New additions...

On Saturday, Shawn and I went to an auction to add to our collection of animals to fit the theme : "ol' Shawn Lindula had a farm"...We have 7 ducks - all different types....

Shawn really wanted the mallard pair and we got them...

4 more geese - we are now up to 6! These ones are different with the big bumps on their heads. Our other goose is laying eggs, so we can only hope these ones do as well. Would be fun to have baby geese..... (okay, I know... gosling)

I may take credit for some of the others, but this is all Shawn's doing. He bought Highlanders. Here are the 2 young ones. Will have to get pictures of the other ones on here.....

They are so ugly, they are kind of cute!!!!

More to folllow, but my battery had died and I couldn't get the rest of the pictures. Will have to post again later!

Glimpse of Easter

Easter snuck up quickly this year. Not only is there snow on the ground still, but Easter morning brought fresh snow. ...I guess that's ok. The white blanket is beautiful.

Hope you all enjoyed the day.

More of T

Here's a couple more of T....instead of sitting on the sit and spin he dips into Daddy's "extreme" genes and decides it's more interesting to "stand and spin!"

First time skating.......He did well.

Goggles just being goofy....does stuff like that all the time. Dipping into Mommy's genes on that one!??

And Debbie (i think) or Denise maybe took this beautiful picture of Shelby! Need to paint that one!! ; ) Have a great Tuesday evening! : )

: )

Catching up with T

Well here we go! Finally. But only 15 minutes of break, so gotta hurry and formatting may be a little goofy! T is growing by leaps and bounds and learning so much so quickly! : )

The pirate pictures was from an event in Duluth called "Pirates and Princesses" put on by a group called the Ladies of the Nile.....(something like Jobs daughters, etc.) He made his own pirate hat and treasure map! Loved the stickers and the treasure map!

He always puts on my winter hats and goes barrelling around the house. I do manage to stop him and get a cute picture every once and awhile. : )

And he is licky the chocolate chip cookie dough off the mixer things AFTER we were done mixing of course! He loves helping mom with cooking and baking! : )

I have TONS more pictures and hope to pay Frans and Jenny to make one of those nifty CDs sometime soon! : ) Have a GREAT weekend! : )

...

Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday dear Anita,
Happy Birthday to youuuuu!!!!
Cha cha Cha!

We miss you, and wish we could be there to have cake with you!!!!
Hope your day is as wonderful as you are:)

Much love from the AZ Kuoppala's

Hiking with my honey

Just a few proof of exercise pictures! I think I must have said at least 10 times .. "I am not a mountain goat". What a dreamy view. This is where I would have loved to build a house. There were a few flatter areas than this hillside, but the property has one very big problem. The road at the top is going to be rerouted ... may be 1 year and it may be 10 ... and I'd have yellow stripes going through the middle of my kitchen and living room ... suburus and trucks going back and forth on either side. Might make for some uncomfortable living!

Iditarod Restart in Willow last weekend

Sorry for taking so long to get these pictures on here Laurie!
For those of you who aren't in the Bebo Land ... the kids and I went to the Restart of the Iditarod in Willow last weekend. We took a shuttle from a high school ... the way to go. :) Although next year I think it would be fun to go out on snow machines. There were even small planes landing on a runway on the ice! We got there early enough that we could have gone to see dogs and teams, but didn't. I'm use to Phoenix crowds where you get your spot and don't wiggle out of it lest you lose it. We were halfway down the line and I couldn't hear anything the announcer was saying so headed up to the Start Line. I think we may have stayed through about 20 some teams leaving .. there were 97 I believe. The day was beautiful and sunny. The bus driver was warning us about sunburn on the way out there. "Face your backs to the sun ..." Alyx and I looked at each other like "are you nuts??? ....bring it on!" It was a fun day ... next year I know where to catch the start of the Junior Iditarod as well. This lake is not the place it has always been. It used to leave from Wasilla, but I think with traffic .. and this years ice and open water ... the Junior one left from this same place. Learn something new all the time! I also have a tip as where to go in Anchorage for awesome viewing ... so welcome next year and we'll do both days!

Some of what we saw or did

Trip to AZ went well. Drove through Sedona but didn't stop as street re-construction all the way
through town. Stopped at Matazuma Castle; took pictures; spoke to a couple who lived in Hibbing while he was teaching and now retired to our neighboring town of Crosy! Their
daughter is married to Tom & Jare Klabchek's son but not the one Anita used to baby sit.
No parking places in close proximity to art galaries so didn't stop. Night at Diane Barber's in
Prescott.

