Simmering

1:43 P.M.
25 F, Cloudy, W wind 2 mph.

So the chicken noodle soup is simmering on the woodstove. When the vegetables are cooked, I will add a couple handfuls of noodles. When they are cooked, should be time to eat supper. Soup and some of Margriet's homemade bread, should make a pretty good meal I think.

Margriet is busy wrapping presents to send across the puddle. It is a big job. We like to wrap all of the "little" things too. Pim and Bram seem to really enjoy unwrapping them. Not to sure if the older folks enjoy that so much though. Suspect that they do most of the clean up. Oh well, Christmas comes but once a year.

I have been baking some Christmas gifts. I have to paint them and hope that task will be accomplished tonight. Hope to get a couple of them in each package too. If not, will have to send them latter. Smaller package hopefully will go quicker.

I did get the thermostat sensor bulb moved on the wall furnace. It seems to have cured the problem of short cycling. While the area of the thermostat on the furnace looks to be large to get at it - it ain't as big as it looks. Had to do some fooling around to finally get it to the bottom of the cabinet. There is a lot more space on it than most of the appliances I have worked on in the past and I can even see what I am working on, but my fingers seem to grow fatter as I started to work on it. The pilot light going out still is a problem. Not sure what that problem is or how to correct it. I have another email into the company and will see what the result is.

Have to check the oven and the soup!

Chris <><

Supplies in

11/30/05 7:00 A.M.
23 F, Cloudy, NW wind 2 mph.

Good morning,

So we have a cooling trend and some snow on the way. Cooling for the rest of the week and a bit of snow tomorrow. We did have a dusting of snow here yesterday. The northern half of the state has roads with slippery stretches to impassable. Some schools in the northeast are delayed or closed. Winter is coming. I see on the webcam, the snow in Enschede is pretty well melted. Everything looks very wet and not pleasant weather at the moment.

We did get a call to Pim yesterday. Instead of waiting until noon, Margriet called before going to Bible study (Don't think she could wait), which was afternoon there and about the time Pim was home from school. He was very pleased to get the package we sent with a "beautiful airplane" in it. The airplane was a kit to put together. Wood and tissue kind to put together. Hope Onno enjoys the process too! :-) These types of kits are hard to find any more and are considerably more expensive than the 29-49 cents we used to pay for them when I was a kid.

We had an unusually large group of folks at Bible study yesterday. Don't know what the reason was. Actually there were too many there. It would have been great if I could have split them into two groups, but they will not hear of that. Makes for better discussion with fewer folks, everyone has a better chance to express themselves. We really did have some good discussion, but with too few participating. We almost completed a whole page in the workbook too.

Sure bought a lot of "normal" supplies yesterday. Seems like everything was running out at the same time! Then when we did get home, could hardly find a place to store it. Not too sure how that happened. We still had things on the list to buy, but ran out of money so will wait until next time. While we were in Green Bay, the wind came up and the temperature was dropping, making for some really cold feeling to these old bodies. The high humidity didn't help any either. I really was surprised at how few shoppers were in the stores we stopped at. There were plenty folks, but not as many as I had expected. Not complaining at all. The price of gasoline dropped a couple more cents yesterday too. Also like that.

One of the purchases was an annual tradition for me. I picked up the Alaska magazine with a free calendar included. I really like the magazine and used to have a subscription to it. The photos are outstanding as are the stories. I really like the calendar and one has hung above my desk forever. Yes it is a new one every year.

The deer season was better than expected in Wisconsin this year. The total deer taken was up about 3% over last year and 17% higher in the northeastern part of the state. Talking to the folks here, there were far less taken than last year. Not too sure why. We didn't hear as much shooting this year either. Wonder how the crew did at camp.

I did get an email back from the wall furnace company, telling me what to change. Will do that today and see if it makes a difference. Sure hope so. I have to move the thermostat sensor farther away from the main flame to cool it off some. It is short cycling, so doesn't heat up to what it should. Really would like it warm in here. Pilot light is still causing a problem now and then too.

Slept really late this morning, so better finally get the day a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,


Chris <><

As warm as it gets

11/29/05 7:05 A.M.
32 F, Snow/rain, SW wind 10 mph.

Good morning,

Today is a day to celebrate. It is Mr. Pim's birthday! We will come home after Bible study and call him to wish a happy birthday. We leave the phone line open from noon to 1:00 P.M. so the kids can call us if they want to. It is evening there at that time, so works for them. Like to have them call too. Wish we could be there to spoil him some (more?), but will have to make do with a package sent and a phone call. He will have really changed from the last time we saw him I am sure.

Looks as the main part of the snow went to the north and west of us. We have snow at the moment, as it is just turning from rain to snow. About 6 drops of rain for every flake of snow. The snow showers are to be increasing and heavier as the day progresses. Not supposed to be any accumulation. The yard and surrounding area sure are a mess though with all of the rain. Seems like early spring with the frost break up.

The webcam in Enschede shows there is still snow in the square, but it is melting. Margriet reads the web newspapers from the Netherlands and they have many pictures of the snowfall. They don't do much snow removal there, guess it doesn't happen often there and they enjoy it. It is interesting to contrast the differences between the two countries. They have had several build roof fall in too. All were flat roofs I think. Never have understood the reason flat roofs are constructed in snow country. Makes no sense.

We think we finally have the drains for the shower and sinks cleared. We have been fooling with it for some time now. Finally came across a product that clears slow drains. The first application of it, over night, caused it to be worse, just as the directions said it would. After the second application, and second night, it seems to be more or less back to normal again. Margriet didn't have any water coming up between her toes when she showered yesterday. Hope it continues. The directions suggested that a small amount be put down each drain every month to keep them open. Think we will do that - just in case.

The furnace in the bedroom worked almost well since yesterday afternoon. Don't know what is going on with it though. It still seems to short cycle, so doesn't heat enough I think. Not sure how to change that. Hope to get a response from the email to the company soon.

After calling Pim, we will be heading to Green Bay for our normal supply run. Seems we have a long list too. Since everything is so wet, I won't feel too guilty about not getting some things done outside. All that got done yesterday was bring in firewood for the woodstove. We did make a run to Kewaunee for some errands too. Notice the price of gasoline had dropped another two cents too.

Time to get the day a-going. Enjoy yours.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><

Winter Wonderland - Not!

11/28/05 6:00 A.M.
41 F, Rain SW wind 20 mph.

Good morning,

This is NOT nice weather! It started to rain overnight very early Sunday morning and really has not let up yet. Thunderstorms are possible today and temperatures to reach the mid-50's. Not nice. Watching the Wisconsin road condition website, it was interesting to watch the road conditions change with the weather - from snow covered, to ice covered to slippery to wet. Now there are some roads in the north-central part of the state that are slippery in spots.

This weather reminds me of one year at deer camp with very similar weather on closing day. That year the radio predicted the rain and warm temperature. We didn't need the radio to tell us that, it was right outside our door. After breakfasts, we didn't spend much time packing, rather grabbing armfuls for "stuff" and slid up the hog's back and put it into the trucks to be driven out to the road. It was a hard task. Everyone pretty much worn out by the time we headed for Ashland to sort out the "stuff" so it went with the right people back home. As we were doing all of this, the temperature was dropping and the rain continued, until everything was covered with about a half inch of ice, including the road. Leo had a new Blazer (early 70's) all tricked out for off-road with huge tires, winch, &c. I followed him in the big Pontiac wagon I had, towing a trailer with two snowmobiles on it. Leo started to fishtail in front of me and headed off the road into the tag alders! I finally got my rig stopped and onto the shoulder (where we should have been driving on the gravel in the first place. We got out of the car, just in time to see Leo ramming his Blazer through the tag alders trying to get back up on the road way. After about four attempts, he literally flew back up, leaving the surface with all four wheels. Leo's Mom was riding with him, thinking it was safer than riding with her husband Frank. Her eyes were about a foot in diameter as they left the ground and landed on the roadway. She was having some second thoughts about her safety at that moment. I have no idea how Leo was able to stop before going into the ditch on the other side of the road, but he did. We continued on our way to Ashland at about 20-25 mph, the same speed we were traveling before this happened, but on the shoulder gravel as much as possible. It was a long ride back to Menomonie to pick up the rest of the family, before heading back to Weyauwega on wet roads, but without ice the last half of the trip. Oh yes, I didn't get a deer that year.

