An autumnal equinox to remember!

Sometime last week I googled "first day of autumn" to see on which day it fell this year.  And I was surprised!  First day of fall on the 23rd?  That's rather unusual, isn't it?  Shouldn't it be the 21st or 22nd?  And then I mentioned it to a few people, including our neighbor in 4th grade.  And I still didn't think it was right and wondered if I was leading him astray.  But then today, there is was on Google's search screen--Google was celebrating the day with an animated logo.

And we've had the most beautiful days of the whole summer in the last few days.  Perfect temps, not a cloud in the sky, perfect fall days.  So here are a couple pictures of fall around the farm:

 The leaves changing colors is really just starting.  This next weekend should be really colorful, and on into October.   So now the maples really show themselves in among the pines and apple trees.

And it's probably because of all the rain we've had, but there's such a variety of mushrooms, including these little orange ones.

And check out this sunflower stalk!  That's about 10 sunflowers on one stem!

 And another one.  We'd better get those heads off, at least the big ones, and put them out for the birds.

And for the first time in many years, the apple crop is CRAZY!  Even the wild ones up in the meadow are good this year.  It must have been a perfect combination of weather and...weather!  There's no other explanation. 

And this has nothing to do with fall, but a result of moving the old house off the foundation.  The power to our little maple sugar shack, and to the old garage in the background, all came through the old house.  So when power was cut to move the house, we had to reconnect those buildings to our new power box.  And that involved trenching to lay wire to those two buildings.  And that leaves us with more grass to grow.  We almost had all the bare patches growing nice grass, and now we start again.

Since he trenched through the site where the barn used to be, he also dug up a bunch of old rocks from the barn foundation.  That field stone just isn't very pretty.  Our excavator was pretty insistent that we needed to collect those rocks for some other project.  Since he was the one who did our rock work for our garden in front of our house, we took his advice and here are our new rocks to put to use somewhere.

Happy Equinox to all!

One house: Ready to move!

The last phase of our building project, scheduled maybe at the end of October, suddenly began in the last two days.  After some hard work on the part of three guys yesterday and today, our old house is up on steel beams and ready to move to its next location.

Here's how it all began.  On Wednesday they brought in a trailer with two LONG beams, some shorter beams, a couple of big stacks of large railroad tie-sized timbers, a bunch of cement blocks, a bobcat and all their tools.

First they removed anything from the basement that would be in their way.  Luckily we had removed everything we could move or wanted.  They removed the decks away from both doors so the entire foundation was exposed.

In all the time I've thought about this happening, I always wondered how they would separate the house from the foundation.  I pictured them with some giant sawzall, going around the whole house.  Nope, that's NOT how they do it!  Instead they smash away the whole foundation in sections, all while shoring it up from the basement floor with stacks of those railroad ties in key spots to support the house.

Here's the bobcat with a jackhammer bit on the front.  I can say because I saw it with my own eyes that he was able to smash through the 1980's cement blocks supporting the 1980 addition a whole lot easier than the rest of the foundation--an almost-foot thick wall made in 1925 out of rocks held together with cement.  Pictures of that coming later...

Once they got enough of the foundation removed, they slid these huge beams under each side of the house.  There was a lot of measuring going on to get those beams in just the right spot.

Here are the beams coming out of the back of the house.  There are still some portions of the foundation left to hold up the house in some spots.

And that's about how it was left yesterday.  Today when I strolled over (nosy rosy!), I saw that they had about 4 house jacks set up under the house on top of those railroad tie stacks.  Turns out they had already jacked up the house 4 inches on the one side.  One of the guys was cleaning off these plates about a foot square in size.  Those plates were going to be placed under those beams so the beams could S-L-I-D-E forward and off the basement foundation.

But first they had to remove my Dad's flagpole and one cedar tree.

Then one of the guys connected the winch cable to the house from the bobcat which would be doing the pulling.  There was another larger truck to the left of the bobcat to give more weight to that end of the operation.

They slid it forward about 6-8 feet at a time, and then moved the railroad ties from the back of the house up to the front so they could move it some more.  See the stacks of timbers stacked on the basement floor?

Moving timbers.  Notice where the side deck in now.  Just a little more to go.

Here are the stacks of timbers after it was completely off the foundation.

And here it is, all ready to get put on wheels.  We don't know when that day will be.  There are permits to get and Xcel Energy has be available to manage power lines as the house goes under them.  The person getting the house is very excited so that makes it all worthwhile!

