Starting A New Project!

Shop is done! Oh, well there are a few parts still unfinished but since we are anxious to get started on the house those parts will have just have to wait until a rainy day. The siding is narrow horizontal lap siding that Mark made from wood that he moved from Wisconsin. Mark moved all his shop tools into the building, and now can work on doors, cabinets, and other components for the house when the time comes. We had a small gathering in March with the board members of the Ely Folk School and their families in the shop. We ate, talked and enjoyed the space. Almost every day people stop to visit with Mark and just hang out in the warmth.

Check out that sliding door - sweet!

Fiona had to bring her scooter car into the shop to try it out. Works great!

Now we begin work on the house. Mark has been sawing lumber like mad with the help of several guys who are volunteering their time. Bert Hyde, Jo Campe and Dale Whiting have been over many days offering helping hands, talk, repairs and an occasional muffin! He has cut so much that he has begun to stack it on the other side of the street. It is piling up rapidly, and soon he will be done with that job. Since his load of logs was more than what we needed for the house, he will saw those into lumber for other future jobs.

This is Mark on his beloved (but often broken down) forklift moving a log into place to be sawed.

Wow, that lumber is piling up fast! In the background of the photo below you can see the property next door which is for sale (hint, hint!). The brown house was a boarding house for the lumberjacks, and at one time an office for the lumber company I believe. The trailer is really abandoned and the house is in disrepair. Hopefully, someone will find it and bring it back to life. 

The yard where the lumber is stacked was at one time a lumber yard we think back in the heyday of Winton's sawmill time. Full circle.

Mark split this beautiful piece, and is drying it for a future project. He was excited about the figure in the wood, so he had to take a photo. 

In other family news, Cora has had two successful dance competitions. She is currently a townsperson in "Cinderella" the community musical. Raif is fully engrossed in track - training both for the 800 m run and the hurdles. His first meet is supposed to be April 14 - we shall see! Snow is still on the ground, so that might not happen. He is also busy rehearsing for the upcoming middle school musical "Aladdin" which is on May 6 & 8. Fiona is busy doodling on herself (washable marker tats are the cool thing for toddlers) and wearing tutus as often as possible. I am keeping ridiculously busy tutoring math, helping with track, volunteering at the Ely Folk School, teaching community ed classes in computers and dance/tumbling and applying to grad school. If you know me, that sounds really normal for me. 

We did have some visitors this past month when my lifelong friend Taura and her girls Maysa and Mara came to Ely, then accompanied us to Duluth for one of Cora's dance competitions. We had a girl's weekend  - shopping, eating out, staying in a hotel, dancing and acting goofy! The photo below shows some of the girls on Cora's dance team. They took second place in their category, and also won a judges' award. 

We continue to feel welcomed and accepted in this community. However, the distance from my family has been challenging for me to accept. It was wonderful to spend a long Easter weekend at my mom and Tom's with my family. We did the normal egg dying-hiding-finding-treat-eating stuff, but also talked politics, walked along the river, and just hung out. Wonderful. I leave you with some photos of the craziness that is family.

 

 This year the three older cousins put candy in the eggs, hid the eggs, then helped the littles find them. Amazing to not have to do much!

Me with my little sisters - the "little girls"!!