McBlog

2012-01-23T12:35:00.002-06:00

This winter bike commute post is a long time coming. I made it through all of last winter biking to work. It was my first full winter biking (the prior year I hung it up before the holidays and stayed off two wheels until spring had sprung). It was pretty crazy with all the snow we had. I basically rusted out every component on my bike (more on this later). Not a huge deal since I had switched over to an old mountain bike when the conditions got sloppy. The salt really did a number on it. Although we've had some snow and cold, this morning was the first true winter commute this season. Pretty amazing really how mild things have been.

The white line above represents the left side of this bike lane I take for a few blocks northbound. We had maybe 3+ inches here and as you can see it was already a mess.

Here is a typical residential street in Minneapolis. Less traffic to worry about in slippery conditions, but it's more like a cyclocross course with the ruts and piles of snow. Even with studded tires I was fishtailing a good amount.

I tend to only ride on the Midtown Greenway for a couple miles at night or if the streets are in really bad shape. The city keeps it pretty clean and it is nice and quiet.

Here is my trusty Nishiki steed corralled to a Dero Ultra Space Saver rack we had installed in one of the two secure bike cages at work. I say "we" because our bike commuter group I volunteer on petitioned for this second cage and the different rack options. Really I should call my bike Nishiki 3.0. My mother-in-law used it for recreational purposes in the 1990s then it sat in a garage for a while. Last year I had it tuned up and added the bar ends, rear rack, fenders and studded tires. This year I had it coverted to a single speed by our friend Adam. It had to be done. The chain, crankset, derailer, and many components had rusted into an unmovable mass by the end of our last winter. I feel a bit uneasy in weather like this and probably get white knuckles clutching to the handlebars at parts of the ride. However, this bike is the perfect companion for these conditions. And it's safe! With several lights (including two blue SpokeLits on the front wheel) and reflectors, I'm 100% sure I'll be biking straight through anything mother nature can throw at me again.

2012-01-02T21:34:00.003-06:00

Homemade sea salt caramels

We made two batches of caramels from scratch using this recipe.

Ingredients and pan prepped and ready.

Combining the sugar and cream.

Make sure to use an accurate thermometer and stop cooking at 248 degrees F.

The cooled product before we finished cutting it up. The majority of the first batch we wrapped in reused butter wrappers we saved, an idea we got from our friend Jennifer. The caramels turned out quite well and weren't too hard or too chewy. Very delicious!

2011-12-25T20:21:00.001-06:00

Merry Christmakkah. My attempts at a hannakah elf were unsuccessful. Seems fitting for the final holiday 'costume' of the year (and ever).

2011-12-23T21:44:00.004-06:00

Holiday card demystified

Well here it is, our holiday card. Merry Christmakkah. I'm sure you have all received them in the mail by now, dear readers. A few people have asked me how I did it, so it seemed like a good blog post. I feel a bit like the wizard of oz behind the curtain here, but let's give it a whirl. First I should say that this is my first attempt at illustration and I am pretty happy with how it turned out. Originally we were going to have our friend Carla do it because she has done a bunch of cool ones. The more Steve and I talked about it, we thought it would be fun to do it ourselves. I had seen some cool cards online so I kind of took the style from there.

Step 1 was to take a picture. We took a bunch with a tripod and a wireless shutter release in our basement.

I printed out the picture and then traced it with a pencil on a light table. Then I scanned it in and then 'drew' it again in Photoshop using the pencil drawing as a guide.

Here's a screen capture in Photoshop. I won't go into any specifics about what I did in photoshop since probably no one cares and it would take too long to explain.

Here's a rough draft. Seemed like it needed more and Harriet's leggings were distracting, Steve needs some eyebrows and my necklace looks like something Betty Rubble would wear.

So I found some side views of our breeds of chickens on google and 'drew' those also. I doubled up on the chickens eating and only made one and then reversed it and changed the color and the comb a bit. Persephone and the barred rock took me longer than doing the three of us.

Here are my two attempts at the barred rock. I liked the one on the right a lot better.

Well there you have it. It probably took me about 10-15 hours, despite knowing photoshop pretty well. Illustrating was a bit of a learning curve, but I could probably do it twice as fast next time.

Recent highlights of Harriet in HD

2011-12-18T22:01:00.000-06:00

2011-12-13T20:30:00.005-06:00

Holidazzle

Last weekend my work sponsored the Holidazzle parade, so my coworkers and I took to the streets in illuminated costumes. I always kind of boo-hoo the holidazzle parade because it is the same thing every year for the last 20 years, but you know what? It was pretty fun. I have been in it many times in years past, but never as a character on a float. Let me tell you, it was pretty great! I was Princess Jasmine on the Aladdin float. No heavy battery pack to lug around your waist as you walk, just stand on that float, wave and smile while people wave frantically at you and call out your character's name and you make their night. A real ego boost.

2011-11-24T11:23:00.005-06:00

Happy Thanksgiving! Best of the worst pictures, not sure how many more of these we can do.

2011-11-22T19:14:00.001-06:00

Lately

Here are a few things that I have made lately. This summer was a bit unproductive craft-wise, but colder days and more indoor time is upon us. The necklace on right was inspired by african necklaces, with their many stands and bright colors. As for the one on the left, I got the pendant at the Detriot Lakes flea market (my only purchase this year) and had to work hard for it. I picked through many small bags of jewelry to find this. I like how giant it is and also the bold yellow and black. The lady claimed it was sterling silver and I had a good laugh at that.

I have knit countless hats for countless babies, but none for Harriet. So here it is, her first homemade hat from me. The first of many, I'm sure. It's an eggplant, although at this angle it looks a bit like a grape.

Here are some new pillows for the family room (although I didn't make the striped one, it's from Ikea). We have had the same two ugly pillows on this couch for years and it was time to recover them and add some new ones. All have zippers for easy cleaning. It's a very informal room so I didn't really worry about matching them too closely. They have mostly been used for making forts lately.

2011-11-20T13:14:00.005-06:00

Ink Link

After taking a letterpress class at the MN center for a book arts a few years ago, I have loved letterpress. On Friday, my coworker friends Leah and Allie and I went to this letterpress event at the U of M. It was sponsored by the Hamilton woodtype museum in hopes to pique everyone's interest enough for them to make the 6 hour drive to check it out. The museum is a building that is 2 city blocks long. My interest is piqued, looked awesome. The event was also put on by the graphic design program to show students, graduates and friends the newly acquired presses and also just to mingle, I guess.

They had everything all set up for everyone to reduce chaos since there were probably 100 people there in two small rooms.

Here is the press all set up, inked and ready to go for the boxing image, which is below on the left. Then the guy put the paper down and I cranked the press. Not a lot of skill or creativity needed on my part, but still fun. Other presses you could do all different color inks yourself.

A few of the things I made above and below. Some are letterpress and some are screenprinting.

Juxtaposed presses.

Some rejects that were provided by the wood type museum. I took a few and will find something to do with them.

2011-11-16T21:48:00.001-06:00

Garden wrap up

Picture above is from our neighbor to the north's side of the fence. She has this beautiful trees with interesting circular leaves. They looked better than ever this year, perhaps due to the removal of the giant hackberry tree last fall.

Well a fairly good growing year again this year. We still have a bunch of tomatoes that are ripening, although most end up all pruney and unappealing looking so we have been feeding them to the chickens. Our gazillion tomato plants really came through, despite other gardeners having a bad year. We planted way too many grape and cherry tomato plants, but it worked out ok. Lots of salads.

We had good luck with the carrots. I forgot to take pictures, but they were all different colors and pretty. I chopped them up and put them in the oven with a little dried thyme and olive oil and they were quite good. Harriet loved them.

