Mum is Home

 One of the things found while at Aunt Darlene's were mum's ashes. So, I proceeded to make plans for scattering them. A place she spent a lot of time at were two little ponds called, logically enough, Twin Ponds. It isn't far from the house mum grew up in, the one Aunt Dar has now, so I walked down and put ashes in different areas. The far pond from the one in the picture, under the bridge, and where the ponds empty out into a bit of a falls. 

To put mum's ashes in Pike Lake, I wanted to do something different. I found and made origami envelopes from dissolving paper. The stuff I used worked, but there is also another brand I couldn't find at the last minute. The envelopes didn't lock as well as I'd hoped, they needed stickers. Dissolving stickers DO exist, they are made by Ball for canning. 

I timed how long it would take for a small bit of paper to dissolve. There was a smidge of residue left after 21 seconds, but I was incredibly impressed! 

The best part of these envelopes of ashes was being able to write on them. Uncle Bill and Joanie weren't able to be there, but I stuck a note on one envelope from them anyway! 

You can see how the envelopes came apart, but they held together long enough to get the ashes away from the dock and into the water. Much more efficient than paper cups! 

I took the remainder out onto the lake with Chris via jet ski. He chose some nearby fishing sites for me to skim the envelopes across and into. The rest were in a baggie, those were just poured in normally as he drove around. 

I'm glad mum is finally at rest in one of her very favorite places in all the world. As I read through her journals, she visited MN often and much of her time was at, on, or in the lake. One of the things she was certain to do almost as soon as she landed in the area was get her MN fishing license. Aunt Darlene was often in charge of me while mum and my dad, Harry, fished. She's come full circle. (the chairs in the b/w photo at the top of the stairs are still at the lake, hopefully to be passed on to someone else in the area who wants to refurbish them! I wish I could have brought them back..)