Surprise Visit

For Labor Day, we got a surprise visit from my aunt and uncle. They brought up some shelves for us to make room for stuff from my grandma. We had a really nice time. Dinner at Bodega was a bit disappointing, but we found a spot at Blackrocks and went for a nice hike. Perfect weather. 

I made a bit of progress on covering up some plastic around the house. Slow going, but it looks okay. The weather turned and then I got some shop time in. Cranked out a couple cutting boards and turned half a log into some blanks for the lathe. Fun to have the tools that can do that. Need to get a lathe at some point. Got the wood stove delivered. 537 pounds. Quite a challenge to get it down the stairs and up onto the stand! Really need to get the basement cleaned up an organized before trying to get the venting installed.

The girls had a great first week of school! They are so happy to be back. To celebrate the first day we met friends at the beach. Also got an interview in for a newspaper article I am writing. Yesterday we tried out a Judo class and the girls loved it! Definitely feels good to be back into the routine. 

First Judo class.

Building with solar power!

Anything looks better than plastic.

Fun in town.

Special breakfast!

Turning a tree into blanks.

Checking on the bees.

Little Things

This week was about just taking care of a lot of little things that had been piling up. Got a new wifi router set up as Spectrum started charging us for theirs. Got the stuff out of the garage and put where in belongs from my Grandma's house. Amélie absolutely loves her new cooking station! Set up more mouse traps as they have been taking the cherry pits we worked so hard to save up. Trying to put together an order of cork.

The girls went to my parents for the first few days of this week. They had a great time. Happy they could spend time together before the latest Alaska adventure. My dad left a couple days ago to drive up there. When I went down to drop them off I spent some time at the farm milling up more cedar. Unfortunately it was super hot so that was an unpleasant task! I'll have to go down when the weather is better and the girls are in school to do more. Naomi and I got to celebrate her first day of teaching with a nice dinner and a walk on the beach. Also went to our first college football game together. NMU continues to be terrible, haha.

Didn't get anything done on the foundation project. Got some trees planted though. Two more peaches and a couple apples. Amazing to see how much our peaches have grown this year! Complained enough to EGO about their portable power station that they gave me a free battery. Got the latest project for my client Jim worked out. Surprise visit this weekend, so things will get pushed back a bit more, but it will be really fun and Amélie's mind will get taken off of the stress of starting school, so that's great. Wish our guest room was in better shape!

Hanging out in the Rapid River.

Perfect night for the beach.

Two trophy bases on the way!

First tomato from the garden.

Amélie loves the marching band.

New work station!

First peach from the garden. Amazing.

Ten Years

Hard to imagine that much time has passed since they were born. Hopefully the next ten years will be a bit less turbulent for us. We are definitely off to a great start! The girls had a birthday party with friends on Sunday. Naomi did a great job of setting up some games. Grammie and Grampie spent the night and we had a fun birthday Monday. Lots of good food, games, and a cookout at our campsite. 

The girls had their apprenticeships and that continues to go well. I managed to get the wood stove ordered and another window well put in. Started chopping up a bit of firewood too. Got the garage cleared out just in time for more to arrive. Furniture from Plover. Special to be able to have it and it is already improving out home. My parents barely missed the rain on the way up. Very lucky as it was all in the back of the truck. 

Also got the solar system set up this week. Doesn't work totally the way I want it to but it is pretty cool to use. Nice to have a backup generator and portable power. Also too Pish out to TNT as she wanted to check it out and would consider donating. Nice to be back there. Kile has been working hard. Not sure how he does it all!

Got much of the wood stowed away.

Birthday party fun!

Too many presents this year.

Great cookout!

A beautiful day at TNT

Learning to play the trumpet. Good thing we have a garage!

Waterproof

Finally got the basement waterproofed. Had a good rainstorm to test it out. Feels good to have the urgent part of that project out of the way! Now I can take a little break from it to focus on some other things. Managed to build a picnic table in a day and a half. Toasted the cedar with a propane torch. It is a trade for borrowing a friend's sawmill. Fun to make!