The basil plants worked out well as they have in the past. This year though Steve read the recipe and it said that I needed to freeze the basil and olive oil and then when we are ready to eat the pesto that's when I mixed up the nuts and cheese. I always wondered why it had a strange consistency. That'll teach me to read the directions... well actually probably not.

Despite the rabbits nibbling off branches from the honey crisp tree over the winter because of the high snow, there were tons of apples from the tree's second year. I love that tree.

Peas-- total fail. Numerous variables, so no idea what went wrong. Won't do those again.

We got a lot of hops, although I think I picked them too late. I gave them to one of my coworkers so I guess we will wait to hear if anything happened with them.

2011-11-14T21:32:00.006-06:00

Halloween update 14 days late

I know, I know, no one cares about halloween anymore in mid November, but I'll post these anyways. Above Lauren, Lachlan and Harriet at the Wattson's annual pumpkin party.

Hide and go seek with the giant pumpkin at the zoo.

Mr and Mrs Skeletor.

Just when we thought we would have to carry on our pumpkin carving tradition without Jonny who was away at college... he returns to keep up the (10 year?) streak. It was great to have him home.

A happy chicken at the zoo.

2011-10-31T22:04:00.002-05:00

A little late here, but happy halloween.

2011-10-30T20:59:00.002-05:00

Trivial pursuit card, Rich Uncle Pennybags from Monopoly, Operation, Checkers

Board games costumes

The group dwindled a bit this year, but we are back at it after a year off. We went to a couple of parties and had a great time.

2011-10-25T22:19:00.003-05:00

Fall

This week marks three years in our house. Each year we always intend to make a fall display on the front steps, but the fall just slips away from us. Well, here it is... finally. Might take another three years to do it again.

2011-10-10T15:48:00.004-05:00

The new Mr and Mrs Laughlin

Jon and Lauren had a great ceremony and reception at a Chicago production studio. They adapted the blank white studio space to reflect their fun style just like their wedding materials. The previous weekend we had a chance to get breakfast and spend some time with them while they still had wedding plans to iron out. It was wonderful to see them so happy and relaxed at their wedding a week later.

Did I say relaxed? Ha. It was a fun wedding reception complete with stations of different food that allowed for lots of mingling with the guests. Jon made sure some solid beers choices were available, and the night ended with sliders and mini Chicago hot dogs. I knew several folks from high school and a good group of Jon's Chicago mates as I attended his bachelor party back in August.

My friend Chris's daughter Sophia and Harriet had a chance to meet earlier in the day before our final wedding. They were nice enough to stand still for a moment for this snapshot. During the wedding, our friend Emily stayed with Harriet at our hotel. We really appreciated it.

This is a photo I took on the way from Minneapolis to Chicago. If Harriet had known we weren't going to be returning home for a week, she probably wouldn't be smiling. We're very appreciative to all the friends and family that helped us make the trip possible. Christina and I are happy we could take part in two great wedding celebrations. We're all overjoyed to be home!

2011-10-06T07:45:00.001-05:00

Chicago Part 2

On our way back to Chicago we decided to stop at the Chicago Botanical Gardens north of the city. We both haven't been back since we got engaged here almost 4 years ago. A trip down memory lane for us. It was a bit of a chilly day, but Harriet slept most of the time in the carrier so we had no complaints. The fall colors were just starting and there were a bunch of events going on like a bulb sale and a harvest festival.

You know it's fall when you see gourds.

What a pretty backdrop. This had potential to be a cute picture, guess not though.

An interesting way to train an apple tree. Very European.

From there we headed to our hotel in downtown. Overall we didn't much time to do too much, but I was able to go out and walk around Michigan Avenue during nap time time on Saturday and then we went over to Millennium Park, which was just a few blocks away.

This is kind of a where is Waldo. Do you see us?

The obligatory picture in front of the kidney bean sculpture.

One final post to come from the trip about the third, and final, wedding in three week marathon. To summarize the trip, it was a hard one for us with some highlights sprinkled in. We felt honored to be invited to our friends' intimate weddings and enjoyed celebrating with them. We saw some interesting things, visited friends and family and tried to maximize our time as best we could given weather, naps, attention spans and bedtime. Going in we knew it wouldn't be easy, but I don't think we could have quite anticipated the enormous toll the trip would take on Harriet and in turn, us. We are happy to be home in our own beds and back to our regular routine.

2011-10-05T07:35:00.005-05:00

Marshy Mayville

To kill some time in between the weddings, for the next few days we headed to Mayville, WI, a sleepy town somewhere in the lower portion of the state. We stayed in a lovely, historic inn in 'downtown'. The main attraction in the area is the Horicon marsh nearby, which is one of the largest freshwater marshes in the US. An Everglades of the north, if you will. We took a guided boat tour to see the wildlife and vegetation. Unfortunately for us, 85% of the birds had already migrated, but oh well, can't win 'em all. It was still scenic and we learned quite a bit about the area, preservation, etc.

I include this photo to illustrate Harriet's mood during our stay in Mayville, and well, basically the entire rest of the trip. I'm not going to sugar coat it, she was miserable. Ten days away was too much for this homesick kid. That or she missed Jacque. Hard to know.

Trails around the marsh while we visited the education center.

Day two we headed over to a nearby town, Theresa (the H is counter intuitively pronounced, so it's like THER-esa) to a cheese making factory. I know it seems cliche to visit a cheese factory in WI, but entertainment options were, uh, limited. This is a third generation business and they make the cheese twice daily in the morning.

We also went to a local apple orchard as a diversion, but because there had been so much rain, the majority of it was closed. Above, a rare moment when she wasn't crying, but note that she isn't smiling either.

After our stay in Mayville, we headed to Steve's hometown to visit with family for a few days, but didn't take many pictures. Below is a photo of Harriet and Grandma Laeh enjoying a meal together.

On Friday we headed back to Chicago for wedding #2.

2011-10-04T19:02:00.001-05:00

Chicago Part 1

We began on excursion by staying with our friends Pat and Jacque in their Wicker Park condo. We spent the weekend walking around the neighborhood, going to a local park and hanging out inside due to rain. Jacque graciously offered to babysit twice, once so we could go tour pat's office and again while we went to the wedding. The two of them seemed to get along famously. Pat and Jacque have two bulldogs, Bloke and Raleigh, who were really gentle giants, despite their tough looking exterior. Harriet was a bit scared of them at first, but quickly warmed up to them and the three crawled all around together. We didn't take too many pictures this weekend, but here are a few from Pat's work. They just moved into a new office overlooking Lake Michigan and it was pretty cool.

The floors were painted in a tattoo-esque style.

Romper room for brainstorming.

2011-10-03T20:59:00.004-05:00

Bobblehead Bride and Groom

This is the first of many posts from our recent trip down to Chicago for friends weddings two weekends in a row. In between we spend some time in WI so we wouldn't have to drive down to Chicago twice.

The first wedding was of Steve's high school friend Matt and his new wife Rebecca. The ceremony was in a small, beautiful chapel at the University of Chicago. The chapel was only open for use by alumna, but since Matt's late father went to college there they were able to use it. The reception was at a manor also on campus. We didn't know many people, but everyone was very friendly and we had a great time. As favors they gave everyone bobbleheads of themselves since Matt works for the White Sox and Rebecca used to intern there. Very silly.

2011-09-21T23:06:00.001-05:00

Cheap entertainment that could go on for hours...

2011-09-20T22:57:00.007-05:00

Chip and Melissa

This past weekend we kicked off our 3 weddings, 3 weekends in September with my friend Chip's wedding to Melissa in Hudson. Chip and I became friends in Scotland when we shared the same host mom and he is one of my favorite people. I am thrilled that he is so happy and has found a great match. AT the reception we were each given an extensive booklet with information about the couple. One interesting thing I learned about him, that I didn't know, was that he was switch at birth. Luckily he was reunited with his family in the hospital after a short time.

