Re-shod

January 31, 2007 (12:30pm)
11º F, Sunshine, W wind 4 mph.

Good afternoon,

Looks like winter could get here yet, at least for a week. The temperature is supposed to start dropping tomorrow night and keep going down until Monday. Then it will level off a single digits for the rest of next week lows are to be well into the minus side of zero by a good measure. Not sure what will happen after that. Suspect it will stay closer to "normal" winter temperature for a while. Before the drop, we are to get more snow, 1½-2" and possibly more from the lake effect. Time will tell. We got another inch or so yesterday morning. Again very light and easy to sweep off of the deck and ramp.

We did stagger to Green Bay yesterday to pick up our necessaries and found a couple more things to pick up too. The back roads (from church to Casco) were some covered with snow. The wind didn’t help any, as it was very stiff from the north, more or less. Actually it was rather nice driving on the snowy roads for a change. Really changes the look of the world. On the return trip, the back roads were more or less clear, the sun and the county trucks taking their toll of the snow.

A couple of things we picked up were new "woods" boots for both of us. Mine had lost their grip-sion over the years so it was time. Many of the stores are running closeouts and discounts - big discounts. Sure glad I am not in the retail business at the moment. Fleet Farm looked like a discount house - reductions and percentages off on seemingly everything in the store. Some expected, but not this early in the season, and many very much unexpected. The boots were no exception. I ended up with a pair of "Rocky" boots insulated to -50º F, -45.6º C! Hope not to need more than that in this lifetime. Margriet never got a pair of "woods" boots (as I call them), so she was due. Now she has big feet for tramping in the woods.

I was hoping to get a pair of Sorel boots as I usually do and like very much. But these were about the price, if any Sorel’s were left, and about price of these originally. Normal cost was about $100.00/pair for either and I got this pair for about $35.00! Actually Margriet’s and my boots cost close to the same with similar discounts. Hope they last the duration. These have thinsalite insulation rather than the wool felt pacs of the Sorel boots. I like the wool, as they retain their insulating qualities, even when wet. We will see if the thinsalite will do the same. Now to get rid of the old ones. They do have a lot of stories to tell though. Lots of good times.

A bit ago I discovered that we need new candle lighters. The old ones for some reason could not be refilled with butane. The refillable kind are hard to come by now for some reason. I have been looking for a couple of months now, and in the meantime, the old ones still worked, more or less. I did find one a couple of weeks ago, made by BernzOmatic that was a bit more in price than I had planned to pay and much larger than those of the past. It did come with a small container to refill it twice more. Turns out, it is pretty much a miniature of their torches and acts like one too. It really puts out the heat! Think I can fry an egg with it! Anywho, it works very well and is great for lighting the furnace, when necessary, as well as the trash pile. Think it was a good buy after all.

The mail brought a notice for Margriet to show up in Milwaukee one more time for her finger prints. Apparently something didn’t work right last time down, so that part of her biometrics need to be redone. Everything was OK according to the screener when she left. Maybe someone pushed delete instead of save as they are taken electronically now. A little grumpy for the need to return there one more time. At least this time they are not charging for it, but it still costs a few dollars for gasoline to drive down at least. This time we have to be there at 10:00 A.M., instead of 8:00 A.M., which is more to our liking. I see the President is recommending the fees for immigration be raised. Appears that most will be doubled from what I can determine. We understand that costs are increasing, but it may have a deleterious effect on those who can afford it least.

I let the gas tank on the van pretty much to empty, thinking the price would be cheaper in Green Bay - wrong! The price went up by another nickle per gallon. With the discount at the grocery store, the price was the same as it was the day before in Kewaunee. If I had known that, I would rather buy it from the local guy than there. Oh well, couldn’t not buy any with out Margriet pushing the van home. Think she might have been grumpy at that prospect. Also decided to get the van washed so it would have more room for ice melt used on the roads.

