First Snow

We have been waiting for it.  The first snow.  The leaves have all been shed or at least are brown now and we have been waiting for the next big thing.  Around here that is snow, snow, snow.


It snowed pretty hard while my daughter and I were running errands. Then it melted.  Then it snowed again. Now it's melted.



At least the cat has prepared.

He has went from being the non stop outside cat, to the laying around on the couch all day cat in a matter of days.
Winter is almost here.  We are all ready.

Clay

We have a wonderful Community Arts Center and they have a clay studio that is open to members to use in a co-op capacity.  After spending that last month, rearranging, test firing a kiln and other housekeeping things, I finally got to make pots. Bowls.  My stock at home has been broken.


 So while the children were sleeping this weekend I slipped up to the studio to start a glaze fire in the kiln and after struggling with our clay all week I finally got some bowls made. 



Since the room was so warm from firing the kiln I was able to trim them the same day.  Always a bonus.  My favorite days as an undergraduate were those warm Kansas Spring Days when I could throw, put the pot out in the sunshine and a few hours later trim them.



My partner in clay.  He comes with me whenever he can. I am teaching him everything I know.  He helps load the kilns, unload the kilns, checks the cone pads, how to throw, slab build.  If there is one thing I can imprint upon my children it is everything I know about clay, and while it's not that much, it's enough to get them started if they choose.

Getting lost...

I have a favorite passion.  I have had this since I was late teen and early twenties.  I love dirt roads.  I want to know where they go and often drive down them just to find out.  When we heard there was a dirt road close to home that has amazing trees we had to go.  It did not disappoint.  One of the best roads I've headed down, although later on our trip we headed down many other dirt roads and were lost, but we also "found" some great places we didn't know existed.

Autumn

Our Autumns are beautiful.  I have only lived one other place with beautiful autumns and that place had mountains and aspens.  I think this little piece of earth puts on a better show.

We filed into the car and went driving.  Our goal was to capture the fall and see our big lake.  I can not explain my love for the big lake but the moment I see it, all in my soul is set right.


 
















Mission accomplished.

Little bird nest

I saw the cutest necklaces on pinterest this morning.  They came from http://www.sarahortega.com/2011/05/diy-bird-nest-necklace.html.
When I first saw them, I thought they looked like hairpins.  I am growing out my bangs and hair pins are exactly what I needed.  So I broke out my daughter's beading/jewelry supplies and whipped up a cute little nest to put in my hair.

Summer

I am feeling that summer has already started to leave us.  That sweet sunshine that came up at 4:45am and shone right in my face has been coming later and later.  I don't even seem to notice it anymore when in comes at 6:20.

 The children has certainly been missing the sun setting at 11:30pm when they have to leave their neighborhood games at 10:00 when the street lights come on.

While we had a week of temperatures in the high 80's and some 90's it has cooled off lately to the 70's, hinting at fall.  We did some last minute remodeling in June so that our home would be more presentable to the guests that stayed with us.

 We finished our daughter's room, the one in which the guests were staying.  We patched up the laundry room and called it good enough for now.

We moved on to our main floor bathroom.  A quick remodel, new sink, refinished the wood floor enough for the wood not to get damaged and a paint job. We ran out of time to do our entryway, although it has been stripped down and is now very ugly.

We took 2 weeks to enjoy our guests and show them around the area!  It was so much fun and we got to do so many things, rock collecting, beaches, picnics, fireworks, a birthday, swimming in lakes and scenic drives. 










All this was wonderful and fleeting. It has been replaced with a sense of panic because we have 7 weeks until the average first frost.  Around here that could be the first snow, although they usually start later.  It does make it harder to work on the outside of the house and we have many many projects that need to be done.  My love and I walked around the house this weekend and made a list of the things that need to be done NOW.  Many of our windows have rotten sills, and bricks are needing repointed.  Some painting needs done also. Not to mention my garden area that I would like to clear out and prepare for next spring.  Lots to do, little time.

Clay and Home Improvements

I've been having some tag along children to my clay studio time at the Arts Center and have been instructing them on the basics of throwing. My youngest is in love with clay, me too.

