Sad Day

September 29, 2006 (12:38pm)
53º F, Cloudy, W wind 4 mph.

Good afternoon,

A really sad day in Wisconsin today. This morning a high school freshman shot the principal of a small high school near Madison. He apparently was shot three times, once in the head, and in very critical condition in a Madison hospital. Just watched the news conference concerning it. The boy is 15 years old and apparently was expelled from the school very recently. As can be expected, not too much detail at the moment. The high school only has 110 students so is pretty small. Apparently the janitor of the school and others were able to wrestle a shotgun from the boy, but he also had a handgun which did the damage. No one else involved at the moment and no one else injured.

All of this comes on the heels fo three boys being arrested in Green Bay for planning a Columbine, Colorado type siege of one of the high schools in town. Fortunately, it was caught before anything could happen. The police did find many guns and 100's of rounds of ammunition at one of the boy’s homes, along with some homemade jellied gasoline, homemade bombs, gas masks, bullet proof vests, &c. The parents of one of the boys (with most of the stockpile) said they had no idea it was in their house and he would not hurt anyone. From the sound of it, they have a mountain of evidence and the act was supposed to take place a couple of days after the action was stopped.

These kind of things are not supposed to happen in Wisconsin. At least not this part of the state. There also was another incident of a hunter threatening a land owner a week or so ago. This was similar to the incident in northwest Wisconsin a couple of years ago, but no shots fired. This is not fun anymore.

The sun was out for a little bit this morning, but now things are cloudy and it looks like it is getting ready to rain again. Did have some showers late yesterday afternoon and evening. The temperature got down pretty cool last night, but not nearly as cool as they had predicted. The temperature in on the rise again now and for the next couple of days, but not up to the "normal" range yet. More wind and rain also a-coming. I see on the radar, they had freezing rain near Marquette, Michigan this morning.

Margriet is busy fussing with bread building today. She also has to make some snacks for after church on Sunday, but think she will get at that tomorrow. Not sure. Will be nice to have the warmth from the oven in here. I have only one of the small furnaces fired up, but think I may also fire up the other one yet today. The wind is creeping in with some cold air here and there. Hate to do that, but guess it is that time of year again.

The blog has gotten itself straightened out again I see. Not sure what happened, but contacted the webmaster and I have not heard anything back again. It just works. I was also having problems with the accelerator on this thing for the past few days. When the speed got to about a of what it normally is, I contacted the ISP to see if they were doing some maintenance on it or what the problem was. Nothing on their end that they could find, so had me remove the program and then reinstall it again. That seemed to do the trick and it is running more normally again. It was really noticeable trying to open sites on the web or download. Good to have it back again. Wish we could get DSL here, but no such luck.

The price of gasoline has dropped again, at least in Green Bay. It is now down $2.199/gallon. According to the TV, it is lower than most parts of the state at the moment. Sure hope the trend of dropping prices continues. Getting close to what it was in Iron Mountain the other day. Figure about another $1.20 drop per gallon would be about right for a while. Like forever!

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><

Blog problems

September 28, 2006 (12:36pm)
49º F, Sunny now and then, N wind 13 mph.

Good afternoon,

Pretty much rain all day yesterday and things are still very wet out yet. Not too happy about that, but not much I can change. Have to get out to do things today for sure. Want to get the lawn mowed at least one more time before I can’t anymore this year. Also have the water supply to finish insulating and putting to bed for the duration too. Then I can get back to the project I started on some time ago - new footings under the sunporch.

Margriet has been trying to get our "traveling" information in order this morning. It is surprising how much we have collected and how much needs to be thrown away. It is fun to remember - "remember this place," "we were here," and on and on. We have been becoming rather fond of the U.P. and how many items we have from "up nort’." It really is a pretty part of God’s world for sure.

While we were up there this time, we did find some rather good food too. One place we stopped at last time too was the Happy Italian. We had linguine with meatballs for supper Monday evening. It was way too much for us to eat - even me! Very good and reasonably priced too. Of course we had eaten late in the afternoon in Florence, Wisconsin at Barb’s Café, eating a very large Philly-beef with cheese sandwich and French-fries. Also good. On the return Tuesday, we stopped at Hotdog Heaven for a Chicago hotdog in Iron Mountain. Margriet had not had them before, so we had to imbibe a bit. They were good, but we both took the hot peppers off of them first.

As long as I am on the subject of food, we just finished up the last of the bean soup. It was good one. I did add mushrooms, onions, carrots, and a handful of corn to it. Made it better and more filling than the first meal we had from it. Wonder what will be the next batch I make. Have to get some fixings for it, at least in the form of meat. Hmmmmmmmmm ...............

For some reason this blog is not working well. I can create a blog and post it. I can retrieve it for editing, but cannot open the website with it written in. A couple of folks have emailed me wondering what was going on. I don’t know either, but have contacted the webmaster and hope he/she will figure it out and get me back on line again. In the mean time, this will be short, hoping that eventually you will be able to read it at some future date.

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><

There and back!

September 27, 2006 (12:10pm)
52º F, Cloudy Rain, N wind 7 mph.

Good afternoon,

So .... the price of gas dropped to $2.259/gallon, so we decided to celebrate by driving to the Upper Peninsula to see the color change on the trees. They were supposed to be close to full color. Not! We were about a week or two too early. Oh well, we really did have a good time looking around the countryside and there was some color change.

The price of gas in Iron Mountain was $2.149/gallon and were surprised to see that just a few miles away in Iron River, it was $2.549/gallon! We expected it to be higher in Wisconsin than Michigan, and it was - $2.399/gallon across the border, but not that much difference in such a short distance in the same state. We did fill up in Iron Mountain on the way home. It is a bit far to drive for an 11¢/gallon savings though.

