I have been lucky enough to have two weekends off in a row this week. So, after sleeping in (Del tried to make me wake up at 7 am but he is completely crazy if he thinks I'm getting up early on one of my five days off each month) we headed out to Whitewater State Park. This is a park that allows hunting, so initially we just drove around to try to find places where Del could go hunting for deer and ducks. We then found the park office and found out that to park in the park you have to have a permit that is either $5 a day or $25 a year (we went with the year permit obviously because we spend lots of time in state parks). We finally got out of the car and went on a hike to Chimney Rock (does every state park have a rock named this?)

It was a hike straight up and then down a hill but was well worth it because the scenery was beautiful.
We then drove to McCarthy Lake WMA on the Mississippi River. It had a beautiful view of the river and held a very large refuge (240, 000 acres) for waterfowl and other birds. It advertised that 50% of the continent's canvasbacks take refuge here at some point during the year and that there are 160 bald eagles nests. Del was in heaven!

Tomorrow we are going to church and then heading to Pine Island, a super-cute little town just up the road. It's on the Douglas Trail, which is a very well-maintained trail for bicyclers, hikers, horseback riders and snowmobilers from Rochester to Pine Island. Pine Island has a Borrow-a-Bike program where they allow you to borrow donated bicycles to use on the trail. Del has a bike so I will be borrowing! Tomorrow night we are going to cook out for Del's big (31) birthday on Tuesday! Unfortunately I will be post-call on Tuesday so instead of celebrating his birthday then we are grilling steaks tomorrow and ordering pizza on Tuesday!
Have a great week! Miss y'all!

So this past week I was lucky enough to have Friday and Saturday off (what normal people call a weekend!) and so after sleeping off a long and horrible call on Thursday afternoon...
Del and I were ready for some fun for our "weekend". Friday we went to Minneapolis and visited the Game Fair. I did not take pictures but I'll describe it to you. It is a yearly event that is designed for all outdoorsman-hunters, fishers, etc. There were over 100 tents there with different vendors, at least 10 of which were selling puppies (so cute!) There were also sessions throughout the day with various famous outdoorsmen. We went to one on duck hunting with Jeff Foiles, who makes videos, calls and other duck hunting equipment and who lives a very fun life, in that he gets to get paid to hunt and gets to travel everywhere to do it. It was really interesting to learn about the science behind duck hunting (I'm an awesome wife-he didn't even make me say that!)
After that, my part of the day began and we went to Trader Joe's, which is possibly one of the best grocery stores I have ever been to (yes, Rebecca, I know I'm a dork). They had this amazing wine store where you could get good wine for very cheap and a great cheese section. I got Wisconsin cheese curds, goat Brie and three kinds of goat cheese which have been awesome! Even Del thinks so and he is so not into trying new things! I also got some Thai Green Curry sauce that I'm excited to try.
Moving on.. Saturday was the main event. We went to the Downtown Oronoco Gold Rush Days. It is billed as the largest antique show in the Midwest. And it was definitely huge!
There were definitely 100's of vendors and it covered an area probably 3/4 mile long and 1/3 mile wide with just tents and tents and tents of mostly antiques, but also the requisite crap.

Haha! Love the MJ exhibit sign...too scared to go visit though.
And yes, that is goat on a telephone pole (did you notice it in the first picture?)!

One highlight of the day was lunch- fried cheese curds! These things are amazing!

We also got a homemade ice cream sandwich!

Anyway, that's all for now. I'm post-call (again) and so I want to eat and go to sleep. I am off again this weekend (ridiculous that they let me have that much time off...) so will blog again.
Miss you all!

My apron is finally finished!

Just wanted to post a picture of my latest craft project, which has taken over 2 months to complete, thanks to moving and starting work! I actually had everything done except for sewing on the tie prior to moving but it has taken me this long to do the last 5 minutes of the job. My favorite parts are the pockets!
(Note: Ignore my "crazy" eyes but do focus on the handiwork and lower right corner. He always has to be the center of attention!)

Delmer Keener's Post

Today I finally went to the Zumbro River and went fishing. Since I have nothing better to do I am going to write about it here so that all the world can read about it, or whatever. It started this morning off hwy 27 by an old bridge. The water
was beautiful as was the one fish I caught today. Sadly, it got off before I could land it and take its picture. I met a fine old gentleman who, by his accent, was from around here and he told me of all sorts of places you used to be able to fish but can't now. Strangely he really didn't tell me anywhere I could fish now besides where I was standing at the time.






Next I drove down the road a spell and found a nice place to try. I met this lovely little 65 year old woman named Diane who lived through a hurricane of the same name whilst living in Jacksonville waiting on her husband to come home from the military (seemed like a lot of info to me but I don't know). I asked if it was ok for me to park in front of her house while I fished and she went on and on about how nice it was for someone to ask unlike other people (had she not been outside when I pulled up I would have been grouped with the other people, good lesson though). By her accent, she too was from around here. I also discovered that she and her husband were going to be selling their house soon and moving to the Carolinas because they don't like the snow. Go figure, a Tennessean moving here for the snow and a Minnesotan moving south to get away from it. I fished for quite a while but to no avail. I could see plenty in the river but I couldn't get them to hit. I did meet two more fine Minnesotan outdoorsmen who came floating down the river while I was there. Aside from the fact that they weren't catching anything, they were pretty tight lipped about everything else. I don't even know their names, blood types, ss, etc!

Since I was tired of fishing, I took the long way home through some beautiful country where I was able to take some photos. All 3 were from the top of a hill where 2 different dairies were. Talk about a view!























And so, children, this brings us to the conclusion of Delmer Keener's first (and possibly only) blog post. I hope you all have enjoyed it immensely and that it has in some way bettered your lives!