Call of the Wild

Yesterday afternoon I went for a run.  As I came around a corner, a wolf came running out onto the road.  Not  at me, just up ahead of me.  I have been worried about the wolves since we've been here.  All the men laugh at me and say there is no chance a wolf is going to attack a human and there are no such attacks on record.  But as the other Lisa up here put it, there's nothing on record because there is nothing left of the body when the wolf is done!  This may be a silly way to look at it, but it still haunts the back of my mind.  The only thing I worry about more than a wolf is a bear.  So the wolf ran out on the road and we both stopped dead in our tracks and look at each other.  I was tearing out my headphones so I could hear if he was making a noise.  I really didn't know what to do, but I only panicked for a split second, and then I felt fine.  Once he got his bearings, he ran away back in to the woods.  I grabbed a big stick and thought maybe I can poke him in the eye if he comes back.  I know, I know--as if I would be able to do that, but it's the only thing I had.  I never saw him again after that as I made my way down the road past where he was.  I had one of the dogs with me, but he was out frolicking in the woods and came back about 2 minutes after the wolf had run off.  Phew.  I have faced a fear!  Rick has only seen 1 wolf in all the time he has spent here.  So I'm hoping I've met my quota.
Later I was driving to the church for Bible study and a big fuzzy bunny jumped out in front of my car and I swerved to miss it, just like I've been told not to do.  But I was still a little on edge from the wolf sighting!  Once at the church, the ladies and I were chatting and had the doors open for some air.  2 birds came flying in and swooping all around in a panic trying to get out.  OF COURSE not just 1 bird.  It had to be 2. Oh how I hate the birds!  I was hunkered down by a pew as they frantically tried to find an escape.  Then I recovered and started looking for something to shoo them out with.  All the girls were squealing, but no one said "What would Jesus do?", which would have been pretty funny I think.  A couple of the ladies herded them out with a sheet or something.  Phew again.  This gave me heart palpitations.  Dirty creepy little claw foot things.

So I give up.  I SURRENDER TO THE WILD!   I am in their world.  I'm sure this is just the beginning.  I forget that though this place seems civilized, it is still deep woods and the animals out-number the people.  By a lot.

Sorry I have no pictures of any of these instances.  Somehow my camera was the last thing on my mind.

Porch Garden

So this is the most exciting thing I can come up with to blog about.  I've barely left the nest in the last week, except to clean cabins or shower houses. I will have to go out and beg people to take me out on entertaining adventures or tell me good stories.  Till then I'll just be scrubbing toilets and living the dream!

We planted a little garden on our back porch.  We have a family greenhouse that Jenny and I planted a bunch of seeds in.  Once they are ready, we'll plant them in a large garden up at Pat's house.  But being the independent cuss that I am, I still have to possess something of my very own on my own turf.  (Way out there in the distance you can see our white storage compartment.  That's where half of my house and clothes reside.  Sometimes I go there just to spend time with them and reminisce.)

As you can see, we have 6 little plants all squared away in buckets and pots.  Buckets that don't even match each other.  With tomatoes and strawberries in the hanging buckets.  We have to put our stuff up high so the deer and other naughty little creatures can't get into it.  I still don't know if this will be effective.  Time will tell.

It's a nice little set-up even though it isn't much to look at, which was my favorite part of my huge garden at our old house.  I just love a nice tilled garden with the corn all tall and heads of lettuce all lined up.  Something about the look of it is soothing to me. Now I will have to settle for sitting on the porch and staring at buckets.  I told my mother-in-law our garden was a bit ghetto.  She said, "It's not ghetto, it's Angle."  This is a classic line.  Write it down and use it in conversation today.  Only cool people that read this blog will get it.

This is our sweet girl reading her father his bedtime story.  It has nothing to do with gardening or anything.  It's just precious and more fun to look at that my silly porch plants.

Busy

The last week has been the busiest for me since we've moved here.  Lots going on,  no particularly interesting or funny stories.  But lots of good times.  Here are the events of the last week or so for this branch of the McKeever family...........

