Denial

Do workshops really start tomorrow? Yes, I'm afraid they do. In fact, I have an EA meeting at 7:30 so it's going to be an extra early start. It's not that I don't want to return to my classroom, it's just that it's hard to believe summer vacation is really over. I'm excited to have a new class of 4th graders. I think they're going to be a fun group. That's one of the best things about teaching, every year is unlike any other. Workshop days are not my favorite thing, too many meetings and interruptions when you're trying to get ready for Open House and the first week. We do have quite a bit of time to work in our rooms this week and supposedly have a good motivational speaker on Thursday so I will stop complaining. :)
I am not going to say good-bye to summer until the autumnal equinox. We still have a good month left of summer, right?

Go Ancients!!!

Fergus Falls Ancients 2007
Look at that score!!

Notice Sam with Dan, isn't that cute?

Brothers in law & teammates, Dan & David.
David played with the Ancients on Sunday.

Dan was excited to have his parents watch three of the games.

Tough guy Joey & Daddy

Rainy Days

This little guy is still at the Humane Society. His name is Tux and he is just a sweetie. If I didn't already have 100 cats I'd take him right home. Tuxedo cats have wonderful personalities. We've almost always had one, remember Lucky, Sam and Max? Sadly none of them were very long lived.
Last weekend we had baseball on the agenda but due to the rain we only got as far as St. Cloud before finding out that they did indeed come to their senses and cancel the 4pm game. So, we had lunch at the mall shopped at Scheels for awhile and went back home. I got these TEVA sandals on sale-love the colors and they're very comfy of course. On Sunday I started and later finished the book May Day that Ann sent home with me close to a year ago! Sorry it took so long Ann but you can finally have your book back. Like Ann said, it was fun to read about all Mn and Battle Lake places she mentions. She even wrote about Glendalough a couple of times which we visited for the first time this summer. The Native American history was interesting too. The mystery itself was a little strange but fairly entertaining.
Yesterday, Dan worked at home and I spent a few hours at school. You would have thought it was a real workshop day, there were so many people in working in their rooms. I guess that's the best place to be on a gray rainy day, at work. We all think that next week will be beautiful and sunny and it will be nice to be able to leave at 3:30 instead of staying into the evening hours preparing. That's my plan anyway.
Today, I am heading to Battle Lake for lunch and a little shopping with Annette, Becky & Shirley. We're going to Williams Company near Ottertail which is a great little shop I haven't been to this summer. I'd better get going as they will be here soon.

Butterfly Crafting

I found this butterfly book at a library sale for $1. The illustrations are beautiful so I had some copies made. The image on the left is a copy that I plan to frame.
I had copies made of butterflies that I then cut out and placed on scrapbooking paper with script, added a few vintage stickers and that's it. The frames came from thrift stores and none cost more than 35 cents. I left the older looking frames alone, the rest I spray painted black. I don't try to cut out the antennae but draw them on the background paper instead with a black pen. It's been a fun and easy project to work on during these rainy dreary days.
Yesterday, Junior and I were looking at all the monarchs congregating down by his garden. We rescued one stuck in a spiderweb.

Crab Apple Jelly

Wow, this was easy to make! Mom and I picked some crab apples so she could make jelly and when she told me how easy it was I decided to make some too. We used to have a tree in our backyard but the woodpeckers basically destroyed it so we had to cut it down. If you want to make this jelly you need apples and sugar, that's it. The apples already contain pectin so it gels naturally. I have 8 jars ready to go. We don't use a lot of jelly so most will be given away. And yes, besides being very pretty it is very yummy too!

Happy Birthday, Becky!

This picture is perfect for Becky, who is the Picnic Queen. Tell me, Becky, doesn't this look like something you would do?! This came from another blog and I can't give them credit as I don't remember which one, somewhere in England I think. Wouldn't it be fun to jump in that old car and take it up to Inspiration Point?!

