Down she went!

November 30, 2006 (12:29pm)

18º F, Cold clouds, W wind 9 mph, 6º F wind chill.

Good afternoon,

So .... anudder’ lunch of leftovers is history. Not too bad either. A couple of hotdishes that Margriet had made over the past few days. One was lamb with German noodles and the other was chicken with couscous. I made a pot of soup with some of the frozen soup starter on Sunday, but I think it turned out to be more noodle soup than chicken/vegetable with noodles! I put a handful of dehydrated vegetables, a handful of corn, a few spices, and a couple handfuls of elbow macaroni into the starter. Tastes good, but has a lot of pasta in it. Should stick to the ribs fairly well. I made some hash using bratwurst cut up for supper last night and I think I will make a smoked kielbasa with vegetables for supper tonight.

At the moment, the turkey breast is in the oven and about ready to come out. I will let it cool overnight, then slice it tomorrow to take to church. After the breast is out, will make some gravy with the pan drippings to take-with. Tomorrow we probably will make a pan of stuffing also as a take-with. The turkey sure has been smelling very good for the past almost 3 hours in the oven.

Oma has been very busy getting a couple of boxed ready to go across the puddle in time for Christmas. I really don’t think the kids (of all sizes) opening them over there, will have as much fun as Oma gathering and wrapping everything. She/we have been gathering things all year since last Christmas. Every place we go, there seems to be something to go into the pile to send. Most are little things, but they sure add up to a rather large sized pile to send. Now we will have more room in the bedroom to actually use the bedroom for bedroom activities. I must admit, it is a whole bunch of fun! Would love to be a mouse sitting in the corner when they are opened.

When I picked up the mail yesterday, our phone bill was in it. The surprise was that according to the bill, we had an amount due! For many months we have been receiving bills with a credit balance on it and we paid the actual charges each month. Don’t know what happened, or who received credit for our payment, but hope it gets resolved sooner than later. Somehow I knew this probably would happen, just didn’t know when. I did contact them via their website and have received a confirmation back indicating they would look into it as soon as possible. Sure hope so.

The expected temperature drop is here. Yesterday morning, the high officially was 56º F at about 5:00 A.M. Today the temperature, at the same time, was 27º F and has been steadily dropping since. Now we are closer to our normal temperatures, but it will not last. Supposed to be a week or so of temperatures 10-15º F below normal. Mother nature must be using a yo-yo for a thermometer these days. I think they are talking of a low tonight around 15º F. I think our March weather is about over.

I got to thinking about a couple of the articles I mentioned yesterday. Especially the pea harvesters. I can remember the aroma of the leftovers from harvesting. Not really an scrumptious olfactory sensation! But it did have some zest. The vines were stacked in large piles at the separation point and left to rot. Like a big compost pile. Eventually it made it’s way back to the fields as fertilizer, but for a few weeks after picking, we knew where the piles were along the road without looking.

The other article was of the hunting in 1946. Seems impossible that there were only 215 hunters in the county. Not too sure, but think that is one of the first years licenses were needed. It may have been earlier than that, but I remember the stories the patriarch of deer camp, Frank, telling of those times. He was a vet and said there were a lot of vets who figured they didn’t need a license so didn’t bother getting one. Guess enough of them got caught and had to pay fines, that most decided it probably was a good idea to get a license. Of course there was a lot of "table hunting" going on then and before. Would not be too surprised if it didn’t happen here too, but folks were more prosperous here than up nort’. Probably still does, but not because of a real need - more of "pride." TV mentioned last night that there were 2,000 deer donated to the Green Bay food pantries in the area as a result of the hunt this year. That is really a good use for them.

Time to get a-going and make some turkey gravy.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><

She's a-going down!

November 29, 2006 (12:05pm)
40º F, Cold clouds, W wind 9 mph.

Good afternoon,

The temperature she goes down! Started out the day with the temperature over 50º F when I woke up and now it be a-fallin’. Supposed to keep falling too. Talking of getting more normal for the duration of the season I think. The west wind really drives through, since the humidity is rather high. The winds are supposed to pick and there is a possibility of snow coming too. Time will tell.

I have been adding insulation to the water supply line I repaired during the summer under the house. I have been leaving it open as long as I dared to let the soil dry out as much as possible. I added a layer of foam around the line, then covered it with some 1" rigid insulation about 16" wide, then a layer of fiberglass batt encapsulated in a plastic film, and finally with a 23" wide layer of double aluminum foil separated by a fixed airspace, over the whole works. I stapled the foil to a 1"x3" on each side to keep it in place and to provide a bit of an air space (maybe) under it. I will put a new vapor barrier down over the whole area. Hopefully that should solve the problem in the future. I also will wrap the line where it come up out of the soil to the house floor. Probably will build an over sized box around it from ridigid foam insulation, filled with encapsulated fiberglass and a foam wrap. I really don’t want to have anymore problems down there in the future. At least with the supply line. I do want to replace the rest of the water lines with PEX eventually too.

We staggered over to Shawano after Bible study yesterday. Leaving the house to go to church, the rain was really pouring and the wind was up. Decided it probably would not me a good day to go, as we also had other stops to make. I really didn’t want to drive in a strong crosswind and get wet between stores. I was over ruled and Margriet had a bunch of things to get from the Amish store. We did bring a lot back! Most of what we buy there are spices and baking supplies (plus a few other things thrown in for good measure). We figure that most of the spice/baking stuff is about 25% of what it costs at the cheapest in normal stores. It really does pay to drive the extra 30+ miles to go there. Besides, we both really like going to the store. Also brought back some old-fashioned candy for next week’s Bible study snitching. I think the store lifted an inch or so when we left with all of the goods we bought!

The day was really too long and I was bushed when we finally got home. We didn’t make all of the intended stops either. When supper time came, we stopped at Applebee’s for a sandwich. I had a beef sandwich on some kind of Italian like bread with some green stuff though the dough. Not sure what it was, but I think it would have tasted better with out it. It really wasn’t too bad and I sure finished it off. The sandwich came with deep-fried onion peels which I also really like. Margriet had a chicken strip and fries basket. Really though, either one of the meals would have been enough for the two of us.

Today is Pim’s birthday, so as promised, Oma called him a couple of minutes ago. He is in good shape and thanked us for the telescope we had sent to him. Was thinking of sending him a drum set, but really didn’t want his Mom grumpy with me. He also mentioned that M&M had eaten some glass (apparently not too long before we called), but didn’t explain how or when. When he decided he had talked enough, he said goodbye and hung up! Oma thought she would get a chance to talk to Astrid, but that was not on Pim’s mind at all. Of course the mention of eating glass really got Oma’s attention - and mine. She called Astrid back and got the whole store. Not sure where she got the glass from, but Astrid noticed it in her mouth and was able to get it out and then rinsing her mouth. The doctor’s office said there really was little they could do in the situation, but to watch her very closely. I am sure she will be watched very closely. Boy that is scary!

One of our stops yesterday was to pick up a couple of turkey breasts to roast for the holiday dinner at church since they were "too high" priced here. Turned out they were higher priced in Green Bay! Since it was getting late, we decided to buy one there anyway, but only one due to the high price. We will roast it probably tomorrow along with a pan of stuffing. We will let it cool, the slice it on Friday and put it into a foil pan to take to church. We have found that the foil pans, about cake size, are handy to have on hand. When something is taken to church, just throw the pan away - no dishes to wash.

