Spring Morning Views

The mornings have been pretty chill lately.  Ramsey gets himself out of bed and dressed.  I make him a quick breakfast and ensure he has everything he needs in his backpack.  

This morning, I took special notice to thew view from the upstairs windows.

This was at 6:41 AM this Monday morning.  What a glorious view!   God is good!

Dock's In! (FINALLY)

With such a ridiculously LONG winter, the dock was LATE getting into the water.  Because we figured there may be a lot of water run-off, we waited a little longer (perhaps a bit too long) to get the dock in.  The lift will go in soon.

Views like this (from the deck) are some of my favorite things in the world.  I used to watch Eric and Connor.  Tonight, Ramsey wanted to spend time with Daddy on the dock.

I had to get some dock time in too.  It's always so serene and peaceful.  It makes my heart happy and is good for the soul!

At the end of the day, the take-home prizes from the dock were fruitful.  

These were some nice-sized walleye, between 16 and 20".

Ice is OFF the Lake (FINALLY)

Well... it's a MONTH late, but today was finally the day that the ice moved off the lake!

This pic is around 9AM on April 28th.

We had a crew of people here working on the reno (electricians and the guys measuring for the quartz countertops).  We were all gawking out the window, watching these poor fellas.  Apparently their ice house had frozen to the lake and fallen through.  They had tied blue plastic barrels to the ice house to keep it afloat.  Then, between the small hand-steered outboard on the back of this boat, plus two people with paddles, they slooooooooooooooooowwwwwwwwly made their way to the landing to get the house of the water.  Ugh.

By 3PM, the ice was off the lake completely!   Hallelujah!

The $#*# is Finally Melting!

 We're finally having some nice weather; warmer temps and sunshine.

The white #$%@# is finally starting to melt!  It'll be a while before the ice is off the lake though....

This winter is dragging onnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn...................

Maybe in a few weeks, I'll finally be able to see across the lake!

One Wicked Ice Storm

 Rain in November!  We thought that was strange.  

Then, it started freezing.  The drizzles froze to the ground, roads, telephone poles, and anywhere it could stick.   It made one HELLUVA mess.  We don't see ice storms usually.  Those usually occur more south.  It's a weird year, so anything is possible.

After a while, we started hearing cracking, loud crunching, and bellowing thuds!

The noises we heard were quite scary and had no idea what was going on.   When we went outside to check (trying VERY hard not to fall on our butts, as the ice on the deck was about 3/4" thick at the time), we saw branches that were so weighed down with ice, they were hanging on the roof.

The sounds we heard were large branches cracking and falling to the ground, most likely brushing on the side of the house and deck as they fell.

Needless to say, we had no school for a few days.  Driving was NOT an option as it was too cold for the ice to melt.

Eric and I were glad that we had the tree trimmers come a few months before to cut down large branches that were actually overhanging our roof and also the HUGE limb that was lingering over the neighbor's house.  Sidenote: The neighbor was bummed when we had done that, as he liked the shade.  ...bet he's glad we did it after this wreck of a storm!!

This is the nieghbor's little Elm tree that's usually spry, with branches sticking straight up in the air.  Now, limbs were touching the ground.

When the temps warm up and it's not too dangerous to walk in the yard, clean-up efforts will be a real mess. Ugh!

In the midst of all of the chaos, the ice was quite pretty. 

When the roads were finally decent enough to drive, I had taken a quick trip to town.  Here are some pictures I took of the crazy ice that covered everything.  

Every blade of grass had a thick coat of ice.  Walking on this was like crunching over glass.

Here's a pic from the North Bridge, looking south.  

First Snow of the Season

 Ugly picture of a bland terrain.  But, for my yearly documentation, the first snow of the season was today!

And, so it begins....  *groan*.

We Have Orioles!

 The first yearly Oriole arrived around May 9th.   

A grossbeak also appeared!

Eric had the view of them on the feeders on the weekdays and I had the view of them cleaning up discarded oranges from the fire pit.

A large group of them came in, so it was fun to watch.  At one time, Eric counted DOZENS of them on the deck and in our trees.

Unfortunately, after about two weeks (of getting fed a ridiculous amount of grape jelly and many pounds of oranges), they bolted.    We're not sure what more we can do to keep them around longer.  We'll just enjoy for them for the small time they migrate through.

Pumpkin Festival

 We'd been looking forward to the Pumpkin Festival in a nearby town for weeks!   Ramsey and I had been planning to meet up with my good friend Teri and her little boy Stetson, who is about a year younger than Ramsey (they becamse good buds this summer).

In the AM, we had the very last soccer game of the season.  But, it was also windy, cold, and rainy.  Meh!  But, in South Dakota, the weather in October can change drastically within just a few hours.  So.. off to soccer we went!

We somehow avoided the rain - thank goodness!

After soccer, Ramsey changed clothes and we were off to meet up with Teri and Stetson!

The weather had turned from cold and rainy to humid with a nice 60s temp!  The boys were thrilled when they finally met up.

I was amazed at what a fun and well-organized event this was, with so many terrific activities for kids (and adults!).  

There were fun barrel carts for the kids to ride in, antique fire trucks on display....

Ramsey was less than thrilled at how loud the sirens were! :-)

Local businesses gave away "goody bags", filled with bubbles, treats, stickers, etc.  Incidentally, the free backpack/bag will be great for taking winter gear to school. Nice!    We had to stop at the local vendor set-ups as well to check out their homemade items.  We went home with delicious gourmet cupcakes and cookies.

There were photo ops set up in multiple places.   There were free pumpkins for all the kids, a free lunch of hamburgers, brats, chips, pop, and desserts too.   The amount of volunteers and sponsors was incredible!  

And, there were bouncy castles!  (Ramsey's FAVORITE - and apparently Stetson's too!)

The boys would have stayed on the bouncy castles ALL DAY if we would have let them!

But, they were too many things to do, to focus on just one thing!

Teri's husband, Joe, raised all of the pumpkins for the kids.  And, even raised this gigantic pumpkin!  Fest goers had the opportunity to win a prize for guessing the weight of the pumpkin.  After the event, the weight was released; it was 1194 pounds!  We didn't win - undershot it by about 200 lbs.  Rats!

After the event, Teri and I took the boys to Dairy Queen for treats (we had felt like "A" raindrop, so it was time to bugger out).   

About an hour after Ramsey and I got home, the weather reports were a bit dire; there were storm warnings and tornado watches for our area, but tornado warnings and severe weather for the small town where Pumpkin Fest was held (where Teri lives).    It was eery outside with the winds changing directions several times, clashing.

The winds and storms continued to whip through.  It was freaky enough where Ramsey felt he needed "more cover" in the living room.  He built himself a pillow fort and hung out.

Meanwhile, I was texting Teri to see how they were doing.  They did have some terrible weather and spent a few hours in the basement.  Luckily, no one was hurt and the tornadoes stayed outside of town, causing only tree damage in their yard.