Bright and clear coming

1/31/06 6:30 am.
20º F, Clear, WNW wind 6 mph.

Good morning,

The major task for the day yesterday was to pay the first half of our property taxes. The deed is not did. We have one more large bill to pay and that should be accomplished today. We will be walking lighter for a time - not carrying around all of that money! Apparently I was not the only one at the bank getting money to pay for their taxes. The gal behind the counter said there were a lot of folks withdrawing money yesterday.

The other accomplishment yesterday, really have high goals with this one, was finally being able to burn the trash. There has been a pretty good pile needing to be gotten rid of. I also wanted to burn up some branches and other things which fall from the trees as the lower branches die off. I really had to watch where I walked or I would receive a wet ka-noodle-ing. With all of the snow still attached to the tree branches, they are bending very much lower and just in line with the top of my head. Of course touching them caused all of the attached snow to fall on me. Mostly down my neck. Thanx to the rain, snow, and lack of wind I felt safe burning again. Grass fires have been a major concern for the past few weeks. There have been several serious grass fires west of the Fox Cities. Apparently they have been set by someone, still on the loose. The authorities think the same person has set about 15 grass fires in the past couple of years. All appear to have the same pattern and the person knows how to do it, using wind and weather to their advantage.

Part of my family has been having an interesting email discussion. It all started when my cousin Karl in Florida asked about the circumstances surrounding my Grandmother’s life, in particular when she came her from Denmark, her age, and like that. Several of my family have been adding to the "answer" but with little bits and pieces generally not known or different than what we have known. One turned out to be a marriage license of my Grandmother and Grandfather in Milwaukee. On it my Grandfather’s last name is spelled Nielson! Now .... does that mean my last name really isn’t Nelson, or .... did someone error on the wedding license? It really is an interesting discussion and probably will go on for sometime. I am learning some things I had not known in the past.

Some of our rocking chair money is reaching us at different dates than in the past. That does create some problems in our bill payments. We had them set up on a schedule which followed the money arrival. Now the money arrives later than in the past so the bills are being paid on the verge of being late. Don’t like that at all. There is an upside to it though, some of the payments are a bit bigger than a year ago. All of the funds are changing.

Yesterday going to the bank and looking out over the lake was interesting. The snow storm had ended on shore, but not over the lake. The edge was out a couple of miles. There looked to be a line, past which everything was black clouds and very cold looking. Where I was the sky was clearing and the sun was peeking through the clouds. There normally is a streak of turquoise colored water off shore. Yesterday it was there, but very narrow. Close to shore the water was more brown, thanx to the run-off from shore, and out farther it was a dirty black, reflecting from the storm clouds. I never tire of looking at the lake. It is never the same twice.

Today we are off to Green Bay for our supply run after Bible study. Time to get the day a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,


Chris <><

Really pretty out

1/30/06 6:30 am.
26º F, Snowed, N wind 6mph.

Good morning,

There is a white wonderland outside this morning. As the sun comes up behind the cloud cover, the view outside is more like a black and white photograph. There are no colors, not even gray-tones. Really cool! All of the branches are covered with white snow and the undersides and shadows are black. The pine trees are especially interesting. At the base of the trees, where the branches end, it looks like there is a big black cave opening there. The view outside could be from a scarey story we heard as kids, or a scarey movie from the 20's or 30's when they were filmed in black and white. But .... it really is beautiful outside. Much more beauty than a scary movie or story. It is amazing how much shorter the sight lines are when there is even just ¼" of snow on the branches. It seems the world is much smaller than with out the snow. It really give one a chance to see the details around you, rather than looking to see how far you can see. It is really nice to look out the window or to be out in the fairyland here.

We had about an inch of rain between Saturday noon, when it started, until changing over to snow about 7:00 P.M. last night. Since we have gotten about an inch of very wet snow. Light flurries are to continue for most of the day today. Walking in the woods Saturday morning was a pleasant activity. Yesterday on the way back from church, there was a lot of water everywhere, including where I had walked the day before. The soil is pretty much frozen, except for the top 1" or so which is mud, so the water collects in the low spots rather than soaking into the soil. We noticed the Canadian geese had abandoned the harbor and taken up residence in some of the fields, now with large ponds in them. One really good thing about the rain - the van got an exterior cleaning. With the construction between here and highway #42, the van is red clay mud color a lot of the time.
I really pulled a bone-head stunt yesterday. Because of the yucky weather, I decided to wear jeans to church instead of dress pants. About 10 minutes into the service, I noticed that I had grabbed my work jeans instead of my "good" pair to wear. I couldn’t believe I had done that! I was embarrassed enough that I went home and changed them. I got back in time to hear the last half of the sermon. Guess I really don’t look at myself much in the mirror to check out how "good" I look. Haven’t pulled a stunt like that for a long time (at least that I remember).

Margriet made some bread on Saturday. It think it is probably the best she has made. Well .... at least better than usual. Not sure what happened, it surprised her how much the dough raised and the resulting breads climbed out of the pan some too. Supper Saturday night was chicken with homemade bread. She also made a "Dutch" cheesecake for desert. Also excellent. The cheese cake, really not a cheese cake as we have in this country, was made from a mix that Bietse left for us when she went back to the Netherlands. Wish she had left a couple more boxes. Really good. We will have to see if we can find it to bring back the next time we are over there.

We got an interesting email from a sister-in-law of Margriet’s yesterday. It had both of us chuckling. We sent a small package to them for Christmas and it apparently just got there. One of the things in it was the ingredients for making a kind of fudge. From the sounds of it the family started to make it before it left the box! The comment which was our biggest chuckle was they didn’t know Americans ate anything or liked anything except hamburgers and french fries! They didn’t know we had food that good. Needless to say, we were happy they enjoyed it. Gerry is an artist and I wish she was here with her brushes and paints to do some justice to this snowfall on canvas. I think she would have a good time.

Since there was a promise of snow, I picked up a pretty good sized package of neck bones and thought it was time for some soup again. We have not had too much soup of late with the hot weather. Just didn’t really feel like soup weather. I cooked down the meat yesterday and will work on the beans and the rest of the ingredients today. That should make the house smell good for most of the day. Maybe the smelling of the soup cooking so long is really what tastes good, not the soup itself. Any how, we like to eat it for lunch. For something different, we had a big salad for lunch yesterday. One of the grocery stores had packaged "salad" on sale for very cheap, so picked some up along with some mushrooms also on sale. That with emptying the refrigerator of some leftover sausage and cheese, made a pretty good meal.

Time to get the day a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,


Chris <><

Hot, but cooler

1/28/06 12:13 pm.
34º F, cloudy, SE wind 3 mph.

Good morning,

My woman is on the phone to Astrid at the moment, so thought I had better get this started. It is Astrid’s birthday, the reason for the call. She will be an old woman in a couple of years, then things are downhill for her. Of course by time she reaches our age, she too will be ancient! We aimed a package her way a bit ago and it sounds like it arrived in time. Even though they are speaking in Dutch and I can only hear one half of the conversation, it sounds like the contents were a hit with Astrid. Wonder if Pim and Onno built a birthday cake for her and served her breakfast in bed? Just heard them talking about the toaster we bought. The Dutch term is "Broodrooster" - bread-roaster. It just struck me with a chuckle. Really it is a roasting process if one thinks about it.

