Staying home

12/31/05 7:42 am
34º F. Rain/fog, NE wind 4 mph.

Good morning,

When I opened my email this morning, there one from my cousin spending the winter in Florida. His purpose was to let my brother and I know that his wife was in her last days. Lib is 91 years old and has led a very full life. She and Karl are a couple of my "favorite" relatives. While it is sad to think that I will not see Lib again in this world, we have some wonderful memories of her. Our hearts and prayers go out to Karl and family though as they pass through this part of their lives.

It is rainy, foggy out this morning. The temperature is right at the freezing point plus a little bit. Not a real nice day. While the rain should end, the wind is off of the lake, so we may still have some lake effect stuff coming down. The temperature is supposed to fall as the day progresses.

Yesterday we had planned to visit with a "Wild West Preacher", (our friend Sue and her husband from North Dakota) who is home to visit family in Oshkosh. We met them in Denmark last year for lunch and that was the plan again this year. Because of the weather, we cancelled out, mostly on prediction of what was coming, and rescheduled for today. The weather ain’t that much better today, in fact worse around Oshkosh, so we cancelled again. They had brought a buffalo roast along for us, but will be taking it back to North Dakota again. Wonder if it tenderizes with mileage? We will miss the roast, almost as much as missing catching up on things with Sue and Don! Maybe they will be back again in warmer weather, or maybe we will head out in that direction again someday.

I am finding the National Geographic and Margriet the newspapers, very interesting to read. Even the ads are interesting. There are many companies that no longer exist, but were very big companies in 1957. I also enjoy the prices shown. Wish they were back again! Margriet has not read all of the newspapers yet, but expect she will as the days go by. She likes to read after I go to bed, so now she can catch up on the latest news in real print rather than a screen in front of her. We both also enjoy nibbling on the candy enclosed in the box. One is coffee (koffie) flavored. Wonder why? Actually these are good. Most that I have had in the past were too much coffee flavor. These are much milder and better.

Margriet made some mixes to refill our larder yesterday. Now we can have muffins, Russian tea, and other goodies for a while. He also made up some other things too. While doing it, she looked like a little kid, having a great deal of fun in the process. She did look a bit like the Pillsbury Dough Boy though during the process. Seems she likes to keep some of the flour and other ingredients off of the floor and on herself! Naturally, I never tease her about that at all - I might be cut off from having muffins in the morning.

I finished the soup to take to church this evening. Not only does Margriet call it a "good one", but a the best. It does taste pretty good. Normally I don’t taste it before serving. I found some sausage links in the freezer needing to be used so put them in. Actually more than the recipe called for - about double. Guess it became Polish sausage soup rather than bean soup. Even has creamed corn in it!

Time top get the day a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,


Chris <><

A really, REALLY, R E A L L Y good day! ! !

5:14 pm
34º F, Rain! ESE wind 12 mph.

Unbelievable! We are getting some light rain! We got about 13 snowflakes this morning, then the rest of the day it looked like it would be dropping something out of the sky. Never happened! Just opened the webcam from Enschede and they have our snow! It is a little after midnight there.

The real highlight of the day was my going to Kewaunee to get a can of creamed corn to add to the soup I am making for tomorrow night at church. Actually it wasn’t the corn that was special, but the stop at the post office afterwards. There was a large box from the Geenen Family. It contained a whole bunch of little packages all wrapped up for Christmas! Good thing I stopped to get the corn before the post office - might not have made it to the grocery store.

Most precious items and most appreciated, are the pictures of Mr. Pim and M&M! They are precious for sure - the kids I mean. Two picture frames and several pictures were included, incase we got tired of them and needed to change them. I don’t think so!!! Can you tell there is a proud Oma and Opa? We are amazed at to how big the kids have gotten. M&M has a mouthful of teeth (pretty cute too) and Pim is becoming a real handsome young man.

Oma was very happy to receive the package. A couple of newspapers were also included as filler - I am sure every word of them will be read, but not by me. Also were several cooking magazine - I probably will profit from them more than Oma though. The pictures really look good, but can’t read a word of the magazines. Guess I will just have to learn Dutch by tasting. There were all kinds of goodies in the package. Oma really had a good time opening them all. I just held the plastic bag for the wrappings as she took it off. She really got a kick out of everything - almost as much as Pim I think.

Also in the box, among other things was a National Geographic magazine from 1957. The highlight of the magazine is an article about Wisconsin. I have not read it all yet, but sure looked at the pictures. Very interesting. As a kid, we probably got the magazine through a subscription it seemed we always had. I don’t remember the article, but always read the magazine from cover to cover as soon as it came. I would have been in high school and it was very interesting seeing pictures of some things I experienced then. One of the ads was for a bed and breakfast with a "bed and a gargantuan English breakfast" for $2.40/night! Rent a car for 10¢/mile, including gas! Where have those days gone?

All in all, it was very enjoyable getting the box and it’s contents. Oma called Astrid after everything was opened. They had a good chat and caught up on some of the "local gossip" here and there. Hope they hook up to Skype so they can chat more often. Maybe with Pim and Onno too.

Now I have to go and read a National Geographic magazine.


Chris <><

Many tracks

12/30/05 4:26 am
26º F, Almost snowing, N wind 4 mph.

Good morning,

Late yesterday afternoon a heavy snow advisory went up. Snow is supposed to start falling here early this morning and continue until late tomorrow morning. At the moment, the northeast third of the state’s roads are snow covered and slippery. Most of the weathermen are predicting 3"-6" of snow on the ground when it stops falling. The wind is also supposed to pick-up. Should make for an interesting New Year’s eve. If we get the 6", there might not be church on Friday night. We will have a pretty good sized pot of soup to chew on for a while.

Since I got up at a more normal time yesterday, and today, I spent the morning dark hours cleaning up my email mailboxes. They were overflowing with mail. Every morning Margriet has a short poem for me to read. I try to keep them, but don’t put them in a file often enough. I used to keep them on the hard-drive, but when that died, I lost all that I had saved. Now they are in a file on a USB drive, so I should have them more permanently. It is kind of cool to get them. I also printed out some other materials for the file cabinet to hold for the duration. Now if I can keep it cleaner I might have a little better use of this machine.

We finally ate the last of the roulade yesterday for lunch. There were a couple slices left along with some mashed potatoes and mushroom sauce from the second time we at it. I fried the potatoes, adding the roulade to the last few minutes to heat through. Really was good and now gone. While the roulade was rather expensive, we ate three very good meals from it. It is definitely a do-again meal! The salmon will not last that long I am sure.

Guess the critters around here also are expecting a storm coming. There were an exceptionally large number of fresh tracks in the woods yesterday. Among the tracks were those of a couple of cats. Don’t know where the cats are coming from, as there are not houses near that have any I know of. There also are a lot of opossum tracks around, but few raccoon tracks. Lots of deer tracks too.

Time top get the day a-going,

In Christ My Saviour,


Chris <><

Smelly!

4:20 pm
25º F, Cloudy, NNE wind 6 mph.

The toilet seat has a new bolt in it. Finally got to Algoma about noon. Had to pick up a couple of things for Margriet, so used the opportunity to get the right one. As soon as I got back, it went on. At least one problem is solved today!

Margriet has been busy making mincemeat for pies. We intended to pick some up for Christmas dinner, but the cost is through the roof. We can buy a prepared pie for about a¼ the cost of enough mincemeat to make a pie with. Now we have 3 containers in the freezer and one ready to make a pie for New Year's. I figure the mincemeat is enough for one month! :-) She is rather proud of herself as it is the first time she has made it. I have to say the smell of it while being prepared was outstanding!

Just in from digging in the frozen mud. Enough for today! The insulating and covering of the dig area is starting to pay off. There is only a couple inches of frozen soil to break through now, compared to the 6-8" when I started. I also discovered that I insulated the sewer pipe a lot better than I though. Thought I had only laid down a 4 foot square area of insulation above the pipe. Turns out it is 4'x8'! That means the hole will be about twice the size I originally thought I needed to dig. Oh well .... what else do I have to do?

Meatloaf and baked potatoes for supper. Just in the oven, so expect it will start smelling rather tempting pretty soon!

Chris <><

London calling

12/29/05 4:45 A.M.
30º F, Snow flurries, N wind 4 mph.

Good morning,

Looking at the weather reports and pictures from Europe, it seems the normal London weather is here and our normal weather is there! It has been another drippy, dreary day yesterday, with some ice coating most things thrown in for good measure. It sure makes a body lethargic. Looks to be more of the same for the next couple of days with some rain, thanx to the hot weather we are experiencing. Guess the weather is better than hurricanes, wild fires, earthquakes, landslides, or other things around the country though.

So we picked up our "New Year’s dinner" main course yesterday. We drove over to Bearcat’s fish store and picked up a couple pieces of salmon fillet. Very expensive, but probably will not have it until next New Year’s dinner. Margriet has a recipe preparing it with a shrimp sauce that is excellent. I think that is what she has in mind. Hope so. Don’t know what we will have with it, but am sure it will be good too.

Bearcat’s has really grown since the first time I bought fish from him, probably 30 years ago. They he rented a very small shop on the harbor with one used refrigerated meat case from a grocery store, selling mostly his own catch plus some from other fishermen in the area. He also had a smoke house out back and that really made his business. A few years ago he purchased a place up river some and is doing a land office business. He and his wife really work hard and long hours. I don’t think he is on the water any more, but his sons may be. Yesterday I was noticing he offerings have really increased. I have never seen so many shrimp in one place before. Every kind of shrimp I think the Good Lord created. He now has many freezer cases filled with so many different kinds of seafood, that I almost can’t count them all. Of course the fish and the smoke house really make the place smell very pleasing too. It is very easy to buy too much. About the only thing they were almost out of was Lutefisk. There was only one piece left and that was over 10 pounds, so didn’t take it. Might have it were about a ¼ that size.

