Happy Halloween & The First Snow of the Season

This morning we awoke to Halloween and the first snowfall of the season.  Since the weather here as been a little above normal, we didn't think it would stick.  They predicted somewhere between 2-4".   Here are some photos:

I took this photo out the kitchen window - it continued to snow on and off all day but without accumulating any more

We had to go to downtown Houghton and get our flu shots, here is what they got. 

 The lake effect snow comes off the lake, bounces over our farm, and dumps about five miles inland - which is in Houghton.  It was REALLY coming down there.  It was so beautiful.

By evening, the snow was all but gone.  The sky was very striking - much brighter than this photo shows

 We thought since we were new to the area and lived in the country, we would not be visited by little trick or treators this Halloween...but we were very wrong.  We live in an area of Apostolic Lutherans, who are very much like old world Catholics as they believe in very large families. Three of those large families pulled into our driveway and brought their little ones to the door.  Each family introduced themselves to us - they all live within a few miles from our farm.  We had an adorable little lion (about Claira's age), a mime, a little old lady, 2 cowboys, 2 princesses, and assorted minions.  They were all precious but they made me very homesick for my own little ones. I hope to see them soon.

We hope you all had a great Halloween!

Next Project - THE OVERHANG SPACE

Mark has been working on our next project. Attached to the back of the house is an overhang roof, see original photo below:

This space is about 20' X12' 

You can see how bad it looked.  It was used to house wood for the wood furnace.  We still have the wood furnace, but we did not have time to cut wood this year to feed it and even if we did we would not use this space for wood storage.  In the future, IF we have & use a wood furnace, it will be an outside wood furnace, we will store the wood near that furnace.

This space has a dirt floor and that dirt gets tracked into the house all day, every day!  The dirt here is a gritty, sandy dirt that sticks to your shoes. So, we decided we would make this a patio space with concrete patio block that looks like brick. 

When we purchased the farm, this space was actually worse than this - it was almost knee deep in junk 

During our moving we used this as a staging spot for boxes and such 

Mark framed the area at the base, added several layers of top soil, and tamped down each layer.  He also took down the plywood wall (behind Mark, notice it in the second photo above) - it had several holes in it

Starting to lay the brick.  He's moved over 2 tons of brick within the last two days.  Each square block weighs 70lbs and he's moved 80 of them - at least once

The patio floor is now finished - it looks soooo good.

The floor is very solid!  Yesterday, we drove to Marquette to purchase the 2x4s, plywood, vinyl, and lights to install the end wall again.  I'm so proud of Mark because he has never done this before.  He has laid tile, but never a patio on dirt and sand (wood is solid and dirt/sand are squishy).

They are predicting our first real snowfall for tonight, so Mark achieved his goal.  We are expecting 1" of the white stuff, but we know it won't stick, it is still way too warm for a real snowfall.  

Who Says It's Cold Up Here - Windy But Not Cold!

Friday, the weather was GORGEOUS!  It was 67 degrees here with full sunshine and just a light breeze.  We were working in short sleeves. Friday night, the warm front continued to move through.  Saturday we woke to hearing wind whistling through our windbreak.  The temp got to be 57 degrees; however, we had 40 mile an hour wind gusts, but still sunshine. 

Keva called and I was telling her that we drove to the lake to see how the lake was dealing with that much wind.  Here is what the lake looks like on a normal day...

and then a short video of what we found.

 

 At some points, the waves were being pushed all the way up to the parking lot.  We weren't the only people there.  There were other folks at the shore to experience the power of the wind.  We had to shout to be heard trying to talk to each other.  A couple there actually walked out on the sand to have their picture taken by a third person.  I laughed as they had to run back off the beach just as the photographer was ready to take their picture or get VERY wet.

There were some MTU college students barefoot, walking on the huge breaker boulders - Mark and I were actually frightened for them - they think they are invincible and don't know the power of the wind or water.  We stood and watched them for a while until they decided they had gone for enough and turned back.  I think Mark would have tried to assist if things went south.  

Mark is still working on the patio project and I worked, with the assistance of a neighbor and maybe a new friend, to clean out the main aisle of the barn so that her husband's little Z240 and my HHR can be stored in there over the winter - my HHR is way too low to drive during the snowy season.  

Again, it was a good day.

Apples, Apples, and More Apples

While Mark is working on other projects outdoors, I am canning applesauce.

Mark and I spent one afternoon early this week picking about ten bushels of apples - enough for eating apples, applesauce, cobblers, and pies.  Our grand children like applesauce, especially Liam.  Keva LOVES apple pie, especially my apple crumb pie.  Mark is a cobbler fan, so this is a must-do! 