The weather looks like it will rain at any second. Looking at the radar earlier, and listening to the weatherman, the wet is supposed to go south of us and north of us. The north is supposed to get snow./rain mix and south mostly rain. We are supposed to only get drizzle for most of the afternoon, then possibly turning to snow before morning. Tomorrow it is possible we may get up to an inch of snow. Yesterday was really a hot day. We broke the 50º F mark and I think set a new high temperature record for the day. High temperature records were set all over NE Wisconsin. On place hit 60º F! Well over the previous mark. I am some grumpy with all of the hot weather though.

I took a walk through the woods before and found the woods are easier to walk in than the driveway. The first 100 yards of the driveway are still pretty much covered with ice. After all of the warm weather we have had, the surface is really glazed and polished. Not real fun to walk on. The upper and lower swamps are fairly dry now. The ice water mix has melted and run off to lower places. There still is some ice left, but little water. With all of the foliage off, it is much easier walking. I originally went to check out the possibility of cutting a couple of trees down and ended up getting the paper from the road too. You sure don’t have any problems finding the deer trails now. They are beat down into the top layer of mud. Saw lots of tracks, but none filled.

Looking at the trees in the woods, especially the pine plantation, I really need to get out and start thinning them. There are a lot o pines that have died and need to come down. There also are a lot of pines which have hit their practical age and need to come down too. That will open up the woods for the smaller trees to come through. Probably a lot of ash and like that at first, but eventually the pines will take over again. Rally wish I could use the pines for firewood. There are a lot of dead out there. Not real good heat, except to cook on, but would probable make good heat during the spring and fall, or as the weather is now. I know folks in the west burn it all of the time, but there is a problem with creosote build up when using it for heat. Wonder how they eliminate it.

It started to rain a bit ago. The drops seem to be think. Not like normal rain. They seem to lay on everything, rather than run off. Hope they turn to snow soon, or it will be very slippery on everything walk-able or derivable on. Guess the best place to be for the moment is inside.

Time to get the day a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,


Chris <><

Still hot - but sunny!

1/27/06 6:45 am.
32º F, Clear, S wind 8mph.

Good morning,

It appears the hot will continue for another day. Then they are talking of snow on Sunday or there abouts. I fear that when we really get snow, we will really get snow. Yesterday was a really nice April day. I was able to go coatless for a good share of the day, but I did have a flannel shirt on. The temperature was about 45º F and is supposed to be higher today, probably breaking another high temperature record.

Since it was a warm day with no rain or snow coming our way, we decided to go to the Fox River Valley and spend the money LSM gave me as a thanx for being on staff last year. It has been a long time a-coming, since we discovered Saturday is a very busy day at the mall after LSM and we both were worn out from the weekend. We had tried once, without much success other than almost falling asleep on the drive home.

We started late, so decided to stop in Kewaunee at Grandma’s Café for a late breakfast. It was good and plenty. I kind of figured we would not be eating lunch at the "normal" time, so it was good to eat bigger than normal. We stopped to pick up some gas for the van. As it turned out, the price was the cheapest we saw anywhere. That is unusual for Kewaunee I think. Even Algoma is 7¢/gallon higher. We also noticed the geese were covering the harbor once again - apparently they have decided to give the fertilizing of the shore line a rest or were just pooped out.

Arriving at the mall about noon, we spent the next 2-3 hours wandering around. It is really hard for a couple of old folks who are not used to spending money on things we really don’t need. Guess we have done that so many years, especially me, that we can’t do anything else by be some frugal! There were many, many things we would like, but .... We finally did find a breadbox and a couple of other things for the kitchen to get. One was a new toaster. The one we have is probably a couple decades old (or more) and we had trouble putting Margriet’s homemade bread in it. Seems we like to slice it a bit thicker than the store bought variety and what the toaster will accept. Now we should not have that problem.

Another "frill" I did pick up was a new light for using with my computer and the notebook when we are on the road. Until now I have been using an overarm desk lamp which provides too much light. It is great for general desk lighting, but not for just illuminating the keyboard and the text I am working with. This one is battery driven with an A-C adapter to plug it in also. We have found that when we are traveling, I usually use the notebook when I first get up and Margriet uses it before she goes to bed. I don’t like to turn on the light in the room to wake her in the morning, and I have a hard time going to sleep with the light on in the room. So the little light we now have will solve that problem too.

In many of the stores, I was surprised to see the markdowns going on. Some of the items in some stores were marked down as much as 90%! We did take advantage of some of the markdowns, but only if we could justify the item. The little light cost $6.00 instead of the marked $16.00 for example. Kind of wish we fell into more of that kind of sales when we really need something. Of course the gift card amount didn’t come out exactly as our purchases and we ended up spending a total out of pocket money was 60¢! Not often one spends 2-3 hours in a mall spending less than a dollar!

Leaving the mall, we stopped the Machine Shed restaurant for "lunch." Being old folks, we didn’t order a full meal - or so we thought. We each ordered a cup of bean with ham (really ham with bean) soup with a salad for Margriet and half of a chicken salad sandwich for me. We have found this kind of meal at several restaurants and usually order it. It normally is on the "Senior Menu" and is enough for each of us and fairly inexpensive. This time it turned out to be a large meal! The cup of soup, really only a cup, was served with a huge homemade dinner roll with butter and a small square of "breakfast koek" (in Dutch) which is a kind of ginger bread. The sandwich was also large, served on half of a croissant with about twice the filling necessary. I ate half in the croissant and the other half of the filling with a fork. Margriet’s salad was also huge, served on a large platter. More like a chef’s, but without the meat - egg, cheese, and various vegetables on lettuce. We do like the Machine Shed for a meal, but I don’t think we have every ordered a full meal there.

On the way out, I noticed their "house" cookbooks were on sale for about 1/3 of the normal price, so Margriet had to pick up some of them. Reading material on the return home? We also stopped at Woodman’s grocery store to pick up some spice she needed. Along the way to the spice isle, we noticed some boneless country-style pork ribs on sale and picked up some of them too. This batch looks like the end cuts from pork tenderloins, so should be some good eating. Margriet found a recipe for cranberry/onion sauce for over pork last week I think. It is EXCELLENT and I think it is on the menu for supper tonight. I don’t think I will complain too much.

Me thinks this is enough for this morning. Time to get the day a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,


Chris <><

April is here!

1/25/06 6:55 am.
24º F, Bright sky, W wind 4 mph.

Good morning,

The calendar must be wrong. Warm weather and windy - it has to be April. The winds have been very high the past couple of days and are expected to continue for the next day or so. The ferry to Washington Island even laid up yesterday. That is unusual. The temperature also has been in the 40's and that too will continue for the rest of the week. Looks like this will be the warmest January on record with the least amount of snow on record!

We had a delightful time with Bruce for lunch on Monday in Two Rivers. Food was excellent and really cheap. He insisted on buying! We solved a lot of the world’s problems, at least in our part of the world, but now have to get the world to listen. We talked a lot about LSM and some about the workbook I gave him to go over. He was some impressed and pleased with the workbook. Of course he had suggestions for me to work on.