Bible study wasn’t to bad yesterday. We are surprised at the amount folks who continue to believe they can do/tell God what and how to work in the world. Almost like a check list mentality to religion. There is a lot being read into the text we are studying, Acts, that isn’t there. We are doing only a surface study and not getting very deep into it. Guess it is easier to make assumptions of some things without all of the "facts" as they should. Anywho, I hope some get something from it. The workbook is designed more for the "feel good" kind of Christianity.

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><

Nice White

January 29, 2007 (12:32pm)
11º F, Light snow, WSW wind 7 mph.

Good afternoon,

Just finished an oversized portion of bean soup. It is one of the best I think I have made in recent history. This time a put half a link of smoked sausage in it and it sure worked and tasted good! I made it a few days ago, but today for some reason it just tasted really good. Had to have two bowls of it rather than my normal one. Only one meal left then I will have to build more again.

It has been snowing very lightly for most of the morning. Really small flakes, but persistent. Guess there is about ½" so far today. Yesterday we got about 1½-2" of snow during the morning. It is hard to measure, since it is so light and fluffy. Both today and yesterday’s snow is very pretty. The Good Lord is cleaning up the countryside again. The snowmobilers are not happy yet though. The trails in this area remain closed. Out in the open, the wind pretty much clears the ground. There are a lot of furrows showing through. Makes for a bumpy ride, let alone tearing up machines and the countryside.

Ice fishermen are happier, since the cooler weather of the past few days has really added to the thickness of the ice on the lakes. There ever are a few shanties out on the lakes now, rather than just canvas shelters. One of the guys at church has really been chaffing at the bit to get out. He is in a bit of a happier mood now and has caught a few fish to show for his efforts too.

A TV station in Milwaukee had their remote truck go through the ice, driving to make a report on the dangerous ice conditions for snowmobilers a bit west of Milwaukee. From the reports here, the gal driving thought she was turning onto a road and went about 150 yards before the van started to break through the ice. It was a channel, fortunately not too deep, up to the windows of the van. It will be staying there for a few days, until the ice can get thicker to support the retrieval equipment. I bet that is a very expensive deal as those trucks are filled with very expensive electronics. Wonder if she will be working somewhere else or just taking a driver’s education course somewhere. Wonder how she explained the incident to her boss? Especially when I see it hit the national TV news this morning. Hmmmmmmmm.

For once I feel really ready for Bible study tomorrow. Not only do I have all of the research finished, but also the workbook questions. A very, very long research paper this week. Something like 42,000 words or many, many pages of double, spaced typewritten pages. If is did it that way. Acts is an interesting book and one that is much different than what I was taught as a youngster. I find it is still hard to break some of those ideas from then. I am getting more from the research than the actual material in the workbook.

Margriet must be getting ready for another ride to the Amish store one of these days. She took inventory of our "dry goods" over the weekend and has a long list of "to-get" on it. I think she is hinting that it is time for us to take a ride somewhere in the near future. I think I can agree to that. Now that there really is some snow on the ground, might as well enjoy the beauty of it! Have a good time along the way too.

This is a pretty dry season without any automobile races on TV. There was a teaser of a program on the 24 Le Mas style race at Daytona Saturday. They showed only about an hour of the actual race, the offered to show us the rest on cable. Kind of like a 1½ hour infomercial. I watched it, then tried to follow it on the web, but with poor results. They really wanted me to go to cable. Even the results after the race today were very poor, at least by NASCAR standards. Oh well, NASCAR starts again in February I think. That isn’t too far off.

Did manage to get some of the bills paid. Most importantly is our property tax bill. Got that in earlier last week. One of the guys from church and I were talking before service about our mutual problems paying taxes in the past. He is an over the road truck driver, so is self-employed. His needs are different than mine were when I had the store, but we each have stories. Talking about it triggered for him the need to pay his property tax. He had set the bill aside and forgotten about it. They are due on Wednesday! He knew what he was going to do after lunch yesterday!

Tonight we are having pasties with Margriet’s famous mushroom gravy for supper. Sure am glad that she made a big pile of them to put into the freezer! I made a large pot of chicken and dumplings for supper on Friday night with enough leftovers for Saturday night too. Last night we had the leftover gravy over some homemade biscuits hot out of the oven. We sure had some good meals from that pot of food! I think we are about out of chicken, so will probably have to pick up more on the next supply run again.