The real reason for going to Algoma was to pick up a couple of toilet seat bolts. One of them broke some time ago. I have never seen that happen before. The newer bolts are now made of plastic rather than brass as they used to be. Actually the plastic bolts are a better idea than metal. Much easier to remove when necessary. When I stopped at the store, I found them without any trouble, but my head was still thinking brass. When I was about to put them in, I discovered I had the special bolts to fasten the toilet to the pipe connection rather than the seat! Don’t work! Guess we will make another trip to Algoma today!

New Year’s eve, we have an early church service and a soup and sandwich meal afterwards. The other day we stopped at church to see if there was a sign-up sheet to contribute to the meal, as we had not heard, or remembered hearing, of any request. It turns out that Howard missed getting one put out with all of the events surrounding Marsha’s Dad dying. Howard just planned to do the meal himself, with a couple of daughters home and helping. I volunteered to bring a pot of soup for the event. He didn’t hesitate a moment to accept. I started the building of bean soup yesterday. It will have some Polish sausage in it for the meat instead of the usual pork hocks or neck bones. I also will make it a bit more spicy for a change too. Don’t want folks falling asleep after the sermon!

Probably will play in the frozen clay/mud more today and building of the soup. Wonder if it would be easier and better to have a real outhouse? Time top get the day a-going,

In Christ Our Saviour,


Chris <><

Slick day

12/28/05 6:35 A.M.
30 F, Drippy, NNE wind 6 mph.

Good morning,

Boy, another day of getting up late. For some reason, I woke up with a "sour stomach", as Dad used to say, in the middle of the night. I got up for an hour or so, then went back to bed and slept late. Not too sure what caused it, but have not had that problem for several years now. Hope I don't for several years more.

The northeast half of the state is under a freezing rain advisory this morning. At the moment, the State is showing that the roads around here, from Sheboygan to almost Wausau, are ice covered and hazardous! A county truck sanding the road just went by the house here. Think I might just stay put for the early part of the day at least. Probably a good thing that schools are closed for vacation.

On our supply trip to Green Bay yesterday, we had a very light rain, drizzle almost all day long. Just enough to need the wipers on the slowest setting. The roads were good, but Howard said there were two cars picking tulips in the ditch earlier, on his trip to visit someone going into surgery yesterday morning. Watching the news, it looks like Europe is in a snow storm. When I opened the webcam for Enschede, they even had a dusting of snow yesterday. It disappeared today though.

I did pick up a clean-out for the sewer line yesterday. Now all I have to do is finish digging up the line, cutting it, then inserting the clean-out outside of the house line. It really sounds easier than it is. Not only the rock-hard frozen soil above it, but also trying to put the cleanout in the line. I suspect I will have a great deal of difficulty trying to "flex" the existing pipe to allow the fitting into it. The fitting is 3-4" longer than the section being cut out to allow for a joint at each end. I have a feeling I will be digging much more than just an opening the size of the cleanout. Sounds like fun! :-)

We decided to pick-up a USB portable drive stick to put our pictures on. We got a fairly large one, for us, and found when we got to the checkout the cost was over $17.00 higher than the bin tag on the shelf. Margriet checked out while I was wandering around the rest of the store to see what was on sale. I didn't realize she was doing that. When she showed me the receipt, we rechecked the bin tag with the receipt - there was a difference. We went back to the checkout to question which price was correct. Turns out the drive was on sale apparently until Christmas then went back to the normal price again. The store did honor the bin tag price, but took the bin tag down. We had noticed a couple other items on the same shelf that had bin tags missing. I think someone forgot the change the tags after the sale and as people questioned what they were being charged, took them down. The drive has about twice the capacity of my camera's memory card. I have put 400+ pictures on it and still had a bunch of space left yet. Of course I don't keep the pictures on the camera's memory, but empty it to this machine to some form of removable memory. Now we can rally organize all of them into folders. Eventually we will need more USB drives for all of them, but this is a start. Comparing the price of "normal" photography, the cost of each picture on digital is really low, even purchasing the USB drive. Like that part and we can do so much more with them in a digital format!

The only place that we found parking lots filled was at Wal*Mart and Fleet Farm. Both stores had enough folks on the check out lines to handle the number of customers without too much of a wait. Even Aldi's had some things on sale to close them out. We didn't go crazy and buy much other than what we went over for.

We were very surprised by the increase in the cost of a lot of food products. Suspect they are blaming the increases on the cost of fuel, but sure cuts down on what we bought. Some things we just do without. Fruit and vegetables are most affected it seems, but nothing is really a good buy anymore. What happened to paying $3.00 for a 100 pounds of potatoes?

Time to get what is left of this day a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,


Chris <><

Good day to sleep

12/27/05 6:26 A.M.
30 F, Cloudy, SSW wind 3 mph.

Good morning,

It must be a good day to sleep - I did too late. I stayed up and watched most of the 10:00 P.M. news last night, which may have something to do with it. Not used to staying up that late! A real dreary day coming probably doesn't help any. The temperature is warm for this time of year, but it looks and feels like rain outside. Not a day to increase one's ambition.

We had Christmas dinner number two yesterday. Margriet re-heated the roulade and made a really good mushroom sauce and mashed potatoes. A really good meal. We also had the last of the wine with the meal. Oh yes, the sour cream apple pie is also gone. It was a good one. There still is some roulade left and I for one am looking forward to having some more of it.

Today we don't have Bible study, so are heading on a supply trip to Green Bay earlier than usual today. We don't have all that much to buy, but some necessaries to get. Probably will not go to too many stores, as there will be the "gift taker-backers" in most of them.

I did get out, but late in the afternoon, to do some digging. I found my pick (which really doesn't fit my hands very well) and used it to break up the frozen soil. When the pick hit it, many times it just bounced off! I couldn't believe it. Really didn't expect that. The frozen clay must be very dense. I did make some progress, but not as much as I would have liked. Not only is the frozen ground hard to penetrate, but I am trying not to poke holes in the sheet of insulation above the pipe. It does have a few hole in it now. I was hoping I would not have to get a new piece to replace it. Will pick up a clean out during our ride today, so I don't have to do the digging again. I hope.

Really didn't do all that much yesterday. Pretty laid back. But now it is time to get the day a-going. Dutch eggs and sausage for breakfast.

In Christ My Saviour,


Chris <><

The day after

12/26/05 6:15 A.M.
27 F, Cloudy, NNE wind 01 mph.

Good morning,

The day after Christmas is here. We ate too much! But the food was excellent - too excellent. Our main meal we ate about 1:30 P.M. or so. I meant we really didn't need a big supper, so just nibbled on herring and a piece of sour cream apple pie. Well .... At least I had a piece of pie.

The main meal was excellent - a definite do-again! The roulade was excellent and something I had never had before. It appears to be a piece of steak, spread with spices, then rolled up and tied in a net bag to roast. It really is good and a neat way to prepare a pieces of meat. Very tasty. A Margriet said, "A good one!" There are some leftovers for us to enjoy it again. With the roulade we had some vegetable baked with it and some stuffed mushrooms. Of course there also was a glass of wine. AND some sour cream apple pie for desert.

There were very few people in church. Everyone must have been recovering from Christmas Eve. Another one of our young girls demonstrated her musical skills during the offering. The acolyte didn't show up, so as the service was about to start, I got up to light the candles. One of the ushers had the same idea, so I let him do it. Thankfully I did. The candles had burned down to nothing and could not be lit. The candle is incased in a tube, spring loaded to keep the burning tip showing. To replace the candles, the insides have to be taken out, cleaned, and a new candle inserted. That can't be done easily, so the candles were taken to the kitchen for the operation. The service started about 6-7 minutes late and Howard was in a rush trying to catch up as his routine was some disturbed. We still had a good worship service.

Neither one of us did a lot yesterday, other than Margriet cooking and me eating. Margriet thinks we should be European and have two Christmas Holidays, today being the second, and not do anything. We really don't do much any day really. We probably will not do too much. Not going anywhere near a shopping center.

Walking in the woods yesterday, I found a lot of new tracks. A couple set from critters I didn't expect. There are many opossum tracks. We have not had too many of them around here in the past, but know this area was over run my them in years past. Guess I will need to get the traps set again. I also saw a lot of "dog" tracks, but I don't think they are from dogs. There have been sightings of a lot of coyotes in the area. For some reason they have come into our area. While I have not seen any, I suspect that is what left them. Not too sure how to control them. Will have to do some research on that. Not too crazy about having them around. They can do some serious damage to the wildlife, to the point of eliminating some species, then moving on to a different area.

Guess it is about time to get the day a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,


Chris <><

Merry Christmas

12/25/05 6:05 A.M.
30 F, Cloudy, NNE wind 10 mph.

Merry Christmas - Christ is born!

Christmas has arrived and it is white - sort of. The church was packed last night to over flowing. I don't think there were too many chairs, even the folding kind that were not filled with some body. It was a long service with lots of singing and lots of our young students displaying their skills on various instruments. Really cool! It is amazing to me how they are growing up, as they were just babies, more or less, when we came here. Of course the choir also sang a couple of numbers. I really missed not standing up in front with them, especially since I knew the songs from years previous and have sung them. It really was a nice service, ending with singing "Silent Night" by the light of the candles each of us had. There also was the traditional paper bag of goodies for the kids to take home on their way home.

The other half of the bass section that I sang with all the years in the choir, was heading to the Gulf Coast, but before he could leave, he had a serious automobile accident. He has two crushed vertebrae, but he was determined to sing with the choir and did. I'm not too sure he should have. As the choir recessed after their last song, I went to thank him for coming and adding to the service. He was in a great deal of pain and on a lot of pain killers. Sweat was running out of every pore in his body. I told him to go home and get into bed - he did! I don't think he will be heading south anytime soon.