We got around to talking about where we live and where he lives. Bruce has a cottage up nort’ with the idea years ago of retiring there. One of the reasons we are here at FISKLAND is a similar reason. Out in the woods and yet close to necessary facilities and services. On the way home, I remembered an email I got from my cousin, Karl, in Florida for the winter, describing his living arrangements in Florida and at home in Georgia. What Karl described in Florida, reminded me of living in a bunch of beehives or paper wasp nests located close together. Bruce and Karl’s Georgia home were some relief from the crowed togetherness, but Bruce’s cottage and FISKLAND seemed to be what Bruce and we like as the best living situations. Fortunately, Margriet and I get a chance to actually live in an area we desire. Bruce seemed to think we had the best of all worlds to live in. We too!

Bible study was something of an endurance event for me. One of the gals has been missing for a couple of weeks was back and in a darker mood than normal. Her normal mood is one that tries to control, where ever she is. She has to be the center of the world it seems and taking exception to anything and everything said. Yesterday was no exception. She kept taking examples given for what not to do and though they were example of what should be done - then thinking it wrong. Most of her attention was paid to me, as I am the leader. Oh well! Guess that is part of the job too. It really is too bad though, because it takes away from the other folks there.

I have been working on the next installment of the study pretty hard. Not at one sitting, but in a bunch of smaller ones. I am using some material from a couple of old guys who wrote a lot in the 1800's. It is interesting to see it is very similar to what our attitudes have returned to. They would be very much at home in the "new" evangelical free style of churches we have today. Not much new under the sun I guess.

Time to get the day a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,


Chris <><

Hooray for sunshine!

1/23/06 6:55 am.
17º F. Partly cloudy, WSW wind 3 mph.

Good morning,

Looks to be a rather nice day a-coming. Yesterday was too. Cool, but warmer than normal. Bright sunshine seems to be on the agenda today. The wind is supposed to come in this afternoon and evening.

We are heading to Two Rivers today to have lunch with Bruce, the "best" man at our wedding and co-instigator of LSM, at noon today. In the past it was a monthly/bi-monthly event, but we both have gotten busy in different directions of late. We will be meeting at M & M Lunch. A neat little restaurant we like.

One of the topics of discussion will be a part of a Bibles study workbook I asked him to review and make notations on for me. It is the first three workbooks of the last couple of year’s Bible study at church, put into one. Eventually I want to put all of the workbooks I have built in the past couple of years into one, hopefully to use in the future somewhere. I got an email from Bruce saying that he had gotten through the first 20 pages or so. He still had about 40 pages more to go at that point. It appears the final effort will be about 200 pages.

The potluck at church is now history and a lot of stomachs filled - probably yet this morning. Howard picked up 5 dozen very good hot dogs for the center of the meal. There were a few salads and hot-dishes to go with. No one starved for sure. Either for food or for conversation. Not as many there as usual, but a good time non-the-less. Hope we have more soon. My suggestion was to have one potluck a month and they are trying to keep to that pattern. Somehow I always find my way to the dessert table too often. We did come away with a bag of venison sausage. One of the gals who knows we like it gave the leftovers to us she had brought.

I had occasion to revisit the septic tank on Saturday, just to be sure everything was OK and get it covered for the duration of the winter. The tank is not even full yet! That was a surprise to me. Guess we are really a couple of dry old folks. The access opening cover was extremely wet, so I left it open to dry out some before closing it up again. Probably will close it up this afternoon for the duration of the winter. Suspect I will need to open it again when I redo the sewer line and put in the clean out.

When I checked the webcam from Enschede this morning, it was a very sunny day there. It also appears the camera has been changed, in position and focal length. It now is centered more on the square surrounding the fountain and showing a wider view. The people who walk though the picture change size very rapidly now moving away from the camera. It is a much brighter and clearer picture too. http://www.enschede.nl/SPY/CamPage.htm

Time to get the day a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,


Chris <><

Pricey

1/21/06 7:15 am.
19º F, Bright clouds, NW wind 1 mph.

Good morning,

We didn’t bask in sunshine yesterday, but there wasn’t a flake of snow that fell either. The warmest part of the day, was really about the time I went to bed. This is the warmest January on record for this area. Average temperature is something like 31º F so far. Really weird!

Much easier walking now - lighter wallet. The postal rates went up a bit ago and they are really making an effect on shipping. Talking with the folks at the post office, they say there is no need for the increase, but Congress decided there should be an escrow account set up with money to accumulate in it. There is no purpose for the money to be used or when. All we know is it is some more expensive to mail a letter across the puddle as well as packages. That cost went up more than domestic rates. Checked with UPS and found their rates have also gone up in the past few weeks also. Those I suspect are directly related to the cost of fuel though - not congress.

For what ever reason, the price of gasoline has been bouncing around a bit this last week. Monday it dropped 7¢/gallon, Wednesday it went up 7¢/gallon, and yesterday it was back down 7¢/gallon. I did put some in yesterday. Of course the price went up the day we went to Green Bay, so we just put in enough to go and return plus a bit more. It still amazes me that what I used to put into the tank for $1.00, at the high price, now costs $10.00!
The geese decided to spread their wealth around the land surrounding the harbor today. Not many on the water, but many on the shore. Bet the folks who have businesses there are about as happy as the parks folks are. Grass should grow faster for the park crews to cut next summer.
For some reason, yesterday afternoon my left shoulder started to give me problems. Not too sure what happened, but all of a sudden I had no strength in it and it felt like it was some numb. Really strange. There is some residual left this morning. Don’t think I will be doing anything needing my left arm for precise control (like using the chainsaw) until it gets better.

Yesterday Margriet discovered that we have to bring a snack for after the church tomorrow. She thought it was next Sunday. We also have a potluck this Sunday too after the second service, so we will be bringing double this week. She has her eye on making an applesauce cake for the snack and a corned beef casserole for the potluck. Both are good, so hope no one likes them and there are some leftovers!

It really is interesting to watch the various prices of things at different stores. The day before yesterday we stopped at a local discount store to pick something up and discovered the price of paper toweling was about double the price for the same product at Aldi’s in Green Bay. Yesterday we picked up some bacon at the local grocery store for less than half of Aldi’s price and ¼ the price in a "discount" grocery store we shop at in Green Bay. Coupons, which used to be something of a mainstay of my buying groceries in another life are almost useless now. We found one that we thought might be of value, but on checking prices found we would have to spend almost double for the item to save 25¢! Didn’t use it. At one time, I could cut the grocery bill in half or more with coupons. Meat is an item that really varies in price from one store to another. One store even had fresh dog bones for $1.19/pound!

Margriet made an excellent meatloaf last night for supper. Along with it she made some bread pudding, something I have been trying to get her to do for some time. Turns out she doesn’t like it and apparently never has. Now I have a BIG bowl of bread pudding to eat. Wonder how it will go with my oatmeal for breakfast?

Time to get the day a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><

Spent Day

1/20/06 7:18 am.
26º F, partly cloudy, WNW wind 4 mph.

Good morning,

It was a high priced day yesterday - paid a bunch of bills. Really a small bunch, but some big ones. We can now drive the car with insurance for another year and live here for another half year not worrying about the taxes on FISKLAND. Seems that most of the annual/semi-annual bills pile up in January for some reason. It is nice to have them out of the way, but dread paying them.

We did have one very small expense yesterday. One of the smaller restaurants in Algoma, Penguin City, had a special for supper yesterday and today. Lasagna or spaghetti and meatballs for $2.50 each! Coffee was 25¢/cup also. So .... for less than $6.00, the two of us had a nice meal. Can’t remember when we have done that before. At least not for a "real" meal. The food was good too! I don’t think it will be a regular deal, but rather the owners celebrating one year in business since buying the place.

