Wonderful Visit with Family

On July 5th, we met Keva, Mitch, and the girls in the Wisconsin Dells to pick up the girls.  We met for dinner and then drove back with the girls for a few days while Kev and Mitch vacationed throughout Wisconsin before arriving at the Cold Comfort Farm on July 10. 

I thought I'd share, in photos (Mitch's and Keva's) and videos, some of the time we spent together:

Our first evening we went to dinner at a restaurant where the food and drinks arrive on miniature trains; we highly suggest it if you vacation in the Dells.  The kids LOVED it!  If there were no drinks or food to be delivered, toys are loaded on the trains....Mark picked up a toy for the kids to play with and Sophie (the child who strives not to get in trouble) told Popi to, "Put it back, or he would get into trouble!" 

Mark taking toys off the serving train

We had a grand time and then went next door to play in the arcade.

Food train that delivers food and drink and the track is installed all around the restaurant

The first morning the girls were here, we took photos and texted them to Kev and Mitch saying, "GOOD MORNING MOM and DAD!" 





The kids had a blast running around the farm yard, (free range kids but using walkie-talkies), playing with the rabbits (see the video below) and cats (photo below), and just playing free and easy in the beautiful sunshine and light breeze.

The cats were either sitting in the window watching the kids or resting and being loved, petted, or chased (Claira) by the girls

Claira in Rory's old summer hat chilling in the car...

...or being a fashion diva while watching cartoons...

...or riding on Popi's shoulders!

That's me on the belt - in the top window

Keva and Mitch arrived right as we were assisting our neighbors, Steve and Melissa, hayed one of their large fields.  Mark's job was unloading the hay bales from the wagon and loading them onto the conveyor belt.  Mine was to stand in the barn loading window and guide the bales as they came off the belt and make sure they transitioned onto another belt, which carried the bales deep into the barn loft.  We unloaded 1,034 bales and tossed them into the barn loft to age. That is only a portion of the hay that we will process.

Rory saw her first "real live deer" during this visit. She was surprised that her dad hunted these animals, even though she told him that she wanted to go deer hunting with him. She is not used to animals other than cats, but is getting a taste of farm animals from her visit here. She helped me feed the rabbits, clean their cages, and she fell in love with Cream, our mother rabbit...and Cream fell for her too. She asked me to take a picture of her and place it in Cream's cage so that Cream will not forget her and know her when she comes back. I told her that some animals have a smell memory and she may know her from her smell when she comes again.

                                                                                During Kev and Mitch's visit, we visited local areas, Marquette, and Copper Harbor.  Below are Keva's photos, not mine, of some of the local scenery.  Kev and Mitch both are much better photographers than I am

 

The sound of the water pounding and retreating on this beach actually sounded like water over bamboo - it was the oddest but most beautiful sound...I could have sat and listened all day!

Lake Superior shore

Sophie - our little sand angel

Marquette's Who Tree

Kev, Mitch, and the kids left this morning and even though we are tired, it's a great tired.  We enjoyed their visit very much and I hope they enjoyed the farm.  

My sister, Diane, and her grandson arrive next week, so we'll have some time to rest before we have another child to entertain.

Man Plans and God Laughs

Ice Cream, Cream for short, was due to have her Flemish Giant babies today according to the lady we purchased her from....but either her previous owner wasn't correct about the breeding date or Cream can't read a calendar!  Well, the people who know me well, know that I think God has a sense of humor and he was laughing at our "plan" over the last few days!

Now on to our plan -  Since Mark finished taking out the barn floor and the cement mason will be arriving within the next week, we figured we'd give Cream one day with her nesting box and then move the cage to the pole barn, where it would be quieter.  And Mark was making lots of noise in the pole barn building our potato box and watering system for the garden, so when he finished those projects, we knew we only had a short window of time to move them before the litter arrived.  WELL, We blew that one!

You're suppose to insert a nesting box into her cage three days prior to her due date - and thought we were doing that but within about 12 hours after the nesting box was placed, she started building her nest and promptly had her litter.  The babies were so quiet that we didn't realize they were born.   

So, we put her out in the yard ring pen for some exercise and then started to move her cage, and as we were moving it into its place in the quiet pole barn, we heard baby bunnies squealing.  OMG were we surprised!  We were VERY careful with the pen, but even though we were, we had two bunnies fall out of their warm nest.  Everything I had read said to leave well enough alone for the first 12-24 hours and see if she puts them back, since they were just outside the nest. 

