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~