Rhinelander Visit (Fire?!) and Hurlburt Reunion

What a busy July-! I'll start with a picture of Jonathan, for those of you who haven't seen him much this summer... he was over last week for a cook out.

The kids and I are back from a 4-day visit to Rhinelander. My brother Don and his family are up visiting Mom and Dad, all the way from Arkansas. Since we don't get to leave the state very often, this was a rare chance to get together and let our kids get reacqainted (while running amok in somebody else's house).

Despite not seeing one another since Christmas, the kids jumped right back into play and their former relationships (with some adjustment made now that they're older and interests have evolved). Kenny and Michael must have played twelve games of chess together. And Beth and Emma were thick as thieves.

The upshot: Mom and Dad's playground equipment received a healthy workout.

Don's youngest boy, Stephen, is six months older than Leila. This was really the first time that Leila and Stephen have been old enough to interact. They seemed to enjoy one another, though once again it appears that my daughter will be the aggressor in interactions with my brother's son... Leila bit Stephen at least once and flailed her arms at him menacingly (while jutting out her chin) several times.

This couldn't help but remind Hope and me of Emma's initial reaction to Kenny. I guess the "big sister bully gene" carries through to cousins... sorry Don!

Of course I exaggerate. It really was delightful-- even magical-- watching the kids interact with one another. The first night there we had a bonfire. All the kids, even the babies, stayed up well past dusk and played together outside while we adults sat nearby and watched. Kenny caught fireflies in his hands. Emma and Beth found a couple of Grandpa's flashlights, and a game of hide and seek around the garden (with the boys) ensued.

Hope noted that typically her kids are more fearful and cautious about being outside after dark. But banded together with cousins and armed with flashlights, they were brave and courageous explorers who had to be dragged into the house when bedtime finally arrived.

Meanwhile, Leila and Stephen played in the their own way, quietly, with sand and buckets.

The second day of our visit was ambitious. We took the kids first to Pioneer Park and then to Buck Lake. Originally Mom and Dad planned to come along, but by the time we were ready to leave they were weary (of us?) and opted instead for the peace and quiet of home.

So we loaded up the vehicles and convoyed over to Pioneer Park. I hadn't been there since Michael was a toddler, so enjoyed seeing the new displays (along with everything old and familiar).

There's a logging museum and a one-room schoolhouse. I was impressed with the extensive miniature train display they have. For fifty cents the trains run for eight minutes, under tunnels and over bridges in a remarkably realistic wooded lumber town setting.

You can tell it was someone's labor of love.

This carousel ride (at right) was a highlight. Leila wept bitterly when we had to leave it.

After the park, we headed to Buck Lake. I hadn't been there since highschool, so had to follow Don to get there... there's no way I would have been able to find it on my own.

The beach is still quite nice. It gets deep quickly, but there is lots of nice sand so is relatively safe for soft little feet.

The kids built sand castles and "lake and river" systems. Emma was kind of intense and territorial about it, but overall everyone got along well and enjoyed a day in the sunshine.

While there we got a phone call from Mom. Apparently the neighbor's field-- directly adjacent to Mom and Dad's land and house-- was on fire. Mom had called 911 and a fire crew had quickly responded.

We gathered the kids together and made our way home. While still on Shepard Lake Road we passed a couple of fire trucks heading back to town, so thought we'd probably missed all the action, but several vehicles and a TV news crew were still there when we arrived.

It was pretty surreal to see so much activity around my parents' quiet house!

The neighbor who owns the field, George, had been over that morning cutting firewood but was no longer present when Mom saw the smoke and flames. He doesn't actually live on the property, but has a hunting cabin nearby and uses the field to store firewood (which he sells). Unfortunately, in recent years he has also started storing scrap metal and old appliances back there, as well.

They weren't sure of the cause of the fire, but George speculated that maybe his chainsaw set off sparks that kindled into fire after he left.

Less than an acre of field was burned, but by the time firefighters arrived several trees had started to catch fire. Since things are dry and the land is isolated and heavily forested, this could have quickly developed into a serious fire.

George's field is obstructed by a thick wall of trees that separate it from my parents' house. From their living room, they would not have been able to see the fire. Luckily Mom had walked out to the mailbox, and on the way back noticed smoke and investigated. Dad was busy working outside, but hadn't observed any signs of the fire yet.

Hopefully the result will be that George will be more cautious while running his chainsaw... and maybe start clearing away some of that junk, now that the authorities have had a good look at it.

It was odd to realize that if Mom and Dad had come along with us as originally planned, this fire would likely have spread to their land and endangered their house. As a child walking home from the school bus, I used to imagine how terrible it would be to come around the bend and see our house burnt to ashes.

This time it could really have happened. I'm sure Mom and Dad would say that their guardian angel was watching.

