Archive for the ‘Family – Claire’ Category
April 16, 2013 – Tour of Iceland!
I’ve been captivated with Claire’s photographs from Iceland. It was an optional trip in her study abroad in Denmark. The vistas, water, and absence of power lines and other human marks upon the landscape make it an interesting place.
The first stop, was of course, Reykjavík, the largest city, consisting of about 120,000 people.
An Icelandic harbor.
Can you say layers? Claire’s got it down.
The Lutherans do it up in grand style in Iceland!.
Claire’s comment on this outfit: “Icelandic fashion, go home, you’re drunk”.
I hope she doesn’t drag this fellow home!.
Beware Vikings ahead! Claire was quoted in an article in the Copenhagen paper asking about American impressions of what Vikings are like.
She had a chance to do all the things you’re supposed to do/see in Iceland.
This at the Whale Fjord. The only picture out of water where she isn’t bundled up!
An Icelandic farm with the famous Icelandic horses. This breed is the only kind of horse in Iceland. Importing any horse is illegal, and if one of these leaves the country it cannot ever come back.
Here she is with one of the horses.
They took the horses on a ride through the countryside.
The intriguing Gullfoss waterfalls .
Another view of the falls.
In Claire’s own words “The most awkward titanic photo ever!”
Another of Iceland’s features are the geysers. in fact, this place geysir is where the word “geyser” comes from.
Thar she blows, this one, every five minutes.
Of course, there are hot springs from all the geothermal activity. This is the BLue Lagoon.
How cool is it to be in water in Iceland?.
Out in the countryside.
This crack is where the european and north american plates meet.
With some fellow students at a late sunset near the harbor.
January 14, 2013 – Is There Still Something Rotten in Denmark?
We sent Claire over the pond for a semester abroad in Copenhagen – she’ll let us know. It was considerably easier than sending her to India for the summer when she was 17!
Some of you may noticed the new button at the top of the page entitled “Over the Øresund” which is the name of the bridge from Sweden to Denmark and the title of Claire’s blog. She’s already made a few posts, since they are a day ahead of us! You can click it to get to Claire’s thoughts there or here.
November 19, 2012 – Brief Morning on Lake Superior
Before the noon funeral, we were afforded a few brief moments on Lake Superior.
We awoke before the sun and headed down to Brighton Beach.
Merchant vessel Walter J. McCarthy Jr. heads out of port for points east. She’s a modern great lakes boat, about 1/5 of a mile long, measuring 1,000 feet long.
November 20th on the lake in fall coats?
We also took a short walk up Lester Creek. All of the shots today were taken within the city limits of Duluth, a great place to get outside.
August 23, 2012 – Barnfam Photos
With Claire home only a few days between her summer at Wolf Ridge on the Superior coast and starting school, we thought we should try to get a few family photos.
First, the big picture.
The family.
The offspring.
June 7, 2012 – Someone Else’s Canoe Trip
While Martin and I were bumming around northern Minnesota, the girls and a couple of brother-friends were on a canoe trip.
I offered help, only as asked as Claire gets all things packed for the trip.
Aa beautiful day to hit the water paddling.
Emma, at the stern in her element.
Claire portaging the canoe between lakes.
All settled in at the campsite.
Creative cooling as always when camping – why not put some dried fruit and nuts in the biscuits?
Pump, pump, pump that water through the water purifier.
Some of the crew at the head of a portage.
The whole crew having a snack near the end of the day. I take it as an encouraging sign that the bugs are not so bad to allow shorts. I’m sure it must have been a great trip for the kids to manage successfully without parental guidance for five days in the wilderness.
June 1, 2012 – Dropping Off the Girls in the BWCAW
For better or worse, we agreed to allow Claire and Emma go on their first longer canoe trip (without parents) with a couple of friends who happen to be brothers and do not have BWCA experience. I used it as an opportunity to see them off and get them up and back. Since it’s about a 10 hour drive, we stayed for a night before the trip and after the trip at Kawishiwi Lodge where we have spent many summers.
I’ve recently received complaints about the lack of pictures of me on the blog. Here’s one at Lake One on the night of our arrival.
And one of Martin as well.
The crew the last night before heading into the wilderness.
The group just moments before they headed off down Moose Lake for points east and north.
May 18, 2012 – Hog Barn Refresh
There’s only two sides of buildings that haven’t been painted since we moved in. The north side of the old wooden machine shed, andt this, the east side of the hog barn.
Since Claire is one to keep busy, I put her in charge of taking care of it (except for the high parts).
May 9, 2012 – Big Gardening Day on the Farm
It was a great “getting things done on the farm day.” It was the first day that Linda and Claire were home all day, so the garden and other things were transformed.
First, Claire volunteered to clean out winter from the hen house. About five overflowing loader buckets (liberally soaked with water to aid the composting process) and the hen house was ready for fresh bedding, and next year’s compost is on the way.
Many plants and seeds and mulch found their way into the garden as well. We got the recycled lumber tarps out of the barn, Linda planted a bunch of peppers and tomatoes. I went to the neighbors via the bumpy dirt trail between the crop fields and retrieved two loads of loose straw from the loft of their barn and put the tomato cages on, pounded the stakes in, spread the mulch and wet it all down.