After church we came home and exchanged our gifts to each other and drank coffee. Guess we really are getting old. Oh yes, we also tried the sour cream apple pie Margriet had made earlier in the day. Was good enough to eat with our meal today!

Yesterday afternoon I did get out and see if I could dig some to find the sewer line. Didn't. The soil is frozen, but did find a spot a couple of fee away from where I need to dig that was some soft. The clay is water soaked and didn't want to remove itself from my shovel very easily. After a few shovelfuls, decided to cover the area with some insulation and a tarp, hoping the ground heat would thaw it some. The tarp will also redirect the water dripping on it to a different place. Don't think I will accomplish anything today, probably tomorrow I will commence the digging.

After church today the Roulade will go into the oven and we will prepare other trimmings to go with. Looking forward to that and a glass of cherry wine, egg nog, herring, and other goodies. Another quiet and very pleasant day! We hope you will also have a good and merry Christmas, remembering the real reason for the season.

In Christ My Saviour,


Chris <><

Drip, Drip, Drip!

12/24/05 6:05 A.M.
33 F, Cloudy, NE wind 3 mph.

Good morning and Merry Christmas,

I will try this again. The last blog would not publish, so I start over with the heading of the first start. Hope I can remember what I wrote! Seems like my POP3 didn't want to pop and had to restart to solve the problem. The blog didn't get saved in the process.

Looks like we will not be taking a Kransekake to church tomorrow. For some reason the dough is not right and will not go through the cookie press to form the rings. During the preparation of the dough, we had to go to the bank before it closed until Monday. In the process, the dough changed and seemed not to be moist enough to process. We will not through the dough away, since the ingredients are so expensive, but rather make it into cookies. Guess I will have to suffer through them! ;-)

In the mail yesterday I got a "request" to donate money to a history association of the college I went to, Stout State College - then. I didn't even know there was such an association. I probably will not send any money, but they did have a website to go to, http://www.uwstout.edu/history/ , so I did. It is very interesting and has a lot of pictures, by decades, of the school since the 1880' to the present. There even are pictures of the car racing which got me started in the sport and of the cafe, Dan's Cafe, that I ate many meals at. The cafe picture is from the 30's, but it was not much changed when I ate there. It went out of business when he started an all-you-can-eat meal for $.55! I think a bunch of college guys ate him out of business. By clicking around the site, you should be able to find pictures from my era, 1959-1964 plus graduate studies until 1974. There is an excellent group of pictures showing the campus and buildings as it developed. Some of the classroom pictures from the turn of the century, look very much the same as when I was there - only some of the equipment was newer. We still had the overhead power shafts and flat belts to each machine for some of the equipment we used. One milling machine I remember was built in the same year as the building it was in - 1893! Worked pretty well too.

Our sewer system is still not working well. I picked up a drain cleaner that is the strongest which can be used the other day. I put it in the system yesterday and we thought we had it working again. That was until we put several dishwashings of water down the drain. I think I will finally need to start digging and find out what the real problem is. No matter what, I don't like the thought of digging into frozen soil in the winter. Especially when it is raining out as it is at the moment.

Margriet was finally able to locate and restore an address book on her computer. It contained several addresses we want to send Christmas letters too, so some folks will have their Christmas mail time extended some. Slowly, she is getting her computer back to "normal", as it was before the last incident. She, and I, have several programs to download yet. Both of us run out of patience too soon though.

Our low temperature last night was higher than our normal high should be. Looks like the same will be true for the next few days also. Walking in the woods is like walking in cold mud. The snow has turned to slush and not fun. There should be enough left to call it a white Christmas. But not pretty. This weather really cuts into my beating on trees too. Spring is here, even though the calendar says it is winter for a couple of days now. Got the onion sets planted yesterday! :-)

I think that pretty much is what I wrote the first time, so it is time to get the day a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,


Chris <><

April showers bring December ice!

12/23/05 6:15 A.M.
33 F, Rain, SW wind 3 mph.

Good morning,

Rain! Yuck! Looks like the snow will have a coat of icing on it this year for Christmas. There are many schools starting late and some closed - the kids will get an extra day of Christmas vacation. Many schools are already closed for the Christmas vacation too. They are in this area at least. It looks like a line from Manitowoc to LaCrosse north is ice covered. Most of the roads in that area are "ice covered and hazardous" according to the DOT. I believe it. This will be tough for the animals too.

So the Christmas tree is up and decorated. Since the tree is small, it would not fit any of the tree stands we have. So .... I found a piece of 2"x12", drilled a hole in the center of it, and whittled the stump down to be a very tight fit. The tree will not be up long, since we cannot add water too it, but we have a tree. It also took far fewer lights and ornaments too! Most of the ornaments and lights are closer to the trunk than with a normal tree too.

Margriet was very busy yesterday. Besides playing with the tree, she also built some cookies and a batch of fudge. Of course I had to test the quality, finding them satisfactory to consume, at least until they are gone. She also will be making a copy of our wedding cake to serve after the Christmas Day service at church. It has become kind of a tradition to do at Christmas. I stopped up at church yesterday to ask if it would be more appropriate after service Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. In the past we have brought it for Christmas Eve, but was wondering if it were appropriate as the service is a candle light service and everyone leaves in a contemplative mood. WE decided it would be better on Christmas Day. We still will bring it Christmas Eve so we don't have to fool with it before service Sunday.

I finally got Margriet's email working correctly on her computer. She has been using the ISP website to get her mail, but a lot of fussing to do that. Amazing how just a little wrong information can stop everything! She, and I, are still refitting our respective computers with programs that are still missing. We also are doing a lot of updates from various sources, trying to get everything up to snuff. I still have several programs to load and a couple to find on the web. So what else do I have to do - not driving anywhere anytime soon.

Oma got a chance to talk on the "phone" to Bram yesterday. He was some surprised that it was Oma on the phone. Guess the little packages are a hit with him and he is enjoying the little boxes of cereal and Kool-aid. It sounds like he is able to open one little package everyday until Christmas.

Time to get to other things for a while and the day a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,


Chris <><

Our low will be higher than our high yesterday

12/22/05 5:32 A.M.
16 F, Cloudy, SSW wind 7 mph.

Good morning,

We have a tree. It isn't decorated yet, but it is in the house and will be dressed today. It ain't big, but cute. The tree is the same height at Margriet, so she should be able to put the star at the top. :-) When I lifted the tree after cutting it from the stump, I noticed an orange marking tape on it. I put it on the tree the first summer here with the intent of eventually moving it and clearing the patch for a strawberry bed. At the time, the tree was about 8-10" tall, now about 5'-0"! Time flies. I think we will be not using most of the tree decorations.

We went over to Otto's Meats in Luxemburg yesterday to pick up the meat for Christmas. We got a Roulade roast. It is a combination of pork and beef. I have never tasted it, but Margriet assured me it is almost as good as Lutefisk. I am looking forward to it. Of course it really brings back memories and extends the tastebuds for Margriet. The owner, Otto, waited on us. Margriet really enjoys him as he is from Germany and the two of them talk in German the entire time. They have a good time too. I only hear "what is necessary"! Actually I get a charge out of it, watching and listening to the laughter in Margriet's voice.

We took another step into the 21st century yesterday. Brenda has been after us to download Skype so we can talk on the "telephone" using our computers. She mentioned it first, a day or so before the hard-drive on this died. Then had more important things to load again onto this. Yesterday was the day! Shortly after downloading, we discovered that Brenda was online, so did the necessary steps to contact her and connect. It worked! Fairly well too. Margriet and Brenda talked for about 20-30 minutes. Of course it was all in Dutch, so all I had to do was to monitor the volume control. I am sure the conversation would have lasted longer, except Kalle apparently was on her lap and all of a sudden became rather odoriferous. It really was good to actually hear Brenda's voice. Kalle's too!

The cool thing about Skype is it uses normal computer web rather than phone company equipment. The cost is nothing - the part I like - and the system works fairly well. We use a microphone and the computer's speakers so we both can listen and talk. Apparently a headset with attached microphone is better for quality, but will sacrifice that for the ability to both listen at the same time. I was surprised at how good the quality is. I had purchased the microphone several years ago to use with a different program to talk with Margriet before she moved, but she kept saying the quality was so poor she didn't want to. It just sat on the shelf until now. I can really see the value of the system, not only in saving money. It also will be a lot more convenient to use than the phone system we have available to us.

While setting up the program, it searched for people with the same names as those in my address book who also have the service. It came up with several. They all turned out to be folks in other parts of the world, except one. My sister-in-law, Mary, was listed, but she must have moved to England! Also very close to the same age as Mary. A couple of others also were located in England and another in Germany. Small world - even though we drove to Luxemburg yesterday!

Margriet delivered the Christmas breads yesterday on our way to doing the errands. One of the errands was to pick up some stamps. The post office was out of Christmas stamps, so had to settle for other patterns. I did forget to pick up some for the letters to the Netherlands, so still have them to pick up.

With the warming weather, the light fluffy snow has changed more to a consistency of sugar. Not as east to walk through. I did find a "highway" of sorts going between two bushes about 30' apart in the woods. The highway was formed by mice (or mouse) taveling between them. All kinds of tracks going back and forth. Also noticed a lot of pine cone parts laying on top of the snow, where the squirrels dropped them after eating the pine nuts while sitting in the tree above. Cool! There are a lot of critter tracks all over the place.

Looking at the news on the web this morning, I came across a cool website dealing with various vehicles in South Africa ( http://www.motoring.co.za/ ). It list a lot of vehicles I have never heard of before and are interesting to look at. Guess there are other parts of the world that build cars and motorcycles than the U.S. and Europe! Some are interesting and different.