And here are some of those rock foundation walls.  Our friends here in town are building a house with walls like this now in 2014.  These were from 1925.  I can just imagine all those "Larson boys" working hard to make these walls.  I'm glad someone else will be able to enjoy this house into the future.

Yes, Walt Disney, it really is a small world after all!

We have our first non-North American guests staying with us tonight.  They were from the Netherlands and were traveling in the United States and Canada for a couple weeks, then going on to visit friends for a while.  We were sitting around talking this evening when the phone rang.  It was our neighbor who was at the Port Bar and noticed a couple who were looking for a room for the night.  They had encountered several "no vacancies" along their way so were happy when we still had a room available.

Now for the "small world" part.  This second couple had lived in the Netherlands for a period of time several years ago and they even still spoke a little Dutch.  Crazy!  To meet up in little Port Wing, Wisconsin!

So, with our rooms filled, we are waiting for the over-predicted big storm tonight.  At least I'm hoping it's over-predicted.  Sounds like we are just supposed to get lots of rain and wind.  I've heard predictions for possible Lake Superior wave heights of 10 to 25 FEET! (Thanks, John Harrington!)  Why do the strains of Gordon Lightfoot run through my head on hearing about "gale warnings?)

Meanwhile, back on the farm, the Xcel energy truck came today to shut off power to the old house.  Because they came pretty quickly, the mover said they might come tomorrow to begin prepping the house for the move, depending on the storm, of course...

 I took some (possibly last) pictures of our sunflowers before the winds arrive tonight.  It was some kind of variety pack of seeds so they are all a little different.  Hope they are still there in the morning.

And Leann used all our red tomatoes (so far) and made a batch of the tomato relish that we serve with our egg dishes.  It's a fresh relish so it goes in the refrigerator rather than being processed.   People seem to like it.

Well, we have our flashlights and jugs of water ready for if/when the power goes out and we have no pump.  (Ah, life in the country!)  Stay tuned...

Photo shoot at Quarry Beach

We say many times during the summers we've lived here that we need to get down to the Lake and enjoy the beach more.   But then work and other distractions get in the way.  Today we remedied that by going to the beach, but we had another motivation...taking pictures of our neighbor, Dave, on his stand up paddleboard.

Dave moved here a few years ago and in his semi-retirement he has discovered the benefits of paddleboarding.  I don't think I have permission to "tell all" here, but I think he would say that this activity has given him a new lease on life, as well as better balance and a way to "sail" his way into some of the nooks and crannies of most of the waterways around here.  In the shot below, Dave is heading around the point to see what the wind conditions are over there.  He didn't come back while we were there, so it must have been okay.

I talked Dave into doing this photo shoot so I'd have some possible shots for later when we update the Port Wing brochure for next summer.  This year's current brochure also has a picture of Quarry Beach but shows friends of ours who visited a couple years ago.  When we got down here today, at first it was just Dave and us.  Then right away two other couples, each with a dog, appeared and so my shot below has one of the visitors out on the rock.  Dave wasn't standing up yet, so having "extras" in my shot was fine.  These visitors were from Owen-Withee, down in central Wisconsin, and were up here enjoying the sites.

I'm Facebook friends with Dave, so I've been able to enjoy the pictures he takes when he is out on his voyages.  From a blogger's point-of-view (mine), I think he should start a blog himself so more people can see his pictures and read his posts.  He could even cash in on his blogging by targeting the paddleboarding crowd!  I'll let you know if he does!

Today he posted about a Lake Superior tidal wave.  Really!  This phenomenon that occurs on the Great Lakes is called a seiche and is caused by dramatic weather changes from storms.  We noticed last week that the water was much higher by the marina, and I guess this was the reason.

 Thanks, Dave!  You make it look really easy, but I think I'd spend more time IN the lake than ON the board!

On the way home we stopped on the bridge on Quarry Road.  This is looking north where the Lake is just around that last bend.

And this looks south and it leads to a larger area called Bibon Lake.  Everything looked so nice on this beautiful day!

AND, in other news...we found out that they might start moving our old house this week.  We thought it was going to be in October, but schedules have changed.  Get the cameras ready!

First laundry hung outside but what's with the clothespins?

The day began with a nice rainstorm and I assumed I wouldn't be hanging up any laundry outside after our guests left this morning.  But the rain stopped and there was no colorful radar showing in the area on the computer, so I put the first load in the wash, even though it was still pretty cloudy.