The reception. That really says it all.

2011-09-06T20:41:00.006-05:00

Labor day weekend

This past weekend we went up to Detriot Lakes with my family again. Here is the weekend in pictures. It was a fun, relaxing, cool weekend.

A weekend of swinging. (note how the swing is rigged up to the trees)

Pelican Lake

A beautiful day for a walk.

Family cocktail hour before dinner.

Dan and Heidi stopped by for a visit.

2011-09-04T21:01:00.002-05:00

Baby's first butter sculpture

Last week we went to the state fair after work. After a year off we had a whirlwind visit of butter sculptures, animal barns, crop art and run ins with friends.

Giant pronto pup. Steve only ate about half and that clown ate the other half.

Visiting the 'oink booth' with Becky and Raymond.

2011-08-18T21:16:00.000-05:00

Blue ribbon beauty

Tonight we went and picked up our final member of the flock. We named her Persephone. She is a bantam Mille Fleur and is really a stunner. She recently showed and placed at the Dakota County Fair, but they weren't going to take her to the state fair.

We have been patiently looking for this breed all spring and summer so we were happy to find her on craig's list. We drove out to Rosemount to get her and it happened to be a few miles from the zoo, so we stopped there beforehand. We really packed it all in.

It's hard to tell her size from this picture, but compared to the other hens she is about 1/3 their size. Also hard to see are her feathery legs. More pictures to come.

2011-08-12T07:12:00.004-05:00

Giving Tree 2011

We have decided to take a picture every year around Harriet's birthday at the apple tree to show how she has grown along with the tree. This year you can barely see the tree since we took it in the evening. Better luck next year I guess.

Lucky for us though, there are TONS of apples on it to enjoy soon. The tree is, quite literally, the gift that keeps on giving.

2011

2010

2011-08-05T07:30:00.003-05:00

(A little past) Mid-summer update

The summer heat has slowed us down in the garden a bit lately, but here's what's been going on. Tomatoes galore. I think our 11 plants might have been too much, particularly the planting of multiple grape/cherry tomato plants that had the word 'million' in their variety name. Not to worry, we will eat them.

Pepper time. This is more Steve's domain, but we have a lot of peppers for salsa and pizza, which are about ready to pick. Some are the kind that look like jalapeno peppers, but actually aren't. Good for party tricks I guess.

Carrots! My short suit in veggie gardening is that I never have any idea when the optimal time to pick things is. I know I could count the days since the seeds germinated, but who has time for that. I always seem to pick things too late or too early. So, these look ready to pick soon (right?!?!).

Surprise! A zucchini or squash plant popped up in the flower garden. Just decided to go with it. Must have come from seeds from our compost-- seems like a logical explanation.

We have been talking about a water feature for a while. We debated making our own, but really we didn't want to rip out part of the garden to dig a hole for the water basin, blah blah blah, so this just seemed easier. It has a simple design and will aid in attracting birds to our backyard urban wildlife sanctuary. Ideally, I guess.

New addition to the front-- much needed gutters and also a rain chain. We decided to have a company put up the gutters after many annoying encounters with them at our old house. Now we can hold someone else accountable if they don't work properly. The rain chain works well and we are pretty excited about it. Just hoping the neighborhood metal scrappers aren't as excited about it too.

Chickens are getting bigger, but still no eggs and also nameless. They should start laying any day we keep telling ourselves.

Well you win some, you lose some. In this case- lose. We transplanted these raspberry plants from my dad's neighbor's garden. I didn't have high hopes since he ripped them out on a super hot day. Good thing my expectations were low. The raspberries we planted last year are still alive (see that smudge of green behind the brown stalks?), but I wouldn't say they are thriving.

I will leave you with this. A little slice of summer goodness.

2011-07-30T22:03:00.001-05:00

Practice.

2011-07-26T21:29:00.006-05:00

Art car parade

Last Saturday was the annual art car parade around Lake Harriet. It was a mix of old favorites and some new cars that I hadn't seen before. Here are some of my favorites:

2011-07-25T20:32:00.026-05:00

Birthday!

Weekend before last we celebrated Harriet's 1st birthday with family and a few friends. It was steamy. I forgot to take pictures of the attendees with all the commotion. Perhaps others took some pictures. Here are the few that we have... the theme was a vague- bright colors.

A rainbow of fruit.

As predicted by us, not a fan of cupcakes.

Everyone's excited.

Which one of these is not like the others? Babies from left: Lauren, Lucia, Harriet, Lachlan & Landon.

Time to cool off and rehydrate after a big day of partying and a lot of heat and humidity.

2011-07-18T21:40:00.015-05:00

1 year pictures

A few weeks ago we had one year pictures taken at Sweet Light Studio in North Minneapolis/Warehouse District. We thought Alison the photographer did a great job. Here's a link to her blog post.

Vintage baby outfit although you can't really see it. There is another one that I will post in a few days.

2011-07-12T07:40:00.000-05:00

A happy 1st birthday to our sweet girl!

2011-07-09T13:50:00.004-05:00

Hello, Goodbye

Last weekend we drove up to Milica (an hour and a half north of Mpls) for two chickens. We really wanted one of them, the light Bramha, who had feathered feet and is a more uncommon breed. We also just got a barred rock just because we needed a 5th chicken and we knew we liked the breed.

So after a 3 hour round trip we get the birds home and the light bramha is acting weird. She was fine when she was put into the box, but now she can't stand up. We instantly look at each other and are like, she's totally going to die. We do everything we can. With the assistance of our neighbor Bryce, the three of us feed her water from an eyedropper because we worried she might be dehydrated since it is hot out. We quarantine her so that the other birds won't pick on her since she is new. We really hoped for the best, but feared for the worst. The next morning-- dead. She was only $10, but now we only have a breed that we already have that we basically paid $20 for and spend a lot of time going to get. Oh well, that's the way it goes sometimes. We will just wait and get a beauty at the state fair this year. We want one cute chicken.

In short, light brahma, we hardly knew you.

Here's the barred rock. Meh.

Also, some of you have asked what we have decided to name the new chickens. The answer: nothing, yet. We are undecided about naming them since it is then weird when we go to kill them in 4 years and they have names. I'm sure we will eventually name them though and when we do it will be after greek goddesses.

2011-07-04T00:01:00.002-05:00

Lady liberty wishes you a happy 4th of July!

2011-07-01T14:58:00.005-05:00

Our 'daughter' gets married

Well our 'daughter' Molly is all grown up, on her own and married. As many of you may remember Molly living with us 2 summers ago, during which time, Steve helped facilitate meeting Adam and the rest is history. We're proud parents. We would joke that we were her parents since it was kind of silly having a roommate once you're a married couple. Molly and Adam now live in Seattle and got married in Mexico in May and last weekend they had a wedding reception in La Crosse (no we were not on the hook for the bill ;). Conveniently we stayed with our friends the Smiths and it was great to see them for a second time in six months.

Photobooth. Harriet found a rice picking hat to match her Asian attire. We went more regal.

Happy 'sisters'.

Before coming home, on Sarah's recommendation, we went to pick some strawberries. The fields were hot (where is that rice picking hat when you need it, oh wait, back at the photobooth).

Everyone got in on the action. All hands on deck for this endeavor.

Harriet gleefully poses with the strawberry haul.

2011-06-27T22:33:00.010-05:00

Harriet goes to Hollywood

Weekend before last we went to L.A. for Minnette's 95th birthday. It was Harriet's first plane ride and it was a long 3 hours. We stayed with our dear friends Jimmy and Loey, Minnette's younger sister, and we greatly appreciate their hospitality, as usual.