As expected with the end of my Love's semester the work on our daughter's room and the laundry room that were damaged by a water leak was slow. I did manage to get insulation around the window cavities and all the drywall up in the closet and this little spot under the heat register.

This is what the wood floors looked like after we took off the laminate floor that was on top.







After the first sanding, three more sandings to follow.  We could not believe how beautiful they are!




They are not perfect floors. They are 111 year old floors! We unearthed 100 years of dirt, ink spills, some bug damage,and we have some little spots of paint left, although most of it came up. My Love was so awesome and got the hang of this new machine very quickly. We thought of taking turns but the learning curve is involved and it seemed safer for him just to finish. It only took four hours to finish the field of her room which is about 12 x 12.

Today we will tackle the edge sander and then we will speed ahead with our waterbased poly. There has been some debate in the house as to whether or not to stain. I'm for the all natural, others want it darkened up a bit.

Weekending

Last weekend it was a beautiful clear 65 degree day. We knew down at the water's edge there would be a breeze and the perfect day for biking. We loaded up all the bikes on the back of the "Beast" and drove the five blocks down. That sounds a bit strange but the hill back up to our house is a killer walking, so I can not imagine riding it back up after a long bike ride.





We found a little canal side park about two miles out and stopped for a rest. Perfect place.







6 miles later we were home. It was a very satisfying ride, and we were all sore the next day but not so sore that we won't do that again. (I think I need a different seat however!) Our plans are to go further next time, we have to get ourselves trained up for the summer season of weekly mountain biking!

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Inspired by Soulemama

Road Trip

Living in the boonies means that some times you have to put four hours in the car just to go to the doctor's office. It sounds painful to me, I just don't like cars that much and my youngest gets carsick. I always forget though that the view on the way there is magical and the time flies right by.

This day it was cloudy, misty and foggy. The highway runs along side several lakes, including Lake Superior at the beginning of the trip and then plunged into woods and large hills. The lake often mimics the sky here which means the water is always changing.; Bright Blue, Green, Dark Murky Blue, and it was Grey as the sky today.; It was very hard to tell where the lake started and the clouds began.  I couldn't snap any pictures because I was driving.

On the way back we decided with the help of someone yelling "Pit Stop" from the back to explore one of the road side parks.; I had heard that there was a couple a of waterfall at one of them.




Anyone for a walk in the woods with me?


There it is!




It was not the biggest, or the best but the journey to it was fun and a great break.


Signs of Beaver!



And what 9 year old could resist pumping the drinking fountain?

Our new favorite Beach

It was in the 60's last week and we picked up my Love and headed for our new favorite beach with firewood and a snack.  This beach is perfect for us.  Sugar white sand that goes on for miles is hard to come by here.  There is a little stream that puts out at the park so Wynn can fish.  They allow campfires which is rare to find.  Most beaches either have picnic tables or a fire ring but not both.  At this beach the fire rings can be picked up and moved easily.  We planned to return the next day with food to grill because they also had BBQ's. 

We are excited to see how this area blooms this Spring, those are all blueberry bushes along the shore and if they are like last years we hope to stock up.

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Inspired by Soulemama

The wait

As we wait to make sure the floors and walls are completely dry we are thinking about our next step. We had originally thought we would paint the wood floors and I've been pintresting many very nice painted floors.  However we pulled up the rest of the laminate flooring and discovered the majority of the room may have never been painted at all.  They had a really big rug in here.

After researching the steps to paint a floor the right way, which involves many coats of paint left to dry over night and then a coat of poly, it came to me that it might be much quicker just to sand and poly the floor.  We have done this before and the great thing about water based poly is that you can get all three coats on in one REALLY long day.  So for now that is the next step after the waiting.

The laundry room is another beast altogether.



Please please ignore the mess.  It became very obvious to us that the shelf we put in does not function.  Well here is the opportunity to fix this room.  So the plan here is to get some sort of water resistant flooring like the newer vinyl wood planks. There are two layers of vinyl tile in here and we don't plan on prying it up and releasing whatever may lurk below.

The mysterious wall with a window inside will be opened up and possibly closed back up at a much smaller rate so that the dryer door can open all the way.  The shelving will go and replaced with something so much more functional. 

Wow. 
Ugh.

This makes digging out a garden out of the rock back yard like a easy chore.