The wall furnace I put in the bedroom, for some reason does not keep the pilot light lit. At first when I noticed it, I thought the very strong winds we had at the time, sucked it out, but it happened this morning again and the wind is from a different direction, not blowing down the side of the house. Don't know what the problem is. I think I will email the manufacturer and see if they have any advise. Everything looks to be in the correct place and the pilot flame is on the thermocouple safety. Worked great for most of the time yesterday, but died during the night.

Don't think I will cut any trees down today for firewood. Won't make any wood from what I have down and on the bunk either. Think it will be a good day to stay inside and enjoy the woodstove. Might also think about starting our Christmas letter too.

There was a very light turnout in church yesterday. I think it was a combination of weather and deer hunting. The second service, the one we went to, had only about 30-40 folks there. Even Sunday School was light. They are planning the Christmas program, so usually the attendance picks up then as the kids really get involved.

We really got out of church late yesterday, needing to clean up after snacks. Margriet got a hold of one of the vacuum cleaners and vacuumed about half of the church I think. We did go to Slovan for lunch and were the last folks served. They close at 1:00 P.M. Our lunch was unusually quiet, but good as usual.

Time to get to other things and try to say dry while getting the day a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,


Chris <><

Nice woods

4:36 P.M.
32 F, Dark & cloudy, SSE wind 7 mph.

Another outside day draws to and end. A fairly lazy day for some reason. Not a whole lot accomplished to day.

I did managed to take a walk in the woods just as it was getting dark. With the snow one the ground, what there is of it, really opens up the sight lines in the woods. It really looks like a whole different world out there. Sure is easier to find the trees I need to cut down and the easiest path to get them in. I really was how stiff the soil has become in the last couple of days. The only places that showed water in my boot prints at the edge of the standing water, which is now frozen. It takes a bit longer for the sponge areas at the edges. Even the sounds of the woods have changed with the snow. Most things are a lot quieter, until you take a step with the present crusty snow, and it is much easier to hear the critters - rather than the leaves blowing. As the snow cover increases, so does the beauty.

I just had to take some time out to watch one of Wisconsin Public Television's programs, "Discover Wisconsin", about Algoma. It was really interesting and looks to have been put together within the last year. You can find the website for the program and even a clip from the show, at:

http://www.discoverwisconsin.com/destinations/show_information/?Destination=3d771c9ebf8b

Check it out.

Margriet has meat balls over noodles for supper and they sure smell good. Hope she made enough! She also built a Swedish Church Bread for tomorrow's coffee after church. Of course I will take any and all good compliments!

It is interesting to look at the webcam from Enschede (http://www.enschede.nl/SPY/CamPage.htm). The 8" of snow sure has slowed things down there. Almost no one is in the square most of the time. Still no snowplows either. It appears to be a very wet snow, sticking to the trees.

All of the wood I had cut and split is now stacked and ready for use. When I finished yesterday, I tried to put the canvas tarp back over the splitter, I discovered that I had piled about half of the wood on the tarp. Had to make do with some plastic tarps, until I got it stacked. More to cut and split soon too.

Guess it is time to end. Have a good one.

<><

Dusty

11/26/05 6:00 A.M.
20 F, Cloudy, N wind 3 mph.

Good morning,

Just a light dusting of snow out this morning. Suspect all I will need to do is to sweep it off of the deck and ramp. Temperature is to warm to day and the weatherman is talking of rain tomorrow. Oh goddie!

The last Saturday of gun deer season for this year. Wonder how many deer are hanging on the buck pole. It appears that the weather up there improved for them (snow and some cold) so at least they well have good hunting. Probably also a good sized group in camp today, so will be making a lot of drives. The last weekend was always more fun since we had another subject to tease folks about - not in shape. Those of us who had been there for the entire season and our "woods" legs. Our bodies had gotten used to all of the walking - especially uphill. :-) Actually we had been over the drives so often that year we had learned where to step and not to step, or the road signs to a particular location. But, just the same, teasing is good. Especially for the new ones in camp - no matter how many years they have hunted.

The dressing for our Cornish hens was made from fruit bread this year. When it came time to make the dressing, we discovered the bread set aside had gone south. The only other bread in the house was the fruit bread. As it turned out, the combination was really very good and will probably try to do that again.

Short this morning, have to get out an sweep snow and get the day a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,


Chris <><

Uff-da!

11/25/05 4:49 P.M.
20 F, Almost dark with clouds, W wind 4 mph.

Good evening,

It is the warmest it has been all day. Looks as though the next few days will have a slow warm up, enough to dump some rain on us Sunday. The radar shows we are getting snow, but it isn't hitting the ground. Margriet chatted with one of her brothers this afternoon and he said they have 20 cm. (about 8") of snow on the ground! Opened up the webcam from Enschede (http://www.enschede.nl/SPY/CamPage.htm) and sure enough - there is snow on the ground. Kind of cool as there were some "young" folks in the square throwing snowballs, or at least it looked like it. No snowplow has gone through yet, so really was rather pretty. Wish we had the snow here instead of there. There is a snow advisory for the southern part of the state, but I think we will miss out on most of it.

Yesterday was a very quiet day for us with a lot of food. Really good food too! The little birds were prepared perfectly and we ate too much. The idea was to eat only half a bird each, which we did, and have the leftover bird with the leftover dressing. The dressing was excellent too and we ate too much. The sweet potatoes were almost as good as the Yam-yam Lady (Brenda)made them a couple of years ago. We decided they were acceptable. We ate too much. Margriet had made some snacks to eat while everything was in the oven. They too were good and we ate too much. Did i mention that we ate too much? We ate so much that we had to have the pumpkin pie much later in the afternoon. That too was very good. We ate too much of that too!

I did manage to block and split about half of the logs I had on the bunk this afternoon. The chainsaw rain out of gas, so decided that was enough blocking for the day and turned to splitting. I have a pretty good pile of wood split and ready for stacking. Looks like I will have about a face cord stacked when finished stacking what I have split. Probably an equal amount yet to be blocked and split. One log, about 16" diameter 8' piece of ash, really made the splitter grunt a couple of times, but split it very well. The rest was a bit less strenuous for the splitter. Sure glad I have the splitter now, though I had some doubt if I should invest in it several years ago. With the kids gone, I don't think I could keep up anymore with the amount of wood needed to be split each year. Do have to get a better way of keeping the wood dry yet - someday.

When I was about half finish splitting wood for the day, the LP truck showed up. We were beginning to wonder if they had forgotten about us. This is the first time since March or April that it was refilled. It still had about 35-40% of gas yet. That figures out to be about $65.00/month for heat, hot water, and cooking. Wish that would be true the rest of the year.

The price of gasoline is down to "only" $2.219/ gallon. That is a lot down since the highest price, but still 45-50 cents/gallon higher than last year at this time. We still restrict our driving very severely.

Time to get to other things. Hope you had a thankful day too.


In Christ My Saviour,


Chris <><

Gotta' find my long-johns!

11/24/05 6:00 A.M.
06 F, Snow NW wind 16 mph, 43 mph gusts, -12 F wind chill

Happy Thanksgiving,,

It is cool and windy out this morning. The snow seems to be moving horizontal rather than coming down. At times it is impossible to see the part-time neighbor's house. Supposed to be like this all day too. Started the old furnace as I am worried about the water pipes freezing under the house. At least that adds some heat there too. Coldest day so far this season.

Margriet baked a pumpkin pie yesterday, so things are getting in order for our big meal. Sounds like apple glazed Cornish hen with vegetable stuffing, sweet potatoes (ala Brenda the yam-yam lady), dressing, salad, and other goodies make up the menu. Suspect we will have the big meal during the afternoon, rather than noon or supper time. We are looking forward to it - and the leftovers.

I just checked the weather at deer camp. They have 05 F with 29 mph winds. I bet they will be out hunting today, but sticking close to the river and the bottoms. With this kind of weather up there, the deer head for the bottoms and bed down. The same happens when there is deep snow. You almost have to step on the deer to get them to move. Drives tend to be shorter and the number of meals during the day seem to increase - in number and quantity. Bet the barrel heater is simmering in the main cabin and the bunkhouse. Probably rather cold in the bunkhouse early this morning. I used to be the guy who started the fire in the bunkhouse in the morning, while I got dressed, then went to the main cabin and did the same while I made breakfast for the crew. I got the first cup of coffee too! Then the rest could have some.

