Old house on the hill...

IMG_7801 (Small)
Originally uploaded by brian and kate

Growing up I always wondering about the old house on the hill at the end of town. I'm not exactly sure how old I was when I learned that it was the house my mom grew up in but I do remember how much I wanted to go into that house when I was in sixth grade. There was just something it which made me want to go into it.

Until recently I had no idea that my cousin owned the place and conveniently the most recent renters had just moved out after tearing up the place. So needless to say it was not in tip top condition. Despite it's condition I finally was able to walk through the childhood home of my mom. Which it seems all my siblings have some memory of visiting. In a strangely sad and confusing way it seems as though I discover more about my mom each year. It's interesting the depth of individuals we never fully comprehend until we take a start looking.

Laying Sod

After we took out the buckthorn last year there remained a few open areas where we could do 'something'.

Being crazy I decided we should clean up the area and lay some sod. So we borrowed Brian's grandpa's tiller. Which is an amazing machine. It however whooped me. I've really only tilled areas that have PREVIOUSLY been tilled. So they've been pretty nice, easy tills. This however was full of roots, rocks and obstacles. So to put it frankly it was not fun.

Then to make matters even more interesting it started to rain. Determined to finish the entire project that day I still connect our trailer to our littler corolla (rolla) and headed off to get sod. I picked up 40 square feet of sod hauled it back - carried one by one down the hill and laid it out. After laying the first 40 I went back for another 20 - despite having an overwhelming feeling to do it another day. But I got the sod and got it all laid. Here are the before and after pictures:

Lathe

Brian has a new hobby! No longer is he just a 'gamer' he now can spin :) And by spin I mean turn.

In late winter Brian found a lathe on Craigslist which we bought for him. It sat in our basement until Spring came at which point he set it up and started turning wood. These are a sampling of the first 3 pends which he made.

The top is a pencil made for me. The middle a cherry pen for his grandpa. The third an acrylic with coffee beans for his mom.

Life Under the Sea

For a few weeks now we have been enjoy the life under the sea quite a bit more. Which consequently has causes us to abandon all technology unrelated to aquariums. Yes, we finally broke down and got a saltwater aquarium or to be more correct a reef aquarium. Which means not only do we have saltwater fish, we have live rock and live corals. Seriously, WHO knew you could grow corals in your own home? I thought gardening was cool, now I get to grow corals!

After much talk about what was the absolute 'best' place in our house to put an aquarium we landed upon this lonely corner of our home.


And quickly, sad when to glad! Check this out, the pictures show up much better at night, so here is a night shot.


And here is a shot during the day. This was the day after we moved the tank in. So prior to us getting some new lights. But still very awesome.


Below are a few of our fish, they are a bit active and love riding the flow so getting a good shot can be difficult.

Meter Bratwurst Challenge!

For my birthday this year I thought German food was a good idea...

So we headed to North East Minneapolis and enjoy ourselves at Gasthof Zur Gemutlichkeit.

Brian and James ended trying out the meter bratwurst challenge. With no doubt in mind both of them finished and went on to sample the Bavarian platter Jeanne and I split.

At the beginning:

Within a few bites of the finish:

James tackling his bratwurst:

All finished:

Geek the Gecko

A lot and nothing at all has been going on the last few weeks.

To start, I'll mention Brian's new lizard, Geek the Gecko. For Brian's birthday this year we ended up getting him a gecko, so far so good with the little dude. He's already shed his skin a few times and has likely doubled in size. Here is one of the best pictures we've got of the Geek.

Coffee Cakes

It's that time of year again....you know, to make COFFEE CAKES!

To many this probably means nothing, to us it means a whole lot of baking for a whole lot of coffee cakes. We have this old family recipe which was my mom's mom's recipe (in other words my Grandma's recipe). Evidently she did everything by 'feel'. But as the story goes my mom was some how able to get the measurements for the recipe written down. Growing up we only did coffee cakes once in a great while and from what I can remember we typically only made around 40 at a time.

But for the last 6-7 years we've been getting together and making an annual go of it. I think we ended up this year with around 150 cakes! Not bad for one day...