Geocaching

Did some geocaching today.  One multi-stage cache started at the old Sciota township hall.

Then there was hiking at the Carleton College McKnight Prairie.  

There are still cacti growing in the Minnesota prairie. 

Who knew?

Outdoorsy

It was a bluebird day on Saturday.  Perfect for skiing at Welch Village.

We're not going to discuss how, for the first time in my life, I fell off the ski lift.  Right? 

Good.

We took a long hike in the Carleton Arboretum today, doing some geocache maintenance.

Another amazing bluebird day.

Move along, no knitting to see here

It's been a busy week. Ben came home from college for a whirlwind week of organizing his things, preparing to move into a summer house with friends, and spending our money.

Funny how much money you can spend on a kid that's only home for a few weeks each year....


I helped him move back to Iowa on Saturday. I drove down one truck load of stuff, and we stopped at the grocery store to stock him up on healthy food. He's sharing a house with five friends and his sweetie, Bekky. (I don't know why there is a flaw in the picture from my fancy new camera?)






Sunday we did some hiking and geocaching.








Did you know there were cacti in southeast Minnesota? It sure was a first for us!

We're going to head back out to McKnight Prairie in a few days to see if this prickly pear bloomed.

Spring is coming to Minnesota - finally!

We got out early Saturday morning and grabbed some brand new geocaches in the cool, crisp, sunny morning. It was unusually warm for Minnesota in March.

We got to see some wild turkeys doing their spring chase of the females.
Can you tell one of these males has a beard that goes all the way to the ground? We've never seen one quite that long/large...







There were some beautiful panoramas to enjoy.





On the geocaching site, someone mentioned that this area looked like a Maakestad painting. We weren't familiar with Maakestad.

Apparently, we should be.

See the silos on the right, with the barn roofline? Now, go look at this painting.
The silos and barn are the same - I should have taken the picture a bit more to the left.

We may be in the market for some oil pastels. These are gorgeous, and they are local. And they're amazing.



It was good to get the cache-mobile out of the shed and rev her up for the spring weather.





The nice weather continued. Today I even got the sheets out on the clothesline. Now that will be a treat for sleeping tonight!

More holiday songs

Girl of the House had her concert Saturday night. She's in Northfield Youth Choir. They have choirs from first grade through twelfth. (Lots of knitting time, again!)

Ben was in this choir for his entire school career, and we realized that we've been attending this concert every year since 1995. We anticipate another five years. Then, maybe we'll go, just out of habit?




Paul and I took a hike in the arboretum this afternoon. It was 32 degrees and overcast. We went 4.25 miles, and when we returned home, it was 12 degrees with a windchill of -4. YIKES! The temp dropped pretty rapidly.

We found a geocache.












We even saw a barred owl.

It's pretty rare to see an owl anymore.








Girl of the House stayed home and stayed warm.

It was great to come home to fresh oatmeal raisin chocolate chip cookies.






Holiday stealth knitting is underway - can't show any of those pictures.

We're also preparing for our ski trip to Grand Targhee. We're leaving on Saturday. YAY!!

A Return

Thanks to everyone for your comments. After a hectic week, my folks are both at on the mend at home. They're getting better everyday!

We've resumed our regular weekend routine.

After chores were done, we did some geocaching. We did some quick geocaching. It was cold, in the twenties, with lots of snow flurries.

But we came across some fun caches. This one was guarded by a gigantic spider!






Paul's Retrofit sweater is growing.

The body is done, and a sleeve begun.











I even got some spinning time in!












And a super cozy fire on Sunday night to put an end to the weekend.

road knitting - Sioux Falls!

We drove out to Sioux Falls, SD last weekend to surprise Paul's brother for his birthday. And we did surprise him! Excellent planning on Coleen's part...

We had beautiful weather, and a fabulous time!

Even the dogs were invited!

We all went for a walk on Saturday, and we discovered they had several geocaches right in their local park.

They entertained us, as usual, in gourmet style.

Of course driving the four hours to Sioux Falls, and four hours back, gave me lots of knitting time!



I've got most of Rogue finished.

Just the seaming up, and zipper installation to go.












Got some sock knitting in, too.

This was the easiest knitting to do, on the road in the dark. I certainly couldn't do all that cabling in the dark!









Little dog was suspicious of my photo taking.

He's very protective of my foot model, Girl of the House.






On the dark evenings this week, I did more spinning than knitting.

I spun up the two ounces of black alpaca I purchased at Shepherd's Harvest back in May.

This was full of vegetation matter (VM), and quite dirty, same as the brown I spun up earlier this summer.

Turned out quite lovely after spinning and washing, however.




I passed the underplied CVM back through the spinning wheel, and it came out much nicer.









There's been a project of some silk caps I dyed, sitting half finished on my Saxony wheel. I know I started that project in 2007.