I got the last of the logs onto the bunk and ready to make into firewood yesterday. Quit about the time it got dark. The butt log was the most difficult to get- it was all I could do to lift one end at a time onto the wagon. About half way to the bunk, the log slid backwards on the wagon, lifting the front wheels off the ground and dragging. Not easy to pull! Got the chainsaw out and cut off the 32" of the log and everything went well after that. Had to chuckle at myself though. I planned to cut and split the logs today, but think I will pass until the wind dies down a bit.

So far it appears the dose of drain cleaner has done the trick on the sewer problems of the past day or so. Thank goodness! Did a double dose, just to make sure.

Time to get to other things - like Thanksgiving. Enjoy yours and the blessings God continues to give to you.

In Christ My Saviour,


Chris <><

Too warm and no more snow

1:50 P.M.
32 F, NW wind 8 mph gusting 20 mph.

Temperature is at freezing point, so everything is melting and getting soggy outside! Everything dripping down my neck! I think we got a couple inches of snow overnight until about noon.

The plugged shower turned out to be a plugged sewer line, somewhere past the hours. I really don't want to dig up the pipe again!! I got some gel drain cleaner and will try that first. This time I will put a clean out near the house so I can more easily get at it. At present I have a rubber coupling which I can remove, but that requires a lot of digging to get at it. If the drain cleaner doesn't work, I will need to go to Fleet Farm to get the clean out. Can't do that until Friday, since they are closed for Thanksgiving. Just in case, I brought in the "prota-potty" from storage to use in the meantime.

I have brought in a good share of the tree I cut down the other day. It is very wet and soggy digging the logs out from under the snow. So far, I haven't slipped and fallen in the mess on the ground. Now that I have said that, I probably will.

Got a notice in the mail today that I have to bring a snack for after the late service on Sunday. Margriet has it all planned out, so all I have to do is the quality control part.

Back to hauling logs, want to get the cut up today too.

Chris <><

Picture pretty outside

11/23/05 6:05 A.M.
28 F, Snowing, S wind 9 mph.

Good morning,

light snow is falling outside and while there is a heavy overcast, the scene is beautiful. We only have about a half inch on the ground at the moment, but might get up to a couple of inches before noon. I doubt it though. The snow is supposed to end about noon, then the winds kick up. Just in time for the hunters heading to various deer camps.

Remember one year this same thing happened while I was teaching in Waupaca. Had a serious snow storm on Wednesday, several inches causing really bad driving. At the time, we still were in the old high school and US # 10 went through town, right by the school - bumper to bumper. Julie had taken me into school that morning and she and Dori came to pick me up, with the Mustang pulling a trailer with two snowmobiles. Some how she made it in on time and was able to find a parking space outside of the shop door. We then drove to Menomonie to drop them off and I headed to deer camp. We got only about half way to Menomonie in more time than it should have taken to get there, stopped and called, so the folks would not worry. The total trip took about twice as long as it should have. I finally tumbled into camp about 8 hours behind my planned schedule. Needless to say, there was not much sleep that night before the first drive the next morning. It was a beautiful season for the rest of the time with a couple of feet of fresh snow on the ground.

I wrote one of these yesterday before Bible study, but for some reason the browser shut down before I got a chance to send it. I use Enigma Browser a lot instead of Internet Explorer and was yesterday. Not too sure what happened, but all of a sudden it went down. We were in a hurry to get to church, so didn't do anything about it yesterday, getting busy with other things when we got home. I do like the Enigma Browser. It seems easier to do multiple tasks with than IE. Easier to read too.

Bible study went rather well again yesterday. We had way too much to eat, but the time was very well spent. Seems we are taking forever to complete this workbook though. We covered only one page again yesterday. Seems the conversation and thought gets pretty deep often. Like that. We are still on our quest of prayer and corporate prayer.

Margriet woke up with a sore shoulder and back. Not sure how she acquired it, but she may have slept weird on it or something. It sure is disabling, but she was able to make muffins for breakfast yesterday. Hope it disappears soon. Not fun to see her hurting.

Instead of our normal supply run to Green Bay yesterday after Bible study, we just made a trip to pick up a drain auger. A couple of days ago, the shower decided it didn't want to accept water down the drain very fast, something is plugging it. All of the drains in the house work well. I do have a couple of augers, but all are too heavy to make the sharp bends in this drain. So now we have another one in our inventory! It is the main project for today. A little too cool to shower outside now. As soon as we picked it up - back home again. Margriet had about enough car riding for the day. Maybe more.

The road to our west is still closed, thanx to the new pipeline going through, so had to take the long way home again. The road east is still a mess. One pass and the van looks like a mud bank. Sure hope they get it cleaned up before Easter. At present, besides the mud, it is an obstacle course to go through, trying to miss construction equipment and other things in the way. But the road is open!

Time to check the woodstove and get the day a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,


Chris <><

Very lazy day

11/21/05 5:45 A.M.
36 F. Cloudy, W wind 12 mph

Good morning,

What a lazy day yesterday. Other than go to church, we did very little. Didn't even add anything to this blog! No wood cut, but there was some drizzle coming down, so didn't miss the discomfort any. We even stayed up late watching a documentary on the end of the Civil War that I had not seen before. Didn't finish it though as it really got tired out.

I did manage to build a stuffed squash for lunch though. We went to the early church service, so I had time to prepare it. Actually we bought a small butternut squash a bit ago. I tried a different recipe using apples, raisins, and cinnamon to the hamburger mixture for the stuffing. It was a bit different and rather good. We managed to polish off the entire squash, but there is some extra stuffing for lunch today.

After church we always go to Algoma (to make sure the city hasn't fallen into the lake yet) and stop at one of the grocery stores to check out the new bargains of the week. I picked up some pork neck bones, so started some soup after lunch. Cooked the meat most of the afternoon, then added the beans. I will finish it today, so we should have soup for lunch most of the week. Sure smelled good cooking.

From the sounds of it, the deer kill around here was up some on Saturday, but down on Sunday from the registrations taken. We had some snow on the ground Saturday, but it disappeared Sunday, accounting for more deer taken. Heard less shooting Sunday too. It is not good weather to keep venison, so they have to be butchered pretty quickly. Wonder how the guys are doing at the cabin. Monday through Wednesday is usually the quiet time in camp. Also the time when I shot most of my deer over the years too. I don't Carol is still alive and Frank died a number of years ago (the matriarch and patriarch of the camp), but it usually would be only Frank, Carol, sons Leo and Rex and/or Eleard in camp along with me. It was a really nice quiet, family type experience. Wednesday night, those who had to work started to come back into camp again and everything became very noisy and active again. Played a lot of cribbage and had many good times.

I did manage to watch a very good NASCAR race yesterday. Not many accidents and some really good racing. It was a long race, time-wise, and the final for the season. At least a couple of Fords won the race, but I wonder what I will watch on TV for the rest of time until the racing season starts again. Maybe some bull-riding?

While looking for something else, I found a floppy disk we carry with us when we travel containing information we can swap between the notebook and these machines when necessary. One of the files on the disk is an address file. It will totally make the task of recouping the address books so much easier. I had totally forgotten about the disk, or that we bought an external floppy drive for the notebook just for that purpose. I suspect some of the email addresses at least will be a bit outdated, but at least I have the majority of them.

Time to get the day a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,


Chris <><

The hot is here!

2:24 P.M.
41 F, Cloudy, WSW wind, 6 mph

It is HOT outside. Just cut down a 50' tall ash tree and I am sweating. Should not happen this time of year. The couple of inches of snow is rapidly disappearing and turning to water - everywhere. There is a layer of ice over some water in front of my blocking buck, but that will not support my weight much longer. I laid four logs from a smaller tree on the bunk feeding the buck, but I had water coming up between my toes. Then it will be time to either put my knee boots on or get wet feet. Think I will opt for the knee boots.

After cutting the notch in the tree, then starting the felling cut, I really wasn't satisfied as to how the cutting process was going. Stopped while there was a rather large hinge yet in place and went to get my felling wedges. I didn't want to walk under the tree where it was going to fall, so went in the opposite direction to the shed - right through a patch of wild roses! They sure got my attention as the thorns went right through my jacket! I was about back to the tree, avoiding the roses, when it came down, thanx to a small gust of wind. I really had little to worry about, it fell right where I intended, but I am more cautious after the episode a couple of years ago.

