Whitewater Rafting

It may not be the Colorado River, but it is plenty of adventure for us.  We took a ride down the St. Louis River and hit six rapids.  It was great. I never knew that I'd enjoy whitewater so much.

It's hard to see, but in this raft are two of our girls.  The one steering in back is our Elizabeth.  She looks a little stressed.  :)

And coming down next are my son and I.  We're both in yellow.  (I'm the one with the hat.  lol)

This trip was rather bittersweet as it was the last meeting of our 4-H club.  We're disbanding for lack of a leader.  We sure had a good time.

One Day Vacation

We don't take many breaks here on the farm.  Yesterday, because we're part of a 4-H club, we took the whole day off and went to the "big" city to do some fun stuff.  Our 4-H club decided to spend some of the club money and go to Duluth.
First we went rock climbing-indoors...

Next we went down to Canal Park and had our picnic lunch. It was cloudy, gray and cold, with a wind coming off of the lake. Brrrr.  But the kids had fun.

The lighthouse in the background is at the end of the breakwall for the canal.  Lots of tourists and lots of seagulls.

Here's the lift bridge.  I think it's probably Duluth's most famous landmark.
Then we went out on the Vista Star, a sightseeing vessel that took us out into the lake and around the inner harbor.

A picture of Duluth from the boat.  The clock tower is the old Central High School.

This is just a picture of an ore dock.  It's where they load the taconite pellets that come down from the Iron Range by rail.
I was totally wiped when we finally got home. 
It's nice to do something out of the ordinary.  It's also nice to get back into your old routine.  One day's vacation is all I need for now.

Blacksmithing

I wanted to share some pictures of our blacksmithing demo done at our 4-H meeting.  This is my little friend, Nicki, doing the demo.  She was amazing.

This is a picture of us getting set up.

Here she's getting the fire good and hot.  Notice the little one with the purple jacket.  How happy is she???

She showed them how to shape the iron and make hooks of different kinds.  I learned a lot.  :)
I think she inspired some of the member to look into blacksmithing a bit more. 
Thanks Nicki.