That's the way it was...

My brother was so kind as to scan so many slides that my father had created over the years. I picked a few fun ones to highlight here.

The one below is from the early 1960's when we used to travel 'up' north to Grandma and Grandpa's house to celebrate Christmas or Thanksgiving.
Can you see why I like winter???

We spent summers in this tiny cottage which had two rooms and a bathroom. We had cold running water but no tub or shower. If I recall, the tiny house was built for my Grandmother's parents to live out their elder years. 

[I don't know the person on the bench with the dog...but that is the only shot I found of the little house]

My dad stayed in the 'city' working while we lived in the cottage all summer. He'd come up for his vacation and stay with us. I wonder how hard it was to not see his family for months on end. Mom would go to Grandpa's house for a weekly phone call from Dad [I think]. 

We spent a lot of time with our cousins whose father had horses. This is where we learned to ride and where we learned not to fear falling off. 

These two horses were my Uncle's best animals. The mother is on the right. She was named Babe. On the left was Dusty, her daughter. I'm in the front and my sister is behind me.

We were probably in the wooden round pen where Lyle trained horses.

We also spent quite a bit of time at my other Uncle's house. He was a dairy farmer among other things. The experiences of living two separate lives really shaped how I feel about city and rural living.

Our summer time did not include TV, phones, or obviously the internet. We played, we rode our bikes to the lake, went swimming, played cards, fought, and worked in the garden. We were kids. We rarely wore shoes in the summer. Shoes were saved for 'good' and for school when we were required to wear them.

Our lives were divided between the North Shore of Chicago and NW Wisconsin.

I may have mentioned somewhere before that I had an eye/vision issue. I still do, but here I am at 16 years old with my birthday gifts from mom. Just what I wanted! Once a Tomboy, always a Tomboy.

Since my eyes don't work together, I don't have normal depth perception like other people. I often had to wear an eye patch to try and make the weaker eye much stronger. I wore glasses since I was very young and by this age, I could see pretty well thanks to the efforts of my parents who paid for eye surgery when I was a little kid.

I learned a different way of telling distances from how things moved. Don't ask me how, but I was pretty good at softball!

In the mid 1960's my dad rented a house from a friend at work and our lives changed again. We stayed in a house on the Big Island of Hawaii in a place called Puako. We scrimped and saved each year for this opportunity. We got to spend up to a month on the island for several summers.

Below is a shot of myself and my sister sitting out on the lava flow watching the ocean and probably imagining things.

My mom loved fishing so she took up a part time job so we could charter a boat during our vacations. I don't know how many times we went out on the Spooky Luki, but eventually Zander Budge, the captain, did allow me to drive along the Kona Coast. I'm sure each of us took a turn in the calm waters we were in, but I recall this vividly. I loved being out on the ocean.

There was nothing quite like it.

What can I say? My parents were pretty awesome.

In 2001, I had the wonderful opportunity to go back to the Big Island with Dad for two weeks.

That trip was amazing. 

Photo of Dad in Kona in front of the King Kam Hotel.

And now? I'm still that adventurous kid at heart. 

Well...for as long as I can be....

Surprises!

 After days of brutal cold, the temperature on Sunday was up to -4 when I got the itch to take a walk after chores.

The wind was from the NW, so I thought I'd put on the snowshoes and head along the tree line through the summer meadow and walk down the ridge trail and retrieve one of the trail cams so I could see if it still had any battery power after The Big Chill.

The wind chill was still pretty cold so I put on my balaclava mask and some clip on sunglasses to protect my eyes from the bright snow. I took only my little pocket camera which I could keep inside my breast pocket so it wouldn't freeze.

Once I got down into the forest, I got rather warm. The green jacket I am wearing is awesome. If I was going for a long snowshoe trek, I'd have to wear lighter clothing under the coat to keep from sweating.

These are my old Cabela's Snowshoes. I purchased these ...gosh...maybe 20 years ago? I've replaced the back straps but these snowshoes just keep on giving even with all the abuse I give them.

I've walked over rocks and jumped creeks with these. I've used them to brush bust through the woods and climb over logs. It is pretty fun considering a person has to approach each obstacle a bit differently than if wearing boots only.

These are my tracks along with deer and other creatures looking back towards the summer pasture.

Mother Nature's fierce winds create amazing sculptures. She makes the most interesting patterns in the snow.

Snow that looks like a sand dune! It was surprisingly hard packed and not soft at all.

Then there were leaves scattered across an area where no oaks were. I imagine the powerful winds blew leaves to all sorts of places.

I just liked the leaf and shadow against the all white.

I didn't spend too long out in the meadow, the light breeze was a bit cold. 

Towards evening I got a text from Olive. Would we like a home made pizza? She would be down to deliver it after the Packers game.

Gosh, who would refuse something like that? 

She was supposed to make pizzas for her family get together but all of them ended up sick. So she and her little boy came down for a little visit with us and dropped off a freshly made pizza.

Aiden entertained Rich by admiring his Lego Tractor and his red truck which they both played with for a little bit.

Funny how such a kind act can make a whole day bright.

Her visit was short, but so well loved. I walked most of the way back up the road with her and we made a date to snowshoe together on Tuesday.

Wednesday I have a 'date' with the little girl who gave me the little bell attached to yarn when she was 9 years old. She is now 18 and set up a time we could go hiking at the Kickapoo Valley Reserve together. She is now a part time reporter for a local paper and I've given her my old Nikon to use. We'll do some easy photography lessons tomorrow.

I'll meet her at her mom's place and she will do the driving. MY goodness, how time flies!

I won't drive with other passengers in the car at this time. I feel I can get around okay, however with distance being fuzzy, if I can get a young sharp eyed person to do the driving why not?

I'm have a fulfilling week scheduled. 

What wonderful surprises I have. 

[By the way...Hubby is busy working on his latest Lego puzzle and is doing all the work except the stickers on his own!]