Summer 2014 - Day 7

The day began with waking in the bed and wondering what time it was, but assuming it was early because it was dark and my parents had not started to harass me. I decided to just get up, walked into the living room and it was like 9:06.

9:06!

9:06

9:0 #*c&ing 6!

I was supposed to leave for Minnesota at 8!

I said some snotty things to my mom, then went into the bathroom to prepare. When I came out, my mom started to help me out. When I asked my dad why he didn't wake me up, and he said "you're a big woman now," and that he wasn't going to wake me. I grumbled, got my stuff ready, and mom when to the cheese factory for me to get churds.

Later on, when my mom got back, or maybe before she left, whatever, I mentioned that I forgot to set my alarm clock too. Dad then said, "oh, then you have no one to blame but yourself." He wasn't exactly right - my parents usually harass me to get up when they know that I wanted to be up by a certain time, but they decided to stop doing that without necessarily informing me. So I went up to each of them, gave them a hug and said, "blame is like love, you can never have enough." Mom first, then Dad, who replied, "don't talk so close to me, your breath stinks!" It was quite a moment.

We packed the car up and went outside for photos and a look around the garden. First, the sunflowers.

My mom's ground cherries. They taste like tomatoes.

My mom's hops, in their first year.

My dad planted poinsettias so my mom won't have to buy them at Christmas. He asked me to find out how they flower.

Other garden shots.

Then we saw the cows off in the distance, first with the zoom, then without.

And we did the pitchfork photo.

I got a good, totally intentional, shot of my shirt.

Then I finally took off for Minnesota at 10am, getting photos of my [weird] parents from the car.

I drove and drove, then got to the new 10 and it was wonderful. Then I arrived at two of the three roundabouts south of Marshfield and was suddenly on the old 10, which sucked quite mightily. As I went through Neillsville, I drove by this Pavillion and then turned around to stop. I got some magnets (ZOMG, how do they work?), post cards, Cow Pies, a Wisconsin Passport, and a few bottles of Wisconsin wine. I took a few photos, including a selfie, and then was off for more driving.

Driving, driving, driving, and I was finally in Osseo and on I-94. Near Eau Claire, I got a text, then got off the highway for gas and coffee, then got a call from K2 about my arrival in Minneapolis. Then I was on the road again for more driving.

Minnesota welcoming me.

I got to K2's house just before 2pm, got the tour, and then we were off to Taco John's. The first one we tried to go to did not exist anymore, so we went to another to get some potato oles, tacos and burritos, and churros. Back at K2's house, we chilled with the dogs, I got on the computer, made plans with R and N, and K2 did dishes. D came home, then I was off to R's so we could go to the Pizza Farm.

Well, just after Farmer R watered her tomatoes.

R combines yoga poses with gardening.

We were driving, driving, driving, and then we were there, at the Pizza Farm.

R dropped me off to order our pizza while she found parking, and I found N and his wife, J, and 4 year old daughter, S. We got in line for pizza and R soon joined us.

We ordered pizza and found that the wait was 2 hours. N mentioned that he had to work at 9, so he canceled their pizza and we found a picnic spot. We chatted while R and I drank the Maple Syrup wine.

After N & J left, R and I went to tour the gardens. I took many photos of flowers and the garden, some shown here.

We checked on our spot in line as it got dark. We were 240, and the number was at 224.

As you can maybe see, the number was 224.

We then went and sat by a fire.

Finally, the pizza arrived.

We got the weekly special - beef, sweet corn, tomatoes, onions. It was very, very good. I mean incredibly, OMG-so-awesome good. After a couple more slices were consumed, we packed up and trekked to find R's car to drive back to her place. During the drive, we discussed the practice of wishing people a happy birthday on Facebook and our idiosyncrasies about it. 

Mac and Mika - R's bf J's and R's dogs, respectively - greeted us at her door, then we went out in the backyard where R showed me her hops. 

We went back inside and I played with the dogs. Mac wanted me to play with a ball, but he kept jumping and growling in a way that made me not want to grab the ball from his mouth. Eventually, he got the clue and dropped the ball, which I threw. He bounded after it and brought it back. When I threw it again, he did not go after it, so Mika did. She is a much smaller dog, so it was harder for her to grab the ball, but she eventually did and brought it back, triumphantly. R and I chatted a little more, then I was off to K2's house. 

