Happy Father's Day

I feel very lucky to have one of the Greatest Dad's in the whole world! He's ALWAYS there for us when we need him, and he gives the best well-thought advice. Countless numbers of times recently and in the past we've consulted him for advice and we've always benefited from it. THANK YOU DAD! WE LOVE YOU!

Here are some family & friends pictures from our visit to Winnipeg.
I like the fact that we all separately chose to wear lime green that day.

Did you know Winnipeg has French Quarter? This was something I did not know. I wish this picture had not been so bright in the background, but behind my lovely family is the gorgeous St. Boniface Cathedral. The majority of it was destroyed in a fire in 1968 and they left the ruins up and built a new cathedral behind them.

This is my Great Aunt Louise. She is Great in more ways than one! She ALWAYS remembers to to send us a card for EVERY occasion. I don't know how she does it, but I admire her tremendously for it.





We visited with my Mom's friends in Winnipeg. They traveled from Ottawa, Toronto, Vancouver, Texas, and Indiana for their Nursing Reunion. Everyone stayed at Sonja's. Sonja and her sisters Chrissy & Linda grew up with my Mom in the back woods of Ontario. I loved the stories they all shared.

This is truly the neatest group of women I have ever met. We had such a great time.


Reeve and Kyle LOVED climbing this tree. Reeve's been longing to climb a real tree for quite some time.

Kyle LOVED Sonja's sauna.


They were in heaven eating this cake.

After cake...snuggle time!


I took my cross-stitching project on the trip, and I finished the Summer Chair. One more season to go!

Assiniboine Park & Zoo in Winnipeg, Manitoba

We picked a beautiful day to visit the Assiniboine Park & Zoo. The park was beautiful and HUGE. There looked to be an awesome bike trail all around the park & zoo...later we found out that it connects to a 20mile (I think?) trail to Ft. Whyte Park. I love bike friendly cities.




And here is a pic of me and the boys with a statue of the original Winnie-the-Pooh. The "Winnie" part comes from Winnipeg of course :-).


Last night Reeve and Kyle survived a night in the woods with some fellow homeschoolers. They were invited over to a camp out and the boys ages 5(Kyle), 8(Reeve), 11, 12, & 13 slept in a huge army tent. From the sounds of it they didn't exactly sleep! Reeve said they talked all night and then got a little sleep. They woke up with the sun and packed there gear, hiked out of the woods, and up to their friend's house. When they got inside they noticed the time was 4:54A.M.! They then decided to go back to the tent to hang out. This was their first night away from home, and they LOVED it! They came home around 10am. They crashed at 3pm and had a nap until 7pm when I woke them up (bad Mom!)...I just wanted them to be able to sleep tonight. They can't wait to go on another camp over.

Winnipeg Children's Museum

I finally have the first batch of Winnipeg pics labeled. Here is a pic of the RV we traveled in and the Traveler's RV Park in Winnipeg, Manitoba where we stayed.

We had a smooth ride up. Our first day out and about in Winnipeg was windy, so we stayed out of the wind at the Winnipeg Children's Museum. They had a huge train replica complete with bunks, a ticket master station, and a post office. They also had a space shuttle replica. Kyle loves to dress up!

Reeve pretended he was really launching into outer space...to infinity & beyond!

If there's a computer to be found Reeve & Kyle will be there...for a very long time.

After the Children's Museum we walked around on "The Forks" historic area of Winnipeg...it's where the two rivers, the Red & Assiniboine, meet.
There we met a buffalo

and a polar bear (isn't he/she? huge!).

Tornados & Power Out

Saturday a couple of tornados were reported to touch down within 8 miles of our house. It rained most of the day. Sunday we had severe thunderstorms ALL day...they just didn't let up. Everytime I thought it was over about 15 minutes later we'd get a huge boom of thunder and brilliant flashes of lightning. We lost power at about 4:45pm and it came back on today at 1pm. We all read by candle light last night. We can't go to the library today because the road to get there is flooded, and folks in Elroy are having to navigate by boat! Everything is fine here. The ground is like walking on a huge sponge that is soaked, but the sun is finally peeping through the clouds.

Back from Canada

I'm in the process of getting my pics organized from the trip to Winnipeg with my parents for my Mom's 45th Nursing Reunion. We had a lot of fun and it was really special to meet my Mom's friends. I loved every one of them. What an incredibly diverse group of women, each unique, talented and loaded with individuality. Mom, you're at the top of that list. Reeve and Kyle were in Grandma heaven giving loads of bear hugs and enjoying every minute of it.

How about some Stinging Nettle Pie?