I hauled the laundry basket out with the clothespin bag (remember those?), and prepared to hang up the first (white) sheet.  I picked the first clothespin out of the bag and started to slide it over the corner of the sheet...and then I remembered where those clothespins have been for the last almost 25 years--either in an old dusty basement or out hanging in the old garage.  I g-e-n-t-l-y just touched it to the corner of the damp sheet and saw that it was going to leave a dirty mark on it.  Glad I checked!  So I brought the bag of clothespins inside and dumped them all in a laundry tub full of water and soap, and they soaked all day!  Luckily we had an unopened package of clothespins, probably meant for some craft project like the clothespin reindeer.  You all know about clothespin reindeer, don't you?  

So here are some of them drying after soaking all day.  The water was the color of coffee so, yuck!  Notice those with the reinforcing wire around them.  Those are really old!  And there aren't many of the kind with the spring that you pinch onto the line.  My mother's hands always were so arthritic so she could never use that kind.  Funny how those things come back while doing something mindless like this.  It was kind of a Zen activity!

So I got two loads washed and hung up. But, alas, just when I was feeling so good about NOT using the dryer today for two 40-minute drying times, a little mist in the air late this afternoon convinced me to bring in the still-damp clothes inside and, you guessed it, finish them off in the dryer.  As my mother would have said, "It wasn't a very good drying day!"

Finally...a clothesline! And what's "Welcome to Sweden" all about?

This will be a two-topic post, but I need to start with our completed clothesline!  You may remember, we had the upright posts for our clothesline installed a couple weeks ago.  Our carpenter took all the remaining parts home so he could drill the holes in the cross pieces that the coated wire would thread through.  And all the parts came together finally today!

We had a complicated assortment of hardware selected for us at the hardware store to connect the coated wire to the posts.  Fortunately, Leann and Dustin who was helping us got it all figured out.  The lines are nice and tight and ready for wet sheets and towels tomorrow...if it doesn't rain!

And the new clothesline was my big event of the day, and then I turned on the TV tonight.  What was on?  A new show..."Welcome to Sweden."  I had heard about it, Amy Poehler has something to do with producing it. But I could only wonder how weird this was going to be.  I think it's based on someone's real experiences going to live in Sweden with his Swedish girlfriend, but you never know what they will do for the sake of getting a laugh.  And now I see that it has already been airing in Sweden.

I wasn't really paying attention to the show because too many other things were going on, and then I looked up and saw them all sitting around a table eating...kräftor! And suddenly it was September, 1979, and I was back in Ludvika, Sweden, visiting my cousins Rutger and Pia, and sitting around their table enjoying kräftor or crayfish Swedish style!  As I remember, it was a seasonal delicacy enjoyed in August and September.

And they were delicious, if not a little messy.  So I'm still not sure how this TV show will be, but I could relate to at least one small part of tonight's show! And I discovered a new Swedish language/culture blog in the process of posting this!

http://www.swedishfood.com/crayfish-parties

Bleeding hearts, clothes lines & church pictures

I'll start today with our bleeding heart that is just growing like crazy in our little corner garden up near the house.  Last year it was just one little hardly recognizable clump of leaves and this year we have this!

We took a little field trip to Poplar today, about 30 miles away, to their hardware store so we could get the parts we needed for clotheslines.  Small-town hardware stores are so great; they have just about anything you'd want.

I've been wanting clotheslines since last summer but knew it was going to be kind of a process. Materials needed: 1 1/4" pipes for the upright posts and crossbars, t-joints, caps, other hardware for connecting the coated wire, and cement to keep the posts in the ground and straight.  But we got the guys who built our house lined up for another job (eave troughs along the garage to lead into a rain barrel), so they'll put up the clotheslines at the same time.  Yay!

Yes, we have a dryer but last summer when we started doing lots of sets of sheets for the B&B, I realized that the sheets came out of the dryer in a wrinkled mess.  So following the advice of my B&B mentor out in Vermont, and Oprah, and probably my mother, too, I started ironing the top sheets, but what a job!  They looked nicer on the beds though.  So I'm hoping hanging them up outside will dry them flat and nice and sunshine-y fresh!

This afternoon we were scheduled to have our pictures taken for the church directory.  I found out things have changed a little in the church directory business since I was last in a church directory.  The brochure explaining how it was going to work (which I read five minutes before we left for the appointment) suggested that we could be creative in what we wore and brought along as props, we could bring pets(!), and make it a picture that was personalized for us...but we didn't do that.  Ours turned out to be a pretty typical church directory picture, but he did a good job.  He asked if we wanted individual pictures.  At first we said no, but then I remembered that it's good to have a decent picture every once in a while in ones life.  So we did.  Lifetouch comes through again!