The party was Saturday and Minnette was dressed in her finest for the event. Does this outfit look familiar to anyone? The party unfortunately ended on a sad note with Minnette having to go to the hospital due to difficulty breathing. She is home now though and doing better.

Kiara Minnette and Harriet Minnette, Minnette's great granddaughter and honorary great granddaughter, respectively. They were born a week apart.

someone's got an attitude.

We went to the Los Angeles Arboretum. There were peacocks everywhere. We went in hopes of seeing this, but it had just been taken down a week before, to our dismay.

We went over to the Pasadena Chalk Festival and saw hundreds of chalk art in vibrant colors. Most were pretty good.

Pajama time with Grandpa.

Harriet with Loey and Jimmy.

2011-06-23T19:01:00.000-05:00

Anne, Nicole Meg, Laura, Meagan, Allison, Me (guess the person who isn't a Brewers fan in this picture)

Mini college reunion

This post is long overdue, but better late than never. Over memorial day weekend we went down to Milwaukee for a get together with my friends from college. We went to a brewers game. It was fun to catch up with everyone, a couple I haven't seen since graduating. We had a great time together and it was fun that Laura and Arik came all the way from Tennessee. After the game we went over to Meg's house and brought Harriet over to meet everyone.

Husbands. Matt, Rod, Arik, Steve & Ken.

2011-06-14T18:28:00.016-05:00

Front yard hardscaping/landscaping

Our front steps were falling apart. We had to continually spray paint them black to hide the chipping and cracking. The rise of each step varied from 6-10". The railings were super cheap and unstable.

Old front yard, sans stairs.

We hired the landscaper that helped in our backyard. He had his concrete guy demolish the stairs and prepare the above form in preparation of the concrete truck. We opted for much bigger stairs.

Once the stairs were complete we had some of the sidewalk removed to make way for a paver walkway (to match the backyard). Then we spent several nights gardening. When Harriet would go to bed at 8:30 we'd go outside to remove old plants, rake the old garden beds, remove grass to enlarge the garden area in general.

The existing plants only covered so much area so we bought a few and Christina contacted her family friends Mary and Malcolm about splitting some of their hostas. Boy did we luck out! Mary and Malcolm had a beautiful garden with more hostas and more shade loving plants than they knew what to do with. We would have ended up taking even more had we not filled the trunk and back seat of the car with plants. Above are some of the gifts.

We don't have a great before picture of the front garden, but it was kind of a sad mess. It was transplants waiting for their next home and weeds. We hadn't really touched it since we moved in. So, we saved what we could.

Finished garden. Complete with pavers as edging and blue stone steppers to be sure the mailman still had a dependable route between yards.

Finished product with fresh sod installed in the old gardens along each side of the entry walkway.

Another after.

2011-06-12T09:38:00.003-05:00

2011-06-04T13:01:00.012-05:00

In with the new, out with the old.

We picked up three new hens in Faribault a few weeks ago. A Buff Orpington, a Black Australorp, and a Rhode Island Red. They are almost four months now and should begin laying brown eggs in July. The are all pretty shy and seem to like staying together. That may have something to do with being introduced into a well established backyard flock. Our original four hens were close to four years old. Were? Past tense? Yes, the old hens are gone.

When we decided to get chickens we talked about what would happen when their egg production was no longer... productive. Well that day came. We have not had an egg from our hens since October. Chickens egg production falls off considerable after the first thee years. They still lay, but less often and with longer periods of absolutely no eggs. That said they eat more than ever and the risk of egg binging (getting an egg stuck!) increases. So judgment day has come and gone. At this point some of you may want to stop reading this post. I'm going to explain how my friend and I slaughtered and ultimately consumed the hens.

First I researched local butchers to see if I could forego doing anything myself. Near the Twin Cities this was not really an option. Once I realized I was going to be involved I started researching things. The internet is an amazing place; youtube and blogs specifically. I'm not a hunter and I've gutted perhaps a fish or two in my whole life. I needed help. My friend Aaron jumped at the chance. He is an avid hunter and had some experience butchering chickens as well. He even offered up his enormous backyard outside of the city. So on a rainy weekend day I boxed up our four old hens and drove over to his house to, shall we say, send them to the freezer.

I'll save you all the details. We basically cut their throats, tied them up by their feet, skinned them (avoiding a messy plucking ordeal), gutted, then cleaned them.

Voila! Just like you'd see at the meat market. Left to right: Dutchess, Marie Antoinette, and Camilla. Queenie had been acting strange for a few days prior and was noticeably weak when I wrangled them all for the trip to Aaron's house. Well, she was no longer alive after the 15 minute trip. I was sad at first, until I realized I was about to kill all my chickens. The whole experience was very interesting and, I have to admit, took a bit out of me. I'm glad I did it. Raising hens is primarily to be more sustainable, and understand and appreciate where our food comes from. Mission accomplished.

As for eating them; slow cooking was a must. Chicken you get in a store or at a restaurant are 6 weeks to a few months old when slaughtered. Our hens were almost four years old. Old hens have tough meat, and in our case they also had more exercise so they were fairly lean and muscular. For this reason they're known as stewing hens. One hen, two quarts of water, salt, pepper, and parsley in a crock pot on low for 10 hours made a wonderful and flavorful stock. I took the chicken out and removed most of the meat, then returned the meat to the remaining broth and added potatoes, carrots, and celery. The soup was tasty, but everyone who tried some agreed the meat was still pretty tough.

2011-06-03T17:34:00.000-05:00

Annual Garden update

Not too much new in the garden this year. We put down a ton of uncomposted compost in the veggie bed last fall and then some more finished compost this spring so we're hoping this will aid in a bountiful crop this year.

The seedling exchange yielded a bunch of tomatoes, basil, parsley, rosemary and some thyme. We bought a bunch of hot peppers, broccoli and cauliflower at the friends sale and I put in the carrots, radishes and peas that I grew from seed. This went well despite it not being recommended. The peas are slowly growing and I am a little skeptical that they will grow up the bamboo stakes we put in. They don't appear to be going anywhere, but they do have some peapods on them, so who knows. Every year we are trying something new so we will see how it goes.

Although I don't typically plant tomatoes until June, this year I planted them a couple weeks ago. These plants, above, haven't been planted yet and have tomatoes already on them, pretty crazy. We are growing 11 plants, which I know is a bit nuts, but I'm sure we can find people to take them off our hands. We're sticking with almost exclusively heirlooms and my favorite name for one of the plants is Mr. Stripey.

As for the rest of the garden, we lost a few plants due to the snowy winter we had (which doesn't make a lot of sense since the more snow we have the more insulated the plants are from the cold). Our real problem this spring is ANTS! They are making their homes everywhere. We had the pavers resanded with locking sand and they are pulling all the sand out. Curses! We would welcome any advice on a nontoxic way of killing them. Boiling water hasn't worked.

2011-05-30T20:45:00.002-05:00

A baby and two puppies. What could be cuter?
(Our neighbors Jon and Jeff are the new owners of these two).

2011-05-22T21:27:00.024-05:00

Royal Facelift

We have been busy working on our living and dining rooms. We have wanted to do this ever since we moved in, but finally got around it. We painted the walls and put up crown molding. We still have the foyer to complete, but hopefully we will get around to it in the next month or so.