I was going to cut down another ash close by, but with the hot weather causing the upper swamp to fill with water again, I decided to wait until it stiffens up some with colder weather. My path to the other trees I want to cut down is also blocked by the water in the lower swamp. At least I have one good sized tree down to chew on for the next day or so - heat permitting.

I have not heard that much shooting around here today. There have been a few flurries of several shots each, but not the numbers we expect. Don't know if it is fewer deer or hunters. The driveway has a lot of tracks following it and crossing it. Usually they use the hummock between the swamps as a bedding area - lots of pines and cedar to lay down under for cover.

Did a couple of uptown chores this morning and noticed the price of gasoline has dropped another four cents. It is the first time it has been down over a dollar a gallon since the high of #3.259/gallon. I would not be too mad if the price dropped another dollar or so.

Back to chewing on trees. Coffee is now cold!

<><

Blowing it

11/19/05 5:15 A.M.
36 F, Cloudy, SSW wind 9 mph.

What kind of weather is this for deer hunting? It is warmer this morning than when I went to bed last night! I checked the weather for deer camp this morning, and it is about the same there. According to the radar yesterday, they did get some light snow and it was a bit cooler than here, but the temperature is supposed to be up in the 40's and some rain expected! Bet the woods are a mess, but pretty quiet. Kind of reminds me of one year when it got up to 64 F with heavy rain on Monday and dropped to -7 F. That night. One day we were looking for red jogging shorts and the next wearing almost everything we brought along to stay warm. I hope they get some good hunting weather, rather than feel like they are in the tropics.

Margriet spent a very busy day yesterday baking cookies. She got about 150 sourdough Ghost Town cookies ready to go to Grace Lutheran Church in Long Beach, Mississippi. We also have a block of coffee ( vacuum packed ) to put into the box too. Probably will get it to UPS on Monday. Hope they will enjoy them.

Since she worked so hard all day, I took her out for fish last night. We went to Slovan for their trout boil. As usual it was good. Margriet had it too and the serving gal really filled up her plate. Must have been good, because she emptied her plate. I was surprised by the few folks who were there. By the time we left, there were a bunch more, but usually for the opening day of deer season the next day, many of the city dudes go there for Friday Fish Fry. The group that did come in before we left were mainly young families with little kids.

I spent most of my day taking apart and reassembling differently an small ceramic space heater someone had brought into the hardware store when I worked there for repair. I could not be repaired so I took it out of the trash to salvage the fan from it. I had taken the fan out several years ago and have used it for moving air around since. Now I took the case, rather well built of metal, and removed the no longer working heating elements. The fan is not back in the case, but backwards, blowing the opposite direction. There was a perforated metal screen to protect the heating elements. Now it keep the grasshoppers out of the fan. In stead of sitting on a horizontal surface, it will be hung from the wall, blowing air through the wall furnace. I will hang it from some parts of and old metal display, also salvaged from the store. As Dad used to say,"Making something from nothing."

Need to get some firewood cut today, so better get the day a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,


Chris <><

White dust

11/18/05 6:15 A.M.
19 F, Cloudy, SSW wind 10 mph.

Good morning,

There is a dusting, about an inch, of snow outside this morning. Should clear off cloudy for the rest of the day, then more snow dusting, or possibly rain, overnight again tonight. Appears we are in a cycle of this kind of weather for the near future, with slowly warming temperatures before cooling off again next weekend.

With my discovery of deer hunting starting tomorrow, the memories of the good old days have been flooding back. If I were hunting this year, at this moment I would be somewhere northwest of Wausau on the way north. The most poignant memories are of the first year, 1967. Not only was it the year I shot my first deer, but started a chapter in my life I really enjoyed and learned a great deal. Someday I will get back up there again and swap some lies with the guys again.

Yesterday, returning from the post office in the afternoon, I watched a large buck trot across the Winding Road and into our part-time neighbor's woods just top the west of our driveway. Looked like a 6-8 pointer, probably one of two we saw on Sunday on the way home from church. Then we saw to bucks, one 6 point and the other 8 points, along with two doe in about the same area. Sure were pretty. Bet they taste good too.

The woodstove sure is having problems getting started this morning for some reason. The habit of picking up an armful of firewood on the way in has come back again. Have to get out and cut more wood too. One of the items on today's agenda. The really important item for today, is getting a fan hooked up under the furnace in the dining room. Not too sure if I will put one on the other furnace or not. Might just use convection to keep the room warm. Don't need it as warm as in there. Seemed to work well last night. Sure is a bunch quieter than the old furnace!

Time to get to other things.

In Christ My Saviour,


Chris <><

It works!

5:19 P.M.
19 F, WSW wind 6 mph

Finally have the second furnace in and working. No hang-ups or miss-communications today. No leaks in the gas line either. Guess that part I haven't forgotten over the years. Glad to have that project finished. Want to hook up a fan to move the warm are around some, also do a better job of the fan on the first furnace.

I robbed the bank this morning then went to the post office and lost most of it there. Had to pick up a money order to pay for the LP gas and to send a package. At least the money was in my pocket for 15-20 minutes.

The roads around here are in pretty good shape. The only problem is on the back roads that go east/west through the woods. The snow has stuck there and is some polished. On a ride to the post office in Kewaunee this afternoon, discovered that our road is now passable to the highway. The road is still a mess and not totally clear yet, but expect that to happen in the next couple of days. With it open, we will be able to save some mileage every time we go somewhere. Now if they hurry and get the roads to the west open, we will be back to normal again.

Margriet has been busy wrapping "stuff" to send across the puddle for Christmas. Seemed like every flat surface in the house had something on it for a time. She is having a ball doing it! I am having a ball watching her! We have to get the packages out soon so, hopefully, they will have them in time for Christmas. Last year our timing, or the postal services, was way off. I think Christmas may come this year.

Margriet has some Leber Kaese in the pan, along with a couple of huge breaded mushrooms and fired eggs. Sounds like a good meal to me and it sure smells good too. We will be eating high off the hog tonight.


Chris <><

The white is here!

11/17/05 7:00 A.M.
16 F, Clear, NW wind 18 mph, Wind chill 2 F

Good morning,

We finally have a white world outside of the window. The snow continued all day and into the night yesterday. Not the picture type, big flakes, but it accumulated just the same. Do wish the soil was frozen, as this will make everything a mess in the woods for a while, the driveway too. I really do like this time of year, and the following winter, as everything changes, looking clean and quiet. Even the wind is quieter when there is snow muffling the sound. Suppose I need to find the snow boots too now.

Got the fire going in the woodstove. It is a really nice continuing experience to have a wood fire and stove to tend to. It really does tend to slow one's activity down and to enjoy the time more. Of course there are the associated sights and smells of a wood fire that is special to me. Love it. Too many folks in too much of a hurry these days.

Margriet and I had a miss communication yesterday, so didn't get the second furnace hooked up the main gas line. Everything else should be ready. I asked her how long it would be before she started to cook supper, so I could shut off the gas without interrupting, and she thought I was telling her to start supper. Her answer caused me not to shut off the gas. Oh well. Really not a bid deal, but would have been nice to have a little more heat in that end of the house. I have shut off the old furnace when the first new one went into service and have not started it since. It was 64 F inside when I woke up this morning. The other furnace should make it a bit warmer than that, especially when it really gets cold. Today the second furnace should get hooked up and running.

We have our Thanksgiving dinner menu, coming too soon, pretty well in hand. Decided to have Rock Cornish hens as the main dish. Margriet found a recipe for apple glazed Cornish hen that sounded pretty good. We picked up a couple when we were in Green Bay on Tuesday. I really was surprised at the differences in price from store to store. Many were 35-50% higher than we paid. Not too sure what the difference is. Still have to pick up some mincemeat for the pie, but otherwise everything is here.

With the new snow comes many accidents, mostly fender bender type. In and around Green Bay there were well over 100 in a short time. The same was true in the Appleton area. The local police/fire departments said they had a long waiting list and were only taking those with injuries. Just heard on the TV there is a 9 car pile-up with one on fire! We will find out how the roads are as we need to go to the bank and post office this morning.

Time to get after breakfast and get the day a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,


Chris <><

2:48 P.M.
30 F Light snow W wind 17 mph, gusts to 36 mph

The snow started while we went up town to do some errands. Just very light, snall flakes. The "feel" of the outside has changed greatly. No longer the heavy, wet air of the past week or so, but rather crisp and dry now. I like that feel much better. It is more of a feeling of winter - as it shoule be at this time of year.

