Mother's' Day Weekend

Saturday

My mother's birthday is May 7th. This year it fell on the day before Mother's Day. When we talked about what my Mom wanted to do for her birthday, she mentioned wanting to spend the day together, just her and I.

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!

2014 - Winter, or "How do we get an address?"

January 2014 we celebrated ... this time with cake...

We enjoyed seeing critter tracks in the snow....

And added some of our own....

Bit of orange and yellow indicates there will be a house here...

As Winter began to yield to Spring, our eagerness for further progress was evident.  After meeting with the Town Code Enforcement Officer, the steps to take were clear.  Attached to the building permit was an outline.

The land we purchased was always part of a larger parcel.  The previous owner used it for hunting. With no house there was no need for an address. We however plan to build our home here, so we need an address. It was somewhat odd for me to think about living in a place that no one had ever built a house on before.

The 911 Address System is where to go for an address. That made sense to me. The pressure to commit to a build site was on. We thought and thought and thought some more and made sure we wanted in the house in the place we picked. Not too close to the neighbor or boundary line. Town Code helped with that. Then the question was, "How long do we really want our driveway to be.... especially in the winter!"

After a few more assurances, we committed to the spot. I was told to mark the middle of the front of the house with a milk jug on a stick. Seriously. That is what I was told. 

I thought, "No problem!" Then I realized, the ground is frozen. So I went to Home Depot for inspiration. I found a tamper, used to tamp down sand and dirt for paths and driveways made of brick or flat stones. I thought well, with it's heavy metal base, it will stay up and I can put the milk jug on top. There was one tamper 1/2 the price of the rest so that is the one I went with. I had my stick.

The milk jug is actually a water jug, but I didn't think anyone would mind. I wanted to weigh it down a bit and thought I could use the freezing temps to my advantage. Two plastic water jugs with some of the water poured out to make room for when it froze so as not to break the plastic, were used as weight. Once frozen, it was not going anywhere.

The only think I had to tie it all together was the orange, plastic, boundary marking ribbon. And there you have it, a milk jug on a stick....

I thought it was hard to see the white jug against the snow so I put the safety orange hat on the jug. (I know, I over think these things.)

Oh look... that has to be a brisk buggy ride!

Once Winter was in a terminal condition, our address situation was all sorted out! Yay! Now things started to seem more and more real... and less like a dream. With no mailbox yet, we got another stick. By now the ground was willing to cooperate a bit more. We attached a sign to the stick.

Snow gave way to thorns...

And while the snow melted from sun exposure...

In the woods, there was still plenty white stuff...

The prickers don't mind the snow...

And there were bones! Deer bones...

Wild grape vines high up in the trees....

Hang down like drapes...

Eventually greenery replaced the whiteness...