Penguin City reminds me very much of an American version of the hotel restaurant we ate in when we were in Valkenburg a couple of years ago. Like the hotel, their restaurant was also small. Penguin City also has a very small dining area, with a few booths and fewer tables. In an adjoining room is a small bar with about five stools and a couple of booths. That’s all there is! Love it. Not too sure why we don’t eat their more often. I have stopped there a couple of times over the years. The food is good, the prices reasonable, and the place is spotless. I told Margriet that if I ever were to own a restaurant, that is the kind I would run. Especially since staying at the hotel in Valkenburg.

While we were in Green Bay, we stopped at a lumber yard to pick up a couple of tarps, the cheapest place to get them. While there we looked at their selection of gas ranges. Much to my surprise, they carried the same brands as I did in my store, plus several more. Ours is the range I sold to Mom and Dad in 1976 so after 30 years of use, is showing it’s age some and I have been thinking in terms of a new one for some time now. Much to my surprise, the two that caught our eye actually cost about the same as I sold the one we have. Similarly trimmed out too. We don’t like all of the bells and whistles, just the plain Jane that prepares good meals. One range is made by Magic Chef and the other by Whirlpool. I think the Whirlpool is the successor to Hardwick, the brand of our present one, as I think they have bought them out in the past years, along with several other companies. Chef was an excellent brand for me and been around forever. Whirlpool didn’t have gas ranges when I was selling them, so Chef was the companion brand. The first new gas range I ever bought, in 1966, also was a Chef. If we get one, it probably will be the Whirlpool as Margriet likes the layout of the top better. But that probably will be some months in the future, after this month’s expenses.

On our ride yesterday to Algoma, we went by way of Kewaunee. There were about a dozen deer alongside one of the farm ponds on the way. Most in a bunch I have seen this year. They usually yard up when the snow is deep, but without the snow they are pretty well spread around yet. When we passed the Kewaunee harbor it was black (really very dark brown) with Canadian geese on the water. I don’t think I have seen so many of them at this time of the year here before. Again the warm weather has kept them here longer. I am beginning to wonder if as many will fly south this year. The harbor is close to being ice free, another unusual feature for this time of year.

It looks as though there is a big snow storm forming in Iowa and heading northeast. From the weather reports, it appears the bulk of it will hit from Milwaukee south and we are to bask in sunshine and warmer than normal temperatures. Officially we have had less than one inch of snow so far this month. That is 10" below normal! That doesn’t include the rain we have received though. Suspect we will have a foot of snow on the 4th of July to make up for it.

Margriet has promised meatloaf for supper tonight, but I have to wrap some packages for mailing first - or I starve I think is the deal.

Time to get the day a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,


Chris <><

Late again

1/19/06 7:30 am.
27º F, Cloudy, E wind 3 mph.

Good morning,

Up late again this morning. I don't know what is going on, but I wake up at the normal time, about 4:30 A.M., then roll over to sleep for a few minutes more, waking up 2-3 hours later. Don't like the trend, too much of the day has disappeared before my eyes really get open. Have to change the pattern - I hope.

Yesterday was a beautiful sunny day. Cold and windy, but a really nice change. Today? Well that is a different story - back to the clouds again. There are some really light snowflakes falling at the moment too. Looking at the radar, I thing we will be in a band of light snow all day. Maybe longer. We need the cold and snow right now.
We did go to Green Bay for our supply run yesterday. We had a nice day, but started later than I planned, thanx to sleeping late. Besides the normal stops, we also took a detour to the "Lighthouse Christian Book Store, for a change. Our daily devotion book is about done, so needed to find a new one. We usually pick up one that takes us a year to complete. The present one requires me to read a complete chapter from the Bible each day. Since my ability to do that is not what it used to be, we found a website that has the bible in audio form. The only problem is that it is the King James version, which we are not used to. It does cause some additional conversation, but maybe not a Biblical as we should be.

The stop at the Lighthouse is an infrequent task for us, but is very enjoyable. It is difficult for us to not buy the place. There is much we would like to have! Of course there are books and more books, but there are a lot of other things too - like computer programs. If someone gave Margriet and I a gift certificate to the store, we would have a hard time to choose what to spend it on. There are so many interesting things in the store.
One of our "normal" stops is Fleet Farm. Seems there is something we always need to get there. In wandering around the store, I found tinsel for the Christmas tree on a close out price. Of course I bought enough to last for several years to come. We haven’t had any for several years, but by gum we will for the next few years. I can remember when I was a kid, after Christmas always picking off the tinsel and saving it for the next year’s tree. Not too sure if I have the patience, or a Dad telling me I had to do that, to pick it any more for the following year. Might consider the task next year.

Another "find" was an add-on wood furnace similar to the one I had years ago. It is made by the same company, but a bit larger and has brass handles on the doors. The cost is considerably higher. Like $999.99 compared to the $199.95 I paid for mine. I used it for a number of years, but it finally developed a hole between the firebox and the hot air plenum - not a good thing. In the paper the other day was an article about a family that added a corn burning add-on to their heating system. He was bragging about the savings on the cost of his natural gas bill - like about $10.00/day. Then he went on to explain how the corn furnace works and costs. The furnace would cost about $1,500.00 to buy and would pay for itself very quickly in gas savings. True if he didn’t have to purchase fuel for it. He indicated he used 3-4 bags, 50# each, per day to heat with. The bags of corn cost $4.00-5.00 each! Now my numeric functions were messed up in 1994, but I still can see that he is losing money on the deal. Another fuel source starting to make some inroads is wood pellets. I can see using either corn or wood pellets if one doesn't have a source of wood, like city dudes, but I still like the idea of cutting wood from the property here or from my neighbors at no cost, other than the operation of the chainsaw and splitter. The wood stove we are using I bought used for $75.00 in about 1974 and has paid for itself many times over, even though I thought I was paying way too much for it when I bought it. Besides I get to cook on it too!

Our council meeting went fairly well Tuesday night. One of the gals on the council, the vice president, was very broken up though. Her Dad was back in the hospital again with a reoccurrence of a brain tumor. The doctor's thought they had solved the problem a couple of months ago. The return of a tumor has really messed her Dad up in many ways this time. It was not said, but I think he is not supposed to pull through this time. Of course he also wasn't supposed to pull through last time either. Sherry is such a tender hearted gal, who falls apart at almost any trauma, but this has to really hit her in the core - again.

As fortune would have it, I was scheduled to lead the devotion before the council meeting. Rather than read a story or a few passages from the Bible, I decided to have the council split into their covenant groups had pray as a group for each other. It fit right into the needs of Sherry. There was an opportunity for some very personal and up close support for her in a real way. When the idea of covenant prayer hit me, I really wasn't too sure about the idea. Now I know why it was planted there.
finallyto finialy get the day a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,


Chris <><

Cloudy fog

1/17/06 7:15 am.
31º F, Cloudy, NNE wind 2 mph.

Good morning,

Another cloudy and dreary day here. To the west of us, the schools are either closed or running a couple of hours late, thanx to the icy conditions. Seems the rain/snow mix which fell there has caused very icy roads. Usually we have a January thaw, but this year it seems to be all of January! Not real healthy either I think. Margriet was more or less down all last week and I have been feeling less the 100% for the past few days too. Oh well .... maybe we will have snow in July.

