Happy New Year!

It's time for the year long blog hiatus to end. My New Years resolution is to post at least once a month. Let's see how that goes! This picture from the farm was taken just before Thanksgiving 2011. Since that time the snow has all melted and the temperatures have been on the rise. Just yesterday the temp in Park Rapids,Mn was 50 degrees! Amazing for January in these parts! (Kinda of scary too. Global warming?? El Nina??)

Cows on the Farm!

We finally have some livestock! Okay, maybe it's not so "live" as it is just stock, but aren't they cute! Mind you there will never be live cows on the farm, they're too messy and the farms too small so to make a certain former dairy farmer happy we have these!





I was up late our last week of the season and there was a brilliant full moon. Looked like daylight outside. I took this photo at 11:30 p.m. with an open shutter and no flash. It's a little blurry as I was holding the camera.



This one I took the next morning at about 6 a.m. That's the moon!!

Tree on House BAD!

Hours after arriving home from the farm on Sunday, August 15th we received a call from our 'up north' neighbors that a tree was on our house! We fought the urge to jump into the car at 6 p.m. and make the four hour trip back since we would be arriving in the dark and may not have a place to sleep. So bright and early, 3 a.m., Monday morning we drove back to the farm and found this:

Fortunately some poplars and a birch tree were in the path of this falling balsam and gently eased the giant tree onto the roof rather than allowing it to crash.

Now it was just a matter of removing the tree gently so it didn't take out the door roof or deck below. The thought was to use the loader on the John Deere to lift the tree and quickly push it forward and down. Easier said then done!

With great luck and the help of good neighboors, Thanks Al and Kathy!, we got the tree off the roof, righted the tractor, and sustained minmal damage. WHEW!!!

The tree was punk and hollow in the middle. With all the rain we had the rotting root structure just couldn't support the tree any longer and a gentle breeze was all it took to lay this tired balsam down.

Of Socks and Snowshoes

Totally hooked on this snowshoeing thing, Francis and I drove back up to Park Rapids his birthday weekend to "shoe" somemore. We drove out to the hunting property owned by his brothers and snowshoed back into the shack. This time I toted along a back pack with a thermos of coffee and some snacks as well as knitting. We both discovered our bliss for that day! (click on pictures to embiggen)

His:

Mine:

Oh, and in case you're wondering, I only fell once this time and that was when I turned to take the first picture in this post. Totally worth it......

I Tvaandsstickned when I should have....

With my co-worker's baby due in less than 3 weeks and me only half way through the baby afghan I'm knitting in dk weight (what was I thinking???) I decided this would be a good time to try a new knitting technique called Tvaandsstickning which is Swedish for two-ended knitting. Here in the good ol USA, where we have no idea how to pronounce this word and are not even going to try, call it twined knitting. I found the book Twined Knitting by Birgitta Dandanell at my local library (this book is out of print now and quite pricy on Amazon.com). The gorgeous mittens inside the book could not wait for a baby afghan to be completed. So I dove in and with a little help from YouTube learned to cast on and started my first mitten!


By knitting from both ends of the skein or with two skeins, it's similar to two color knitting only using one color. You twist the strands between each stitch creating a dense fabric that will keep your hands warm and toasty!

Snowshoeing...not just for the graceful

We drove to Park Rapids last weekend to make sure everything was okay at the farm and to try a little snowshoeing. What fun it would be to go back into the thicket where I dare not tread when the ground is swampy, the brush so thick and enough mosquitos to carry you away. I won't go into the wood ticks.. ewww.....

And it was fun. The day was beautiful, a balmy 13 degrees with bright sunshine and no wind. Perfect for outdoor recreation. (Click on the pictures to bigify)

All went well... for a while... then this happened:

Help! I've fallen and I can't get up. What's the first thing my loving husband does when he see's my predicament? Pull out the camera. Thanks honey...

Back on my feet, (below is proof that I did spend part/most of my time upright) we snowshoed through the thicket for about an hour, walking the property line and ending back at the pasture.

Then we drove a couple miles up the road to where the Zilka boys have some land with a hunting shack. Francis wanted to drop off a salt block to see if it would deter the porcupine that's been eating the wood and tar paper off of the shack and outhouse.

I felt like I was shoeing (would that be what you would call it? sort of like calling snowmobiling sledding?) through a magical forest.. maybe I was. The ice storm from the previous weeked left the trees with a brilliant sheen of ice that sparkled in the sun. It was so crisp and clean and fresh. With Francis doing the work of breaking the path, I could have gone on for miles!

This was a spectacular day and we hope to find another free weekend to get back up there and do some more shoeing!

The Retreat

I spent four blissful days at the farm doing only what I wanted to. Heaven. Saturday morning, after a farewell breakfast with the family, I drove up to Park Rapids, stopped at the grocery store to pick up a few things and then, since I only had a van full of dyed fleece, a drum carder, spinning wheel, and 5 different knitting projects for four days, I stopped at Monika's to pick up some "just in case I run out of things to do" yarn. Don't waggle your finger at me, I know I have fiber issues... (click on pictures to bigify)

Sunday and Monday were spent, carding, blending and spinning the "Socks and Mittens" wool I dyed last summer. I had no particular goal in mind, other than to end up with some sock yarn. I used Suffolk fleece from Francis's brother-in-law Dean. I love this fleece for socks and mittens as it does not felt easily, and is very springy and sturdy. In fact, when machine washed and dried, it fulls slightly and makes a nice "cushy" sock.

Tuesday I drove the backroads to Perham to visit a shop called At Loose Ends. This is a cozy little yarn shop in a house that is over a hundred years old and has all those neat little rooms. The proprieter is Lil McRae and she was so warm and helpful! She carries everything for knitting, spinning, weaving, felting, and any other type of fiber art you may want to try. And if she doesn't carry it, she'll find it for you.

Wednesday I sadly packed the van and headed home. I'll miss the farm but I do feel wonderfully refreshed and ready to dive back into work!