Just made three mistakes cutting and flaring the gas line tubing for the furnace. Decided to have a cup of coffee before making any others. If I can cut and curve the tubing correctly, the job would have been done by now. the real problem is a short curve where it goes through the wall. The top of the built-in dresser is too close to the shut-off valve, not allowing much room to work. Really am trying not to put any kinks in the tubing. I do have a tube bender, but the flare nut gets in the way to make a short enough curve. Will go out and find the 4# hammer and adjust it some!

I finally got around to putting the new grate into the woodstove yesterday. Now I am learning how to start a fire all over again. This one holds the wood higer than the old one and has wider spaced bars, rather than a casting with slots in it. The castiron ones that I found were too big to fit into the woodstove. Might get one for next year and cut it down to size, if I can keep the feet on it and fit it in. Think I will cut the feet on the new one shorter. The other alternative is to leave a layer of ashes in the bottom, which might realy be the better solution. Time will tell.

Now back to cutting and adjusting of copper tubing.

<><

Missed - so far.

11/16/05 7:00 A.M.
36 F Cloudy WSW wind 23 mph, gusts to 34 mph.

Good morning,

Up again. Went to bed too early last night a little after 7:00 P.M. I was falling asleep, sitting in a chair. I woke up a bit before 3:00 A.M. remembering that I had not taken my evening medications. Took the medications, then could not get back to sleep again. Stayed up for over an hour, before resuming my slumber. Really got up late this morning.

We missed the snow - so far. There is a pretty good sized piece of real estate, NNW of Wausau to the Michigan border, which received 8"-10" of snow. Bet it is wet too as the temperature has not been very low and the soil isn't frozen yet. A good portion of northern Wisconsin got snow in lesser amounts. Several schools are closed this morning too. First of the year for snow! The snow ended before getting to Green Bay. We got a lot of rain and now the wind has really kicked up considerably. Don't really need either today. I need to get some things done outside. I pulled up the webcam for Enschede and it looks the same there as here - wet and cold.

Deer hunting gun season starts on Saturday. It really snuck up on me this year. My head told me it still was a couple of weeks off yet. Listening to the news last night, there was a story about the hunt predictions for this year and the light bulb came on in my head. Someday I would like to get back to doing that again. I really do miss it - when I remember it. Bet the woods are a mess with the wet and warm we have had this fall. Miss the bird hunting I used to do too.

Our trip to Green Bay was wet. The weather man said it would not start to rain until after 6:00 P.M., but he was wrong for the first time. It started to rain a bit before 2:00 P.M.! It really rained too. Didn't see any cats or dogs raining down, but did see some buckets - was garbage pick-up day for Green Bay. We really didn't buy anything exciting, but I did manage to trade in the damaged gas line tee. Hope to get the second furnace working today. Everything is ready, except connecting to the gas.

Bible study went very well and the Swedish Church Bread pretty much disappeared. I actually got a taste too. We really had some very good discussion. Most of it was centered around the definitions of words and how we implement them in our daily lives. Not what we say we do. Was interesting. A pretty good sized group too. In the process, we actually covered a whole page in the workbook!

I put a pork hock and some beans on to cook Monday to make some baked beans. The process isn't finished, but they sure smelled good cooking on the woodstove. Will continue the process today and maybe we will have something for lunch during the next few days. We haven't had baked beans for some time.

Time to get breakfast going along with the day.

In Christ My Saviour,


Chris <><

Snow?

11/15/05 6:15 A.M.
36 F Dark SE wind @ 16 mph

Good morning,

The word is that we have snow on the way. It has not arrived yet, but I really don't think it really will get here, at least not in the amount first predicted. Looks like the northwest part of the state will get the most of it. They started out predicting 6"-10", but that has been reduced considerably now. There also has been a large chunk of rain to the south of Milwaukee and Madison. Looks like it will stay there and head east. I suspect that we will get some drizzle and possibly some flurries late this afternoon and night, but that is all. I hope.

We are heading to Green Bay today after Bible study on a supply trip. It was something of a challenge to come up with a shopping list. Fortunately we found the one from last week, so I could enter it again after I reinstalled the program. The same program also has our calendar and that was lost. Have been putting back various items as I remember them or they become needed. I am sure I have forgotten most of them. It also contained our bill paying schedule. Probably will remember those as we get new bills. We really don't have that many of them though.

The price of gasoline is finally coming down some. The last time we had the car out of the yard (or started for that matter) on Sunday, the price was $2.339, down from a high of $3.259 a couple of months ago. I can't believe I am saying that it would be nice to have gasoline at $1.799 again! Our Governor is having a hearing as to why the price went so high when the oil companies are receiving record high profits. Probably will not do any good, other than he hopes to make some political points in the deal.

I did manage to get the wall furnace in the bedroom installed yesterday. The only thing left is to hook up the gas line. This one went in a lot easier than the first one. I kind of knew how it went in. While putting together the fittings for the gas line, I discovered the Tee to insert into the main line had damaged threads on it. Looks like one flare connection had the threads cut twice on it, but starting at a different point. Good thing I noticed it before cutting the main line.

The only problem I really did have was when I drilled the pilot hole through the wall. Instead of drilling perpendicular to the wall, the drill headed a bit southwest about half an inch. After a bit of re-cutting, and large trim pieces, everything went together and is tight. I didn't need to use any of the flue pipes which came with the new furnace, but rather used what was left over from the other one. Now I have a complete set when/if I need to move the furnaces for some reason.

Margriet managed to make a Swedish Church Bread, but now we have to find a Swedish church to be able to eat it in. She won't let me try any quality control checks on it! Actually, we will take it to Bible study this morning. Sure smells good though.

Guess it is time to get to other things, like breakfast, and the day a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,


Chris <><

Going in all directions!

11/14/05 4:30 A.M.
26 F dark NWN wind 3 mph.

Good morning,

A bit cooler this morning than the past few. Really crazy weather for the past few weeks. Most days above normal, then a couple of below normal temperature. I stuck my nose outside as I went to bed last night, it felt as if the colder weather is on the way and here to stay I think. Talking of a snow/rain mix tomorrow morning. I really do wish the weather would make up it's mind as to what season it is. Has been interesting.

We did get a dumping of rain Saturday night. Guessing by the amounts left in things outside, it must have been close to an inch. The area around the house looks like it is early spring with all of the water around. The firewood buck is surrounded by water. Sure hope it drains away soon. Suspect there will be a film of ice on it this morning too. Have my eye on a couple of trees to bring down in the next couple of days.

8:00 A.M.
29 F cloudy calm wind

So the woodstove is simmering and so is the bacon. I will add some scrambled eggs and leftover fried potatoes to the pan, calling it breakfast. We picked up some 1# bags of "baby" carrots @ 4/$1.00 yesterday. Will try freezing some and dehydrating of them for future use. Also got some big mushrooms for cheap. We like them coated and then fried for a meal, usually lunch. Today we will pick up some pork sausage rolls and links @ $1.00/#. We keep looking for the bargains and putting them into the freezer and such.

Still fiddling with this machine so far this morning. Will have to get after some other useful things soon though.

11:00 A.M.
39 F cloudy cloudy S 6 mph wind

Trying to do a couple of things at the same time. Some what less than great success! Tried to write a cover letter to send in with a bill payment and discovered the printer is not installed - yet! It now is after the 4th try. Then discovered I don't remember how to set up the address format for the envelop. Still don't have that totally figured out, but will eventually. Discovered the scanner was not yet installed either. I had forgotten about that. Seems it needs something in the neighborhood of 2,800+ minutes to install! Only 2% there at the moment.

I took down a couple of mirrors to hang the new wall furnace. Now in the process of laying out the mounting holes and the opening for the exhaust. I will put an 8" hole through the wall. His unit is about 4" narrower than the first one I put in. Mounts to only one stud.

Nearly time for lunch

In Christ My Saviour,


Chris >?>

I been blowed away!

11/13/05 5:00 P.M.
40 F Sundown WNW 14 mph, gusts to 50 mph

Good evening,

I am making progress at building this machine some. It is sooooooooooooo slow though. I didn't realize I had so many programs on this thing that I use often. I must have about a dozen yet to load. Some that I have loaded, I have had to redo several times until I got it right. One of the most annoying problems has been to get the desktop right. I try to set it up to use two or more program windows visible at the same time, and still read them. I think I may have finally gotten close now. Still a couple of tweaks to make yet.

