It seems as though a life time has passed since my last blog entry though in reality it has been a mere 5 weeks.  I won’t bore you with too many details of the whys and wherefores of why I was gone as I might be prone to mull over regrets, such as regrets of lack of discipline in my blog writing, regrets of blessings and some hard lessons that I could have shared here that may have inspired others in some way either to work through some issues or to see beyond to the beauty that is before them in their life but alas, those 5 weeks are gone. We all bare distractions and regrets, little things that may draw our attention away from the big picture thus causing us to lose sight of where we were headed.

As I sit here and write this I can honestly say I have no direction in this post. It is merely a turning point for me that I must reclaim my direction and focus and write whatever comes to mind tonight. It is a chance for me to pick back up the accountability and reconnect to the person within me that desires to share with others those things which make a life.

From my last post seasons have changed here in the north, from several feet of snow, yes that is Zebulun trying to ride his bike….in a tshirt.  It had been warm, 70 degree days but the snow was hanging on as the sun had to melt through several feet in the woods.  There came a point where he just couldn’t take it any longer and “had to ride”!

Finally the snow was gone and trees blossomed on the shores of the great lake. I never get tired of looking at this great creation of the Lord’s.  It is always breath taking!

The boys planted a garden all their own.

With the weather screaming spring the  ever popular Upper Peninsula parade of bugs has begun. What am I saying “begun”? They never go away.  With feets of snow, furious winds from Lake Superior, and frigid temps it is not uncommon to find a tough mosquito or spider on the path from cabin to car in the dead of winter. And when I say “find” I do not mean “to find dead”. Oh no, not the breed up here! They fly and crawl through the snow! But the visual population certainly does increase with the onset of spring, thus causing all who venture outside for any length of time to done the ever popular head net.

Ron has been working on “gardening the forest”, note the way that is written, not “forest gardening”.  He has been in a type of immersion in this long ago skill which is finding a voice again amongst some academics, though it truly is something that should never have been lost.  Such knowledge once reduced to “legend” is in danger of never being utilized to its fullest.  When I pick up a book written in the 1800’s I am amazed that so many lost ways that once where common sense, these ways now making a comeback off and on over the course of several decades with so many who present these past ways as if they had recently invented them.  Words such as “permaculture”  (permanent agriculture) which seems to want to demand some new respect when folks say it, and this is simply a term used to rename a way our forefathers farmed the forest for centuries. Oh but I digress in this thought and will stop, as this is best saved for another post.

With the weather change and the leaves willingness to appear, we are harvesting tree hay and soon will be cutting the wet grasses from the clearings to feed the animals while we wait for fresh hay.

The boys have found the crick (yes I say crick and not creek) again.  They love to spend the time down there trying to catch little “minnows” with their buckets.

They immediately run up and show me only to let me know that they are being “good sportsmen” and catching and release.  There was only 1 time when this plan failed them, Shultz (our St. Bernard) wondered down to the cricks edge and decided that he was going to take a drink of water from the bucket they were using to keep the little opaque fish in until they were ready to pour him back in the crick. They were not sure if he had succumbed to Schultz’s over sized jowls as they could not see him any longer. I did not have the heart to tell them that he wasn’t easy to see before.

I figured out how to make knickers for them from pants, super easy and so affordable!  We went to the thrift stores a few weeks ago spent less then $1.50 per pants. I did an easy repurpose cut and sew and was so pleased with how they turned out! I can not get enough of them in knickers and the wonderful thing about it is they love wearing them!

The got themselves all dressed for our prayer meeting that day.

And Ron and I celebrated an anniversary during our “blog break”.  RJ turned 27.  I could probably go on and on with details and events that happened during our break but I suppose for one night I have rambled on long enough.  It is good to be back. I have missed all of our regular readers and hope to “meet” many new ones in the days ahead.

 

As Roy Rogers use to say “May the good Lord take a liken to you.”