In today’s paper, in the memory column, there were a couple of interesting articles which occurred in history this week:

1881 - The Albert Landreth Co. of Manitowoc has agreed to try out several pea harvesters manufactured by Frank Hamachek of Kewaunee and, if the machines prove satisfactory, will use them in their fields. The fact that the company now operating a machine which costs $400, while the Hamachek machine costs $350, will requires the local product to "make good" in a large measure. [These machines later became the industry standard in Wisconsin and elsewhere, being pulled at first by horse team, the steam tractors, and finally gasoline/diesel tractors until the war. A large industry in Kewaunee at the time.]

1931 - Federal officers invaded Kewaunee County, their third visit within a year. A wildcat brewery in the city of Kewaunee and a distillery in the town of Lincoln were raided. Equipment and all illicit products were destroyed, 2,000 gallons of beer and 643 gallons of moonshine. [I think this was a brewery in town that "switched" to making root beer during prohibition. Maybe not all of their production was root beer! After prohibition they stayed with root beer, but also started with beer again. They are still making root beer today, but no beer.]

1946 - Use of electricity in Luxemburg/Casco area is being curtailed as a result of the strike soft coal mines. Advertising, ornamental and excessive street lighting are some types of electricity use that is restricted.

1946 -Most of Kewaunee’s 250 licensed deer hunters were back from the wilds this weekend and about one of five was successful in bagging a buck.

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><

Deer season shot.

November 27, 2006 (12:49pm)
40º F, Drippy clouds, N wind 11 mph.

Good afternoon,

Another deer season is in the record books! Not too sure what the total harvest is, but I don’t think it was anywhere near what was hoped. There are 1.7 million deer in the woods and they were joined by about 600,000 hunters. I think the goal was to harvest at least 500,000 deer. I really have not heard of anyone really bragging about their results around here. A couple of guys from church said it was a scarce season for even seeing deer. Not only does the lack of snow cut way down on the sight lines, but the warm weather causes the deer to just lay down and the color of the woods really hides them. During the opening weekend, there were no gun related accidents, other than one gal had a minor self-inflicted wound. There were three deaths the opening weekend, but they were due to heart attacks. Since opening weekend there have been only three gun related accidents, making it one of the safest hunting seasons on record. That is the best part, but I am fearful of a lot of deer starving this winter - if we ever really get some snow that stays around.

The weather is really not nice today - or what was predicted. We were supposed to have a few sprinkles over night, then the sun come out and warm things up to the near 50º F mark this afternoon. Not sure that will happen. The sprinkles didn’t come last night, only the clouds and fog this morning. The rain did come - just about the time I decided to go outside and accomplish something. So much for that idea. I really don’t like to mess around in wet clay soil that sticks to everything - mostly me. We are suppose to have rain most of the rest of the day, off and on, then it will get more serious about it tomorrow. Oh well.

Margriet’s apple flip wasn’t any flop. Tasted pretty good and others at church said the same. Most of it was gone when we left, so told one of the widows to take it home and if she happened to see another member who is not doing all that well, to drop some off for him too. She lives a short distance from him. There was more than enough apple stuff for everyone at church yesterday. We ate too much and decided not to stop for lunch. All was really good that I had, other than one piece of something I really didn’t care for - peanut butter and raw apples don’t go well together for me. I ate it anyway.

The church is sponsoring a "holiday dinner" on Saturday, so we decided to roast a turkey for it. There was only one other who signed up to do that and another person signed up to bake a ham. That isn’t enough. After thinking about the turkey bit, decided to pick up a couple of turkey breasts and roast them instead. After they cool we will slice them and make some gravy. We will heat it up before taking it to church Saturday morning. Wonder if we should make a pan of stuffing too? The bones left after carving will make some good soup stock for us. I am sure we will be there again this year to help serve and cleanup as usual for us.

On the return from church, I was noticing that the farmers have almost all of their corn harvested and fields plowed. They should not have too many complaints about either, but probably can find something to complain about. The countryside, from a farmer’s viewpoint, really looks pretty good. There are huge piles of bailed hay and big white plastic tubes of corn silage near their barns for the winter. Wonder if they will use it all or are planning to sell some of the hay. The stacks look way too big for each of them to use in a season. The boat launching docks have been out of the water now for sometime, but there are still a few fishermen going out on Lake Michigan to fish. This is very late in the season for that. I haven’t seen any golfers at Alaska, but the TV is showing some out in Green Bay and the Appleton area.

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><

Hot - hot - hot!

November 25, 2006 (12:15pm)
46º F, Cloudy, NE wind 1 mph.

Good afternoon,

Another Saturday is here. Not too sure where all of the days and weeks are disappearing to. Seems like they just wiz by. The past week or so has been very mild. The weatherman keeps pushing the snow forecast further and farther down the calendar. Now it looks like it will not get here until the end of next week, rather than the Monday and Tuesday of yesterday. Seems the temperature remains too high for snow and it will be some rain instead. Pretty heavy too from the sound of it. That stuff is really hard to shovel too! We are still setting high temperature records too.

I did manage to stagger over to Green Bay fairly early yesterday morning. Margriet stayed home to do some messing around here. The store I went to for ink was on the other side of the town and was regretting the drive across. As it turned out, downtown was almost a ghost town! There was more traffic on Kewaunee’s main drag, then on Main Street in Green Bay. It seemed I was the only one driving on the street. For much of the ride - I was! Most of the "big-box" stores and the malls had insanely early opening hours and some highly advertised, limited sale items. They were mobbed with folks looking for a big deal. Some had been camped out for 24 hours. Crazy! I have no interest in things like that. Don’t need nuttin’ that bad. I think there were a few folks injured trying to get into the doors first at a couple of stores too. Really crazy!

The store I went to, Office Depot, had provided a $20.00 off coupon on any HP product I bought. The total price for two black tanks of ink was $7.00 and change. That is a good deal and certainly worth the prospect of a tough drive across town. Ont only that, but then I got two more coupons, one for $10.00 and one for $5.00, after the purchase. Guess they really do want business. If it happens that I have some needs to fit the coupons, I certainly will buy there.

Office Depot has some super specials too, but that is not why I was there and there were not that many folks in the store either. More staff than costumers than buyers I think. The staff was probably tripled over normal times. One really good deal was a 19" flat screen monitor for $120.00 rather than the normally $480.00. Didn’t buy any. I already have one, just not flat. I am sure there were other things on sale there, but not yesterday for me.

On the return, I stopped at the grocery store as long as I really was in the neighborhood. I really was surprised at how empty the store was. They only had two checkout lanes open. Normally they would have had 12-15 lanes open, plus a couple of express lanes. No waiting in line to check out either. I did find a pretty good bargain on bananas though. Got over 5# for 79¢. Margriet got most of them into the dehydrator for future use. The rest will probably be eaten and some for banana bread - I hope.

As soon as I got home, I loaded the new ink tank and got after printing out the Naturalization papers for Margriet. That job is complete and it is now up to her to get the filled out and the stuff needed to send them in. Have to wait for her new Green Card I think, but not too sure. It probably will take her that long to get everything together.