The price of gas had gone up to $2.099/gallon again. Went up 4¢ late last week, then another 5¢ a day later. If it would go down another $1.00/gallon I would be happier. The below $2.00/gallon sure didn’t last long. Should have gone on a trip or something. Don’t think it will drop that much again in the near future. Cold weather has set in finally.

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><

Good ride

January 24, 2007 (1:45pm)
20º F, Cloudy, NNW wind 7 mph.

Good afternoon,

When I got up this morning, it was cold! 10º F with the wind from the NNE @ 3 mph. As soon as the wind switched to the NNW @ 3 mph, the temperature dropped to 3º F almost instantly. Since the temperature has had a very hard time rising very much. The wind has increased, and for a while, the wind chill was -6º F for a time too. Glad it was still dark out so I couldn’t do much if I had gone outside. Looks to be cold for the rest of the week, at least for lows. Noticed the U. P. had -18º F according to the weatherman.

We had a good trip to Milwaukee and return on Monday. The weather wasn’t the best, having snowed about an inch here over night. There was more in Manitowoc and Sheboygan Counties, then here or south. The travel was some slower than normal until we got out of Sheboygan County, the speed and traffic picked up. We got about 10 miles from Milwaukee and the superhighway became a creeping parking lot. I really didn’t want to participate in that, so I turned off as soon as I figured out how I might be able to get to Immigration a different way. We ended up going the "slow" route along the lakeshore. I think it turned out to be the faster way. It sure was a nice ride, especially with all of the construction on the interstate. The traffic was very light and it was a nice drive. Since it was slower, we also made mistakes slower and arrived on time.

The three hour ride, resulted in a 45 minute interview for Margriet. This one was very calm and smooth. The last couple of times we were down there we got a different gal who was very grumpy and short (not tall either). This went the way it should have - every time. I did forget to bring my identification in with me, so had to go out to get it. Of course the guys doing the check-in had to give me the raspberries for being forgetful - Senior moment and all. The crew that was working was very nice and efficient too. They got a lot of folks in and out in a reasonably short time. Now we wait until we get the next form and then on to Citizenship! Hooray!

Since every thing went well, we got an earlier than usual start on the return home. Again we took the "slow" route along the lakeshore. This time Margriet had a chance to see all of the huge, expensive houses she didn’t want to live in. Me too! It was a pleasant ride. The roads were clear of snow this time and we made better speed and time. We got to Manitowoc early enough to stop at Lowe’s and look over the new store. The last time we were there, this summer, it had just opened and wasn’t finished being set up. We weren’t impressed this summer. This time it was set up and was some better. Still, they have a lot of stuff in it unrelated to building. Lots of stuff for the lady of the house to drool over, and less to actually build with. Not all that impressed by their tool selection, but it appears to be better quality than Menard’s for most.

We got to Two Rivers in time to stop for something to eat. We dined on a hot pork roast sandwich with mashed potatoes and gravy. Super good as the last time we had that there. Too much for Margriet to eat, so I HAD to help her out and finish it for her. When we hit Kewaunee, we stopped for the mail and got some gasoline, then home. The gas price is back to $1.969/gallon in Kewaunee - the lowest we saw on the ride.

Yesterday, after Bible study, we made a supply run to Green Bay. Not much to get, but a couple of important things we needed. Stopped for a sandwich in Luxemburg, but place we normally stop at was very busy. We were a bit later than usual. Ended up eating at the Pancake Place in Green Bay for a mushroom and Swiss burger with fries. It was their special, but really too big for either of us. I couldn’t even finish up Margriet’s fries. Had a hard enough time with my own!

We did pick up a new phone to use as our back-up phone. Kept looking for one not needing a base, but ended up with one anyway. Apparently they don’t make them any other way. All the base on this one is used for is to close the shut off switch. I found that putting a rubber-band around it, we can through the base away. We only use it to call in when the power goes off, and I don’t want to mess with carrying a base outside too. What really amazed us is the cost was a bit over $5.00! Probably the least I have ever paid for a phone.

