The Workshop

After two months of collecting tools, it's finally time to get them installed. Started painting the walls of the workshop this week. Final coat today. Got a really nice 220 dollar bucket of paint on clearance for 50 bucks. Color is good too. Feels good to get started on the project, but it will be a long time before everything is set up and ready to go. 

Finished a few loose ends as well, but the weather was beautiful this week, so we went to the beach twice! Amélie has had an extremely difficult week. Lots of negative spirals and meltdowns. We think its a perfect storm of some preteen hormones hitting for the first time, the start of school catching up with her, and a growth spurt. She had two days worth of food yesterday. Hard to know how to handle her. 

Abigail has been doing better. Glad they trade off. She has been lost in a Harry Potter book for the last couple days. We also got to enjoy the Children's Museum with Grandma (thanks to the Sankey's) and the storage area in the attic got wrapped up, just in time to make some space in the garage for a surprise tool delivery. A friend was driving back from Chicago and said he could swing by Appleton and get them for me. Saved a whole day of driving! What a huge help. 

Fun at the beach.

We had a great time exploring the Children's Museum! 

Storage area.

Found another watefrall nearby.

The Arborist

We had a rotting aspen tree that was leaning over our house. Special equipment was needed to remove it. The first company I called couldn't even come out to do an estimate for a couple weeks. The second one came quickly, but the estimate seemed high. The third one also came quickly, and said they could do it for half the price. On top of that, they happened to be in the neighborhood, so they could get the job done later that day. Otherwise it was a 5-week wait. The guys did an excellent job and were a lot of fun to talk to. Glad we were able to solve that problem so quickly!

Since we cut down a tree, it seems fitting that I also planted a couple plum trees on the other side of the house. The deer liked that idea too. They bent one over, cracking the base, and roughed up the other one. Figured I could get away with one night without a cage, but I was mistaken. Hopefully they will recover. Picked up a few peach trees as well. 

Made some good progress on the attic, but the storage space still isn't finished. Also picked out a snowblower and got our season tickets for the ski hill. Much cheaper now than in a couple months. The girls had another good week at school. Yesterday Naomi and Abigail were sick, so I took Amélie out to visit my dad's friend, Kile, at a place where he works on Lake Superior. Beautiful spot. He offered me some work, so that would be great. Just need to sort out the details. Amélie had a blast with the dogs.

The bucket truck.

The big lake.

Albino deer and its fawn checking out the aspen that came down in our front yard.

Season passes!

Marquette Mountain. Looking a bit fallish.

The new snowblower.

Quite the machine.

School in America

The girls made it through their first week of school! It went really well. They liked it a lot and every day they came home happy and positive. We dropped them off with the car one rainy day, but otherwise we took the bikes. The hills are getting us all in shape! Their teacher is great, and she said that she was super impressed with how the girls adjusted. She said it was so natural for them that it was like they had always gone to the school. They are making friends quickly!

Started making some storage space in the attic above the garage and came across a couple cracked supports. Will have to repair them and keep an eye on it this winter. Also picked up a couple plum trees for the backyard and cut down my first tree. Set aside a few pieces of the cherry that weren't full of fungus and trying to get the bandsaw up and running to cut them into small boards. 

Spent some time at the beach this week. Beautiful. Strange how we had the A/C on and then 48 hours later needed to fire up the furnace. Also got the sledding run cleared out for this winter and started piling up some branches to stop the sleds before they hit any trees. Put the finishing touches on the trampoline too. Still lots of unpacking to do, but the last piece of woodworking equipment arrived in Appleton, so now the workshop really needs some attention!

Processing some apples.

A great, sheltered beach in the city.

First day of school!!!

Problems in the attic.

Great lunch spot!

Abigail had some fun with puzzles.

Amélie left her teacher a note.

The Pond

We finished our new pond this week. As we were hooking up the springs and stretching the fabric across the top (to keep the fish safe from the birds, of course), Amélie said it sure looked an awful lot like a trampoline. She was thrilled when we told her it was one! Abigail was a bit sad because she wants a pond. We will need to build one next year. Amélie has been jumping a lot these last couple days.

Yesterday my parents came up with another truckload of stuff, and we were able to have a nice lunch together and a hike out on our land. We won't see them for a couple weeks as next weekend is the family reunion. Bummer that we aren't up for going! 

Our car only came with one key, and it had some braking issues, and the back wouldn't lock, so we left Amélie with Grammie and Grampie and took a trip down to the Fox Valley with Abigail to get that stuff fixed. Everything went well, and we got to see Jim and Beth on our way down to stay with Sara and Pat in Neenah. It was a really nice visit. Came back with some great produce too!

Thursday was an open day at the girl's school. They got to check the place out and meet their new teacher. She seems great! Only 15 kids in their class, but they will mix things up with the second group of students. 4th and 5th grade combined. Amélie is really excited to start on Tuesday and Abigail is still a bit nervous.

We also got most of the shopping out of the way this past week. Hopefully this coming week we can focus on unpacking as there are still way too many boxes around. Once things are unpacked we will have a better idea of what furniture we need. Using moving boxes as shelves gets old quickly...

The day before the super blue moon in Neenah.

Sandhill cranes (view from the front porch).

Snack time at the Sankey's.

Much better than a pond (according to Amélie). 

They have lockers at school!

'Pond' prepping.

Imaginary waterfall (mist rising off the river) nearby our house.