed Girls lead the way.





Mr. and Mrs. Mike Scofield say "I do".

A post-ceremony cuddle with Elias.

The Rev. Diane Monti-Catania

Official pose with our "Bests"


Chiara and Chloe blowing bubbles to celebrate!

Our first dance. Our song: "I'm Gonna Love you Come Rain or Come Shine"

Okay, so we're wacky newly-weds!

And the bride feeds the groom ...