The downey is back loooking for suet
Late fall prairie 11.12.11
No matter what time of year, the prairie restoration soothes the eye and spirit.
grasses
flower stalks
Goldenrod seeds
Judy and Bob prepare for Minnesota winter, October 22, 2011
due to global warming, local experts say we will have more snow than last year ...is that even possible?
Bob hires “Bullet” to plow the driveway when it is too deep for the snowblower (neighbor’s friend who took out our mailbox late one night)
this hill of snow did not leave until... spring sometime
Bob moves bird feeder inside the fence.
Reservations made for 12 days in Mexico in February.
looking towards the sea and the bar at Petit Lafitte
We are learning, we are learning.
Trip to East Bearskin Lake October 13, 2011
Bob and I drove up to the Arrowhead on the edge of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area to celebrate our anniversary and revisit a place I visited as a child. When I called to book us into Bearskin Lodge I asked if they knew about an old Forest Service Cabin anywhere around there. Yes, they said, right across the bay from us — it is still there and still used for the same purpose (available to Forest Service employees and their families). I was in grade school when Dad worked for the Forest Products Lab in Madison, Wisconsin. Our family took advantage of these offers and visited several remote cabins no longer in use as Ranger stations or lookout stations.
This is me at nine years old at one of the summer USFS spots.
waiting for us in our cabin -- the romantic special included a bottle of Gunflint Red wine and they also gave us a blueberry pie since I said (on facebook) that my brother remembered the blueberry pies -- still a specialty of the Lodge.
#5 cabin -- Birch
a little better than camping
loved this
best pie ever -- you were right, Jerry, remembering all those years ago!
The USFS Ranger cabin we stayed in sometime in the 50s
took a peek inside -- Mom cooked in this little kitchen -- no running water!
down by the water at the USFS Cabin -- a big boat house
looking towards Bearskin Lodge from the USFS Ranger cabin
our cabin #5 Birch at Bearskin Lodge
popular watering hole and restaurant on the Gunflint
a nice lasagna dinner and the Gunflint Red at the Lodge
I am on the new Library Board 10.5.2011
Off and running with the library. I was appointed one of five members of the new board. We have our work cut out for us. Here is the current public relations campaign.
poster for around town
Lake Elmo Press Release
Battle for a library
The Lake Elmo City Council voted to secede from the Washington County library system. Now everybody is mad at us — lots of negativity in the press … I feel like I have joined some kind of mafia gang. I wrote this letter to the editor of the Pioneer Press.
“Bravo to the Lake Elmo City Council for establishing its own library. The county system has been whittling away at our little library for years until now it is almost nothing and it would have been nothing come January 1. This is not a good value for the quarter million Lake Elmo residents pay in library taxes.
Of course, the council knows they must find a way for residents to use the other libraries in the MELSA system, even if it means using some of that revenue to buy each household a library card.
There are many ways to have a viable library system that includes disparate communities. The Stafford Library is appropriate for the community of Woodbury. However, here in Lake Elmo we are trying to preserve our village and small town feeling. Now we have a chance to create a library from scratch that reflects and serves this community. ”
This is the little library on our main street. The county is closing it on Dec. 31.
Kids summer visit — August, 2011
Todd and Ann Marie, Cully, Oliver and Emmett visited for a few days. We had a houseful!
Farm visit
uncle Todd feeds the pony -- weird feeling -- Oliver watches and Cully tries to get a photo
Ann Marie
Uncle Todd and Emmett
my favorite photo
Cully tries to get the brothers to sit together
John Deere trikes.....
happy child
Rosie begs so convincingly
screen time
hanging out -- this is my favorite feeling -- everybody relaxed and at home
They let kids sit at the bar in Minnesota?
hill rolling into traffic waiting at the restaurant -- not really
We watched "Rio" three times, and "Ice Age" a couple of times. Animation movies are amazing these days -- who knew?
Maine and Boston August 2012
Bob and I (continuing our USA travels this summer) visited good friends Barry and Elizabeth (New Yorkers who escape to Maine in the summer). Then a short visit to see Bob’s brother Chuck and his wife Ursula (only Bob calls him Chuck anymore) in Boston.
Quintessential Maine -- Pemaquid Lighthouse
Elizabeth and Barry after breakfast -- blueberry pancakes!
rocky coast
Pemaquid penninsula where Barry and Elizabeth live in the summer
transportation museum
Barry's car at the transportation museum
view from the deck
Barry at the "Lobster pound" ... the 'old salt fisherman'
no comment
so evocative... nice memories
On to Boston
Period costumes at the Paul Revere House in Boston's north end.... history and little Italy!! Great pizza and flashy Italians on cell phones.
At Thoreau's cabin (replica) in Concord. (Strange sun spot on my body....)
inside the replica of Thoreau's cabin. Also saw the Louisa May Alcott house, preserved as it was.
Chuck and Bob
Little Jenny Wren chicks August 4, 2011
Yup, we have wrens. Babies in both nest houses — and the bluebird site says that when wrens find your houses you have wrens forever. They are aggressive towards other cavity nesters: bluebirds, chickadees… I bought another bluebird box to put up.. supposed to put them in clearings, not close to woods and brush — difficult here.
wren chicks - who could resist. So what if they are not bluebirds. Besides, one has to admire the tenacious parents.. it's a jungle out there in the prairie.