Margriet made up for the down week by washing all of the floors in the house yesterday and really cleaning the bathroom. I think everything in the house got moved. Looks much better now. Suppose I shouldn’t mess it up very much for a while. She was going to make some cookies too, but ran out of gas and time. Maybe today.
We are not going to Green Bay today to get supplies since I have a council meeting tonight and we would be rather rushed to get back in time to get ready. If plans are realized as we think, we will go tomorrow. The rocking chair money for Margriet finally came in so we have something to spend. ;-)

Margriet came across a recipe that called for sippets yesterday. We had no idea as to what that was, so Googled it to find out. In the process, I came across a website, http://www.free-recipes.co.uk/english-housewifery-exemplified/ , a cookbook from the 1800's. The book is an e-book on the web available for no cost. The book is really interesting and has a lot of information concerning cooking and life at that time. Really interesting. The website also led be to another, http://www.gutenberg.org/ which has a ton of e-books online along with other things of interest. The Gutenberg site can occupy considerable time perusing it. I can see that it may be of some benefit for some of the things I am interested in.

I did manage to start the next new workbook for Bible study. Even though it will be several weeks at best before needing it, I thought it necessary to keep some continuity, at least of my mind, on the last of this long journey. I am just picking up from the research I have done for the last one.

Time to get the day a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,


Chris <><

Cloudy again

1/16/06 6:45 am.
28 º F. Cloudy, SE wind 10 mph.

Good morning,

Another cloudy and windy day a-coming. The weatherman is saying that we might have some sun, but probably a bit of snow/rain later today. Don’t mind the snow, but sure don’t want the rain!

Very few folks in church yesterday. The choir sang and after they left, it was really an empty sanctuary. The choir sure does miss a couple of men - one in hospital with a couple of crushed vertebrae and the other has left our congregation. Howard also had a less than perfect service. For some reason he got lost in the liturgy a couple of times in a service we don’t use that much. I told him on the way out that we will have to do it more often - so he can learn it! The children’s sermon also was an experience for him, and us. When he asked for the kids to come forward - there were none. That is until the nursery emptied out. About 5 boys and all were wound up, one especially. He would not sit still and kept trying to play with the props Howard was using, or trying too. Not too sure what the message was now, but we were entertained fairly well. Howard really got into his sermon and it was very long. His sermons have been getting longer and longer recently for some reason. Both Margriet and I lost track of the message after a few minutes.

Our staff meeting for LSM has turned into two rather long meetings, one each day. My head doesn’t allow me to pay that much close attention for as long as they now last. Friday night, I finally got up ane left during it. Not only because of my head, but also because I do have what I call a "kitchen ministry" during the breaks for the students. In the past we would have a meeting for 30-45 minutes on Friday evening to take care of any problems and plan for the future. Now we have some problem getting things cleaned up or set up for the meals, besides the kitchen ministry. Will, the newest staff member and a retired minister, has the Friday evening meeting now and uses about an hour or more to cover some subject or task, then during Saturday morning’s meeting, we try to catch up on the things we missed Friday night. From my stand point, it isn’t working very well.
LSM is struggling to have enough students, both our school and the Central school. It has become an obsession of sorts to work on. In many respects, I think we are trying too hard. If the Good Lord wants LSM to go forward, we will have students knocking at our door, so to speak. I think in many ways, we have lost the original focus of 10 years ago and are trying to make things too complicated. I sometimes wonder if rather than a fairly narrow focus, we are trying to do too many things and the students may be some confused with the "extras". We asked for a short comment sheet to be completed during the November session. We got the results this past weekend. It was filled with good comments, but most of them were focused on what we did in the beginning, not what we have added since. Not too sure what the future will bring.

Yesterday was a very slow day for these two old folks. Recovering from the weekend. We ate some of the leftover spaghetti from LSM. Something I really didn’t object to at all. I didn’t eat much, and usually don’t, during the school, so had a really good meal. Margriet can make that more often. There were a couple of football games on TV, but I am in the mood for some auto racing again. Guess I will have to wait until February for that though. Really didn’t do much the entire day. Shame on us!

We are starting a new workbook for Bible study tomorrow and I also have a church council meeting tomorrow night. I am ready for Bible study, but not the council meeting. Usually I try to get a tentative agenda out by email to the council members by midweek before the meeting. Didn’t this week. Have to put the agenda together today and get it printed. This is a pretty slow part of the year, so not too much to do really. I think I will be happy to have April come around and I can retire from being President, going back to my normal flying under the radar. Don’t like the attention.

Time to get the day a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,


Chris <><

Snow Dust

1/15/06 6:45 am.
28º F, Cloudy, W wind 12 mph.

Good morning,

The world is white again. At least until the temperature rises a few more degrees. The fairyland has returned. Doubt if there is more than ½" on the ground, but it does look pretty. Since it is so warm, the snow stuck to everything. Kind of like God had a big powdered sugar shaker and covered everything with a very cold form of powdered sugar. Probably lower in calories too!

When we pulled into the driveway, the 100 yards closest to the house was as shinny as a mirror, albeit a rather bumpy one. The warm weather had melted the surface of the ice on it then it re-froze with a shine on it. It really looks rather attractive, glistening like that, but also very tricky to walk on. We didn’t. Now there is a dusting of snow on it and until the snow "melts" in some, it will make it even more slippery. Glad the van is 4-wheel drive. Would be very interesting to drive on with out it.

Another LSM weekend is history. This was a fairly easy one for me. Not a whole lot of responsibilities the fulfill this time. The attendance was light this weekend. Not too sure why. The Saturday afternoon session only had about half of the folks eligible to be there in attendance. The Bishop was the speaker too. Jim is very good and easy to listen to and become involved with. He done good! Two of the instructors were also not there and had replacements. One in particular is always good to see and chat with from Wartburg Seminary. I only see Winston about once a year when he does this, but he is very special to Howard and his family, so always check in with him and we have a good chat. Always remembers me and asks about Howard and family and shares a couple more stories about them.

The prices of fresh fruits and other foods Margriet and I purchase for LSM is really getting out of reach. Seems every month we try to cut down on the amount we buy, but the total on the receipt seems to stay about the same - too much. We normally pick up some fresh fruit for breakfast, but this month there was little I would buy. Oranges are 50¢ EACH and apples not too far behind. Bananas I think are too expensive at 49¢/pound were actually about the cheapest fruit available. Grapes were close to $3.00/pound! I didn’t buy any fresh fruit this month, rather buying an industrial size can of peaches for less than a dozen apples and oranges! The past few months. To cut the cost, I would buy one or two of several kinds of fresh fruit, cut up with a can of frozen orange juice concentrate, and call it done. The folks seem to like it, but even that was a bit expensive I thought for this month. We did find one really good price though - on cheese. For what ever reason kind of cheese, imported Swiss cheese, was $1.20/pound! I picked up a small block of it along with some Gouda. On the way home, we stopped and picked up several blocks for ourselves. Not too sure why it was so cheap, as the rest of the cheeses in that part of the case were $6.00/pound and higher. The cheese is a very hard and tasty Swiss. Hope it is at the same price next month too. We really like it.

We did have some leftovers from LSM that we brought home. I think we will be eating pretty well for a couple of days. We don’t take it all, hoping to let some of the other staff share in the leftovers, but fear that a lot of the rest just get thrown away. Not a good thing, but feel some guilty taking it all, though we would not throw it away.