We are still getting to know where all our fruit trees are here, what types they are, and when they ripen.  Some of the apple trees are voluntary thanks to the birds and other animals, eating the apples and depositing the seeds in various places in and along the edge of our woods. We even have one apple tree growing so close to a pine tree that their trunks almost touch and their branches thoroughly intertwine - they seem to have protected each other from the wind and pests.  Some of our best eating apples came from that tree.  None of our trees have been sprayed with anything - they are all very natural.

We think only a few of our trees are summer apple trees that ripen in early August. Most of them ripen about Oct 15-18. We picked all that we could reach either on foot or on a ladder, the rest we left to ripen and drop to feed our large deer population.  Mark won't be hunting this fall unless the deer comes to the door and says, "Shoot me!"  There is just still too much to get done before the snow flies (approx Nov 15) and deer season starts at that time.  As you can see below - some of the apples have the really white pulp, some seem to be golden delicious, and some are russet in color and texture.

Most of them are smaller than last year - probably due to the cool summer

I've found that mixed apples make the best flavored applesauce so I take some of each type of apple

Thank God and my sister, Diane, for my Squeezo -it allows me to cook the apples with the peel on and then let the Squeezo take out the peel any seeds that I've missed

I add only two ingredients - lemon juice to keep them from browning and honey instead of sugar to sweeten.  The apples are a little more tart this year too, so I've had to add a little more honey than usual

The first quarts processed - pints will come last

Alone, I can cut up and process about 18 quarts OR 36 pints a day.  I figure that I have the next two weeks to get through all the canning apples - just in time for the kids to visit over Thanksgiving.
Then we'll use the rest of the apples for pies, cobblers, and munching.  YUM!!  I can't wait!

The Evolution of Our Summer Kitchen

On August 21, I posted some photos of our milk house.  At that time I got the opportunity to clean out that space, take photos of the equipment, and post it on Craigslist.  We finally sold the equipment to a maple syrup producer - they call it sugaring here in the north.  The buyer, Dan Lehigh, and his friend, Chuck, spent the day here working with Mark loading up the two vats, refrigeration units, pumps, and as much of the piping as they could fit on his trailer.  Here are photos:

We hope their trip back to Sault Ste Marie goes well

Empty milk house.  I need to re-clean the space so it can evolve into my summer kitchen. Mark now has more work to do rewiring, plumbing, and patching walls [poor bastard].  (Mark added that as he proofed this - hehehe)

We will install a propane cook top on the raised platform in the corner so that I can process veggies, fruits, etc...

We kept the sinks along the left wall and we will need a new hot water heater.  My freezer and extra refrigerator will be in this space, along with metal shelves and a metal table to make washing up easier.

While Mark, Dan and Chuck worked loading the trailer, I worked in the house and took a walk in the woods. 

God's carpet - one tree was at least 8 foot long - entirely covered in the most beautiful lush moss.  It made me want to take off my shoes and run my feet through it.

In one portion of this long log, a new little pine tree had sprouted.  The decaying wood is providing protection, nourishment and stability for this little sprout.

Today was a very productive day!

To My Grand Kidlets This Halloween

For Rory, Sophie, Liam and little Claira -

Here are some pictures from your Popi and Grammie's farm to show you that we are thinking of you this Halloween.  We miss you very much.

A witch flew into our grainery door on her broom.  She got confused about which way she was going and accidentally ran into the door

We have a pumpkin spider on our front porch, and he went to find some friends, see below.

His friends just sit there, they are lazy and don't like to move around like our pumpkin spider does

We have a Ghost Crossing at the farm - they need a place to cross the street safely and then they float through the fields

These bright yellow leaves are in our orchard

These leaves are in our woods - when you come at Thanksgiving, we can go for a walk in the woods and look for deer and other animals

Vacation Day

Yes, we took a vacation day yesterday.  I know, that sounds ludicrous from a retired person.  But if you are married to the man that I am, you'd totally understand.  As you have read, we've been working hard because winter is coming here in about a month and we will not have the weather to work on outside projects - play yes - but not work on things like building patios...so Mark has goals he wants to achieve before the snow flies.  He pushes himself, not me!  Then he can slow down.  If we had moved in June, I think I'd be writing a different story.

Mark was not feeling his best yesterday so we decided it would be smart to just lay back and play.  So here is what we did:  drove to town and shopped, had lunch at Joey's Seafood Restaurant, shopped for winter boots and cross country skis for me (I've asked for the skis for my birthday or Christmas), and then the real fun started. 

