Dec 30, 2005 Star out shooting with a disposable camera during a pause in the snowstorm.  Likely to be seeing the township plow again within a week or so.

Dec 16, 2005 Township plow got here this afternoon.  $80/hr, 15 minute minimum ($20) this year.  Takes him less  than 15 minutes to do our drive, but that is just driving in and out.  Still a fair amount of shoveling left to do to clear the garage apron.  Nice light snow, so no problem.

Dec 15, 2005 First real snow yesterday and last night- about 5 inches with the possibility of a little more in the next couple of days. Might get plowed out in a day or so.  If the township's snowplow is working.

Grandma Star & Ben

He has toes.

Mom, Dad, & Ben

Mom & Ben

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Oct 21, 2005 The turkeys are back.  The first time we have seen a big flock.  A solitary hen was in the field most days this summer, and a group of three toms were out front in the late summer many days.
 

Oct 19, 2005 Leaves are beining to fall off the trees

Oct 8, 2005 Shower for Jess.  Grandson is due early December.

Oct 3, 2005 Leaves are beginning to change color in the front yard.

Sept 10, 2005 Picked some of the pumpkins, squash and gourds - about ten percent of the harvest is in or near the pickup below.  Lots of bird house gourds yet to pick, mostly from seeds I saved last year.

Sept 5, 2005 Star won the Grand Championship in the quilting show at the Ridgeland World's Fair (They really do call it that - everywhere but in print).  The first place is for the category (Hand applique), the Grand Champion ribbon is for the best of any kind of quilting - about 30 entries including the quilted jacket next to Star.

27 Aug 2005 Mike & Linda's wedding

26 Aug 2005  Wandered through Cotton on the way to Mike & Linda's wedding.

The old house burned down last spring - the branches in the willow tree over Star's head are scorched.  John Sharp put in a double wide to replace it.. The same kind of signs are still at the end of the road.

First week of August, 2005  Went to an exhibit of artifacts from Petra in Grand Rapids Michigan.  I have no idea how long the site will be up, but info on the exhibit is at http://www.calvin.edu/petra/

Of course we had to get there.  Driving through Chicago was not one of the options so we took the ferry across Lake Michigan.

The boat is backed into the dock,  controled from a "bridge" at the back - those three widows.  Drove back through the UP.  Much like Wisconsin with very expensive condos on the lake shore and defunct farms inland.

July 1, 2005 Our entire strawberry harvest.  We planted 25 in the spring and cut off the blossoms to encourage running.  Looks like we will have a fair number of plants next year. Have to keep the strawberries wattered.

June 7, 2005  A  bit of hail this evening along with 2" of rain in about an hour.  Doesn't seem to have harmed the garden much.  A few torn leaves is about it, though a bunch of stuff is really dirty from the soil thrown about by the hail and rain.  Hail as big as I have ever seen it, but not much that size.  Mostly about the size of a dime. Tornado was reported in Wheeler - about six miles south of us. Did have a rainbow at the end of it.

May 16. 2003 Yup, May 5 was way to early.  Only the peas survived a drop to about 17F - about 3/4" of ice on the bucket.  Planted a row of radish, letuce, Swiss chard, beats a couple of days ago and they have come up.  Went to Klingers today and got a whole bunch of bedding plants as well as a cherry tree.  Can't resist a nice looking zone 3 fruit tree.  Klingers is a great place to get plants - they must have 50 different kinds of tomatoes and almost as many kinds of hot peppers.  Put most of them into our toy greenhouse till June.

May 5, 2005  Garden is tilled and some things are planted (onions, potatoes, peas, letuce, swiss chard, radish, beets).  The garden is about 120'x50' - went a bit overboard but will have lots of pumpkins.  Hope the deer leave a bit for us.

Don't ever let anyone talk you into one of the tent type green houses.  We found one at a good price last year, but it isn't likely to last another year.  The wind and rain make a real mess of it, and the zippers don't last long.  We have it tied to the house so it doesn't blow over.

Feb 14, 2005 About 4 inches of snow at sunrise, had settled/melted to less than half of that by the end of the day

Jan 23, 2005  First real snow of  the season

Nov 26, 2004 After Turkey Day in North Carolina.  Other photos are here.

Oct 11, 2004  View of part of our front yard.  The garden has been mostly cleared, we will leave up the sunflowers on the north edge for the critters.  The rest will come out so I can dig in some more turkey manure and spread the cow manure that has been composting in a pile.  This sand seems to be able to take an almost unlimited amount of turkey manure.  Put it on about three inches thick in spots this year and those were the best areas.

Oct 10, 2004 One of locals set up a turkey blind in our front yard this year.  He spent the first morning huddled under a downed Jack Pine on the edge of the field and watched nine hens & chicks fly down from their roosts behind the house.  Set up his blind that evening and came out before sunrise.  For almost the first time this sumer, no turkeys in the field at sunrise.  I think there was to much activity the night before so they roosted somewhere else.  He did get his neck full of ice water when the frost melted on the inside of his blind as the sun hit it.

August 29, 2004  Been out gathering firewood.  All oak this year.  Mike Falls gave me the new trailer - new in the sense it is about 20 years younger than my tractor.  With the wood pile next to the house, there is no hope whatsoever for a really plush lawn.  Those tires really rip up the turf.  Not to bad if it hasn't rained for several days, but clay from the basement digging turns real nasty when it gets wet.

July 24, 2004  Went to Elmwood, a small town (bigger than Wheeler, about the same as Ridgeland) about 20 miles the other side of Menomonie for their Flying Saucer Days.  About as good an excuse for a town to celibrate as any.

    June 2004 Stairs to the main door are done.  Geezer stairs with a bench half way up.  Did that after I had sworn that I would never dig that many post holes again.  Was real fun going through the clay and sandstone.