Molly's BWCAW Camping Photos

Dan took the eldest three children on their annual fall camping trip this past weekend. I LOVE seeing Molly's pics when they come back, and maybe when Dani is old enough for the trip I'll even go with them. For now it's such a blessing to stay home with the littlest and spend some time with just her. It seems that everyone blossomed during this weekend. The kids came back so excited and confident. It was really fun to see. Littlest really benefited from some time with her mom too.

Merry Christmas and Happy 2011 To All!

Especially for Erin, here's our Christmas tree. :) We always try to get a tree from an area where it's going to cause a problem later, so they're not always the loveliest trees. This one is a balsam fir. The kids helped Dan find it on our property in an area that would need clearing in the future. Many of the ornaments that go on the tree were made by Dan's grandmother. She made one each year for all of her grandchildren.







These are some of my favorite ornaments because all three together remind me of one of my favorite Bible verses. "And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love." 1 Corinthians 13:13




In other "homestead" type news, I've been hanging laundry outside! It's been a lot of fun, really. I've missed being outdoors since there's no garden to work in and my goats are STILL not here. (They've been hard to breed this fall, so I don't know when I'll be getting them.) I don't make a point of going out as much as I did before we started school this fall. Now when it's near 20 degrees or warmer, I hang the laundry outside. It is amazing to me that it really does get dry, even if it's frozen when I take it down.

This is how I make it work:
First of all, I read that if you soak the clothes pins in salt water before using them in the winter, they last longer and don't freeze to the clothes. I haven't done this yet, but I think I'll try it because if it's cold they do freeze to the clothes.
I hang them out and let them dry (or "freeze" dry). When I take them off the line, if they're frozen stiff I drape them over chairs until they thaw a bit. If they feel damp (which they usually do) I put them in the dryer for 5 minutes. If they can fit into the dryer without thawing, I skip draping them over the chairs.
Oh, and most importantly, I wear some water proof gloves when I'm working with the laundry outside. My grandmother always (and my mother for a time) hung laundry out in the winter, and never wore the waterproof gloves. I still remember my mothers hands from that time - they were so raw!

I live right off of a main highway, and in the summer people often comment on the fact that I hang my laundry out to dry. I'm not sure what they think. I wonder sometimes if they're thinking I must be trying to save money. Someone "anonymously" bought us a turkey for thanksgiving this year, so I think maybe...
...anyway, so now when I'm hanging laundry in the winter, I wonder as each car goes past, "Are we going to get a charity batch of Christmas gifts because I'm doing this?" It's kind of funny, really. I'm out there just enjoying creation and the feel and smell of the fresh air, having a great time with God and feeling so amazingly blessed, and people are potentially feeling sorry for me. Probably they're thinking my dryer is broken. Nope, but my spirit is healing a bit each load of laundry that goes up! :) Ok, that sounds strange, but for me, it's true somehow.

Happy holidays from all of us!! Hug someone you love!

Fall Boundary Waters Camping

Feeding Whiskey Jacks

Dan took Molly and Sam on a camping trip into the Boundary Waters for the weekend on October 1st through the 3rd. They had a great time. No trip into the BWCA is complete without feeding the Whiskey Jacks (aka grey jays). The "little girls" and I stayed home this trip and had a blast doing our own thing. I took them to town for a day, complete with lunch at Sven-n-Ole's and ice cream at Sydney's. We snuggled in my bed watching movies, and reading stories. It really was a blast for all of us! It was also great to be back together again and share our stories with each other when the other half of our family got home. Family...what a word that is...

OK, the main point of this post was to share the great video Molly got of a whiskey jack eating out of her hand, but I never can seem to get the video's to upload. Grrr...

Uff Da!

I have been so busy lately! I think it's a safe bet that I'll be posting less now that school has started. We started last Monday (Monday the 30th of August. I didn't get this published after I wrote it. Like I said, I'm having trouble getting any blogging done.), and it's been going well. We have a kindergartner, second grader, fifth grader and seventh grader. They're all becoming such wonderful little students. I'm so pleased with how well the first week (Two weeks now!) has gone, even though it was so full of activity. Here are our new first day of school pictures. I try to do this on the first day of school every year.