We stayed at the same motel we stopped at earlier in the summer. It is a very nice, Mom and Pop motel. Not too many are sitting on the edge of a lake, Ice Lake, or had real knotty pine paneling on most of the walls. This time it was a lot quieter with very few folks staying there. During the summer there were a lot of kids and adults fishing from their shore and dock. They were catching fish too! The kids would let out a squeal when they brought one in. Those kinds of "noises" we don’t mind at all and in fact enjoy them. They also serve a "continental breakfast," but with a nice twist. They have only one large diningroom like table to sit at, so everyone gets a chance to chat with the owner, other guests, and who ever happens to show up. It was really nice and probably could have continued for much longer than we stayed at the table. Probably did too!

The room had a small "desk," more like a shelf, at one window looking out on the lake. It was really neat to sit there and do my devotional at sunrise (my head alarm clock keeps working too well) and look out at the lake. The lake was smooth as a mirror as the sun started to peak over the horizon. As it came up, fog formed on the opposite shore, advancing toward our side of the lake, eventually enveloping the entire area. You couldn’t see more than 20' in front of your nose. As the sun rose higher, it burned off the fog, returning the lake to a mirror, but this time in brilliant sunshine. Beautiful. The sunrise and sunshine was a limited picture though, as clouds and rain were moving in from the northwest.

We did wander around the city of Iron River and Crystal Falls a bit, as well as the countryside surrounding them. Found the Paint River and it too was beautiful. Also a world class trout river among other fish in it. Was some surprised at the size of it, thinking it was about ¼ the size it actually is. Have to find out what a fishing license costs and maybe try to catch supper or breakfast next time we are up there. ;-)
Looking at the weather before leaving, it looked like there would be a break in the rain for a couple of days. That more or less happened. There were a few rain drops and a shower or two, but for the most of the time, it was nice, but a bit on the cool side. What else would you expect - up nort’? The countryside in that area is very similar to that around the deer camp I hunted from. The major difference is that there are not nearly as many washes and gullies scaring it. The tree cover is also similar, with much hardwood covering the land. Sure would not miss walking, or trying to walk, up all of the cliffs as around deer camp.

Since arriving home, the rains have returned again. Started to spritz on the way from Green Bay and really got serious about 2:00 A.M. this morning. Not too sure how much fell, but bet it is close to an inch, judging by the size of the water puddles in the driveway. It sure put the kibosh to the outside work. Probably a good thing to take a day to recover and get caught up on inside stuff for a change. Looks as though tomorrow will be nice again and I can get back outside. Lord knows there is enough to do.

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><

A Cold Wet

September 22, 2006 (12:17pm)
53º F, Rain, SSE wind 10 mph 26 mph gusts.

Good afternoon,

It really is not a pleasant day outside! There is a very strong wind, kicking up 4-7 foot waves on the lake. The rain is just ending. I hope. Pulling on my britches this morning, it dawned on me why so much of me was hurting - the weather! Fall starts a bit after midnight tonight, but I think it has started before that this year.

I did get about one and a half courses of roll roofing on yesterday. Figured out that for each course I pound in about 100 roofing nails! At that rate, it will be about 6-7# of roofing nails needed. Probably more, since the splices take a bunch more. I put a nail every 2" in the perimeter of three sides, while the fourth edge has only a few nails to hold it in place., the next course edge covering it. I did spend some foolish money and bought a couple of tubes of roof cement for my calking gun. I say foolish as they are rather expensive. I laid the tar paper down first, not applying any cement to the edges. I just flat out forgot. I tried to put some on with a knife, but it really was a laborious process. This way all I have to do is lift the edge and squirt. Really works neat. I am using a knife for the rest of the job though.

The critters are making the job some interesting. Yesterday, while standing on a ladder putting the roof cement on the edges, I had a thrush try to land on the bill of my cap. I guess it thought I was a tree and a good place to pick bug for lunch. It got about 3" from my face, then discovering I really wasn’t a tree and changed course. It sure cause some extra wind to blow across my face.
Another time a red squirrel came dashing out from under the outhouse as I went out one door. It scurried up the nearest pine tree (about 2 feet outside of the door) and started to chatter at me for disturbing it. I don’t really like them that close to a building as they can do a lot of damage. Chasing it up the tree, by blowing like deer and thumping the trunk with a board, and eventually to the next tree. I got it to go several trees over before letting it alone, thinking it would feel "safe" and get away from the area. Haven’t seen it since.

At dusk the past few nights, the Canadian geese have been flying over at tree top level in pretty good sized flocks. If I has some larger sized shot shells, it would be very tempting to have goose for supper. Guess I would need to be a violator too! It would be fairly easy shooting and a tasty meal. They are flocking up in larger and larger groups now, so expect they will be out of here shortly. The black birds have already flocked and have gone. They have some major sized flocks!
The geese remind me of a time in the late 60's when Phil and I went to the deer camp to do some grouse hunting. It was about this time of year also. We had been climbing up some of the hills most of the afternoon, so sat down for a breather, leaning against a tree. A flock of geese flew over. Both of us, without saying a word or looking at each other, grabbed our shotguns and emptied them at the geese. I don’t think we did more than tickle their feathers since we were shooting grouse with #8 shot. Kind of like spitting at them. Guess we thought it was worth a try though. My dog at the time, Trav, got all excited and was running around the woods looking for something to retrieve. He must have thought it was worth a try too! That was a really good weekend.

We finally got a chance to have some of the beef soup I made. Turned out pretty good. What really made it special was Margriet making cornbread to go with. Ate about half of the loaf that night and the other half last night with some sweet and sour ribs. The ribs and the soup are/were excellent. The soup is now for our lunches. We heat up just enough for us to eat at one sitting. Think there will be a few more lunches from it.
I got a hankering for baked beans the other day. Started to get out the ingredients and discovered we don’t have any navy beans, in fact very few beans at all. The closest is some bean soup mix Margriet put together a bit ago. Since we had ribs last night for supper, I had Margriet take out twice the normal amount, separating the "gnarly" pieces out, for me to use for the base meat, since we don’t have any neck bones or like that in the freezer. Should have some good smells in the house again for a bit.

