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 <><