my Wisco trip

The travel part was kinda sucky. Temporary anxiety over smallish airplanes and unusually young-looking pilots. Extended wait times in the airport (Although the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport is kinda like a mall. Very cool). 2-hour Shuttle rides back to the airport at 3am on 2 hours of sleep and someone kept farting...

However, I thoroughly enjoyed my visit. I spent a lot of time with Grandma, who is still as sharp and witty as ever, if she does move around a little shower than she used to.

Got to bond with my Aunt Amy, and it turns out we have a lot in common. My cousins were fun to hang out with, too. It's been about 6 years since I saw them and it used to be kinda awkward to hang out but I guess as adults we mesh better because I really enjoyed their company.

What we did:

We made sun tea in a vintage glass jar out in the four-leaf clover patch. I swear, there were TONS of four-leaf clovers in that small area of clover. She'd be like, "Oh there's one. And another one. There, too."

We started a fire at night in the stone chimney outside and roasted marshmallows. You know I love a good fire at night when there's a chill in the air. Fun fact: Grandma does not have a trash pickup service. She composts what she can, recycles what she can, and burns the rest. Very little trash comes from that house. So, we burned the garbage, then kept the fire going with old branches.

Another fun fact: The water that runs through the pipes is from a well in the backyard. I snapped a picture of the pump (that works) and her cat Chloe.

My grandma went through old photo albums and showed me people like, "Your grandpa Chester's youngest sister Julie and her first husband Mark. His mother died recently of breast cancer. Julie remarried and lives in Dorchester. But I can't remember her husband's name."  You know how that goes...

I learned that my grandma was the second-youngest of 13 children, 12 of whom survived into adulthood. Most of her siblings are dead now, and she told me exactly how each one died, and she knows how old each of them were when they died.

Speaking of dead people, we visited the Proft/Jacobi plot at the cemetery, and said hi to Grandpa. Quite a few generations were buried there. It was neat to see a part of my history there.

I slept on hand-embroidered pillowcases and mended sheets that I found just charming.

We saw two deer crossing the gravel road at dusk, a bunny in the yard, and plenty of fireflies. I swear they were truly fluorescent, unlike the dim ones we used to see around here years ago.

We trespassed tromped through an old house that has several haunted stories connected to it. My dad used to know some people who lived in it back in the day, and the stories he tells of things he witnessed make it creepy to walk through it, especially since it's been empty for years and trashed.

We sat outside a lot in the pleasant weather and talked on the porch. I tried to catch a hummingbird at her feeder, but they seemed to only hang out when I wasn't around. I did see the Oriole, though. Grandma is quite the bird watcher and she gets plenty of activity at her bird feeders.

I ate cheese. Tomato basil cheddar, havarti dill, smoked string cheese that's hand-formed, and of course curds. I ate so much cheese that I haven't pooped right in several days. Worth it.

My grandmother's house is full of neat vintage things that have been collected over the years. It's got an old-house smell and a fabulously cool basement (both neat- and temperature-wise). My grandpa's old tools are there, along with a bunch of jars of food that she canned herself, and are probably still good. It's crammed full of antiques and generally neat stuff that you just don't see anymore.

Overall, I loved the simple, clean living for a few days. I mostly relaxed and the most work I did was help grandma with a few chores. Going back to work was hard this morning. But, back to the daily grind.