The only actual "tragedy" our family experienced this week was the demise of Chicken Jane. During one of the afternoons we were gone, Jon went golfing and didn't get back to the house until after dark. The chickens' coop door was left unlatched, and Chicken Jane went missing. A pile of dark feathers under the picnic table seemed to bode ominously for her.

Emma shed some tears, but it wasn't long before she began speculating about our replacement chicken. And we already have her-- the new chicken is named "Stripes" and is a black & white checked "Barred Rock" chicken (same kind as Ulga).

After getting home there wasn't much time to rest... we had a Hurlburt family reunion on Saturday.

This annual reunion, held in Cornell's Mill Yard Park, is in honor of the descendants of Jon's grandparents, Ruth and Harry Hurlburt. It's a fun chance for Jon to visit with cousins on his father's side of the family, and we weren't disappointed... even the cousins from Texas were there!

I enjoyed learning that several of Jon's cousins check my blog occasionally, having discovered it last year after I reported on the 2008 Hurlburt family reunion.

This year we had sunshine alternating with pouring rain, but the Mill Yard pavillion kept the food dry... so no harm done. As usual, the variety and sheer quantity of food at our potluck was amazing. The Hurlburts (and Martins! and Crakers!) know how to eat well.

At right: Malia, Leila, and Brook check out the auction items.

As in other years, Jon's oldest brother Brent ran the reunion's auction. Families donated items for the auction, and money raised (usually) goes to a charitable donation in Ruth and Harry's name.

This year some of the previous year's auction money was doled out ahead of time in a drawing, so that the grandchildren (and one lucky adult) could receive a little spending money ahead of time. Every child got something... $5 for most, but there was one $20 winner and maybe two $10 winners.

Mikey used his winnings to purchase these fine items. He won Grandma Jane's red hat in a bidding war with Emma. However, later that night Emma sauntered by... wearing the hat. I asked her how she came to have it, and she said that Michael had traded it to her. The trade? Her Mother Goose CD. Not because Mikey is a Mother Goose fan, but because that CD has been driving him nuts all summer-- she played it frequently.

But no more! How's that for entrepreneurship?

At right: Malia and Emma. Below: Leila and Jon's cousin Joel Craker's daughter, Laurel.

After Leila's dealings with Stephen, Hope won't be surprised to hear that Leila was a little on the aggressive side with Laurel. Sigh.

Still, it was good seeing everyone. We look forward to next year.

After all this busy fun in the sun, excuse me while I go relax and have some coffee!

Of Cows and Solar Cookers

Here's Emma feeding our two new calves-- Daisy and Kit Kat. Yup... the Hurlburts of Colfax are officially cow-owners.

People who know me realize that I do not dote on animals, as many do. So the fact that we went from two pets (one cat, one dog) to nine pets (add four chickens, a horse, and two cows) in the course of one summer may seem puzzling to some.

However, I find that I do not mind these outdoor animals. The calves and horse are at our neighbor's farm, just a short walk away. Emma and Jon feed the calves three times a day (which only needs to be done for the first month).

As far as the chickens go... perhaps I have found my "animal match". For reasons that I don't quite get, I like the chickens.

At right: Leila watches Dot and Pumpkin forage for bugs.

One factor, no doubt, is that the chickens don't require much effort on my part. They wander about our yard and woods, but never stray far from their coop. So we don't have to keep a close eye on them or worry they'll wander to a neighbor's.

They tuck themselves into the coop at night; we need only lock the door. They eat corn, table scraps and stray insects.

They don't need petting. They like people, and the rooster in particular seems friendly. But their little lives are complete and busy without me making a fuss over them. They are happy without any input from me-- much less complex and needy than a certain dog and cat I know.

When I hang clothes outside, garden, or walk around the yard with Leila, they are there for company and entertainment. But they are not much more demanding than flowers... or fish.

As you see: the perfect pets.

Of course, they do leave "poo" around the yard. But the rain washes it away eventually, and their range here is large enough that it doesn't accumulate in any one spot too badly.

Other news: Jon is home again. He went to North Dakota for a week, but the new job didn't pan out.

So he's back-- without too many regrets. This life that we've been building for ourselves in the country is a whole different pace than we had in the city... and much different than Jon's lonely life on the road building power lines.

Earlier this week friends from Eau Claire-- Becky and her daughter, Avala-- came for a visit. Michael and Emma used to have regular play dates with Avala when we lived in Eau Claire, so the kids had lots of catching up to do.

We had a simple but satisfying lunch of quiche and salmon patties, baked in the solar cooker that Becky had brought along to show me. She bought the cooker at a local energy fair and was so impressed with it that she's now selling them (if anyone's interested, let me know and I'll give you her contact information).

We set the solar cooker up on the front porch. Aluminum panels reflect sunlight onto each other and then down into the clear-covered cooking chamber. A thermostat let us know when 350 degrees was reached (and it didn't take much longer to preheat than a conventional oven would). Our food was cooked using nothing but the sun... and it took only slightly longer than it would have otherwise.