This picture is to illustrate that the new color is in fact different than the original. Kind of hard to tell in the pictures. The color of the rooms was a khaki that is the same color that was in every room of the house when we bought it. We are slowly repainting every room. After we painted the living and dining rooms, we painted the already primed poplar with a white that was color matched to the other trim. After painting half of it we realized they had mistakenly mixed it with a pinkish tint to it, so we had to return it and and have them remix it. Second time was the charm. We put up both crown molding and also a baseboard molding upside down so it had a 2 inch reveal on the bottom for more impact.

Steve and our friend and neighbor Ryan put up all the crown one Saturday. Ryan has a lot of experience with home improvement stuff so he was a big help. We weren't able to order extra molding so no mistakes could be made. Steve and Ryan made this little mistake on the first piece they put up, luckily we have enough extra since it isn't that big of a patch. They put the molding too close to the wall and then had to saw it off. It still needs to be fixed. They did a great job.

This is a before/after of a strange corner in the dining room (click to enlarge). It houses the HVAC system that was put in after the radiators were taken out. The former owners put popcorn on the bottoms of the 'boxes' so I scraped it off and then just painted it. The crown molding around the boxes was a bit tricky, but looks nice considering how odd they are.

Living room before

After. Kind of hard to see the crown molding from these pictures now that the walls are a lighter shade. We finally finished the room and bought curtains for the room, plus bought a new leaded glass light fixture, which I love.

Dining room before.

Dining room after. Doesn't look all that different besides the molding. Eventually we will replace the light fixture when we find the right one. We are slowing getting rid of all the ones that were in the house when we bought it.

2011-05-16T21:25:00.012-05:00

Baby's new play room

Several months before Harriet was born we cleaned out most of my father-in-law's basement. We started with the room just off where we built his wine cellar. It got a fresh coat of paint, a giant carpet remnant and IKEA wood shelving for storage (we forgot to take before and after pictures). Then we painted the laundry area and a back closet. At this point we tackled the big room that is basically a rec room. If there was an egress window it could be a bedroom, but we decided to not get too ambitious.

Here it is after we took down the old drop ceiling and florescent light, installed recessed lighting and framed around the radiators pipes. All ready for our sheet rock crew to hang the drywall we purchased.

They did a great job finishing off the new ceiling. Once it was taped and sanded smooth we continued.

We painted the ceiling and walls, then tore out the old carpet.

We also took out the old carpet on the stairs leading to the basement. The carpet we picked ran down the stairs, where we added one shelving unit and more recessed lighting for an easily accessible pantry, then into the rec room (to the right). So about a year later, it's finished.

2011-05-12T21:50:00.006-05:00

2011-05-01T21:09:00.014-05:00

Shower presents

Now that all the baby showers for the season are done (I think) here are some of the present I made for people. Above is some homemade laundry soap in a glass jar decorated with a paint pen.

Here is a changing mat made out of oil cloth. Something I learned about sewing oil cloth that I can pass on is that you should used tissue paper on top and bottom (and then rip it off later) so it doesn't get stuck going through the machine.

A couple of onesies.

Crunchy/tactile toy (crunching part is one of those annoying sun chips compostable bags)

And a baby focus group on some foam blocks I made. Baby approved.

2011-05-01T12:01:00.001-05:00

Baby's first swimming lesson

2011-04-27T14:07:00.009-05:00

Harriet and the bear

We stopped to wish family friend Fidelis a happy 97th birthday on Easter Sunday. Harriet came to enjoy the company of a large stuffed bear.

2011-04-24T08:19:00.002-05:00

Happy easter.

2011-04-12T00:33:00.003-05:00

2011-03-29T21:50:00.004-05:00

Spring is near

Seedling time again. This year I am doing parsley, sweet peas, carrots and radishes. The last three you are supposed to just sow outside because they don't transplant well, but I am going to give it a go and feel very optimistic about the outcome. We shall see. I took the advice of my friend Jennifer and used 2 year old seed packet of parsley, which have been kept in a dry, dark place. Didn't work. So I will go out get some new ones and start anew.

Not sure if my seedling exchange buddies will be interested in any of these plants, but I will offer them up nevertheless. Usually we all go and pick out seeds together, but this year snow storms, wedding planning and babies got in the way. It will be a fun surprise to see what everyone has grown come May when we exchange.

Nothing pretty about this, but it does the job. Steve hard wired our old bathroom vanity light as a seedling grow light. He affixed a board to the back, screwed in hooks reused a chain from an old light to hang it from our foosball table in the basement. We put the old door there to make sure the carpet doesn't get wet/dirty. The seedlings are growing like crazy and it has only been a 2 weeks since I planted them! I think it's going to be a good growing year.

2011-03-28T07:05:00.007-05:00

Granny sweater

This little set was knit by my grandma who used to be very creative and crafty. She made these for me when I was born.

A little close up of the hat and some very chubby cheeks..

2011-03-27T12:37:00.007-05:00

Firkin Fest

I joined my friends Matt, Stacy, and Ian at St. Paul's Happy Gnome for their Firkin Fest yesterday. We paid $35 for unlimited samples of beer from over 80 firkens. A firken is 1/4 barrel of beer.

There was a line around the block to gain access when general admission opened at 1. VIP folks came an hour early. I thought paying an extra $10 for a VIP ticket was dumb. But I noticed several beers were out before 2PM and the crowd swelled big time after we got into the tent. So perhaps it was a good call.

Here is a good review I just read of the event. I decided to tweet my entire time there. Here is a list of the 21 beers I tried via my twitter feed:
1st beer @ Firkin Fest: Surly abrasive
Lift Bridge di's nuts
Flat Earth grand design > smells like smores!
Odell red ale
Big Sky lyndale brown > stingey pour
Furthermore fatty boombalatty!
Avery joe's premium pilsner getting crowed in here
By far the slowest moving line here... food line! > Brisket sandwich and onion rings.
Crispin desert noir
Victory headwaters pa
SUMMIT gold sovereign ale
New Belgium super cru
Fulton sweet child of vine > oh, oh oh. Sweet child of vine.
Great Divide bitter and twisted
Tallgrass buffalo sex sweet chocolate and cherries > Guy had to tip the firkin to serve me.
Left Hand good juju > they already ran out of the milk stout. Tear.
Lagunitas the hairy eyeball > just as I imagined it would taste.
Pee break. TMI > Portable trough!
Dark Horse oatmeal IPA
Boulder planet porter
Two Brothers northwind imperial stout
Brau Brothers sumatran moojoos oatmeal milk stout.
Rogue amber ale
FIRKIN FEST. fin.

2011-03-25T08:21:00.009-05:00

Christmas wreath in March?

By now, many of you know of my obsession with felt. I came across a felt ball wreath (similar to this, but about double the size) back in December. Here is the post on the Norwegian blog Pickles (love the name, despite actually hating pickles). This seemed like a fun and easy project to tackle. Little did I know I would still be completing it in March due to a supply shortage. Apparently other people had the same idea and the balls were all backordered for 3 months so I just received my second batch a week ago. In total, this cost quite a bit more than I had initially imagined, so I'm hoping it will last a really long time.

I thought 100 balls would cut it, but it ended up being more like double that. I only realized this after organizing and sewing my first batch of 100 of them on and then only getting about 1/2 of the way around the wreath. I used a foam wreath form and then wrapped ribbon around it to spruce it up a bit in case you could see some of it through the balls.

Above, I laid them all out so that I could evenly distribute the colors throughout. Had to redo this once I got the new shipment and did rows of 5 instead of 4.

New batch is organized and ready to go.

I strung the balls with a needle and nylon fishing line. Through a bit of trial and error, it worked best to stick a pin in every inch or so and tie the end of the line around the pinhead. You know how the Scandinavians always say that you can tell the quality of something by looking on the back to see how it was finished. Hoping this will hold up.

I'm very pleased with how this looks even though I wish it was about triple the size.