Margriet was rather busy the last couple of days. While I was gone, she started a big batch of granola. That stuff sure smells good during the making process. Sure tastes good during the eating process too. My kids used to gobble it down. It is a lot better for body than normal cold cereal from the store. She also built a few gallons of Russian tea mix. It seems to go through her rather rapidly. Guess she likes it.

Sunday is "apple Sunday" at church, so she is in the process of building an apple flip. Kinda’ like a filled apple Kringle in looks. Don’t think she will allow be to check the quality of it before bringing it to church tomorrow to have with coffee after the service. Suspect we might not have to go out for lunch after church!

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><

The Day of Thankfulness

November 23, 2006 (12:22pm)
42º F, Warm sunshine, S wind 3 mph.

Good afternoon,

The day of thankfulness has arrived. We certainly are thankful for the over abundance that God has been given to us in this country. Personally we have been so blessed, even when we didn’t think so. It is amazing to look back in our lives and see how everything has really worked for good. Often times we didn’t, or don’t, want it too.

The leg of lamb rolled roast, just went into the oven. Won’t be long now. Margriet has been busy getting all of the ingredients for our feast ready. Now it all comes together. She put out a plate of goodies to chew on, since we have a late meal planned. To go with the lamb will be sweet potatoes (even though the Yam-yam Lady, Brenda, isn’t here) and broccoli. I managed to make the cranberry relish by grinding the berries and an orange together. Always look forward to having that and it just sounded good with lamb. Of course the required mint jelly will be around too. For dessert the pumpkin pie is ready and waiting. It has been very hard to just look at it, smell it, and wish - but not eat.

The appetizer platter kind of surprised me. Of course Margriet had a good time with it. Lots of vegetables, cheese and sausage to nibble on. The last time we went shopping, she picked up some green onions, grass onions, and I forgot about them. If I had remembered them, they probably would not be around today. They are good for sure.

Three years ago, Margriet received her Permanent Resident Card (Green Card) and today it expires. We will go to Milwaukee in a couple of weeks to renew it so she will be legal once again. Seems like only yesterday that she got it. Now she is able to get her Naturalization Paper in and become a real citizen of this country. Yesterday I decided to go to the immigration website and find out what the steps are in detail. After finding several things I wanted to print out, I discovered that my printer was out of ink, with about half of the material still needing to be printed! Didn’t really want to run to Green Bay last night and I know I don’t want to today, so I guess we will be going tomorrow. They call tomorrow Black Friday with all of the folks buying for Christmas. That is not a good prospect to have a nice trip either. Guess we have been printing more out than I thought and for once I don’t have any backup supply. No printing until the new ink tank is in the printer!

The process for naturalization is expensive. I think the most expensive of all the procedures we have gone through so far. Apparently there also be a need for another biometric scanning, with the added cost of it, even though she will be having one in a couple of weeks. Past that it is a matter of completing 2 page (I think) application, then attaching a bunch of supporting documents - again. Most, if not all, of the supporting documents have been submitted at least once already. Sounds like government work to me!

The weather continues to be hot. In the mid or lower 60's toward the center of the state. Here is it some cooler, thankfully. The hunters have something to complain about this year, other than not enough points on the racks of the deer shot or the number of deer seen to shoot at. Cooler-ness is supposed to start coming back again tomorrow with some possible snow or freezing rain on Sunday or Monday. At present we are having temperatures about 20º F above our normal highs.

We hope this finds you and your special folks enjoying the day, but most of all, thankful for all of the blessings received - too.

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><

A really, really great day! ! !

November 22, 2006 (2:58pm)
41º F, Bright cloudy, S wind 16 mph.

Good afternoon,

We are really having a great day! Margriet check Astrid and Onno’s website - - - and there were new pictures on it that weren’t there yesterday. We had an email from Astrid a few days ago saying that she would "kick Onno" (according to the translation website) and get some picturers on their website ( http://www.fornax-and-oban.org/foto/2006/ ). In a very nice way, it sure messed up our morning! It took some time to download all of the pictures and to chat about each. Then I had to put them on our memory stick for posterity. Of course we had to chat about them again.

There is at least one Oma and Opa who are very appreciative of them. It still on some level amazes me that we can get these pictures and other communications so easily and quickly. We don’t hear from them nearly often enough, but I guess that would be true if we were face to face with them 24/7! Seems that is a normal wish for Oma’s and Opa’s the world over. Can’t put it into words how much these and the other mean to us.

As you can see, M&M is into mischief cleaning out the Kleenex box, making room for more! Kind of reminds me of a story told about me. Seems when my little brother was baptized, the minister came over to the house. I think for a private baptism, but not too sure of that. Memories get lost as one gets old, even though I was about 2 years old at the time. Anywho, I figured out a way to lock myself into the bathroom and find Mom’s bath powder. Using the powder puff in the container, I proceeded to dust myself and the contents of the bathroom, just as the minister arrived. Eventually Dad broke into the bathroom and saved me from myself. Probably fortunately, I also don’t remember what happened after the event. I do remember that Dad made sure the bathroom door and the door to my brother and my room had a way to open them from the outside when we moved to the house on the south side. Wonder why?

The other picture is of Pim in an activity that I don’t think happens too often in a day. He still is a handsome dude - even when snoring. There is a bunch of other pictures included, mostly of the kids. Pim still looks like the Pim who came to FISKLAND, but a visible stretched version and some more mature. I have a feeling he will be turning some young lady’s heads in not enough years.

Some of pictures are also of Onno’s remodeling skills. The kitchen/dining area has undergone some major changers. One very noticeable change is the addition of a wall. You can’t miss it because of the color scheme! I think I will need sunglasses the next time we go there! Suspect that the color choice might be Astrid’s choice, but really have no way of knowing. Onno is a craftsman, of the "old school" style and really does excellent work. Everything appears to be perfect or better.

Breakfast at Bible study went very well and everyone there was well fed with some excellent dishes. I know I ate too much. We dispensed with lunch a few hours later. Margriet’s bread and cinnamon rolls were a real hit, along with the honey-butter she brought. Fortunately there were not enough folks there to eat all of the rolls and bread, so we (I) had a chance to eat a little bit at home. Not all that much though. The honey-butter all but disappeared too. Good thing there was more of that in the refrigerator!

Finally finished my research for next week’s study and even finished the worksheet for the lesson. Now I have started the next section. It too looks to be a long one. Only four more weeks left of the study. No idea what will be next.

Our Thanksgiving dinner ingredients are all in order. The lamb is in the refrigerator, thawing to be ready for the oven. Margriet baked a pumpkin pie for the occasion. I was forced to smell the baking of it and not experience even a little taste! I think that could be called abuse. I did take a ride to Algoma to pick up a special bottle of wine to go with. This time I got a bottle of cranberry wine. Just sounded good - hope it is. At the price of a bottle, we will not be getting many of them, or much of any wine for that matter. The price of a bottle has really skyrocketed in the past couple of years.

Getting hungry just talking about tomorrow! Of course the ribs I have in the oven might have something to do with that too. They are really smelling good. Baking the very slowly this time. Didn’t get them into the oven soon enough, so we will be having a late supper I think. Oh well!