After cooking you open the clear lid, to let the inner box cool down for awhile, before folding everything up for transport. The cooker has a carrying handle and is completely portable. It really is impressive.

The quiche we ate while Becky and Avala were over had spinach in it. But the next day I tried a quiche that our farming neighbor, Johnne, made with Lamb's Quarter-- a humble weed that I've pulled from our garden plenty of times.

Picked young and eaten raw, it tastes like other garden greens... and rather like spinach. Cooked in the quiche, I thought it tasted exactly like spinach. I was amazed to hear that it wasn't.

Johnne is a big fan of Lamb's Quarter not only because it's free and abundant on her farm, but also because it's healthful and a good source of calcium-- important for her because she has trouble digesting milk.

I'll close with a peek inside our robin's nest, hidden in the hedge outside our front door. Yesterday we had three tiny blue eggs; today there are two... and this newly hatched baby bird. You can see it here with it's mouth open wide, waiting for a meal. Pretty cool, huh?

A Bear-y Scary Story

Have you ever been alone in the woods, at dusk... and realized that you're not alone, afterall?

Something big, black, and hulking is foraging for food about 20 feet away. It doesn't see you yet, but it will see you. It has to see you because you need to walk past it if you're going to make it back to your house.

And suddenly your house seems so far away... as in a dream. You start to walk. Your walk becomes a trot.

Where's the door? Why is it locked? What's that noise behind you??

BEAR ATTACK!!!!!!

Well. That's almost what happened. Here's a more tediously factual account:

I was weeding in my garden at dusk, sitting on a stool among the tomato plants. It was quiet and I was alone, daydreaming and not paying attention to my surroundings. After a few minutes I became aware that something large was breathing nearby.

I thought I would look up and see a large dog (which would also have been alarming). As it was, there was a bear. I've never seen one in the wild before, but have dreamed about and dreaded an encounter over the years, so the whole thing was fairly surreal.

I don't think the bear knew I was present when it first approached the garden. But it definitely saw me after I got up and started walking toward the house. The bear ambled away into the woods.

Once safely indoors, I marvelled at the whole thing. Wow. I went downstairs and told the family, and Jon immediately headed outside to look for it (he also goes outside to look for severe weather, too). Me and the kids tagged after him, expecting the bear was long-gone but hoping it wasn't. Amazingly, it was still visible. We watched it walk through our woods. Then it crossed the road and vanished among the neighbor's trees. For such a large animal, it was amazingly silent. Squirrels make more noise in the woods.

I know people have been seeing bears more frequently in recent years, but it was still a surprise to find one's living in our midst. There weren't any of the usual signs of bear presence you sometimes hear about. Our garbage cans are outdoors and flimsy but have never been disturbed. We have bird feeders all over the property, but large animals have never knocked them over. Our dog barks at squirrels and anyone who approaches the door, but took a nice, peaceful nap while the bear walked by. I looked for tracks the next day around the garden, and couldn't see any foot prints in the ground whatsoever.

If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I would still think we didn't have any bears around here.

Anyway! That's my Bear Story.

The month of June came and went so fast. The kids finished summer school last week, though Emma still has Little League and Michael still has band.

Jon has been home so far this summer, but will head to North Dakota next week. Lately he's been helping our farmer neighbor with her hay.

We have four chickens in the backyard, now. Besides Dot and Pumpkin, we also have Ulga (pictured at left) and Chicken Jane. So far Pumpkin is the only one who lays any eggs, though.

Mom and Dad visited us last week. While they were over, Jon walked Macy (the horse) over to our house. She ate grass from our lawn and Jon trimmed her hooves a little.

We saw Mom and Dad again on the 4th of July, at cousin Peggy Linskey's potluck lunch in Holcombe. As usual, it was sweltering hot at Peggy's house, but there was plenty of good food and pleasant conversation with long-lost cousins and other family. Here's Dad talking to his youngest brother, Chuck.

Emma had a good time jumping on the trampoline with the other kids. I can't identify all of these children, but the two on the right belong to our cousin Rose (Voss). Michael spent most of the time playing in the shade of a big willow tree with my cousin Ann Richter's son Craig, who is slightly younger than Michael but very close in age.

Here's Leila scrounging for ice cubes with one of cousin Peggy Linskey's grandchildren:

After the picnic we went to Bud and Jane's house. We visited on the porch, and Leila had a much-needed nap before we headed over to Phil's summer cottage for more socializing (and fireworks). It was near-dark when we arrived, so I don't have pictures from that, but it was a good time. Leila was remarkably unimpressed with the fireworks. Not only did they not frighten her, but she seemed inclined to ignore them altogether.

Well, hope everyone reading this also had a good time celebrating the 4th! Happy Birthday, good ol' US of A!