Adventures in Wisconsin, in which a perilous journey is taken and I find a new vocation

It's Monday and that means we're back from The Farm. Fall is the best season at The Farm. The air is crisp, the leaves are changing and falling, the insects are mostly dormant, and it's just magical. We arrived on Friday evening after a false start on the way up. We had been on the toll way for just a few miles when Brandi realized that we had forgotten Duckie. Logan hadn't said anything about Duckie, but we didn't want to risk a weekend without Logan's wubby.

The Farm in fall, where firewood is stacked and leaves crunch underfoot.

Because of the odd weather this year, there was an interesting assortment of leaves in various stages of fall conditions. Some trees were still covered in vibrant green leaves. Some were covered in leaves in various shades of red, gold, orange, yellow and brown. Some trees were skeletal and devoid of even one leaf. Brandi got a chance to play with some of the different settings on her (relatively) new camera.

The leaves show off their fabulous fall fashion.

Logan demonstrates his awakening super powers of levitating objects with his mind. I wonder where he gets it?

Oh, that's right.

The only two sources of heat in the house at The Farm are the fireplace and a wood burning stove. The stove itself is more than adequate to keep the whole house warm. This was demonstrated and then some over the weekend as Brandi's grandpa and her dad must have thrown at least three trees in there between Friday evening and Sunday. Holy hell did it get hot in the house. During the day some of us would leave the front door open to get some cool air in the house.

Everyone was having a good time, but poor Logan has been fighting a cold for a while which at this point is just extra mucus that he's having a hard time getting rid of. So it was about 4 a.m. on Saturday that he woke coughing and crying and due to his cough and the unfamiliar circumstances we couldn't get him to settle and go back to sleep. So, Brandi and I got dressed, bundled up Logan and took him out into the cold to go for a drive. To our surprise it was very foggy out. I'm talking, can't see more than 30 feet in front of the car foggy. So I drove for about an hour and a half on country roads through hilly country in the dark of night, relying on the GPS to tell me when there was an intersecting road more than my eyes. Logan fell asleep after about 40 minutes and we kept driving so he wouldn't wake up. We encountered less than 20 cars while driving, some of which were being driven by those crazy Wisconsin locals that will rocket down steep hills on gravel roads when their tires are so bald you can see the thread beneath the rubber.

When we got back to The Farm we didn't want to wake him and we sat in the driveway with the car running while Brandi and I leaned back. We woke up an hour later with the car still running and I turned off the car and we both fell asleep again for about a half hour when it was starting to get cold in the car. By this time it was 7. We brought Logan back in and he woke briefly but then fell asleep again till about nine.

Saturday night he was tired but fighting sleep with a champion effort. He woke up coughing a couple times during the night, but nothing as bad as the previous night.

Saturday during the day we saw that the apple trees were pretty full, so we pulled out the ladders and brought in the harvest. My friends, I have discovered that should I need a new vocation, I would make a decent apple picker. I mastered the techniques of the single apple pluck, the vigorous branch shake, the whole tree rumble, and the throwing objects at the apples can get them to fall. Everybody came out for the apple pickin' and Logan helped himself to two or three during the day. However, many apples were left in the tree to fall down of their own accord later, and many were left in the grass for the deer to find.

Now, Logan, if you could just hold the ladder for me, that would be great.

Well if daddy can do it, then I can too.

I survey the bountiful harvest while getting in position to give the entire tree a rattle.

Mmmmm. Thems' good apples.

Enough work, it's break time!

Logan found plenty of opportunity to get some work done on his new 4x4 ATV. We found out that the little vehicle, which is only supposed to go two miles per hour, goes faster than that and is capable of driving up both ramps from the main deck.

It's important to use the proper equipment and vehicles while working on The Farm.

Logan also showed off his musical talents when he discovered the dinner bell. He thought this was quite funny when we demonstrated it for him, but of course he wanted a shot at it.

Come and get it!

We were lucky enough to get one of those rare photos with a two-year-old when we're all looking at the camera at once. Brandi's grandma's quick shootin' caught this little gem of a picture.

Not photoed: a two-year-old's ability to squirm like a captured serpent.

Sunday, we stopped at a couple of farmers markets on the way home. Logan used much of the ride to catch up on sleep and couldn't be roused to see the animals at the petting zoo. Better luck next year I guess.

Take me home, I'm pooped.