The weather has been extremely warm. The temperature was nearly 40º F when I woke up this morning. That is about 2º F warmer than yesterday! The weather man is talking of nearly 60º F for a high tomorrow! Imagine the guys at camp are looking for their wool jogging short to hunt it. Not much of a snow cover either! The media is filled with warnings to hunters to get their deer into coolers or butcher shops as soon as possible. We had a similar problem one year when it got up to 64º F about noon one day. Then the temperature took a nose dive, hitting -7º F before morning. Everyone’s gun froze from the high moisture turning to ice. That also was the only time my gun froze. It is a simple action on purpose to eliminate things like that happening. It really is not fun hunting when the temperature is much above 20º F!

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><

Wind from where?

November 20, 2006 (12:15pm)
36º F, Semi-cloudy, N wind 0 mph.

Good afternoon,

How often have you seen the wind from the north at 0 mph? That is what is happening at the moment according to the web. Actually the 0 mph part is right, but not too sure about the north direction of the wind - kinda’ hard to tell! The day started out very cloudy, but now the clouds have broken up some, so I guess you could call it semi-cloudy with the sun peaking through.

I got up at a reasonable time for a change this morning - before 5:00 A.M. For the past few days, I have been getting up an hour to an hour and a half later for some reason. The nice part is that I am able to get in more Bible study time before my Woman gets up. I did manage to finish all of my research on chapters 17 and 18 of Revelation and print it out - 24 pages. Now I should be able to review it a couple of times before we study it next Tuesday morning. It is an interesting and sobering part of the book. One of the gals in the study likes to read the research, so also emailed it to her as I usually do. Bet takes a long time to download!

Tomorrow we will be having a potluck breakfast for Bible study. Margriet promised a bread for the occasion, so one just came out of the oven. In went a pan of cinnamon rolls to take along too. All of this smells too good for this old man, just to let it sit because it has to "look pretty" for tomorrow! Dang! Instead of making a long loaf, she just made a normal sized loaf, but it really has risen out of the pan during baking. It is about twice the size of normal. Sure do hope no one likes it. Margriet also made some honey butter to take as a go-with. Maybe it can snitch a cinnamon roll for quality control purposes before going.
I spent a good portion of this morning cleaning out my LSM stuff. I have a small file cabinet I always took with me full of necessary papers, &c. Since I have not looked in it or had anyone request anything from me for the past six months, figured it was time for most of it to go. It has. Now I can use the cabinet for other things. Another byproduct of the operation is that I now have a large batch of paper for the printer - used on one side. That sure saves on buying more paper all of the time.

Looking at the stack of papers and what they contained/represented, I sure did a lot of work and spent a lot of time on LSM. Of course a decade of time went by so it really piled up. There were several projects I did that never were used, but I was prepared - just in case! It really was a good experience for me and represents much growth. Sure am glad that Rev. Enright pushed me into going and Jane Maxson taking good care of me while going. There are a number of friends I wish I had gotten to know 20 years sooner though. Too bad we seem to drift apart when not having as much face-to-face contact on a regular basis.

This machine has been taking longer and longer to startup every time, so I decided to find out why. Discovered that every time I loaded a new program, the new program would also start on startup. At least there was an icon left at least. Finally cleaned out a mess of them. Now if I want a program, I have to open it from "start" rather than using the icon on the desktop or system tray. Both use up space and slow things down. I also have been playing with my cookies trying to clear out them some too. Discovered after putting in the new WordPerfect, there were several tracking cookies I didn’t know about. Got after them and a bunch of others too. Now if I can figure out a way to kill all of the extra emails I don’t want. There are many the have been eliminated, but there seem to be more everyday. If it ain’t telemarketers on the phone, it is a bunch of spam-marketers on email! Can’t win!

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><

Good-old-days

November 18, 2006 (1:29pm)
36º F, Warm clouds, NNE wind 6 mph.

Good afternoon,

So .... I am using the newer version of WordPerfect for this. Can you tell the difference? Actually, other than a couple of new gadgets - like a suite for editing video recordings from a camcorder (which we don’t have), or a lot of "templates" for mostly businesses or other such things we really don’t have a use for. No kids to save educational money for, or starting to build a "nest-egg" for retirement. Bot are pretty much done with at this stage in our lives. Actually there are a couple of things I do like about the new program. One importantly is the "revel code" window at the bottom of this has a larger font size and different background. I actually can read it more easily.

The season of deer began this morning at sunrise. I did hear a few shots in the immediate area between 6:30 A.M. and 7:30 A.M. but not much since. Not too sure if they were on target or not. It sure has been a bunch quieter than I expected though. Next year the DNR will be opening Kewaunee (with this new program I also have to start a new dictionary, the old words didn’t transfer it seems) County will be opened to rifle hunting instead of the shotgun now used. Not too sure that is a really good idea. While this is a rather small number of folks living in the county, there seem to be too many buildings too close together. Hope there are no folks or buildings with added ventilation in them. Time will tell.

I keep wondering what is going on in camp at various times. There are a lot of really good memories from there. Life pretty much had a pattern to it there, but changed, maybe I should say matured, over the years. As new technology came on the scene, we tried it to see if it would work for us. Often times it did and often times it didn’t.

Our method of hauling supplies to the top of the hog’s back during the first year or two was by a "sled" made from the hood of a 1948 Chevrolet pulled by an Allis tractor. That was a hard time to get things to the cabin. Most of the kit came in on our backs, over a mile, to the cabin. Only the really heavy things went on the "sled" as it only made one or two trips pre season to the top. We still had about ¼ mile to stagger down the hog’s back and to the cabin on the bottoms. Always fun rolling the barrels of beer down too. Tried to control the roll, but never were able to for the entire hill. Then it was a real chore to carry a full barrel from the hill bottom to the cabin. Being slow learners, after a couple of years we switched to ¼ barrels, making the trek much easier.

After the "sled" came the Jigger - a 6-wheeled ATV. Very temperamental, slow, and under powered, but it did get the job done - eventually. To get the Jigger to the cabin, we built the Jigger Trail. One of the side washes on the hill was cleared of blow-down trees and several huge rocks got moved, but it sure beat walking and carrying. About the same time, one of the sons, Rex, bought a Caribou. It was a twin track snowmobile without steering skies in front. Turning was accomplished by braking one track and/or reversing the other. It worked rather well as long as there was snow and it was much faster, but could not get down the Jigger Trail to the cabin. Well, that is not really true, it could get down, just not back up again unless there was about four feet of snow on the ground covering the rocks.

As 4x4's improved, we were able to get them in to the top of the hill, as long as the ground was frozen. Many years the conditions were very questionable, so only went in once and out once - beginning and end of the season. Eventually we had two, one a Blazer and the other a pickup more or less built to do the job. Both had huge tires on them and winches at the front. One year, the weather really turned hot and we decided to bug out of camp early. It was a good thing. We had to use the winches to move the vehicles in the woods. Stretch out the cable, tie to a tree, then drag the vehicle to the tree - only to start the process over again. After about the second pull of each vehicle, the front vehicle’s winch died! Of course it would be the first one! From then on we used a come-along, by hand, every 8-10 feet. The woods were so thick we could not get the rear vehicle around the front one to pull itself and the disabled one. It took us about 8 hours to get both vehicles to the field through the woods, a distance of about an mile, before we again could use the 4x4's as intended, leaving a track of 24" deep wheel ruts behind us. We were a group of very tired puppies for sure. After that experience, we built corduroy road in the worst parts and a bunch of bypasses along the way.