Arboretum pictures

Last Monday, we visited the Mn Arboretum in Chanhassen. What a beautiful place! Nancy has a family membership. David took the kids to explore so Nancy and I could could explore at our own pace. :) The Japanese tea garden was very lovely and the rose garden was wonderful too. It's too hard to pick a favorite. We had a yummy lunch at their cafe in the visitor center, visited the gift shop and then got back in the van for the 3 mile drive around the property.
This week has been pretty quiet. Mom came up Monday to spend a couple of nights at the cabin. Kris spent Monday night too. On Monday, Mom, Kris, Audrey, Kathy, Jeanne and I bummed around Alex and Osakis. We had lunch at Clara's Barn and then had a tour at Carlos Creek Winery. They have 9 cats on the property and the 4 we saw made mine look almost small. I think Nola (BK) would fit right in. Wonder if they'd notice an extra fat cat laying around the winery.
On Tuesday night, Dan and I went to a birthday party for Mary Myron at her daughter Missy's house. It was a very nice evening, the food was great-steak & crab!
Yesterday, Mom took off around noon. I had book club down at Jan's cabin last night. We read Gift from the Sea and the group was split. Some liked it quite a bit and some thought it was boring. I fell asleep twice reading it yesterday afternoon so I guess I found it a little boring but it did have a good message.
Nothing on the agenda today! I like those days as they are numbered. Dan just hand delivered my class list which came in today's mail. I'm excited as I think I have a very nice class! 17 kids, not bad at all. We have a new principal and it will be fun to get to know him too.
We hope to take the tree down by the cabin, the one that is split already and gives us nice shade over the pergola. I hate to lose it but we have no choice. On Saturday we are driving to the cities for the state baseball tournament. David will play with the team on Sat so we will be stay with the Floms on Sat night. On Sunday, David has a meeting so he can't play. Next weekend, they play AGAIN in the cities! Well, that's all for now. Enjoy the cool weather we're having. I know I am!

Storm photos

Ronningen shoreline

Ronningen cabin

Can you believe the roof is probably okay?!!
I'm not really sure what they're doing with the color on this cabin. It used to be dark brown and I kind of liked it that way.

Here's the yard of the cabin with the second worst damage. They have the open lot behind them and it looks similar to this. Their cabin is the brown one I showed earlier with the big tree laying over their front entry. I guess that's about it for storm pictures. The electricity is back on down at the cabin too. That's a good thing as Mom and Kris plan to spend a couple of days down there early this week!

Storm photo's

Tree limb in the front yard. We had around 10 that we had to take care of.
My favorite tree, our old Blue Spruce, lost it's top. Dad says it will grow from the top, I hope he's right.
Jon Nelson's corn was flattened in this field. He said it was very dry and his better corn stood up to the wind much better. I took this picture on the way to get chicken for dinner in Ashby. Ashby showed no signs of damage in town. Pelican Lake looked fine too, just 5 miles away from us.
Here's another view of Junior's cabin. His patio is pretty much destroyed. They were sleeping down there when the storm hit. They have two holes in their roof.
Here's a close up of our hero, Bill, up in his cherry picker. We're so happy he was able to come out and help us today. He's kind of "retired" from the tree business but dusted off his equipment today.
In case you are wondering, Jan's cabin is just fine. They are in Green Bay this weekend. Their sailboat tipped over though and the sail is all ripped up. Their kayaks were thrown about 100 feet and are fine. Their redwood lawn furniture was in pretty bad shape too. They had no trees down.

Be Careful What You Wish For...

Last night I wished for a thunderstorm and my wish was granted. I did not wish for 75-80 mile per hour winds however. We woke last night around 1am and went straight for the basement, the power was out and we heard a loud crack as we huddled down there. We really should keep a chair down there or two. Finally the winds died down and we crept back upstairs not sure what we'd find. We could see that many branches were down and tree limbs but figured there was little to do but go to bed and wait til morning. No power in the morning and branches were everywhere, large oak limbs down and hanging high. This photo is behind our bedroom where the worst damage was. Our beautiful blue spruce lost around 10 feet off the top and that was the worst on our property in my opinion. We went down to the cabin worried at what we'd find and were pleased to see that only lawn chairs had been tossed about and part of the dock was up on shore. We cleaned down there and then noticed Junior's cabin. It was very sad, 2 huge basswoods down and on top of his cabin. We ventured a little further and noticed lines were down so we went back up to the house and started working our brains out raking and hauling debris. Called Bill our tree guy and he said he would come out, luckily! He arrive late in the afternoon and we cleared most of the branches away. The big tree at the cabin will go down this week as the crack is much wider now.

Junior's cabin

Tree down at the Lindberg cabin 5 cabins down from us, same side of the point.
Another Lindberg cabin other side of the point. They have a ton of damage, many trees down including the empty lot behind their cabin.
And worst of all, the Ronningen cabin. All 5 basswoods down and all on top of their cabin. You can see their guest cabin on the right and part of the roofline in the center of the photo. I took these cabin photo's early in the evening after REA had been out and took care of all the electric lines. Our electricity finally came back on at 8pm tonight. I'm sure it's still out down on the point. Tomorrow morning I will try to take another photo of the Ronningen cabin from the other side. I've never seen anything like that. It makes me so sad as it was one of the prettiest classic cabins on the point. They just roofed and sided. I did hear that miraculously there is little damage to the cabin and I hope that's true. It will not look the same without the beautiful trees in front though. Maggie and her husband own the cabin now as she bought out Andy a couple years ago. They are in Mpls and were contacted by the sheriff this morning.

