Saturday
Growing up, Saturdays were fun days where we would go on adventures. Now as adults we will on rare occasions, abandon the men-folk for an afternoon and enjoy a mother/daughter day. Since John works on Saturdays, and my mother's bday fell on a Saturday, the only question became, "What to do?" We decided to start the day with breakfast and then go shopping.
Meanwhile, I mentioned a while back that I wanted to learn more about growing mushrooms. Turns out my Mom was also interested in this process and had asked me to find us a class nearby. So I did some poking around and found one. I mentioned it met numerous times throughout the summer, and there was even a class on her bday. So Mom decided that would be her bday adventure and so we went schrooming...
My mother and I had been here years ago for the Blue Heron Music Festival. It was strange for us to be there with so few other's around. We could really take in the beauty of the place.
In the mushroom yard...
Below is a picture of a mushroom just starting to bud from an inoculated log...
A wonderful day to be in the forest...
That's gonna be a lot of mushrooms someday...
We learned a lot and had fun in the process. We stuck near the waxing station. Each log is drilled and inoculated. Then hot liquid wax is daubed over the inoculation holes and brushed in a thick coat on the log ends.
After a nice lunch, I showed my mom a short cut from Mayville to the homestead. I showed her where our Amish builder lives and we stopped at a yard-sale. She was surprised at how close the homestead is to such a large Amish community.
When we arrived at the homestead, I gave Mom the grand tour of the barn. She we hung out and talked about the many options that the future held. Our day together ended with my Mother leaving to pick up my step-father and go to dinner. I decided to go back to the city and take care of things at the house there.
Sunday
Sundays are normally farm days, but when a holiday falls on Sunday, John does farm chores on his other day off, Monday. We loaded the car with Mom's Mother's Day swag and headed out to the farm.
We are usually good at keeping my Mom's bday and Mother's Day separate, but this year it was difficult to do that. So while my Mother and I had our mushroom adventure on Saturday, we had her bday cake on Sunday with Hank and John.
It was a such a pretty cake, but we dug in before I could get a pic....
For Mother's Day there are always flowers....
And because you are never too old to make something for your Mom....
Another family birthday tradition is a meal out at a restaurant picked by the person whose birthday it is. So that will happen next Sunday. The festivities continue!
After we wrapped us the Mother's Day Celebration, John and I decided to go out to the homestead. However, before we could leave, I had to stop and and say 'Hi!', to the boys.
Stan was being super cute today...
We invited my parents to come with us, out to the homestead. It was Hank's first time seeing the barn or what we have started calling the 'cabin'. He was impressed with the quality of workmanship. The four of us hung out and talked about the next-steps.
Once my parents left, we got to work. John moved some gravel and our mushroom log to a better location.
We have been learning a lot lately about forestry and survival techniques or as the English call it, Bushcraft. Here, John is making kindling with a hand-ax...
While no fingers were lost, a band-aid was deployed ;-)
So now we are back in the city and ready for the week ahead. The whole while knowing, in 5 short days we will be back out in the woods preparing the land for a day when we won't have to leave. In the short term, it is a cabin for summer fun and we plan to enjoy it!
