A Visit to Rhinelander

We were in Rhinelander on Father's Day weekend, so treated the kids to ice cream at Jett's Dairy Bar. While there we spotted some of the artsy new hodags around town... and decided we like 'em.

I've seen similar concepts in other towns. Madison has it's "cows", of course-- each decorated uniquely by a local artist. In Eau Claire you can drive around and look for the chairs shaped like hands, each colorfully painted in a different theme and style.

But... no one else has hodags!!

Before the ice cream, we took the kids to Hodag Park. It's probably been twenty years since I was there. I looked for that "really cool" swing set that had four swings facing each other (so you could kick at other kids while you were swinging), but that was gone and replaced by safer (and more hum-drum) modern playground equipment.

My sister Laurie was also around, having made the trip to Rhinelander to attend a friend's wedding. My brother John had ridden with her from Madison, and helped Dad mow the lawn. And then another of my brothers, Bob, surprised us by also showing up late Saturday night. So the Bragg house was full for Father's Day weekend.

Jon (my husband) has been home most of the summer. His crew is working in North Dakota, but he's postponed his involvement in the project... for awhile. After spending so much time away from home in previous months, he wanted to be a regular guy who gets to mow his own lawn and tuck his kids in at night. He's been doing odd jobs and excavating, meanwhile, to keep the family finances afloat.

We were glad to have him around for Father's Day! Here he is with his youngest three kids. The older three-- Jonathan in Eau Claire and Susan and David in West Virginia-- talked to him by phone on Father's Day.

After our trip to Rhinelander we stopped by Cornell and visited Jon's parents. They hadn't seen Leila walk yet, so enjoyed seeing her test out her new mobility.

And now we're back into our summer routine here. Emma walks over to the neighbor's farm every morning. She pets the horse and feeds the chickens (for which she's paid $1 a day). Then a school bus picks the kids up for summer school. I bring them home in the afternoon, and then (usually) the neighbor kids come over to play.

On Wednesday nights, Emma has baseball. She's had a couple of practices, but this past Wednesday was her first game. She hit the ball a couple of times and made some runs. Her new purple bat, purchased by Daddy, was popular with her teammates, and she's dubbed it her "lucky bat".

On Tuesday afternoons, Michael has bassoon practice. His band teacher warned us that it's one of the hardest instruments to play. There's only one bassoon in the entire band, so we expect lots of solos;).

Michael spent his first lesson learning how to put the big strange thing together... and take it apart. I usually have to assist him in figuring out how to fit it back into the case. But he can make sounds come out of it, and is starting to do some scales.

The reed alone cost $18 (let's hope it lasts awhile-!), but at least instrument rental is cheap... only $50 for the school year. I consider that a pretty good deal.

Well, if it looks like these chickens are in our back yard... it's because these chickens ARE IN OUR BACK YARD.

Their names are Pumpkin and Dot, and they are the chicks that Emma has been raising at our neighbor's up the hill. Jon built a coop and brought them home to roost, this week. We collect an egg every day.

After about a week of acclimating to our yard, we plan on opening the coop door during the day, so they can mill about our yard. Hopefully Coco (our terrier) cooperates with that plan. She's awfully interested in those chickens...

I'll close with a picture of Leila. She's loving the country life, as you can see.

Summer Time!

Leila's had a couple of weeks to practice her walking, now, and has gotten much better at it. She stills crawls and walks on her knees, occasionally, but has learned to rely on her two feet to get herself wherever she needs to go.

She can climb up steps (but doesn't know how to crawl down them safely). She reaches up onto table tops whenever she can, to grab at things. I've had to move or pack away many of the decorations and houseplants I usually have around.

Our living room is now a giant playpen, scattered with toys, furniture moved strategically so as to block our little busy-body in and keep her away from hazards.

At right: Uncle Bill comes for a visit!

The two older kids have been on summer vacation since June 4th. A school bus picks them up mid-morning and takes them to swimming lessons in Elk Mound. Emma has Little League on Wednesday nights (Jon's been taking her to that and helping out the coaches).

Next Tuesday Michael starts summer band practice. His instrument of choice? The bassoon, of course!

