Minnesota Day Eight

What a beautiful day! The day started with an early morning walk with Tim and Josey. Then a BRISK swim. We made the boys' day by having blueberry pancakes for breakfast. We launched Mike's boat today, played in the lake, AND Jeremy caught his first fish. The weather was perfect, too. It doesn't get any better than this.

Minnesota Day 7

Thursday was a chilly, rainy day. We ALL enjoyed having a lazy day in the cabin. Friday was jam-packed. The boys were thrilled to go to the laundromat in the morning! There's nothing like putting those coins in the machine and watching the clothes go around, I guess. We left Mom there to have all of the fun while we went to storytime at the library. Miss Kate might just be the best storyteller ever.

It's a HUGE weekend in Ely -- the Blueberry Festival. There's really nothing like it. Tons of craftspeople and vendors. The boys mostly had fun eating corn dogs and fried cheese curds. THEN, we went BACK to the library for a magic show. What a blast. Zachary let the dove sit on his shoulder for a photo!!

Tim arrived at the cabin on Friday night at 11PM after a 15 1/2 hour drive. Today we played around at the lake and just hung out. Mom made a blueberry rhubarb pie. Outstanding! It was windy all day, but tonight when it got calmer, we went out in the canoe. We got a little too close to an adult loon and its 2 babies when suddenly the mate was shooting out of the water not 5 feet from the canoe. It suprized the heck out of us. Now Tim's putting the kids to bed. I'm SO glad he's here!

Too many photos to post, so you can find them at http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=233177242/a=25280692_25280692/fromupload=true/imagecount=14/videocount=0/t_=25280692

if you're interested.

Minnesota Day Four

Bear 101. No - we didn't see one in the woods. We went to a talk about bears at the Township Hall across the street. Lyn Rogers was there, but he did not give the lecture. There wasn't much that we didn't already know. The one interesting thing (for those of us living less than a mile from a guy who feeds and studies wild black bears, anyway) was a study of 3 groups of orphaned bears that were collared and tracked. One group had very little contact with humans before being released into the wild, one had a moderate amount of contact with humans, and one had daily contact. They were released into the same area, and all had the same likelihood of becoming "nuisance bears." The bottom line: BE BIG; BE STILL; BE LOUD. There you go.

The day was PERFECT weather-wise. A little breeze, beautiful skies, temps in the upper 70s. Awesome. We played and played outside. I took Z out in the canoe. Unfortunately it was a little TOO breezy, and I still haven't learned my lesson about how I should head out INTO the wind. When it was time to turn around, I could barely control the canoe, and I wound up WALKING it along the shore back home. My paddling skills could definitely use some improvement! Of course this all happened with an audience, as the Knapps and a group of friends were all out on their dock. Nice.

Minnesota Day Three

Yesterday, Zachary learned how to play the card game Golf. He's now obsessed with it, and he and Grandma played all morning. We went to town today and had lunch at the Ely Lodge. We even got to go to the Ely Farmer's Market ("The farmer's market with the shortest growing season in Minnesota.") They actually had lots of nice stuff. Lots of herbs, some awesome homemade breads (including lavender bread - YUM), kale (which is out of season at home), other veggies, and even free range meat from a farm in Embarrass, MN. So fun. It was a long day in town. We did get a chance to swim when we got home. That made for a very late dinner, but the boys were GREAT. What a beautiful day!

Minnesota Day Two

Today was in the 70s and mostly overcast, though we had some sunshine. The kids loved the bumper boat. (We had two, but one was apparently broken, then returned to the store.) Zachary and I got the canoe out from under the cabin, then he didn't want to go for a ride. So, Jeremy, Josey, and I did. We had rain this evening, but the boys had fun playing Leapster and card games.

Minnesota Day One

Our first full day at the lake dawned a little chilly and overcast. That's OK - we had some unpacking and organizing to do. The kids were ready to start their day, so despite a LATE bedtime, they were up around 8 AM. After breakfast, they played a little, then we had "homework" time. Zachary writes in a journal for Ms. Ford every day, and Jeremy has cutting and letter practice jobs to do. When jobs were done, they were already ready for lunch. Then, we headed down to the lake. There were rocks to throw in, inflatable toys to prepare, and plenty of stick and pinecone hunting to do. The major dissapointment of the day was that only one of the bumper boats actually came with all of its parts. It's too bad, because they look like they'd be TONS of fun. We're just waiting to aquire 8 D batteries to determine if the intact boat will work. We stayed by the lake all afternoon. A family of loons hung out near our dock for a while. It was SO cool to see the mom and dad loon feeding the babies! It was a little too cold to swim, but Jeremy and I did anyway. The mosquitos weren't too awful most of the day. Thanks the the Pohlmans, Fries Family, and the Quatromani's we had a great fish dinner. This made Jeremy extremely happy. We also enjoyed broccoli and salads from the garden back home. We are trying to make our limited supplies last until Tuesday when we'll go to town. (Thanks to the P/F/Q families, we're stocked with some essentials for a little while.) It was fun to find Pam's homemade cookbook with lots of family recipes in the kitchen.

