Smatterings of the recent 10 days

The Swedish cousins returned from Aroostook County last Tuesday so there was a dinner get together at Elaine's that evening. Enjoyable time. We downloaded Laila's trip photos to Lois' laptop and had an impromptu slide show (902 pictures) which included photo's of a Scout trip Laila went on to Iceland. As the evening came to a close Anders, Laila, Elin, Anders and Gunnar passed out thank you gifts. Laila gave Carol and I Swedish Scouting T shirts and Gunnar gave us a book on Swedish Elk (moose). From all the pictures and activities I think they had a great time. We'll be talking about their visit for a long time.

Elaine, Laila, Elin, Anders, Gunnar, Anders and myself.

Carol and I receiving the T shirts from Laila.

Gunnar explaining something about the Elk book to Carol.

If being out on one weeknight wasn't enough we were invited for Thursday night to Bev's Aunt Sevee's for a supper get together as Bev and son Jonathan had arrived from Texas on their way to visit family up to Stockholm. There were other guests as well, another good time indeed.

Another slow week at the office but on Thursday our new computers came in and I had mine Friday. Didn't get it totally setup until yesterday morning. It's a Dell workstation, extra processing power, upper end video card and 2 gigs of RAM. If it was a car I'd say it was a sweet ride (desktop photo from Ian's New Zealand photos).

Another Saturday working on the dog pen relocation. With some help from Ian, Carol and I finished setting it up. Just about ready to start the deck, phew.

Hey, careful how you take the corners!
Happy Birthday to big sister Judi (photo swiped from her blog – touché).

No matter the weather

Today rapidly turned into a rainy Sunday. Quite the contrast to yesterday which began a little cloudy then slowly transitioned into a bright, humid, scorcher. This was the first chance Carol and I had to start the deck building project that we've been planning for a couple of years. First step though was moving the dog pen over further away from the garage. We began by taking down one end of the clothes line then removing a 8' x 14' area of perfectly good grass, which we removed in rectangular pieces that we may find a useful place for later. The photo on the left is where we left off at Saturday evening - we'll border it with concrete blocks then use some old patio pavers for the flooring before we disassemble and reassemble the dog pen to it's new location.

Today, unhindered by the rain, cousin Donny and his wife Deb held their annual family get together. This is the third year we've attended and a large number of people came in spite of the weather. This was the first year Ian has come with us. A lot of relatives hadn't seen him since he was a little guy so he was involved in a lot of introductions and explanations of what each relation was. As usual everyone bought some food to share - a lot of tasty stuff. I made it a point to eat too much. My family that were there were Mom, sister Kathy, daughter Lindsey; brother David, daughter Melissa and son Danny, so there was a lot of catching up and joking around there. Others I visited with were aunts and uncles, Dixie, Arlene and Gerald, Don. Cousins; Ike and wife Judy, Wendy, Ronnie, Tony, Laurie, Steve and of course Donny. I was very remiss in taking photos. I didn't grab my camera until well after most of us had eaten so I only have a few shots here. Some didn't come out well at all.

Mom, Ian and Carol.

Tony's son Taylor with Dave's son Danny.

Me and Mom.

Because of the rain most of us stayed under cover but there were some in the pool and others got in a game of horseshoes. I think at this point of the summer many of us were ready for a family get together no matter the weather.

Visitors with Swedish Style

Carol and Lois eagerly awaiting our guests arrival.

Late Friday afternoon the "cousins" from Sweden arrived by bus after their stay in the Big Apple. Lois, Carol and I were at the transportation center to greet them. Pretty exciting considering the history of correspondence, the trip by Lois, Carol, their mother, Margaret, niece, Lena and sister-in-law, Bev to Lenhovda, Sweden to visit and now five of them venturing here. Pictured left; Anders is first through the gate and is greeted by Lois followed by his partner Laila, his brother Gunnar and Anders and Laila's daughter Elin and partner Anders (initializing the younger Anders for distinguishing between the two). Laila, Elin and Anders went home with Lois in her car while Carol and I took Anders and Gunnar to the car rental agency for them to pick up a van for their stay in Maine. Afterwards we all met up at Lois for a dinner of salad and BBQ baby back ribs.

From one end of the table, L-R: Jim, Lois, Carol,
Laila, Anders and Elin. Jim and I had a great time
getting to know the travelers.

From the other end of the table that's Anders and Gunnar on the Left.

Saturday Lois took them to LL Beans and after a visit at our house we all headed over to Elaine and Steve's for a gathering of family and friends.

Anders gets to do some wave boarding towed behind Elaine and Steve's son, Mark's speed boat.

Elin is videographer and spotter for Anders' water skiing prowess. He is quite good at it.

The spectators gallery, L-R: Carol, Jim, Bev's sister Carol, Anders and Steve.