One of my husband's brothers and two of his friends spent last week in our neck of the woods. They planned to hike on the Superior Hiking Trail a full week. They arrived on a Saturday and we fed them a good supper. They got up and had an early breakfast before Dan drove them to the trail head on Sunday. They started near Trail Center on the Gunflint Trail, hiking the border rout trail to McFarland Lake by Wednesday A.M. At that point one of the men decided that this was all just a bit too much for him. They caught a ride to their car, which Dan had parked at a trail head on the Arrowhead Trail, and back to our house they came. So, I fed them lunch and let them shower up and wash clothes before they started out again on Thursday A.M., minus one. He stayed behind with our family. This time they started at a Superior Hiking Trail trail head on the Camp 20 Rd. They made it to the Pincushion Mt. parking area by Friday afternoon. I don't know about you, but I'd call that some hiking! I picked them up there and brought them home for another shower and supper, and we saw them off with full stomachs on Saturday after lunch. It was really fun to play hostess to all of them for the week. I think they all had a good time, and I know that our family did! On Saturday A.M. 2 of the men helped the kids with their wood splitting chores, and one of them helped Dan and I get a good start on our goat pen. Here's a quick photo of the new fence. It's almost done! :)
Okey dokey, no picture. I'll have to show you later bc blogger is being a pain in the tail right now.

Fun Weekend

This past weekend we went camping as a family. I want to share some pictures of the fun we had, but it takes so long to upload! I'll have to share more later. For now, here are four of them.

Molly's getting to be good at using the kayak, and a fairly good swimmer as well, so she has slowly been given more freedom to roam as long as we are within shouting distance. She and the other kids had a lot of fun in the kayak. Dani was the only one who wasn't allowed a solo attempt yet. She went for a nice ride with me though.

When she and I were out we got very close to this loon, and many others. It was so much fun to have the experience with her.

We did some fishing. Dan was the only one who caught a fish, a nice rainbow trout.

I was more successful in the wild food gathering category. Dan and the kids even helped. We got some raspberries and pin cherries. When I have enough juice from them I'll make jelly. We also picked another 10 cups of blueberries, and a gallon and a half of hazel nuts. That won't be very many when they're hulled and shelled, but they'll be nice to use for something.

Back home, things weren't fairing as well. We came home to a house full of flies and a missing cat because someone left an upstairs window open (without a screen on it). We also had a dead hen in the hen house. There was no clear reason for her death, so I guess it remains a mystery. The rest of the chickens seem fine, thankfully.

So, today I have a TON of work to accomplish at home, lots of tired muscles, lots more freckles, and a VERY THANKFUL heart. God is good, and life is an exciting journey!

The Wild Harvest

First, I've put the recipe for the raspberry vinaigrette in the previous post, so don't miss that if you want it.

Molly and Sam got the opportunity to go blueberry picking with some dear friends of ours over the weekend. They brought home over 11 cups of berries! I must say I was surprised that they managed to pick so many. I guess they're growing up. We used 2 cups for buttermilk pancakes. I used the applesauce pancake recipe that's posted in this blog, but replaced the applesauce with canned pumpkin since we were out of applesauce. It was fine with the switch. I also used fresh sweet cream buttermilk from Lake View Natural Dairy. Yummy! The recipe really makes a LOT of pancakes, so unless you'd like a ton left over, you may want to half it if you decide to try it. Our family of 6 can eat a LOT of pancakes and still have plenty left over.

I didn't get a picture of the kids with their berries, but I did get one of the family's harvest yesterday. They picked 7 cups of june berries and some mushrooms (bolete's and chanterelle's) and cut some chamomile flowers for drying. We dry the mushrooms and use them in stir fry's, soups and whatever through the year. They're fantastic, especially the chanterelle's. They have a delicious nutty, naturally salty flavor. Mmm!

Kayaking Weekend

Hey all! My little sis and I were able to sneak away this past weekend to kayak around a beautiful lake and stay at a friend's cabin. It was wonderful! It didn't rain much up the trail, not at all like here by the lake. We did get a wonderful rainbow though!

Here's my sis.


Beautiful rainbow. Double, actually, though the second one was quite faint.


Twilight paddle in the dead calm. So peaceful and beautiful!