Amazingly, the price of gas has gone down to "only" $2.399/gallon. It seems like a bargain price, even though it isn’t. Only by comparison. Would like to see it drop another $1.50/gallon. That would be more reasonably. If it finally drops to less then $2.009/gallon, we will be able to afford some travel close to normal again. Would be nice, but not really expecting it.

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><

Lazy busy

September 20, 2006 (12:20pm)
51º F, Cloudy, NW wind 1 mph.

Good afternoon,

Guess I have been procrastinating on this for the past couple of days. Actually I have been some busy and also lazy. The temperature has been falling for the past three days or so. About 10º F each day, both low temperature and high temperature for the day. It really is starting to feel like fall, but the temperature is below normal for the past couple of days. Before that it was considerably above normal, with nearly 80º F on Sunday! Then the drop started. Sunday was supposed to be rainy and cloudy - had sun and hot! Saturday was supposed to be sunny and hot - cloudy and cool. Oh well, we seem to adapt, but does mess up some good plans!

The most frustrating thing in the recent past, was the corruption of my research file for Bible study. I had about b of it transcribed and in a form I can use - - - then it shut down and would not open correctly again. I did run through a couple of recovering programs, after Bible study, before I got one that would recollect at least part of the file. I was able to recover eight pages of the 35 or so I had finished. Not much but better than nothing. I did have the raw files, so have added them to the eight already finished pages to finish the study out. I have been working on the file since, trying to get it back in usable form again. Fortunately, the same information will also apply to the coming study, so my work is not for naught.

The result of not having and "notes" to work from yesterday, caused me to be totally unprepared almost. I can read the material, but not remember it, so have to rely on "notes" of some kind to bring it back into my head again. The process usually works well for me, as I can also bring more information and insight to the study. Most of the folks will not do any digging, but rather just remain confused. Guess I just can’t help myself to not be a teacher, even though I am not leading the study this time.

I have been working on the roof of the outhouse - in-between the rains. Since we had a rather heavy rain Sunday night, we decided to head to Green Bay on Monday this week. I needed some 2"x4" lumber for blocking, since I used up all the shorts and longs I had here. Of course I really only needed one 8 footer to complete the job! I bought four "utility" grade 2"x4" ‘s, just so I have a couple on hand for the next time I need some. These are really very rough, but since in only need pieces less than 18" long, I can work around the problems in them. In times gone by, they would really be considered firewood, but are half the price of normal lumber. They will work.

Since I have the tar paper covering the entire roof, there have not been anymore leaks. I did find out what caused the problem with the covering too. The material is made from two layers of thin plastic, with a plastic open weave "fabric" in-between. For some reason the outer layers of plastic failed between the weaving, making it more of a sieve than anything else. It would keep the pinecones from going through, but not the rain water. Will have to remember that the next time I need more - and not buy any!

Margriet has made another batch of bread Monday. This time it is a rye bread she is experimenting with. Turned out good, but didn’t fill the pans as normally. Instead of 4 big loaves, we have 4 shorties. The taste is excellent and I really don’t feel too bad eating 3 sandwiches instead of only two. Actually, come to think of it, I probably do get less bread than a normal sized loaf. It does make excellent toasted cheese sandwiches, especially with pepper-jack cheese in the filling.

Since the temperature dropped again, I am in the process of building another pot of beef soup. This time it will have noodles in it. I also am using some of the dehydrated tomatoes and mushrooms (we got a mess of them for cheap on Monday) Margriet has dehydrated. She also picked up some dehydrated "soup mix" the last time we were at the Amish store near Shawano. Looks like it is made with dehydrated onions, celery, carrots, onions, mushrooms, peppers, and like that. It was rather inexpensive, so we thought we would give it a try. Will let you know the results. Me thinks we eat pretty good around here.

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,


Chris <><

P.S. Boy the internet sure has been messed up today. Even the accelerator is going at about half speed. The internet has been causing us a lot of problems. Had to shut down and restart a few times. Hopefully we have it back again for the long run!

CCN

Smells good in here!

September 14, 2006 (12:20pm)
63º F, Finally sun, SE wind 4 mph.

Good afternoon,

The last of the beef/barley is on the stove warming for lunch. I think most of it will disappear today. It really was a good soup. Already talking in the past tense. We will have some really good ingredients for future soups too. Margriet went for a walk before and was stopped by our neighbor as she walked by. Kathy gave her a large bag of ripe tomatoes and told her to can them. Margriet said she had never done that in the past, so didn’t know how. Katy tried to convince her it was easy. We decided to dehydrate them instead and freeze any that didn’t fit into the dehydrator. The ends of the tomato we will puree in the blender, them make tomato leather form it, adding a few spices. Then we can use it for tomato paste or sauce with pasta and like that. One thing sure, the house will smell very good for the next day or so. The slices of tomato really do look nice on the dehydrator too. By-golly - we’re going to make Margriet into an American "homesteader" who lives beyond the sidewalks yet!

With all of the rain we have had in the last couple of weeks, it pointed out a serious problem for the outhouse - the roof leaks seriously. Not unlike when the kids were here the first night a few yeas ago. I had recovered the roof this spring, but the tarp I used is not very good I think. Didn’t expect the need to pay attention to it for another year or so. I have spent some time putting blocking under the joints of the roof sheeting. Lots of cutting small blocks and then screwing them in place. I am using up all my little pieces of 2"x4" laying around here and there too. Probably will need to buy more though. I have some roll roofing left from another project, so will use that to cover the roof this time. It should be more permanent. Hope I have enough roll roofing to cover the whole roof. It will be close. If not, the top part of the roof will have shingles on it. Not too worried about looks - only dry.