We picked up some miniature "Mexican Pasties" at one of the stores for supper. They look like pasties, but about 10% of the size and filled with chicken and "Mexican" spices. Mostly hot peppers. Not Mexican, but Tex-Mex and not to our liking. Don’t think we will be buying them again, but did finish them off.

Margriet is in a baking mode today. She made some bread sticks that are very good. Now I have something else to clean up around here. Boy, I never can get a head of the work here! Sure makes the house smell good!
Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><

P.S.

Guess this will go out later than planned. The Blog Spot website is down for "unscheduled maintenance" at the moment.

Hooray! More white outside!

January 21, 2007 (5:16pm)
26º F, Cloudy w/light snow, E wind 3 mph.

Good late afternoon,

Finally have some snow to shovel - at least a little bit. We have received about 3" since 10:30 A.M. this morning. The weatherman has had a snow advisory up since this morning, supposedly to last until midnight tonight. I think most of it is over, maybe another inch. if that much. The wind is light, so there isn’t much blowing around here. The lake is adding to the total, since the wind is from the east. It really is a pretty snowfall too. Not big flakes, but a steady fall.

The ride to church was much different than the return. Roads were clear on the way there, but snow covered and slippery on the way back. 45 mph all the way! No plows were out, but there was evidence of salt truck earlier. Not much traffic and what was there behaved themselves, actually driving as conditions dictated. Margriet doesn’t really like to drive in the snow, so she kind of white knuckles it often.

Church was very long today. The pastor seems to like to see how long folks can stay awake. Not a special service, but it still ran over by 20 or 30 minutes. We left before it was finished. My voice died after the second hymn and we both checked out mentally after about 20+ minutes of the sermon. There also were less than 50 folks in attendance. Did have a good time chatting with several guys before the service though. Margriet was a greeter this morning, so I was on my own. Also had a chance to tease Marsha some too.

I did get out and shovel some of the driveway off of the deck. Left the last snow pretty much stay there as a covering for the rest of the "winter." If I don’t, every time the sun is out, the top layer turns to mud. I do like to shovel snow, which many folks think is weird, but it is rejuvenating for me somehow. Kind of like cutting/splitting wood. At least I can see progress when I do either activity. I didn’t shovel the entire drive, just around the van’s landing pad and the deck.

Tomorrow we head to Milwaukee for Margriet to have the immigration folks to "capture" her biometrics. I haven’t seen that stated that way before, but it might have been. We are supposed to be there at 8:00 A.M., but they seem to batch folks and really don’t have a set time sequence or schedule. Hopefully we will get there a bit after 8:00 A.M. We got there a bit early one time before and had to stand outside until they opened the doors to the building. Also hope the road crews cooperate and have the roads more or less cleared. The snow was supposed to be heavier to the south of us.

The price of gasoline was $1.969/gallon on Friday when we were in town, so filled up. That is the lowest it has been for nearly 2 years! It went up 3¢/gallon since though. Hope it goes down further, but the gas we put in cost "only" $30.00, rather than the $50.00 it cost just a short time ago for a similar amount. We also got our electric bill and it had and interesting "fact" on it (other than being higher again) - the average temperature last month was 66º F! Don’t think that was the case. Closer to 26º F instead! Oh well, must have been a computer somewhere messed up.

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><

Under pressure

January 19, 2007 (1:00pm)
17º F, Cloudy, W wind 11 mph.

Good afternoon,

So .... We went to the Home Builder’s show yesterday afternoon. Missed the Camping Show as the both started mid-afternoon on opposite sides of town. The Builder’s show was pretty much a disappointment. We are the kind of folks who like to pick up a hammer and build, but this show was for those that don’t. There was a lot of stuff there, but not for the DIY crowd, other than possibly get ideas of something or other. That is pretty much what we did, but not many ideas either. Everything shown was so expensive. The only thing reasonable was the price of admission, $5.00/weekend and the price of parking on the adjacent parking ramp, $0.00! That really surprised us, but we took it just the same.

