This is a photo of a pair of wheels that I built for ice racing years ago. I call them the "cheese grater" wheels. When I put them on the back of my Mustang they threw two rooster tails of ice chips 50' behind the car. Unfortunately that is about all they did, the car never moved very fast with them. Sadly this summer when we were cleaning up I had to throw them away.
I got a new job in a coal mine.
We recently sent off two hides to be tanned. They should be returned to us shortly. We just heard from Angelo and he said they look wonderful.
Sandy and Harold liked their eggnog a bit too much.
"Harold the glutton."
Over the weekend Harold helped me haul some timbers home. The timbers are salvaged from our old tank farm that is being replaced. I am going to use them to lift my workshop up off the ground. Hopefully if the building is up off the ground enough the wind can blow under it and keep the snow from drifting as bad. The timbers are very heavy, 6"x 12" 16' long, heavily creosoted. The new four wheeler pulled them two at a time with no problem.
This morning I officially signed C.O. and I up for Spanish classes in Antigua, Guatemala. We will be staying with a family and have one on one tutoring for four hours per day. We will be taking classes from June 8th - June 26th, a total of three weeks. Our goal is to learn more Spanish, but in a very laid back environment. We chose short tutoring sessions intentionally and plan to travel and get to know Antigua while we practice our Spanish. When we were in Guatemala (nearly one year ago now) we took a day tour of Antigua and LOVED it! The photo to the right was taken that day. We are so excited to go back. We are going to be working with the Academia Colonial . I got an e-mail today from Sophia who works for the school. I wanted to share some of the descriptions she sent of their program.Activities: At Academia Colonial you will never be short of things to do nor people to do them with. We are always planning exciting activities for our students ranging from climbing active volcanoes to cooking or salsa dance classes. Most activities are free, others cost a few dollars in the case of transportation, entrance fees, or splitting the grocery bill for our cooking class/cook out! We also plan nights out as well as arrange weekend trips for our students. There are plenty of travel opportunities from Antigua: Pacific beach, high altitude lakes, horse back riding, surfing, scuba diving, you name it.
Family Stays: Our families are very carefully chosen. You will find the houses beautiful, clean, comfortable, and well located. You will have hot showers and delicious meals while getting a chance to practice your Spanish with an engaging family. Meals are provided three times a day except for Sunday. Most of our host families are within just a few blocks of the school."
Hey, Northern MN folks! Do you have plans for this evening? If not and you'd like a nice evening out, here's a good opportunity for you. Our friend Aaron Brown’s new book, "Overburden: Modern Life on the Iron Range" is now available. The book opening is tonight, Thursday, Oct. 16 between 5-7 p.m. at Howard Street Booksellers in Hibbing. We really wish we could go show our support and congratulate Aaron on his accomplishment. But since we’re stuck in the frozen North, why don’t you do that for us?
Harold's first engineering project, he designed and built a bridge. I helped him with the design a little, but he did the construction all by himself.
The price of airline tickets, like everywhere, are going up for bush flights. So we've decided that when we are going into and out of Nome, we'll drive as much as possible. That's easier said than done. The trip involves leaving home with the 4-wheeler, driving to the boat, packing up the boat, going 8 miles over the ocean to Teller then driving the highway that 
connects Nome and Teller. Our friend Kenny helped us out with the boating part of the journey, then once in Teller, we were able to borrow a friend's truck to drive into town. It all worked out well enough and we were in Nome by supper time on Friday. Once you're on the road, it's about an hour and a half drive.
Scenes from the Nome-Teller Highway.
I think James and Amy will make good parents, don't you?
Here is AnnMarie and Harold at the start of our trip to Nome last weekend. We first boated to Teller, about 10 miles away. It is starting to get cold here, we had to break through a little ice in the lagoon. From Teller we borrowed a truck for the 75 mile drive into Nome. It is a wonderful drive along a single lane gravel road through the mountains. Traveling this way is a lot more interesting than a simple plane ride (and you don't have to pay $0.75 per pound for baggage).
On our way back from the hot springs we stopped to pick some blueberrys. Around the Elim area they have high bush blueberrys. They are very easy picking, you hardly have to bend over and there are so many of them that you could fill your bucket without walking 50 feet.