K2 was waiting for me and tolerated me getting ready to go upstairs for bed. See, K2 has Old Man hours, and I was back at his place at least 2 hours after his bedtime. He showed me the guest room and we both went to bed. 

Summer 2014 - Day 6

I awoke today and made myself an egg, cheddarwurst, and colby cheese sandwich. I ate it while my mom and I watched a show about the Mormon Church. Around the same time, I got dressed and then was asked by my mom to get milk. I asked if I could go to the cheese factory, but she said she wanted the milk fast so I couldn't. I had every intention of being quick, but also to go to the cheese factory because, yeah.

I got in my car and drove into town then parked by Pete's Market. I walked into a very different looking Pete's to find out that they do not carry milk anymore. I went out to the car and drove to the Cheese Factory where I started to go nuts, then remembered that I only had $20 so I only got a few bags of churds. I also learned that they open at 8am and would have churds from the night before.

Then I was off to the Oasis, or maybe just the gas station - whatever it's called - and got milk and coffee. I paid for the milk and coffee, then opened the milk (2% because I was making the decision) to put in my coffee. I drove home and decided on a way to mess with my mom. When I went inside, I said, "this was the only milk they had left, and there was a little missing, but they swore that nobody spit in it." My mom's reaction was as expected, and I laughed, then told her the truth. She then made the scalloped potatoes.

Things happened, and then dinner was presented - tw for vegans and vegetarians.

This may be the best steak I ever had, for reals.

And here is Dad eating his dinner as somewhat back-lit because I wanted the curtains open.

After dinner, I was going to go with Dad to the back 10 and look for the deer and the duck family, but he had to do things. I walked around the house and got a few photos.

 

From the back, looking east northeast

From the front, looking northwest

From the front, looking southwest

Mom went to go get her computer and to pick up some peaches and blueberries. I didn't understand Dad's timetable, so I decided to go into Rudolph to ship some clothes back to Houston and get some cheese. I ended up visiting the Grotto to get more post cards and took some other photos. 

Ave Maria

Stations of the Cross

I chatted with the groundskeeper at the gardens, then went to the Cheese Factory and got American Cheese, some AA butter, then Mild, Medium, Aged Sharp, 4 Year Aged Sharp, and 7 Year Aged Sharp Cheddar. I came home and posted the photos. Mom came home with the computer, blueberries, and peaches. After some more chatting, Dad and I were out in the back 10. 

First, I got some photos of the water in the crick and the views. 

Then, as we walked west, along the southern edge, I took a photo of Dad and a selfie.

At the southwest corner, Dad took photos of me. 

The Mary Tyler Moore pose, same clothes even.

I got some photos along the western edge, as we walked north. 

I got some sweet pollination shots.

Once we got to an anthill, I began shooting a video.

I was unable to take video through until we reached the Taj Mahal (it's a long story, summed up with "Ursula doesn't edit videos"), so all I have are photos. 

The water source at the back of the ant hill may be why this hill is so big.

We kept walking around after the ant hill video and I took more photos. 

They were all so green, so when Dad showed me a dead tree, I saw an opportunity for a mostly not-green photo, but Dad was in the shot. I told him to move, but he tried to hide behind the tree, which was a failure. 

Eventually he did more far enough away and I got the shot I wanted. 

We ended up walking back along the north side of the pastures, through marsh and reed grass.

Dad turned on his oldest tractor on to show off that it still worked, and I got this photo.

It looks a little messy, but a Central Wisconsin ordinance requires all families to have some random junk in their yard.

When we got in, I took a shower and got into my pajamas. I took photos of the fruit and got a shot of the preserved, and cleaned, dragonfly on a bit of coral in the living room.

That's a real dragonfly.

I blogged some more, then Dad called me out to look at a pretty view as the sun was setting.

There were many more activities that night, including looking at Dad's photos from earlier in the year, finding really old photos of mine on my mom's computer, transferring them and stuff from my phone onto my thumb drive, eating warmed up churds, helping with the blueberry processing, eating blueberries, and finally eating vanilla ice cream with blueberries and blueberry sauce. Yum yum. Then it was off to dreamland before the trek back to Minnesota the next day.