On Saturday morning, we headed over to Blackduck to the 28th Annual Woodcarvers Festival. We met my friend, Pam, there and enjoyed both the woodcarving part and the arts and crafts part of the festival. Pam has been carving for about 17 years and we are lucky enough to have 2 of her carvings in our cabin (an eagle and a fish) as she is truly a talented carver! Of course, we had to start out with fry bread because it is a great morning snack! Bill is excited that we could make our own if we can get the deep fryer going at the resort. If so, I will need to find lots of neighbors to share with as I could eat a lot of fry bread and that would make my clothes shrink!!
Pam bought a couple of pieces of wood for carving and Bill bought a knife blank (where he will have to carve the handle for the knife) and a book on how to carve a woodspirit in a hiking stick. He wants to give that a try! Now I just need to get Pam and my brother-in-law, John, up here yet this fall for a carving weekend to get him started! Any other carving friends out there that would like to participate? :-) Bill also listened to a presentation on preparing wood for carving and found out the basswood that he has won't be any good as basswood must be cut down in the winter and cut up before the sap flows...who know that wood could be so picky?
We went over to the resort so that we could visit with K and D and Bill could start grilling the ribs for dinner. While we were there, a couple pulled in and asked if they had a room for the night. It turns out the couple is from Italy and so it was very interesting to talk to them and get their story. The wife loves the Mississippi river and so last year they flew into New Orleans and followed the river up to Memphis. This year they flew into Chicago and are coming to the source of the Mississippi (in Itasca State Park) and following it down to Memphis. They are retired and planning to take 3 weeks for the trip. We had good discussion around loons (there was a family of them in the bay), wild rice, ice fishing, and other Northern Minnesota topics. What a wonderful sense of adventure to just rent a car and drive and see where they end up each night!
Matt and Diana (son and girlfriend) arrived about 8 PM on Saturday night and we had a wonderful supper of sweet corn, ribs, hash browns, and smores. It was great to be able to spend time around the fire with them (until the mosquitoes drove us indoors).
This morning, Bill went to play guitar at church while Pam and I went to the Lost Forty. No matter how many times I go through there, I continue to be in awe of God's creation!! How can you not always enjoy seeing trees that large and majestic! For those of you may have missed earlier references to the Lost Forty, you can find info here: http://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/fsm9_016469.pdf. On the way back, there was an elderly gentleman sitting on a motorized wheelchair at the road turning into our area. We stopped to see if he needed any help. Turns out that his wheelchair had quit on him and his walkie talkie had too much static to explain to his wife where he was stuck. Luckily, Pam was able to figure out how to disengage the brake so that we could push his wheelchair off the main road. He appeared to be a stroke victim (with braces on his arm and leg) and he indicated that he needed side boards to get up into a truck. We went and swapped Pam's truck for ours and managed to get his wheelchair turned around and positioned with the door open for him to get in. It was a slow process and Pam ended up having to give him a push while I pulled from the inside. We told him that we would bring his wheelchair on the trailer after Bill got home from church and Pam followed me to his house (in case we were both needed to get him out of the truck). His wife was calmly painting and indicated that she had gotten part of his message but couldn't find him by the bridge (as he was down a road past the bridge) so she had come back home! She went and got another motorized wheelchair and helped to get him moved from the truck to that. I was amazed that this couple was still able to function on their own with his severe disability. After lunch (Bill's yummy mac and cheese!), we went to take back the wheelchair but they had already come over and changed the fuse and gotten it home. It was a God thing that we happened to come along right after his chair broke down or he could have been sitting there for quite some time in the heat and the bugs.
Pam headed back home after lunch and Bill took Matt and Diana fishing while I got to relax and read a book! I started a fire and hung out and wrote up instructions and info for my aunt and uncle (Jan and Damian) from Kentucky who will be living in our house for several weeks while they visit with family. This is another God thing as they really wanted to have an extended stay in the area this summer and it is hard to stay with anyone for a long time and also hard to keep moving. It worked out great that we have a house sitting empty that they can use for as long as they want...well, we do expect to be back by late October!! :-)
Bill, Matt, and Diana caught enough sunnies for a fish fry for lunch tomorrow. We grilled burgers on the fire although I had gone a little overboard on the fire and Bill just about fried off his hand while grilling! However, it was a great fire for smores!!! I think that they may go fishing again tomorrow morning to see if they can add to the lunch fish stash.
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