2011-03-17T07:17:00.004-05:00

Happy St. Patricks Day!

2011-03-12T12:11:00.000-06:00

2011-03-10T21:23:00.007-06:00

Needle Felting

Last night Kristen and I took a needle felting class at the Textile Center. It was our first time taking a class here and we will definitely take another. I didn't know much about needle felting before we took the class, but it is very easy and it requires few supplies. Also it continues to fuel my love of felt. One small drawback is that I will most likely end up in urgent care since the likelihood of stabbing myself is fairly high.

I made this Scandinavian dala horse in a matter of about an hour. I think I might sew it into a little christmas ornament. Pretty sure my fellow daughters of Norway will be jealous.

Our first project was a bird. You can see the foam underneath that you stab the needles into in order to adhere the felt roving to your fabric. Now anytime I see a bird on craft projects I think of this from Portlandia.

Here's what the underside of the project looks like. You can see the pricks of where the needle went through and a bit of the felt, which is how the design is held in place.

Here's what the felt roving looks like before you apply it to your design. Apparently you can use many different things besides roving like yarn, alpaca fur and dog hair — which just seems gross. The instructor made some really amazing things that basically looked like watercolors. She did a lot of animal portraits for people. Very impressive.

2011-03-06T21:18:00.008-06:00

Homemade creme eggs!

Perhaps you are wondering why would I try to replicate perfection when Cadbury already makes a mean creme egg? I guess the answer is curiosity. I came across this recipe and decided to give it a go. I got a mold at the Kitchen Window, but they only had one so I could only make half eggs. A full sized egg would have been a bit unmanageable to eat.

They didn't take too long to make and they are quite delicious. I didn't make the yellow yolk because it seemed silly since it's just for looks.

Next time I would probably make about half the creme than the recipe calls for since I have a ton leftover. Also I would put about a half cup less sugar which would make it a little creamier, but all and all-- success!

2011-02-23T20:41:00.003-06:00

Walls of snow.

[baby added for scale]

2011-02-14T07:29:00.002-06:00

Happy Valentines day ♥

2011-02-13T11:51:00.008-06:00

Reusable produce bags

So we already use canvas bags at the grocery, but I decided to make these produce bags. We never end up using the plastic ones from the store and, although we recycle them, it seemed like this was a better solution. With almost every project like this I make, afterward I question why I didn't just spend the money on ones that were mass produced. I guess I just like the challenge and have nothing better to do [note sarcasm].

I made them out of tutu material and bought about a half a yard and cut it to 20 x 28 inches (yeah random I know, I just kind of eyeballed it). I folded over the tops 1.5 inches and then folded under another half inch. Then pinned the tops with the ribbon/string in there. One thing I learned was that it isn't easy to iron this material. It either doesn't work or then it was too hot and melts. Argh. One nice surprise, it was definitely easier than I had imagined to sew this material. Anyways, all that was left was sewing up the sides and knotting the ribbon. We shall see how they work out.

2011-02-12T11:12:00.000-06:00

2011-02-06T22:00:00.002-06:00

Super Bowl XLV

The Packers are the world champions!

2011-02-06T14:01:00.001-06:00

Chicken Cutlet: a tribute to Hedwig

Yesterday Steve, Elissa, Brita and I did the City of Lakes loppet snow sculpture contest. We arrived at 8am to find that our block had been vandalized and toppled over in two halves. We were originally going to do a tribute to Hedwig and so we decided to continue the idea, but cut her in half and then added the eggs. A couple people passing by thought it was a pineapple and matzo ball soup. I guess I can see it.

Here is what our block looked like when we arrived. The one next to us was also toppled over, but you can see one in the background, which is a full height.

It was 18 degrees out and it took us 4 hours to complete. We were cold. We used anything we could think of including saws, ice choppers, garden hand tools and drywall mudding tools.

Later in the evening Kristen and I skied the luminary loppet and Steve and Harriet walked part of it. It was a busy day.

2011-02-03T20:30:00.006-06:00

New Do

Grandpa Mike gave the first haircut. It was time.

We used this Japanese hair cutting cape from Becky that she got at the 100 yen store, Japan's dollar store equivalent.

Goodbye mullet (excuse the bedhead).

2011-01-30T17:11:00.002-06:00

Raspberries

2011-01-30T16:55:00.005-06:00

Nerd Alert

Today I competed in the Winter Carnival puzzle competition with my coworker Leah, her sister and a friend at the Landmark Center. We all share a love of jigsaw puzzles. Seventy two teams gathered to complete a 500 piece puzzle as fast as possible for a prize that I am still unsure of. We had two hours to do it and the winning team finished in 45 mins. It took us the entire time to do it, but we slowed down considerably after the 1st, 2nd and 3rd teams had won. The puzzle was a bit harder than we initially thought. I kind of feel like those people at the end of Antiques Roadshow who have been told they have nothing of worth and they all say the same thing– we had a fun time doing it!

We had to sign release forms because there were some videographers amongst us who were filming a documentary about jigsaw puzzles. Pretty sure we won't be in it, but I will obviously watch it!

Completed.

2011-01-29T15:23:00.012-06:00

11 year Scotland reunion

Last night Chip organized a Scotland reunion at the Muddy Pig in St. Paul. Since he was there for the 1999 fall and 2000 spring semesters it was a combined reunion. There were around 80 of us who studied abroad together in the spring. It seems like perhaps about 15% showed up. It was fun to see everyone, catch up and reminisce. Hope to do it again not too far into the future.

WIS Lip Dub from Andy Murphy on Vimeo.

These one-take singing videos are becoming a bit over done, but they clearly went to a lot of effort to make it, which is cute. It is fun to see the inside of the house that we lived in again.

2011-01-23T20:39:00.001-06:00

Matchers!

2011-01-18T19:02:00.001-06:00

Upcycling

This weekend I cleaned out my closet and dresser drawers in an effort to pare down. I found a couple things that I thought could have a new life as something else. I have always liked the design of this shirt, but never really liked the way it fit. I have been making a t-shirt quilt for our friend Jonny's high school graduation and got the idea that I could take this shirt and make it into something else. So here it is, a 12x12 pillow with a dark grey felt back.

In my cleaning, I found a bunch of longer socks that I didn't really enjoy wearing. Harriet received some leg warmers for Christmas and it seemed like an easy thing to make, which it was. Just chopped them off at the ankle, sewed that end and done. It was so easy that I made 3 pairs in under a half hour. Some little baby seemed to enjoy them.

2011-01-17T20:33:00.010-06:00

Framed, finally

So I kind of got a bee in my bonnet this weekend and sprung into action on a few overdue projects. I got the frames (above) at a rummage sale of these people last spring. I figured they would be perfect for the two bird prints I bought online from these Australian artists. Of course like every project, it involved a bit of work. I painted the frames (6 coats to be exact). Also had to get new glass because the old glass had that black frame screenprinted on them, which made for a much smaller opening to show the art. So I got some new glass at the stained glass store and then cut it myself. Worked well. The result is below; I am very happy with how they turned out.

after.

I also finally framed these prints we got in a market in Buenos Aires a year and a half ago. We bought the frames right after we got home, but it took me this long to go get that acid free black paper to put behind them and then cut the prints accordingly. Yeah, they're weird, but we like them.

Now the decision of where to put all these...

2011-01-14T21:41:00.004-06:00

New visitors 4-6 months

Sorie, Kay, Becky, Dan & Sheilagh, (plus the Smiths in post below)

Brian, Nathan & Marie

2011-01-12T17:46:00.006-06:00

Well, our little baby is 6 months old. It seems like the longest and also the shortest half year of our lives. Harriet continues to entertain us and thrive. She now weighs 16 lbs, double her birth weight. We look forward to the many giggles that lie ahead. We have no complaints.

