lowly acres

Finland 2009

2009-07-12T18:28:00.000-07:00

June, 2009. We're off to Finland for a vacation and family reunion.

Day one. We have a six hour layover in Amsterdam. We decide to take the train into town.

On the train; do these guys look like they have been sitting up all night on a plane with no sleep!

Ready to explore Amsterdam

Days 2 and 3: In Helsinki

House where Mom's grandfather lived.

The Helsinki Cathedral.

Some detail on the National Museum (where Mom's grandfather, Juhani Rinne, was the curator)

More detail

Two guys in the rain with the parliament building in the background; one holding a bag of treasures from Stockmanns.

On to Turku

The luxury condo complex where Mummo lives.

Inside the complex

Mummo in one of her favorite chairs:

We rent some bikes and take a day trip to Ruissalo island.

On the Ferry to the island

That's the island, straight ahead.

Lunch on the island

View of the Baltic Sea

Next, a visit to the Turku Cathedral (Tuomio Kirkko) and other sites around the town.

The building where Mummo went to school as a young girl.

Neat stairway at the edge of one of the city's parks

Here's Markus inside the Turku Castle (Turun Linna)

We rent a car and take a day trip to visit Maija and Matti in their farm house. We go through this typical Finnish forest on the way.

Here stand the three travelers on the left with Maija and Matti on the right. We were there on Midsummer eve and, as tradition dictates, a birch sapling has been cut and tied to a porch post to mark the occasion.

Next we're off to the family reunion on Elf island. Below you see Jussi, Heikki and Mom on a ferry.

Some scenes from the reunion. I'll not identify all the people.

Our next day trip is to Jussi's mokki.

Our last day trip is to Nantali, home of Mummimland (See second picture below).

On the way "home" we stop at a large grocery store. You can see from the bike rack what the most popular form of summer transportation is.

Our last full day in Finland is a busy one. First to the Helsinki Temple:

Then to Jussi's place for a snack (Karjarlan piirakat) and to see a video of Markus and Mikko when they were little boys.

And, last of all dinner with some old friends.

On the way home. Again in with a layover in Amsterdam. Not enough time to go into down, but time for a bit of pizza.

Happy New Year!

2009-01-01T16:44:00.000-08:00

These next pictures are for those of you who live in Finland or other places and have not seen much snow. We have it. Fabulous year for snow!!! We did a lot of skiing and staying inside, enjoying having all of the four kids, plus two dogs home for Christmas.

Joulupuu on rakennettu

Cooper is good and is not touching the pulla

Always puzzling

Frito on a squirrel watch

Christmas Eve below

Christmas Day morning , last chance for lots of pulla and riisipuuro. We ate in the kitchen like we used to.

The snow melted and now it is back.

2008-11-14T02:49:00.001-08:00

Lake Michigan, Grandma and Fall Leaves 08

2008-11-05T16:01:00.000-08:00

We took three mini vacations to Lake Michigan. Frankfort is our new favorite spot.

Mom is thinking of lake trips past

(Maijaleena and Annalisa late 80's)

We brought grandma to Frankfort, too. It was a cold day.

Below our condo

Then we drove across the state with Grandma for a riverboat tour on Ausable River

The colors were just starting

Colors back home

I (=Dad) took Grandma back to Idaho then went to Oregon to visit Annalisa. We had some great hikes.

And went to the coast

The graceful Grace

We visited Charity and saw her two little girls. Here is Charity and Gabby

And here is Makela

At Annalisa's place. Here she is with her glowing-eyed dog from outer space.

And here is Annalisa with her regular dog, and a finished puzzle.

Bye Lisa Dear, we'll see you soon

Vancover Trip 2008

2008-09-14T16:59:00.000-07:00

Fonzie's Dad's house burning

2008-09-14T13:24:00.000-07:00

A few months ago Fonzie's (the cat) house, and then Chad' house, the trailer across the street, had fallen to less respectable hands who owned a ferocious dog that barked all night and very good loudspeakers that were on late at night. They did not believe in garbage pick up or maybe it was the Bay-Arenac drug squad that left a big mess all over the lawn. They could not pay their property taxes, as they had better uses for their money, so the property went back into the hands of Scott Moss, the farmer next door. The trailer was in such bad shape that he decided to burn it and just sell the property sans trailer. He contacted the Deerfield/Fremont fire departments to burn it as a practice session.We decided to buy the property so we wouldn't have to look at another trailer with questionable inhabitant.

Here you see the beginning of the fire: some gas was poured on the floor and a small fire was started in the front door.Things began to heat up right away.
You might recognize Ike Fourqer (bald guy), a member of the Fremont fire dept.
The fire really took off. The stream of water was being directed at the birch tree in order to save it. We are not sure that the attempt was successful. We will see if the birch tree refoliates next spring.

The whole trailer was now fully engulfed in flames

Half an hour later

A few days and a few loads of trash to the dumpster later... We are now the new ownwer's of this prized piece of the property and dad is attempting to rebuild the wall that attached the garage out-building to the trailer. This is dad's new favorite obsession.

Markus checking out our first real estate venture.

And here is the paradise across the street.

Come Take a Walk with Me

2008-08-25T14:58:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks a go I was sitting in the family room (the view above) talking to Lisa on the phone, saying that it was just beautiful on our lowly acres, and that I wished she was here to take a walk with me. I wish you were all here. So I took our camera on the walk around the property.

To start you have to go out the front door and tiptoe on the stone path ( you don't even have to have shoes on for that).

Sun was just staring to set in the west

Our dear sauna

Play house and garden

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