Yeah! Today I got all the masonite and aluminum siding tore off the back additions to the house while the contractor messed with other things and wrapped in tyvek
To me, it already looks better, as long as we can avoid the red-neck house wrapped in tyvek for 2-3 years look!
The farm is quite a circle of life and death. Tank, our favorite ewe passes last week and 20 baby turkeys (poults) arrive this week.
The good news is it’s so blimey hot that brooding is fairly simple this time of year. It’s hard to believe that by Thanksgiving these will be 16-22 lbs dressed out!
The biggest bummer of vacation was finding out our best ewe died while we were gone.
From a photo this winter, Tank is the brown one in the foreground. Evidently, they went into the shed where the 12 foot fishing boat was stored and somehow (I blame the horse) the boat was pushed off the trailer and Tank was found half underneath the boat.
We told the person watching the farm “If you have livestock, you’ve got deadstock.” But still, finding a dead sheep the first time you came over to do chores is no doubt unnerving. We were way out of cell phone range, but between another neighbor and our remote outsourced farm support in India (Claire), the carcass got buried.
We are happy that Tank had triplets this spring, two of them ewes, so her genes run on at high hopes gardens.
The final photos from the trip are from Tettegouche State Park.
The primary feature of the park is the Baptism River and its journey to Lake Superior.
Part of the Superior Hiking Trail goes through the park.
We took a slight detour and hiked up to this overlook along the trail. Martin was a good sport and enjoyed looking back at the lake and knowing he had hiked from the water’s edge up to this point. He put seven miles on his feet on this hike.
The reward is the high falls of the Baptism River. It is an enchanting place with a big pool below the cascading waterfalls. For July, the falls had a pretty good flow.
Swimming in the pool is a great thrill among the sound of the crashing water and the spray from the falls.
As the week draws to a close, a group shot. Emma commented that this was the first time she really missed her sister!
We drove down the winding and scenic highway 1 from Ely to Lake Superior one day.
This is a view of Shovel Point from near the mouth of the Baptism River.
The water in Lake Superior is uncharacteristically warm this year – the surface temperature this time of year is usually 39 degrees, but this year it is 59 degrees!
Rocks, water, boy – a winning combination!
Emma practices her stone skipping.
A view a bit up the hill of the scene of the previous photos.