Juhannus - St. John's Day- Midsummer

Suomen lippu, neito ja koivu

A touch of Finland

Siniristi lippumme...sinun hulmullas mielemme nostat..

David's and Deanna's Wedding

This is the church...

This is the steeple...

Open the door...

...but where are the people?

Oh, here come some!

Now we're cooking, here are  David and Deanna with her nieces and nephews.

...and her sisters

and parents, Peter and Janet Larson.

Pete and I played basketball together back in high school.  The first year I think we won only one or two games.  Pete was an excellent ball handler though.

The Kilpela bros.

Tauno Kilpela, 92 and still going strong.

I am a very lucky man.  I have four beautiful daughters and I didn't have to raise any of them.  Keep loving each other, girls.  You are gifts to each other.

Lasse, Jeni & Mik

Bete Gris.  Mt. Houghton in the backround.

Jakala, reindeer moss.

Deanna's grandparents,  _ and Ray Larson.

Guests arrived by boat.

Tuovi Kinnunen and Steve Yambor walk the plank.



Ready....

Rev. Eskola

Here she comes!

This has to be a hard moment for any father.  I never had to give any daughters away, I've just been accumulating them.

I noticed that the ring bearer didn't actually bear the ring.

Flower girls sometimes have issues...

I take thee....

Take my word for it, there's a ring in there somewhere.

Daniel and Gwen sang.

Mr. and Mrs. David Kilpela



Marja wore her national costume, as she has at all of our sons' weddings.  It was perhaps especially fitting in this setting.

A lighthouse wedding.

 

 

Spring

Spring Lambs

Learning to spin wool on our new spinning wheel.  No harder than learning to play the violin.

Yellow-rumped warbler, the earliest and most common warbler in our area.

After six months of dry hay, fresh grass is so tasty!

The lambs quickly learned not to touch the electric netting.

It's actual name is Yellow Warbler.  Wonder why?

Maukku smelling the flowers.  After a winter of being cooped up indoors, he enjoys his freedom.

Hand shearing a sheep that hasn't been sheared for year whose wool is badly matted, felted and full of twigs and hay.  Don't try this at home.



I eventually was able to get the fleece off, but after two hours of work, I was seriously questioning my sanity in ever getting into this sheep business.

The original home haircut.  One down, four to go.  Would you believe it, right after I took this picture I got a phone call from my shearer telling me he would be able to start shearing again in a week after being out of commission for a couple of months.  I felt like a drowning man who has just been thrown a life preserver!

King of the hill on the brush pile.

Tree frog.  These critters have been singing loudly this spring.

A better way to mow your lawn.

Rock sheep.

The triplets learning the sheep shearing trade...

...from their dad, Paul Hornung.  Trust me, this is the way you want to shear your sheep - hire a pro!

Rototilling chicken manure into the garden.

Spring is beautiful, isn't it.  Those of you who live in warm climes cannot appreciate how beautiful spring truly is.

A gaggle of geese.

Spring haircuts. These boys were downright frisky without all that wool.

Here's another thing you shouldn't try at home.  We needed to drop a big dead maple behind my father's house, a job that called for a professional logger - Lindsay Nettell.

Nothing to it.  Thanks, Lindsay.  Now all we have to do is saw it up into blocks and split it.