After dinner, the boys entertained themselves with a game of Uno, then we went to Bearhead. On the way, we saw 2 red foxes. I only managed to get a decent photo of one of them. I was glad to get what I did, considering the very low camera batteries and my status as driver. Really, the fox could not have been more cooperative, as it just walked along in the middle of the road for quite a while. The boys were WAY excited about seeing the foxes. Even poor Jeremy who just doesn't seem to see anything before it's gone saw them both.

We miss Daddy and can't wait to see him at the end of the week. We'll be keeping busy until then. :)

The best of the photos from today will be at http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=233134007/a=25280692_25280692/t_=25280692

So Long Old Friends

There's no question it was time. Pepperoni had just the tiniest bit of a tail left (even less than in this photo). I wasn't about to start getting live bugs for the little guy. Olive was well into her froglet stage, too. And we were leaving for a three week vacation in less than a week. The tadpoles had to go. We took them to Uncle Mike's house and released them into the same stream they came from. (We were a little further downstream, but we figured their brothers and sisters had probably made their ways down there by then, too.) Jeremy was sad at first, but there were only a few tears. We watched them hang out for 10 minutes or so, and then said our goodbyes. Raising bullfrog tadpoles was really fun! Despite my fears, they didn't remain tadpoles for the two years that some sources said they might. It was unbelievable how quickly the front legs appeared once they finally decided to get started. Practically overnight, the whole shape of the body changed. Some people say I liked Olive and Pepperoni even more than the kids. But those people didn't see Zachary talk to them every day and tell them he loved them! (Really, he just loved them because they couldn't lick him or bother him like Josey can, but whatever.) I hope they're doing well out in the big, big world!

New Haircuts

Two weeks ago, after getting new Spongebob sunglasses, Jeremy decided his hair was too long. It was getting stuck under his sunglasses, and he just couldn't have that. They were actually long overdue for a haircut. My silly guys!

Photos from Fourth of July weekend are at http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=233006630/a=25280692_25280692/t_=25280692

Photos of flowers in our yard are at http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=233008390/a=25280692_25280692/t_=25280692

Bounty

Once again, we've had a great pickup at the CSA. Yesterday we got:

6 pounds tomatoes!
2 pounds peppers
1/2 pound swiss chard
1/2 pound lettuce greens
1 green cabbage
2 red cabbages
1 pattypan squash
1 pound beets
basil
parsley
3/4 pounds broccoli

Wow!

Bumper Crop

I've been feeling pretty green lately. Our latest pickup from the CSA was the biggest yet:

1 lb various leaf lettuces
2 lb tomatoes (YUM!!)
1 head cabbage
2 cloves garlic
1 green pepper
2 beets
1 bunch flat leaf parsley
3/4 lb broccoli
3/4 lb swiss chard

So far this week we've had lots of yummy salads, mu shu pork (made with the cabbage), plenty of open faced tomato sandwiches, and swiss chard sauteed with the garlic scape pesto I made and froze two weeks ago. Outstanding! So far, I haven't figured out what to do with the beets! Tim is eating some of the produce because he likes it and some of it because it's good for him. The kale he won't eat at all. The kids are pretty much sticking to the broccoli, although Jeremy LOVES garlic scapes and mu shu pork and even tried the swiss chard. In past weeks, we've gotten plenty of spinach and kale, too. I can't wait to see what's next.

This has been a fun experience. Tuesday nights working at the garden are peaceful and beautiful. The garden, while probably 2 miles from our house, feels a world away. Even though the deer are pesky and jump the electric fence, they are still fun to see. I can hear the cows grazing on the open fields nearby. Last weeks' walk back to my car even took me near the whole herd. Plenty of calves, too. (Odd to think that we may be buying the meat of one of those cows at the end of the season! The head gardener one-upped me when he told me that not only were the tomatoes and lettuce on his first BLT of the season from the garden, but the bacon was from one of his own pigs, too!) The sunsets are stunning over the tall rows of rye that's used as a cover crop. I think the two hours a week in the garden are as good for me as the fresh produce! Did I mention it's QUIET? That's something we're lacking at our house!! (Anybody want to chat with a 4 year old for FOURTEEN HOURS STRAIGHT sometime?)

More updates as the season progresses. And if anyone needs some weeding done, I'm becoming an expert with the scuffle hoe. Give me a call!

By the way, I've been reading two very interesting books about the way we eat ("we" meaning Americans and people around the world). The first is Hungry Planet by Peter Menzel. It's a fascinating photo essay and collection of written essays about what typical families in countries around the world eat in one week. The other is Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver. Both have open my eyes a little bit to the benefits of eating more local foods.