Using the winches gave Frank, the patriarch of the camp, the idea they could be used to lower and raise our kit up and down the hill in a cart. He found a relatively straight portion of the hill and cleared the trees and brush from it. The cable on the truck was only 50' long, or about ¼ the necessary distance. Well a ¼ of the way was better than none! The next year, another son, Leo, put an oversized drum on his winch to hole 100' of cable and borrowed another 150' of cable from the foundry he worked at. The idea was to hook the length of cable to the cart and the end of the truck winch cable. Drive forward for the first 150', the use the winch for the last 100'. The idea was great and almost worked the first year. Problem was the road was not straight! Left to right or up and down. We eventually did get it to work the first year, but with a lot of Rube Goldberg engineering and sweat. After that the road was straightened. The cart also changed from what had been more or less a concrete mixing tub of sheet metal to one made from half of an oil tank salvaged from a gas station somewhere.

The final solution has lasted many years now and I suspect it is still being used. The cart has brought everything into and out of the cabin, from beer to people who could no longer walk up the hog’s back. The last couple of years I was up there, Leo had purchased 6x6 Polaris ATV with a dump box on the back. That is a slick rig and really works well, using the Jigger Trail and going almost anywhere on the bottoms we need to go. Really made dragging a deer out of the woods MUCH easier too. Also tired hunters to the cabin at the end of a drive.

Guess this is enough of reminiscing for today. Guess there still is a lot of me which wishes to be there again. I must admit, it is a lot easier for this old man to crawl up those hills than to walk up a stairway of the same height. Not sure why, but probably has a lot to do with what is between my ears. Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><

Seeing Orange

November 17, 2006 (12:11pm)

36º F, Calm clouds, W wind 4 mph.

Good afternoon,

I think the hunt is about ready to start. Went uptown a bit ago and the highway is filled with pickups and SUV’s heading north. Some have visible hunter’s orange in them also. Can remember when. Should be at the cabin about this time - if everything went to plan. Probably sweating a lot too - hauling all of the gear down the hog’s back. In this kind of weather it would definitely be a sweatin’ time. Bet it is rather slippery on the oak leaves with all of the moisture we have had in the recent past. Fun going down the hog’s back, but a real thrill going up!

While I was uptown, I stopped at the postoffice and there was a notice in the mail for Margriet to appear in Milwaukee for her biometerics to be taken for the renewal of her green card. Guess we will miss Bible study on December 5th. It will be good to get that out of the way - again. Hope we don’t have a snow storm. Seems most time we have gone there at this time of year one has come making things interesting. Especially the driving part.

Margriet has been getting caught up on our "ledger" for the past couple of days. She had problems accessing the spreadsheet with her computer, but now that the new WordPerfect program is installed, it is working better than ever. The program has a few new tricks to it and she is slowly catching up on them. Seems weird to hear her adding and subtracting in Dutch though. She could use the machine, but prefers to do it "in her head," coming out of her mouth.

We did have one scare with the ledger. She opened the sheets for last year and the were only completed for the first 2½ months of the year! Panic time! We had all of the receipts, but it would mean many hours of effort for her to reconstruct the rest of the year. After doing some looking and fussing, she discovered a second file and it was the complete year. Whew! After making sure everything was correct and complete, she discarded the "old" file from the computer. I also had a copy of the old file (and only the old one) on a different memory stick. I removed it too and will replace it with the new complete one when she is finished getting caught up again.

Time to make another pot of soup. We used the last of the last batch today for lunch. Think I might make some bean soup this time. Found some neck bones in the freezer and we haven’t had any for some time now. Think it will be good and I am getting hungry for some already. Have to wait until tomorrow though. Took some chicken thighs out for supper tonight. Not sure how they will be fixed yet, but bet they disappear!

Don’t understand the high price of gasoline at present. The crude prices are the lowest they have been in a year, but the price is still 20¢/gallon above last year. It is interesting to see the fluctuation of the price while Margriet is doing the books. It sure what a lot higher in price a few months ago! Still too high and anything over $2.00/gallon (our tipping point for the budget) is too high for us. It really restricts our travel and movements. The van doesn’t move most days at all.

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><

Predominant Affliction

November 16, 2006 (5:19pm)
35º F, All day cloudy, NNW wind 9 mph.

Good afternoon,

A predominant affliction settled over FISKLAND! Especially for a Norwegian! It began yesterday morning and lasted, in various forms, today. This has been a couple of grumpy days here.

It all started with my getting up late yesterday morning. I made coffee as usual and poured cup, starting my Bible study for the morning. Getting my second cup of coffee, it just didn’t seem to be as hot as it should be, but drank it anyway while continuing my studies. When it came time to make a fresh pot for my Women when she got up - it didn’t!! In a Norwegian house - that is about as predominant affliction that can befall it! After offering to make a cup of tea (very non-Norwegian) for my Woman, we remembered the small coffee maker in our travel kit, so got it out and working. At least we could have a temporary supply of Norwegian Beer to get us by until the affliction could be relived.

Since we had not really planned to go to Green Bay, I tried to pay a couple of bills before leaving. Not! The affliction took a different form - settling into my WordPerfect word processing program. For what ever reason, it continued to freeze after a few key strokes or when I tried to print something out. Grumpiness reigned! After an hour or so, I finally gave up and we headed west without getting any payments in the mail.

I suspect the problems have something to do with the installation of a new virus scanning program, but really not too sure. Trying to find out what was going on, today I did much digging in this system and did find some tracking cookies I didn’t know were on here. They are now gone. For good I hope. I did run several repair scans/programs today and the problem seems to have dissipated somewhat. I spent most of the day today trying to "fix" the problem. Not what I had on the agenda for today at all. For once the weather was some cooperating, so planned to work outside. I finally did get the bills paid late this afternoon and they will go into the mail probably tomorrow, if I get to town. Depends on the continuation of the affliction somewhat.

We did get to Green Bay yesterday, albeit leaving much later than we would have liked too. There now is a new coffee maker on the counter and it seems to work well. At least the coffee tastes good. On the way we stopped for the mail and also something to eat (yup! We were late!) on the way. Grandma’s Place has excellent sandwiches among other things, so we imbibed. I had an excellent mushroom and Swiss burger with raw onions and Margriet had "Grandma’s Special" sandwich. Since we left late, we also headed home late, so stopped for supper at Applebee’s. We haven’t stopped there for a long time. Their signature dish is riblets, so I had their small portion. It was more than adequate for me. Margriet had a hot oriental salad, which was also good, but she could not finish it. I couldn’t help either, since I was filled.

There were some other things we needed, but not as much as the coffee maker, which we did pick up. We went to the Christian bookstore on the south side of Green Bay, looking for another devotional for us to use in our daily prayer time. We, Margriet, didn’t find anything that suited her/our fancy. Will have to look further. We have time before the new year starts. We also are on the search for things to send across the puddle for the kids at Christmas. They have to go fairly soon too. Our biggest problem is to find things that are small and light when we would really like to send things that are big and heavy. Oh well.

