Lake Elmo Inn Brunch

Nana and Jonesie joined Auntie, Tom and Moscow Mary for the Lake Elmo Sunday Champagne Brunch - especially noted for the bottomless flutes of champagne and the dessert table being longer than the entree table. (Note Nana's smile and flushed cheeks.)

The end of Christmas Vacation

To end the vacation, Nana and Jonesie were in first class for the flight back to MSP. Nana could not resist trying to get the rest of the plane to sing along with her, as in "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles", that classic that everyone knows, "Three Coins In A Fountain". So when Jonesie took the mike from her and started to sing the Flintstones theme song - the rest of the plane joined in and we all had a good time going home.

Christmas photos

Katie and Evan opening one of a few presents that Evan received on Christmas Eve.








Evan on Christmas morning with his new formula one racing set.

More photos

We went to a restaurant on Sunday morning and we had to be there early and be first in line to get the table by the window. As you can see it was cold, rainy and windy, but the boys took their stand at the front door while the girls sat in a nice warm car waiting for us to get in. As you can see there was quite a crowd at this place early on Sunday morning.


Nana and Evan were busy wrapping gifts on Monday morning.









Nana and Emme enjoying each other's company at the Christmas Eve party.

Christmas Vacation

Here is how the vacation started out. It is bath time for the kids and Emme loves the water. If she doesn't have a toy in her hand, she is going to splash water and continue to splash water until she gets a toy in hand.



The bouncy chair is quite popular with Emme.







Nana and evan building some kind of fort with the Lincoln Logs.

Portland Fun

We are now in Portland enjoying the kids and grandkids. We have taken a lot of pictures but I need to get home in order to blog them.

We are having fun babysitting Evan and Emme and they do keep us hopping each day.

On Thursday afternoon we went to Evan's school to celebrate the winter solstice with a party. He showed us his room and introduced us to all of his friends and teachers.

Last night Mr. H and I went to the Trail Blazers basketball game. It was very loud and the Rose Garden was sold out to see if they could win their 10th game in a row against Denver. They did win in a nail biter.

This weekend we will be busy getting ready for Christmas - shopping and making cookies.

Pictures will be posted when I get home.

Winter Wonderland at the Farm

I went for a walk around the farm this morning. The temperature was at 13 degrees and not a cloud in the sky.
As long as I was walking, I thought I might as well feed the wild animals - deer, turkey, birds, squirrels, rabbits, raccoons and what ever other animals walk thru here each day.
Here are a couple of photos that I took while walking

New Look in Jonesie's Digs

I changed the Dig around a bit. I moved the easy chair over to the corner and the bench went over by the tool box.

What this did was give me more room and moved me closer to the fire while sitting in the easy chair. That way I don't have to go so far when I need to replenish the fire.

Inside The Shack

I as sitting in Jonesie's Digs yesterday and the temperature outside was 3 and I was trying to decide whether or not I should go fishing. Well I had some errands to run so I thought I might as well go fishing.
Even though it was cold outside, inside the shack it was about 45 -50 degrees. A very sunny day added to the comfort inside the shack.

I was hoping for some more nice crappies but instead it was a perch day. The perch were between 9 and 11 inches long and real fighter's. There were a few bluegills added into the mix which made fishing quite fun.

These fish made the frying pan last night along with a salad, baked potato and Door County Cherry-Apple Crisp.

Nice Day For Fishing

It was such a nice day out that I had to try my luck at fishing. My luck was't very good as I only caught a few sunny's. Even though it was 16 degrees outside, the heater inside the shack kept me nice and toasty.

Tommy is back

After I blogged this a.m., I went out deer hunting - nothing after 2 hours in the tree.

I came back to the house and there was our resident tom turkey. It may be the same one as last year or not, but he knows where all of the bird feeders are. He usually stays all day going from one feeder to another and eats the sunflower shells left by the birds.

So, we have a good system going on at the farm. First I fill the feeders, then the birds eat and spill some seeds, then the squirrels come and eat, finally tom turkey comes and cleans up all the spilled seeds and empty shells.

