Busy bodies

On Sunday, we returned home from a last minute, impromptu, trip to our family's cabin in the northwoods of Wisconsin. Chris called me, while cutting hay, at 4:30 on Thursday afternoon and sprung the plan on me. When he came home around 7:30 he went back and forth with telling me to go upstairs and pack and saying that we should probably just stay home. Finally he decided. I grabbed the biggest weekend bag I own and filled it with swimwear, sunblock, and sweatshirts. That's one of the things I love about our trips up north; it's just warm enough during the afternoon for swimsuits but the temps get down low enough in the evening that hoodies are required for comfortable campfire enjoyment. It was a nice quick getaway. We had our fill of the local pub's famous cheese curds. Henry discovered the joys of using ranch dressing as a dipping sauce. We jumped into the freezing cold waters of Plum Lake and refreshed and very much alive. Henry even went in and floated around with Chris in his life jacket, giggling through chattering teeth all the while. 

Chris and his mom fished while I kept Henry out of tackle boxes and away from fishing lines. When Chris caught a decent sized blue gill, he called Henry over to him to look at the fishy. I was shocked when Henry grabbed it from Chris with both hands and held it for a good minute. Chris told him to put it back in the water and Henry climbed up on the seat of the boat and, with one hand, plopped the fish back into the lake. That same day Henry saved Chris from a spider! He nonchalantly reached up and grabbed something off Chris's shoulder and dropped it on floor of the boat. When Chris looked, he saw a dime-sized fuzzy brown spider! This mama just about lost her head. I don't know where he gets his bravery but it's surely NOT from me. 

It feels like we've been gone all summer. In June we moved Chris's sister to Fort Worth, Texas and were gone about a week. Then our little trip to the cabin happened. And now we are on our way to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania for the weekend to watch the national junior hereford show. A handful of calves that came from our farm are being exhibited by kids from Texas and Oklahoma. I'm not sure what there is to do in Pennsylvania, but I do have a couple things in mind for the drive. My goal is to find a "u-pick" farm of some sort and load up on fresh fruit to can and enjoy.