Guess it is time to get to other things this day.

Fall is falling and Winter is winning

12/21/05 5:45 A.M.
17 F, Cloudy, NW wind 3 mph.

Good morning,

So winter comes today. The weather is pretty much on the normal - for today. The weather should warm and eventually get to rain on Sunday - not normal winter. At least it will be a white Christmas, but with a coat of rain on top. Not fun walking through the woods in ankle deep water on top of the snow. Knee boot time again I think is coming.

We got Margriet's computer back late yesterday afternoon. Apparently the operating system was messed up and needed to be reinstalled again. It is, but now we have to get all of the programs back again. At the moment the problem is setting up the network connections so she can get online again. That is presenting a bunch of problems for some reason. The network is working from my computer to her's well, but something is messed up in her computer - somewhere.

Bible study was some strange yesterday. We really turned left a couple of times and got off of the subject at hand. That isn't bad, but there sure were some things triggered by the workbook for some people. Myself included. Didn't expect that at all. The numbers, expectedly, were down, but everyone got a chance to contribute more. Actually there were 10 folks there, a number of participants I like to work with. We will not be meeting next week as everyone will be cleaning up from Christmas I guess.

The quilting gals sent the quilt to the Pastor in Long Beach yesterday. They made a special one for her and their new place to live. They had sent one to "make do" several weeks ago, until they could get this one finished. I asked them to take a picture of all the folks who worked on it with the quilt. Not too sure they did that. I forgot to ask them yesterday.

For the council meeting last night - I was so not prepared. Actually we didn't have that much on the agenda and a couple of folks were some late, but we made it through without any scars. One of the gals on the council wasn't there. Her daughter had an automobile accident late in the afternoon. Apparently there was a telephone pole involved. Chris didn't know how badly her daughter was injured, or if, but went to pick her up in Wrightstown, in the Appleton area. Another gal who happened to be at church last night decorating for the Christmas services, said her daughter was also involved in a roll-over automobile accident yesterday afternoon. Apparently there were no injuries, other than bumps and bruises, to her daughter or her Mother who was riding along. Not a good day for young women drivers I think.

I found another thing the hard-drive demise messed up. I looked at the furnace filter and it really needed to be changed. The cleaning schedule for it had also disappeared from the computer. So .... The filter is changed and the schedule is restored! Should improve the efficiency of the furnace some.

Margriet baked a bunch of Christmas breads yesterday. Sure smelled good. That along with fooling around with her computer, caused us not to cut a tree for our Christmas tree. That should happen today. I hope.

Time to get to other things and the day a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,


Chris <><

Double digit

12/20/05 5:45 A.M.
10 F, Cloudy, W wind 3 mph.

Good morning,

What a difference this morning. The temperature is actually double digit this morning. First for a few days. The wind is also down this morning. Maybe I can get the trash burned for a change. Seems like fall is ending with normal temperatures or there abouts. The next couple of days actually above normal!

So we have some gingerbread men and other ginger cookies in our larder for Christmas. More will be coming. Margriet is having a ball trying to figure out which things to make first. I help some by saying, "All!" She didn't think it was funny. She does have plans to bake a lot more and I am not complaining.

I finally got all of the "easy" Christmas letter written and envelops addressed. Now come those that I need to look up or ask folks for addresses. I found there are a lot that have disappeared. As the cards come in, I check to see if the return address on the envelop is on my list, if not I put it there. One problem is the folks in the Netherlands have the habit of not providing a return address on their mail. Don't know what that is about, but expect there isn't much return mail that way. Guess we had better pick up some stamps too!

We didn't hear from our computer guru, so I wrote an email to him yesterday afternoon. Sometime after midnight, and long after I was in bed, I got a return email saying that he had gone home early and was some sick. He would be in the shop this morning and email me what is going. Do hope, Margriet especially, hope we will be able to pick it up again today.

Margriet found some books of my Mom's, actually periodicals, about homemaking from 1939. She was reading some of them last night and every once in awhile would laugh or chuckle. She was reading about all of the "modern improvements" of the time. Like actually having a window in the oven door to watch the turkey roast. Folks must not have had too much to do at that time to sit and watch a turkey roast for several hours. Anywho, she was having a good time and did learn from them. Hope see will try some of the recipes too.

Time to get the day a-going. Christmas tree cutting day along with Bible study this morning and a church council meeting tonight. Busy.

In Christ My Saviour,


Chris <><

Delivery

12:00 M.
05 F, Partly sunny, W wind 12 mph, Wind chill -12 F.

Back from the post office and computer guru in Algoma. Guru was not in, but left Margriet's computer and our email address so he will get back to us. Soon we hope. From there went to the post office in Algoma. There was a line of cars waiting for a parking space to get into the post office. Decided to go to Kewaunee instead and pick up our mail at the same time. When we got there, the place was empty! We only took in the packages going across the puddle, leaving the rest in the van in case we didn't have enough money along. As it turned out we had enough, but when I turned from the counter to get the rest, there were a half dozen in line waiting to do the same. Thought it would not be very polite to do that, so will drop them off when we need to get the computer. Or at least the next time we need to go into town again. We know this is the busiest day for the post office, but sure didn't expect to have a waiting line for parking spaces in the parking lot in Algoma.

The temperature has gotten up to 5 F above and should continue to rise more. The wind has not let up at all and really moves the van around on the road. Looking at the lake, there was a lot of "steam" rising from the open water spots. With the high winds, the ice doesn't have a chance to really form. Several miles out, you can see the snow falling! Cool!

In the mail I received a notice of the increase for my rocking chair money next year. We will have about $20.00/month more to spend each month. Probably the cost if living went up about $60.00/ month, but who is counting. Guess I will have to cut down my beer budget some!

Time for something else to do.

Chris <><

Wiggly/giggly

12/19/05 5:45 A.M.
-04 F, Cloudy, W wind 14 mph, wind chill -14 F.

Good morning,

The church was filled with wiggles and giggles yesterday! All of the kids were excited and it showed. They really did a good job. It was not the traditional manger scene, with the associated shepherds, etc. in view. No sheets or bathrobes in sight. All of the kids dressed in their best and they really looked it. We sure do have a lot of very cute/handsome kids in our church. The program allowed all of the kids to have a speaking or singing part. Some of course were scared stiff! One played the trumpet with his sister on the keyboard during the offering. His first attempt at anything like that and he really had a hard time after making a mistake. Really felt sorry for him. The mistake caused him to fall apart for the rest of it, but up until that time he really had much better tone quality than the average for his age and experience. He certainly will do better in the future. He still got a round of applause.

With the kids performing, communion was canceled. Margriet and I didn't have a chance to wash dishes either! Like that part, as there are a lot of little glasses to do. Since all of the kids were sitting up front, there was no one left to light the candles. So I did have a job to do in the service. The problem was trying to get through all of the kids to get close to the candles! Did the deed though. Howard also had an easy time with the sermon as he just talked to the kids in the program and got them to interact with him. The kids were great! They had control of the sermon - like it or not. Of course I had to tease Howard about no need to prepare.

After church we went to Slovan for lunch. Of course we ate too much, but the food is good. Not many there, other than a couple of pretty good sized families getting together. Then we stopped at the storage unit and picked up our Christmas decorating "stuff". If the wind dies down, we might even get out an cut down a tree today! The overhead door was frozen tight - both the bolt and the bottom door seal. Once finally open, there was the pile of snow at the door to deal with. Closing up, I had a problem closing the bolt to lock it again. I really do love winter!

A few days ago we did get a Christmas present, of sorts, in the mail - our property tax bill. Much to our surprise, it was down this year. Not down too much, less than 2%, but we like the trend and hope it continues. It should be about another century at that rate until we can really afford to pay it easily. Might not see that day.

We have some running around to do today. The wind chill is really cold at the moment, but is supposed to warm up after lunch. Not too sure if we will go this morning or not. Do hope the wind dies down some before too long. Don't expect that to happen anytime today though. Temperature is supposed to rise to over freezing, with possibility of rain, before Christmas Day. What a weather roller-coaster we have been on this year.

Margriet is talking of doing some Christmas baking. Think that is a really good idea. Time to get to other things and the day a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><

Ahead of schedule

11/18/05 5:45 A.M.
-02 F, Semi clear, W wind 5 mph, -14 F wind chill.

Good morning,

Winter seems to have arrived ahead of schedule this year. The lake is keeping us a bit warmer, but it don't feel like it. Just cold. At least the wind is not as high as yesterday. The wind was really a-moving yesterday once we got out of the woods. Bet the woods are crunchy today.

I finally gave up on Margriet's computer. We will take it to our guru on Monday. In the process of sorting out the various cables inside of the case and disconnecting the correct one, I inadvertently disconnected the cooling fan wires. I could not find where it was that the plug came from on the mother board, no matter how hard Margriet or I looked. I finally sent another email to hp and they returned a repair manual with a diagram of the mother board with the various connections located. It was right there!

After several confusing emails with the tech department at hp, I really got confused. More than one person was answering them and each apparently had their own way to solve the problem. I have a feeling they were off-shore also, as their use of English was some different and convoluted. Requesting clarification, I kept getting different methods to try. Too confusing for this Old Norwegian. Put everything back together again from whence it came (I hope) and will put it into the vat tomorrow for a ride to Algoma.

When we went to got post office to mail the packages, we didn't! The post office has very short hours on Saturday and we showed up about 5 minutes after the window closed. They too will need to wait until Monday to be sent. The post office is only open for 2 hours on Saturday morning. What happened to the days when we would get two, possibly three, deliveries to the house each day during the Christmas season?