Since there was a funeral Tuesday morning, we didn’t have Bible study and rather showed up to serve for the fellowship time afterwards and to bring food for it. Margriet brought one of her "long" (about 1½ to twice as long as normal "American" loaves) sourdough breads. It went in a hurry and neither of us had a chance to taste it. Guess it tasted OK though. A couple of the gals, who also didn’t get a taste and wanted too, kept telling us how good it smelled and how many complements they heard about it from the folks who came. There was just about the right amount of food, with very little left over. Near the end, I went to town to get more milk and bread, but got back too late for it to be used.

The whole funeral process is an education for Margriet. She has not experienced this in the Netherlands. Especially on the serving and preparing end of the process. It was a good experience for her I think. Apparently there is a lot more fellowship here at funerals than over there. A bit of an eye-opener for her. A pleasant one. I was some surprised at how long the folks stayed and talked. More than normal, but something that is nice to see.

The trap line has been empty now for the past few days. Guess I won’t have enough fur for Margriet’s new Christmas coat. It was looking pretty good for a bit, with all of the possums being trapped. For a while it thought there was a herd of mice around, but that trap line also has been dry. Of course it would have taken a lot of them to even make a jacket for her. Maybe mittens!

My research and study of Revelation is a rather tedious task. There is so much information that I am trying to assimilate into my brain box, but having problems keeping it in. One author I have been using some from, turns out to really have a "thing" against Catholics. I really was surprised. Have to take some of it with a grain of salt. Rather opposite to most conventional thought.

Deer season is upon us. The season in the U.P. of Michigan started on the 25th and here this weekend. Sure is funny weather for deer hunting. Too warm and no snow! Wonder if the guys will be looking for their orange jogging shorts this year. In years past, I would be leaving here about 3:30 A.M. or so tomorrow morning, hoping to make it to the cabin before lunch and the rest of the crew. Only managed to do that once in all the years going up there. Lots of good memories for sure.

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><

Loud Snow

November 13, 2006 (12:44pm)
35º F, Drippy/dreary, SW wind 5 mph.

Good afternoon,

We had are first real snow on Thursday and boy was it noisy! It came with a lot of thunder. The snow started to fall about 2:00 P.M. and so did the thunder. Both lasted until about bedtime. Normally, if we have thunder with snow, it is a couple of claps and that is all. This is the first time I can remember going on that long. Was kind of spooky in a way. When it was all said and done, there was a 2-3" blanket of beauty outside. Not really too sure how much came down since the ground is still not frozen and the air temperature was a little below the freezing point. The first snow melted as it landed. Suppose I could have had an accurate measurement if I had a frozen piece of something for the snow to land on.

The first real snowfall that sticks, always is the pettiest of the season. This one was no exception. With everything just at the freezing point and the snow being very wet, it sticks to everything. I did go for a walk down the driveway (to check for fallen branches and there was one needing to be moved) and the world was absolutely silent. It is so awe-inspiring for me every time it happens. The woods are white and you can see so much more and farther. At least where the branches are not fat with snow. All of the weeds and small plants are now flat to the ground, making it easier to walk in the woods too. The weeds will stay down, but many of the young trees, &c. will stand back up after the snow melts again.

My trapping efforts are really paying off. After trapping 4 possums, I had to get rid of a raccoon on Friday morning before the snows came. The coon was a pretty big female and rather heavy for a coon. The trap line inside is also working. We have been bothered by a mouse in the house for a couple of weeks. I have been depending on poison to do the job, but Saturday if found out it wasn’t. Really kind of funny. Getting out our snow boots from the closet Friday morning (first time we needed them for the season), I threw one of Margriet’s on the floor and a very large supply of mouse poison pellets fell out! Along with some other goodies from various places in the house where they were missed with the broom. Decided to get the traps out and put them to work. I had a thought (amazing) that looking at the poison pellets, they were about the same size as the curl on the trap bait tray. As it turned out, the pellets fit into it rather snugly. Since the little gray critter seemed to like them, I baited the traps with them. Worked perfectly! Next morning I had the little critter in the trap. Since we have not been bothered by any mouse in the house - for now. Margriet sure was getting some good exercise cleaning cabinets and counters more than once every couple of days though.

I mentioned that I wondered what the price of possum pelts were, so looked the prices up. Found there must be a lot of possum around as on average they are only worth about a buck a piece, with a high of about $1.30 for prime. Coon was a different story though and surprised be some. They are worth about $10.00 pelt. Might think about that if there are good numbers of coon around this year. Doesn’t seem to be as many as in years past though.

While looking for fur prices, I ran across a couple of interesting website from Alaska. One ( http://www.alaskareport.com/webcams.htm ) has several webcams from various places in Alaska. The pictures are awesome! Some of them update periodically, others are still pictures. Any way they work, the pictures are really good and very interesting. Wonder what they will show when the days are more or less dark all day long. Will have to wait a bit for that though. The other site ( http://www.alaskareport.com/gallery.htm ) is mostly of still pictures of the state and what is in it. The series on the Aurora Borealis is most interesting to me. They too are awesome. We see the aurora borealis here, but nothing like these pictures. Would like to experience them in person - someday. I am sure I will be checking them out periodically in the future.

Margriet is building some bread at the moment. She is making some sourdough white bread for the funeral tomorrow (and some for us) along with a couple of loaves of rye bread. Have to try out the new flour we got from the Amish last weekend! The conditions seem to be perfect for baking as they are rising through the roof! Should be nice light bread. Hope so! I know it will be good and there goes my girlish figure again. Suspect it will start smelling really good in here in a while.

We will not be having breakfast with the Bible study group tomorrow as planned. The gals decided it would be better if we set up for serving the food for the funeral and postpone the breakfast to the following week. Doesn’t make much difference - either way the food will be good and plentiful tomorrow. I probably will have a chance to get my hands washed for the month too.
I did get the new virus scanner installed on Saturday as long as it was messy outside and there was a pretty good NASCAR race on TV. The process took longer than I thought it would. Not entirely happy with the results as it doesn’t go into or accept portions of the old program as it was supposed to. Or at least I thought it was. Now I have two to use instead of one. The old program still wants to do some of the things it did in the past, but the new one disabled them. Have to look into that when my head is straight again.

Chatted with Brenda this morning. The sawdust in her head is quivering less than it was, but she is taking advantage of the TLC being offered. She’s no dummy! Arnoud should think about installing rubber doors on the cabinets for future episodes.

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><

Something is wrong!

November 8, 2006 (12:16pm)
43º F, Cloudy/damp, S wind 9 mph.

Good afternoon,

I think our TV has busted! Can’t find a political ad on it from any channel. Not even any sludge slinging anywhere. Must be something wrong. I sure am glad the elections are over. I am not really all that pleased with the outcome in many of them, but I voted and now is the time to let the majority rule. Hope they don’t screw it up too bad.

This must be the year of the possum. There was another one in a trap yesterday morning. Never seen so many here before. Wonder what the reason for the increase. Not seen as many raccoons either. Wonder if the two are related in some way. Should look to see what the value of the hides are. Maybe it would be some profitable to skin them and put them on the market.

