Bagpipes at The Lake

Between dinner and dessert at Grandma Ruby's last Wednesday, Uncle Ron took out the bagpipes:



And then we ate this:

Blueberry crisp made with handpicked blueberries.   Mmmmm....

Garden bounty

Our family's swag from my father's garden:

And that's just this week.

Oh, and the kids ate most of the carrots already. 

Mmmmmm....

More floorboards

Darn that Husband and his "from-scratch-do-it-yourself-crazy-woodsman" ways!   Instead of building me ...oh... stairs, he's milling and planing his own floor boards now.  He says this particular batch (planed yesterday, milled a couple of years ago from spruce trees felled on the property) is destined for the second story floor. 

Actually, as the hubs reminded me, these boards will be both floor and ceiling, since they'll cover the floor joists from above, but will be visible between those log joists from below.  "Old School," he says.  Then he muses (particularly voluble for so early in the a.m.), "It's taking me about a half-hour to do each of these boards, from limbing the tree with a chainsaw, to dragging it out of the woods and throwing it on the mill and then letting it dry for however long, and then planing it....   and I'm using POWER tools!"  

Bob's Lesson of the Day:   increased respect for our forebears of 200 years ago. 

Anne's Lesson of the Day:   patience in the face of floorboards.  Which each. take. 1/2 hour. to. make.     Erg! No wonder I don't have stairs yet.

We introduce a new series....

...here at At Home in Logs we like to call: 

What's getting in the way of the house build this week?

That's right folks!  We're deep into family gathering season, and this week's log-interrupticus is...

{drumroll, please}

A trip to Alexandria Bay!   (and not even during the Pirate Days)

Baby M and GirlCousin

Bob and Rrrrrrrrick!

So, we're at Boldt Castle and all the kids want to do is run around screaming and climbing on everything like the hooligans they are.  This picture captures the day perfectly:

1) Kids climbing on stone base of lamppost on edge of St. Lawrence River

2) Grandma and Uncle Bob/Daddy scolding at right

3) Boldt Castle employee in white, upper right, charging down the path to ask the kids, for pity's sake, not to do that!

Baby M, with her back to glorious setting sun over the St. Lawrence....  that's right:  playing with the rocks. 

Three out of four leading soffitts agree

Three sides of the house now have their lovely little soffits. 

Rocks Nirvana

Baby M discovered a cache of stones fit for a .... er.... rock princess! 

"Big rock!  Lots of rocks!"

I love that she is still so fascinated with rocks.  I'd say that she'll grow up to be a geologist, but my sister was equally fascinated with rocks as a child and grew up to be a nurse.  So, there you go.  Where?  I don't know.  Just:  there.