Leberkase was on the menu for supper last night. It sure was good, but too much. We decided that in the future, we will cut the package in half before putting it into the freezer. There is enough in each package for two meals for us that way and we/I will not be over stuffed. Margriet made it with some sauteed vegetables (pepper, onion, mushrooms and celery), then topped the Leberkase with a fried egg. That is a lot to eat! But I managed. Seems I heard something about ribs for tonight. They ain’t bad either. Of course there is always "cheap chicken" at the Birchwood if things get too tired out to cook.

The glucosamine seems to be having an effect on all of my joints, except my left shoulder. I find that I really don’t need to use the Aleve for them. I do if I need to extend my shoulder though. Hope the pills are really making a difference and it isn’t just in my head. As far as the shoulder goes, I didn’t expect any change in that for taking these pills. I did a bit of research on the problem on the web, looking at the Mayo Clinic ( http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/rotator-cuff-injury/DS00192 ) and the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons’ ( http://orthoinfo.aaos.org/fact/thr_report.cfm?thread_id=127&topcategory=shoulder) websites. Studying the information there, I must have torn my rotator cuff when the tree threw me around a couple of years ago. Not sure if there is a "repair" for it at this date, since I am sure things have "healed-in" rather than being a fresh injury. Seems I will need to figure out some "work-arounds" for various tasks for the duration - mostly the chainsaw is the most challenging for me. Aleve does help a bit, but not totally.

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><

What sun?

September 13, 2006 (12:33pm)
61º F, Cloudy, N wind 5 mph.

Good afternoon,

So the promised sunshine has not yet arrived. Sounds like the sun/cloud line is about mid-state, somewhere near Wausau. The rains at least have stopped. So far this month we have received about 50% more rain than a normal month of September. Last month we received about half of a normal month’s rain! Go figure. There are a lot of crops suffering and a lot of high prices at the stores. Wonder what the winter will bring.

The rain has pretty much ended work outside for the last few days. As a result, while we were on our supply run yesterday, I picked up a new kitchen sink faucet. The old one I put in when everything froze up here in 1997 and was showing signs of problems coming in the near future. As long as I can’t work outside, because of the wet, I decided to work under the sink and get wet. The new faucet is made in Taiwan and the old one in China. We will see if the Taiwanese are better at faucet building than the Chinese!

I started this while Margriet did some cleanup of the sink where the faucet mounted, and now, later, the faucet is in and working. Much to my surprise, no leaks - so far. This one has only one handle and a longer spout. Wonder how long the single handle will work, but happier for the longer spout. Not sure yet if it is higher from the bottom of the sink - hope so. Our old hands were also starting to have problems turning the knobs, so the reason for the single lever. At least it looks clean now. (Margriet just found a storage place for our resident mouse - she grumpy! It gone! We hope.) Sure am glad I picked up the faucet - Margriet is finding all kinds of things she didn’t know she had and most are to be thrown away.

We are under a road closed situation again for Winding Road. Only this time the reason is almost in front of us. To the east a few hundred yards they are putting in a new culvert under the road. They are not messing around either. I went over there to see if I could commandeer the old culvert to put in a driveway closer to the house, but it was rusted into small pieces. Chatting with one of the workers, he said the new one was $60.00/foot! It is 30" in diameter, but I really expected to see it more expensive than that. They should finish in a couple of hours and then plan to re-blacktop the spot before winter sets in. That would be nice. There has been a "down-bump" there for the past year or so. It appeared just after they resurfaced the last time. The rest of Winding Road is actually in pretty good shape.

Bible study is really a struggle for the group. Not only because they have very limited experience reading it in the past (me too), but it is a difficult book to understand without some insight as to how and why it was written. The research I had done last week really came in handy. I finally did understand it, at least the part we were covering, and was able to help the others. The person who is leading the study now was not there and another gal filled in for her. She was swamped, but did do some work on trying to understand it. Really the study was a good one in that it opened some eyes to a different way of writing and reading a story. We only covered the first 20 verses of the book yesterday.

The cookies that Margriet brought were a hit at Bible study too. DARN! A couple of folks took some home too. DOUBLE DARN! They really are good. We did bring some home too, so I will not starve too much. It is a defiant do-again recipe. Soon I hope.

After Bible study we ran into Kewaunee to pick up my medications for the month, the out to the town hall to vote. The ballot is one requiring us to vote a single party, to eliminate multiple folks running from the same party for the same office. We really had a larger vote than usual for a primary. Don’t know how it was in the rest of the state, but the northeast had a good turnout. I was pretty well satisfied with the results. The people I really didn’t want to run, aren’t. We have a couple of incumbents who were defeated and they should have been. The real election occurs in November, and that should be interesting. I normally will only vote for the person - not the party. It really seems weird though to have computer readouts for ballots and registration in a building that looks and feels to be in a different century - one back!

Our larder is now full again for the most part. We can’t afford to buy some of the food products now. Maybe I should say we don’t choose to at the present prices. Produce is wild! Prices probably are out of reach thanx to the high fuel cost and the weird growing season this year. Even the crops which are locally grown are high. The produce departments in the grocery stores are getting smaller, I think for that reason.

We did pick up a BP cuff, but some of the things I need for working around here were not available at Fleet Farm. Next time we are in Green Bay we will need to make a trip to Woodworker’s Depot. It probably is a good thing that it is on the other side of town than we normally shop on. It would be too convenient to stop there and leave money. It sure is a tempting store to wander around in, but probably better to leave the wallet in the van while there.