• 4 trips to Warroad (1 with our whole 4-some, 3 just me)
• A very fun book club in Warroad with some lovely ladies, wine and snacks.  I had a great time and enjoyed meeting them.  I had not read the book, but they let me in anyway.
• More showerhouse cleaning.  
• Jenny and I spring cleaned the largest cabin we have, it took 2+ days.
• We got to see a float plane land on the lake.
• I ran a 1/2 marathon in Fargo, ND
• Mother's Day BBQ
• Some strong pangs of homesickness for my friends and family.  

The Mother's Day BBQ was fun and full of people.  There is a family up here that includes 8 kids, all but one are girls.  Rick is sure Tyson will charm them all at one time or another.  Just what either mother loves to hear.  Tyson was able to flirt up a couple at the BBQ.

I took pictures of the vehicles parked around the BBQ, a lot of cars but also golf carts and 4wheelers.  It's funny to see them parked all around.  Like we live in a large retirement community in Florida and eat supper at 4:00pm.

The spring is here and so lovely!  Yes, still the dreaded wind, but warmer and blue skies.  Leaves on the trees and plants springing up in the greenhouse.  My smile gets bigger as the days get warmer.

Tyson and Ava got to hold on to the float plane so it wouldn't float away while the octogenarian passenger was getting out.

Tyson cleaned up some fish guts in the fish house.

We went on a family hike one evening.  Rick came home with 4 woodticks and Tyson had 1.  I had none but itched for the next 3 hours just thinking about it.

Andie slept through the hike.  She may have only lived in Washington state for 6 weeks, but she can still rock a pair of sandles with socks!

Shower House

 The shower house.  The time has come to go forth and clean it. Just a bathroom in the middle of the woods.  We have two of these inviting little buildings in our campground.  This is where anonymous people come to shower and well, you know.  In a cabin, you know who was in there and can purse your lips in disgust if they leave a mess, cursing them with your toilet brush in hand.  The shower house holds no one accountable.  Unclaimed deeds live here.  I look at them and hear that music from the old westerns when the cowboys are about to have a gun fight and they stand in silence,  staring at each other, with nothing but a cactus blowing by.

I have dreaded this task since starting work here, but this one was not bad at all and I came out without feeling the need to boil my clothes and bathe in Scrubbing Bubbles.  We will clean these on a daily basis through the summer for obvious reasons.  Do we really want to let such a place get out of hand?  Ours are lovely and you wouldn't even have to wear your flip flops if you so choose.  They are steam cleaned and hand washed, my friends!

 Andie wasn't phased by the shower house.  She was able to enjoy a chew toy and some sunshine.

 Is it appropriate to show a toilet on the blog?  I want you to get the full effect so I'll put it on and suffer the consequences as they arise.  I promise never to show what deposits are made here.  But let me say I have been told about them and I do not look forward to it.  Glitz and glamour.  The only way to describe this job.

There was some fun on the swing after for being such a good girl in a less than attractive chore.

Golf Cart Watering

This is another genius Angle-rigged- up- thingamajig.  This tank sits on the back of the golf cart and we use it for watering plants that we've planted in the greenhouse and flowerbeds.  Not only is it convenient, it's way fun!  I love the stuff that they've come up with to make life easier around here.  I'm pretty sure this family could write a fabulous How-To book on gadgets to make your work easier and more enjoyable.

The boy can't get enough of filling up the tank with a hose from the campground.

Once your tank is full, you flip the switch and you have water!  It's got a regular garden nozzle on the end of it.  Tyson and I (okay, I for the most part but I think that is mostly obvious) planted this flowerbed this week.  It was so windy I can't be sure what will even come up and what seeds were carried away.  It should contain some nice lavender and a bunch of random little flowers.  It is lined with Marigolds around the edge to deter the deer because they don't like them.  This is just another interesting and fun fact that I have learned in my Angle orientation.  Stick around, someday I'll share my entire wealth of knowledge with all of you.

