If the sign says "Pie," they will come!

It was like an episode from Prairie Home Companion or Lutheran Church Basement Women.  One member of our church, a wise, business-minded woman, had an idea, inspired others with her idea, we all ran with it, and it was a roaring success!

After several weeks of watching HUNDREDS of cars zip through our town on the weekends on the way to the Ice Caves, our wise entrepreneur decided the church needed to cash in on this winter rarity.  So, what else?  We had a bake sale!

A few phone calls this week brought forth tables full of pies, breads, cookies, bars, caramels and more.  And add to that another specialty of one of our women - cream puffs!

The hot coffee and hot chocolate was also a welcome addition to our bake sale items.  

Some people came in and sat around our tables for pie and coffee, and others took their pie and goodies to-go.  

And everyone who came in was so pleasant and cheerful, and, I think, surprised to run into our bake sale now in the middle of winter.

Of course, a lot of work goes into making all of these baked goods, so the organizers of today's event are very appreciative of all the donations that helped make this day such a success.

But the main thing, besides the food, that made our event such a success, the thing that got people to turn off the main road and drive the two blocks down to our church, was an idea from our Pastor Nancy Hanson.  She walked in this morning with this sandwich board - all it said was "PIE," - and THAT'S what slowed people down enough to check us out.  That's her under all that sign and winter clothing!

It was a great day.  LOTS of people who were strangers now know a little more about Port Wing and we are all smiling a little brighter! 

Quilts for conversation

One of the main activities that keeps Leann off the streets in the winter, besides snow, cold and ice, is quilting.

Several years ago she began making a quilt style that has become very popular with her family, friends and co-workers who have young children in their lives.  She calls it her "Conversation Quilt" and it's a fun way to have "conversations" with young children by making up stories or doing "I spy" activities using counting, colors, and objects.

The poem on the card that accompanies this quilt suggests lots of things to do, including "naming the critters, colors, and bugs, or snuggling together and getting big hugs."

But keeping busy with quilting has some requirements for resources - things like large spaces to lay out your projects.

And thread, of course.  A big shout-out to Younger Daughter for keeping Leann in thread at Christmas and birthdays.  Notice the empty spools below - those all have been emptied since the start of this year.  (She makes LOTS of other quilts besides the conversation quilts.)  She's probably keeping them for some new project down the road!

And, as any crafter of any medium will attest, in order to produce, one needs a "stash."  This could be a stash of fabric (this isn't all of it!), yarn (my fave - in other boxes to the right), or whatever is needed to get the job done. And as former schools librarians, organization is key!

So now our guests can peruse our current finished projects in what is becoming the "Larson Creek Farm Boutique."

We're really having too much fun "working!"

It's a beautiful thing!

What's a beautiful thing?  Well, the sun and blue sky, of course, but even more beautiful is the nearly snow-free road!  The temperature rising up to the high 20s is enough to work on the snowy, icy roads.  And I'm thinking of our friends in the Minneapolis area, or any city in a 500 mile radius, who might finally be able to drive on their streets.  

If you look along the left side of the picture above, you can see a couple levels of snowbank.  Using the big road grader, they can lift up the blade a foot or so and then push the snow even further off the road.  It kind of keeps the claustrophobic everything's-closing-in-on-me feelings at bay!  Our whole town looks like this now, but the promise of temps above 32˚ this weekend might really start working on all the snow.

This below, on the other hand, isn't such a beautiful thing:

We've had this deck cleared off MANY times this winter, but the last 15+ inches of snow, followed by crazy blizzard-y winds, packed that snow in so hard.  We just haven't had the heart to dig into it very far yet.  And, really, where would we put it?  So, perhaps I've said this before, "Come on, SUN!"

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Swedish update - It's going great - where is, here, over there, I would like something to drink, I'm sorry - it's coming along.  And the road is getting nice and clear for me to walk and talk!

Happy Birthday today, NH!

Summer WILL come and so will the monarchs!

The more people you meet, the more things you learn!

A few weeks ago we had someone here who works at the University of Minnesota in the conservation area.  Somehow the conversation went to gardens and the topic of monarch butterflies came up.  We have always been tuned in to monarchs in all their stages.  Leann used to bring the chrysalis(es)?? to school in the fall so students could watch the monarchs hatch.  We loved the lilac and phlox seasons at our Minneapolis house because they would be full of monarchs, and last summer we even grew some milkweed plants to attract monarchs and other butterflies. The clumps of flowers on milkweeds smell SO sweet!  And, no, those aren't monarchs shown there but some variety of fritillary.

And I love milkweed pods in the fall.  We have a low, swampy area up in our back fields and it's full of milkweed plants in the fall.

So, hearing all this, he thought we'd be good candidates to get enrolled in the Monarch Watch program.  

So, I've ordered the seed kit which contains packets of these seeds that attract monarchs.  I didn't know there were THREE kinds of milkweeds!

Then we get our Monarch Waystation certified and wait for the snow and cold to go away and the fun to begin!

And they send us this cool metal sign to put up near our site.