Bible study was some interesting yesterday. One of the gals is dog sitting, so brought the dog along. It is in heat and she has a male at home, so didn’t want to leave them home together. The dog was a very small one and very well behaved. Also gave us something different to talk about too. The study, while still very surface, has and is very enlightening for some. Revelation is a tough book, when little has been said or studied in the past. Sure would like to go deeper into it though.

Margriet has been having problems with accessing WordPerfect on her computer. Yesterday she had enough! We picked up a new upgrade for it. This is a different’ program than I now am using, but it is able to work with it. It does have some different features, but mostly features we will not use. She waited until after supper last night to install it - much to my surprise. Figured she would try to start the installation on the way home! She is very pleased with the result so far. It had been my intention to upgrade this program, but has been a bit expensive for the moment. It has come down some, but not enough yet. I’ll keep watching though.

The main purpose for going to Green Bay yesterday was to pick up the next addition of the virus scanning program we use. After checking the web, I found out all the prices were the same, so checked for availability. All the stores I frequent had the in stock. Intended to pick it up at OfficeMax as we also get a discount there. They had not yet received their shipment in yet. So, as a last resort, went to Wal*Mart - they didn’t have it either. Ended up driving back to the other side of Green Bay again to the Office Depot. Turned out they had the program and also a much larger discount in the form of a rebate. Guess it worked out OK after all. The present one runs out on Sunday, so will install it then. Hopefully while watching a NASCAR race. :-)

The church we went to on Sunday was really cool. The building is about 125 years old and just spruced up inside and out. Really looked nice. The service was from our Green Hymnal, but liturgy I have not used for years, so had forgotten much of it. They use three different hymnals, which surprised me. One is very new and we don’t use it here yet. The service fit the building - very old and very proper. Not the "modern" service we are accustom to. It was nice though. One of the hymns was really new to me, from the new hymnal. Neither of us could find the melody line and gave up singing, figured it was just us. Then as we looked around, no one else was singing either. It turned out the organist was playing a different hymn than the bulletin told us to sing! The pastor (I think a Diaconal Pastor, but not sure) asked the organist after we were done what happened. Between the two of them they figured it out. Of course the organist was in the balcony and he was at the alter.

The people at the church were very friendly. When we walked in, the greeters were surprised to have a visitor I think. They didn’t really know what to do. Once they got over the initial shock, they were very nice. A couple of folks made sure we knew how their communion service operated. After the service and during coffee, we had some nice chats with a couple of the ladies fo the church. It was a nice experience, but a bit too formal for us. Boy have we changed! In yesterday’s mail was a thank you note for our worshiping with them. They are right on the stick.
Got an instant message from Brenda that she had smacked her head on a door. Apparently it was cabinet door she open and she hit herself. It is more serious than she thought. Arnoud stayed home from work to help with Kalle and his mother also came over. When I asked her how she was doing yesterday, she said, "her sawdust was quivering!" It means she had a pretty bad headache, but I had never heard it expressed that way before so had a chuckle at her expense.

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><

Gone and back again

November 6, 2006 (12:12pm)
42º F, Cloudy, S wind 4 mph.

Good afternoon,

Now we are getting a couple of days of the warm and dry (reasonably) weather we should have had a few weeks ago. Go figure. The weatherman is talking of mid-60's for tomorrow. Hope to get some things done tomorrow, but it is Bible study and voting day too! Those two things will cut into my work time some a lot.

I/we sure will be glad to have the elections finally tomorrow. At least then the attack ads and their sludge slinging will be over for a while. Then we can look forward to about 6 months of intensive regurgitation of all the details of why someone lost the election and someone else didn’t, followed by another 6 months of less intense regurgitation of the same things again and the "I told you so’s" that follow. At that point, it starts all over again for the Presidential election. It might even start earlier - who knows. It really would be nice to have just an election on the issues and not on how high someone can pile the sludge about their opponent.

We decided that we "had" to make a trip to the Amish store near Shawano. Well at least it was a good (?) excuse to go for a ride for a couple of days. After stopping for our usual sweet roll and milk to chew on while we rode and filling the tank we gasoline, we headed northwest. We were not sure what time the store opened, but we really did need to worry, as they opened bout the time we left here. High on the shopping list was rye flour. Margriet was able to pick up a sizeable amount for about half the price of a 4# bag in the stores, when they have it.

I also have been chewing on a bit of granola in the morning when I get up early, like 4:30 A.M. and Margriet normally doesn’t get up until much later, so breakfast is often about 10:00 A.M. Too late for me not to be very hungry. Rather than buying it, we decided to make it, something I haven’t done for many years. The ingredients are also carried by the Amish store at a lot lower price. I think we got everything, except some slices almonds. Should be able to build a pretty good pile of it.

Margriet managed to find other things to buy too. They have an excellent supply of spices. Being in bulk, rather inexpensive too. One thing she did pick up, that I remember, was dried hominy. Almost first thing this morning, she put some on to soak, so expect we will be having it tomorrow with something. We are having chicken and dumplings for supper tonight, so it will have to be tomorrow. At the moment she is building Russian tea since she was able to get the instant orange drink there in very large quantities. Sure smells good as she mixes it too.

I did my share of wandering around too, looking for something interesting to pick up. I have made it a habit to pick up a bag of candy or some such to take to Bible study. They have a large variety of "old-fashioned" candies - the kind we had as kids. Everyone seems to enjoy the "flash back" and the younger folks get an education. Most often they agree we had pretty good things to eat way back when.

After leaving the Amish store, we wandered north through the Menominee Indian Reservation. We have driven that route before as it is beautiful and a really nice winding road. Reminds me of highway #21 near Wautoma that I used to drive from college to Milwaukee in the early ‘60's. That on wound between the lakes, this one follows a couple of rivers. Lots of twists and turns, ups and downs. Fun to drive. The water in the rivers was moving at a pretty good clip, thanx to the rain in recent times, and really looked cold and foreboding. Not the normal blue, but very dark gray thanx to the overcast sky. Of course the rapids had very silver water as it broke over the rocks. Really neat. The entire length of the reservation is more or less a no passing zone. They have put in many "slow traffic" turnouts, but we really haven’t seen that much traffic, either slower than we drive or faster. The nature of the roadway pretty much dictates the speed of travel.

Now that almost all of the leaves are off of the trees, the character of the terrain really stands out. Not only can you see farther, but in more detail. I expect the look of the landscape will change drastically with some snow on the ground. They you can see much farther, but the details are covered and not visible. It is really nice to live in an area where the seasons really change and so does our perception and actual picture change during the year.

We stopped at a small café, "Double Buck Café" in Cavour. One of those small town, Mom and Pop places that are over looked by the tourists. The place was spotless and the food excellent. Margriet had a bowl of soup and I had the biggest, fattest hotdog in my life. It was really good. Almost 1½" in diameter and close to 8" long. Had a special bun to put it in too. Really good with some raw onions on it.

