Simply Norma

Thoughts of an east coast autumn vacation filled my mind this year but it was not to be.

Closer to home ~ closer to home, I told myself.  The beauty of the midwest in autumn is spectacular so I was not overly disappointed. Rest and relaxation were the goals again this year.

A friend of my husband’s recommended a place called Bay Lake in Deerwood, MN as a great getaway.

The reservationist at Bay Lake was accommodating in everything I requested ~ a quiet room away from everyone, an outdoor space.  And when we arrived our room was exactly what I wanted ~ on a second floor corner with a screened in porch and a large tree outside.

Crisp autumn days lent themselves to a state of pensiveness.

Walking around the lodge, summer appeared to still be in bloom. The coleus, standing tall, was enjoying the dappled sun that shone on it.

Strolling around the lodge grounds, beautiful views were at every turn.

And then the beauty of the lake called. Canoe or kayak?  That was the question.

Just then an old memory surfaced of the first time I had ever canoed.  We had taken a trip to northern Canada and rented a rustic cabin ~ we even had to pump and heat our own water.

My husband and I and our oldest boy, who was approximately 6 years old at the time, went out on a canoe on an absolutely gorgeous lake. On TV, I had seen people paddle their canoes with ease and thought to myself “How hard can this be?”

Reaching the middle of the lake, my husband said “Norma, stop paddling.”  And so I did. I must’ve been the weakest canoe-er on earth as the canoe went the same speed with  me paddling as when I stopped.

With this memory in mind, we chose the canoe. I laughed inside and wondered if my now tendinitis inflicted arms would do any better than the first time they tried to paddle.

The canoe seemed to teeter as my husband re-adjusted himself several times. Paddling as hard as I could, I felt relief that I wasn’t “too old” to paddle ~ my arms were holding out just fine.

Back on land, we again walked around and breathed in the crisp autumn air that was causing the beautiful changing-of-colors in the leaves.

Deciding to take a drive along Lake Mille Lacs, I felt melancholy. Autumn and its accompanying shadows tend to bring a sadness to my heart. I’ve never understood it just simply accepted that this time of year my heart would sway between melancholy and exuberance.

Drinking deeply of the changing colors of the leaves, I realize that with this change death will occur.  Beauty will bring death.  Pondering this I recall the beauty in the older people I know ~ their wisdom, smiles, encouragements, all signs of long lived beautiful lives. Yet like the leaves, death waits on their doorstep.

Suddenly I’m taken from a state of depression to a state of hope.  (There’s the change from melancholy to exuberance!)  I smile recalling the hope of a resurrection. “Oh death where is thy sting?” the old Scripture says.

With the sun shining on my face, I breathe in deeply. How can such beauty bring a sense of somberness ~ even if only for a few moments?

The sea gulls line up near the water with seemingly no worries ~ what are they thinking?Another Scripture comes to mind “Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?

I smile. Yes, I am more valuable than birds.

Back in the car we head to the Kathio Trail Park which is all paved.  The best enjoyment for me in hiking is when the paths are paved. No loose gravel.  No hidden animal, uh, deposits. No thorny bushes scraping against my legs and arms.

We come across a Sumac plant ~ how beautiful it looks in autumn.

Minnesota, land of 10,000+ lakes … Water everywhere.  I can’t help but think how the Spirit of God is everywhere.

Arriving back at the lodge, I look up at the blue sky and fill my lungs with what must be the cleanest air on earth.

Yes, the changing of the seasons certainly has its beauty.

But I would rather be human ~ even with its own mountains and valleys.

 

Ever since we moved into our house over 4 years ago, we’ve had a large crack at the front sidewalk of the house. And each year it gets bigger as the pavement settles further and further down making for a larger crack.

As you can see, the previous owners used some kind of caulking that they shoved in the crack.  Unfortunately, that only masked the problem.

So we hired a company to come out and fix the problem.

They started by using a piece of equipment (whose name I don’t know) to first drill holes in the sidewalk.  Three holes to be exact.

Our worker then made cement in a small movable piece of equipment that had a hose attached to it.  He then ran a hose from that equipment and put it in the cement hole he made and poured cement into the hole.

The cement is supposed to push the sidewalk up. The more cement that was pushed into the hole, the higher the sidewalk came up.  Cool, no?

I was surprised how mobile the equipment was and how easy it appeared to be to do this work.  I even thought to myself “Hey, I can do that!”

Here’s a picture of the crack between the step and the sidewalk in front of the house.  (And see the glob of wet cement that’s oozing out of the hole?)

And here is how it amazingly came out ~

Not bad, eh? This work costs us $380.00 U.S. dollars.  It was money well spent.

We were told that it’s possible once winter is over that the cement could separate again although not as big.  If that should happen, we’re to purchase cement caulking and just put it in there.

So ~ now you know how to fix a crack that’s between a sidewalk and a step.

My husband, bless his heart, wanted to give me a couple of kayaks for my birthday this year and when he asked me if that would be okay, I already knew the answer.

No thank you.  It’s not that I don’t want to kayak although I’ve only tried it once in my life and enjoyed it, but …

I just didn’t feel that we would use them very often since we haven’t been on a kayak in the almost five years since we moved to Minnesota.  We do have access to a lake but, thinking logically, I surmised that once we went out on the lake a couple of times we probably wouldn’t head out to discover what we had already discovered.  hehe

So, I asked for something I knew I would thoroughly enjoy: getting rid of 26 trees. I know that seems like quite a few but in actuality, it wasn’t very many.

This summer, I’ve felt like I’ve been living under a dome of trees. Darkness encompassed me (literally) and made my normally cheery self feel blah.