Seniors' Camp was the largest to date, about 90. Interesting presentations.

Spent AZ time at Frans and Jennys. The 5 girls are so cute. Trina is too young to be shy and
she loves to smile and talk. On President's Day we drove to Lake Havasu City to see the London
bridge that I had seen in London in 1957. Toni and Alanys were at a sitters.

I was sick during most of Winter Services. Urgent Care on Sat. Pneumonia! One 400 mg.
pill really perked me up so went to church Sat. evening and Sunday.

Monday we left AZ. Frans gave a tip to drive in the carpool lane so we did good time. It went
right on to I-10. In Midland, TX, we toured the childhood home of Pres. George W. Bush.

The MN Twins went fishing on the Sabine but water was so muddy from recent rains that they
didn't have any luck fishing. Didn't have to clean fish :). Elsie did her usual of cooking up a
storm and haven't dared to step on a scale yet!

On the way home we stopped at the Dealy Plaza in Dallas. Last time there was in 1976. They
have a beautiful display now on the 6th floor of the School Book Depository but no pictures
allowed. Next to Oklahoma City. We hadn't taken time to go into the museum last time we
were through. We had thoroughly enjoyed the outside display but we missed lots by not going
into the museum. A tear jerker. No pictures allowed.

Drove through some very heavy rain leaving Oklahoma City. One 18 wheeler on it's side.

Home happy, tired, lots to catch up on but it will get done. dk

Dogsledding in Ely

Michelle and I went to Wintergreen Lodge on Sunday for a day of dogsledding. So here are a few pictures of a fun filled day!



One of the new additions to Wintergreen! There were four pups that were four days old.



O'Ryan, Thor, Dixie, Knud and Ellwood took us approx 20 miles.

Whether it was going across the frozen lake or over bumps in the swamp and the beaver dams or ducking trees in the woods, laughter rang out clearly and loudly. All muscles in the body were worked and were sore for several days after, but the gut hurt the worst because of all the laughing. A beautiful day, in the higher 20's and clear skies, so when taking a lunch break we just had to walk around and take some pictures of the beauty of nature. This pic was taken right outside of the lodge where we ate and where we later relaxed before heading home.

~jen~

Hey all
Life in Farmington is the same ole same ole, just waiting for spring to come so can blow the dust off of the golf clubs and see if I remember how not to hit the ball.
Missi has mixed thoughts about my new job as I'm on second shift 2-10 (pm) and we don't see a whole lot of each other any more. So I'm not sure what married life is like yet, doesn't seem to be a whole lot different though.
I'm working at a shop in Farmington that manufactures poles for lighting, flags, etc. My job is fitting multipiece poles together, manipulating them to make a good fit. Pretty boring overall, but it pays the bills, I work inside!!!!!, and it's close to home. Nice to have a five minute commute after having been too used to up to one and a half to two hour drives one way (even up to three at times). Loving the five minutes, maybe I'll keep the truck.
If anyone is interested the company I work for is called Valmont-Farmington division, it's a small part of a large corporation, 43(?) locations worldwide, 1.5 billion dollars in sales 2007.
Anyway, time to go to work. Catch you all later.
Ivan

Howdy Peoples!

I havn't been here much for a while...

I just added a link to our dirtbiking page in the links area. I put a couple of very poor quality videos on that website, and I'm hoping to get a bunch of video of the kids riding this summer.

Wonderful "warming" weather... as long as we don't get those March Blizzards!

I'm ready for summer.... how 'bout you?

Charlie

The Beauty of Life...

A new life is growing, already inspiring smiles and dreams...

New kid

Here's a picuture of "Lucky"

New kid on the ranch

Yesterday or the day before, Shawn pointed out how my black goat must be pregnant as she has a bag on her. We were both amazed as she is just so fat, that we didn't think she would ever get pregnant.

So, last evening, I was out doing my evening chores - 9PM or so and heard my big fat black goat (Chubs) crying. Sure enogh, she's in labor. Well, she sure isn't conditioned to delivery due to being very huge. Shawn came and helped and we got one out, cleaned off, breathing. Make another temporary shed in the garage and move her and baby in there as it was cold outside. Comes to the delivery of the next one and neither Shawn nor I could get our hand around the head. Denise was able to and got the kid out. We tried to make that little thing breathe, but just couldn't get it to.