We drove back and went to the beach; the weather was beautiful - 55 degrees, sunny with a light breeze.  Here are some photos:

Cool photo - fat tired bike on the left

Mark took this wonderful photos - driftwood and logs from visitor's beach fire

Mark and I walk almost out to that point

We found this little creation on the beach, someone had a good time putting this together

As I walked, I picked up things that I knew Keva would LOVE.  I also want to try to learn to craft with all the birch bark scattered about here.  I'll keep you posted as I start working with it.
 

This is the coolest piece - it reminds me of the large stone pillars in Utah's Moab Park

Drift wood and birch bark - Kev, you can have all you want

Strange wood long "bead" of wood - with a hole all the way through it

Complete round birch bark pieces, the wood decayed within and fell out as I picked it up

 After we came back from the beach we walked through our woods - getting to know it better.  Here are some of the photos we took

Birch tree sloughing its bark

Another example of the fall colors

Marks calls this the mutant tree - we have many fallen trees in our woods that need to be cleared out

It was a wonderful relaxing day!  Mark feels better today so it's back to work.

Feeling Very Blessed

In setting up any home after moving, you get to the pleasure or chore of choosing and hanging artwork and pictures on your walls.  In many cases the one who chooses, has the chore of hanging them as well.  In our home, Mark takes pride in hanging pictures and artwork, as well as helping me choose what goes up.

Our past home was big enough for both our tastes.  As an example, our last family room was a very masculine room and held his Northeastern Native American (specifically Mohawk) artwork.  I liked his artwork and we chose the colors of nature to compliment those pieces.   I, on the other hand, like to have family photos around me. they remind me of where I came from and have family, a loving family.  To Mark, hanging family photos reminds him of all the old ladies in his childhood Polish neighborhood.  He would rather it be artwork...and less is always better!

With a smaller home - approximately 1800 Sq. Ft. total, I'm trying to fit our artwork where it works.  As I unpacked, I set all the family photos on the upstairs hall floor - trying to get him used to the idea that that space was being reserved for family photos.  What I didn't realize is just how many we had scattered throughout our past house.  

Today is a very rainy, chilly day so we can't work outside.  I've cleaned house, really cleaned the entire house for the first time as almost everything is settled except for finishing the artwork/photos.  We've chosen most of the locations for the actual artwork so now I've started on the family photos.  I stopped by the store and picked up some collage frames to group photos so Mark will not have to hang individual frames.  That way the walls won't look quite so cluttered and be full of nail holes.

I didn't expect what would happen when I brought all the framed photos downstairs and laid them on the table so I could work on them.  They just seemed to form a collage.  As I laid the last few on the table, I stood there looking in teary amazement.  I  realized at that moment just how blessed my life has been - and these pictures showed that.  

Photos of my grandparents, parents, and in-laws as younger adults; photos of groups of friends at events together; our children as babies, teenagers and now parents to our grandchildren - our lives were laid out in front of me.  It was truly overwhelming!  Never had I put all of those photos together.  I grabbed a chair and had to put my camera almost on the ceiling in order to take the picture above of the collage;  you can now see what I mean - we are truly blessed!  I then started to take apart all the frames, one by one, and as I did I got to relive all the memories from the pictures. It was WONDERFUL!

There are many people all over the world that have had hard lives, illness, trials and tribulations with  no family to speak of and we have had this wonderful life, full of family and friends.  And we have proof of the many people we have loved and who love us - there is nothing better in this world!  No better wealth!

Thank you to all of our friends and family for making our lives so rich.  Know that we are still enjoying our display of you all around us so we can be reminded daily of just how lucky and blessed we are.  There ARE a few of you who are camera shy, so I have a favor to ask.  Next time we are together, I want a picture of you so you too can be included in our family blessing hallway!  
As soon as we hang the pictures, I'll take photos of the finished hallway.

Leaf Peeping

I have truly underestimated the fall colors here.  Every day I thought the peak had arrived and then the very next day the colors would be brighter and more varied.  Here are some of the photos I've taken.  A few times I've pulled off the road just to get a better shot.  My photography ability like my camera just doesn't do the colors justice.

Right outside our front door in our wind break

This colors were more vibrant than this shows

I was talking to Kaye at SLU today and I told her that Houghton has weather like St. Louis.  We've always said, "...if you don't like the weather in St. Louis, just wait an hour it'll change."  Well, it is the same here.  We've had temperatures rise and fall 20 degrees in an hour with rain and wind and then an hour later, it's calm and clear.  Today in town, it was sleeting in a sheet at 42 degrees, with the sun shining!  In fact, here is a photo of the rainbow it created:

In Oskar Bay, less than 1 mile from the farm

Just a little later, Mark took this photo.

The locals don't blink an eye at the weather here, while Mark and I are amazed.    We are still enjoying our adventure!!