I spent a good share of the day writing and printing out our Christmas letter and required envelops. I find the printer is really starting to cause problems. It has for sometime had a couple little of quirks, but now they are bigger. The printer has done a lot of printing over the years, so expect it will die before too long now. I really don't want to replace it as the ink is somewhat reasonable to purchase, compared to the newer models. The initial cost is not great, but the operation seems to be for most on the market now.

Margriet used the opportunity of her computer being down to use the laptop to download and organize some of her photos. In the process she actually filled one of the memory sticks. The first. Actually it is a small one and we will have to get a bigger one for photos. We have one, but I am using it for back up of many files. Have to get them organized and off of it, then we can use it for photos. Trying to group the photos into folders by subject and/or time. That will have to wait a bit I think.

Margriet and I are serving communion today so have to get the day a-going. The kids have their day too, so should be a full house. Plan to pick up the Christmas stuff on the way home from church.

In Christ My Saviour,


Chris <><

Winter Practice

12/17/05 5:30 A.M.
16 F, Cloudy, W wind 10 mph.

Good morning,

Looks like we are in a cooling trend for a few days. Then warm and snow again. Seems like winter is practicing in short bursts before it comes to stay. My bones are telling me there is some change in the air. Just a dusting of snow yesterday.

Finally we have all of the packages wrapped. All 7 of them. Thursday evening we ran out of Scotch tape and ran to the store to get more. Last night we almost ran out of the wide packaging tape. Think there might be about two feet left on the roll. Calling it too close. We will take them to the post office this morning and send them on their way. A couple will probably arrive a bit late, but that just makes the season longer.

We will have to go out in the woods one of these days soon and find an appropriate Christmas tree for in here. We probably will get a little one again and set it on a table or some such. If we can find a very narrow and tall one, we will take that too. I will let the choosing to Margriet and I will do the cutting and hauling. I can see Pim and Bram "helping" with the task.

Howard and Marsha made it back, but later than planned. After calling here and hearing there was a lot of snow and the roads not the best, they decided to stay in Milwaukee for the night. The word had not gotten out to folks here, so a bunch of us were rather concerned about them. Their middle daughter is graduating from college in Milwaukee today, so they will be driving down again today. Sounds like the other two girls are coming in from Columbus, Ohio and Washington D. C. For the event too. One of the girls will be staying for Christmas as she is on vacation from college. Not too sure about the other as she is a working woman now.

We did have a chance to chat with Howard Thursday at church. He was excited to have his girls home again. Marsha is also the executer of her Dad's estate, so he is some concerned about that. He also had several comments about the proceedings and Marsha's Dad's life and what he left behind. Marsha is expecting to make several trips to Kansas in the near future. Sounds expensive - in travel expense and lost wages at work. Part of life though.

Tomorrow is the kids Christmas program at church. Always a good service. It also brings back a lot of good memories of my three in their programs too many years ago. Hope they enjoy their children's programs and this season as much as I did. We will spend a rather quiet time here in the woods, celebrating with God's creatures. Hope it is a pretty couple of days. We should have no problem with a white Christmas this year.

Time to get the day a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,


Chris <><

@$%@%&(^$#*$@!#&*_+*$@?

12/16/05 2:43 P.M.
19 F, Light snow, WSW wind 08 mph.

Good afternoon,

A bit of a frustrating day today. Actually it started last night when Margriet came to bed. She announced that her computer was not working. Sure enough. All it would do at start up was to tell her there was a floppy disk in the drive and following the directions it gave - still didn't work! To complicate matters more, I could not get on line with this machine. This kept rejecting my password. Finally got a hold of the ISP technical help line and they said to reset my password. I had a different password than the screen showed. My password had no where near the number of spots to fill as the screen showed. The tech said that they camouflaged it so it could not be copied. I didn't know that, so didn't want to mess things up more than they already were. After resetting the password, everything on my machine worked honky-dory! At least for getting on line.

I finally decided to clean out Margriet's computer, so took off the shell and got out the air bottle. After that process was complete - it still didn't work! I got online to hp finally and explained what the problem was. Doesn't sound the best. I have some tests to run on it and see what happens. Then I will get back to them so they can get back to me again.

At the moment, I am wrapping up the last of the packages to send out. Hoped to get them out yesterday, but that was not to be so. When these are gone - that is the end of it. Of course some of the addresses are on Margriet's computer and we are not able to access them. Thought we had them on a floppy, but we cannot access it on here correctly. So ..... Margriet is spending some time on the web, looking them up.

One of the packages was way smaller than any boxes we have on hand. I cut a bigger one down, but made some cuts wrong and ended up smaller-izing it too much. Had to add a piece back into the box again! I also have one box to make a little bigger too. Guess it will even out some. So it goes.

We did get over to Bitsie's yesterday and had a really nice chat. It really was the first time since she was here that I had a chance to do that. I asked her what she would miss of this country most and her answer was the open spaces. She really likes that. She also is in the process of packing up, so we helped her by taking some of her excess Dutch supplies along. Margriet was thrilled to get them, mostly spices and like that, since she cannot get them here. I will probably benefit most from it when I am forced to eat the resulting food that is prepared. They also will be taking back her car, RAV4, with them. It is far cheaper to buy it her and ship it than to buy a new car there. It will be large by the standards there and of course I had to tease her a bit about being one of those Crazy Americans with a big car! Hope she enjoys it.

I was surprised at how easy it was for me to get in and out yesterday. Even with the heavy snow. She just chugged right in and we were ready to go. I do thing the 4-wheel drive kicked in a bit and the van dragged bottom on the entire way in and out.

Light snow coming down at the moment, but nothing exciting. Expect we have our share for the next couple of days. Time to get to other things.

In Christ My Saviour,


Chris <><

Hot again

12/15/05 7:10 A.M.
30 F, Cloudy SSE wind 3 mph.

Good morning,

Warmer this morning than when I went to bed. It was warmer when I went to bed than anytime during the day. I haven't been outside yet this morning, but expect the snow (looks to be an additional 2-3", so should have about 7-8" from this storm) to be very heavy to move. I think I am glade we have the van at the road. Will get out soon and start the process of moving the snow. Just for the heck of it, I figured out the driveway is about three times the width of a typical city sidewalk and about two blocks long. No wonder my arm gets tired! Wouldn't trade it for anything though - other than maybe more snow. Do wish it was colder, as it would be some easier to shovel.

The sewer problem has really gotten to be one that is serious. Not sure if the cleaner is loosing up what has been partially blocking it and now blocking the drain or what the problem is. Probably will try at least one more "treatment" before commencing to dig. I really don't what to do any digging at all if I can avoid it. Sewer problems are far from my favorite thing to do.

We have to go to Bitsie's house this morning for a visit. I should be able to get out, but am some unsure of the road between here and the highway. The Kewaunee schools are running on time, so expect at least it should be passable. Schools to the north and west of Green Bay are opening late or a couple not at all. Sounds like they really got dumped on. The snowmobile and snowblower sales should be up this year. With snow before Christmas, it really makes a huge difference in their sales.

Guess I will put my britches on and go play in the snow for a while. That will allow Margriet to get some muffins built.

In Christ My Saviour,


Chris <><

Tracks

3:40 P.M.
27 F, Snowing, SE wind 15 mph.

Just back from my walk in the woods. The wind is really blowing and we have about 4" of snow on the ground. Went to the van through the woods and back on the driveway. I must have kicked up a deer when going through the woods as there were fresh tracks (still steaming) heading away from where I was walking. There is a big old pine tree there and I suspect it was bedded down under it.

The weather folks just issued a new weather advisory a few minutes ago - after dropping the previous ones. This one calls for snow and rain mix. That they can keep. Don't want no part of that! Also talked of up to 6" total of snow before midnight. I won't go out to measure it at that time. Will take their word for it.

There is water starting to form on top of the ice in both the upper and lower swamps. Not a good thing. It will make for some soupy walking in the woods later, unless we get some really cold weather. Might be time for the knee boots again. Would not be too bad of weather to be cutting trees down in - if the wind died or came from a different direction.

Oh yes, the trip to the van was a wild goose chase - what Margriet wanted - wasn't there!

Back to Christmas letters!

Chris <><

Snowing

2:30 P.M.
28 F, Snowing, ESE wind 12 mph, 35 mph gusts.

The snow has been coming down since about 9:00 A.M. this morning. Actually much lighter than I expected only a couple inches on the ground at the moment. The warnings and advisory have been dropped a few minutes ago. The great accumulation expected, doesn't look like it will happen, but with the wind being up, should be interesting driving. One good thing is the temperature is hot, so the snow is some heavy. Heart attack snow. About 1:30 P.M., I did put the van at the end of the driveway at the road. The wind is blowing down the last half of the driveway, after the corner, so expect it will not be too drifted in. From the corner to the house may be a different story though.

Our drain problem is back again. Not really sure it every really left. We picked up some industrial strength drain opener yesterday, but we will have to see if it works. I still hate the idea of digging up the line and rodding it out. Not one of my favorite pastimes. Especially with frozen ground - even a little bit.

It really is beautiful-er out then before. With the hot temperature, in spite of the wind, the snow is sticking to everything like frosting or whipped cream. Kind of cool hearing the wind whistling through the trees too. Harkens back to the good old days in the big woods!

Margriet is busy wrapping a couple more packages to send. Having a good time too. She just said there was something in the van she needed (of course when it is not parked at the road). I told her she could get it any time she wanted. She thought I said I would get it. :-) When I said it again, she didn't like it! Guess I will go for a walk in the snow. Will check out the swamps on the way.

Chris <><

Are we on line for the day?

11/14/05 8:00 A.M.
28 F, Cloudy, SSW wind 13 mph.

