In*door* stuff.

After messing around for three days with no real instruction, I finally stumbled on a process for stained glass painting that is so easy!

Here's what you need:

Here's what you get!

Just draw your design on with a sharpie, then attach the faux lead adhesive strips to the glass. The rocket science breakthrough came when I poured the stained glass paint on a flat piece of glass to cure over night. I was then able to cut it into pieces and press it into the spaces I needed filled. Overlapping and smashing the pieces into place actually works to make it look like real stained glass. 

I hope to get all my windows done this winter, then wait for it to snow! I think the white background will really make the red *Pop*!

The Birth of a Violin

This has little to do with living in a bog, unless you count the the fiddle tunes played here.  I've had this video on my old laptop for a couple years, and fear the soon demise of my beloved Mac.  Thus, I will post it here for perpetuity.

Arnie Anderson was gracious enough to share his workshop and expertise and help me turn a $59 ebay "violin in the white" kit into "Pumpkin", the very orange violin that I keep going back to no matter how many violins I accumulate!

After working on it for the better part of 5 months and 15 coats of varnish, we videoed the final moments of string application and tuning so we could record the first "cries" of this new baby.  Enjoy.

(Well, such is blogging. The video will not load.😕)

Berries of Blue, Rasp and Straw

This past spring, my neighbor, Ellen, died of pancreatic cancer. She was about my age, and was the first neighbor to stop over. She handed me an invitation to her Christmas open house.  I truly felt I had arrived!  She invited me to the knitting group and introduced me to many other neighbors. The following summer she let me come down at milking time and milk one of her 40 cows. That was a bucket list thing! She also gave me an open invitation to pick raspberries in her amazing patch. 

This spring, her husband Dan said to come pick the berries. He would not be picking and they'll go to waste. I stopped today. The berry bushes are covered with an invasive vine, but there were a few berries to be had.

 Their dog came down from the house to investigate.

Finke's Strawberry Farm has 8 days left in their season. It goes by so fast, but as I lay here in bed swatting Mosquitos until I'm blue in the face I have to say I am happier than usual that tomorrow is August 1st. I am thankful for the wonderfully lush and vibrant July we've had, complete with adequate rain for the garden, the orchard and to put the meadow in bloom. But, this year I will look forward to the dry, hot, dusty days, and a break from the worst mosquito season ever.

The Workshop

There has never been a time when I could lay my hands on everything I needed to do a project. It has always involved a trip to the store, always. Sometimes a couple trips.  This past weekend I spent a considerable amount of time unpacking boxes and putting things away in the newly finished workshop. The payoff came this morning when I was able to pull together the 2x2's, screen, staple gun, tiny nails, saw, hammer, drill, drill bit, hinges and a tape measure and turn it into a screen door without ever leaving home! 

Scrawny Irene loves having her *own* residence and me all to herself!

Uncle Wiljo's Barn Wood

Three years ago Jimmy and I were able to retrieve, with permission, some of the wood from the Kalenius Barn at the end of Aho Road. Uncle "Bill" and Auntie Ailie lived there, and built the barn sometime around 1910.  I loved that farm, and have very fond memories of many childhood visits there.

Long story short, the wood has been waiting for a purpose. It's quite deteriorated, and there really isn't much to work with. The idea came to me to make a gate for the Apple Orchard. It is the first official project to come out of the workshop!  I was very lucky to have a supervisor too.

Real Life Drama

The sound of an unfamiliar chirping caught my ear this morning. Then I spotted baby chicks, one after the other leaving the tall grass and crossing the driveway and dodging under the truck. At first I wondered if Heta and Mayme...naw. Remembering that I had two cats outside, I ran out and collected them, each with an empty mouth!  That is when the mother quail showed herself. Her tail was all fanned out and she was squaring off with the Chickens.

Once back inside, I am watching the slow pace of the morning return out my kitchen window when a large shadow crossed over the yard. All chirping ceased and even my high octane, industrial strength Amazon Chicken Women went into hunker mode. It turned out to be a raven. My next google. "Do Ravens eat baby chicks?"

All of this drama brought to me by my almost free oversized windows on the world.

Mosquitos

On a tour of the Mille Lacs Anishanabi Museum, I asked how the Native Americans dealt with Mosquitos. Apparently they would grease up their skin with bear grease and then rub ash into the grease. I probably would not sacrifice a bear just for this purpose, but I'm game for other DEET alternatives.

Facebook has yielded some home remedies made from various essential oils. I thought, "Great! I'll go that route!" A trip to the Cloquet Health Food store revealed this to be incredibly expensive, as the essential oils are about $10 a bottle. However, they did have a ready made insect repellant for the bargain price of $8 for a 4 ounce bottle! 

Today it also became my fabric softener in my laundry and final rinse in my bath water!  There is Oil of Cedar in the repellant. That, together with my Finnish Birch (Koivu) shampoo and the lovely home made Pine soap from Janet and Sara, I feel like I have real forest cred! Now I am going out to work on my fence.