Archive for July, 2007
July 17, 2007 – Isn’t Linda Glad?
The flowers and corn took off while we were gone. Of course, many of the glads bloomed in our absence.
Here’s Linda with a handful for a bouquet for the house. This week we have Linda’s sister’s family from CA visiting us – so we’ll have two weeks of vacation in a row, only one will be at home.
July 16, 2007 – New Tractor Tire
Usually 9 days away fror the farm leaves A LOT to do upon our return. However, we are getting better at it, by working extra hard the weeks beofre we leave to get as much done as we can. We were fortunate (or not) that there was not any rain while we were gone. Very few weeds grew and no need to mow the brown grass.
The first order of business was to take care of a leaking tractor tire. When I bought the tractor it had one new tire and an old one. The old tire finally started leaking a few weeks before vacation, and required frequent filling. It also had the fluid in to give the tractor weight and not freeze in the winter – that was hard on the rim (rust) and I don’t really need that extra weight – so I called the on-farm tire service – they came and sucked out the fluid and replaced the tire. It sure beat trying to jack up the tractor, remove the lug nuts, get the wheel off…
July 15, 2007 – Saying Good-bye to Kawishiwi
The last morning we leave early and stop about an hour down the road at the Tower Cafe for breakfast.
Notice Claire’s sense of humor on the shirt she and Emma bought together. Written in upside down letters, “If you can read this, pull me back into the canoe!”
July 14, 2007 – Random Shots from Claire
The pictures today are courtesy of Claire – a few shots she took over the week.
Here I am in what we affectionately call “Lake One and a Half” a small body of water between the two portages that connect from Lake One to Lake Two.
Pure bliss for a six-year old is throwing rocks and sand without anybody telling you to stop!
It seems we spend a good amount of our day on the docks – reading, fishing, or swimming. Yes, you can fish all around the lake and get skunked and then come home and catch walleyes off the dock while reading a book!
All the kids like to go to the big dock near the boathouse and jump into the water.
July 13, 2007 – BWCA Trip Day 2
In the afternoon, a series of storms blew in. We were taken aback, when paddling in the rain squalls in the 65 degree weather, to have a bolt of lightning seemingly appear out of nowhere (it didn’t seem like thunderstorm weather as it had been raining off an on all day and cold). We quickly skeedaddled to the nearest shoreline and used the time to have lunch. By the time we finished there were no further bolts, so we continued into Lake Three.
Here’s my “magazine cover” shot near our campsite on Lake Three. Just an hour or so before this, we had already found a campsite as it looked like unstable weather continued to approach, so we abandonded plans to go further. It was a good decision as there was about three hours of lightning and intermittent rain after we had camp set up. Some other folks out on a trip sought shelter in our campsite as they were out and some didn’t have rain gear, they had no shelter, so we perched them under a tarp we set up for a few hours. Amazingly, we saw many parties paddling across the lake during the lightning storm, betting the bolts would not hit them.
The night before, we instruct the girls on the finer points of hanging the food pack in the air, to make it harder for critters, large and small, to get the food back overnight.
Here are the girls after a squall moved through. Shortly before this, we could hear a big wind coming at us far off in the woods, and with a bit of trepidation listened as it moved closer. When the crescendo of windswept trees intersected with our campsite, we could see out on the lake a section where the wind actually lifted water off the surface of the lake and danced it around up in the air.
Some woodland flowers in bloom. If my northland botany is still trustworthy – I think these are called pippsissewa.
July 12, 2007 – BWCA Trip
Today, we left for an overnight trip in the BWCA with the two dads and two oldest girls. Next year the two younger girls and Moms will go out from the cabin.
Here we are set for departure under sunny skies and great anticipation to continue the girls along the path of wilderness camping.
Clouds move in on route and scattered sprinkles bring out the rain gear. The temperature is in the low 60s.
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We were able to portage with one trip. Claire double packed and I took the canoe. This is on the portage between Lake One and Lake Two (there are so many lakes in Minnesota, they must have been tired of thinking of new names and this chain consists of Lakes 1, 2, 3, and 4.