Yesterday morning I went out to Cream's cage to check on the brood - one of the two was not breathing and the other was still alive and still squirming slightly so I petted Cream (she was very sweet and inviting), gave her a rabbit treat to make her happy, and picked them both up.  I felt REALLY badly that our move caused the death of one of her litter; however, rabbits notoriously lose almost half of each litter - everything from deformities, failure to thrive, naturally falling out of the nest, being stepped on by their mom, to even being accidentally being bitten if they are too large to be born and the mom bunny tries to help pull them out. We had another problem in our plan - Mark, Marti, and I were suppose to drive to Marquette yesterday to return some large items to the Loews and pick up some other important items.

Since my family raised bunnies as children, I KINDA knew what to do.  I reached into the fridge for goat's milk (the best substitute for rabbit milk), warmed it to room temp, grabbed an eye dropper, cut a swatch of fleece fabric and grabbed a little box with stuffing to use as a nest and we jumped into the truck for the 1.5 hour trip to Marquette.  I figured if we could get the little one warm, get it to take some milk it just might survive.  Marti and I took turns warming the little one by holding it in the fleece cloth in our hands - that was more important than the food.  It finally started to wiggle wanting to be fed.  We had to stop for gasoline so Marti took that time to try to get it to suck some of the milk from the dropper...it took about 4-6 drops.  We felt better but watched it sleep, stretch, snuggle into the warmth...this little one wanted to live and seems to be a fighter. 

To make a long story shorter, it survived the day (it took milk three times) so when we arrived home, I washed my hands, carried the little one out to the cage, gave Cream a treat, rubbed my hands into her deep white fur for quite a while to pick up her scent, picked up the baby with my bare hands for the first time, rubbed the baby all over with my scented hands, picked some of the fur from the nest, rubbed that fur all over the baby bunny, and then placed the baby into the nest with the other babies.  The entire nest of babies went nuts squealing - I think it was because this one was colder than they were...you all know what it feels like when your spouse comes into your warm bed and puts his cold feet on your skin...I squeal too! 

Well shortly after that they all calmed down and Cream seemed OK with the addition.  This morning I checked the nest and all seemed to be wiggling, stretching and climbing over each other to get in the inside of the pack - I think she has seven or eight babies.  Three black and the rest white/pink.  I took the photo practically standing on my head in her hutch.  I know it's not a great photo - I'll get a better look at all of them tomorrow when I clean the nesting box.  I'll let you know then.
Life is very interesting when you are rabbit ranchers!

June Miscellaney from Cold Comfort Farm

As you would think, the summer months on a farm are always very busy! Marti, Mark's sister, has helped relieve some of our workload during her visit with us - and we appreciate and thank her.  Her help has allowed me to catch up on seasonal work in the garden, planting all our veggies. Now we are working on preparing for a visit from Keva, Mitch, and our granddaughters.  

I've gathered photos over the month for this post so you can enjoy some of the unique happenings here in the UP.

Where in the United States today do you see three young siblings -15, 14 and 12 yrs old (in the local 4H program) taking their sheep for a walk? They walk the sheep twice a week so that the sheep's bodies grow stronger, larger, and are in better physical shape to increase their chance of winning at the local county fair and to bring a better price at the animal auction.

A few evenings ago two of the three kids brought the sheep to our house - Cleo sat in the doorway too scared of these BIG animals to come out. Her eyes were HUGE, watching them as they walked on their leashes, bleating their BAAAA. She has never seen sheep before.  Marti, Mark, and I sat on the patio chatting with the boys and laughing as we watched the scene.

 You can see that the sheep didn't cause too much pain to our cats - this is their typical state.

 

As I clean rabbit cages, I get to see these beautiful eyes and face - I thought you'd like to see them too. (His name is Fog, as his pelt is a velvety variegated beige and grey)

 I am starting to file paperwork on creating our farm, legally, so I thought it best to create business cards.  We purchased the property because of the beautiful barn, so I decided to use it as the background of our cards. Here is mine. 

We have some beautiful wildflowers and plants here - a little pine plant on the left, has dew on the tips of each branch - each sparkled in the morning sunlight. The photo on the right shows lupine that grows both in the wild and in formal flower gardens.

