Archive for the ‘Family – Emma’ Category
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.
December 30, 2011 – Emma at Citrus Bowl
The Bobcat Band has spent the last couple of years raising money for a bowl trip. This year they went to Orlando for the Citrus Bowl. The following photo came from another band parent.
No doubt I’ll have more on Emma’s trip when she returns with her camera.
December 23, 2011 – Christmas Chaos
More than anything, family Christmas gatherings seem to be more chaos management than Silent Night. I won’t pull out the smiling children in front of a Christmas Tree now (that may be coming later).
This photo captures much in its ordinariness. People gather around the appetizers in the kitchen while Martin receives instruction from his uncles regarding sound effect production.
Middle child often gets left out of family publications, so to make it up to her, I found her doing dishes while her siblings were off playing and having fun. Great Christmas memories for Emma, for sure!
November 15, 2011 – At a Wind Turbine Work Site
After seeing the turbine blades lifted in a dramatic night-time maneuver, we thought we’d go check out one not quite built to get a scale of these turbines.
e
The towers are made of three sections. This is the bottom of a yet unattached top tower section.
Here’s the top of the same (third) section – not much room for a person to squeeze through.
Emma with 2/3 of the tower built, along with the blade assembly still on the ground.
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 21, 2011 – Luther Visit
We took a trip to Decorah for a college visit for Emma.
Luther scored points for having traditional Norwegian cookies – including rosettes, kringla, krumkake, and sandbakkle.
one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #230″
October 8, 2011 – Bobcat Marching Band – “Bent”
Today, I traveled to Fort Dodge to watch the Marshalltown High School Marching Band Perform “Bent.” For those that know Emma or band members, it might be interesting, for the rest of you, there will be more farm stuff in the upcoming days!
October 1, 2011 – Emma’s Homecoming
It’s homecoming week and today is the dance.
Here’s Emma goofing off with her date. The local paper endeared themselves to the entire high school by reprinting a previous year’s homecoming article and only updating the homecoming court names and photos. The article was complete with quotes from a previous principal, talk about moving the parade indoors because of rain (it was clear an in the 70s and 80s all week), and had the wrong theme. So the writer and editor both let that onw slip by.
one year ago…”Emma Visits River Museum”
September 24, 2011 – A Sweet Day
Today was honey extraction day. As GJ says, it’s all about separation today. First, you separate the supers from the hive and therefore separate the bees from their honey. Then you separate the individual frames from the supers.
Then you separate the beeswax from the frames. Emma with the heated knife and gj with a wax scraper.
Then you separate the honey from the frames in the extractor.
Then you filter out all the bee parts and remaining wax from the honey.
A final look at Emma with a nice frame. We ended up with about 15 gallons of honey from two hives. Shortly after the aerial jockeys sprayed around our farm, the hive at our place ha greatly reduced activity. After the bees died, the wax moths took over and there was no honey – but the two hives at another location adjacent to about 15 acres of prairie, did very well.
one year ago…”U of M Public Relations Disaster”
September 17, 2011 – Emma’s Golden Birthday
Today was Emma’s “golden birthday” so she had some friends over for the evening and topped it off with a bonfire.
We take our bonfires seriously (perhaps a bit too seriously). At any rate, this one did not escape beyond our property boundaries!
What better to do around a bonfire than plank on a pile of teenagers?
one year ago…”Farm Energy Working Group Meeting”
August 27, 2011 – Putting Tomaotes Up
Today was a long-anticipated day. Last year, we only had enough tomatoes to can seven quarts (it was a good thing we had canned 89 the previous year and had enough left over to get us through). This looks like a great tomato year. It was wet to get them going, hotter than blazes in July, now bone dry in August (avoids bacterial wilt and fungus).
Martin with the first sweep through the garden of the year looking for ‘maters.
A bushel of Romas waiting to be skinned and peeled.
To enable safe boiling water canning of tomatoes, we add 2 tbsp of lemon juice and a tsp of salt for taste.
We throw the tomatoes in boiling water until their skins crack and then put them in cold water to cool.
Then cut out the stem and slip the skins off.
Take about 1/6 of the tomatoes and crush them and bring them to boil, then slowly add the rest (no need to crush). After all the tomatoes are added, bring to a boil and boil for five minutes.
Put in cans and boil for 50 minutes. Today’s haul was 28 quarts of tomatoes. Seems like a lot, but it’s only about two jars a month. These are a staple in our cuisine. Love them as the base of a minestrone soup and an essential part of red hot dish!
one year ago…”Ag Incubator Ribbon Cutting!”
August 22, 2011 – First Day of School
For the record, first day of school, 2011.
Martin and Daisy.
Emma and Maizy. Who ever thought of confusing dogs by giving them rhyming names!
August 12, 2011 – Putting Away the Apples
We’ve been working at preserving the early Williams Pride apples. It’s a wonderfully tart and sweet apple that ripens this time of year.
So far, from just one tree, we’ve put up 18 quarts of apple pie filling, and numerous bags of dehydrated apples, and eight gallons of frozen sliced apples, awaiting another later variety to make applesauce next month. There’s still a good number of apples left on the tree for more applesauce fixins. Oh yeah, I also found some blueberries at the store for 99 cents a box, so since we missed out on the berries up north, froze about half and canned the other half.
But by far, the best concoction is the apple pie filling. It’s a bit of a hassle to make, but all Linda has to do is make a crust, pour in the filling and bake. Great for potlucks and last minute desserts with little fuss.
one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #220″
August 8, 2011 – Emma Returns from Boston
While we were in the Boundary Water, Emma had a much different experience – in and around Boston.
She was a youth leader on a church trip to Boston, to the roots of the Unitarian Universalists and founding fathers (many of them both!). This is the first Universalist church in the US, in Gloucester.
They visited some historical sites important to the beginnings of the church in the US.
They also took in other historical sites, like the with this guide on the Freedom Trail – evidently, if he had to choose, he would choose Emma!
They lounged in the fountains at Frog Pond in Boston Common, bordered by Beacon Street, and next to UU headquarters.
They enjoyed a high-speed, choppy ocean whale-watching (and barf watch as well).
A visit and swim in Walden Pond was also on the agenda.
Finally, who could turn down this wonderful seafood pizza in Boston?