2011-01-10T21:36:00.012-06:00

Winter visit from the Smiths

My college roommate Travis drove up from LaCrosse with his wife Sarah, son Therin, and daughter Kya to meet Harriet. Travis and I took the kids to Lake Harriet for an hour or so on Saturday to see the annual kite festival. Hot cocoa, cider, ice fishing and kites! There wasn't much wind, but we still found a big kite in the air the to take a photo in front of.

Kya and her sparkle unicorn playing with Harriet and her sparkle pegasus.

Got some time to burn before breakfast? How about some old Nintendo games? Therin was very excited to beat Contra. Okay, so was I.

Official visitor photo for the Smith Family

When a 5 year old wants to hold a baby you make sure there are a few helping hands nearby. Kya and Harriet really loved each other's company. It was great to get together!

2011-01-01T16:25:00.000-06:00

Local ad guy Allan Peters.

2010-12-25T22:27:00.003-06:00

Merry Christmas!

Waiting for santa...

2010-12-24T12:05:00.016-06:00

Daughters of Norway

Although I am a little busy lately, I have decided to join the Pauline Fjelde #51 lodge of the Daughters of Norway. The sisterhood, as I like to jokingly refer to it, was formed recently, although Minnesota did have one that disbanded in the 1950s, I believe. In order to be a member you have to know the name of one of your relatives who came over from Norway or be married to someone of Norwegian descent. We meet every third Saturday from 10-12 a.m. at Hope Lutheran church in dinkytown (if anyone is interested). I found out about it because Kelsey helped get it going and was recruiting people to join. Ages of the members range, but most are quite a bit older than us.

I am 50% Norwegian so I thought it would be a fun way to learn more about my family's heritage, get out of the house and see my friends at least once each month, plus meet new people. I particularly enjoy the craft activities, as you may of guessed.

Kelsey, me, Glenda and Kristen making woven Christmas hearts.

Although these hearts originated in Denmark, the Norwegians have taken a liking to them and have adopted them as their own. Here is a little before/after above. I made them out of felt and it was quite a bit easier than paper.

Here is someone demonstrating how to make krumkake, a waffle-like Christmas treat.

2010-12-20T22:56:00.009-06:00

Japanese jumper

Probably the last of these posts for quite some time since all the other vintage clothes are much larger. A few silly anecdotes about this one: it was given to me by my godparents Guy and Becki when they were stationed in Japan. It was kind of hard to know what size it was since it was in japanese. Also, despite innovations in many other fields, the japanese didn't seem to think this jumper through. Diaper changes-- not so easy when you have to take the ENTIRE outfit off each time and when you do, you have to untie the knots you make up at the top. Bad design. Form not following function in this particular case. Those applique beings make up in cuteness what the jumper lacks functionally.
update: Well well, look what I found.. a crybaby. Not sure how this is physically possible to be wearing this at 14 months. Also it appears to have lost its buttons after all this time.

2010-12-13T19:17:00.008-06:00

Snowmageddon 2010

18" of snow in less than 24 hours.

A well deserved beer after 6 hours of snow removal.

The monday morning ride to work wasn't too bad. I had to lock my bike up a bit higher than usual. The ride home was terrible. Hopefully the second consecutive snow emergency will help clean things up.

2010-12-12T12:41:00.003-06:00

2010-12-08T20:33:00.002-06:00

Happy Hanukah!

2010-12-01T01:11:00.001-06:00

I'm still biking and reading about bikes. Bike snob is pretty funny.

2010-11-28T13:07:00.009-06:00

Vintage baby

Here's the first post of many of Harriet wearing my old clothes. My mom diligently saved all her favorite outfits of mine in hopes of one day having a granddaughter to wear them. I will attempt to dig up pictures of me wearing them 30 years ago, but I make no promises.

This picture is a tad redundant, but I have included it for grandparents, my dad's co-workers and all the baby lovers out there.

2010-11-21T20:50:00.008-06:00

Saying goodbye to an old friend

Ha, not my dad (in the above photo), Brett Favre. My parents were up for a visit this weekend (lots of baby time!) and since the Packers were in town to play the Vikings, my dad and I decided to go. I hadn't been to a Viking game at the dome before.

Although there were plenty of cheeseheads, the sold out stadium looked like a sea or purple (at least in the beginning) from our awesome seats. Figured we'd see a tough game because the teams are in the same division, it's a border battle and of course Brett Favre (have you heard of him?). Not so much. In fact after the Vikings field goal in the first quarter it was a romp. Packers looked great. Vikings looked terrible.The Vikings fans wouldn't argue with that assessment.

Can you see all the blue seats in second half? Empty seats + chanting to fire the head coach + Packer domination = good time.

Charles Woodson put it best after the game, "The best thing about a game like today," the Packers' cornerback said, "is at the end of the game watching their fans leave. If you come in and do that, you've done your job. ... That's what happens when you come in and dominate. That felt good." Couldn't agree more. The place emptied pretty quick. My dad and I had a fun time seeing a 31-3 Green Bay victory!

2010-11-18T19:47:00.003-06:00

Roller!!!

2010-11-12T13:16:00.002-06:00

We've got a 14 pounder on our hands. 65% percentile all around for this kid.

2010-11-06T22:18:00.024-05:00

Insulation time!

Our family room, first floor half bathroom and mudroom in the back of the house all sit over a crawlspace. Come fall we can tell these rooms are much cooler than the rest of the house. Come winter we repeatedly say we have to do something to fix the problem. After our first winter in the house we decided to open the only entrance to the crawlspace to allow some heat to get in and we installed insulation boards around the foundation on the outside. I was not interested going into the crawlspace that appeared to have less than 2' of head room and a couple old radiators pipes covered in asbestos wrap hanging in the opening. Well... we had an asbestos abatement company come out to remove the old pipes and I climbed in to take a closer look. It was terrible! You can see my foot in the top photo. I took a majority of the failing fiberglass insulation out by crawling on my stomach and back and kicking it out the lone opening. Again, it was terrible.

We filled up two giant garbage bins with the old insulation.

In order to remedy the issue we had several insulation companies come out. They all had different opinions. They all agreed removing the fiberglass batting that hung in the ceiling of the crawlspace (so the floor of the family room, etc) was a great idea. Some recommended vapor barriers and just foam insulation on the interior walls, others, new fiber glass and a heat supply to warm it up from underneath, and a range of these things. One company told us to cover the ceiling and walls in closed cell foam insulation. It would seal out moisture from the dirt floor, and all cold air. When complete we'd have an R30 in the ceiling and R14 on the walls. After checking Angie's List we decided to hire this company.

This is the inside of the trailer they brought to our house. They ran a hose from the trailer to the crawlspace and covered everything in foam.

This is the view from the crawlspace opening. The installation crew said it was one of the tightest spots they've been in.

We also decided to have this company insulate under the soffit of the stairway landing that cantilevered out over the side door. That was another super cold area in our house we knew needed attention.

Here is a photo from right after we put in the new side door. The problem area is right above the door.

After I removed the aluminum soffit there was a layer of old wood, then nothing. Absolutely nothing but the soffit joists; an empty area for cold air. The last photo (on the far right) is after the foam insulation was installed.

The foam was the most expensive option (compared to cellulose, fiberglass, etc), but it is also the best R value and it is a closed cell foam so it stops moisture. Plus because of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, we can get a tax credit for 30% of the cost of the materials up to $1,500.

2010-11-05T10:02:00.006-05:00

Countess Palatine Hedwig, 3, died Friday November 5, 2010, from complications from an extreme drop in temperature.