My friend Brenda is always telling me how she loves to cook with Stinging Nettles. She's also a fan of Molly Katzen's Moosewood Cookbook and she told me how she made the Spinach Ricotta Pie using Stinging Nettles in place of spinach. That was one recipe I hadn't tried yet, and I've had the book for over 15 years now!
I took a look at my spinach. Not many of the seeds germinated and then I haven't had a chance to weed it.

Then I took a look at all of the wild nettles we have growing in exhuberant abundance...

and I decided, what the heck! I recruited two gloved kids wearing pants & long-sleeves to help me pick 2lbs of stinging nettles for some pie.

They did a great job and avoiding getting stung. I unfortunately did brush up against the stingers...very reminiscent of a fire ant bite.

I soaked them in some vinegar water for about 10 minutes, rinsed them, then put them into the food processor. After they've been washed they don't seem to sting, so I was acutally able to put them in the food processor with bare hands. They recipe is really easy. I didn't have the needed 16oz of ricotta so I substituted with 16oz of tofu. All I did was saute one yellow onion, then set it aside. Chopped up 1 pound of stinging nettles in the food processor, then set it aside. Beat 3 eggs in a large bowl, added 1/2cup of grated organic cheddar cheese, 16oz of mashed up tofu, a little nutmeg, a little salt, a little pepper, the chopped up nettles, and the sauteed onion, and mixed it alltogether. Oh first you have to make the pie crust...super easy. 1.5cups flour in a food processor with 6 tbls. chopped up butter, turn processor on to blend floor & butter, then while processor is running add about 4-6 tbsp of cold water until you get a dough consistency. Then I just dump the dough into a greased (I use butter) pie pan and form the crust. Then I just put the bowl of mixed nettles & stuff into the crust and bake at 375F for 45minutes.

The stinging nettles are very aromatic and the pies looked and smelled delicious when they came out of the oven.

This is their second piece of pie.

Kyle could have (would have) eaten the whole pie if I had let him, but I cut him off after 2 pieces and told him he could eat some apples if he was still hungry.
The kids and I are traveling to Winnipeg, MB with my parents today for a week. I pushed myself to get my 41 tomato plants planted and I repotted my butternut squash, muskmelons, pie pumpkins, pickling cucumbers, and Jack-O-Lantern pumpkins into larger pots...it's still too cold to transplant them outside.

Tom tilled up the garden for me and I made two 4'x24' raised beds (not framed). I need to put a ton of mulch down the walking rows, so my beds don't crumble, but that will have to wait until I get back. I used scrap wood and sticks for my tomato stakes. I did have a couple of cages.

Tom helped me move this masively heavy railroad-tie looking piece of thick lumber that our neighbor gave us. This sucker was like 10" thick and nearly 12' long. It took us 1/2 the day to move from the upper front yard to the lower back garden using a truck and a dolly (we also cleaned up a lot of junk in between).

You can see it along the left side of the above raised bed. This bed is 4'x12'. I love the railroad tie because it provides a nice place to sit when I weed.
Well I'd better get packing!

La Crosse Children's Museum

Last week the kids had a dental visit in La Crosse, so we decided to make a day of it and went to the La Crosse Children's Museum before the dentist. It's been about 3 years since our last visit to this museum. No new exhibits and there were A LOT of missing items from the old exhibits.

The play gas station/convenience store was missing over 80% of the "fun" stuff that it previously stocked.

The kids still loved it and we stayed two hours. I read my Yoga Journal and relaxed...I never get to read my mags anymore. We arrived right at opening time, so for a long time we were the only ones in the place. Kyle had fun putting on a puppet show with a pig and a cat. (Not sure who the bored kid is & Reeve is in the background)

Kyle loves to put on a show.

The dentist was easy. R&K LOVE to go to the dentist...he has video games and gives out prizes. They can barely wait the 6 months to go again. Reeve had no cavities, but Kyle had "two areas of concern." Ugh! We're going back Tuesday to "fix" those areas.

We had a good weekend. Saturday morning we spent loading up the red truck & "White Hogan" with scrap metal from around the yard & house (tin cans/aluminum cans).

The kids love to go to the metal recyclery...complete with huge magnets & a car crusher. They're not picky about what you bring in, which is a very good thing for us.

They also pay $$...this load was kind of light (despite it's looks) and brought in a cool $70.

The pear tree had beautiful blossoms, but they're already gone & I didn't get a pic...bummer. The apple trees are starting to bloom...they smell soooo gooood!

Here's a pic I took after we recently had the old & dangerous barn bldgs removed...it's going to make for an awesome sled run next winter!

Happy Mother's Day (one day early)

We'd like to wish our MOM'S a very HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY! You gals are the GREATEST!