The small maple and oak trees that were babies when we moved here 4 years ago grew to over 12 feet or more.  I felled a few of the smaller ones using loppers but injured my elbow and shoulder by pressing too hard to get the trees down. Then my brother came over and tried to fell some with his gas saw but it broke and my husband’s electric saw wasn’t strong enough.

To the rescue came our nephew, an Eagle Scout, who felled about 15 of the smaller trees and cleared a lot of brush for us. My husband then took down about five more “smaller” ones.

Still, it was too dark. So my husband agreed to my suggestion of felling 26 trees from large to medium to small (in addition to the ones he and the nephew already took down).

Here’s a picture of the contractor using his equipment to cut large branches off before cutting the trunk.

Here’s a view from afar.  He was pretty high up.

These trunks represent a small portion of what they felled.

We only felled one large dead tree in this area.  Unfortunately the one that is leaning towards our house is not on our property so we didn’t have it felled.  (It’s quite expensive to fell trees …)

Now we can see partial sky in the back of our house.  Unfortunately it faces north so we don’t get sun but plenty of light streams into the family room.

Here’s another view from the back deck looking north.  I can see sky!!!!

It’s amazing how much difference a little light can make in a person’s disposition.  I was so happy I could call myself giddy.

There are about 5 more trees that need to come down.  Next year.  Next year.

After living in Minnesota almost 5 years and on an almost all forested property, we were able to plant and grow tomatoes.  Three cheers for us!

You need to understand that the majority of our property is shaded ~ we have a little bit of sun in our front yard and a little bit of sun in the back yard. Between fighting for sun and deer eating everything in sight, having two tomato plants that actually have tomatoes on them is, well, almost miraculous.

There is just something about biting into a home-grown tomato that has flavor that brings my person a little closer to heaven.  No?

Next year, I’m hoping to grow tomatoes and cucumbers if I’m able to make a raised bed with some wire mesh around it.

It reminds me of a poem I once read called “It Couldn’t Be Done” by Edgar Albert Guest.

It Couldn’t Be Done

Somebody said that it couldn’t be done
But he with a chuckle replied
That “maybe it couldn’t,” but he would be one
Who wouldn’t say so til he’d tried.
So he buckled right in with the trace of a grin
On his face. If he worried he hid it.
He started to sing as he tackled the thing
That couldn’t be done, and he did it!

Somebody scoffed: “Oh, you’ll never do that
At least no one ever has done it”
But he took off his coat and he took off his hat
And the first thing we knew he’d begun it.
Without any doubting or quiddit,
He started to sing as he tackled the thing
That couldn’t be done, and he did it.

There are thousands to tell you it cannot be done,
There are thousands to prophesy failure,
There are thousands to point out to you one by one
The dangers that wait to assail you.
But just buckle in with a bit of a grin,
Just take off your coat and go to it
Just start to sing as you tackle the thing
That “cannot be done,” and you’ll do it.

So ~ I encourage you to keep trying until you get it just right.  Indeed, home grown tomatoes will grow in a shaded property if you find “just the right spot.”

This summer we ventured back to the North Shore of Minnesota.  This is a beautiful area to relax and let the mind meander. Although, I have to say, too much meandering makes me overly sensitive. (More on that in another post.)

So, take your shoes off, relax, pretend you’re on vacation for a few minutes and enjoy the photos below.

This is Cove Point Lodge which is on the shore of Lake Superior.  Our room was on the first floor and had a deck.  (If I wouldn’t have been taking the picture I would have waved for you.)

The view from our room was stupendous! Breathe in, breathe out. Fresh air and sunshine. Enough to give the capillaries something to talk about.  (hehe)

Imagine waking up to this every morning.

There was more than a gentle wind today. It reminded me of how life’s circumstances push us this way and that and we’re always forced to bend but always seem to straighten ourselves back up.  Although sometimes we don’t straighten all the way back up.

Right here ~ I’d like to have a cabin right here with this view. No?

These rocks seem to have been positioned for this picture.  Now, how did that happen?  The ebb and flow of the water has put them there without asking for their opinion. They didn’t fight they just “went along.”  If rocks could be “at peace” then these rocks would be the epitome of that.

A drive around the area brought us to Lax Lake.  Where oh where are all the people and why aren’t they out on a boat, canoe or kayak on such a beautiful day?

Further into our drive we stopped at a place called Sugarloaf Cove.  Sugarloaf is working to restore and preserve the North Shore of Lake Superior. A very cool place to visit.  The staff is very well informed of the area and of what it will take to preserve it.

Hmmm … Beach or Trail? How about both?!!

The puffy clouds mingle with the blue sky and hang over the deep blue water causing the mind to find rest.

We took a different trail back to the visitor center which led us through majestic trees.

On our way home we stopped at the Split Rock Lighthouse which is in Two Harbors, MN.  We were a little disappointed that the fee they charge to get into the park doesn’t include the tour to the lighthouse. Our choices were to pay for the tour or find a trail that leads to the lighthouse that is a tad bit longer.  We chose the latter.

The walk to get a picture of the lighthouse wasn’t too bad …

Just a little closer …

Unfortunately we didn’t get much closer than that as this was the way “up” and we didn’t want to spend more time here …

Well, would YOU have gone?

My enjoyment of trees, especially birch, was not denied on this trip. Something about these trees clumped in a group gives me a sense of awe.

Here the birch trees reach high into the blue sky as if reaching for heaven.

The three days we were gone seemed like a week to me. Taking in so much beauty in a short amount of time really does revive and elevate the senses.