Emptying Mom's house

Yesterday all of the Riewe kids (our generation anyway) were at Mom's house for a final "load up".
For the non-Riewes who might read this, Mom passed away last spring and we have been cleaning, emptying, and painting her house for the past couple of months.  She and Dad had this house built for them in 1967, so there were lots of memories uncovered as we packed and loaded.  We are lucky enough to have a buyer, and closing is scheduled for later this week, so this was our last weekend to get together and to gather the last items.

Here is Dad's last John Deere, being loaded for a trip to its new home in Nebraska:

Later, we got the whole group on the front steps, so here are all the siblings:

back row: Denny, Bob and Don

front:  Ruth, Paul and Mary

Paul has his own place nearby, but the rest of us now have no close ties to the old home town, so it was a bittersweet day.  The family has been either in this house or on a couple of nearby farms all of our lives.  Future gathrings will be somewhere else.

Mel's Birthday weekend

Last spring, when we were opening the cabin for the year, Steve and Mel stopped by.  We wished him a Happy Birthday then, but he said to hold off until this summer when more relatives could be here.  Although he passed away about a month later, we went ahead with his birthday party this past weekend.

Happy belated Birthday Uncle Mel.
You would have had a great time.  Your sister, brother, and their spouses were there along with 16 more children, nieces, nephews, grandkids, etc.  Twenty people from 4 generations.  Steve had the pontoon loaded; Paige and Bob had the sauna going, and no one went hungry.

Here are some photos:

A good time was had by all.  Now it's back to the Twin Cities to finish cleaning the house for sale, and to get ready for the State Fair.

Weekend of work

We are back home, after a full weekend of working at the cabin.  We forgot to take our camera, so there is nothing to show for our work, but we had a new picture window installed last spring, and had to stain the inside trim plus paint the exterior trim. While there, we also mowed the lawn (twice - ask Paige why) and trimmed some more branches to make getting the motorhome in and out a little easier.  Plus the vacuuming and other cleaning we didn't do on our last visit.  Next weekend will be a "Cousins Reunion" for all of the families on the Benson-side, so now it is ready to use.

One of our weekend projects was to begin a listing of what to take, and what needs to be done, before moving into the motorhome permanently.  We might be able to use the motorhome a time or two before winterizing it.  Then hitting the road about New Years or so.  We are scheduled to begin a 2-week service project in Louisiana on January 9, so we should be able to find the time to leave MN between snow storms.

Second posting

Since we are new at this Blogging stuff, there will be a little experimenting going on.

For new readers:
Our "stix & brix" house is For Sale (but no activity recently).
Whether it sells or not, we plan to hit the road about the first of next year, retiring from the 40-hr workweek to do a lot of slowmotion sightseeing, work at a number of service projects, visit with scattered family and friends, and just plain take it easy.

Feel free to track us down whenever you'd like

the Blog has Started!!

Here we are with our first attempt at creating a digital diary for all friends and family to follow along.
Stay Tuned!