We also stopped at Gander Mountain. That store is next to our primary grocery store, but exercise some extreme self control by not going there often. The excuse was to find a combination salt and pepper shaker that didn’t leak, as the one we now use for traveling. We found it. Of course we had to nose around through the store while there. I found the new model of my deer rifle costs almost $1,000.00, bare, and the dad-gum thing is made of a lot of plastic! I got mine for $349.00 with a mounted scope, case, sighted in, box of shells, and tax! I thought it was an outrageous price at the time, but Uncle Dori said that is the one to get. He was right! It is the only one I have needed or used. I also looked for a slug barrel for my shotgun and found it would cost nearly twice what the original price was! Thought about possibly poking a hole in a deer in this neighborhood, but that would be some pretty expensive venison! Maybe I will just dig out my old .22 rifle and be satisfied with rabbits and squirrels!

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><

Yucky!

September 11, 2006 (12:53pm)
55º F, Cold rain, E wind 8 mph.

Good afternoon,

Yucky! Is about the only word I have for the weather at the moment. It is cool enough and with the rain to make it really feel uncomfortable outside. It is a slow rain coming down for most of the morning so far. The weatherman said we would have a couple of showers before midnight, then they would end. Well .... they started coming after midnight and have continued since. The current report is that the rains will continue until tomorrow afternoon or so. Looking at the radar, there is a very large and slow moving rain cloud over the eastern b of the state. Yucky!

The van has nice quiet bearings now. Took it in this morning and after a rangity-tang by the mechanic, the new one is in place. Seemed every fastener of every kind caused him a problem, requiring the heat wrench to loosen them. A big hammer also got into action too. Of course putting on about 140,000 miles could have caused some rust, hampering the procedure. In retrospect, I really am glad that I let them work on it (especially with the rain today) and not try to do it on my own. Don’t have the proper tools to really do it right. Expect when the other one goes, I will also have my friendly repairman do the work too.

In talking with the owner, he indicated that the replacement of the entire hub was a much better fix than the "pressed" bearings now used on some vehicles. He, and auto dealers, apparently have had some problems with them. This system is fairly straight forward. After the brake is off and the drive axle nut is removed, there are only three bolts holding the hub in place. I still like the old fashioned, shade tree mechanic, method on the older vehicles. Probably could not get 140,000 miles on the bearing, but were fairly easy to re-pack every 25,000 miles or so. Wish I had a nickel for every time I have re-packed bearings in my past.

I also asked him how far the gas prices would go as they just dropped to $2.659/gallon over night. He said he thought to about $2.209/gallon just before November then go up again after the election. He might be right. Sure would be a bunch happier if it went down farther than that and stayed there!

Margriet built a batch of oatmeal cookies, using Aunt Julia’s recipe. The last time she made them they turned out to be "plop" cookies, having too much liquid in them. They tasted good though. This time she found by only putting half of the milk as required, they turned out right on. At least those I tested for quality control so we can take them to Bible study tomorrow. We were trying to figure out why so much difference and came to the conclusion that originally they were made with whole milk, rather than the 2% we now use in our house. It might have been milk right out of the cow too, so really had a higher butter-fat content, therefore a bit "thicker" in viscosity. Anywho, I was glad to be of service while she experimented to get them right!

We aimed a package at Brenda’s house for the birthdays of the men in the house. There are three birthdays in about a week. I addressed it to the MEN and while chatting with her today on instant messaging, tool her to keep her hands off of it as it was for the MEN in the house! They probably gain weight during that week with three birthday cakes to eat in a bunch! Sounds good to me.

Tomorrow is voting day in Wisconsin for primary elections. It will be nice to have the number of TV ads for less candidates after tomorrow. There will be, I’m sure, just as many ads, but for fewer people. There really are some questionable people running for office on a state level. There sure has been a lot of mud flying around the airways. On the local level there are some really straight folks running and it will be harder to choose between them. After Bible study tomorrow will be the opportunity for me. I really look forward to the experience here, as we vote in the township hall - a one room building from the turn of the century (the 1900's), which still has an outhouse out back and the heat source (now an oil space heater) stands in the middle of the room. It really is a modern day "Little House on the Prairie" setting. Not much problem registering as most folks know each other.

I started to do the work on next week’s Bible study. It is a very only research for it. The study only covers two chapters of Revelations, but I have about 45 pages of research accumulated for them. I am sorting through the research and will cut it down some. There is a lot of information and concepts for me to try to wrap my head around. I have not studied Revelations much in the past, so this is new territory for me. Much more interesting than I thought it would be.

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><

20 degrees

September 9, 2006 (12:17pm)
55º F, Cool sun, NNE wind 16 mph.

Good afternoon,

A real cool down! It was 20º F cooler at this time than yesterday at the same time. We had a front go through yesterday afternoon, dropping the temperature and rain. It also caused the wind to come up and has been since. We got about 1½" of rain yesterday afternoon and night. It is really needed and came down without any severe weather attached to it for a change. Thankfully! Everything was closed up and 15 minutes later the rain started to fall rather heavily. Usually it is the outer way around! It sure did fill in the dry mud puddles in the driveway for sure.

I got the third post in the right place and backfilled, just before the rains came. I needed Margriet’s help to steady it in the right position, before back filling. I just ran out of enough hands to do everything. The final result is it is about ½" off from perfect, but will deal with that later. The next post is under the front deck, so it is back to kneecaps in the armpits and ears between my ankles again. Decided to give this old body a chance to unbend a bit before attempting it again. When I get this post in, I will be halfway with digging them in. Then comes some more funner things to do.

With the chill in the air this morning, it felt like a good day to start a pot of beef and barley soup. The smell is great and there will be a bit of added heat to the house. Put some of the good beef bones from Otto’s in a pot with some spices and let it simmer for most of the day. I can tell you the smell is really good. I think this about a of what we bought, so should have more soup before getting to Otto’s again. Wonder if I should make some dumplings in the soup too?