Thank God I'm a Country Boy

We're headed up to The Farm this afternoon. It'll be the last weekend anyone's up there for the season. About this time of year Brandi's grandpa usually closes everything down 'cause it gets powerful cold up there (only a fireplace and a woodburning stove to warm the house) and the pipes will freeze, meaning you have to go out and get a bucket of water from the pump if you want to go to the bathroom or do anything else requiring water. However, this is prime season to go to The Farm, with the crisp temps, the changing leaves, apple cider, etc. I haven't been up there during the winter yet, but I will some day. So, y'all have a good weekend. Play nice while I'm away. I'll have some photos when we get back.

Our Weekend at The Farm

The old house, they say it's haunted. I've heard stories.

So last weekend we went to The Farm, as we usually do for fourth of July. Since my lovely wife and I started going out, there's only been three times we haven't been to The Farm for the fourth.

The new house. Grandpa is busy at work slapping on a fresh coat of paint.

For those of you who don't know about The Farm, here's a brief rundown. It's somewhere in the neighborhood of 32 acres of farmland and woods purchased by Brandi's grandparents about 40 years ago after seeing a friends similar getaway. It's located in Blue River, WI and there's a good quarter mile at least to the next driveway. When her grandparents bought it, there was a barn and a house dating back to the civil war. The barn is still in pretty good shape. The house...well we're just waiting for that to fall over. Her father built a house up there which is what we stay in now. There isn't a whole lot to do up there, which suits me just fine. There's always something they're doing to the house i.e. putting on a new deck, which can be very satisfying work, but all in all it's pretty relaxing.

Clothes only increase friction and slow him down.

However, this year, the relaxation factor went down quite a bit. You see, it was Logan's first time at The Farm, and while he had a perfectly wonderful time, it was less fun for us. He enjoyed running up and down the bridge from the barn to the house (the house is at the bottom of a couple hills and I helped build the bridge up the the barn a few summers ago), he enjoyed climbing around in Brandi's grandfather's van, he enjoyed playing with the dog, etc. etc. He didn't enjoy his normal sleep schedule, which made him cranky. We couldn't put him in his playpen to sleep, because the first night we were up there he discovered he's now tall enough to climb out. So, from then on, I would have to lay down next to him to get him to go to sleep.

Everyone but daddy got ice cream. Poor daddy.

He also wanted me around all weekend and didn't really want anyone else, which is flattering, but when you want a few minutes to yourself to read a few pages or whatever, that kind of gets in the way. So Brandi got to relax, I was less fortunate. Also, because of the lack of sleep (the boy went to sleep at about 8 each night and woke up at about 5:30 every morning. Usually he'll sleep from 7:30 to 7:30.) he was a cranky boy when he didn't get his way. We also had to worry about him falling while he was running up and down the deck and elsewhere so he didn't hurt hisself. He did fall a couple times, which really wasn't a big deal, but he made it sound like one. He also fell once on the gravel driveway and scraped up his chin and got a mouthful of gravel.

No shoes, no shirt, no pants, lets eat!

Usually we'll go to Boscobel for the fireworks, but we didn't get to go this year. By the time I got Logan to fall asleep, it was nearly dark and we wouldn't have been able to make it in time. We didn't want to take him, because last year, he didn't care for the fireworks at all, and we were a good distance away from them. We did light a handful off on Saturday night by the house after Logan was asleep. It was satisfyingly loud, and the great clouds of smoke kept the bugs away.

The train was really exciting for Logan...until we took a ride.

We came home on Sunday, stopping at Peck's on the way home. Peck's is a little farmers market kind of thing with a petting zoo. In the last couple years they've really redone it to make it even more family friendly. There's now a playground, giant sandbox, haunted house, maze, and a (mock)train ride. We took Logan on the pseudo train because he loves trains. He loved the ride for about the first minute of the ten minute ride. After that, he screamed and wanted to jump off. I had to hold him down. Aren't kids fun? He's just lucky he's so dang cute.

Yay for splashing!

Brandi got to feed her new addiction while we were at Peck's too. We went looking for black popcorn, and we found it. The kernels are black on the outside and they pop white just like any other popcorn. The flavor is a little different, better than regular I think, but they don't seem to pop as large as your typical Orval Redenbacher. They also had a mix of different kinds of kernels, a rainbow variety, regular, mushroom cap (which pops round and is generally what caramel corn is made with), red and a mix. I think Brandi bought about five pounds worth.

Next year, Logan can drive.

Then it was off to home and the rest of the drive was pretty smooth sailing, until we got back into Illinois, where no road is safe from summer construction.