One program that caused me some problems was Ad-aware. I load it from the web, but when I looked it up, I downloaded one with a very similar name, but not the same one. This one took over the internet access from this machine, so when I uninstalled it, it also disconnected the link to the internet. Took me a couple of tries to figure out how to get it back, then load the right program. I still have a bunch of CD's to down load yet.

One of the things I will really miss as time goes on is my addresses for email as well as snail mail. Probably take me a couple of months to get most of them back again. Also try to remember all of the websites I use for various research and writing.

Our semi-annual meeting went fairly well today. Forgot to ask for a vote on the budget, until the Pastor's wife reminded me. Used the story of the fishes and loaves for the devotion, comparing it to our stewardship and our life as a church family.

Today's wind was from a little different direction, so it didn't hit the house as bad as the other day. I still managed to move some different things around though - like the table on the front deck to the ground and an extension ladder down to the ground. I will make a trek to the road tomorrow morning to see if any more trees are down. I would not doubt it.

Tomorrow I expect I will start to install the other wall furnace in the north bedroom. It will be nice to have it hooked up. Then all I have to worry about is heating the crawl space a bit to keep the pipes from freezing.

We went to Slovan Country Inn for lunch today. The place was really busy, which surprised me. There was an anniversary party filling up the dance hall and a birthday party that took over about half of the dining room. Usually this time of year is un-busy, kind of a break between summer and deer season. Instead of ribs, they had beef tips. They were good for a change and I ate too much. Often times when they run out of ribs, they will serve prime rib which I really like a lot.

Guess this is enough for tonight. Need to get back to my confuser and get it in order.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><

)(&&^&^#%$*&^)@"L:}>%

11/11/05 7:45 P.M.

Good evening,

This really has not been a productive week for us.

Yesterday morning we had a power outage. After Wednesday, with all of the high winds, it really didn't surprise me. Trees falling down on power lines. But this happened a day too late! After 30-45 minutes, the power came back on again, but this machine would not. It kept telling me that it could not find the operating system. It had happened before, but with repeated restarting, eventually it would find the operating system. After several hour of trying, I finally gave up! Even took the case off and cleaned the inside (it really needed it too), but still no luck. I took it to Algoma for the "Professional to look at - hard drive died! (*^*&%*&$

Much to my surprise, he had a new hard drive and the cost, installed, was considerably less than I expected. I had visions of a CPU in my future. Not only did I tell him to repair it, but it would be done in about 3 hours! So before supper time, I had a computer back again.

Now the really hard part is to set it up again. I had much on the hard drive (like address books, short cuts, programs, &c.) that is difficult to put on the new one. I had pretty well prepared for problems, putting most of my files on memory sticks, but never expected the hard drive to go bad. So .... now I have a pile of work ahead of me. One of the biggest loses is my "favorites" file to open websites I constantly use. There are a lot of them. Now I have to find them again.

I have been spending most of the day, in between acts, trying to put this back together again. Some things I have redone several times. A couple are still not set right yet. Might take me a couple more months! This definitely was not on my 2-DO list! I even had a hard time finding and setting this site up! Probably the really hardest task is to set up the desktop and the way I use it. It is one of those things that are not changed much and I have forgotten how to change things to get them back to the way I like them.

I did manage to get the tree which fell into the driveway cleaned up today. Also got most of the roof problem taken care of too, except for a couple of small corners you pay attention to. The washer is back together and working. Only problem with that is the operating dial is a bit off, but that will be taken care off in the not too distant future.

This has been a week! I don't really want to repeat it. We didn't go to Lay School of Ministry this weekend to take care of all the problems. Fortunately, the weather has been hot and the wind quiet today. This has been a weird fall. Should have snow on the ground, deer hunting is just around the corner, and it is about 60F for high temperature! When the power went off, we were very happy to have the new wall furnace along with the woodstove. Also glad it was not 10 degrees below zero!

Think it is time to bring this to an end and hit the hay.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><

No snow - yet!

11/15/05 6:15 A.M.
36 F Dark SE wind @ 16 mph

Good morning,

The word is that we have snow on the way. It has not arrived yet, but I really don't think it really will get here, at least not in the amount first predicted. Looks like the northwest part of the state will get the most of it. They started out predicting 6"-10", but that has been reduced considerably now. There also has been a large chunk of rain to the south of Milwaukee and Madison. Looks like it will stay there and head east. I suspect that we will get some drizzle and possibly some flurries late this afternoon and night, but that is all. I hope.

We are heading to Green Bay today after Bible study on a supply trip. It was something of a challenge to come up with a shopping list. Fortunately we found the one from last week, so I could enter it again after I reinstalled the program. The same program also has our calendar and that was lost. Have been putting back various items as I remember them or they become needed. I am sure I have forgotten most of them. It also contained our bill paying schedule. Probably will remember those as we get new bills. We really don't have that many of them though.

The price of gasoline is finally coming down some. The last time we had the car out of the yard (or started for that matter) on Sunday, the price was $2.339, down from a high of $3.259 a couple of months ago. I can't believe I am saying that it would be nice to have gasoline at $1.799 again! Our Governor is having a hearing as to why the price went so high when the oil companies are receiving record high profits. Probably will not do any good, other than he hopes to make some political points in the deal.

I did manage to get the wall furnace in the bedroom installed yesterday. The only thing left is to hook up the gas line. This one went in a lot easier than the first one. I kind of knew how it went in. While putting together the fittings for the gas line, I discovered the Tee to insert into the main line had damaged threads on it. Looks like one flare connection had the threads cut twice on it, but starting at a different point. Good thing I noticed it before cutting the main line.

The only problem I really did have was when I drilled the pilot hole through the wall. Instead of drilling straight and perpendicular to the wall, I let the drill wander to the southwest about a half an inch. Of course I didn't notice it until I had the 8" hole cut through and tried to insert the first flue pipe! I did a little re-cutting and managed to make it work. Good thing for wide trim pieces! The left over flue pipes from the first furnace enough to also install this furnace. Now I have enough left to use when I move them if needed. Cool.

Margriet made some Swedish Church bread yesterday - but will not let me do any quality control checks on it. Sometimes she can be not so nice. :-) (-: Have to take it to Bible study this morning. Hope there will be enough left for me to at least get a taste of it.

I put the pot of baked beans on the the woodstove yesterday to cook. Will continue the process when we get home and maybe have them ready for eating tonight. They sure smell good cooking. Don't think we have had baked beans since last winter. We like them.

Guess it is time to get to other things and get ready for the day.

In Christ My Saviour,


Chris <><

FRUSTRATED!!!!

11/10/05 6:15 A.M.
32 F sunrise NW wind 3 mph

Good morning,

The winds have subsided and it didn't blow my socks off. The gusts eventually got to be just a tick less than 50 mph. It blew right up the driveway, so we felt it this little house. One tree came down near Winding Road, partially blocking the driveway. Guess I will be out cleaning that up today. It was one of the trees I have been eye-balling to take down so this didn't happen. The tree had been dead for a couple of years, so will make good firewood. Other things were blown around in the yard, so have some picking up and covering up again. There were white-caps on the Kewaunee river as I went past it yesterday. That doesn't happen often. Since the wind was mostly from a western direction, looking out at the lake, it looked rather calm. Seemed rather strange. Also strange was the Department of Natural Resources was putting trout fingerling into the river for future fishermen to catch. All of the workers were bundled up in their winter best and really looked cold.

Margriet manage to build a couple of loaves of homemade sourdough bread yesterday. I think one loaf is about half gone already! It don't taste too bad! Had to make some quality control tests before dinner yesterday. It also was very good with the chicken we had for supper last night. Can taste the toasted cheese sandwiches for lunch already too.

I still am totally frustrated with the washing machine. In the process of taking apart and trying to reassemble it. I knocked off a small indicator lamp, power on, and broke a very fine wire on the timer. Lamp was glued to the washer case in front of an opening in the case. Would have been nice if it was put in with the clip molded into the the lamp instead of glue. Did manage to get that repaired OK. The wire was a different story. After getting most of the washer back together it was time to reconnect the wire. Got a soldering iron and proceeded to solder remains together. The solder would not stick! Then I discovered that the wire was made from aluminum! I never gave that a thought! Will have to figure out and alternative, probably a mechanical connection. Have to dig out some of my old appliance servicing kit from another life to find something I guess.