Wandered further north into the UP a bit. Since the price of gasoline is 10¢/gallon cheaper than here, thought it would be a good reason to go there. We found a good Mom and Pop motel and checked in. The Mom of the motel was just coming back from the store with groceries, so I helped her carry the last of it in for her. Guess it doesn’t happen often, and we got an additional 10% off of the room rate. Was not the intention, but liked the result. We went looking for a church to go to the following morning and found a 125 year old small country church. Would be there the following morning, but had to find something to chew on before turning in for the night. Stopped at an Italian place, ordering walleyed pike with pasta. First time I have eaten walleyed pike with spaghetti! The fillet of fish was huge and all of the food was excellent. More than Margriet could eat and more than I should have.

After and while I was doing my morning devotions, I could look out of the window at the lake in front of the motel, watching the sunrise. It was rather pretty, but soon disappeared into the overcast. The lake had a sheet of ice over most of it, but the part that had open water was filled with ducks and geese, looking for breakfast. There were a few seagulls on the ice sheet too. Not too sure what they were finding to eat, but it much have been something. There was not a wisp of wind, making it hard to distinguish what was ice and what was water. Apparently the birds had little trouble.

We arrived back home a bit after 3:00 P.M. with a bunch of "pictures of the mind" and some good times to remember. We really didn’t spend much money and managed to have a good break from our "normal" activities.

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><

Dishpan face

November 3, 2006 (12:32pm)
51º F, Bright sun, NW wind 2 mph.

Good afternoon,

A little bit ago we got a couple of pictures of our youngest Grandson, Kalle. Apparently one of his chores around the house is doing the dishes for his Mom, Brenda, especially after making brownies. Too bad she didn’t want to use the dishwasher and made him do them. Well what ever the reason, we are more than joyed to have the pictures and thought you too would enjoy them. Enjoy!

Dining on grits for lunch today. Yum! At least I am eating them. Margriet doesn’t appreciate them. Haven’t had grits for a long time. Ran out of beef soup, so we are "making do" today. Margriet had some leftovers, not enough for two, and so I was forced to eat grits. Love it.
Finally got all of the chicken cuttings cooked down for soup started and into the freezer. There is a bunch! Had about a gallon of chicken backs to pick the meat from. It made four containers in the freezer for the future and one batch in the pot to make the next batch of soup from. Now I need to figure out what and how.

Trapped another possum yesterday, so now we will have the fixings for possum pie too. This will make three that I have trapped this fall so far. Maybe I should keep the pelts. Wonder what they are worth on the market these days. Really I am just glad to get rid of the critters. They are good scavengers, but usually scavenge in mostly wrong places. We also have one of those little gray critters in the house. It is leaving it’s calling cards all over the kitchen and inside the cabinets. Must be that time of year again. Do have to do some major cabinet cleaning and try to put the little critter out of our misery! Sooner than latter.

I put new seals on the big furnace’s plenums yesterday. They have been showing some age through use, so figured this was a good time to do it while it is still not used for the season. After they were redone, I did try to light the furnace, but without any success. Cannot find my match holder on too-er reach stretcher. Tried to use something else, which would have worked, but there was too much of a downdraft which kept blowing out the match. I have two or three match holders around here, but have no idea where they walked to. Normally I use barbeque lighter, but both of them are empty and need to be refilled. One, the newest, will not refill for what ever reason. That makes me a bit grumpy. Will try again today, now that the wind seems to be down some.

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><

Blowed away - almost.

November 1, 2006 (12:30pm)
31º F, Cold brightness, W wind 14 mph, 30 mph gusts.

Good afternoon,

The wind, she’s back. So be the cold. The wind chill is about 16º F and really feels like it. It really was at 36º F when I got up this morning at 5:00 P.M.! The wind was up and it really felt like it inside too. Guess the cold will stick around for a few days too.

We made the supply run yesterday. The wind was really ripping from the west. The heater control was set much higher on the way over, heading into the wind, than on the return with a following wind. It really gave a shot to the van as it came out from the protection of trees along the highway too. Had to pay attention to what was going on - more than usual.

One of the things we picked up yesterday was a new "work" vest for me. The one being replaced I think I bought the first year I went deer hunting, which would have been 1967. I think I might have gotten my money’s worth from it. I bought a new one in 1983, but it was down filled and really didn’t lend itself to working. I went back to using the old one for work, after a new zipper, and used the then new one as my "dress" vest. I did use it for hunting. It is some hard to find this kind of vest now as there are so many "new" insulating materials on the market. They keep you warm, but most of the time too warm for work. These have only about ¼" of fiberfill insulation in them - works good. My favorite memory from the original vest is Dori taking off a patch I had on it and sewing it to the then new one. Still can see her sitting on the couch doing that. She was so proud that she was grown up enough to take care of Dad. I was too. The patch is still on the vest she sewed it to and probably will stay there until I start to chew daisy roots.

The major purchase of the trip was the chair I am now sitting in. We went to a different store, Office Depot, to see what they had and now they have one less. This one was on sale for about 25% off. It is much better constructed than the previous one and much more comfortable too. This is built with a lot less plastic structural members and more metal. This chair also makes me sit back more, so have some getting used to it. Of course the padding in the other was also compressed, especially at the front of the seat for some reason. Made me feel a bit downhill. The armrests on it were pretty badly broken and the back also had some problems. Anywho, I am hoping this one will last as long as my old vest did.

The gas price has also risen again. This week the price was 10¢/gallon higher than we paid last week. Since we bought some last week, we didn’t need to this time. The price went up about a nickle in the past couple of days. Makes no sense to me as the price of crude oil is down again. Or maybe we just missed the down swing. Since we stay pretty close to home most of the time, we really don’t use much gasoline anymore. Maybe the high price of gasoline is a good thing! In a backward way.

We have found some fairly good prices on chicken this week, both here and in Green Bay. I picked up some really nice bone-in breasts for 99¢/# so picked some up on Sunday. Boned them out and today I am cooking them down for soup starter in the future. Yesterday we also found a good deal on hind quarters, so picked up a mess of them at 50¢/# and I disjointed them today and the backs will be added to the soup pot shortly. I will have a pretty good batch of soup starter in the freezer. Yum! The beef soup I made a bit ago, ran out today with lunch, so not all of the starter will make it to the freezer. Plan to have oven baked chicken and rice with raisins for supper tonight. Margriet made kind of a vegetable stir-fry with Spam over noodles for supper last night. Quick and easy. Was rather tolerable to eat too!

Bible study went rather well yesterday too. We finished up the second half of the lesson in fine shape. I mentioned that we had not been to breakfast for along time - usually in the past, I would make sure we went every 4-6 weeks. It has been 9 weeks since starting this study! Of course the blame was aimed at me for bringing it up. We will not be going next week, but the week following - then it will be a potluck. One of the charter members of the church who has lived in Green Bay, died late last week. Her funeral will be on the 14th at 11:00 A.M., so we decided that we would have a potluck breakfast then set up and serve for the funeral. I will let the ladies worry about what to serve and I and the other couple of guys will probably wash the dishes. It was her wish to have her funeral at Grace, but it will take a couple of weeks to gather the family. One at least is a pretty high rank in the Air Force and the only way for her to come was to delay it. One of the local radio stations reported the funeral was yesterday, so there were people, flowers, and like that showing up at church yesterday morning. Not a good thing. The gal moved from here before we came to be with her husband who was in a nursing home there. Before he died, she also became a resident there too and was until her death.

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><