The other day we went uptown to run a couple of errands and stopped at the Pig. They had cases of "sliced pork ribs" on sale for 99¢/#. We had no idea what sliced pork ribs were as they were in sealed cardboard boxes, but figured we couldn’t go too far wrong. If nothing else, we would make a lot of bean soup this fall. Turns out they are slabs of spareribs and actually better than those we normally buy on sale for the same price. I think Margriet said she put 6 or 7 packages of them in the freezer and she made some last night for supper. She made the sweet-and-sour and were (emphasis on were) excellent. If we had more room in the freezer, we would get another case of them. Hope they have them again on sale. Before going to the Pig, I mentioned that we didn’t have any pork in the freezer and it would be nice to have some. Good timing.

Margriet got the window cleaning bug this morning. All of the windows in the house are now clean. The outside will wait for a bit and then they too will be cleaned. It sure has made a difference to get the accumulated "suff" off of them. The house is brighter inside now too. Sounds like the fall house cleaning and setting up for winter is upon us again. Seems like it was just spring a week ago! Wasn’t it?

I finished the Bible study for Tuesday. Way ahead of my normal finishing. There was a lot of stuff in this one too. After 14 pages of research, I know have 6 pages of completed workbook, with inserted references, on the computer and hard copy. I will take the hard copy with me. This portion of the study only covers the first 20 verses of the book of Revelations. 11 more sessions to go.

We really feel bad about not going to the funeral today. We don’t like to miss those kinds of things when it is possible for us to go. It is a good thing that we got a card in the mail at least a few days ago. The van will not move, except to go to church tomorrow, until it is time to go to have it repaired on Monday. Afterwards we will also be able to complete a ride to Door County to finish Margriet’s birthday too.

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><

Plans change!

September 8, 2006 (12:54pm)
75º F, Humid clouds, S wind 4 mph.

Good afternoon,

Plans change! Thanx to mechanical problems with the van. We had intended to head to Waukesha tomorrow for the funeral of the brother-in-law of my brother’s wife. That is scrubbed! Don’t want to get about halfway home on a Saturday night on the interstate and have car problems. We will play it some safe instead.

I have been hearing a progressively louder noise and feeling a vibration in the van for some time. Thought it would be solved by re-packing the front wheel bearings. So .... I went to my friendly neighborhood parts store to get new seals and one set of bearings, just in case. While getting the bearings, the parts book showed they were pressed in-place at a factory, so had to replace both the hub and the bearing as a unit! Not happy as the cost is $150.00 each! ! ! Not happy at all! Left with the seals and decided to take them apart to have a look see. Turned out I needed a bigger metric socket than I have to remove the wheel hub, so didn’t accomplish the task at all. I did a lot of looking at each front wheel assembly, but found nothing to indicate any problems with the bearings at all. I have been fooling around with this for the past couple three days and ended up at a dead end!

Without seeing anything remotely looking like a problem with the bearings, I started to look elsewhere - like half-shafts, front differential, &c. Even considered an engine mount may be broken or loose. No such luck! This morning I took the van down to my friendly neighborhood repair shop for them to have a listen and a look-see. After a test ride and some conversation about the problem - the right front wheel bearing needed attention. His price for the hub and bearing was $275.00! More conversation and the mechanic suggested that I purchase the parts from the parts store (both places are next-door to each other) and he would install it. I don’t know of too many places anymore that would even suggest a deal like that. It has happened in the past, but not on as big of a price tag as this. Both places know I do as much work as I can, always ready to loan me a tool or some such, and always ready to answer questions that take work away from them. I think I like small towns!

The upshot and the plan now is - the part will come in tomorrow morning and I will bring the van in for repair Monday morning at 9:00 A.M. Feel a bit guilty not doing the work myself, but I will have a chance to have the van up on a hoist and I should be able to really get a good look at the underside of it, rather just laying on the ground under it on ramps. Hopefully I will not find too much, but I know the exhaust system needs a really good looking at for sure.

Bible study is turning out to be a lot of work. Mostly because I can’t remember all that much and the text in the workbook is so small I have a hard time reading it. O have been doing much research online to help be understand it and then printing much of it out to use in the discussions on Tuesday. It is rather labor intensive but sure helps me. I scan the workbook, then insert the appropriate information where needed. The result is that I have a lot of pages, but I am aware of what the various passages mean without depending on my memory, which doesn’t work that well anymore. There some instances in the study so far to change the focus of the study to something other than a review/learning of Revelations. Guess we will have to see where it leads, but I think it could have been much clearer, especially in how the workbook is organized and written. The directions for use are very vague and in some cases, no direction at all.

I got the report from the doctor finally yesterday. After playing phone tag with him for two days, we finally connected. At the moment, everything is "normal" and in pretty good shape. He still cannot explain the disappearance of the "something" in my neck and everything there is OK too. That really did worry me. The only requirement was that we pick up a blood pressure cuff. (The last one turned out to be a battery operated tourniquet which didn’t want to let up.) We went to Green Bay after the appointment with him and one of the things on the list was the cuff - but we forgot to look for one. Another senior moment?

I also have been working on digging another post hole. I had it deep enough and when I dropped the post in and measured the set-up. The hole is about 4" too far east - I have to move the hole! I dug this hole deeper, since the layer of stones was lower which I could not penetrate. It is closer to the depth I want to go with all of the holes. The digging is really tough on my shoulders, especially my left that got messed up with a tree falling on me a couple of years ago. Apparently I tore some muscles or tendons in it, not the joint itself, is the worst. Aleve doesn’t take much of the pain away in certain positions.