On Sunday was the hike up Tumbledown Mountain.

L-R: Carol, expedition leader Ian, Anders, Elin, Anders, Gunnar, Laila, Lois and yours truly.

The Day started out nice and sunny. The Loop Trail starts out quickly into a vertical climb broken only once by a somewhat level granite out cropped area then changing to a much steeper climb to near the summit.

Ian checking out the GPS unit readings.

Laila, Carol and Lois.

Steeper and rocky the higher we get but easy to gain one's footing and handholds.

The views start coming into play though the various openings along the climb. Here we can see the clouds moving in sooner than we hoped from the weather forecast before we left.

Carol, Laila and Elin.

With the clouds and rain moving in we decided to forgo the trail to the top of Tumbledown and instead headed to Tumbledown Pond for lunch before beginning our descend.

As it turned out once we sat down to eat our lunch the rain arrived and came down quite vigorously. By the time we all made it down the Brook Trail we were soaked to the bone but nonetheless happy with the day's excursion.

Reporting live a short distance from Tumbledown, your humble blogger.

Monday morning Lois, Jim and the visitors left for a few days on Mt. Desert Island visiting with another relative, John and his wife, Linda - hiking, checking out the sights and eating lobster on the island, then it's off to northern Aroostook County for more visiting. They'll be back here the middle of next week before returning home to Sweden.

All this and more...

Been awhile since my last blog (be that as it may) so I'll touch on several subjects to catch up on things.

New Car - finally decided to buy another car. The truck has a lot of miles on it so we'd like to extend it's life for camper pulling and hauling stuff. An ad in a local weekly newspaper caught Carol's eye and to make a long story short we bought a 2007 PT Cruiser, Touring Edition.

Same color as the rental I had a few months ago which Carol and I both liked quite a bit. It was good price with low mileage and two-thirds of the manufacturer's warranty remaining. Nice ride and fun looking. Ian now drives the Subaru to work and Carol and I tool around in the Cruiser. I'll be getting a vanity plate eventually.

4th of July weekend - went to Madawaska Lake for a long weekend.

We stayed at the camp while Lois and Jim stayed at Margaret's - the dogs? At the kennel much to their chagrin. That was a nice break from dog management though sad to say it took some getting use to. Friday, the morning of the 4th, Carol, Lois and Ian got up early to work at the annual Swedish pancake breakfast. Then it was into Stockholm for the 4th of July parade before which I gave Margaret a ride in the Cruiser and we parked it along the parade route while the others walked down from the house. After lunch we all worked around the camp cleaning up the yard, Carol and Ian assembled a swing seat that Lois had bought while Jim got the water hooked up in the camp and with the help of Lois, Carol and Ian they set up the dock for the summer. I grilled up sausage burgers for supper and later with a campfire going we watched the sunset and local shore side fireworks. Saturday was working inside the camp. Jim. Lois, Carol and Ian laid a new tile floor in the living room while I cased and trimmed out the window in the attic bedroom. That all took most of the day. Once we finished up Margaret and family friends Jim and Jan came over and I grilled up some terrific chicken breasts that Lois had bought and marinated. She and Carol cooked up some potatoes and corn on the cob which we ate lakeside at the picnic table. Followed all that with some more sunset photo taking with Lois and the other Jim and ended up in the camp talking for quite a while into the evening with Jim and Jan before calling it a night after a long day. After breakfast at Eureka Hall we headed back home, sprung the dogs from the kennel and back to work for each of us Monday.

The Cruiser looks pretty good up north.

Pancake duty - Ian at the mixer with Lois and Carol slaving
over the stove (note box of strawberries in foreground).

Ian at lake side.

Carol and her mother waiting for the parade to arrive.

Bev's Dad, Johnny, driving the old farm tractor
in the 4th of July parade.

Carol. Ian, Lois and Jim looking for the
next part of the parade.

Testing out the new swing.

The dock is almost ready. Great job gang!

It would be wrong not to have some sunset pictures.

Lois gets her share of sunset shots.

The Swedes are coming! - Friday some of Carol's family members that she, Lois, Margaret, Bev and Lena visited with last summer in Sweden are coming here for a visit. Gunnar, his brother Anders, his partner Laila, their daughter, Elin and partner Anders will arrive by bus from New York City. They'll stay at Lois and Jim's. Saturday there will be a gathering in their honor at Elaine's. Sunday, Ian is to lead a hike, maybe up Tumbledown Mountain with the guests then on Monday they with Lois and Jim will go to Mount Desert Island for a couple of nights where they'll meet "cousin" John and his wife Linda - go lobstering, have a lobster bake and sight see the area. After that they finish the whirlwind tour up to Stockholm and New Sweden to visit Margaret and other family members. All in all should be an interesting time.