Pomme De Terre

I found this aerial view of Pomme De Terre and put a little red square where we live. This view faces the cabin and on the other side of the point would be our house. The part of the lake that has the golf course is off to the right and is not shown. Do you see that point at 3 o'clock? The cabin and the point are for sale for 1.4 million. Yeah, nobody's jumping on that one. Pomme De Terre Lake is actually just a wide part of the river, you can see the mouth at the bottom. Kind of interesting photo I think.
We have some big storm clouds coming in this evening and a little rumbling too. I don't expect that we will be getting any rain but you can always hope. The front of our yard that gets the most sun is totally yellow now. I kind of like a big thunderstorm with lots of lightening and having the candles ready just in case. It seems like a long time since we've had that happen.
Have a good weekend everyone! Stay tuned for some good Mn Arboretum pictures with Nancy and her family earlier this week. I have to download them, what a wonderful place. :)

Happy Birthday, Royce!

Here's a nice photo of Royce with 2 prize bucks in his shop.

Royce and Lynn posing with 2 other bucks.

It looks like Gracie is saying "No more photo's!" with her little hand covering her face. Ollie is back at home with Royce and Lynn after more than a year in Cyrus with my parents. It was too hard to have him while they were moving and building. He seems very content and stays in his designated area in the house and of course he can be in the shop, anywhere I think. Royce, I hope you have a very nice birthday! The last year held many wonderful changes for you and I am so happy for you!

Happy Birthday to Me/Trolling

Face painting, anyone?!



McKenzie & Ellen
All trolls will remain anonymous.

And an early Happy Birthday to Royce on the 9th. Almost the entire Larson family is up this weekend. (David is at a bachelor party.) We were hoping today would be a day outside at the cabin but the weather had other plans. We didn't get much rain, mainly mist and cold. Enough to keep us inside, but we've had Gracie to take turns holding so that's been nice. Nancy, Ellen and McKenzie (cabin neighbor & Ellen's new buddy) went trolling this morning and we had a fun time doing that. We had dinner tonight up at the house so there was more room for everyone. It was nice to have everyone here & Kris, Elmer & Jeanne joined us for dinner too. Royce, Lynn, Gracie, Nancy & kids spent some time in Cyrus at Mom and Dad's on Th & Fri before joining the rest of us here. Almost everyone is in bed now either up here or down in the cabin. We are hoping for some sunshine tomorrow so we can have a little fun on the lake before everyone has to take off. I'm going back with Nancy & the kids and will hook up with Dan then back home to Ashby on Tuesday. Shari took some good trolling pictures and I'll post them here when I get them. That's all for now! :) Laurie

Last Cottage

Scroll down to Cottage #1 to start the tour. This is the last house. It sat at the end of Governer's Point on some prime land on Le Homme Dieu. It looks cute on the outside but it was pretty early 70's inside. Not cool 70's either, if there is such a thing. It only took a few minutes to tour this place. Great views though and wonderful sand beach.
This tiny guest cottage was cute! 2 bedrooms and a bath. There is a larger guesthouse but I didn't get a picture.

Here's the point, wonder how much that is worth?!!

Whew!!! We were all visually overwhelmed!! Next time I'll take a hidden video camera along....

My favorite #4!

We all loved this place. Another on Le Homme Dieu. It was built in 2006 in a New Orleans style as the owners live there in the fall-spring. I met the owner, in her mid thirties, originally from Pipestone. Boy, can this gal decorate! She married a guy from New Orleans and her parents(from Alex) live in this house when they're down south. You wonder what these people do for a living? They decided to tear down the cottage and rebuild. They saved all the neat stuff and used it in the new house. It really feels like an old home inside. This was the house of many bedrooms, we lost count, 10 perhaps?! Many of the bedrooms had views like the ones below. You could open up the screens and have open air decks just like down south.
This room had 2 walls of screens. Isn't the chenille bedding pretty?
Here's another bedroom upstairs, only one long wall of screen windows here. This was one of my favorite bedrooms on the whole tour. I wish I could have taken pictures of the kitchen, great room,porch and master bedroom downstairs. This house really should be featured in a magazine, maybe it will be someday. I wish she had a decorating blog, she might, but I'd never know. One other cool thing...she collects state plates. I do too, for those of you who may not know.

"Cottage" 3

This is on Le Homme Dieu. The last 2 photo's are in the garage upstairs in the guest loft. Sorry they're kind of dark. The main house had a very interesting fireplace with fossils of fish embedded in the rock. Upstairs was another guest area with little hidden passages for children to play in. In this house they took rooms that normally would be considered large closets and turned them into little guest rooms. One was a cowboy room with bunks. The bunks took up half the floorspace. It was very cute and there was a window so it wasn't closed in. As you can see, beautiful patio areas outside.