The Hunt Is Back On

Yesterday, the weather warmed up to 21 degrees in the afternoon so I tried my luck at deer hunting again. But since I went out bow hunting the last two days before gun hunting, I said to myself that I was going to shoot the next deer that walks by. I have yet to see a deer since then.

If you look back at some earlier blogs, I posted some photos from the tree. So yesterday I took 2 photos of the same area 1 1/2 months later.














One thing I forgot was to tell everyone that last week I went out to dinner with John and Claire. As usual it was so much fun being around those two. Their outlook on life has nothing negative in it. Both of them are always so upbeat that you cannot go away without feeling young and upbeat.
I told Nana that John was wearing a very nice shirt as usual and Claire looked as though she just came from a magazine cover shoot.
We ate and looked at pictures on the computer while dining at Marie Calender's in Concord. At one point John saw the picture of Evan, dressed up as a pirate, looking at the treasure map. He couldn't quite see the map, so the picture is of him lifting the eye patch so he could see what was going on. When John saw that I thought he wasn't going to be able to finish dinner he was laughing so hard.

Baby It's Cold Outside

We are really into winter now. It hasn't been above freezing for a couple of weeks now. This morning it is 2 outside. It is 51 in Jonesie's Digs but it will get warmer as the fire in the stove warm's up the Digs.

Saturday I tried my hand at ice fishing for the first time this year. I was going to see my mother and wanted to take her some fresh fish. At the lake a few people had been out but stayed close to the shore. Well, someone had to be first to go out further into the lake. So I kept drilling holes as I went out further. Keep in mind that I am very grateful for the gas ice auger. When I got out as far as I dared, I set up the shack and discovered that in fact there was 3 to 4 inches of ice.

Fishing went well as I caught the largest crappies of my life. I caught 6 of them that were 10 to 12 inches. I caught 2 nice bluegills and 2 bass. I had 3 flags on tip ups and caught one small bass.

I then went to see my mother's and we had fresh fish for dinner that evening.

Space Management for Snow

Today, Nana and Jonesie were busy practicing space management with the snow. We have to make sure we have enough room for snow in March.

As we were moving snow, Nana asked me if I could make sure to plow the snow in such a way to make it look good aesthetically. I didn't have an answer for her so I just kept on plowing.

The First Snow

We had our first significant snowfall of the year yesterday. We have about 5" of snow on the ground.

I must now practice space management to make sure I have a place for all the snow throughout the year. Today is snow movement day.

I went out hunting this morning but all I saw was tracks from deer, fox and coyotes. As my Dad used to say "the tracks look good but they make thin soup".

Venezuela

This was my home for a few days in San Felipe. My room is always about 12 feet square with a bed, desk and a 13" TV. That's it.
The other picture is of the 6 strand electric fence that surrounds the hotel property. The guys at work tell me to be careful because if I go out of the hotel property after 7:00 I will be shot. This always makes me feel good about going to Venezuela.

Four Wheeler Action

One of the first things that Evan wanted was a ride through the "forest " on the 4 wheeler.
We went thru the forest several times, collected fire wood one day and checked the mail 2 times a day.
As you can see, Evan always had his "hunter orange" clothes on when we went for a ride as it was deer hunting season in Wisconsin.

Happenings in Jonesie's Digs

The kids wanted to see what was going on out in Jonesie's Digs and as you can see we were very busy checking things out.

We tried out the ice fishing shack to see if all three of us could go fishing together and found out there was plenty of room for us.

Emme had her first diaper change in the Digs and was just fine looking around to see everything.

Nana and Emme

As you can see, Nana and Emme were devouring the "National Enquirer", literally.
Cousin Kallie was in on the latest news from the "rag".

Emme was just so content sitting in the corner of the couch. Here she got a hold of Evan's Blaster and was not about to give it up.

Thanksgiving Week

The week started out on Saturday with the first day of gun deer hunting. The first 3 deer were to close to me and I missed all 3 of them. I was then down to 1 bullet and finally got a small doe. Out of bullets by noon, I took my deer home and skinned it out.
This actually worked in my favor as the kids were coming to Wisconsin on Saturday night.
On Sunday morning Evan discovered the sucker tree and it had quite a good crop this year.


He next discovered that in Jonesie's Digs there was the usual stash of cookies and goodies. And on top of that there was a video of Sponge Bob that we watched over and over.