After swimming lessons end, summer school starts. Besides reading and math, Emma is taking "Creative Writing" and Michael is taking a computer class.

None of these activities will keep them busy for more than a few hours a day, and all of our scheduled activities end in July. So there's still lots of time for free, unstructured play (and lounging around the house).

We have a few neighbor kids who are "regulars" at our house. Last night Jon tossed a baseball around with the kids (including a couple of neighbor boys) while Leila and I watched. Luckily we have five baseball gloves-- including several I have picked up cheap at garage sales.

Last night we ate strawberry pie, made from our own fresh berries. The strawberry patch in front of our house is full of ripening berries-- right now we're picking a generous bowl-full every day.

As you can see, our berries are now guarded by a little friend-- Mom picked up some garden gnomes for me, after reading my goofy post about being the "Snow White of Colfax." She brought them over about a week ago, when her and Dad came for a visit, and we hid them by different plantings around the yard.

I like them. Kind of kooky and very fun.

Other than that, we're keeping busy with the usual array of summer activities. Last weekend we went to two graduation parties and a birthday party. We also went to an art festival in Eau Claire, where we had our faces painted, watched belly dancers, and browsed booths displaying paintings, pottery, and jewelry.

This coming weekend we plan on going to Rhinelander. Several of my siblings should be around, including my sister Laurie. We're going to try to stop in Cornell as well on Sunday, on our way back, since it'll be Father's Day weekend and we want to visit both our fathers.

At left: Leila has her own swing in our back yard, now. Whee!

To close, I wanted to show this picture of my cactus-- blooming for the first time ever. It has a perfect ring of pink flowers all around it's top, like a crown. I've been meaning to post this, and after seeing Don's picture of dessert cacti blooming during his travels, the time seemed right. Enjoy!

It's Official: Leila's a Toddler

Leila's a WALKING girl now. She took her first steps while traveling back and forth between Jon and me yesterday afternoon.

We knew she was close. Lately she's been spending more time along the edges of a room, standing and gripping the furniture rather than merely crawling from here to there.

She had learned to take a series of rapid steps--thanks to the rather daring (and naughty) tutelage of Emma. Several times I caught her holding Leila by the hands while whisking her across the room, Leila's little feet dangling in the air if she didn't move them fast enough.

She had more practice on two feet this weekend, dancing at her cousin Eric's wedding reception. Eric is Jon's sister Ann's youngest son. He married school teacher Sarah at a small ceremony in the family church on Saturday.

The reception was in Bloomer. Jonathan and the three younger kids came with us to the dinner and dance. As you see, Leila followed big sister Emma's example at weddings and danced up a storm.

Friday we picked up some "new" wicker furniture for the greenhouse/porch. We found it at a moving sale-- it's only about 3 years old and fits the space nicely. We got the 3-piece set for $75; it includes two rockers and a loveseat. I wasn't sure about the red color at first, but now I kind of like it. For one thing, it matches the rug in there-- a gift brother John gave me after one of his trips to Turkey a few years ago.

We have new tenants in our Eau Claire house. The nursing students who've lived upstairs for the past year have moved on, and our new renters are a family.

During the transition between tenants, we reclaimed our patio table and chairs, which were still in the yard of the old house. Now they're on the back deck of our new house, just beyond the dining room and sliding glass doors.

The umbrella shade sure makes it more pleasant to sit out on the deck, which means we may actually use the space, now. At any rate, Leila likes it.

We also have a clothesline in the backyard, now. Jon drove an hour to pick up this portable metal clothesline from a guy who makes them. He wanted this type of clothesline because they're easy to pick up and move if you want to mow or use the lawn space for some other purpose.

We're hoping that the money saved from not using a dryer in the summer will eventually offset the cost of the clothesline. But meanwhile, it's a "green" thing to do. Of course, Michael let me know right away that clothes feel "rougher" when they don't go through the dryer. I encouraged him to appreciate the nice thing we were doing for our planet by using less electricity, but he still seems dubious about the change.

I'll close with our bloom of the week: irises. Enjoy!