What I Did On My Summer Vacation.

By Jodie Stoos, Woodland School 54th Grade

All right.  It's been 3 months since my last post.  I've decided to blame this fact on everyone and everything but myself.  That's the American Way...

Chapter 1:  Trusted Relatives Steal Entire Summer Month!

I don't know how it happened.  One day we were celebrating Mother's Day, the next thing we knew it was July 4th!  I'm afraid we're going to have to accept the unbelievable fact that friends and family we thought were trustworthy have made off  with a third of the summer.  And that's not all that's missing--I don't have a single picture of these happy gatherings!!  Where the hell did those go???

All right.  I know the answer to that one--I accidentally erased EVERY picture I had stored on my camera's memory card, taken during SIX wonderful visits from family and friends that occurred, mostly during June, to celebrate Mom's 80th birthday.  I can't believe I did that.  No pictures of Michael taking us to the Rail Trail Cafe for Mother's day.  No shots of Bob and Mary Clark (Norma's son and his wife) spending a weekend with us.  Nothing of the following weekend, when Lorrie and Greg were joined by Amy, Patrick and tiny little dog Mamba to celebrate the big occasion.  And not one shot of the Great Interstate Cousins' Club Meeting!  I can't believe I lost those.  I had a great picture of our little living room reaching maximum capacity when Aunt Nancy, Cousins Barb, Jean, Melissa and Pam (also Lily and Sheridan, Melissa and Pam's girls) all made it up for a long weekend of partying.  I had pictures of Pam forcing me to walk uphill, which she does every time we get together (it's the only exercise I ever get).  I even had a picture of Nancy taking a picture of me taking a picture of her. (Come to think of it, I have a similar shot of Melissa and I photographing each other at the airport the day we left for Sweden.  Must be an Olufs thing.)  And I have no pictures of Jeanni and Chris Bonine (Norma's granddaughter and husband) or Erica Mennerick (another of Norma's granddaughters who've adopted Mom) bringing the babies up to celebrate Great Grandma's 80th.

So, there is conveniently (for them) NO evidence whatsoever that these people were ever here stealing our gardening time.  I guess we'll have to forget prosecuting anyone and just be really happy they were here with us for the big event.  It was outrageous fun, and what we do have is a month's worth of wonderful memories to keep.  Thanks to everyone who made the trip up here, during what I know was a busy time for them, too.

The only image from June that survived my accidental camera purge.  I shot it (in July) to show Aunt Nancy where we planted the birthday rose bush she gave to Mom.  It's beside the little bench we put next to the clothes line, where Mom likes to sit and watch nature during summer chore time.

Chapter 2:  Tomatoes and Squash Overtake Ogema Acreage

Between the tortuously long winter and the month-long celebrations, we didn't get the garden in until really late this year.  It's going great, though!!  Nights are getting chilly already, though, and there have already been a couple of frost warnings for areas of the Northwoods that are near enough to make us nervous.

HELP!!!!  They're  heading for the house!!!  Run, Mom, run--you can't keep them at bay much longer!!!  Two types of squash and a half-dozen varieties of tomato head for Janette's house.

We had all these old tires around the barnyard and no time to put in another raised bed, so we decided to try raising potatoes this year, using the Old Tire Method.  As the plants grow, we add another tire and some peat moss.  We're up to 4 tires high already.  Hopefully, there are potatoes in there somewhere.   In the background are peppers and our broccoli, which we had to cage up to protect them from rabbits, which outnumber Ogemites by 6 to 1.

One of only two little melons that have made it so far.  Hope they make it to maturity.

Another experiment for this year--ground cherries.  The little lantern-shaped cover peels off and there's a pale orange berry inside that tastes weirdly like a cross between strawberries and tomatoes.  I've tasted quite a few and still can't decide if I like them or not.  I have a recipe for ground cherry coffeecake, though, that sounds good.  We shall see. 

OK, I'm going to have to stop here.  It's after 6 PM and the other 8 people in Ogema who have internet access must be online--pictures are loading reeeeeeaaaalllllyyy slowly.  I'll get to Chapter 3 in the next couple of days.  No, really....

It's Spring!!!

Yes!  Spring finally found the Northwoods for real, just before Mothers' Day last month.  All of the two- and four-legged folks at our place are breathing sighs of relief--even Bella seems to finally be in a good mood!

Snow is really pretty, but "green" is a great look, too!

Happy sheep!  Happy, happy horses!

Other signs of spring are popping up too.

More colors!  Goldfinches and a rose-breasted grosbeak provide a "sight for sore (or snow blind) eyes."

Another sure sign of spring around here!  Mom's moving a little slow (even for her) but she's feeling better every day.

Look who showed up for Mother's Day again--our friend the porcupine.  I think this is the third year he's appeared in the willow tree, only for a couple of days and only around Mother's Day.  Mom is convinced he's here visiting his own mother...

Of course, it's not all green around here.  Mud season has been in full swing for a couple of weeks, even when it was hiding under our early May snow.



The guy who comes to empty our septic tank got stuck after his truck slowly sank into the muck at the end of the driveway.  A new (to us)  neighbor, who lives a mile or so away, came with the biggest tractor I've ever seen to drag the truck out.  Then each went on his merry way, without making any attempt to deal with the 12" deep trench left behind.  This is the same guy who flattened our flagpole, leaving  Mom unable to fly her flags of the US and Sweden.  She is not amused.