Margriet was in a very talkative mood Friday night and on the way home. LSM has a way of doing that. There is so much information and things to think about presented, the mind doesn’t want to shut down. It really is fun to hear it (even though it is very tired out Friday night), and remember doing the same when I was a student. An added dimension is the difference in Margriet and my background and experience. The questions and comments are some different from her than mine. Very satisfying for me at least. Love it.

I got up with a start this morning after I looked at our daily calendar. Mistakenly, I listed that we were to bring the snacks for after the second service today. I woke up very late today, so that made it even more panicky. Woke up Margriet, only to find out that she, as usual, had it together and set me straight. Oh well - can’t have enough snacks to go with the coffee after church.

Time to get the day a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,


Chris <><

When is winter coming?

1/12/06 9:00 am.
33º F, Foggy, S wind 6 mph.

Good morning,

The sun is really trying to come through, but the fog at the moment is blocking it. Another warm day a-coming. Apparently there is also an ice issue on some roads. There is a semi truck turned over on the west side of Green Bay messing up traffic greatly. Also a couple of car accidents within the city, one causing a death.

Margriet has been on the sick list since Sunday. Yesterday and the day before she slept most of the days. She also has been running a fever. Today she woke up feeling much better but still very weak. Not too unexpected. I don’t like to see folks sick or hurt, especially my Woman!

With the chief cook and bottle washer laid up, I have filled in that capacity. Even made Southern fried chicken with mashed taters and gravy for supper last night! Turned out very tasty too, but cooked a bit too long. I haven’t made them for years. Also made egg shortcake the other night. Another dish I haven’t made for some time. The kids used to like it and it sure made a half dozen eggs go a long way. With all of the cooking and dishwashing I have been doing the past couple of days, I figure I don’t have to wash my hands until the middle of February!

I did go to Green Bay yesterday to make a supply run. Only picked up what we urgently needed though. Tried to make the trip as short as possible. I really was surprised to see that neither of the two grocery stores I went to had carrots. The only carrots they had were the "baby" carrots in small bags - no real ones. The little ones are very expensive, so didn’t bring any home. I did find some ground beef at a lower than normal price so picked up about 8# to put into the freezer. I can almost smell the meatloaf already. One thing we really needed, was a new flourescent light bulb above the stove. It went out the other night - almost. Instead of going out totally, it just would flash. Turned off and on about as fast as a turn signal on a car. Very annoying. The problem is no more.

One of Margriet’s pension payments is late this month. Seems like we had a similar problem last year too. The complication is that January is a big month to pay out money. Property taxes, car insurance and like that all come due this month. It makes us some anxious. Eventually everything will get paid, but don’t like to be late.

We have been watching a couple of shows on TV with great interest the past few nights. One is a "Walk Through the Bible Lands" (I think the title is) and the other is "Country Boys." Both on PBS. For some reason, our TV reception is not the best for the PBS channel some evenings. Of course the past couple were a couple of those nights. Last night the reception was excellent and the station repeated one of the episodes of Country Boys, so I tried to stay up to watch it. Made it almost all of the way through, but finally had to call it a night. The program about the Bible is not up to it’s publicity, but still a good one. I have seen better and used them to teach Adult Forum at church.

The Country Boys series follows a couple of high school boys with educational special needs through their high school years in a school designed for that type of student. It is set in eastern Kentucky hills, a very poor area with a lot of problems. I can relate totally to the school and the kids problems, as that kind of student was the bulk of those I taught. I also checked out the school on the web, (http://www.davidschool.org/ ) and while scanning through the pictures ran across those of their shops. Much to my surprise, they looked very much like those I taught in. Same work benches, colors, layout. Almost like to walk in and start making sawdust! You can also view the show online by going to the PBS website.

This is LSM weekend, followed by a Church Council meeting on Tuesday evening. At least this time I don’t have to prepare a sermon for Sunday. At least I hope not. Actually I really don’t have anything to prepare for LSM this month either. About time we get into a routine with it for the year. I have this sickening feeling that I am coming down with something like Margriet had, as I feel a bit under the weather this morning too. Oh well, what else is new. Thought we would only share the good things.

Time to get the day a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,


Chris <><

Wasted day?

1/9/06 7:15 am.
26º F, Bright clouds, W wind 5 mph.

Good morning,

There is actually a promise of a bit of sun today. Wonder what it will look like. I think I have forgotten, it has been so long. It is supposed to be some warm today and tomorrow almost into the 40's. This is winter?

Saturday night, both of us had a terrible night trying to sleep. For some reason, I could not get my bones to assemble themselves to be comfortable and sleep. Felt like my bones were just dumped in a heap. I was up and/or awake all night. Only got a couple of hours sleep the entire night. Margriet had a similar experience. She was so tired that she decided to pass on going to church. I did go, but really was not "into it" at all. As soon as lunch was done, both of us took naps. Mine was successful, Margriet’s not. Last night was a pretty good sleep. Also discovered Margriet seemed to have a low-grade fever, so gave her a couple of pills and hopefully she will be more normal today.

The second service was very light in attendance. If the family of the little guy being baptized had not come, I think there would only be about 20 folks there! I have no idea how many were at the first service, but wonder what is going on. It seems to be a trend at the moment. I am wondering if we should go back to one service again.

We really didn’t get too much done yesterday, thanx to our lack of sleep. I tried to work on the Bible study stuff, but my head really wasn’t into it. Didn’t get much done on anything. Kind of a wasted day in many respects. Guess we have to have one of those once in awhile.

After leaving church yesterday, a little earlier than normal, I went to Algoma as usual after church on Sunday. I picked up a newspaper, something we don’t normally get, for Margriet. Thought she would like to read one for a change. She did! Read it cover to cover - except for the sports section. I also picked up some Polish sausage the store had on sale. She was pleased I brought them home and proceeded to make a very good meal from them. Then I was pleased! Still have another bunch of them for another meal.

I had better get to work on the Bible study stuff today and also have to get a new batch of medication. So .... Time to get the day a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><

More dreary yet still.

1/7/06 7:15 am.
27º F, Cloudy, W wind 3 mph.

Good morning,

It is still cloudy and a threat of rain/snow is in the air. At least it feels like it. The weatherman is saying the moisture will stay to the north of us. Don’t know about that. The day yesterday was dry, but windy and cloudy all day. Very dreary. The temperature remains higher than normal and are to continue that way at least until the middle of next week, when they will be higher yet still. This is winter?

Today I will be putting the cover back on the septic tank and close everything up again. Now I have acquired a clean-out cable capable of clearing the entire length from the house to the tank. Everything seems to still work very well. Probably will be digging up the entire length of the inlet pipe this summer. Not a task I really am looking forward too. Not too sure if there is some kind of misalignment of the pipe a couple feet from the tank. I also need to put a clean-out in close to the house. Because of the stiffness of the pipe there, I don’t think I will be able to "bend" it to insert the clean-out properly. Guess I could use the exercise. Can think of better ways to get the exercise though.