We ate lunch before leaving so that was not any problem. On the way home, we stopped at Birchwood for cheap chicken. It as always was good. Seems strange, but almost every time we stop, the biggest portion goes to Margriet. We end up trading pieces and I help finish up the leftovers anyway. Today, instead of our usual soup for lunch it was bacon and eggs. I didn’t finish the new pot of soup yesterday, so today we have to "make do." There is a pot of chicken/potato soup a-cooking, but it will not be ready until tomorrow. I put too much water into the pot, so have to be rather careful of it. Plan to cook it down for some time to make a thicker soup. Probably will make it a kind of cream soup for a change.

The price of gasoline is really coming down. Still $2.099/gallon here and in Green Bay (at least yesterday), but it is below $2.00/gallon in Manitowoc and The Valley. Checking on the web and I find that it is $1.599/gallon on one side of Iron River, Michigan and $2.149/gallon on the other side of town! Don’t know what that is all about, but we found that to be true in Michigan in general. The prices were vastly different from one station to the next. Doesn’t make sense to me, but maybe some stations wanted a rest for a few days.

Yesterday morning we got ½-1" of light snow. This morning is the same, a bit more white. It is nice to see that much snow fall everyday or so. Keeps the countryside looking clean. The snowmobile trails are not open yet, not even groomed. We have enough moisture for the rest of the season, but I do hope it stays more in this temperature range and would like to get more snow. The weatherman says we are due for 2-3" Sunday night/Monday morning. Just right for our ride to Milwaukee! Both Lakes Michigan and Superior are at their lowest levels in 80 years. Not too surprised. Does seem strange to see folks using ladders to get into their boats in the harbor though.

While out burning the trash yesterday, I noticed the live trap is still set, but a mouse has been nibbling on the bait. Had to chuckle as the mouse went in the open end, walking the length of the trap to get at the bait, then back out the same way it came in. The size of the mesh of the trap is large enough for it to go through. Guess it liked the exercise walking! Or was just doing things proper. Either way, it was too light to trip the trap.

I tried to find some seals and pressure relief valves for a couple of the pressure cookers we have around here on the web. Found the manufacturer, but could not find the desired parts. They are not listed that far back it seems. The cookers are old, they came from my Mom and I can’t remember a time when she didn’t use them. We do like to use them, but wear and tear happens. Use them mostly for making soup now without being under pressure. Want to use them for more than that however.

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><

Back on

January 17, 2007 (2:27pm)
18º F, Sun & Wind, S wind 9 mph, 29 mph gusts.

Good afternoon,

For the past couple of months, we have been having a rang-itty-tang with the computer staying on line. Yesterday morning it came to a real tang! I could not get online for more than a few seconds at a time. I did manage to get an email through to ITOL, but didn’t get an answer until returning home. As long as we were heading to Green Bay after Bible study, I figured we could also just stop into their office. We did and the tech said it would be best to call them while sitting in front of the commuter. When we got home and unloaded, I was able to download the return email, indicating they had done some checking of our usage and the dropping, finding that 85% of the drops occurred some place between FISKLAND and ITOL - the phone lines - and I should call the phone company. I did and got a terrible connection. The gal on the phone had no problem deciding there was a real problem and promised to have someone here between 8:00 A.M. and noon today. The repair man showed up about 9:00 A.M., after checking the rest of the system to the main trunk. I knew he was as the phone rang and had a really strange sound on it when picked up. He then made some checks from this end of the line, confirming the system was working again. So far so good. It seems this same problem arises every 8-12 months, with the problem at the same place every time. Sure would be nice of them to put in DSL lines and hopefully we would have better usage. The serviceman didn’t think we would see it in our lifetimes.

We did get all of the paperwork for the house in the Netherlands signed and notarized, then into the postoffice to get it sent with a return receipt coming back again. The post master didn’t know how to handle the return receipt part. I figured that would be the case, so downloaded the instructions from the website to take along. Of course we forgot them! As it turned out, they will get there and we will get a receipt, but a different way and about twice the cost. Oh well. So .... now we wait until we see/hear something more.

