Pete, Julie, & June Schult

The PJ³ Times

Vol 12, No 1

Summer Solstice Edition

Saturday, June 21, 2003

Life in Hamilton

We are enjoying living in Hamilton. We like being able to get together with Danny and Nancy (Julie's bother and sister-in-law) and their family about once a week, we like the library which, while small, can draw on the resources of the whole Mid-York Library System, and we like running into familiar faces around town. Although we have to commute to Syracuse (and occasionally Ithaca) for Morris Dancing, we've become part of a group of people in the Hamilton area who get together every other week or so to sing folk songs. It's a nice little college town!

Our house is livable!

We have finished the renovation on our new house (mostly)! We moved in in mid-June of 2002, and pretty soon the heavy machinery came to dig a hole next to the old house. During the summer foundation was laid, tree branches were cut, the addition was framed, June's room was painted, etc, etc. During the fall we painted the new rooms and got hardwood/carpet laid in them, and just before and after Christmas we had a marathon session with Julie's dad, step-mom, Danny, and Nancy to put up shelves and other organizing tools and to move us into our new bedroom.

During that whole 6+ month period we all 3 lived, computed, and watched TV in the living room. It also served as Pete and Julie's bedroom for all that period and June's for the first few months. We were quite glad to have the new rooms finished!

Please note the new address above and put it in your address books. We hope it will be valid for a good while.

Pete and June waiting for the school bus on June's first day of school.

June starts school

Wednesday, September 4, 2002 was June's first day of school. She had been very excited about starting kindergarten, but as the date got closer she got somewhat nervous. Tuesday the school had an hour or so long orientation during which the kids got to play with some of the classroom tools for about 15 minutes and then had to sit quietly while the teacher, principal, and others went over some things with parents. We think that could have been structured better.

Once school started for real, June said some things about school were interesting and some were boring. We figure that's normal.

Pete finds work

With June in school, Pete was able to do some of the painting in the addition to the house. That saved us a few dollars in construction costs but was (fortunately) a temporary position. So Pete put out some applications for work and in September 2002 found a part-time job at the Hamilton Public Library. He's a grunt level library clerk, but he enjoys the job (unlike many other grunt level clerical jobs he's had) since it's for an organization whose mission he believes in and wants to be a part of. Recently the librarian has been calling on Pete's computer skills; that makes the work more interesting. The one occupational hazard he's experienced on the job is a tendency to check out more books than he can read, but at least they're free.

Pete also did some math tutoring during 2002-2003. He may try to expand on that in 2003-2004.

Who let the dogs out?

After moving to Hamilton in January 2002, Pete and Julie joined the Bassett Street Hounds, New York State's Finest Mixed Border Morris Team. This means an hour commute to Syracuse each Monday for practice, but we were used to that kind of commute from going from Elmira to Ithaca each week for Heartwood practice. We still try to get to Heartwood practice about once a month.

Julie as Jack Pumpkinhead and June as Patches, the Patchwork Girl of Oz, at Ozfest 2003 in Chittenango NY.

Spring fun at the Ozfest

While much of the spring has been cool and rainy, we have been able to enjoy many Upstate New York spring activities, including planting a small vegetable garden. On June 7 Julie and June attended the Ozfest in Chittenango NY. June, who is an avid fan of all things Oz, entered the costume contest as Patches, the Patchwork Girl of Oz. It took Julie, Nancy, and our friend Karin many hours to make the costume, but it was fun and June won a medal.