Month: June 2005

June 20, 2005 – Storms, Pie, and Cars

highhopesgardens June 20, 2005

Today I drove up to get a new used car in Rochester. I had been searching for about 6 weeks after the Prizm turned 200,000. I grabbed my Coming of Age Mentee Cole and we headed out. We secured the 2002 replacement Prizm and drove home, all the way with a big series of storms about two counties behind us. I have a bit of angst about the car after seeing some of the other ones I could have purchased. The Prizm although reliable to the point of sheer boredom, could not compare with the sporty Civic SI with 5-speed gearshift coming out of the dashboard near steering wheel and chrome instrument panel! But in the end practicality won out.

On the other hand, Linda’s cherry pie sure looks good!
flowers

As the storm moved closer it wasn’t terribly impressive, as there was cloudiness ahead of it.
storm 1
The storm moves in.
storm 1
Cousin Jill watches the front moving in.

storm 1
Another shot of Jill to reassure her parents that she is indeed still alive.

June 19, 2005 – First big Flush of Fruit

highhopesgardens June 19, 2005

Today was the first big flush of putting food away. The cherries are beginning and the strawberries are at peak. We’ve got strawberries freezing on cookie sheets, cherries reserved for pie, cherry jam made, cherries drying in the dehydrator, and strawberries left over for eating fresh or waiting for an empty cookie sheet.
strawberry patch
Emma’s helping out in the strawberry patch.
grandmastrawberry
Grandma Jo helped out too!
cherry picking

Martin helped for a short time picking cherries.
cherry picking

Martin examines a cherry.
Later today cousin Jill arrives fro m L.A. and Graunt (combination “adopted”aunt/grandma)arrives from Minneapolis as well.

June 18, 2005 – Decorah, IA

highhopesgardens June 18, 2005

It was time to pick up Claire from music camp at Luther College in Decorah. Here she is with the choir. It must be a blast to sing with this many people!
dorainchoir
Grandma Nana came down from Rochester to watch as well.
doraingrandma
As the concert was quite long – pushing 4 hours including the bands, jazz bands, orchestra, and choir, Martin and I headed off to a state fish hatchery.
hatchery1
The hatchery is nested in a forest outside of Decorah.
hatchery1
The fish are raised to “full size” and released in the cold-water trout streams in Northeast Iowa. Here’s Martin looking at a tank of rainbow trout.
hatchery1
Very near the hatchery, a stream comes right out of a cliff at the base of a hill. It is really cool to see the water coming out of the earth and starting a stream. I’m guessing the reason the hatchery is there is that they use the very cold water coming out of the earth to raise the trout.
hatchery1
Not many things beat throwing sticks down a cascading waterfall!
We also walked a short ways down the stream and looked and found trout swimming. We watched patiently and quietly while a fly fisherman cast a fly over the top of a fish we were looking at. The fly made about 10 passes before the trout jumped up and ate a different fly (not attached to a fishing line) and swam away. I told Martin that his papa would have really loved to take him fishing here as he spent many days fishing the streams around Decorah.

June 16, 2005 – “I Live With my Food”

highhopesgardens June 16, 2005

The other day I was offering Emma “encouragement” via peer pressure by showing the young girls at Sugar Creek Farm butchering chickens. I explained it was part of knowing where your food comes from and having skills that may some day come in handy. (In a related topic, we all know that girls like guys that have skills.) She countered, “I know where my food comes from, Dad, I LIVE with my food.” And you know what – she’s right. She lives with turkeys, chickens, lambs, fruits, vegetable, berries, and a milk goat. She’s got a pretty good idea where everything comes from and the season you can get it.

Tonight was another episode of room cleaning. I’d say we are about 75% done. They need a new bookcase and to sort through some clothes – but the worse is over. The most disgusting find in Emma’s room was a small chuck of dried up pizza under her dresser.

A co-worker said I should check out the brand new $8,000 Kia with 100,000 mile warranty and guaranteed $4,000 trade-in. I could get into a new car for $4,000. Sounding too good to be true, I checked out the web site and found out many of the things I have come to expect in a car (radio, carpeting, Air Conditioning) are not included in that price. So, it’s back to the classifieds.