The wind yesterday also created a problem with our roof. We will be missing the Lay School of Ministry this weekend to take care of the problem. I had a feeling there would be a problem yesterday, but the wind prevented me from doing anything about it. Will start on that today too. The temperature is supposed to get near 60 F, with not much wind, so conditions should be favorable to accomplish something up there.

Guess it is time to get to something useful.

In Christ My Saviour,


Chris <><

Breeeeeeeeeeeezy!

11/09/05 4:15 A.M.
52 F Dark W wind 23 mph gusts at 43 mph

Good morning,

Very windy outside this morning and going to get worse before sunset. The wind is really howling outside and making a lot of noise. The temperature is supposed to continue drop all day. High wind warnings are up for most of the state this morning and into the night. Supposed to feel really cool before the day is over.

We had our Church Council meeting last night. It is a couple weeks early, since we have an annual meeting on Sunday. The budget is the real agenda, so little else will be brought forward. The increase is only 4.3% over this year. I assumed it would be a bigger raise. Fortunately our Financial Secretary will give the presentation. I had been talked into the task, but since I have some problems with numbers, I was very doubtful if I could do an adequate job. Glad to get out of the task.

We went to Casco for our Bible Study breakfast yesterday morning. Really had a good time, ate too much (well .... really adequate), and had a large turnout. Mention food and everyone comes! I had a bird's nest and Margriet had a ham and cheese omelet. We really had good conversations and had a chance to listen to some of the experiences Jerry had on his trip south. He was very impressed by the job Grace in Long Beach is doing and over whelm by the destruction there. He will be giving a temple talk during the services on Sunday about his experiences.

After breakfast we headed for Manitowoc to do our supply run. We also wanted to stop at Kitchen Corner, so combined the two in stead of going to Green Bay. It is a bit farther, but more interesting for a change of pace. One of the grocery stores in Two Rivers also had a meat sale, so took advantage of it too. Brought home some spare ribs for $.88/# and chicken drumsticks for $.38/#. We like both. There also is an ALDI store in town, so we were set on the grocery side of our needs. Of course there is a Fleet Farm store also in town, so stopped there an picked up another wall furnace and the necessary fittings. It is smaller, but more expensive since it wasn't on sale as the last one was. Installing this one will be one of the first things on my 2-DO list!

So highway #42 is closed to put the water pipeline through. Don't know how long it will be, but the process is moving right along on the rest of the pipeline. Our local roads are not yet open though. Makes for some interesting driving around the area and many more miles.

The only thing on my agenda today, other than stopping at the drug store, is to get the washing machine back together again. Margriet is in the process of baking bread. Don't mind that activity a bit!

In Christ My Saviour,


Chris <><

Yuck!

11/06/05 2:05 P.M.
45 F Sunny NNW windy 15 mph, gusting to 35 mph

So back again!

We walked out of church today into an absolute YUCK! Fierce north wind with a mix of rain and snow (I call it snain!) coming down. Really not pleasant at all. Now all of that is over and the sun is out. Sure would have been nice if it had been snow instead of snain. Driveway was flooded when we left this morning, so expect the swamp to be some damp too. Don't need no more rain!

We went to Slovan Country Inn for lunch. It is the first time I had food that was less than really good too. The "ribs" they serve every week, is actually pork steak prepared as ribs would be and are very good. Much easier to eat also. For some reason, the portion I had was really dry and tough. Not too sure what happened, the flavor was good, hard to eat. Oh well, the rest of the food was excellent! Including the Belgium pie for desert!

I did manage to get all of the wood blocked and stacked, except some which needed to be split yet. There wasn't enough to fire up the splitter, so it will still be there later. Actually I felt some guilty about going in so early, but as it turned out, the rains started coming shortly after I got inside. Fortunately I got everything under cover first. At least I thought so until getting into the car to go to church. Discovered I had left the chainsaw on the shed step and the shed door open overnight! Not a good thing. Besides the saw getting soaked, so was the inside of the shed.

11/08/05 5:30 A.M.
34 F N wind 3 mph

I see I didn't get this finished or out on Sunday. Oh well.

Spent a very frustrating day yesterday trying to repair our washing machine. I don't have a manual for it, other than how to use it, so am pretty much flying blind on the repair. Not only have my skills faded since having the store, but also the body, mostly my hands, have faded. The original problem was the door hinge coming loose from the cabinet, causing the door to droop seriously. It happened slowly, so Margriet really didn't notice it happening. The two hinges are held to the cabinet by four small bolts, with nuts buried deep inside the cabinet. After taking apart the cabinet some, I discovered that I really needed a 9/32" wrench with about a two foot long handle on it! There is no way for me to get my hand, let alone holding a wrench, to the nuts. I finally slipped a piece of vacuum line tubing over one end of the wrench and was able to wiggle the wrench into position to fit on the nut and then twist it against another part of the washer to tighten it. I also put some "Loc-tite" on the threads so, hopefully, it will not loosen again soon. The washer is still apart. I became so frustrated with the process of reassembly, I gave up for the day.

Chris <><

Up 2 Late

35 F Rain N wind 17 mph

Good morning,

The temperature is finally getting to be more like this time of year, but the rain is really coming down. We got something less than 1" over night and more coming. The rain is supposed to end after lunch. Some areas to the northwest, on the other side of the Bay, have 1" of snow on the ground. That is what it is supposed to be this time of year - not rain.

I got up later than normal this morning for some reason. Didn't stay up that late either. Have to get a-going this morning too, as I need to get to the early service. Not enough hours in the day, or is that night, for sleep today. Guess this will be short for this morning and will pick it up after returning from church.

In Christ My Saviour,


Chris <><

Late Start

42 F Cloudy ESE wind @ 4 mph

Slept in some this morning for some reason. Didn't stay up that late last night, but sure felt good to sleep this morning. Margriet slept really late yesterday. She said that the house was so quiet. Usually she says she wakes up to the normal noises in the house as the day gets started. She forgot that the old furnace has not been running, the main noise in the house in the morning. I usually turned it on about 6:30 A.M. to have the house warm when she wakes up.

So we did go for fish last night at the Slovan Country Inn. Margriet had bluegills with broasted potatoes and I had the trout boil. A lot of food for the money and we came away very full, even though I didn't have seconds. Both of us had excellent meals for about $15.00 total. Not too sure how they manage to keep the prices as low as they do, but the trout boil would cost about $15.00 at most restaurants. A bluegill dinner would cost about $9-10.00 else where. It is one of those good old places which has been open for about 100 years I think. Still has the flavor of an old roadhouse too.

Margriet did manage to get all of the windows in the bedroom washed yesterday, then went on to clean the rest of the room too. A big job that she was doing most of the day. She was happy to hear me suggest we go out for fish last night. Don't know what she has on her agenda for today, but probably busy.

So I fired up the wood splitter yesterday afternoon and managed to get all of the blocks of firewood I had made. Even stacked it all too! One face cord done and two more to go. Then I can cut more trees down and start the process over again. I had to move a dozen or so concrete blocks stacked in front of the splitter, so had to move them to a more permanent storage place. I stacked them at the end of the wood pile and they now hold the wood pile up. Normally I would criss-cross the end pieces of firewood to keep the pile stable. Should get the rest of the firewood on the bunk cut and stacked today - before the rain comes.

Daylight in the swamp, so had better get going.

In Christ My Saviour,


Chris <><

Forgotten Morning

47 F Cloudy Windy

I forgot I need to prepare for our Church Council meeting on Tuesday. My normal preparation includes getting a tentative agenda out via email to the members several days in advance, let them review it, then putting a final copy in their church mailbox on Sunday before church. To complicate matters some is that next Sunday we have a semi-annual meeting between the services. So ..... I spent a couple of hours getting those ready to go and into the email. To compound matters somewhat, I can't find the minutes and/or agenda from last year's meeting. The only piece of business, really, is the reading and approval of the 2006 budget.

Since I have problems with numbers, I was hoping I would not have to present it. No such luck. We have had some serious problems with our Financial Secretary/Treasurer (same person) for over a year and a half, so I get to do it this year as everything in that committee is in turmoil. Hope the congregation is some patient and helpful to get through it. The only part of the meeting I probably will have problems with is the number crunching. Leading the rest of the meeting is a piece of cake.