Good morning - I think,

I was not able to get on line all morning - until Margriet fired up her computer and she was able to access the ISP. I must have something set wrong somewhere and will look to it after I get this out. It might have just been a coincidence as the phone message at itol indicated they were having problems yet. Hope so, but sure am glad to be back on line again.

Everyone is readying for the snow. Several schools have already closed, based on predictions. It has not yet started to snow here, but sure looks like it. The radar indicates it is not too far from us to the southwest. Current predictions say we we will get much less than inland farther. We will remain under a winter storm warning for a time yet though, probably until tomorrow. Still, I probably will park the van at the end of the driveway when the snow really starts to come and accumulate. Must be getting lazy.

I did take advantage of our off-line time to continue completing some of the address books, &c. which were lost in the hard drive change. I suspect that I will continue to receive more addresses, via the mail and email, as they come in. Hope I don't have too many that are old and the Christmas letter comes back to us again. I still have all of the addresses and other information for LSM yet to reload too. That is a big block of stuff to do.

The plan for today was to beat on a couple of trees with a sharp instrument until they fell down and make some firewood from them. The wind is rather strong and from the wrong direction, so will postpone that to another day. Not to crazy about a tree falling in the opposite direction than planned - I might be in the way again. Our wood supply is in rather short supply at the moment. Not happy about that. Guess I will spend the time getting the Christmas letters written and out to those who I have addresses for. We do have plenty to do around here.

Time to get the day a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,


Chris <><

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

12/13/05 5:00 P.M.
23 F, WSW wind

Good evening,

Surprisingly I am able to compose this. The ISP is still not working, or as itol says, "we are still having issues with the Kewaunee area, but hope to have it repaired shortly." Of course they have been saying that since yesterday morning. We did have use of the ISP late yesterday afternoon and night, but not since. One improvement, nothing to do with the ISP, for some reason I can open this which I could not before. Don't know what I changed to make that happen, but a good thing I think. Have no idea as to when it wll be published though.

The weather man is predicting snow to start falling tomorrow afternoon late. The amount of snow depends some on which station we watch or which site we bring up. All say we are in for a big storm and snow fall. Anywhere from 7" - 12" of snow. All agree that we will get at least 3" as a starter. The storm should continue through Thursday all day. We are supposed to go to a friends home for coffee Thursday morning, but think it will be cancelled. The couple is from the Netherlands, a bit west of Margriet's home, and will be leaving to return a couple days after Christmas. She and her husband have been here for a bit over a year. He is contracted with a complain in Algoma to do some work for them. Not too sure what, but think it has something to do with a control system of some kind made by the company he is employed by in the Netherlands.

For the first time in a long time, no one brought any goodies to chew on for Bible Study today. Really seemed strange. We did have a pretty good turnout and very good discussions. We even covered more than one page in the workbook! I will have to start a new workbook soon, but hope this one will stretch out until after New Year's at least.

After Bible study we made a supply trip to Green Bay. Figured with the snow coming, we might have problems getting out, so filled the cupboards again. Really didn't need to buy that much, but we did have a few empty spots here and there. No real bargains either. The price of some foods are really going up. Some I cannot believe. Nor will we buy. At this rate of increase, pine cones are starting to look tasty! :-)

Not too sure when this will go out, but have to get to other things.

In Christ My Saviour,


Chris <><

Frustrating day

12/12/05 5:15 P.M.
18 F, Cloudy, WSW wind 2 mph

Good evening,

What a frustrating day! As I went to bed last night, the ISP decided to stop working. I thought it was something in this machine, but it turned out it really wasn't. It still was off this morning when I tried to open up, then decided to do some fooling around with the settings to see if I could correct the problem without success. I had wait until itol opened their phone lines to see if they could help. THEN I found out that itol had the problem and was working on it, hoping to be back up at noon or before. They weren't! About 3:00 P.M. we finally were able to access the web, but I was not able to access email (either with Outlook or itol's website). That didn't happen until about an hour ago. Since then the email has been downloading a couple of very long emails. One at least had a lot of pictures and the other isn't in yet. Another quirk which happened, many of my short cuts disappeared and I have to redo those too.

The weekend was very tiring. We spent most of the day today very slow, not much action activities at all. For some reason, the attendance was really down at LSM this month. We did have some folks who emailed earlier that they were not coming and why, but there were more who didn't. It is very discouraging for the staff and instructors. I purchased way too much food for the weekend and a lot was eventually eaten as "snacks" during the weekend, but that really is a waste of funds that are short in the first place. Sure as shooting, if I purchase less, there will be a full house. How do you win?

I did get a chance to work on my sermon for yesterday over the weekend. That was a big help. I hid for a bit every once in a while and did a lot of walking too. I have gotten to the point I don't use and notes or read my sermon any more. It is too difficult for me. What I do is try to get a whole snag of research together and then make some kind of outline (actually filled in pretty much), reading it over and over again until most of the material more or less stays between my ears. Then it just is a matter of letting the Spirit empty out what it wants to. I found that I am the one who makes the mistakes and the Good Lord does the right parts.

Yesterday it went pretty well. The first service better than the second service. The choir sang during the second service and the director always takes a few minutes to give a temple talk before they sing. I decided I would have to cut down my sermon a bit. Also because of the large number of folks giving me prayer requests. I can't remember when we have had so many folks in the hospital for surgery or illness. Also a lot of folks dying in the area too. I bet there were over 20 folks we prayed for, besides the "normal" number we have been praying for. The portion of the sermon I cut out, was a responsive part using the Gospel lesson. Wish I hadn't though. One reason for having the responsive part, was to use the new pew Bibles we now have. Normally they just sit in the pew racks. Next time! It worked well for the first service, but at first I had the folks look at the wrong chapter. I only caught it when I realized it was not making any sense for the points I was trying to make. Oh well, I called a halt to it and started over again.

We have a new coat of snow outside. Really is pretty again. What really surprised me was how dark outside it was this morning when I got up. Usually with snow on the ground, you can see something at night. Not this morning. After I had been up an hour or so, the light on the front deck went on. I looked out the window and here was a big, fat rabbit sitting at the door into the sunporch. As soon as he saw me looking out the window, he made a bee-line back down the ramp and out of sight as soon as possible. I really had to chuckle. Yesterday morning there was a very long ripple in the snow going down the driveway in the snow. It kind of looked like someone had laid a long broom stick (somewhat bent up though) on the ground and the snow covered it. It was the result of a mouse going under the snow, causing a tunnel in the snow, raising part of it. Cool!

Time to get to some other thing.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><

January is gone and December is back again

12/09/05 5:15 A.M.
17 F, Cloudy, WNW wind 09 mph.

Good morning,

The weather is acting more like December again. The weatherman is predicting that the temperature will actually reach our normal high! We got a bit of snow overnight, but more is coming on Saturday, about an inch or so. The southern half of the state got a bunch yesterday and traveling is a mess from what I hear.

We got some really sad news yesterday. One of my friends, and Sven's God Parent's, grandchild died on Wednesday night of SID's. The little guy was a little bid short of three months old. Jane and Barry must be devastated, along with their son and his wife. One of my other friends emailed the news to me yesterday. Was some surprised to get an email from Dan as his wife, Donna, is the emailer of the family. I knew something was up when I saw his name on it.

We also are some worried about Howard and family. They are heading, probably there by now, to northwest Kansas that has 4'-6' snow drifts at the moment. One daughter was traveling from mid-Ohio and another from Washington D.C., right through the snow storm now brewing in that area.

I have 12-13 pages (small print and single spaced with no borders) of research written for the sermon on Sunday. Now I have to sort through it and make it into something sensible to hear - I hope. Probably will do most of that while at LSM and try to get it to stick between my ears too. This has been a more difficult search for me than normal, since I had to relocate my sources on the web first and then download them. Some I have not yet found, so am making do without. I also have to do a children's sermon. Fortunately, we will be lighting one of the Christmas candles, so have a pretty clear idea given to me for that. It will be a first for me, not having given a children's sermon before. I have enough trouble with an adult sermon! It will be a busy weekend for sure. Probably will collapse afterwards for a few days.

Taking a break from research, I finally got our Christmas letter finished. Margriet also finished the poem to insert in it too. So everything is complete. Now I have to finish completing the address book so I can print out the envelops. Probably should get some stamps too. We have to look to see if we can find a suitable Christmas tree for this year too. Hope it will be close to the house so Margriet doesn't have to drag it too far! :-) Actually the trees are getting big and are close together, so it will be a challenge to fine one that is "round" enough to decorate. Always problems.

Time to get things a-going here for the day. Will be gone all weekend.

In Christ My Saviour,


Chris <><

It is HOT out!

12/08/05 6:45 A.M.
09 F, Partly cloudy, NW wind 01 mph.

Good morning,

It is actually above zero this morning! I got up late, but it still is warm out. The temperature at 1:00 P.M. yesterday was 07 F and a couple hours later it was 22 F! The hot came in a rush. Supposed to be a bit warmer today and also some snow flurries later.

I got a shock this morning when I opened the computer. I had an email from Howard asking me to lead the services on Sunday as Marsha's Dad had died last night. The funeral is on Saturday. Of course I will lead the service, but I will have to hit the ground running. Don't even know what the texts are.

9:15 A.M.

This will be short. I just got back from church and chatting with Howard for a bit. Actually waiting for him for over an hour. He is heading for Kansas today and will be returning late Wednesday night. Sounds like there are some problems to be taken care of there. All three of their daughters are also going, two flying in from different parts of the country. He said he spent half of the night on the web trying to get plane tickets and schedules set up so they can make it.

Probably should go out and beat on some trees to listen for what the Good Lord has for me for Sunday's sermon.

In Christ My Saviour,


Chris <><

Half of half.