I've been thawing some frozen strawberries and today (a day early) I'm going to make myself (&Tom & kids) a great big ole Strawberry Cheese Cake! I rarely make deserts, so this will be yummy!

I haven't posted my cross-stitch progress in awhile...that's because I've put it on hold until I finish my current knitting project. Here is the last pic I took before I put it away...you can kinda see why it's not grasping my interest ATM.


Thanks to my MOM I know how to knit! :-)

Thanks to my good friend Dana I've learned how to knit "comfort dolls." They are for a literacy project for the children in Uganda. If you know how to knit and have time to make a couple before the end of this month, please visit the Knitting For Angels website. I love this project because you can use your left over yarn from other projects. Keep in mind this is my third knitting project ever. My first two being dish cloths. Reeve & Kyle love the dolls, so I have to make them a couple next. The first one I made I didn't quite know how to go about embroidering the face...It isn't centered and I used floss instead of yarn. Then you can see how I've experimented with the face...the last one is getting better I think. The first doll was really hard to seam up...I was using a yarn needle and it wasn't sharp enough to go through the stuffing. Oh my fingers hurt pushing it through! I experimented with the second one by making it "thinner" to see if that would help, but he turned out too thin (not very comforting) and the yarn needle still had a hard time going through. The rest I used a sharper needle with thread for the seams, and that seemed (a little pun)to work better. I have a hard time measuring my time, but I think it takes me about 6 hours to make one doll. My knitting is improving and I can purl faster now, before it was a real struggle for me to get the hang of purling.

I also got to test some bamboo needles for this project. I'm still torn on which needles I like better! The bamboo ones are nice and soft, warmer to knit with, a little more grippy. I thought I'd like the more grip factor, but now I'm not sure. The metal needles are cold & noisy, but they are also smooth and a little sharper at the ends which I think is better when you have to "knit 2 together" or "purl 2 together". I have yet to experiment with circular needles. I'm still intimidated by them.
Everyone have a great MOTHER'S DAY!

Mini Bike Trip

It was a beautiful day here yesterday and we were gung-ho to get outside to do some much needed work in the garden & yard. Tom decided to tackle the garden project first and he went to start up the tiller. (We're working on building raised beds, so we don't have to till every year...they're also easier to weed). He couldn't do much until he went to town to get some gas...that's when he decided he was going to try out the flatbed trailer we got for the bike. As soon as the kids heard he was going to ride his bike they started jumping up and down wanting to ride their bikes with him. It's a 5 mile (by bike) trek to Hustler (nearest gas station). We have an alley-cat bike that will attach to a bike for Kyle to ride, BUT he INSISTED on being a "big boy" and riding his own bike. He also INSISTS on having training wheels...but they will be coming off soon.
We have to ride on the road for about 3 miles before we even get to the bike trail. Luckily we live on a very quiet rode and we only saw a couple of cars the whole trip. Both Reeve and Kyle did a super job, and Kyle only complained once. About 1.5 miles into the trip he said he wished he would have agreed to ride on the alley-cat.

Once we got to the bike trail we all had a blast.

The flatbed trailer worked great. Tom said he didn't even notice he was hauling anything. We bought the trailer in hopes of a summer biking camping trip. We plan to leave early on a Saturday and bike on the trail and just see how far we get. There are campgrounds along the way.

We could bike from our house all the way to the Mississippi River and use the bike trail most of the way. We'd only have to ride on the road from our house to the trail. For that trip Kyle will be riding the alley cat. Reeve does excellent on his bike and was biking circles around us.

When we arrived in Hustler. Tom went to get the gas (and some beer) and the kids and I went to the park.

On the way back Reeve was so far ahead he decided to get off his bike and explore the bridge. Kyle raced to catch up with him. He crashed his bike into Reeve's, knocking it over (didn't care) and ran to see what Reeve was doing.

He didn't hesitate and started to climb under the bridge.

He found Reeve and he was thrilled to explore under the bridge.

After a little break and 6 miles into the trip we were ready to hit the trail again...only 4 more miles left and one REALLY HUGE HILL.

Back on the road again...only 2 more miles left.

Kyle was a trooper, and really started to get into a rhythm.

Then we met the hill...the pic below really doesn't capture how steep this beast is. I get to about this point and I have to walk my bike up.

Kyle got a free ride in the flatbed with his bike (we were very careful).

Reeve was anxious to get home and eat some left over pizza.

Up, up, up now we're at the top section of the hill.

After we reach the crest of the hill we get a little ride downhill to our house.

The yard is torn up because our neighbors are going to plant organic feed corn on it this year. They were nice enough to have all the weed trees removed to get the land ready. Hopefully with the fields planted that will cut down the number of ticks we get.