Mark is almost finished with breaking up the barn floor so the cement mason can pour a new floor in the next few weeks. Then Mark will be adding cattle gate walls for horse stalls, on the new floor side of the barn centerway.

The opposite side of the barn will house a chicken coop that will utilize the barn window to create a chicken door and ladder to a fenced chicken yard, a smilar rabbit hutch and yard, and a stall space for a couple of sheep...maybe I'll bid on the neighbor kids' sheep at the county fair in early August (they've asked me if I would buy them so the kids can visit the sheep they raised).

June is such a wonderful month here, the temps are in the 70s during the day, with light breezes and 50s at night; we've had our share of rain this summer, but most of the time the weather is SPECTACULAR! The state's slogan, "Pure Michigan" is right!  Come see us!

Sometimes You Don't Need a Camera, You Have Your Memory!

My luck, as it goes, puts me in situations here where I see ABSOLUTELY wonderful sights but either don't have my phone, with its camera, with me or can't get it out of its case, wake it up, and connect to the camera fast enough to capture the moment.  I used to get so bummed because I couldn't share it with you, but now I just stand there and enjoy the experience. 

The last few winters across the northern US have been tough on the deer population, so we don't see the six to eight deer in our pasture as we've seen in the past.  But we do have one young buck (or doe - can't tell at this point) that has taken a fancy to us, is young enough to still be very curious, and likes to stroll (I mean stroll) with head held high, through our farm.  For the sake of this post, I'll refer to the deer as "him." 

He strolls through our cathedral windbreak - we can see him through our north living room window while we eat breakfast and catch the morning news.  He strolls out from the cathedral through our metal ornate archway...strolls over to our front window and stretches his neck to see in and then just strolls on across the road. 

This morning we didn't see him at breakfast.  I left the house and walked to the barn to feed and check on our rabbits.  Mark had already opened the back barn doors and the sunshine was streaming in...like this photo.  I had walked about half way down the center walk way and looked out at the beautiful morning...just then our young deer friend strolled into the doorway - seeming to be just checking out the barn.  I stopped in my tracks and slowly reached around for my phone.  He looked up at me and froze.  We stood quietly looking at each other for what seemed the longest time!  I was only about 10 short steps from him.  He was beautiful, very muscular, very ALIVE!!  It is more wonderful than I can tell you to be so close to a wild but calm animal. 

After a short time, I tried to slowly reach for my camera again - he didn't like my movement but he didn't run...but just turned and strolled  away.  As he moved away, I grabbed my phone and tried to catch him in a photo from behind.  But just then a truck drove by and frightened him and be bolted away. 

As Keva said in her recent post - being in the moment is a true blessing and you don't need a photo, you just need your memory.

Work Hard and Play Hard at Cold Comfort

I'm sure you've heard the old saying, "Hurry up, daylight is burning!" Well, that is the mantra here in the early summer.  We have four full seasons here but summer has a short growing season, so everyone is in a rush to get their gardens, veggie and flower, in and growing.  We still had a few light frosts during the end of May, so June 1 is the start of our "in the ground" growing season.  Most folks have small green houses so they can get a head start with their planting.  But once the garden is in, there is room for play time and visiting.  Here are some of the before, and after videos of our garden.

We FINALLY have our garden in - we have a strawberry patch, blueberry bushes, current bushes, two cherry trees, and veggies.  I'm experimenting with planting in bales so we have five rows of planting bales and 20 in-ground planting beds (we'll see how it goes).  Our onions, beets, tomatoes, garlic, squash, potatoes, lettuce, spinach and herbs are all up and growing.  I LOVE to watch the seeds germinate and stick their little green heads above the ground!  There is just something about it that makes me smile!

Now that the garden is planted, I'll be working for about two hours a day, watering and weeding until harvest time - then the fall will be filled with canning, freezing, and preserving. It will be so nice to eat our home grown food as we did when we did in our early marriage. Then we had a half-acre garden and it sustained us well.

We can't say that we've done this totally by ourselves.  We've had a visitor staying with us and boy has she been a help!  Marti, Mark's sister, came for a visit and has been helping carrying the load of living on a farm.  She's helped with cooking, dishes, cheese making, yard cleanup, and even the animals.  She says she is now a farm girl because she has helped with feeding the stock (rabbits) and rang the dinner bell to call Mark in for lunch - hehehe.