12/07/05 6:00 A.M.
-02 F, Clear, W wind 5 mph, wind chill -12 F.

Good morning,

The weatherman said our temperature would rise to nearly half of the normal temperature. In reality, the temperature didn't rise to half of the predicted high. The wind was very cold, adding to the chill. It was however a very pretty day - clear and sunny. Today is supposed to be more of the same, but a bit warmer - so they say. We'll see.

Bible study turned out to be no study of the Bible, at least as we normally do. We had a guest from Sturgeon Bay come to present materials about mental health and a support group for families of folks with a mental illness of one kind or another. Actually our congregation does a pretty good job of supporting folks with metal illness and their families. We don't have any formal program to do that, but it does get done in a better way than I have been acquainted with in the past. Our Bible study group is probably the best entity in that support. We have several members who have, are, experienced problems. The gal who brought the guest is suffering and struggling greatly. She is trying so hard to live with her afflictions, but having a difficult time. This was a really important step for her - to be able to follow through on a project - of any kind. We have surrounded her as best we can and she does appreciate it.

Bible study was also profitable in other ways, for us, yesterday too. One of the gals (actually not a member of our congregation) brought in a big shopping bag filled with sweaters from her husband for me. He died of cancer about a year ago after a long hard battle and is slowly cleaning out his things. She told me to give what I didn't want use to Howard to have or to give to our clothing closet. I did take a couple of pull overs and passed on the cardigan. She is leaving for the Gulf Coast in Alabama on Friday. This will be the first time she will drive there alone and we are very worried about her. She also brought a couple boxes of tangerines for us to consume and the leftovers she wanted Margriet and I to take home. We sure did and they are very good.

There also was a note waiting for me at church from Grace Lutheran, Long Beach, Mississippi, thanking us for the cookies we sent. They will be serving them after their Wednesday night Advent service, tonight I think. She mentioned in her note she had to test the quality of the cookies, before letting the congregation consume them! She must be one of my relatives.

The packages finally got into the mail and the kids should have them before Christmas. At least that is the plan. They grew in weight and size from what we decided on last year. The smaller packages go across the puddle quicker, for some reason. I still have a couple of small ones to send, but have to finish the contents first. Hopefully that will happen soon. I see the postal rates are to rise again after the New Year, even though the Postal Service is showing a profit. Thought it was supposed to be a non-profit government function! Guess that is not the American way.

We will be spending this weekend in Little Chute (a.k.a. Little Toot) and LSM. It seems it is impossible that it is time to go again. We missed last month and it still seems too soon. Guess we are having too much fun and the time just flies by. Expect to be a bit tired again at the beginning of next week.

I was surprised to here yesterday that the hard-drive on the church's main computer died and had to be replaced. The computer there is only a couple years old, so came as a bit of a shock to them also. The secretary is going nuts trying to get everything back to normal again. Since I have experienced the same thing, we are trading addresses to get each of our computers back to something close to the way they should be again. Always something fun to do.

Time to get the day a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,


Chris <><

Winter practice - It's crisp out

12/06/05 6:00 A.M.
-03 F, Clear, W wind 11 mph, -17 F wind chill.

Good morning,

Well I think Old Man Winter is practicing cold, getting ready for winter coming in a couple of weeks. It is cool out this morning for sure (and will be cooler at about sunrise) and it pretty much was all day yesterday. It is getting warmer though, we are expect to get up to half of our normal high, rather than the third of normal high yesterday. It appears it will be Sunday or Monday next week before getting close to a normal high again.

Checking the Enschede webcam (http://www.enschede.nl/SPY/CamPage.htm) this morning, I see they have a pretty good sized pine tree deposited in the square. It is laying on it's side, and expect it to be raised and decorated in time for Christmas. It will be interesting to watch the process. The snow has disappeared finally, but it sure doesn't look as cold there as here, judging by the dress of the folks wandering around. Actually there is a lot of activity in the square this morning (actually about 2:00 P.M. there at the moment) and also on Sunday. Folks must be getting in the Christmas mood there too.

I spent most of the day working on Christmas things. We also finally got two packages filled and wrapped ready to send. I still have a couple of small things to complete, but will ship them in a separate boxes when finished. I checked the cost of shipping online with the post office, UPS and FedEx. We were shocked at the cost for UPS and FedEx. Guess we will ship via the postal service and save a couple hundred plus dollars! UPS is often cheaper to send packages within the country here, but not international shipments I guess. Couldn't believe the difference.

For what ever reason, my right knee really started to cause me problems yesterday, about mid-afternoon. Don't know what caused it, as I really had not been doing anything very physical at all. It feels pretty good so far this morning. Sure glad I wasn't cutting down trees and moving logs as I should have been. Don't think I would have been very effective at that.

It was four years ago today that I headed to Pennsylvania to meet Margriet in the "flesh", as it were, after a lot of chatting on line for about a year. It was an interesting trip then and has been since. It seems like a short time and also a long time, considering number of experiences we have had together since. It has been a good ride.

Today's agenda is Bible study then the post office, not too much more. We pretty well picked up enough last week for our supply in the cupboards to be pretty full. Maybe I will pull on the long-johns and get some trees knocked down and cut up. Have to get gas for the chainsaw and splitter first though. Guess those are the supplies needed this week.

The two new wall furnaces are working very well, but I still run the old furnace to keep the pipes from freezing below the house. Haven't solved that problem yet. When I do, the woodstove and the furnaces should provide all the heat we need. We ate some of the pea soup for supper last night and it was excellent. Will have lunches for a couple of days from it too. Yum!

Time to get to other things I think.

In Christ My Saviour,


Chris <><

Ahhhhhhhhhhh the cold ..........

12/15/05 6:00 A.M.,
03 F, Clear, W wind 9 mph, -13 F wind chill.

Good morning,

Good day for chili - since it is outside. Think we will settle for split pea soup instead. I have not stuck my nose outside yet today, but know what is there. Expect the temperature to drop a couple more degrees before daylight is here. Should be a cool all day. Would have been better if the cold had come before the snow. Dropped a front wheel into the mud when I turned around in the yard yesterday after church. Didn't expect that.

We got a late start yesterday, so ended up going to the late service. Very light attendance, only 50 folks there. I filled in as an usher, so ended up counting heads too. Actually the church was a very busy place yesterday between services. The kids were getting ready for their Christmas service and a couple of committee meetings, besides the normal activity. Seemed like every room was busy, including the pastor's office and the church office were pressed into service.

The pea soup simmered on the woodstove for a good portion of the day. It sure smelled good, especially when I spilled a bit on the stove top. At least it smelled good for a while, then not so good. Have big plans to make it disappear for supper.

Spent a good portion of the day yesterday making Christmas things to send out. Not too sure why I decided to do these, as it take some really detail work (for me) and I can only stay with it for a few minutes at a time. Rather frustrating. We hope to get the packages to the Netherlands in the mail today. Will need to start earlier in the year next year. It is kind of fun though.

Our resident fox is getting more and more brazen. I see his tracks right at the end of the ramp and traveling just a couple of feet from the house. That is some unusual, but this isn't a really wild area. I also see more rabbit tracks than ever before too. Almost sounds like I should start a trap line. Wonder what the pelt value is now. Used to know.

I talked to Howard yesterday about the family I brought to the Harvest Dinner. He will contact the County and see if there are needs there we can help with. He has spent a busy couple of weeks, so really doesn't need another thing to do, but this has to go through him. We have had a lot of folks in the hospital with surgeries and several deaths to take care of. Of course Christmas has it's own set of needs too. He will not ask for help either.

Well guess I had better get busy and the day a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,


Chris <><

More dust

12/04/05 6:00 A.M.
13 F, Clear, W wind 5 mph.

Good morning,

A little dusting of snow during the night, but nothing major. Expect the temperature to drop a bit as daylight approaches. Should be sunny and cold today.

The harvest dinner went without a hitch. Not as many folks as past years, but there was plenty of food. Turkey and ham were the main items with all of the trimmings added to the meal. Some one donated a spiral-cut ham, which I had the task of cutting from the bone and getting ready for serving. Not as easy as advertised. I don't think the extra cost is really worth it. Still a lot of monkey business to get it off of the bone. Besides, the slices are too thin.

I did get to pick up a mother and her three children from Casco. She was of Mexican decent and spoke no English. The nine year old daughter was the interpreter for the family. She is a cute little gal and is going to turn some boy's head in a few years! There are three boys in the family too. One apparently was working somewhere. I think there is a father in the family too, but not sure. The youngest is a babe in arms and slept about half of the ride to church and all during the dinner, waking up when it was time to leave. The other boy is about 3-4 I would guess. Both of the boys are very "chunky" to say the least. They are going to be big kids I think. Not too sure what is going on in the family, but they came here from Colorado three months ago and the mother is feeling very isolated and alone. I did find out that she has not been anywhere in the area and had no of very few friends. There were two cars in the parking space beside the home - one had been burned and the other had the windows smashed. Howard got the call to pick them up from the County Human Services. I will ask him to check in some on the family. Maybe there is something we can do for them.

The folks who planned the dinner did miss some major points I think. There should have been something for each kid who came to take home with them - there was nothing. A bag of anything to take home would be a big deal for them. One of the gals and I did find some candy and a couple of zip-lock bags for the two older kids I brought, but they were the only ones to get anything. There was more then enough food that several of the folks could have taken some home with them, but no thought was given to that until all of the folks at the meal were gone. Some of the older folks would have made good use of it. There were no activities for the kids either. In years past the youth group had activities for them, but not this year. I did mention it to several of the organizers and I could see the lights go on in their heads indicating they had never thought of it. Hope they do next year.