Margriet is busy washing the windows in the bedroom today and cleaning the room too. I really will have to get the ladder out and do some serious outside window washing soon! Maybe I should wait until a cold and rainy day - then I can put it off again :-)

We are having some leftover bean soup for lunch today. No flop biscuits though. Only crackers. Tonight we have decided to go out for fish. Probably will end up at Slovan for their all you can eat trout-boil. Really good! Eat too much though.

Have a good one. <><

Little Grandma's Birthday

41 F, cloudy dark

Good morning,

Today is my Mom's birthday. Seems like yesterday I was making trips to Milwaukee with her completed shopping list and a cooler filled with frozen, prepared, "leftovers" for her to have as meals. It was a lot of fun to package them up for her. Always made more than necessary for a meal, so I could put some into a small container for her. Shopping trips for her were always a highlight for me too. It was fun to buy for her. Often times she would want me to buy some lamb or veal for her. Both were off the page in price, even then. Often I would refuse and then listening to her complaint and thanking me for not wasting money in the same sentence! I did pick up lamb on occasion when it was on sale, not very often, but veal was next to impossible to find. Always wished she and Dad would have moved closer, but that was not to happen.

We had a visitor in the kitchen last night - the house mouse. It left calling cards on the counters in the kitchen and sampled the last piece of the Swedish Church Bread. Usually that in an indicator of cooler weather coming, which does not surprise me too much. Certainly will be glad to have it in a trap somewhere. Sooner than later.

We have had some serious events in the area the past week or so. Not only in our church family, but the surrounding area too. A week ago, a home exploded at 7:30 A.M. about half way from here to Green Bay (west of Bushville a bit, north of Denmark, northeast of Poland, and south of Luxemburg). Fortunately everyone was on their way to work or school, so no one was at home. The house was destroyed. A couple of days ago, a dump truck was hit by a freight train and both burned. The truck driver was killed, but the area was evacuated. The train was pulling only two tankers - one filled with LP gas and the other with chlorine. Neither car leaked, but the area residents were evacuated just in case. There also were two very large, serious accidents on U.S. Highway 41 outside of Green Bay. Both closed the highway down completely for several hours.

Within our church family, I found out last night, a close friend had a biopsy yesterday, unexpectedly, on something in her mouth. We also have two gals undergoing surgery with in the next week. We also have several other folks with broken bones and other maladies, on the recovery end of things. Never seems to be a shortage of people to pray for.

Our class last night was not very interesting to us. Fortunately there is only one more left. About half of the class did not show up, unexpected things happened, so the discussion was even less than normal. I don't think this class should continue to be one of our core classes offered at church.

Think it is time to get to the day.

In Christ My Saviour,


Chris <><

Day done

47 F

So the day outside is over for today. Needed to stop early today, so I could get all prettied up for church tonight. We have a class to take tonight. I have been to most of the sessions in the past, but took a couple of breaks to go the Netherlands to visit my Woman before she was really my Woman. Neither one of us are really enthused by the class. Not enough meat in it for us I guess.

Margriet got the rest of the windows cleaned in the living room, as well as the "china" cabinet and Grandma's secretary. We can actually see out of the windows a bunch better. Only problem is that now I have to do the outside of them. Oh well.

I didn't get any trees cut down today. Seems the wind came up again, just as I was about to start cutting. In stead I started to block up the wood I have on the bunk. Probably tomorrow I will fire up the splitter. It appears that I will have close to a full cord of firewood when it is all said and done. I must have played with a log incorrectly yesterday as I have a bit of a kink in my back. Still kept chugging, but slower with more breaks than normal.

I put the beans on this morning to cook and stripped the meat from the hocks to add to the pot. The cooked all day. Added some carrot, onion, and celery about mid afternoon, then let it cook until supper time. Turned out to be a pretty good pot of bean soup. Margriet made some biscuits to go along with the soup. She has developed a new kind of biscuits - flop biscuits! For what every reason, she added too much liquid to the mix, so they looked more like baked pancakes than drop biscuits. Tasted good though.

Time to get pretty. Have a good one!

Chris <><

Hotter still!

11/03/05

Good morning,

It is warmer this morning than yesterday! 54 F already this morning. This time of year the temperature should be about half of that. We didn't hit 60 F yesterday, but it came close. The weather really has bee nice for the past few days, but looks to change at the end of the weekend. Has been cloudy much of the time, but warm.

I finished bringing in the other half of the tree yesterday afternoon, then the wind came up and I didn't feel safe dropping anymore. Not enough places to move when a 35-40' tree decides to blow in the wrong direction. They will still be there for me to cut today or later. If the wind is up today, I will probably block and split what I have stockpile instead of cutting more down. There is a bunch of dead trees in a group. I have cut about 6 or 7 down over the past year there and there are still about 8-10 needing to be weeded out. There are also several right along the driveway near the road I want to take down before they drop across the driveway at an inopportune time. Like going to church on a Sunday morning.

Since the wind came up and I was out of the woods, I ran an extension cord to the outhouse. Now I can do something in it while it is dark outside. The cord is a long piece of 12-3 wiring with a plug on each end. It runs from the shed, under the front deck and sunporch, to the outhouse. It would be nice to have a place to do some work and not mess up the house with sawdust and like that.. While the outhouse started out to be a temporary place for the kids to sleep when they came a couple of years ago, we have used it for storage, &c. since. I will try to cobble together some kind of workbench to work from too. I have an old ceiling porch light from somewhere, I will probably hook up for area lighting. At least I will be out of the rain!

The Swedish Church Bread ( I mistakenly called it cake yesterday) I think is really Swedish Evil Bread! Every time I walk by the pan, a piece wants to jump out and into my hand. I have resisted most of the time, but one still made it to my hand and into my system. It really is good and reminds me of a Christmas bread some. Of course there are not any calories or some such in it.

Since the beef soup ran out, I put a pork hock in my Grandma's Dutch oven, along with some spices, and simmered it most of the day yesterday. It sure smelled good all day. Today I will make somekind of soup with it. Not too sure if it will bean or split pea yet, but either sounds good to me. We like the old-fashioned soups that are a meal. One of the restaurants in the area, The Slovan Inn, has a Wednesday night special of hocks and dumplings we take of advantage of occasionally. It is good old German food, but not a regular menu for us.

Guess I had better get the day a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><

Whew!

50 F. hot outside at the moment. Might make 60 F. yet before the day is over.

One tree cut down and the lower 3 logs, 8 feet long, at the buck. There is the other half of the tree still in logs on the ground to bring in yet. Whew. Rather hot work out. Would rather have snow on the ground! If I can I will take down at least one more tree before calling it a day in the woods.

The upper swamp has about 6-8" of water in it. Used the left shoe method to check the depth of stinky water. Normally at this time of year the swamps are bone dry. Should have a good mosquito crop next year. It is really a tussle to bring the logs out through the low spots. Of course the tree roots aren't that easy either.

Margriet tested a recipe, Swedish Church Cake, from one of The little Grandma's cookbooks this morning. Of course I was obligated to test it to see if it was indeed good enough to take to church later this month. She only made half of the recipe, so my task was not too difficult. It made a fine desert after the last of the beef/vegetable soup for lunch. I gave her permission to make the full recipe for church. Sure is tough work a man has to do!

Margriet is busy washing the windows for winter. Only doing about one side of the house and her glass display case today. I will have to go outside later and wash the windows there. She is able to do about 3/4 of the glass area from inside, so guess I should not complain all that much. We will have to get after putting on the plastic inside of the windows soon too. Good thing winter is taking a while to come this year. At least the cold weather.

We managed to pay some of the monthly bills this morning. I chose the wrong time though for Margriet to write the checks. She had just put the pork sausage in the pan, then took too long spending the money and the links were a bit brown. Not burned, but a very dry dark brown muffins were good this morning, as usual, so made up for the dry links. Someday I will learn.

So my cup of coffee is about gone and I hear the woods calling me.

<><

Test Pattern

Good evening,

So this is a test pattern to see if I have most things right. Will see if it and I work at this.

Chris <><

Cool, but hot

11/02/05
Good morning,

Cooler this morning than the past couple of mornings, but the temperature is supposed to be close to 60 F! Not normal for this time of year. November is here and we are still wearing shirt sleeves outside much of the time.

This is something new for this old man. Will see how it works or if folks will read it. Let me know.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><