This is the post that we had in draft and were working on when we left for the hospital to have Rayleigh.

August 6, 2010… the day we said we were going to have a baby.  Well it is confirmed,  the child will truly be the product of Kevin and myself as it seems he or she will be making a tardy arrival!  We spent the day enjoying each others’ (exclusive) company.

This evening we explored around Crandall Park in Glens Falls.  They have a pond with a fountain, monuments and some nice wooded trails Kevin may try to bike in the fall.

On another note, earlier this summer we told you all we had bought a share of a local CSA.  So far we have have been pleased with the results and are still loving the concept.  Our share is picked up at our farmer’s market and we spend Saturday afternoon processing what we “reap”… from the pre-harvested piles at market.  Here are some pictures from today:

In addition to our planting our garden, buying local food at market, composting, and water conservation habits we have been trying to shrink our environmental footprint in other ways and using our “purse strings” to help influence demand of products we believe in and support local businesses. Some of the things we have been doing include using CFL’s for all our lighting needs- (our house looks ridiculously bright at night driving by), we put up a clothes line, Kevin mows the grass using a “reel mower” powered by him, we pay extra to have our electric provided by wind energy, we’ve installed low-flow shower heads and a dual flush toilet, we get e-delivery with as many things as possible, most notably our bills and account statements, and although we do not have a hybrid, we do drive fuel efficient vehicles and keep them maintained to achieve the best efficiency possible, and are strongly considering buying an EV (electric vehicle) when the Jetta dies.  Other purchases that have helped are energy saving curtains- which we usually keep closed to further energy savings and help control the inside temperature.   Our recycling company recently switched to single stream recycling.  This means we can recycle all our items in one container.  We recycle everything! In addition to your standard recyclables we also recycle aluminum foil (which we rarely use), packaging to mailings, groceries and packages- including the air packers (most recently from baby items), we also try to take into account the packaging of items we do buy in stores.  What all this means is that between recycling and composting we generate about 50 gallons of recyclable content (I also bring home things from work since we don’t recycle there… yet!) and the equivalent of 1/2 to 1 kitchen bag of garbage during a normal week, and 10-12 gallons of compost a week (about 1/2 is yard waste the other half is kitchen and compostable household waste-including tissues etc.).  We are working on transitioning away from tissues and to cloth handkerchiefs.

We also buy as much local and organic food as possible- much of this is done at market but some of it is done at the grocery store as well.  The soy milk we buy- Silk uses Non-GMO soybeans and donates money to help wind energy development.  The sugar we buy is Florida Crystals, the only organic sugar harvested in the USA and is carbon neutral.  Our household cleaning products include a bagless vaccum cleaner, and environmentally friendly cleaners with as little packaging as possible like Method refills that come in bags instead of molded plastic bottles using 83% energy.  (If you have ever visited a country with a trash issue you would notice nearly everything comes in this type of packaging- think of the savings we could buy our fridge door condiments in bags instead of bottles!) Kevin has recently altered his morning shake recipe to include local apple cider we can source at the market instead of commercial apple juice.

As part of this process we have also tried to step-up our canning and preserving this year.  So far we’ve done corn, bread and butter pickles, dill pickles, strawberry jam, blueberry-orange jam, currant jelly (Grandma Elsie would be proud), salsa, and pesto.   Also as part of getting our meat at market we’ve been limited with chicken in that we need to buy whole chickens, this had enabled us to make and freeze our own chicken stock as well.

Thanks for reading- there will be another post shortly- with photos of something you actually want to see-Rayleigh!

We got a composter last Christmas from Kelsey’s parents, and we absolutely loved it. We loved it so much, in fact, that we broke it from overuse.

We decided that we needed a new composter, for a variety of reasons:

1. The composter we had broke, and new kitchen scraps were causing it to attract more bugs than normal and smell a bit. We like our neighbors, so we didn’t want to stink them out.
2. Because we turn our compost, the little doors on the bottom of the composter weren’t practical for getting out ready-to-use compost, so we needed to have a system that would let us have an active and passive bin – one to continue to add material to, and one to let finish breaking down for use in spring planting.
3. The old one wasn’t big enough, since we were putting everything in it – non-animal kitchen scraps, dryer lint, used tissues, shredded office paper, leaves, grass trimmings, twigs, weeds, and anything else compostable.

