I posted the following on Google+ but thought I'd repost it here for those of you who can't see it on there.


So we're getting questions about the fire burning in the BWCA and how close it is to our property.  
It's not really very close and I haven't been too worried about it but it has grown a lot in the past couple days.  It's located just east of Ely, about 20 miles west of Sawbill which puts it 30-40 miles west of our property.
If it ends up near us it will have become huge and probably will have burned up most of the east half of the BWCA including the entire area around Sawbill.
The good news is it's much colder today and it's raining some up there.
Good sources of information are:
http://sawbill.com/www/news/newsletter/index.cfm
and
http://www.inciweb.org/incident/2534/

First Day of Preschool, Last Day of Work

It is 4 am and I am up because I have a chest cold and started randomly coughing and clearing my throat at 3:30 am.  So here I am a cup of tea and Blogger.  I can hear them switching train cars in the rail yards over by the parkway.  We looked at a house that was up against the railroad tracks, I'm kind of glad we didn't buy it, but it was also on the parkway and when we were looking at houses, we totally underestimated the value of having that extra "yard" space we could have had (and not had to maintain) to play in.  Live and learn.

I have no idea where Will's camera is right now but there is a sweet picture of Anders on it from his first day of school.   I think this updated version of the blogging software should make it easy to post the picture when the sun comes up.  Anyway, he started preschool on Tuesday and seems to be doing very well there.  He is still at the same Montessori, so the trauma of going to a whole new school was avoided, but we now don't go into the classroom with him, but instead say goodbye to him outside of the room.  Yesterday (Thursday) he ran into the classroom without looking back at me - always a good sign.

Ok, I found the camera - apparently I put it away in the camera bag - how novel!  Here is Anders on his first day of preschool.  All summer long he has been interested in this wheelbarrow, especially because half way through the summer, the wheel broke off.

Anders is also 3 now!  So crazy.  He is a talker too.  I love how kids communicate using such literal terms, it is very cool.  Baseball is sometimes baseball, but also hit ball and one time catch ball  - honestly, hit ball makes a lot of sense to me!  He sometimes calls pointed things pokes.  There are others, but I cannot think of them right now.

We drove home from the cabin and a week of raising the sauna on Anders birthday.   We felt bad that his birthday was going to be spent in the car, so we planned on starting the trip back with donuts from World's Best in Grand Marais, throwing rocks into Lake Superior (a favorite past time of his) and a float plane ride from the harbor there.  Unfortunately the plane was out of commission, but the donuts were tasty.  So then we thought we would see if we could time our trip so that we were in Duluth in Canal Park when  ship was going through the canal and into the harbor.  According to the shipping info there were no ships going into or out of the harbor for the rest of the day - strike two.  So, instead we learned that there was an ore boat being loaded at Two Harbors, so we headed to the harbor there so he could at least see that.  Well we hit the jackpot here as the train from the North Shore Scenic Railroad was stopped over in Two Harbors!

Then we really hit the jackpot when the engineer looked down at us and said "Hi Buddy, you want to come up?"  Sarah, you may not want to show these next pictures to Drew, I'd hate for him to have his feelings hurt over this again!  

We had about 15 minutes before the train left, so we went out on the breakwater to get a better view of the boat being loaded.  It turned out there were 2 ships being loaded, one huge one and smaller one.

Anders was less into the ships, so he and I went over to get some rock throwing in before we had to leave again.

Ugh, Anders just woke up yelling for his dad to come cover him up.  This has been happening 3 times a night since we got back from the cabin (where I could just reach down and cover him up).  I swear, we have setbacks in sleeping all night long every time we travel.  It is so exhausting.  Anyway, it was kind of tricky getting up to his room in the dark after staring at the computer for the last half hour.  He asked for Johnny Cash to be put on and probably will sleep until after 6 now.  The bad thing is that when he wakes up like this, Will and I don't just instantly go back to sleep - at least one or sometimes both of us lays awake for quite a while afterwards.  Not conducive to getting over this cold.

Back to his birthday.  We went back to watch the train leave Two Harbors for Duluth.  The train has to back up for a ways before it can turn around.