I spent most of the day working on the workbook for bible study. I have to stop doing research on the web. There is so much there and it is so interesting to find and read. But I think I have enough already! Actually I did start to write the workbook and have a couple pages in rough form. I had to stop though, as my head stopped working and somehow I acquired a doozy of a headache. Haven’t had one of those for a very long time. (Probably came from flushing so often!) Now comes the time when I am eager to get the workbook completed and assembled to see what it really will look like. Margriet is my intrepid proofreader. She has a lot more "correct" English usage skills than I have. The language difference in our backgrounds is really an advantage. Wish I had her skills though.

When the headache hit, it was time for supper to start being prepared. We had picked up a 10# bag of "boneless country pork ribs" for a reasonable price while in Green Bay on Tuesday. The ribs are actually trimming from other cuts of pork and turn out to be most often small roasts, just the right size for the two of us. I prepared it like a pot roast, a method we like a lot, with potatoes, onions, carrots, and celery. Turned out rather well and there is enough left over for another meal. Margriet had made a pile of chicken soup with dumplings the other day, so we have that for lunch. Makes for a pretty good diet I think. At least we both like it very much. None of the "fancy" food, but really good.

We probably should be thinking of taking down the Christmas tree for this year. We never did find any tensile to put on it though. Every year we say we are going to get some, but people must not use it much anymore as the stores don’t seem to carry it. At least the stores we go to. When we do find it, we probably should buy a case of it.

Time to flop some bacon in a pan with a couple of eggs and get the day a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,



Chris <><

Where's the sun?

1/6/06 7:09 am
21º F, Cloudy, N wind 3 mph.

Good morning,

The weatherman is promising that we will see the sun for a little while today. Maybe a couple of hours. Officially there has not been any sunshine for two weeks or so. We also are down on snow so far this season by almost 3". Sure could use some now. Getting very tired of looking at brown farm fields which should be white at this time of year. Upper and lower Michigan have really gotten the snow over the past couple of weeks. Mostly lake effect snow along with a couple of storms. We had a thin coating of ice on most things yesterday morning. The first time out, I slid down the ramp about half the length (in a controlled slid). After getting back to the wood stove, it didn’t’ take long to get some ashes on the ice and the problem solved.

Both of us enjoyed long showers yesterday. I really enjoyed the massage setting on it to pound away on the muscles in my back for a while. The sound of a flush is also delightful. I am considering building a working outhouse as a backup system. If you have any ideas for plans or design, let me know. All entries must be postmarked before midnight February 29, 2006 to be eligible for the grand prize. Grand prize for the winning plan - free use of the outhouse for life. Margriet actually enjoys to wash dishes again! Well maybe the term "enjoys" is a bit of a stretch.

I probably will just insulate and cover the digging I started to expose the sewer line near the house. I will wait until warm weather to do it right and install the clean-out. I do have some concerns as to the joint between the pipe and the tank though. Seemed like there as a bit of an obstruction there - a mechanical misalignment rather than an obstruction, judging by the feel and sound of it while moving the cable inside of the pipe. It probably will mean a bunch of work, but will wait until things are thawed out.

I have gotten some of the research done, at least collected, for the next Bible study. At the moment it is printed out on 18 pages, but I still have a couple of holes in the sequence. They will fill and fall into place as I progress through the writing of the workbook. This is a really fun part of this deal for me. Gathering the information and getting ideas, trying to peak the thoughts of folks, causing them hopefully to grow. There is always some trepidation during the process, wondering if what I put on the page will really accomplish that or not. Worse, having a deleterious effect on them. Most of the time it works fairly well. Occasionally not as fairly.

I continue to be amazed at the amount of information that can be gathered from the web, via this machine. Where the heck was it when I was in college? Boy I sure could have saved a lot of work and time, doing a much better job then. For an old man who loves to read and discover things, this is an invaluable tool. I almost have a goal to learn everything on the web. Don’t think I will meet that goal, but sure am learning a lot and having fun in the meantime.

Just put some bacon in the frying pan, so it is time to get the day a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,


Chris <><

We are totally flushed

1:23 pm
27º F, NNW wind 10 mph.

Finally a little before 1:00 PM, the blockage let go. Hooray! It only took about 3 hours of pounding with the cable to finally get things going. As I came in for lunch, I ran the water for a bit and it still was plugged. I put the last of some drain cleaner in and let it sit while we ate. After lunch, I ran more water through and it still was blocked. About ready to go outside and all of a sudden I heard the wonderful sound of swosh! It let go. Just to be sure, I ran more water down and it kept going. While Margriet ran the water down the shower, I went out and watched - sure enough the water was a-coming. A real pretty sight.

I have left the cover off of the tank and covered the box opening with FEMA roofing for a day or so. Just to be sure. I will close it back up again in a day or so. The hardest part of the whole deal was bending over and pounding the cable back and forth. My back hurts, my knees hurt, and I have some muscles hurting, which have not for a long time.

Margriet is so happy that she can wash dishes normally again. Flush the toilet. And even take a shower again. All the joys of life.

Think I will go and take a shower. Maybe even shave.


Chris <><

3 & 4

1/5/06 6:04 am
29º F, 3 snow flakes & 4 rain drops, NW wind 8 mph.
Good morning,
Our septic tank is empty, but we are still using the porta-potty. The pipe between the house and the tank has a blockage yet to be removed. Talking with the pumped the tank, he figures the problem results from us not putting enough water into the system at one time. Just being a couple of old folks here, we don’t use that much water to put into the system and flush the pipe enough. The material doesn’t flow into the tank fast enough, so lays in the bottom of the pipe, building up, until finally blocked. Guess we have to poop more! Or at least flush more.

I finally popped the cover on the tank late yesterday morning. I could see the problem right away at the inlet and called the pumper. He called back and said he probably would not to be out until tomorrow, since his small truck was in the shop getting repairs, but would try to get out yet late in the afternoon. He did. I just got the van over to our part-time neighbor’s driveway and back into the house, when I heard his truck backing into the driveway. Good timing and happy to see him. After pumping the tank, he tried to open the plug with a stick, but could not get it far enough into the pipe to clear it all. I found the old electric range wire and he pushed that into the opening. He was able to open about 8' fo the pipe, but now more. The wire was bending up enough not to allow it to go farther. We were able to get some water to flow through, but the block would reseal again after a bit. I didn’t have anything stiff enough and yet some flexible to go into the pipe farther. We gave up on trying and he left. We thought piece of wire cable about ½" or ¾" in diameter would do the trick. After he left, I drove over to Fleet Farm in Green Bay and picked up a 20' piece of cable. Of course it was dark when I got home, so as soon as it get light out I will try to clear it.

When I picked up the cable, there was another man and his small son waiting to buy a length of chain. He asked what I was using the cable for, as a lot of folks apparently were trying to tie trees together after all of the wind storms we have had. I told him I just needed a new stringer for the fish I planned to catch. He and the clerk had a good laugh, especially when I told them they ought to see the bait I was using!

While in Green Bay, I noticed the price of gasoline has gone up again. Saturday it went up 6¢/ gallon and yesterday it went up another 5¢/gallon! I thought the prices were in something of a downward trend, but guess that is not to be. One can always dream.

We again had light rain and snow flakes coming out of the sky all day yesterday. There was a pretty good wind also, making it rather uncomfortable to be outside. The humidity was really driven through my coat, making me feel colder than the temperature really was. Walking in the woods is really a treat too. The low spots have water on top of the frozen snow and ice. In some places ankle deep. It will really be fun when it freezes and I resume trying to pull logs in to be cut. One thing good, while the driveway is very icy, it is frozen solid and not mud for most of it. Only one bad spot where I turn around and the water collects.