Hedwig, as she was affectionately known, was purchased at the Minnesota State Fair in 2008. She was a silver-laced Polish bantam hen and won 2nd place in her division. She was always the first to get a compliment and the last to get some food. Despite her bottom position in the pecking order, she went about her days with a quiet dignity. She is survived by her friends, Queen Elizabeth, Camilla Parker Bowles, Duchess of York, and Marie Antoinette. She will be missed.

Her final resting place is, as of yet, undetermined.

2010-11-01T23:03:00.012-05:00

Chapel Hill in Wisconsin

This weekend we went to our friends Stephanie and Chris' family cabin called Chapel Hill. It is just outside Osceola, WI and so it was a quick car ride over there. The cabin is situated in a peninsula of (the not so imaginatively named) Round lake. We had great weather and took a long walk on a surrounding trail. We enjoyed a hearty fall meal and had a great time. The babies also seemed to enjoy themselves.

No this isn't the cabin. A pastor used to own the property and he built a chapel (hence the name of the cabin) which comes equipped with a little altar. Currently it stores an inflatable mattress though. It would also be a great playhouse for the kids someday.

Baby friends Nick and Harriet. Oh how they have grown in just a few months.

2010-11-01T00:01:00.000-05:00

NOVEMBER LINK OF THE MONTH

PIZZA! Local pizza fan Aaron Landry is saving me some time figuring out who has the best pizza in town with his blog about local pizza. PIZZA!

For the record our favorite pizza is Fat Lorenzo's.

2010-10-29T22:27:00.004-05:00

Pumpkins

Yesterday we went over to Becky and Raymond's house for our annual pumpkin carving. We have been doing this for probably 15 years and this year is a little sad because it will probably be Jonny's last (unless he goes to college somewhere close). Harriet will have to carry on the tradition now, although she didn't participate a ton as you can see above. exhausted.

Raymond is super funny and has been getting Harriet clothes on his travels. He got her this cute outfit in San Francisco's Chinatown. Becky found this rice picking hat to match her little china doll.

2010-10-28T22:08:00.002-05:00

Garden wrap up

Despite not having as much free time as we are used to in other years, we had a pretty good year in the garden. Tons of tomatoes, basil, peppers and carrots. A couple of fails: radishes and brussel spouts. I think the problem with the radishes was that we got too impatient and picked them too soon. The brussel sprouts are still just tiny teeny, but pretty cute.

Last year we had to ration our pesto. This year we probably won't have the same problem. I made dozens and dozens of 'cupcakes' of frozen pesto. Each cupcake usually makes 2-3 servings. We just heat it up in the microwave. It's a nice taste of summer in the winter. Big problem this year was pine nuts. Not sure if you heard, but there is a shortage. I was able to get a hold of a few bags, but eventually just substituted walnuts and they basically taste the same.

A month ago we had a harvest part with the friends with whom I traded seedlings with in the spring. We picked all our carrots that night and ate them together (as well at some pesto). It was a lot of fun and instant gratification. I did a multi-colored variety this year and really liked them. Perhaps next year I would thin them a bit better.

Hops crop was ok. Not a ton, but we didn't really have high hopes given that it was our first year. Next year should be more plentiful apparently. We gave our hops to our friend Rob and hopefully will be able to take part in the beer making process or at least drink some.

2010-10-23T22:20:00.005-05:00

Month 3 visitors

I kind of think that these are the last of the visitors for a while now that I am back at work. I'm sure more will trickle in though.

Amy & Brigid, Mary, Jan & Becky & Theo & Jonah & Matthew, Dana, Donna, Anna & Tara, Erin, Stacey & Dean

Amy & Xander, Carol & Jean, Dorf

2010-10-19T22:35:00.006-05:00

Little Phelan, Becca, Charis, Harriet and Jay

Lostview visit

This past weekend we visited our friends at their farm in Wisconsin. We had a lovely time catching up and enjoying a hearty fall lunch with food from their garden. It has been 2 years since our last visit and it was fun to see the changes they have made and the new animals they have acquired. They have a new horse, many more chickens and also some bees. Hopefully we will be out to visit again sooner than 2 years. I'm sure Harriet will love going there when she gets a little older and can run around. It is like a little kid's paradise.

Ellis and Owain in their leaf house. The big, bad wolf (Chris) is hidden.

Ah farm life... the boys look on as Jay digs in the dirt. Charis... not quite as interested.

The coop.

2010-10-12T19:02:00.002-05:00

2010-10-11T07:07:00.006-05:00

Recycling 1 through 7

We aren't at the point where we would be on the show Hoarders, but we seem to keep a lot of materials in the hopes of recycling it or reusing it. When Molly lived with us last year she would always bring home leftover take out from her sales rep meetings so we felt guilty about throwing all those plastic containers away. Fast forward a year and a half later.... we still had it in the garage. Then we started saving all our fruit containers from Costco because we knew we had the other plastic to recycle.

Here's the thing-- as you can imagine, recycling plastic (that you can't put in the bin every other week) is really annoying and time consuming. Saturday we spent 1.5 hours washing and sorting it all and then drove to Eastside Co-op in northeast to drop it off, only to be 5 mins late of the time window. Annoying. Our car was packed to the brim with plastic and we were not going to come back with it all. After a bit of detective work I tracked down the recycling guy and he unlocked the shed and we threw it in. Here is the info about plastic recycling if anyone is interested, but after this not-so-cheery post about it I would imagine that no one is interested. I would like to say that we will never do this again... but I'm sure we will and hopefully sooner another 1.5 years won't pass. Hoarding is a sickness after all. wink.

This picture might have been a bit more interesting had we actually gotten there on time when all the bins were out and people were doing their sorting.

2010-10-10T20:51:00.012-05:00

Uff da

Today we went to the arboretum to see the Uff da Palace. It was a perfect day to drive out there and enjoy the warm fall weather, see the fall colors and relax after my first week back to work. The beginning of the week was the hardest, but Harriet seems to be very content at daycare and I am slowly remembering how to do my job.

The twig palace was pretty impressive and I would highly recommend going out and seeing it. The palace was made by artist Patrick Dougherty who does different twig sculptures all over the world. It is comprised of willow, maple and elm branches. It will remain at the arboretum until it decomposes.

Peek-a-boo

Gourds galore

Moss art

Four colors

2010-10-10T16:15:00.004-05:00

I think we have the next, umm, Mariah Carey on our hands. She's really hitting those high notes... and then some choking at the end.

2010-10-04T20:40:00.005-05:00

Neighborly wedding

This weekend we attended the wedding of Rob and Megan, our friends and neighbors to the north. When the old upstairs tenants moved out last year Steve and I both hoped that a young, fun couple would move in. We got our wish. We have loved getting to know them and felt honored to be invited to their wedding. We didn't know many people at the beginning at the night, but by the end we enjoyed the company of a lot of wonderful people. Kind of funny I was chatting with Megan's cousin and she mentioned that I looked familiar. She figured out that she sold us our stroller at REI earlier this summer. How she remembers us I have no idea.

Harriet attended the wedding with us (as you can see) and was the perfect guest. Also Megan was wearing her mom and grandmother's wedding dress. Pretty cute. The wedding and reception were at the Theodore Wirth Chalet, which is very fitting for them since they are avid skiers.

2010-10-03T22:29:00.000-05:00

finished. no small feat.

2010-10-01T20:54:00.008-05:00

Fall fun Friday

Today we went to Stillwater to with Erin, Lauren and Erin's mom Denise. This was my last week of maternity leave from work and Steve's last Friday off so we thought we would do something fun. We went to Aamodt's apple orchard, but unfortunately there weren't any more apples to pick. Instead our little skeletor enjoyed some other activities:

kneecapped by a pumpkin.