I asked Margriet how she wanted to celebrate her birthday. Her request was to head to Whitefish Dune State Park on the east shore of Lake Michigan in Door County. With the impending ride to Waukesha for the funeral, we decided to put it off for a bit. We didn’t want to go on Labor Day weekend, so planed to do it this week. Now with the van needing some attention, it will be put off for at least another week. Wonder how the park will look in the snow? The way we are going, it might be then before we see it! But we will get there.

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><

Laboring Day

September 4, 2006 (12:39pm)
68º F, Calm and sunny, S wind 5 mph.

Good afternoon,

A laboring day that we are laboring on. The weather is cooperating and so are the mosquitoes. Sounds like some rain can come tonight and then the cool weather - at least 10º F cooler. Will like that and it will make it easier for the snow to start coming down! ;-) At the moment, the sweat comes down too well.

We really didn’t do much yesterday - Sunday a time of rest. Actually for me at least it was a time of procrastination. Just could not get my tail in gear for some reason. We did go to church but that is about it for the day. The pastor was rather long winded again and that will change next week when he has a time line to maintain, the second service will be back again for the year. I really had a hard time keeping on task after about the first 5 minutes or so.

I have been playing with the posts again. I have the second hole down as far as I am going and the post in it. Have to plumb it up and get it in the correct location, the backfill it. This time the soil is rather dry, but the rocks are still there. I didn’t go down as far as it had planned, since I ran into the layer of stones again. They are very closely packed together, so expect they will provide a good foundation for the posts. You sure know when the stones are there too. The posthole digger bounces and jars the body to the core. In the process I found a wasp nest and a bat hanging in the trim work. Dispatched both, but ran out of wasp spray so had to pick more up at the store yesterday. The bat surprised me and it didn’t like me messing with it.

Paid a snag (for us, but not really a big snag) of bills today. The one that hurts is the LP cost. I really don’t like that at all, especially since the price of oil and it’s by-products is going down. Bet the contract doesn’t! Wish I had a crystal ball and could buy at the time it will be the lowest price. Hope to get a bit less dependent on LP this year again. Last year we didn’t use as much as in the past, but we had a warmer than normal winter too. I think the smaller space heaters will help some this year as they will be on line for the whole winter. Got to get beating on trees though.

We ran across this old gal in a store window in Menominee while up there a bit ago. We thought she was kind of cute and reminded us of a couple of the gals at church in the quilt group. Well one in particular. Needless to say, the store sold fiber arts supplies. Fortunately it was closed (thanx to a difference of time zones between Michigan and Wisconsin) or we probably would have a couple more bags of stuff to bring home. Maybe another day.

Our part-time neighbors were up Friday for a few hours. At first it didn’t make a lot of sense to me, but there was an afternoon Packer game with lots of leftover tickets for sale. Many were re-sold for less than the face value or what they were originally bought for. Judging by the results of the game, it might have been better to not go and save the money. The Pickers are really having a tougher than usual time this year. Oh well - it’s just a game - to some of us,
Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><

Vinegar she ain't !

September 2, 2006 (12:07pm)
66º F, Sunny and nice , NW wind 7 mph.

Good afternoon,

A beautiful day to celebrate my Woman’s birthday! She ain’t turned to vinegar yet, but like good wine, gets better with age. I sure like that! We are not doing a whole bunch to celebrate, but we are going out to dinner this evening in Algoma’s Hudson’s restaurant. We have done that before so will continue. The food is very good. Next week, since it also is Labor Day weekend, we will take a bit of a ride up the Door Peninsula for a day to nose around for a bit.

The past couple of days, the weather has really cooperated and has been extremely nice. While I realize it was September 1st yesterday and that means it is time for the snow starting to fall everyday - about ½"/day to get a good base for deer season. Oh well, guess it won’t! :-( The weather is supposed to get wet tomorrow for a couple of days, but the temperature will be too high for snow. Actually I have a lot to do before the snow comes.

I went uptown this morning and the parking lot at the harbor was not filled with sport fishermen’s trucks and trailers. The whole area has had a real down-swing on the transient sport fisherman this year. That can’t but hurt the economy this year. The grocery store was busy and the checkout gal was complaining about missing her coffee break because of it. With the farmer’s also feeling some pain from the weird weather, I bet we have something of an upturn in the need for government help to people this year too.

We did go to Green Bay yesterday for our supply run. I picked up a couple of 6"x6" posts for my project, but they were longer than I wanted. The size I liked were out of stock, so had to settle for some 2' longer! Guess I will have a couple of pieces of treated blocks to use for various things. Since they are square, I would have them rolling when I don’t want them too. Not only were the posts longer, they were a lot heavier. Guess they have to dry some. The others I have had here for several years.

We really bought a lot. The cupboard was some bare - at least the freezer. The space allotted to chicken was a big empty. We picked up a large bag of backsides for 43¢/#. That is a bit higher than last time, but still within reason. The produce section was pretty much bypassed as the prices are out of reach for most things. We did have some dry-goods to replenish too.

The big stop, but low on cost, was Otto’s Meats on the return trip home. We are now rich in potato sausage, Leberkase, and a real surprise was some beef soup bones. The soup bones were about a dollar a pound less then at the supermarkets. They are real meat bones too! Can almost smell the soup a-simmering already. We will have to keep an eye for more the next time through. The potato sausage is really good, since Margriet made some for supper last night. Actually what we purchased was the same or less than meat at the stores - but a whole bunch better.

There was one real surprise for us in Green Bay too. The price of gasoline has been going DOWN for the past week. The price in Green Bay was $2.75/gallon when we hit town. When it came time to buy gas on the way out, the price had dropped 5¢/gallon ! ! ! That we really liked. The price was about a nickle higher here than there, but now it is about 10¢/gallon higher. Expect that will change, but might not before the weekend is over. We like the trend and hope it continues.