First half done

The first half of the bow season ended with all of the deer I saw still walking in the woods. I kept waiting for Mr. Big, who never showed up.
So the last two days I thought I would just shoot one and have some venison. Well, as the story goes, no deer showed up on Wed. or Thur.
On to the gun season!!!
In the mean time I have been working on putting a light outside the entrance door to Jonesie's Digs. I also wanted it to be motion activated. So I used a copper light from the Bud and June house for the light and bought a motion detector and went to work. Well last night I finished it and it is nice to have a light outside the door but it needs some tuning. It wants to go on when the wind blows and stays on longer that I want. So today during daylight hours I hope to fine tune it.
Nana is bust getting ready for the grand kids visit. They are coming on Saturday night and staying until the following Sunday. They haven't been here since last Thanksgiving. I have to make sure that there is enough gas for the four wheeler as E will want to put on a hundred miles on it while he is here.

Veterans Day Morning on the Farm

Good morning Spring Valley!!!The woods is covered in gold. What a pretty blanket we are enjoying today.

As you can see from the pictures, Sunday morning on the farm was beautiful. It is 37 degrees and very nice out.

View From The Tree

As you can see there was action tonight. There were two doe's, one doe fawn, two buck fawns, and one 4 point buck.

Nothing to shoot at, I am still waiting for Grandpa Buck, but these guys are running out of time.

Cool Temperature Today

I did escape Galveston, TX last Friday only to be sent to Cofeyville, KS. I escaped Kansas on Saturday night and have been home for two whole days.

Today was the first snow of the season. The farm is not ready for this yet. To many flower beds that have not been made ready for winter.

The deer hunt goes on. Tonight, while I froze in the tree, I had 4 bucks, 1 doe, 2 buck fawns and 1 doe fawn walk by. The bucks horns did not look very good and they were all 1 1/2 year old bucks so they are still walking in the woods tonight. Maybe tomorrow grandpa will walk by!!

Here is what we are after again this year.

It is a tough job but someone has to do it

I arrived at midnight last night on Galveston Island. This is my new home for a few days. I have a room that overlooks the gulf. The pictures are of the view from my room and the small things in the background are sailboats. There were hundreds of the out today.
I went to safety training today and start work in the morning.

No sitting Down for Jonesie

I just returned from Lowell, MA. Thinking I was going to get some good tree stand time I went to the woods on Tuesday afternoon. It was quite a successful hunt. I had a doe fawn stand in front of me then a bit later a buck fawn stood in front of me.
As I was watching the little ones, 5 more deer went running by me. I have no idea what they were.

I get back to the Digs and find that I have to leave for Texas City, TX on Wed. I wasn't to happy about that.

So my blog time is very short lately.

Running on Empty

There I was, sitting in my digs on Thursday and the phone rings. Keep in mind I was all set to go out deer hunting that evening.

Before I knew what was happening, I was on my way to Eau Claire to ren a car and a long drive to Jolite, IL. I will only be here for 2 days and will have to drive back home on Saturday. (Thank god for xm radio)

Then on Sunday I have to go to Lowell, Ma for a couple of days. I then think I will be off to Coffeyville, KS for a few days.

Enough about me.

This and That on the Farm

As you may have noticed, I lost the text on my blog. It was PDX Katie to the rescue. I had played with the colors of the blog and forgot to change the color of the text. It is all fixed now thanks to PDX Katie.

Been busy on the road so haven't had much time to blog but here is some catch up.

Still raining every other day so we are quite soggy everywhere we walk.

Still getting ready for winter, little by little. Today it was put the water hoses away, get out the outdoor furniture covers, push some leaves around, and this before it is to start raining again.

I have been out deer hunting in the am and pm but haven't seen many deer. The ever elusive and highly sought after gray squirrels have been around a lot. Last night there was a owl that came gliding thru the woods.

I think it is time for a nap.

AW NUTS

I was outside today and tried to start the 4 wheeler and it didn't run very well. So I took the top off to the air cleaner and look at what I found. There must have been over 50 hickory nuts in the air compartment.
I cleaned all of them out but it still didn't help with starting the 4 wheeler.