As we were driving on the express way between Two Harbors and Duluth, I looked over at Lake Superior and saw the train on its way.

We finally made it home and had spaghetti (Anders' request) and cake - special thanks to Grandpa Bill and Grandma Kathy for ordering it from the 50's Grill for us while we were out of cell phone range.

I guess we didn't take a picture of him eating it, but he is a master at only eating the frosting - even the frosting between the layers of cake.   He also just eats the tops of the chocolate frosted cake donuts from World's Best.  We got him a cinnamon and sugar one on his birthday, thinking that since the cinnamon and sugar is all around the outside of the donut, he would eat the whole thing, but no, he ate so that all that was left was the inside of the donut.

So, today is my last day at the lab.  I sent an email out to everyone in the company in North America saying goodbye, etc and got over 100 emails back and several calls.  It was an emotional day and I know as I say goodbye to the people that I've worked with here in MN today, there will be many tears - on my part anyway.  I never thought I would leave that place, but I know I'm going to a better place too.  A very bittersweet day to me.  Also annoying - they have two people taking over the work I'm doing and had to send them to MN for training on Wednesday.  Now they want to do a follow up conference call today.  Really?  And I'm also amazed at the amount of stuff I've had to haul home!  I've accumulated a lot the last 15 years!

How about some catch up pictures now.  As I said, we spent last week raising the sauna.  Bill has a nice post about that so I think I'm not going to reinvent the wheel - there are two entries here.   I did find a nice series of action shots that didn't get on Bill's camera though.

Here are a few more pictures from the week.  Oh and I just discovered I can put pictures side by side!   I think it is safe to say that Anders will be into building things like his dad and grandpa - especially starting at an early age.  Pounding is especially fun!

I love these two pictures - the raspberries were delicious and Anders thoroughly enjoyed picking and eating them.  Unfortunately we missed the peak of the crop so we didn't take time to pick any to bring home, but they were a nice treat as one was walking around the property.

Anders got a couple of early birthday presents, both of which provided additional entertainment during the week.   I found the truck at an antique store and couldn't resist it, Will made the paddle and on Bill's blog you can see pictures of the hit ball bat, balls, tee and glove he got.  They all provided a lot of entertainment.  Apparently we didn't take any pictures of Anders using his new paddle, but he really enjoyed going out in our solo canoe (with a parent) for a paddle.  He can reach the water easily in the solo and likes to tell you to paddle on the opposite side that he is paddling on.

Anders also mastered the buttons on that orange flannel is wearing above.  He has been able to do some zippers for quite a while, but buttons have been tricky.  We were all very proud of this accomplishment!  

I have a few more pictures to post from July.  Anders and I have new friends, but we've struggled to find time to get together.  The one time were able to get together with "the new" Zach (as Anders calls him) and his mom, Angela, we had lots of fun.  Angela and I were introduced by a mutual friend who lives in Chicago, which is where Angela's family just moved from.  Julie, the mutual friend, thought that we would hit it off and she was right.  Zach is just a couple of weeks younger than Anders.  We got together at Como Park for some time the zoo and at the amusement park.  

Seriously, the boys were way more into the pop machines than the super cool bear exhibit we had just shown them!  

Once we made it to the amusement park, the fun really began!

I loved watching them on this ride, which thankfully Anders was tall enough to go on.  I wasn't sure what he would think of it - it is one of those rides that goes up and then drops down.

Anders was barely tall enough...

Loved it!  They actually went on it twice.

I love this picture too - we have no idea who the kid is in the back seat, but he just relaxed back there the entire time, while Zach and Anders drove like madmen around and around.

Angela and I got to go on a ride or two as well.

 A snack before leaving.

 Messy snacks, there were many people walking by and laughing at these two.

 Within two minutes of getting into the car.

Anders keeps talking about the new Zach, but we haven't been able to get together again - hopefully soon!

Ok, I'm done for now.  I seem to be developing a pattern of posting when I should really be sleeping - not good!  The tea and sitting up seem to have alleviated my cough, but now I really need to go to the bathroom!