So after we were finished with the flower planting and watering, we decided we should hop on over to that Killdeer nest and see if there was any action.  Action happened, let me tell you.  Remember before when I was saying the mother bird had an alarm system but no course of action to follow through?  Well she has been studying up.  We were walking over to the nest when she came out of nowhere, screeching and dive bombing us!  I had to remain calm because I had the baby in my arms.  Tyson was shouting, "IT GOT ME!!  IT GOT ME!" as she flew at our heads at a high rate of speed!  Then mother bird veered off to a few feet away and threw herself on the ground in a crumpled heap as if she was injured and continued to screech. As if I could be lured over there to check her out. Folks, I do not like birds. They are creepy and scary,but this place is just crawling with them so I have tried to enjoy them. I knew this day would come.  The day when a bird would attack.  Yes, I understand she is a mother and I'm not blaming her.  But this won't keep the event from haunting my dreams at night.  There will be no more updates on the Killdeer nest.

After the attack, Tyson needed to go to his happy place and find calm.  He dug in the sandbox while Andie and I sat in the golf cart and looked out over the lake.  The lake picture above is from that vantage point, in Big Rick's yard. We are lucky to have this beautiful view after such a hair-raising event.  I think we will be able to move on and find peace now.  Although Grandma Norma has one of those clocks that makes a bird noise at every hour.  We may not be visiting her in the near future.

This is when babies attack.  But it's not so frightening.

Family Work Day

Wednesday our little family all worked together in the store with Big Rick.  The store was closed through the winter so there are some things to do to get it ready for the season opener. It will be stocked with food items, clothes, fishing gear and such.  We also sell gas from here.  Brian and Rick showed me how to work the machine to sell gas, but I have not done it solo yet.  Eek!  It's been a LONG time since I had to learn new job tasks.

Rick and his dad spent the day working on a leak in the minnow tank. Big Rick takes about a million calls a day--questions, business arrangements, what are you wearing, etc.

My chore for the day was pricing the apparel and putting it out on shelves and hangers, under the watchful eyes of Andie and the dead fish on the wall.

Tyson busied himself with many things, cleaning the floor included.

Once again he has no pants on.  He claimed he spilled water on them.  I have concerns that he is the guy that doesn't wear pants, ever.  Every child has the odd habit or two, but some do carry over as they age.  Please Lord don't let this habit be one of them.

One evening this week Jenny took me out in the boat for a ladies expedition.  We had planned to do some exploring on some trails a few miles from the resort, but the weather was yuck. So we just took Ava out to meet her grandparents.  Jenny was brave enough to start driving a boat last year.  I have no intention of learning in the near future.  Maybe some day down the road when I have mastered a couple things around here that are a little simpler.  I attempted to some trimming with the weed whacker this week and failed miserably.  I may have cut off the power to the neighbor's well.  I need to get a firm grasp on these small tasks before I go driving a huge machine across the water.  Don't even get me started on trying to dock the thing.  I have to go eat a Tums just thinking about it.

The Angle Was Made for Little Boys

I was looking through our photos and I realized that every file includes at least one picture of Tyson on a machine or something with wheels, either driving it or sitting in the driver's seat wishing he was driving it. It's as if God designed this place just for him. What more could he ask for than 10 different ways to get from here to there?

Sometimes your ride needs some work.  I'm sure there is a joke in here about how many men it takes to fix a jeep, but I'll leave it alone for now.

My favorite part about this picture is Big Rick in the background.  It looks like he's reading the instruction manual while Tyson is about to take off on the lawn mower.

This is a double-whammy.  Cousin Lane and a motorcycle.  2 favorite things in one.

Here he is concentrating so hard on driving the boat that he isn't even looking where he's going.

Little guy.  Big machine.

There are times when your dad is the motor.

And then there are the times with no machine in sight so you just have to crawl through a stack of tires to feel  like you're getting somewhere.

