Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Summer Is Here



One of the ways we know it is summer is that we cleaned a vacation home today. Summer cleaning jobs have begun. The lake shore was fascinating with the waves crashing on the beach in this wind. I would stand there and just watch them. But since we are paid by the hour I don't do that.  Another way to know it's summer despite the predictions that we aren't going to get summer this summer is that the lawn is getting mowed weekly. So bring on the under 90 degrees weather.  Maybe for the first time in years we will have a normal Wisconsin summer. No need for AC. We will have cool, sweater evenings. Sounds good to us.

                                                                                                                                     


Monday, May 30, 2011

Morning Storm

So far it is just gently raining. I can hear the rain and feel the sweet coolness through the open window. Will we get the hail and wind?
We have a bear now!  He was investigating the compost pile the other evening.  Elv took the Jeep over there and honked him off, but he only climbed a tree nearby. But then he changed his mind immediately and came down to climb up a different tree just close to the compost pile.  He finally left when he realized that our place was too noisy and distracting for the careful perusal of the compost pile that he had in mind.  But we know that he will be back. So annoying. I admit it was a little exciting for all the children, Lattin and Graber, to watch the whole show.
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A fun Grandpa coming up, wouldn’t you say?

By the way, am I the only blogger that wishes the lurkers would own up and comment now and then?

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Current Questions

~ How much does a cubic yard of gravel weigh? Elv called me from work to ask. Answers.com says it weighs 2700 pounds. He is brainstorming a dump trailer for gravel hauling.

~ Where are my paint brushes? I am cleaning the living room today and there is great need of touch up with both paint and varnish.

~ What will old white oak boards look like with the grey exterior planed off?  This question is rather exciting to me.  We came into possession of these boards to potentially turn them into countertop. Don’t laugh, it is being done.  Elv and I thought we were being so creative and original until we looked it up.  Lesson learned: If you can think of it; it’s been done.

~ How do you hem a cape? Frances made her first caped dress the other day and the hemming was very uneven and rough because I have never had occasion before to show her the trick.  Today is the day for 101 on cape hemming.

~ Why did ten police and three fire departments with their thermal imaging equipment get called out to the Res Monday night and “nothing” was going on?  We’d really like to know.  Not knowing opens up the ugly possibilities and we’d like to be reassured that it wasn’t/isn’t as bad as the imagination can conjure.

Thursday, May 19, 2011

More Ordinary Adventures

Lance William (22)
Frances Rose 
Today Frances and I talked about being seventeen and how it was my worst teenage year.  I remember feeling like all my roads were slow downs.  Part of the reason for that, of course, was the fact that up ahead at the big 18 the man who wanted to court me could...legally.  Little did I know how marrying him would take me speeding along to a day like today.  Like today when one of our daughters would be 17 and working to pay for a ticket to fly internationally, and waiting for life to develop about her favorite missions dream, and all the other dreams of girls. Like today when the children would push me in the work and take charge of getting a picnic around for the evening meal in the woods on Elv's job.
Have you ever wondered what it was that grabbed the tree and rolled it through the delimbing and cutting process? Here I am taking a picture from the back of the dinosaur of our picnic supper. 

Tailgate supper in the woods.

Those pine logs are 16 footers.  We speculated as to what they will be used as...have to ask Elv.


This is where you'll find Elv 5 days a week all day long.

Drawing and please don't notice.

Now this is strictly a pose and not a very good one.  Everybody is entirely too aware of how pretty she is. 



Wood violets and you CANNOT capture the color on camera...at least I can't.

Dog tooth violets

Scouting for a bouquet of blossoms for Mom. 
Lance often says, "Mom, what are you thinking about...are you thinking about me?"  He doesn't have a clue how much I think about him and pray for him and for his future. 

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Ordinary Adventures

   Brad mowed the lawn in an hour this week.  That piece of info is just for you, Lisl. (Do you remember being frustrated that he took so long last summer?)  He sang loudly while he mowed.  I remember singing/harmonizing with the sweeper and the lawn mower. I even sang with the tractor while disking for corn planting.  He sings while he runs the wood splitter and the lawn mower.  I also remember singing in the milk house while washing the huge stainless steel bulk tank. I would lean way in to the big open tank where sound would bounce all over the place and try to sing all three part: soprano, alto, and high tenor.  I got the tank cleaned for the next installment of Daddy’s hard won "ton of milk a day", but I made a lot of noise, too.  I should have gone in for “voice” at that time of my life. Woulda been all primed.
The living room stove began to puff this week.  We had a horrid time getting any kind of fire to develop in it and when we did, there would be these occasional blue clouds come puffing, streaming, and billowing out from between the shut doors.  It was horrifying. (It’s good we haven’t done the spring cleaning yet.)  So Elv took the indoor pipe length outside while I put a half sheet pan over the opening on the top of the stove and shook out some ash.  But not enough to cause puffing.  So then he went up and took off the top length and cleaned it slick as a whistle, and they took the cleanout plate off as well, and removed more creosote and ashes.  Now the fire burns nicely with no clouds of blue.
I needed to go to Rice Lake and pick up Brad’s new glasses. They had two pairs of new glasses for Brad! Nobody could figure out how that happened. “That was the Lord,” said Susan. Amen. I bought fertilizer for the strawberry bed, and bedding plants for the patio flower beds.  Decided on petunias for a change.  Red and white in remembrance of my moms flowerbeds at home long ago.  She always planted red petunias and white alyssum. Walmart didn’t have alyssum so I just bought white petunias instead.