Also made some good progress on getting the garage cleared out. Not totally there, but much of the wood is stowed out of the way. Cleaned up the house and got things more organized too. Finished the grout on the tile floor as well. That was not my favorite job, but it turned out well. Now we need to get the wood stove ordered. 

The girls had their last day of NMU summer camp on Thursday. Glad they were able to take part. Yesterday the read Harry Potter for most of the day. It was rainy, so I guess that's okay once in a while. Today is their birthday party and Monday we will celebrate more as it's their actual birthday, so a bit of rest in advance can't hurt. Also got my old bike up and running. Amélie likes it a lot! 

Molly the beekeeper came to help us check on the bees and put the super on - the extra box that we can harvest honey from - because they have the bottom two boxes basically full. That's what they need to get through the winter. Yesterday we had a video chat with the cousins to figure out who wants what from my grandparents house. It went really smoothly. Good to see everyone. Difficult job to get the house cleaned out.

Neighbor Rick helped to push the dirt back with his tractor.

Our first bits of honey!

Toasted cedar.

Wood stove tile.

Cruisin' on the old bike.

Family time.

Happy hive.

Partial Payback

I have been getting a lot of help from Rick and Dominic. This week I was able to start paying them back. Went up to Rick's cabin on Monday to help him clear some things out. There was also an old ash floor up there that he wanted to get rid of, so I happily stacked it up in our garage. The staples are a bummer but the wood is good. He has a nice place up on the Dead River Basin. 

My mom came up on Tuesday to pick up the girls. They had a lot of fun together! Managed to be productive while they were gone and had a great dinner with Naomi celebrating the day we met 15 years ago. It was at the farmers market. Felt European. Eating on the street with no traffic. Surprisingly delicious food from a sports bar. On Thursday went down to my parents to hang out, spend time with my Dad's cousin, and play a little golf. On Friday we spent the day at the farm and I helped Dominic build a new chicken coop. They are up to 73 chickens now! 

Yesterday we got some errands wrapped up along with a few presents. Birthday coming soon. Also had a chance to see Miss CJ at the coffee shop where she works in Ishpeming. Amélie happened to see her best friend at the roadside veggie stand on the way back. Fireworks. For dinner we were invited to the neighbors for some authentic Indian food. It was delicious. We had a bit of fall weather these last couple days, but the sun is coming out again and the temperatures are rising. Hopefully more beach dinners this week! 

Great dinner. 

Maybe a new woodworking project from a client.

Rick's hulking cabin that needs tearing down.

Right below the cabin is Willow Creek, emptying into the Dead River Basin.

Mushrooms!

While my friend and business partner, Scotty, and his wife and friend were playing hide and seek in the yard with the girls, I discovered the mushrooms I started last fall sprouted! We had a bunch of red wine caps that came out of the wood chip pile. There were also a few Italian oysters popping out of the aspen I inoculated in the front yard. Very tasty. The heat shriveled them quickly though. 

The rest of the visit with Scotty and co was fun. They were supposed to spend a couple nights but just ended up coming for a day. They took a hike at Pictured Rocks which was supposed to take 4-5 hours but it took them twice that. Scotty did it in sandals because his feet were swollen up from a bike ride. Ouch. 

The girls had fun at camp and got a bit of rest. Abigail finally seems to be getting over her cough. We played some badminton too. I spent the day Thursday installing a new garage door opener as the last one broke. Nice that it is so much quieter. I also made some progress on the exterior insulation and tiled the wood stove pad downstairs. Still need to do the grout. It was hot all week. So thankful we have air conditioning, even if it is just for a couple weeks out of the year. Spent lots of time at the beach. Brought a few dinners there. Happy the weather is cooling off now!

The brick was expensive, but it looks good.

Plastic was difficult to place.

Cut away the floor to do some tiling.

So hot. Bees hanging out on the front porch.

Red wine caps.

Like portobellos, but softer.

They were tasty.

Heat shriveled Italian oysters.