Let's Be Farmers: The Little Bliss List

As a fun end to summer, we stepped back-in-time to become 1860's farmers!

Juliana and I visited the Oliver Kelley Farm with our good friends Sarah, Annelia and Hannah.  The Oliver Kelley Farm is a working 1860's farm that is part of the Minnesota Historical Society.

(All the photos below are from the Oliver Kelley website because I forgot my camera.)

At the farm, Juliana and Annelia fed the pigs.

The piglets are now quite large.  And hungry!  The girls had to walk into the pen filled with 12 pigs to dump slop into the feed troughs.  Yummy!


I helped train the 16 week-old calves how to become well-behaved oxen.

It takes 4 years to train oxen and you must start early when they are 100 pounds instead waiting till they're full grown and weight 2,000 pounds.

Here are some full-grown oxen working in the field.

The girls had fun playing with the kittens in the barn.  The Oliver Kelley barn is the oldest still-standing barn in Minnesota.

They wanted to take the kittens home (and the farmer said we could.)  But, both of our current house cats would be quite upset with a new addition.  The farm kitties stayed at the farm.


In the house, the girls chopped onions for pork dumplings.

I would like to know why Juliana will chop onions at the Oliver Kelley Farm but not at home!

The girls also helped weed the huge garden.
Again, why there and not at home?

All I can say to that is . . . Teens!


Going on our field trip back-in-time was a great way to say goodbye to summer!


Next week:  Hello High School!

What I Did On My Summer Vacation

I'm back!

I took the last three weeks off for summer fun with my family.  But now it's a week away from school beginning and the official start of fall.

So, I'm back and ready to blog!


Here's a photo essay of What I Did On My Summer Vacation.  I hope you enjoy it!

* * * * * 

In early August, we travelled to the Quad Cities (Moline, IL) to visit Big Nana.

Big Nana is Paul's grandma and Juliana's great-grandma.  Here's the Illinois Family.

While we were there we visited the American Pickers store in a very cute little town.

I drove Uncle Pete's mint-condition 1961 Corvette.

Can I PLEASE have this car!!

A week later, we travelled to the North Shore of Lake Superior with my sister and her family.

We had a little family reunion.  Here's my daughter in our cabin.

Here's my husband with our dog, Lily.

My brother, sister-in-law and their boys were there.

So were the "Chicago Relatives."

Juliana and Isabel had fun riding the Skunk and Duck!

On Saturday, the whole gang went to the Rendezvous Days and Powwow in Grand Portage, Minnesota.

The Grand Portage Band of Ojibwa hosted the Powwow.  It was amazing!

At the Powwow, American Veterans were honored and remembered.  Our relative, Howard (age 91), is a WWII veteran and was treated like royalty.  Later Howard said, "I represented everyone's father and grandfather who fought in the war."

Howard, helped by his grandson William and my brother Scott, walked around the entire circle during the Veteran honoring ceremony.  It was very moving.

Barb (Howard's daughter) and William also participated in the Powwow.

Then it was time to head back home to our cat, Cheech, who was patiently waiting for us.  Can you spot him?

All in all, our summer vacation all about good times with family and friends!



Did you take a summer vacation?

My Daughter is Employed

At age 14, my daughter has joined the American Workforce!

In other words, she has a job.

Sweeping the grocery store patio

In June she told me she wanted to get a job.  I was very surprised.  Other than babysitting, I didn't have a real job until college.

My daughter isn't really into babysitting.

But, she is into having cold hard cash.

So, she decided to get a job.


At 14, employment prospects are slim.

Luckily, our neighborhood grocery store took a chance on her.


She is employed 3-4 hours/week at minimum wage.

Her duties include:
• Pulling weeds
• Sweeping
• Watering plants
• Picking up trash

The garden area needs watering.

Don't forget to pull the weeds.

I love that she's doing this, and that she thought of it herself.

She's picking up trash and pulling weeds.  And she's HAPPY to do it!


Now, the real trick, is getting her to do those things AT HOME agreeably and with a smile on her face!

Maybe...

NOT!!