Friday, May 13, 2011

What's Happening At Home

We had a church picnic  for Mother's Day. We have had occasional church picnics over the years and they are always a success, if I may say so. The pleasures thereof are numerous as you can see.

Plenty of ordinary, yummy picnic food.

Benny's version of a picnic.


Gotta have volley-ball.

Gotta have marshmallows.

Tree climbing, too.
                              Then on Monday the children and I went up to the cabin to clean.
This is a before picture of the creek area.  Behind that row of brush and trees is a creek with a wide flood plain.  We heard the mallards through the open windows at night talking to each other. And someone said the Marsh Marigolds were blooming down there.  And there was mention of blue herons nesting there.  We wanted to see what we could see.

Abram manned the saw.


The boys wielded axes and hatches.

I couldn't keep my hands off the project.  It is so exciting to have the brush cleared away.

Brad was using a hatchet he found.

Miriam helped to pile up the brush.


And this is after we were done from the dining room. We left the willow, the birch, and one spruce to decide about later. Now! maybe we can see the ducks, herons,  and flowers.

Plenty of natural light. 
It's getting more and more like home.

The back of the cabin looking at the potential upper deck.

Nothing like a group of children playing Rook around the table to serve as a completion to our cleaning project.

Friday, May 6, 2011

Springtime At Home

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Linking with Frog's Blog today.
      
           The Children's Perspective
Frank did such a good job on this that I just thought you all ought to see it.  The apple tree wasn’t a crab apple.  It was a real apple tree of unknown name and pedigree and having never been pruned the apples grew up high in the air, impossible to reach.  One year we actually had a crop and when they fell we gathered them only to have a farmer’s bull come up to the porch where we were working to eat them all up.  We hoped he got a belly ache from that!

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

May

~ The end of school. Yippee!
~ The end of winter. Yippee, Again!
~The end of messy firewood in the house. There’s nothing like a cozy fire in the living room stove in winter; but there’s nothing like the dirt as a result!
~ The time for spring cleaning.
~ The beginning of green everywhere.
~ And spring wild flowers and warm sunny days.
~ The family is talking about going fishing soon.
~Elv has promised me a canoe date.  We will take the green canoe and go explore the Billy Boy Flowage.

Monday, May 2, 2011

The Heroes Are Fading

I wish to issue an official complaint that the heroes are fading. And I miss them. I miss the security of knowing someone big is in charge of my world.

I truly admired them. I thought they could do no wrong. I thought they knew the answers.  I thought they were never frightened or unsure of what to do next. They created goodness for me at home, at church, and in the big, bad world. When I had a worry about the future, all I had to do was to know that “they” were going to fix it. They would discipline the dissenters and the disorderly persons while upholding good character and righteousness. This goes for church AND for the political world.

They would also plan the parties. Someone bigger and better than me always had a good plan for our social life, like birthdays, Christmas, and celebrations. On Easter morning in church someone picked out anthems to sing, a sermon to preach, and something special to share with the congregation. 

When it came time for elections the all-knowing, responsible elders in our world would demonstrate greatness and appoint one of their own to presidency or governorship. I trusted them to get it right, to have integrity and tact in all that they decided about us and our collective interests.

Suddenly “they” is us! Now it is OUR fault if the whole thing falls flat. Frankly, I am disappointed. You mean to tell me that the big people were just like I am now? Do you mean they were scared too, of making the wrong decision at times? Are you serious that they messed up and said things they shouldn’t have said and did things they should not have done?  They actually had to go back and make apologies?

I feel just like the little kid who finally figured out that Santa Claus is a myth. The magic is gone! Now, it’s up to me to offer respect and love to my church and my world with more honesty than ever. Now it’s my turn to plan the parties, pick the anthems and be on time. Just because their secret is out does not mean I should not continue to pass the trust on to the children.

You know, it is comforting to know that in the end it is possible to pass on trust even after you realize the facts. It is not about fooling anybody really, it is about choosing to love and admire those who are doing their best to follow righteousness in spite of their humanness. 

I really hope that I am helping to create a world where youth still trusts the big people. And it IS kind of nice to finally grow up and smell the coffee.

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