A long overdue adventure

We're not sure how it happened, but we're a little embarrassed to have lived in Minnesota for 5 years (minus one of those in Switzerland) and never taken a trip to a lake cabin in the state.  So after a year of more "exotic" travels, we dedicated this summer to more local explorations.  First up was a trip to Lower Whitefish Lake north of Brainerd, MN with Papa and Nona, Aaron, Melissa and Jens.  Melissa's relatives generously let us stay in their lake house, newly built and beautifully situated on the peninsula.  The first day's weather was windy and cool, but that did not stop the kids from donning their swimsuits and jumping off the dock.  There was a great variety of floating rafts- alligator, turtle, lounge chair, etc to keep them occupied until the teeth chattering set in.  In addition to hours of swimming, we also tried out "Big Mable" an extremely large tube for pulling behind the boat.  The girls screamed for us to go faster while Leif shouted slow down.  Jens enjoyed watching all the action from the boat, although he also thought that caution was preferable to excessive speed.  All three older kids tried water skiing- Leif and Hanna were successful on their first try and skied across the lake on a pair of classic wooden skis.  Then uncle Aaron got up on the slalom ski to show them what they can aspire to.   Papa brought their kayaks and they were fun for exploring the shoreline and finding a quiet bay for fishing.  Travis caught quite a few fish, including a small muskie.  Everyone was successful in catching numerous sunfish, rock bass, and a couple large mouth bass.  Leif even learned how to remove the hook and get the fish back in the water all by himself.

The entire picture story can be found here.....



.... and for those of you surprised by the change in my appearance, it's a girl.  Due in December.  Jens is expecting a sibling as well (sex unknown) in September.  More adventures and an expanded 'cousie' club to be had in the future!

Cousins

Kate and Willa flew out from California to visit us last week.  What a fun time having all the cousins together to play.  Elisabet was excited to finally meet Willa "in human" rather than over Skype video chat.

They certainly all look related.....

and more.....

Willa's first visit to MN

Workin' the cattle

School is out and it's time for summer fun.  Our first trip was loading up the kids and aunt Gloria to drive to the ranch in Iowa and work the cattle.  Baby calves ranging from 1 day to 2 months old needed to be vaccinated and tagged.  Saturday started off with an early morning thunderstorm, 1 inch of rain and lots of lightening.  During a break in the rain, Craig headed up to the barn to get the cattle up into the sorting pens.  Four neighbors came with their horses and rounded them up- this was also the moment it decided to rain and thunder dramatically again, so we stayed in the house and watched from the window as the cowboys braved the inclement weather.

Each person had an assigned job:  Several men on horseback bring the cow and calf pairs into the first sorting pens, then a couple guys in that pen separate the cows out and funnel the calves into another pen, Cody gets the calves up and into the chute and calls out the sex, and Travis lowers the head gate on each calf (one at a time). Craig administers a couple shots, dewormer, and then tags their ear with a number- right ear for bulls, left for heifers.  Marta is in charge of filling up the syringes with dewormer and replacing needles, as well as recording the sex and ear tag number of each calf.  Leif started off loading the tag "gun", but then switched to helping Cody in the calf chute.  This is tough physical work and due to all the rain, extremely muddy.  After being slammed against the fence and having his feet trampled on by numerous calves, Leif decided to switch to manning the bar behind the calf.  Once the calf is immobilized by the head gate, Leif slid an iron bar behind them to prevent them from backing up or another calf from coming up from behind them when the gate was released at the end.  Gloria helped out as well with both these jobs, which was evidenced at the end by a coating of mud on all her clothes.  Hanna took on Leif's job of loading the ear tagger, and then relinquished it to Elisabet after about number 50.  Elisabet took her job so seriously she did not even take time for a joke or a smile.  During this whole process, cows are bawling for their calves and the calves are bawling for their mothers- it's nearly deafening!  120 calves (66 bulls, 54 heifers) and 3 hours later, we were finished.

photo slide show:

Spring time fun

New kittens, a trip to Madison, a birthday for Hanna, and homemade popsicles.  Enjoying spring in the upper Midwest.

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springtime fun

Spring on the Farm

For the long Easter weekend we drove to Iowa and spent time "ranchin", prairie burning, hiking and exploring.  Leif donned his cowboy hat and boots and went out every day 3-4 times with Craig to check on any new calves and to feed the 2 whose mothers were not being very attentive.  They would arrive back at the house and Leif would give us a run down on all the happenings.... i.e. "134 just isn't taking to her calf, we found #67 down in by the pond, #164 is a huge calf, and #162 her bag isn't looking full."

We burned a small patch of prairie and the kids had a fun time stomping out the edges with their boots.  It was a little wet, so the burn moved slowly and didn't go past the field, so it stayed well under control.  We had wet towels, shovels and also did a back burn to make sure it didn't spread into the neighbors pasture.

We also hiked around on our land and looked at the small patch of grasses and the soybean stubble. It should be ready to go for planting grasses and forbes on it this year as we work on turning it into more of a natural prairie.  We found a deer trail through the wet marshy area and we even have our very own appliance dump!

The first pictures in the album are of Elisabet riding her two-wheeler and Jens at Mattocks park near our house.

Life on the Farm

Olympians in training

We're having our own version of the winter Olympics here in St Paul.  The snow has provided us with some of the best skiing in years.  Between the good snow cover and now the ice we can ski, skate or slide. Leif has been participating in the MN Youth Ski League and Hanna and Elisabet have been on their skis as well.  On Saturdays the girls are taking skating lessons and on the weekdays they spend time in the neighbors yard "luging" or "skeleton" racing down the hill.  Leif and his friend Henry even 'snowboarded' down the backyard slide one day (I didn't learn of this luckily until after he was back inside, still all in one piece).

Here are some photos of the girls at Como park.

Skiing in Madison

A long weekend made for great skiing and fun in Madison.  We skied at Olin park near Minona on Saturday morning and all 3 kids enjoyed shushing down the hill by the parking lot.  On Sunday we spent nearly 3 hours at Governor Nelson park which had something for everyone.  Skate trails for Travis and me, skiing on the lake Mendota for Leif, Hanna and Papa, classic tracks and a playground for Nona and Elisabet and skijoring for Belle and anyone who was daring enough to be pulled.  It was a spectacular day of sunshine and mid 20 degree temps.

We had an eventful trip driving to Madison on Friday night when about 20 miles west of our destination the car ran out of gas.  Travis and I had been chatting away, oblivious to the gas light which must have been on for 40 miles or so.  We are chalking it up to our year of using public transportation and not having to worry about stopping to refuel.  By some miracle we were cruising fast enough to coast UP the off ramp, around the corner and then down a slight hill with three more turns into the Exxon station.  All of this with the engine completely off!  The store was closed, but the pumps were open.... the only other station was not open at all, so we were feeling very lucky indeed.

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Madison skiing