August 02, 2020

An Exhausting But Fun Weekend

Wow, what an exhausting weekend!

Again, I'm going to try to keep this short. We just spent 11 hours in the car! The traffic was bad while leaving the U.P. (upper peninsula) and I just want to eat, shower, and unpack.

It was a really nice weekend--Jerry, the kids, and I went to Jeanie and Shawn's property up north. (In Michigan, "up north" is a place, haha. I try to be more specific on my blog to clarify.)

Isn't this such a pretty waterfall? With all of the pine trees and waterfalls nearby, I was reminded of the Pacific Northwest--which you know I love.



The property is very close to Wisconsin, so it's a long drive for us (we live nearly as far southeast as you can get in Michigan). Interestingly, Jeanie lives in Illinois, but the drive is only about five hours from home for her. Anyway, the drive wasn't bad! I wrote about that yesterday.

We spent the weekend with just Jeanie and Shawn, which was great. It's rare that we see them without a bunch of other people around.

Shawn is working on shiplap for his pole barn, and I was really excited to work with him on cutting down the boards. First of all, this pole barn is amazing. It's enormous! After feeling so cramped while working in my garage, the space in this barn was almost overwhelming.





Shawn had several smaller pieces of shiplap that he'd already finished and he decided to piece those together on a small area. I didn't do much to help with this part... he was up until 3 AM because he wanted to get it finished! It looks awesome though... Shawn likes to use boards that I normally would skip over because of knots or weird patterns. After seeing what it looks like when it's finished, though, I can see why he likes them!

(Obviously this photo is to show the shiplap and not the stairs!)



I did help with getting a bunch of other boards ready to stain, though. I got to use some new tools and that was probably my favorite part of the weekend, hahaha. We used raw cuts of wood and put them through the planer and jointer, then cut out the pieces for the shiplap on the table saw.


Then I took a chill break in my hammock while Shawn sanded them to get them ready to stain ;)  I don't know what it was about being up there that made me so exhausted! It felt fantastic to lie down in the hammock under the trees--I could do that all day.

Jeanie has a small handgun (I have no idea what kind) and I'd never shot one before, but she and Noah were shooting at a target, so I wanted to give it a try, too. She showed me how to shoot it, and it was pretty fun! The first time I pulled the trigger it scared the bejesus out of me. I had no idea what I was expecting, but I was surprised at how strong it felt.

Anyway, I'll write a recap of 75 Hard tomorrow (today is Day 14!) and I am happy that I stuck with it the whole time we were away. I knew it would be hard (and it was) but going home and feeling GOOD (although tired) made it worth the effort. It was raining this morning before we left (just a drizzle, but still raining) and I still made sure to get in a 45-minute walk.


I KNEW I wasn't going to want to walk again when I got home, so I had Jerry drop me off at a spot that I guessed would take me about 45 minutes to walk home. That way, when I got home, I could just stay there.

I hope everyone else had a great weekend!

3 comments:

  1. Love the U.P!!! My parents are in Northern Wisconsin. My daughter went to NMU in Marquette. So lovely up there. Is that Bond Falls? Sounds like a wonderful weekend!!!

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  2. So smart of you to be dropped off about 45 minutes from home! I am going to use that idea in the future!

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  3. What a great idea to have him drop you off to get your walk in!

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