I did steal the ham bone from the meal and started the cooking process of making split pea soup. Probably will put it on the woodstove to finish cooking today. One of the gals gave me a hard time about putting the bone in the refrigerator and taking it home, instead of throwing it away. She surprised me as she is a farm girl and I just assumed she would know about things like that. Anywho, we are looking to having some good lunches from it this week.

We had another "chat" with Brenda yesterday. I even got in on the act. Brenda has a new computer, so I think is enjoying "playing" with it. Glad she does. I mentioned to Brenda that it would be nice if we could also talk "live". She said there is a way to do that and gave me a website to check it out. I will probably do that and who knows, we might have internet phone service here soon. Apparently she has it. Computer phone sure would be cheaper than land lines.

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

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><

More Brisk.

12/03/05 5:00 A.M.
07 F, Cloudy, W wind 01 mph.

Good morning,

There definitely is frost on the pumpkin this morning. The temperature should triple before dropping again tonight. Looks to be 05-07 F as lows for the next few days. Talking of a little snow in the next couple of days.

I did get out and clear off the log bunk yesterday. All of the logs are blocked and either on the splitting pile or in the house to be used. There are not enough larger blocks to warrant starting up the splitter. I also put the last of the chainsaw gas into the saw yesterday, so will have to mix more. The gas can for the splitter is all but empty too. Will have to re-fill both before doing much more. Almost threw a full gallon bottle of bar and chain oil away, leaving the empty one in the shed. Not too sure what I was thinking the last time I filled the chainsaw.

Margriet saw a "deer" pass though the yard at the sight line yesterday at breakfast time. She said she could not figure out what is was as she just caught a glimpse of it, but was too small to be a deer. She was sure it was not a squirrel or other small animal. We just figured out what it was - a fox. She saw it again this morning and I saw it too. It was right outside of the house trotting to the road through the woods. That also explains all of the tracks in the snow I could not identify when the light snow was coming down - filled up with light snow too fast. FISKLAND is full of rabbit tracks, so suspect that is the attraction for the fox. We rarely see them. I haven't seen a fox here in a could of years, then usually crossing a road as we are driving. They are a pretty animal to watch and very graceful in their movements.

Our larder has two fresh breads in it. I almost died of hunger yesterday, smelling them bake. It sure is a nice smell - and taste - to have bread baking in the house. We will totally enjoy them for sure.

Today our church sponsors the annual "Harvest Dinner" for folks who are alone or can't afford to celebrate a Christmas meal. We have to prepare something to bring and will spend a good chunk of the day helping there. It is always a good time and we also get a chance to eat too much. We have been doing the dinners for six years and I think I have been involved with all of them. Our involvement this year is not as much as in the past.

I took a walking tour around the trees I still have to cut down. While the woods look beautiful under a cover of new snow, the soil beneath the snow is still soft and wet, not frozen. I managed to get both feet wet, stepping into mud up to my ankles. I was trying to avoid that, so stepped on a hummock which turned out to be only tufts of grass covered with snow. There is a lot of water standing in the swamps at the moment. The area around the cutting buck is a semi-solid ice/snow mix. I stay on top of it, but am worried about stepping through when the temperature rises a bit.

In the mail I received a newspaper put out by a sawmill company and noticed some new ideas in it. They referred me to a website (www.logosol.com) for more information. When I brought it up and clicked on the information I wanted to look at, there was a problem with the download. Apparently the Adobe Reader which was loaded on the new hard-drive was an older version and the site needed the new one. So .... I had another thing to reset on this. After several hours of deleting, downloading, and installing, I am now set up with the current version. Wonder what I will need to change or add next. Still don't have several programs loaded yet which I want to.

Guess it is time to get the day a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,


Chris <><

Sunny

2:22 P.M.
19 F, Sunny, NW wind 13 mph.

So my Woman has her hair cut. Much shorter. Should be nice and cool for her to "wear" now. The whole process took about 45 minutes. While she was there I found a spot to park in the sun. Used all of the glass in the van as a greenhouse to keep some warm without running the engine. I should have brought a magazine or a book along to read. Listened to classical music and drank the coffee I brought along.

While sitting there I had a ring-side seat to the goings on in town. Real exciting! It is nice to see the town quiet after the noise and activity of the summer. Folks stopping for something at the hardware store, or at one of the restaurants for coffee, or what ever. There were no shortage of parking spaces and very few vehicles moving at all. Algoma is a very pleasant little city.

With the cooler weather and the wind from the NW, there was a sheet of skim ice forming on the lake. Farther out, the "warm" water colliding with the "cool" air, was causing some snow to fall in the lake about a mile from shore. The water was a very dark steel gray, in spite of the sun shining. Don't think we will go skinny dipping, even though we could have the beach to ourselves - except for the geese and seagulls.

The woodstove is a simmering today. Have to get out and get some firewood cut though. The pile keeps shrinking for some reason. Will have to break out the long-johns one of these days too. Not that it is that cold, but the rivets on my heavy work pants really are cold when the hit the bare skin of my legs. They get my attention. The pants are not your normal jeans and are made for rough work activities. Double layers of canvas on the leg fronts. Really nice for cutting wood and trees. Mosquitoes bend their noses trying to get through them too.

Margriet is baking bread - one white and one fruit. About ready to go into the oven I think. She and Brenda have been playing IM tag today. Margriet doesn't have the sound on her computer turned on, so misses Brenda when she sends a message, while doing something else. By the time she gets back to the computer and sees Brenda's message, Brenda is gone. Computer age phone tag!

Guess I had better get to doing something more active than this.

Chris <><

Brisk!

12/02/05 5:45 A.M.
11 F, NW wind 9 mph.

Good morning,

Cooler outside it is. Looks like we are in a period of temperatures being lower than normal (actually about half of the normal temperature). It seems we are on a roller-coaster - so long considerably above normal, then so long considerably below normal temperatures. Not nice.

We had light snow most of the day yesterday. Didn't end at noon as predicted. When it was all said and done, we got a couple of inches of very light snow. Really pretty in the woods, until the wind came up during the afternoon and blew all of the snow in the branches off. When I went out to get a couple of tools last night, there were deer tracks that came right up to the end of the ramp then off too the outhouse, walking along side of it before heading north into the woods again. Would have been really neat to see the deer still in the tracks as they were made. Judging by the size of the foot prints, the deer was rather small. Probably a yearling from this year's crop.

The real highlight of the day was Margriet and Brenda instant messaging for about a half hour. In the process, we got a picture of the new little squirt, with a happy Ma and Pa. The little squirt is also getting to be a bigger squirt. Very healthy looking. Ma and Pa don't look too bad either. Sounds like things are fine, except for lots of soggy snow and the associated weather. We really do enjoy and look forward to the kids using the instant messaging or the phone. Last week we had a chance to chat with Astrid and Pim. Really makes our week to be sure.

I noticed in our paper the other day, that in 1915 a local man received a train car load of new Studebaker automobiles for sale in his establishment - two 4-cylinder and one 6-cylinder models! The train cars were smaller then and no double/triple deckers either! I suspect that 3 automobiles was a huge order back then. Things are a bit different now.

While fooling around on the web yesterday, I ran across a neat website: http://www.castles.nl/ . Since visiting a couple of castles while in the Netherlands, they have really peaked my interest. This is a listing of many castles in the Netherlands. I didn't know there were that many there! A number of them are still being used for residences or businesses, while some are being used as museums, and others are pretty well gone, but for a pile of stone here and there. The mechanics of building and designing them really is amazing, considering the technology they didn't have when they were built. Sure glad I didn't need to build one, even today.

Going to Algoma this morning so Margriet can get her hair cut. Has been awhile. Every time we have tried to go, things of one sort or another have gotten in the way. I have been threatening to do it for her, but she has not been that desperate yet!

Time to get things going for the day. Dutch eggs for breakfast.

In Christ My Saviour,


Chris <><

White wonderland is back!

12/01/05 6:45 A.M.
22 F, Snowing, NNW wind 5 mph.

Good morning,

It amazes me how a bit of snow on the ground, can totally change the look of mud and more or less dead vegetation into a winter wonderland. The cold and gray turns to clean and a much warmer feeling. It's like waking up to a fresh look at the world and life in general. Love it!

We are supposed to get 1-3" before noon then taper off. Another batch of snow will follow in a couple of days. At the moment the flakes are rather small, but piling up. One of the weathermen got me to chuckle last night. Instead of "lake effect snow", it is now called "lake enhanced snow"! Wonder if the snow is different. Anyway, the lake may cause us to have a longer and deeper snowfall. Will let you know.

There was a very serious accident in Kewaunee yesterday afternoon. A minivan, with a woman and three children inside, crossed the centerline and hit a full-sized pickup truck, with two women inside, head on. One of the children, 11-12 years old, was killed. The minivan burst into flame. Passer-bys pulled all of the people out of the vehicles. One was airlifted to a Green Bay hospital and ambulances from Kewaunee, Algoma, and Luxemburg took the rest to Green Bay hospitals. One of the gals in the pickup we know, the hostess at the Oakwood Inn where we occasionally have a meal. It is the first really serious accident in Kewaunee in a very long time. Hope it is even longer before the next on or better yet - never.

The chicken noodle soup was good last night. Instead of Margriet's homemade bread to go with, I had a hankering for some homemade biscuits. Got out the "Depression Cookbook" and found the old farm recipe for "Oil Biscuits." The turned out very tasty and I ate way too many of them. It has been along time since I made them. Most often, in fact almost always, I make them as drop biscuits, but this time I made them as cut biscuits instead. When all of the kids were home, I used to make them often, but doubled or tripled the recipe. They disappeared in a hurry at meal time.

Guess it is time to get the day a-going. Want to get out and enjoy the outdoor world some.

In Christ My Saviour,


Chris <><