Then, Shawn checks to make sure there aren't any more kids and.... another one. That one didn't make it either. I was really worried that Mom wasn't going to make it through the deliveries, but she did and the first baby (Denise appropriately named it "Lucky") and Mom are doing fine.

Now to get the baby to suck, but for now, milking and feeding with a syringe. Needless to say, a late night, early morning, and a lot of work when I get home. Will have to leave work early to check on the "kid" :)

Bubba

We lost Bubba - he died last week. The hard part is when you buy a goat from an auction and you have no idea how old they are. I think he was getting old and this winter was just too much for him.

Our new land

Here's the "before" pictures from our new land. Can't wait until we are done with clean up next summer and can provide the "after" pictures.She was kind enough to clean out most of the kitchen....

Here's the house....

One of the sheds was already taken down, but here's the other (well part of it; Shawn had already destroyed half of it) The sheds were filled with clothing, stuffed animals, tons of junk.

The garbage was all thrown in the yard. This is already after a truck load had been hauled out. There is nothing worse than going through someone else's garbage, but we have to. There is so much glass, etc. than get be harmful to animals later if we don't get it cleaned up. As snow melts, there will be so much more.

As of now, the house is down, a lot of garbage has been hauled out, sheds are down, and the scrap iron needs to be hauled in. Then there will be more work as the snow begins to melt.

Here are my new kids

Here are some photos of my new "kids". Both boys. As of yet, I have no names for them. Any suggestions?

Momma and her babies

This one is more photogenic than the other one and will stand still long enough to take advantage of the photo op....

Four, Nine, Four, Nine

Ok. I have to share! As I've said Tristan is growing and learning by leaps and bounds.
Well, last night we were climbing stairs and he was counting them and was all the way
up to six when he got distracted....so I was wondering without the distraction, how far
would he go??

Gary called this morning and told me he was counting the letters on his diaper box
and counted all the way to ten. : )

Thought I'd share in the excitement! : )

Wanna do some reading!?

Heather called me Friday afternoon and asked what my plans were for the weekend. I had told her that I was planning on running out to Brainerd so could see Mom and Isa before they leave for their annual winter travels. She told me about a large book sale that was happening at the mall in Hibbing and that Tom and Steph and the boys were going up there for the weekend, as well. My plans then changed, because I really didn't think I had enough books! Okay, Mom & Isa, you might want to disagree with me, on that statement. Since the two of you have helped me move how many times and my books always came with each time! But. . . I don't have enough yet. I am missing so many books on each of the Presidents, and so many authors I don't have yet. So on Sunday morning I stopped at the gas station and filled my car with gas and off I went up North! I did really good, and left with only three bags (Heather had 4, though was only going there to get one)! Heather, Steph, Denise and I had fun looking through tables full of all sorts of books and we all got a wide variety to fill our reading needs for a short time at least!

Instead of reading in the afternoon, when we returned, we opted to do something else. Shawn, Heather and the Kako's went ice fishing and Denise and I went to Velma's for a visit. Always nice to see her! She is so full of love and laughter and knowledge! I headed back way late and didn't make it far. My eyes couldn't be propped open with toothpicks any longer, so decided to close them in the Wal-mart parking lot in Cloquet. Slept good and continued to drive southward. Made it as far as Forest Lake and then the snow arrived. Cruise control had to come off and I just crept along to Cannon Falls observing 3 accidents.

As soon as I got into the office I sent off a few emails and read the ones that I have received. One of them was from my high school principal. The only ones who were at Cherry during the time that he was there was just H,I and J and he left the summer after J graduated. Amazing to hear that during part of the time living in Howard Lake he was actually the superintendent in Cokato. If I wasn't quite so self-absorbed at that time, I probably would have known that and gotten in touch with him earlier. Its always a great feeling to be able to thank the people who have had a huge influence in my life. And I am fortunate that I have been able to track him down to do just that. Now the books are sitting in my car and I can hear them calling for me, so I must get busy. If I can get things wrapped up here, I can at least answer one of them today.

~jen~

Name search

We are looking for a name for our farm (so we can label our produce with the farm name). I'm looking for suggestions:
So far:
Lindula Farms
Admiral Acres
Cedar Crest

Other suggestions? There will be a prize for the winning name that both Shawn and I can agree with - Good luck, as it may be impossible :)