Deer

 Word got out about our wagon full of deer feed and we had a party of 5 show up!  The blackbirds, who were NOT invited, seem to be the full-time occupants though.

 On Monday I was unloading groceries and a few deer came for a visit.  This guy got a little too close for my comfort. He just kept walking closer and closer, like he had a secret to tell me. I know deer seem peaceful and innocent, but I've seen videos of them kicking people in the head!  I bet the guy with the permanent hoof print in the side of his head didn't suspect he'd be getting attacked by a deer in his lifetime.

He ended up running off with no incident.  I'm not afraid of the deer, but like anything else, I have to get use to them being in such close proximity.  

This is the golf course at the Angle.  The deer were hanging out there last Thursday night during Men's League. (You can see them mid way up toward the left.) I guess one even got hit in the nose with a ball, but he didn't care.  He just sniffed it and went on about his business.  I find it very funny that they choose to hang out with so many guys and noise around.  Guys that will likely be serving them up with a baked potato and glazed carrots this time next year.

Maybe they aren't as innocent as they seem.  Maybe they stand around and make fun of the form on some of these golfers.  There really isn't much else to do up here in the woods.

So this is our son stuck in the railing of his bed one day while he was supposed to napping.  And I quote, "I've been stuck here for days." I don't know how he got so wedged down in there, but I almost had to call Rick to come and help me get him out. After I took some photos of course.  I suppose I should be glad it wasn't his head....yet.

This is the future of our country, people.

Trash

Once the snow cleared there were remnants of the winter crowd all over the parking lot. Those generous people left gifts of spilled trash bags, empty bottles and underwear in our big parking lot. Yes, underwear. There is a litterbug going commando somewhere in Minnesota.  So yesterday the kids and I headed out to clean it up.  This is a fun job to do with Tyson because he can get involved.  He loves to work.

You know you are important when you get your own pair of work gloves.  Nevermind that some fingers never found their individual finger holes.

Not far into this affair we found the garbage bag was too heavy to carry.  Enter: the wagon.  Now he could really feel like a professional, bringing in his own equipment. I let him run across the campground by himself to fetch it.  Never was there a kid more proud.  

Once the wagon was full, we had to trek over to cabin 3 to show his father.  Tyson felt Dad wouldn't want to miss his wagon full of trash and pipes and wood.  Even a boot covered in concrete--perhaps the best find of the day.  (Don't worry, Rick is working in Cabin 3, not living in it.)

                                          
After we finished the parking lot, we worked our way through the rocks that line the marina, on up to Big Rick's house where we pilfered his deer feed.  The deer have been coming back around and grazing in the grass by our house. I really want to get them hooked  and keep them coming back. I wonder if there is something they just can't turn down, like catnip-- but for deer.

Big Rick was working in the campground and spotted this nest of Killdeer eggs.  It's right in the ground, not protected or covered at all.  Amazing!  What are the odds of all 4 surviving? Dogs, kids and campers will be   crawling this place soon. The mother bird was off to the side screeching at us but not getting close.  So she has the alarm system in place, but no way to execute an attack on us for snooping around her business.  I hope she doesn't realize she could use her beak.  I have a slight fear of birds and beaks and dirty little claws.  Ish.

PS-For all you people in Washington, "ish" means yuck. I'm debuting it on the blog so I can fit in. I don't know how to spell it though, so that could totally blow my cover.

The Other Co-Pilot

As promised, Brian and Ava on the 2-seater lawn mower. I've yet to see this with my own eyes as we've only been here through the lovely winter months. I've heard she even falls asleep on there. I can only imagine it's completely soothing with the sunshine on your face and hum of the mower, with a slight breeze blowing. Although this is the Angle, so a slight breeze could mean anything from a few leaves gently rolling along or it could be a canoe cartwheeling down the road. Hard to say, this wind can be brutal.

Just another way to confine your child while they believe they're having an exciting adventure on wheels. Genius.