Bible study was pretty good, even though we turned left several times. A couple of times I was the turner, without intending too. Seems sometimes things are taken out of contents that are said, or offered a dual meaning. Anywho, we have officially started a new unit. We didn’t have Bible study last week, which I found unusual. Turns out the quilt ladies, who normally meet after the study, decided to have a round-robin holiday party for most of the late morning and early afternoon. A problem developed though, as most of the folks who did go, got some kind of bug, allowing them to do the Bad River Two-step very often. A couple of the gals still had not fully recovered as of yesterday. Sure glad we didn’t go to it. Not the kind of holiday party we look forward too.

Today is really a beautiful day. The sun is bright, causing the snow to sparkle more then normal. Do wish the wind would die down some so I could burn the trash though (can’t have everything). There are a few more critter tracks in the snow and we saw a pretty good sized flock of wild turkeys too. Monday, on the way to the bank, one flew right over the van as we passed, just a couple of feet above it. Sure glad it was van broke! No calling cards. The weatherman at noon said this is the hump day for winter. From now on, the average daily temperatures begin to rise a little each day. It really doesn’t seem like winter this year - at all.

The price of crude oil has dropped to it’s lowest in 20 months. That is good news. Our gas stations also show it has dropped to $2.099/gallon yesterday. May have dropped more today, but have not been uptown. There is one station in Luxemburg which has gas at $1.999/gallon, but we didn’t find it yesterday when we went through.

We are considering going to the Camping Show and the Home Builder’s shows in Green Bay one of these next couple of days. We hope we can go to one, then the other in one trip, saving a bit of gasoline cost. The problem is the Builder’s show is not well advertised, so don’t know the hours it is open. Might miss one or the other, but we are hoping not.

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><

Dark in the white

January 15, 2007 (12:09pm)
18º F, Light snow, NNE wind, 13 mph

Good afternoon,

So I start this on the laptop. Our power went off maybe 30 minutes ago. I called in the problem to the power company on our "back-up" phone a bit a go (have to get a new one, since it a 1984 rotary and the power company didn’t recognize the number shortcuts and I had to wait for the operator to come on line. Think I have gotten my money’s worth from it.). The gal said there had been an accident in the area, "involving one of their poles," and would add our name to the list.

We pretty much have everything covered, but Margriet decided to do some baking. Of course after she had it started! So .... it and she waits. The cook top burners are no problem as they can be match lit. Soup is on and starting to smell pretty good. The oven is relit with a "glow-plug" requiring electricity - not match lit. I probably can light it, but it will go out when it reaches temperature and needs to relight with the glow plug-again. When we bought the range, I never thought the burners and oven used two different igniting systems. I knew the top was spark-ignition, therefore match lighting. The glow plug uses about 800 w of electricity all the time the oven is on. That will need to change with the next range we buy. Not one of Whirlpool’s better ideas for sure. It is economical on gas usage though.

There was about 2" of snow on the ground this morning when I woke up. Now we have about 4"+ on the ground and it appears to be about finished for this round. The bulk of snow fell to the south of us and to the northwest. Two Rivers seems to be the dividing line, with schools closed or at least 2 hours late in starting. Some schools are also closed for the Federal holiday, so the number of school closings is down.

After shoveling off the deck, I brought the van up to the house. The snow is very light, but the wind is blowing, so imagine the roads may be drifted a bit. Especially the east/west roads, from here to the highway. In the woods it is beautiful and quiet. On the walk to the van, there was not a sign of a critter or their footprints anywhere. Just unspoiled beauty - until I walked and drove in the snow. When this storm ends, the temperature is supposed to drop to the single digits tonight, the warm a little, almost up to "normal" temperature again. Is a nice change from the hot weather we have been having!

Margriet made an excellent pork roast for supper Saturday night. We did leave some for leftovers, so tonight we have the leftover meat in gravy over mashed potatoes. Now that really sounds good to this old Norwegian. We are about out of Mrs. Miller’s Noodles, so the potatoes are a good substitute. Another inconvenience of the power being off, is we will have to switch to drinking tea. Our drip coffee maker got put in our traveling kit and is stored in the storage unit. Have to change that situation too.