Margriet made some homemade eggnog yesterday. It was the first time she did that and it turned out very tasty. She has been in something of a cooking/baking mood of late. I am not complaining - by any means! I guess her next project is making some bread pudding. I haven’t had homemade bread pudding for years and really like it. Do you think I am getting spoiled?

In between acts yesterday, I started to write the next workbook for Bible study. Pretty much know where I want to go, but don’t know how to get there - yet. It will all come together. I really do enjoy all of the research and putting the workbooks together, but the discussion they bring is much more enjoyable for me.

Time to get the day a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,


Chris <><

Grumpy shower!

1/4/06 5:32 am
37º F, Rain, NNE wind 4 mph.

Good morning,

Didn’t see much of the scenery on the way to Green Bay yesterday - fog! Surprisingly the trip seemed to take less time than normal. Don’t know whether it did or not, but I was driving some slower than normal. Also noticed that part of the way has a new speed limit of 65 mph. Something of a surprise. That particular stretch of highway they have been reworking for several years, widening and straightening it out some. There is a lot of flat-landers who use the highway to get from Green Bay to Door County after getting off of I-43. Not too sure I really like the raise in speed limit as that indicates there are more people coming into the area than I like. Got enough now. Yesterday the speed was about 50 mph.

We finally finished the workbook in Bible study yesterday. Whew! It has been a long run. We had very few folks there too. Much to do with the season, but also a couple not healthy or recovering from the holiday activities. We did have some good discussion, but one of the other guys, Jerry, really tried very hard to get us off track. He succeeded a couple of times too. With the ending of the workbook, we go out to breakfast next week! This time to Kewaunee. Now I have to get busy and build a new workbook.

Other than the fog, the trip to Green Bay was pretty uneventful. We did manage to get our needed supplies after stopping at Luxemburg for a bowl of soup and chili. Chilli was good, from experience, and the soup was good according to Margriet. Besides our normal household needs, I had some office supplies to get, as well as a pair of wipers for the van. While at Fleet Farm, we notices some Tee shirts with some clever things printed on them. Good thing I am not still in college or I would be probably wearing some of them.

We are reduced to using a prot-a-potty for the time being. Just before leaving yesterday, the sewer would not accept anything at all. Of course it happened just as Margriet was starting her daily shower before getting the day a-going. I have to finish digging out the cut I made in the sewer line and see if the problem is there. I have a feeling that it is not the problem and will have the septic tank pumped. That should give us a breather to figure out what the real problem is. My brother has been telling me they have a continuing problem with roots in his system and I am beginning to wonder if that could be the problem for this one too. That will be something new for me to solve.

Time to get the day a-going. Things to empty and things to dig.

In Christ My Saviour,


Chris <><

Drip, Drip, Drip. And more drip!

01/03/06 5:20 am.
36º F, Cloudy, N wind 06 mph.

Good morning,

Drip, drip, drip. Seems that is all we heard yesterday from the outdoors. It rained off and on all day long. More on than off. A very un-cheerful day. The thermometer seems to be stuck at about 36º F, spending most of the day and night there. Pretty much stayed inside all day long. Didn’t move or even start the van. The only time I got out of the house was to take the garbage out. Too windy to burn the trash.

There was a lot of football on TV yesterday and little else. There was the drippy Rose Bowl parade though. It is a shame that all of the work and talent was rained on. Watching the folks wearing a lot of plastic, made me think of how much most, especially the band members, were sweating in them. Not too sure if they would not be more comfortable with out them. PBS has had a few rather good programs on. Two were about Ronald Reagan. Learned a lot about the man. Some good and some not so. He did do a lot of good things, but sure screwed up the economy, especially for the small businessman. Not too sure we really have recovered from it as a nation.

We did have a chance to have an IM conversation with Brenda over New Year’s and caught up on some of the events on the other side of the Atlantic. Sounds like they are some busy and enjoying the season. I didn’t realize it, but with the phone program I downloaded a bit ago, there also is an instant messaging component to it. We used it chatting with Brenda. Works very well. We also have hooked up a phone connection with one of Margriet’s pig-tail relatives and have chatted with them.

I finally have downloaded the driver and associated programs for my camera into this machine again the other day. I also started to move some of the accumulated pictures to the new USB drive we picked up last week. I have a huge task before me and it will take many hours to get things in order. Trying to figure out a good system of organization too. We have a rather large hodge-podge at the moment. I still need to download Margriet’s camera’s driver and programs onto this too.

Bible study is on the agenda this morning, then off to Green Bay for a ride, mostly to get our of the house. At the last Bible study we decided not meet last week. I told the folks that they didn’t have to show up, but to just leave cookies and I would take care of them. One of the gals left a small tin of homemade shortbread at the church which I picked up New Year’s Eve. I think the two are related. I will have to thank Helen today and probably receive some teasing too. Not a problem.

Time to get the day a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,


Chris <><

Hot, wet, yucky

1/2/06 7:18 am
36 º F, Rain NE wind 10 mph.

Good morning,

Hot, wet, and yucky pretty well describes the weather today. Yesterday was not that much better, but without the rain. Felt more like we were residing inside of a cloud - very humid. Our driveway looks like it is April, not January. There still is snow here in the woods, but little elsewhere, unless it was piled up for some reason. The lake seems to have kept us warm enough to stay out of the freezing rain farther west and northwest. Several schools are closed in the area too. It was a rather balmy day for the 100+ folks who went for a swim in Lake Michigan at Kewaunee yesterday. Every year it happens on New Year’s Day. Not too sure why, as it is very early in the season for cabin fever to have set in already.

Our friend Sue (the Wild West Preacher) left yesterday morning for the trip back to North Dakota. Watching the web very closely, it appears she and Don will miss most of the bad weather. The stuff we are getting today they should have missed and it appears the next system coming through will be there after they get home again. That is not to say this is winter and there is snow around, but they should have a reasonable ride. Hope so.

We didn’t do a whole lot yesterday. We were ushers at church for the late service. Not many folks there, only 31 as I also had to do a head count. The first service was larger I notices - 36 folks. I told Howard we should probably send engraved invitations to the services next year.

New Year’s Eve we did have a few more folks. Actually we had a nice group and a good meal. There was more than enough food. These things are nice when there really is not a big group. We get a chance to really converse with others more. A couple others also brought soup ans sandwiches. We didn’t starve at all. Some of our soup was left over, so gave it to one of the gals who is a widow and told her to share it with a young man who is recovering from some broken bones in his leg and foot. Both are short on funds.

On the way home after church New Year’s Eve, one of the windshield wipers decided it didn’t want to be attached to the van any longer. It was night, so didn’t even stop to find it. I don’t know what is going on with the wipers, but have had both of them either come off or at least loose a couple of times. Next time we go to Green Bay I will try to pick up a new pair of them and start over.

After coming home yesterday after church, the plan was for Margriet to build a pie with her homemade mince meat. She did that and then was going to start our mid afternoon dinner only to discover we had forgotten to take the salmon from the freezer. Hard to chew on a frozen fillet of salmon, even it is only a piece of one. We ended up eating a late supper and really filled up too much. It is a good think we decided to have a piece of pie mid-afternoon! The meal was excellent!

Time top get the day a-going,

In Christ My Saviour,


Chris <><