They finally yelled loud enough to grab my attention, and I finished spinning them up.

One ounce of silk caps, 300 yards of lace weight.

The colors are difficult to photo accurately, but I'm loving the blues!

I see a silk scarf in the near future...

no fiber content

AT ALL - not a lick.

It was the final weekend of official summer.

Paul took Friday off to get Ben back to college. Before taking him down, he ran to Sakatah Lake State Park and dropped off the camper.

After work, I met Harlan and Coleen, keepers of the Girl of the House for the past week, in Faribault. A quick trip to the wine mecca - Haskell's - and we were off to Sakatah.

Started a campfire, put supper on the grill, and so began the holiday weekend. Harlan and Coleen stayed for supper. Paul made it around 9:30.












Early Saturday morning - 6:45 - the dang dogs woke us to go outside. We walked down to the lake for coffee. It was a bit farther than we usually undertake; about a half mile to the lake. But well worth it.



Sakatah State Park is on the Sakatah-Singing Hills Trail, a great paved trail that stretches 39 miles from Faribault to Mankato.

We did some bike riding, and some geocaching.

There are tons of caches along the trail, and several in the state park. We added 9 geocaches to our count.

(I discovered I can take a picture while riding a bike! Who'd have thought?)


We came home on Sunday. With the GotH being absent from home for near a week, we had a number of things to prepare.

We headed to the city today, for some last minute school clothes shopping.

Before we headed north, we headed to three brand new geocaches. They were just published this morning, and we were first to find on all three.

This was taken at the location of the most difficult find.

Yup, this is me, high in a tree above the lake. Getting up was a bit tricky, but do-able. Then I was sure I was stuck. However, Paul and GotH refused to bring me my meals for the rest of my life, and the bathroom situation was a bit iffy, so I slowly made it down.

At least I made it down without falling in the water.

I think I'm too old for tree climbing. Isn't that why I married a younger man?!

Sunday

Paul and I took a walk in the Carleton Arboretum this morning, checking on the geocaches we have planted there.

One cache is missing - possibly a casuality of the June flooding. We'll have to replace it.

While we were hiking, we placed a new cache.









The arb is full of beautiful wildflowers.

Everywhere you turn, you see a different flower.




We ended up hiking 4.6 miles. Then, home for a fabulous Sunday brunch of Eggs Benedict and Bloody Marys.

Girl of the House went to the public pool, and we did chores around the house and yard.

Now, we're on the deck listening to Acoustic Sunset on Cities97 and enjoying the fruits of our labors, cool drink in hand.

First thing you do in 88 degree heat

with a dew point of 75 degrees, is model the hats you just finished knitting!

This makes perfect sense to a compulsive knitter.

Here we are, after a long weekend of camping.

Note the happy inattention to personal grooming...


Both hats are knit from handspun. Girl of the House is modeling the Blue Face Leicester purchased at Shepherd's Harvest.

I'm wearing Karaoke (merino/soy silk) fiber purchased at Mielke's Farm last fall when I was at SOAR.



Here's a better photo of hats - no heads.











We returned to one of our favorite state parks in Minnesota - Beaver Creek Valley.



Our favorite morning coffee spot, the head of East Beaver Creek. There are springs popping cold, clear water right out of the rock walls.





We did miles and miles of hiking.

Beaver Creek Valley is a very narrow valley with steep walls. We hiked all around the rim. The views are incredible.

We did one geocache in the park.

Due to the depth of the valley and the tree coverage, the campground is always at least 10 degrees cooler than the surrounding area.

There were gentle breezes that kept us cool.


I did quite a bit of knitting.



Advanced a bit on Rogue.

I even got some spinning done. Can't say I'm very pleased with that, though...






We played games and games of cards.












And we read.












Even Ben made it down to see us for a night, before returning to camp.









On the way home, we went the roundabout way.

It's always best to take a different road home. There are so many things to see in this world.



We stopped at John Latsch State Park, along the Mississippi, and did two geocaches.

One of them was at the top of the bluff.

Roughly 600 steps up the bluff.



pant, pant, pant



The views were breathtaking.

(And it felt REALLY good to sit and rest.)








Now, we return to our regularly scheduled week.

(Whoa, kind of a drag, eh?!)

Storms in the metro area last evening. We saw a bit of rain, but nothing dramatic.



At least until 9:30 or so. Then our power went out! We were in the middle of a card game, so we scrambled for flashlights and candles.

Power resumed around midnight.






And I forgot to bring in the fleece before dark.

Well, a rain water rinse should be very softening, eh?







Ben went off to Camp Pepin this morning.

It was a really nice two weeks while he was home. We enjoyed having him here so much!

Miss you already, Benner!






We went out in the cachemobile for the afternoon.

It was 80 degrees, and a great day to have the top down. We found caches at three different lakes. Tons of boaters out on the water today!

Add five geocaches to our count!