August and September 2020

Taking this Sunday afternoon to share some of the pictures and stories from the rest of August and September. 

Shortly after arriving home from our family trip to WY the three of us sisters joined another pair of sisters who are good friends of ours and the 5 of us went backpacking. This was a new adventure for all of us! We hiked about a 24 mile section of the Superior Hiking Trail on the north shore of Lake Superior over the course of 3 days. We started at George H. Crosby-Manitou State Park and ended at Temperance River State park. Parts of the trail were a real workout, but we had great weather, and so much fun together. We look forward to doing another trip in the future. I didn't take many pictures (the camera stayed home!) but have a few snapshots I took on my phone. (a couple of these pictures were taken by our hiking partner "the other Emily")

Here is a screenshot of our trail, the dotted line that has the yellow waypoints marked was the trail we hiked. 

We crossed some really interesting bridges on the trail, this was the nicest one. Some of them were partially washed out! :) 

The Manitou River 

Fire building teamwork 

Most of the trail is in the woods where you can't see much, but there were some nice lookout and views along the way. 

We Made It!!! 

After leaving our heavy packs in the car, we hiked down  the Temperance River to Lake Superior

Never has cold water felt so good! We waded in (some of us more than others) and attempted to wash the first layer of sweat off!  

 After that trip, our family had a couple outdoor concerts- the first concerts we've had (besides our town hall music nights) since February. It was so great to play for folks again, and have a chance to share the new pieces we worked up during the months when we didn't have any place to play.  

August was also more haying and even more fixing... Lots of tractor trouble during second crop. The guys were able to get by with less tractors for part of it, and the hay is made. We've called it quits on making hay for this year, but our biggest tractor still needs fixed. 😕

Two broken tractors. And an unfinished shop to work in. 

Some more progress was made on the red shed. and the last week of August we poured concert for what will be the expanded part of the shop. The goal was to have that done before Matt's graduation party. Always helps to have deadlines! It was an all hands on deck type of project.  I've a lot more pictures of this whole project, so it will probably need a blog post all to itself. It's far from done, the roof still needs one more piece of steel, doors need installed, wiring, insulating, etc.  Yesterday, though a little bit of the shop ceiling was installed. 

Matt's party was the last Sunday in August. It was a nice day (no rain!), and lots of folks came.  Its was a great day of visiting with neighbors and relatives. Grateful for the folks in our community who care about our family! Matt is glad to be done with school and is staying busy this fall working for multiple different guys, doing some construction and farming, and trying to get wood cut for this winter in between things. 

We had ice cream sundays with lots of toppings- Yum!!

The garden has pretty much all been harvested, just have a few root crops to dig and bring in yet. We had frost mid September so put an end to some of the growing season. We covered some of the plants to protect them, but most of the harvesting is complete now.  Thankful that most things did quite well, and we have many quarts of veggies preserved to enjoy in the coming months. 

Our family friends who run a resort on a near by lake, gifted Dad and Mom a 3 night stay in one of their cabins a couple weeks ago. So my younger siblings ran the farm for a couple days while our folks enjoyed a vacation just 20 minutes from home. They had a really relaxing time, and enjoyed it very much. Glad they had a chance to get away and recharge. 

The trees are peak color around here currently, and we are living in a beautiful time of year. On Friday,  Grace, Laura, and I did a day trip to the National Forest not far from here. The day started cloudy but by the time we hit the trail, it was a perfect day for a hike and it cleared off enough that we got to see this lovely view atop St. Peter's Dome.  It's an uphill climb but totally worth it when you get to see this:   

Also stopped to see this waterfall along the way:

After that 4.8 mile hike, we did a small section of the North Country Trail (another 4 mile hike.) The trail was much less populated with hikers and was more our style of hiking. :) 

A couple pictures of the river we stopped at

Not much else for news, our day to day life has stayed pretty "normal". Silas is the only one left in high school, and Laura is in her last semester of college (and counting down the weeks til she's done!).  Nate continues to work a couple part time jobs in addition to farming. I'm back to teaching music lessons full time. Grace is working for our folks here on the farm. Dad continues to farm and work on lots of different projects here as he is able, and Mom helps us all however she can, always ready to lend a listening ear to any of us when we need it, and spends a lot of time making food to keep us fed. We are all grateful for our parents and the amazing examples and encouragements they are to us.  Blessed to call this crew my family! 

Thanks for taking time to read this, I hope you enjoyed the pictures and had your own adventures this summer as well- whether big or small.