Don't fence me in

Here's where we are with the fence now...the structure is done, but we won't stain it until next spring because the wood needs breathing time. These pics are taken from the upper level of the yard so the fence looks small, but it's not. It's 8 feet tall. The maple tree is in both pictures--I don't have panoramic capability on my camera, at least that I'm aware of, so it took two shots to show the setting.

More is going on today--the boys are putting river rock in front of the fence and brick trim around the rocks. We'll add a couple of trees in the open space to the right of the fence and a couple more elsewhere in the yard... but don't expect this all to happen quickly. We're waiting for better tree planting weather for that part of the project.

I admit without guilt that I like having other people do this kind of work rather than Larry/Paco/Dad/Grandpappy and I doing it ourselves. It's especially nice to go away for a few hours, like I did this morning, and come home to see the results of three guys' labor. While they were hauling rocks and bricks, I was at the Amboy Cottage Café in (guess where?) Amboy with my book group, enjoying breakfast and discussing a good book. One of the book group members reads this blog, and I'm sure she'd agree that breakfast and conversation were a great way to spend a warm summer morning, right Mary?

Later today...

I went to meet a friend for coffee for a few hours this afternoon and came back to the rocks and bricks all in place, and the area near the fence looking good. This is a switch on the Field of Dreams "build it and they will come" idea. I like the concept of "leave and they will build it."

Duluth weekend

Dad/Larry/Paco/Grandpappy at a scenic stop along the North Shore of Lake Superior.
Mike and Amber are married and all the Minnesota Potts attendees have returned home. We missed E, E, and h...Hannah, you'd have had a dance partner in Miles if you'd been at the reception. He was dancing like his hair was on fire. This little video doesn't show much of his dancing ability, but you get the idea.





Mike and Amber visited Ethan and Owen this morning in our motel room. They look pretty cute with twins! Miles had a great morning talking to people in the motel lobby and taking a side trip to see a BIG choo choo train engine and jet plane in Proctor with Tanner and Grandpa. Tanner took pictures, I believe, so check out the O-Town blog. When he got back, he helped out with the babies.

Geometry in action

Holy fence posts, Batman! We've got verticals and we've got horizontals and perpendiculars and right angles...and we are counting on the boys to stay vertical themselves so they can get the horizontals and perpendiculars and right angles in place today. Dad/Larry/Paco/Grandpappy and I are leaving soon for Duluth for Mike and Amber's wedding weekend festivities. We hope to come home to a completed fence.

A post about posts

The "boys" were here today. Footings are poured, fence posts are vertical. Looks like we should get some American flags and fly 'em in the back yard.

When is a fence not a fence?

Here's the not-a-fence-yet, delivered on Monday. Annie and I have a bet going, that the footings for their new deck will be in place before the footings for our new fence. If the work on their deck gets started first, she wins a pedicure (goes with the "footings" theme. Get it?). If work on our fence gets started first, I'll babysit for Miles and play "This Little Piggie" with him, to keep the footings theme intact. I believe the bet is actually over, and Annie won. I'll still play with Miles' tootsies, though.

Place settings and play mats

I missed the best photo op of the day: Miles setting the table. Miles added silverware and napkins to each placemat before supper this evening. Never mind that there wasn't any room for plates because of his artistic arrangements--- he did a super job. Thank you, Miles! Miles was for here for the day with his mommy, Charlie, Angie, Ethan, and Owen so Charlie and Annie could do a training run together. We missed Tanner, who had a date with the links (as in golf, Evan. Not sausage.).

The best video op of the day is below. Angie explained the features of the new play mat she bought for the babies at IKEA this week when they went on a shopping adventure with Grandma Darla. The boys were mesmerized by the description and followed along intently for several minutes. I finally got smart and got my camera to catch the tail end of the conversation.

Hilda and the B.V.M.

Another flashback from my childhood...skip this entry if you prefer not to be dragged down memory lane again...

Here's what our house on Huron Avenue looks like now, in 2009. It's not much different in the front than it was in the 50's, but there is at least one addition to the back of the house. You can see that there is a dumpster in the driveway (this photo taken in June) so maybe there's another add-on in the works. I loved this house and can remember the interior floor plan and the 1950's decor in detail.

Hilda Fenstermacher lived in the house next door to us when I was a kid. Her last name is very German, but she was Norwegian (until she got married, apparently!).
She was a widow, the great aunt of some friends of mine, an absolutely sweet and kind woman, and a great neighbor.

Hilda didn't mind that the neighborhood kids wanted to play on her driveway day and night. Hers was concrete and most of us had gravel driveways, so she had the right surface for playing hopscotch and bouncing balls. I remember a lot about the inside of her house, too, especially the kitchen. Hilda loved kids. She had a special fondness for my little sister and always invited her in to help bake. Hilda made a mean gooseberry pie, scrumptious ginger cookies, and was the lefse champ of the neighborhood (don't tell Gladys Lundby!). I have a vivid memory of watching Hilda teach Mary Jo when to take lefse off the griddle so it was done to perfection.

Hilda's back yard should be made into a shrine. That's where my brother Mark and his friend Bobbi Esklund saw the Virgin Mary appear in the sky over a row of pine trees. Mark, being a good Catholic boy, knew the Virgin Mary did these things now and then to shake up the secular world. Bobbi was Lutheran so she didn't have to believe what she was seeing, and I don't if she did or not. I just wish Hilda had been looking out the window at the time to verify the miracle, although as a Protestant she could have denied the existence of the vision, too. As it stands, I have to take Mark's word for it.