Museum and cemetery: We visited a local (within 30 minutes) history museum Sunday before last. I've had my eye on this one for about a year now, but it's only open two days per month, for two hours at a time. Finally we didn't have anything going on! My great-great-great grandfather's suitcase was on display there, which was pretty cool. He immigrated from Germany in the 1880's.
Cooking: I made mayonnaise, bread and tarts.
House project: We are finishing up the siding on our house. We put in several porch posts. The insulation guys came and now we are working on putting up drywall. Upstairs I was able to start spackling nail holes and removing wallpaper to prep two of the bedrooms for painting. We moved two propane tanks off of the property.
I started picking Japanese beetles off of the raspberries and feeding them to the chickens. I also found a mouse nest, and some of the chickens gobbled up the baby mice. I know that sounds gross, but I've seen chickens eat full-grown mice before. So.... free food for the chickens. I was really hoping to get a garden update up on Youtube before I posted this, but our internet wasn't cooperating. :(
Trip to ND
This last weekend, we took a short trip to North Dakota to see my SIL and her family. I was really pleased at how well the trip turned out, despite me still trying to potty train our toddler (I think I'll make that into a separate post...) and one of our flights being cancelled (such a hassle!!).
Highlights and souvenirs: we've been to ND before, but this time we drove a little farther out to visit Medora and the Theodore Roosevelt National Park. I think that was my favorite spot, as you all know how much I like learning about the Presidents. While we didn't get to see Roosevelt's home, I did get the chance to poke around in a cabin he used for hunting.
After we drove through the park, I found a little buffalo toy for Princess at a gift shop. It was pretty expensive at $8.00, but the toy was high quality (Breyer) and a quick internet search told me it was about the lowest price as anywhere else. I know she probably won't remember actually seeing the buffalo, but by the time we left ND, she knew what a buffalo was. We actually live just around the corner from a bison farm, so I can refresh her memory from time to time.
Some other highlights were watching the Medora musical, enjoying a wonderful steak dinner and catching up with friends and family. The trip was a nice reprieve from house and garden work. In Minot we visited the Scandinavian Heritage museum/park. We'd been there before, but none of the buildings were open. I really enjoyed going through the log cabin and little museum. One of my favorite things was the decorative painting on furniture, musical instruments, household things, etc. called rosemaling. Here's a picture of a cabinet door inside the log cabin:
Well, that's about all I have for now.
Til next time,
-Bethany