20 Acres One Sheep?

Girl of the House had one last spring break day of freedom. She returns to school tomorrow.

As she had the day off, she made the supper tonight.


Her first meatloaf.











She didn't care much for the actual mixing of the ingredients.












I've been suffering from a lack of ambition.

No-one likes to go back to work after a mini-vacation, do they?



I've done a little of this











A little of that









And a bit more of that other thing.

(This one actually got finished.)








Temporarily, we are no longer 20AcresNoSheep.

We are 20AcresOneSheep. And a BlackSheep, at that!

Many thanks to Coleen and Harlan.

17 inches of snowfall

The final word on the snowfall at Tofte was 17 inches.



It was an amazing change of scenery!










It drifted in around the truck. We had to excavate a bit to load it up and get home.







For the remainder of spring break, Girl of the House and I are working on her room.

Now that she's thirteen, she needs an updated room.

(What she really needed was a deep cleaning and de-cluttering, but we're calling it an 'updating'. It's all in the phrasing, isn't it?)

We carried everything out of the room, and we're placing the 'keepers' on this sheet in the family room.

I guess Paris must think he's a keeper.

And the weather changes

Monday I enjoyed another beautiful sunrise.

Many thanks to those bleepin' dogs with the internal alarm clocks. Don't they realize this is vacation?!







We geocached our way north to Grand Marais.








While we parental units walked more sedately on the walkway of the breakwater,

Girl of the House jumped rocks along the edge.

(Me? I've grown quite fond of all my never- before-broken bones, thank you very much.)







We were informed there was a big storm coming in on Tuesday.

Sure enough, by the time we made it back to our temporary home the winds had changed, rolling around to the North East.

The wind change started to blow the thin sheet of ice remaining on the lake to our shoreline.



As it hit, it shattered like shards of plate glass

The sound was that of old glass windchimes, clinking and clanging in the breeze.

There is a remarkable resemblance to plate glass, don't you think?



This morning around seven, the snowstorm really began.

There's no ice left on the lake beyond what is far out in the depths.


GotH felt brave.

She headed out with the camera.









We, less brave, took her picture from a warmer environment.



The lake is amazing this morning.

This will be a good day for snuggling in with the fire.

Sunrise, Lake Superior

Up early to take the dogs out.

It's so much easier to just let them out the door at home. But I don't get to see the sun rise over the big lake when I'm home.

That's a pretty fair trade.

Gone Camping - Well, sort of

We drove past the frozen icescapes pushed up against the shore in Duluth,








and we arrived a place only two miles north of our favorite state park campground.


As recently as the past weekend, when the weather was gorgeous, we had planned to head to the North Shore to camp for a long weekend.

But the weather returned to its normal March Minnesota weather, and we flat-out chickened out.

We thought perhaps we would go for a bit more space. Our camper has heat, but it is not spacious. (And it doesn't have an indoor fireplace like our new digs!)

But we're going to hold to the remainder of the camping experience.

No TV.

All the music, reading, knitting, playing games, and cooking that we want.

We brought the snowshoes. We're planning to hike and explore.



Or maybe, just look out at the great lake outside our window.