So now that the garden is in and the hard work is done, we get to play hard.  Houghton's Bridgefest, Bridgefest web site, is this weekend and it's the place to eat and play - so at 5pm the rakes, shovels and hoses were put away for some FUN time.  There were bands, crowds, dinner, beer and wine, and lots of time to sit and visit with friends and do the best people watching - see the videos below: 

You can even hear Mark in the background talking - being funny. After dinner, we wanted ice cream so we tried a new ice cream shop to top off the evening.  Bridgefest continues tomorrow at noon with fireworks at dusk...and it's not even the 4th yet.  They will have fireworks again then...as I said, UP here we work hard but play hard too.

Never a Dull Day at Cold Comfort Farm

We had a VERY odd day yesterday so I thought I'd share it with you.  The day started with Mark getting up early to start working in the garden, moving top soil into some of the lower garden beds before we left to assist a neighbor transplanting strawberry runner plants into a new garden bed (they own a small truck farm and have had some health issues lately). It took about 2 hours and we were thanked with new rhubarb and eggplant plants. 

When we arrived home around noon, we welcomed a bridal party (yes, you read correctly and grubby as we were) to take wedding photos on our farm.  A Dunstan family wedding.  Since our farm has been called "...the old jewel of the township," many neighbors have lifetime memories working here so photos on the farm are special to them; they even invited us to the wedding.  Here is a short video below of them gathering for the photo session:

While they took photos, the cars that happened to drive past honked and hollered in congratulations.  It reminded me of Columbia (circa 1950s) where everyone honked when seeing a wedding party, even in front of church. 

We left them to take their photos and continued working on our garden fence, all while enjoying watching them in their happy state.  It made our work the easiest of the day as we were able to watch their happiness!  They stayed for about two hours, and took most of their photos around the barn so we had quite a view of them. 

About 1/2 hour after they left, Mark called to me that the Red Jacket Trolley was driving by...and had pulled in across the street. We left the garden, peeking our heads around the trees and looking down the driveway.  A photographer stepped out of the Trolly and asked it they could take pictures of their bridal party in front of the barn (we've never met these folks).  We smiled and said, "SURE - why not!" Since my hands were gloved and dirty...and I was in the garden without my phone, it took me a little while to go to the house for it - but here is a glimpse of the second bride of the day.

When the fence was finished, we started planting the rhurbarb, cranberry bushes, and strawberry plants.  At 4:30, we finished and got ready to attend the wedding...with 600 of our closest strangers (really, we knew the bride's immediate family of about 100 people).  It was an Apostolic Lutheran wedding so the families are very large, lots of babies and children, and it included the entire church community.  WOW - what a crowd to feed at the reception.  Since there were so many to feed, Mark and I decided to go for a late dinner at a nearby restaurant and so their food would go further (the mother of the bride was very worried that the food would hold out). 

Over dinner, we reflected on our day and realized that we do not have a dull life here!  It was WONDERFUL to have young people on the farm, being around youth always makes us feel more alive and happy.

I'm Finally In Style With Granny Hair

While watching a news show last week, I learned that the new height of fashion today, for about $700, is "Granny Hair!"  Young girls are paying to have their hair colored/stripped to gray, silver, and white for a big price tag.  That caught my attention. 

Years ago, I told Mark and the girls that I wanted to be the kind of grandma that had white hair, a big smile, gave big hugs, and smelled like lavender! I was still working when I became a grandmother and had a job that didn't allow for a skunk trail on my head while my hair grew out.  So, once I retired, I made the decision to let my hair grow out and see just how WHITE my hair really was.  I figured if I didn't like it, I could always go back to coloring it.

Little did I know that I would be STYLIN...and I didn't have the expensive ticket price!  Now that it has almost grown out, I am learning that my hair is much whiter in the front than in back like my mother's, is a totally different texture than before, and I actually can't wait for it to go totally white.
Mark took a photo of me to post (personally don't like selfies) so I could share it will all of you who have not seen me in a while so, next time you see me, you won't be surprised.  The first time Rory saw me after the change she said, "Grammy, you look like Frozen!"  I laughed and agreed, I am starting to look like Elsa, but I think she's whiter than I am.  Hummm, maybe that is what started the Granny hair movement.

If I'm starting to look old..I might as well embrace it!

So, I'm here to tell you that you can have white hair and love it...and be in style!