This photo shows some hearty garlic on the right, a cattle panel trellis that we put up this weekend. It has pole beans on the outside and lettuce and spinach underneath, hopefully to last a bit longer into the summer with the shade of the beans. To the left of the trellis is some space reserved for viney plants before a row of tomatoes. It’s nice to have that mulched portion of the garden already weeded for the whole season!
At the end of the day, I took some time to pull thistles from the pasture. It appears that last year’s pulling them out by had greatly reduced the population in the paddock we tested last year. We’ll continue that on the other paddocks this year.
January 3, 2012 – Year In Review
It’s time for a year=end review of some of my favorite moments and photos of 2011.
Kids and baby animals are hard to beat.
Extremes in any domain are interesting.
Martin’s new found love and interest in cooking gave us many great meals.
The promise of a neat spring garden always brings hope.
Linda’s wild look in the White House captures a moment.
“Walking the Talk”
Claire as a professional at her work post in DC.
Dad and Martin up on the North Shore of Minnesota.
Martin’s initiative to carry a big pack, rather cheerfully over 3.5 miles of portages.
Emma exploring new foods in Boston.
Taking care of some of our own responsibly-grown meat.
Visiting with women farmers from around the world at our farm.
The majesty and scale of the new wind turbine farm just south of our farm.
Finally, after 20 some odd years (who’s counting, exactly) the love of my life shining a little light of hers.
January 2, 2012 – Claire’s Caucus Quest
As Claire was running out things to do at home with all her college friends gone away and most of her high school friends on a band trip to Florida, she thought it might be educational to visit all the Republican candidates running around in pre-caucus-mode. In the matter of a few days, she was able to see four of them in Marshalltown, and was able to make a trip to Cedar Rapids to pick the last two in an afternoon.
Interesting juxtaposition of Claire’s t-shirt and political candidate!.
Claire with everyone’s favorite grandpa politician.
According to Claire, warm monster cookies provided by the Romney camp might be enough to swing anyone’s vote!
Rick Perry speaking to what he knows about in Marshalltown.
Claire with the only other declared female presidential candidate.
Rick Santorum live on the campaign trail. All in all, a good week for a poly-sci major to see candidates in action.
December 11, 2011 – What do They Have in Common?
What do the following people have in common?
They all met Claire at an “event” in a 37th floor penthouse in downtown Minneapolis! A few days before the event, the chair of the Political Science department at Macalester College asked if she could provide the name of a handful of students who might want to attend. Claire was picked and got to meet Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton, Minnesota Senators Al Franken and Amy Klobuchar, Agriculture Secretary Vilsack, Iowa Congressional challenger Christi Vilsack, Former VP Mondale, and Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Ryback.
Claire enjoyed it immensely and in a debriefing with her professor the next day, she told Claire, “I’ve never seen a student work a room like you.”
The next day she received a call from the Governor’s office inviting her to interview in two days for an internship and by Friday she had the new internship. Her schedule is now set for a bit – Spring semester she has the internship in the Governor’s Office and her work-study internship in the Children’s Museum. She’s lucky to have two of her classes at night, so she has time during the day for these experiences. This summer is also set, as she’ll be back in Secretary Vilsack’s office in DC as she was last summer.
October 29, 2011 – Rocky Horror
Claire was home for a short break and was excited to go to a midnight showing of Rocky Horror Picture Show.
Guess I’ll let the picture speak for itself! Evidently a good time was had by all, with props provided by the theatre.
one year ago…”Signs of the Times”
October 19, 2011 – More Oxfam Pictures
A while back I posted some pictures from some international visitors brought to high hopes by Oxfam. They had a professional photographer with the group and following are some of the pictures taken by Ilene Perlman. I’ll let the photos speak for themselves (except for one that needs some explanation).
This type of water pump handle was familiar – it was interesting to see this woman “pump” the handle up and down, like I remember the pump on my grandfather’s farm.
one year ago…”Signs of the Times”
October 16, 2011 – World Food Prize/Oxfam Visitors
Once more this year, we were fortunate to host some amazing folks who were in town for the World Food Prize Symposium. This year’s event was much smaller than last year’s, but just as interesting.
Many of the folks who stopped by were international visitors who are used to living in rural areas, and were thrilled to get out to the country after spending a week in hotels downtown. One of my favorite moments is when one of the visitor’s eyes light up when they see or smell something familiar to them – whether it be the aroma of a fresh herb in the air or seeing and old standard-breed chicken.
Here Linda speaks with Mrs. Silas Samsom Buru, a farmer from Ethiopia. Although she had never traveled more than a few miles from her village in her life before this trip, she was on a panel at the symposium panel with VPs from Wal-Mart, Kraft Foods, and NGO Director Generals and was a natural at expressing her viewpoints. She spoke about a new crop insurance program that pays out not based on an individual farmer’s crop loss, but instead if average yields fall below a certain level in the region. Farmers can pay with cash, or improve their long-term farming sustainability by soil organic matter improvement to make the soils hold more water through droughts. She said the program has the possibility of improving the lot of the next generation so they will not need so much outside food aid.
The woman in front of Linda is Nelly Velandia from Columbia. Nelly practiced civil disobedience by setting up a farmer’s market in towns where they were not prohibited, on the steps of the government building. The markets were a huge success and the rules were changed. In Bogotá, she even convinced the mayor’s office to help cover the cost of setting up markets in parks and public squares. The markets offer poor rural farmers a much more profitable return and urban residents cheaper, more nutritious food.
It was uplifting to share stories among these women of their efforts to improve their corners of the world.