While we were waling along the harbor in Menominee, Michigan, we saw this old, little catboat in with all of the big and fancy yachts. I have no idea how old it is, but am sure it has a lot of wind blowing against it’s sails. There was an old guy in it, looked like he just came in from a sail and was stowing her gear. I would not be surprised if the boat was older than he was. I would guess he was in his 80's and really loved the boat. We left before he came ashore, but would have loved to chat with him a bit.

The other picture is of a bed in one of the houses at Fayette State Park. We have a very active quilting group of ladies at church, so Margriet is always on the lookout for them to take pictures and share. This one is of a quilt more like those I remember as a kid. Not a lot of fancy patterns or artistry, but nice and warm, not wasting any "worn-out" clothing or fabric pieces. The mattress is made of straw ticking and is supported by a network of rope criss-crossing under it. While it looks as though someone has just crawled out from the bed, I bet it was not a comfortable as today’s mattresses and box-springs. I was surprised to see how fancy some of the furniture was, with more of it than I thought there would be. This bed has rather fancy head and foot boards, and appears to be made from some pretty good lumber, well finished. Most of the houses were rather Spartan otherwise. Just what was needed for life, not much else. We really were impressed by this historic site and it does beg for a return again someday.

Margriet decided that since it was her birthday, she would take the day off and have some fun. She is baking bread (three loaves ready for the oven) and a sour cream apple pie. Sure is nice to see her have so much fun! I think I will probably benefit the most from the fun for sure. Everything smells so good at the moment - and we just finished lunch!

The Glucosamine pills my doctor suggested I take, turned out to be horse pills! I have never taken any so big and I have to take two a day! They are about ¼" square and about ¾" long! Almost need a plunger from the bathroom to get them down. I see why the instructions say they should be taken with food. At least the food would finish pushing them down, have to wait a couple of months to see if they have any effect or not on me. Hope so. The pills are make from lobster and crab shells. Probably the only way I will eat them at the prices in the store or restaurant. These don’t have any taste. Wished they tasted like lobster at least!

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><

Strange ending

September 1, 2006 (6:06am)
62º F, Sun is coming, SSE wind 8 mph.

Good morning,

Yesterday ended very strangely. We had finished supper last night and shortly afterward, the power went off! After so long, I called the power company, to find out what is going on. The answer was that there was a fuse blown somewhere and it was affecting "a few folks in our neighborhood." The power should be returned at 8:15 P.M. or an hour and a half from when I called. As a precaution, and wanting to try it out, I filled my new Airpilot Number 8 Deitz kerosene lantern as darkness was coming on. We picked it up for $11.00 from the Amish store near Shawano about a month ago on one of our adventures. After lighting it and letting the wick totally soak up, we discovered it produced more light than any lantern we had used before. I think it was a good buy.

The power didn’t come back at the predicted time, I waited another hour and called the power company. I got a message telling me that it would be a long wait until someone took my call. Apparently there were others with the same question needing an answer, so I hung up. When 9:30 P.M. came, it was time for me to hit the sack. The power did come back until something after 11:00 P.M. By then we both were in bed. When the water pump started, I woke up and got up. Lots of lights and like that left on. Margriet had done some reading by lantern and finally got tired of that and came to bed - early for her.

During the power outage, I went outside to see if the neighbors had any lights on (they didn’t) and look around. The neighborhood was totally dark, except for the light of the quarter moon shining. The sky was filled with stars and not a sound - other than the fog horn in Kewaunee. Really cool! It was really nice to see all of the dawn-to-dusk yard lights off and the countryside "natural" again.

Yesterday was also the day for my annual doctor’s appointment to renew my medications. My weight and blood pressure was exactly the same as last year! Both too high, but stable. That surprised be as I thought I had gained a bit of weight. Last year, the doctor also "found" an enlargement of my thyroid, not bad but something to watch. After doing some research, and praying, I decided to let it alone for the time. This time - he could not find anything that was not normal. Guess prayer works! He also took some blood tests that I will not find out the results of until the middle of next week. He also wants me to pick up a blood pressure cuff and record my BP on a regular basis. The last one I had died a painful death (for me) as it compressed my arm way too much, then didn’t read correctly.

I complained about Aleve having only limited success, so he suggested another over the counter product, Glucosamine, which works better, but needs to be taken daily and a couple of months to take effect. From what he said, the medication causes the joints to have more "slip" where they contact each other in a joint. Will give it a try and see what happens. The office was not busy, so we had a chance to talk a bit too. He is one of the few doctors that are not all that worried about meeting a time schedule. A real plus in this day and age.

The last couple of days I have gotten back to the task I started before discovering the broken waterline - putting some 6"x6" posts in to hold up the sunporch. I pulled up some of the front deck so I can dig a couple of holes. There was a layer of stones on the soil which had to be removed before trying to put a shovel into the soil. I discovered the scattering of stones actually was a 6" layer of 2-4" stones! It was one of those kneecap in the armpit and ears between the ankles deals. Not a comfortable task. Not too sure how many pailfuls of stone I took out, but only enough to dig one of the two post holes. The other will happen after this post is in place. One good thing, is to put the "new" stones in a couple of the low spots in the driveway.

Today we head to Green Bay on a supply run and to pick up a couple more 6"x6" posts. Margriet also wants to stop at Otto’s Meats to pick-up some "good" meat. We have pretty much emptied out the freezer, Margriet has cleaned it and the refrigerator, so now it is ready to be reloaded again. Probably not as much as before though, with the price increases on everything. Also have to pick up some other things too and we want to do it before all of the city-dudes arrive in the area. The price of gasoline has dropped to it’s lowest point in many months. Still has a long way to go though. We got the new contract for our LP gas the other day. It went up over 25¢/gallon over last year. Ouch. Will have to get more serious about heating with wood this year and pray for a warm winter. We did use about 10% less LP last year than the year before. Like that part.

Time to get the day a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,


Chris <><