I have been reading How to Make and Use Compost: The Ultimate Guide by Nicky Scott, and he describes a variety of different types of composters that are used for different purposes. I liked the New Zealand Box composter, because it best met the needs I listed above, and could be made from nothing but untreated wood, screws, hinges, and handles, all of which are readily available at our local hardware store for not a lot of money. There weren’t any plans included, so I sat down with a pen and paper and drew some up – modifying the design in the book to better meet our needs. The book’s design, for instance, doesn’t have lids – so I added some for convenience. My dad, who helped me construct it, added a base to help keep the front sections from bowing out.

The box contains two bins – one for active and one for passive compost. The lids operate independently of one another, so you can open one without opening the other. There is a gap between the boards that go around the sides and in the middle, so air can get in. The bottom is open so worms can get in. The front is made out of removable slats, so you can access the compost out of one of the bins at a time without having to shovel downward. The overall dimensions are 3’x3’x6′, so each bin is 3’x3’x3′. My dad and I had a blast making it, and it only cost me about $150 in materials, which is substantially less than what you would expect to pay for a similar prefab composter. The only tools we needed were two drills, a circular saw, a jigsaw, a hammer, a square, two clamps, and some saw horses.

Around Christmastime, when we told our parents that Kels was pregnant, my parents wanted to know if there was anything in particular that we needed that we likely wouldn’t get at a baby shower. We told them that we needed a bassinet or a cradle for our bedroom for the first two months or so, until Rayleigh would be sleeping in her crib in her own room.

My mom did some research and found a kit online to build a miniature boat cradle. The boat is built using the same methods used to build a full-size seaworthy boat, and the finished product will float reliably (although the company doesn’t recommend putting your baby in it and setting them adrift).

My dad (Pop-Pop to Rayleigh) finished the boat and brought it up when they came for her birth, so I can now show off photos from the whole process.

We had a baby! Her name is Rayleigh Ann Elizabeth Forrester, and she was born at 8:46 PM on Wednesday, August 11, 2010. She weighed in at 8 lbs, 6 oz, and is 20 inches long. My Aunt Mary Eshenour was the winner of the contest – she guessed Female, 8/11, 21.7, and 8 lbs 7 oz. She got an 80.5% on my scoring mechanism. The next runner up was Colleen with 72.5%. No one got a 0% though!

Mom and baby are happy and healthy. Kelsey went into labor on her own, and delivered without any drugs at all. She needed a few stitches afterward, so she will be taking it easy over the next few weeks. We first arrived at the hospital at 2:30 in the morning on Tuesday, so she was in labor for a long time. My parents came up for the delivery, since Rayleigh is their first grandchild, and we wanted to make sure they were there for the experience.

We delivered at The Snuggery at Glens Falls Hospital, which is about 3 miles away from our house. The nursing staff and the midwives from our practice (Women’s Care) were great. Kels spent some time soaking in the birthing tub during labor, and ended up giving birth in the shower! The shower had a support railing around the edge, so she was able to sit on a chair in the corner and use the rails to brace herself while she pushed. I think this baby is going to like water as much as her mom does!

We’ve gotten a lot of questions about her name, because it’s a little unusual. Yes, Forrester is her last name, so all three of us have different last names from one another. You can make Forrester from the letters in both of our last names, which we thought was a bit more elegant than a hyphenated last name (FOdnESS + ERnST). Yes, she has two middle names, and her first three initials (RAE) spell out Kelsey’s middle name. Ann is my aunt’s name (mother’s sister) and Elizabeth is my mother’s middle name. We’ll see if we can get all of this by the birth certificate people!

I’ll quit my blathering now, since most of you are here for photos anyway. If you have any questions, leave them in the comments and I will answer them as best I can!

There are some more photos (but not many) here. Thanks to everyone who sent us well-wishes! We’ll post again soon.

We got the nursery done! (Basically.) We also got the guest bedroom/office done. We still need to finish the closets in both rooms, but otherwise, they are done. Pictures are below.

A few weeks ago, we finished our guest bedroom/office. We had Kelsey’s parents and two of our nephews – Kyle and Keyan – up for a visit, and they broke it in. I spend most of my time in this room, working on research and writing for school, and working on web development projects.

Kelsey is now at 39 weeks, and we are closing in on her due date (August 6th). Even her maternity clothes are now starting to become uncomfortable. She has had a few contractions already, but not with any regularity. We will be posting updates when we go to the hospital, and will post photos very soon after the baby is born.

We’ve been keeping busy with house renovations, continuing to unpack, making and freezing food for when the baby comes, and generally trying to be as ready as possible for when Kelsey goes into labor. Today, we are going to be experimenting with making red currant jam and blueberry orange jam and canning them in our new pressure canner. We’ll let you know how it goes!