Winter was pretty harsh on our roof.  This view is of the south roof, which covers my little office and our laundry room. All the dark shingles are curled up and loose.  It looks really bad but is still watertight.  It's going to have to be fixed soon, though.  Sigh.  It's always something:

I keep forgetting to introduce you all to Bandit, Mom's new dog.  She is a real sweetheart, smart as a whip and very loving:    

Mom is the happiest she's been since Rex died.  And Bandit seems to be a  happy camper, having her very own bed in her very own living room!

Can't possibly be comfortable, but they both look sweet, don't they?

It occurred to me the other day that I only ever seem to talk about the weather and the animals.  How boring!  I will try to add something more interesting from time to time.  For now, though, I think I'll end this post--it's well after 2 AM and I'm finally sleepy.  We'll be back, though!

We Are Not Amused.

To begin this entry, I think I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves:

April 24:  37 degrees, 2" of snow, Angry Birds

April 27th:  80 degrees, 2" of water, 4" of mud.  This handsome horse was at a training clinic Janette and I attended on Saturday.  I didn't take Bella, just watched others.  I learned a lot, though.

May 2:  34 degrees,  6" of snow, 1/2" of ice,  4" of mud; beautiful, though.

Gotta love spring in Wisconsin.  The poor birds are really confused--below is a pair of goldfinches, the male in full mating colors, trying to make the best of lousy honeymoon weather:

At least there's a free breakfast bar...

I can't joke too much about it, though.  The animals are faring poorly.  There is still almost no grass on the ground, and the deer and bears are starving.  I've also heard a large, hungry coyote pack several nights in a row in the woods just behind the barn.  There have been reports of bears taking down livestock, which rarely happens in gentler springs; they prefer to gather forest foods that don't carry the risk of crossing paths with humankind.  I'm glad Mom insisted on expensive wire mesh fencing rather than the couple of strands of electric wire prevalent in the neighborhood.  Hungry predators just bounce off our fence instead of flattening it.  And, of course, I have Bella protecting the herd and she is NOT in a good mood these days!  I feel sorry for the barn people--they're shedding their winter coats and craving newly grown grass, and they are just as tired of this weather roller coaster as I am!  Fortunately, it's supposed to warm up again toward the end of the week, with temps once more reaching the 60s; we ought to have safer driving conditions for our May 9 trip to Wausau for Mom's PET scan, which will hopefully show minimal damage to her heart.  Then it will be onward, toward gardening season!  Weather permitting, of course...

We're Back...

Here we are, finally, more than a year after my last post.  There really wasn't much to report last year beyond "We went to the doctor today" and "my arm is still broken."  Not much else happened.  After falling and breaking my right arm in February, I had surgery and spent 10 months in a cast.  I wasn't allowed to use the arm at all during that time so I got very little accomplished.  I didn't even manage to accomplish the healing of the arm--my last visit with the orthopedic surgeon was toward the end of October, at which time she said, "Well, the arm still hasn't healed but we're not going to do any more with it.  Go ahead and use it normally."  I'm not really happy about that and got a second opinion in late December.  The orthopedic surgeon I consulted in Eau Claire said, of course, that the one here hadn't done anything right and he wanted to do all manner of alarming things to the bone, including scraping out the interior and inserting some foreign substance or other to stimulate bone growth.  I suppose I should have gone with his plan, but I just can't make myself schedule another operation right now.  There's so much that needs to be done, and all of it needs the use of two arms.  So I'm in limbo right now, using the arm as much as I can; I still have quite a bit of pain if I lift more than a gallon of milk with the arm outstretched, but I can carry near-normal amounts of weight if it's pointed downward.  One thing I've learned is that the fracture site never did heal the first time I broke it and the arm had only been held together by the metal plate I got in North Carolina.  That plate lasted 7 years, so I am hoping I'll get another 7 out of this one.  We'll see...

Mom had a good summer, building 4 more raised beds for the garden all by herself.  No small accomplishment!  She also planted, harvested and canned all the veggies herself last year.  Not bad for a soon-to-be 80-year-old!  Here are a few pictures of her handiwork:

She didn't do quite as well during the last quarter of the year, though.  In October she was admitted to the hospital in Medford for 5 days with pneumonia, and spend an additional 2 or 3 days there in November with a urinary tract infection.  It took her several months to recover from those illnesses, not really feeling herself until February of this year.  She's feeling pretty well these days, though, and is enjoying getting out and about in the world again.

We had very little rain last year and were forced to take the Barn People off the pasture early, in late September so they wouldn't destroy what little grass remained.  The poor things haven't seen the inside of their pasture since then, due to this extended winter we're having.  We had snow again last night and into the day today.  I had bought enough hay to last them until April 4th; more than enough, I thought at the time.  Who knew we would still have no grass growing on the 19th of the month?!  Everyone here is scrambling, trying to find hay this late in the season.  Of course, the demand is driving the price skyward; last fall we could buy a big round bale of hay, enough for about 10 days for our crowd, for about $40.  The price last week was $100-150!!!  Well, it can't last forever, can it?  Spring and summer can't hold off much longer, can they?

As April comes to a close, Cheeseheads across Wisconsin prepare for the spring planting season.
Mother Nature, however, has other ideas...

 This first blog after such a long absence has been hard to get going.  Now, though, I can finally move on and get back to my weekly writing, sharing our grand adventure with our family and friends.  Hope 2013 is a great year for all of us!