The adolescent girls were especially proud of their portaging expertise when we were able to make it in one trip and the group of 8 men and boys needed two trips and 4-6 people to carry the canoes across.
 
One of the camp chores is cutting firewood, here in the rain for the evening campfire.
July 11, 2007 – Soudan Underground Mine Tour
Today brought driving rain, strong winds and cold temperatures, so it was a good day to visit the underground mine in nearby Soudan. It is now a state park and as part of the tour, you travel down the original mine elevators about a half-mile underground to the 27th level of the mine and then travel about 3/4 of a mile in a small train at the lowest level.
Here onlookers watch the drum and cable that hoist the elevator cars up and down the half-mile to the bottom.
Martin anxiously awaits the trip to the bottom during his last moments before heading underground.
Linda, a half-mile underground heading down even deeper in the mine.
 
Martin a bit more relaxed now that he is safely down to the 27th level. The mine stopped operation in 1962 and produced very rich ore – 68%-72% iron. A 12 inch block of ore weighed 350 pounds.
There is now a physics lab at the bottom of the lab that is investigating the elementary nature of particles, shielded from the atmosphere by a half-mile of rock.
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July 10, 2007 – Blueberries for More than Sal!
We tend to enjoy things on vacation that others might not think are enjoying! Being the preserving/putting food away folks that we are, we bring canning jars along in case we get enough blueberries!
The blueberries this year were exceptional. I had resigned myself to a bad year since there were fires earlier this spring and the whole arrowhead region was dry. But the rains must have been well-timed for the blueberries. The berries were large and plentiful.
We made sure to “eat local” even while on vacation! We had fresh blueberry pancakes, blueberry muffins, blueberry cobbler and fried walleye. In addition to all the blueberries we ate fresh, we brough home 24 half-pint jars of whole canned berries and many gallons more fresh to make jam and freeze. I think we must have picked about 6 gallons of blueberries throughout the week.
one year ago…
July 9, 2007 – Fishing at Sunset
Linda and I snuck off tonight to go canoeing and fishing.
Here she is on Lake One and I only wish her smile was because of the great mess of fish she was pulling in. But being on the lake and having a moment when bugs aren’t around is reason enough to smile. We paddled to the rapids that spill into Lake One and I was quite surprised not to catch any at the head, tail, back eddy or anywhere near the rapids.
The route back to the cabin is directly into the sunset and around the bend.
one year ago…
July 8, 2007 – Road Trip!
Yesterday, we endured the 11 hour trip from the farm to the northwoods of Minnesota.
Here are the kids the night before with the van all packed up and ready to roll. Now, the parents get satellite radio and the kids get a portable DVD player to make the long journey much shorter than it used to be.
July 7, 2007 – Garlic Harvest Begins
The garlic harvest began yesterday.
Here Emma holds a handful of recently dug garlic. We try to pull it when only 3-5 green leaves remain. 
To cure it, we drag it up into the hayloft and set it on some raised grates from old refrigerators (these old fridge grates have many uses around the farm and they’re free!)
July 6, 2007 – Black and White
Emma went to gather eggs, came running into the house to get her camera, and took this picture of a black and white hen sharing a nest box that just struck her fancy!
I just turned it into a black and white photo for fun.
July 5, 2007 – Thingamajig Thursday #79
Here’s this week’s Thingamajig Thursday entry.
Also check out the last thingamajig answer.
As always, put your guess in a comment below.
Hold mouse over this sentence to pop-up answer.
July 4 , 2007 – Three Minutes at a Time
Part of today was designated as “food day.” There were some spring crops in need of harvest, so we got the kettle out and froze away. Most of these veggies require cleaning and cutting, then dipping in boiling water for three minutes and plunging into cold water before putting in freezer bags.
Today we harvested some cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, peas, and apples.
The kids and GJ took the apples outside to peel and core them.
The handy-dandy apple/potato peeler at work!
These will be thrown in bags directly in the freezer and combined with other apples later in the season for applesauce. We’ve found that freezing them makes it easier to make sauce out of them later.