And finally, on our trip down to check out the lake, we saw our friend, Mark, busy re-constructing the picnic shelter that was damaged in a storm last summer.  I think this one will be there for a long time!

Gardens are growing in spite of temps barely above 50˚ every night!

One hundred days of blog posts!

I've posted every day for 100 days!  Yay!  When I started I thought I'd make it a week, two weeks, maybe a month, and that I'd never find enough things to write about.  Surprise, surprise!  Good thing I made it to 100 today because tomorrow I may be someplace where there is no wifi, or I can get creative just with my iPhone.  We'll see...

Today's been a busy one from morning to night.  Breakfast at The Port with friends, then home for more mowing--we have a LOT of yard!  Leann spent much of the day trimming around the apple & cherry trees in the orchard, and resetting fencing around some of the smaller trees to keep the deer from chewing off the ends of the branches.  And I'm kicking myself for not taking a picture, because the orchard is BEAUTIFUL!  But next week the apple blossoms should pop, so there will be lots of photos then!

And today our dirt was delivered!

It looks like a lot, but we're going to have help getting it moved to the raised beds.  Leann did load some up in our Ranger UTV--"Cammie"--and moved it to our new 3-level flower bed.  We ordered it online from Home Depot, but we're still not sure what we'll plant in it.  Herbs, for sure, but something else, too.

Having "Cammie" around has been so helpful for hauling stuff around here, and we have fun going back on our trails, too.  Cammie came as a gift from Leann's Mom & Dad a couple years ago.  We had never seriously thought about getting one, but her Dad thought we needed one.  I guess he was right, because we're using it all the time!

A little more dirt and this will be ready to add some plants.

So we spent most of today outside--out in the grass, in the orchard, and late this afternoon we took Cammie up into the meadow on our trails, even going all the way back to the far corner of our property--first time it was dry enough to go all the way.  No trees down over the trails from winter!  So that's a lot of time in the trees, long grass, and the negative consequence of all that "woods" time is...

...yes, wood ticks.  As soon as you sit still for a minute, a faint feeling of movement lets you know you have a wood tick somewhere on you.  These are only about 1/4 inch in size and aren't the more dangerous deer ticks--about the size of the head of a pin.  I've only had this one tonight, but I still feel kind of...itchy!

Happy 100 days!

Compost, cherry blossoms, forget-me-nots...and bones

After our day away yesterday, we felt like we had to hit the grounding running this morning.  Our first task this morning, however, was doing tech support to help Leann's sister get some pictures on her Caring Bridge site.  It's tricky to try to help someone over the phone without being able to see their screen...frustration on both ends of the phone call.  But we got it done!  Starting a Caring Bridge site has been so great for Kristi as she deals with her cancer, and chemo, and all of the stresses that go with that.  It's been a great way to keep her friends and relatives up on what's going on with her.  If you know Kristi or would like to wish her well on her site, please email me and I'll get you the info you need.

So back to the yard work and gardening.  Leann used some composite boards she got from her other sister and made this second compost bin.

Now we can start moving compost from the old one to the new, revealing the "black gold" in the bottom of the old one.  We hope...

Next, we made a trip through the orchard where we saw the trees had tiny beginnings of leaves, with blossoms soon to break through.  And then we saw this...

...the first cherry blossoms.  If you looked at all the buds that will soon open up, you'd think that tree would eventually be LOADED with cherries.  Somehow it never works that way, though.  It would be great if we could keep the temps up above freezing from here on out.  If the blossoms freeze, then no fruit, which was what happened to all our apples and cherries two years ago.  

A couple weeks ago I mentioned in a post that the forget-me-nots would be coming up in our ravine soon.  Well, soon is now and there are blue forget-me-nots all over.  

Unfortunately, they are so little that they don't show up in pictures very well.  I love all the shades of green!

Forget-me-nots and dandelions - that's spring to me!  After the dandelions turn into the stems with seed fluff, I'm not as interested in them!

Hidden in all this long grass and forget-me-nots are some of the rocks that form the outline of the labyrinth we made last fall.  I was going to try mowing the labyrinth for the first time--it's going to be tricky, I'm afraid--but I was reminded that we can't mow the forget-me-nots!  

And finally, the bones.  I looked down and saw this -- part of the jawbone of a deer.  You just have to wonder how things like that show up without the rest of the bones.  And not far from this is the feather evidence of a couple of turkeys.  Hard winter!