January 15, 2007 (1:37pm)

The power came back on about 12:45 P.M. after being off for about an hour. It also has started to snow very lightly again. Oooooooooooo but the new coffee sure tastes good! Time to put this on a stick and get the rest of the day a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><

Finally some white

January 14, 2007 (8:55pm)
22º F, Very light snow, NE wind 13 mph.

Good afternoon,

Just went for a walk from the end of the driveway. It is just starting to snow lightly. The temperature feels about right for a snow storm. The wind is blowing fairly strongly from the northeast and is supposed to increase to 30 mph during the night. The national weather service has a severe winter storm watch up from now until tomorrow at 10:45 A.M. They are predicting 6-9" of snow to fall during that time. Much of the snow is supposed to be lake effect snow for us. Inland less, then further inland heavier again, all the way north to Lake Superior. I parked the van at the end of the driveway - just in case.

The center of the snow is supposed to track to the southeast of us and into the northeastern part of the country. There they are expecting some really nasty weather - freezing ring and everything coated with ice. The walk back to the house was really kind of neat. I haven’t been out at night for some time, thanx to all of the wet we have had. Tonight the wind was howling through the tree tops. A really comforting sound to me, down at the bottom of the trees where there was almost no wind, just snow falling. After my night vision adjusted to the "dark," the woods take on a whole new visual sensation. Really cool! Even though the clouds are rather thick, there is still enough light to see. If a full moon was present, I probably could read the paper.

So we have everything of the email concerning the house in the Netherlands, translated and fairly well understood. Everything has been completed and printed out. If the weather permits, tomorrow we will go to the bank and have them notarized. The banks that are not Federal banks are open. Checked with one of our church members today. We also hope to chat with someone who is familiar with such money transfers, hoping to do it right on the first try. Tuesday we should be able to get it in the mail when the post offices are open again. Then we wait again.

We were ushers at church today and did a good job of ushing! Attendance was light and the sermon long. There also was a baptism today too, so had a service about a half an hour longer then it should have been. The pastor’s sermon was good, but would have been better if he had used about one-third of the words and time he used. Most folks turn off after 20 minutes or so. He described the history of how the Bible came into being and it parts. Too much detail for one sitting though. It is a good thing we were ushers and I could stay in the Commons area, or I would have fallen asleep.

During the children’s sermon, pastor tripped over the pitcher for filling the baptismal font, spilling some of the contents. He saw his wife and I in the Commons area and asked her to come to clean up the spill. Not much was spilled, but it did get onto the banner on the alter, the alter, and of course the carpeting. At the same time, the paper towel dispenser in the kitchen was empty (of course) so she grabbed a handful of napkins while I got more paper towels from the storage room. I thought he had dumped it all, but only a small about, maybe a cup full. Of course the kids, and the congregation, got a bit of a chuckle from it.

After church, we made our normal trip to Algoma. At the beginning of the service, I stopped of our friends and asked her to join us for lunch at Penguin City restaurant. She said her kids were coming, so would pass. As we walked in, she met us at the door! She called her kids and they planned to come in the evening rather than originally planned. It was good to see her and we really enjoyed the conversation her. Charlotte normally goes to the early service, so we just pass at church as she leaves and we come. Of course we solved many of the world’s problems, leaving some for the next time we do the same. She is leaving on a trip to Puerto Rico for a week, so will not see her until she comes back. Then we will finish with the world.

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><

Moving on

January 12, 2007 (3:35pm)
23º F, Changing, NNE wind 2 mph.

Good afternoon,

Well .... it has been some interesting around here the past couple of days. Yesterday, Margriet received a receipt for the money sent in to the immigration folks some time ago for a permanent residency card. The receipt was dated December 27, 2006, the post mark on the envelop was January 07, 2007, and we received it yesterday, January 12, 2007! I think the check was written and the forms sent in the first week of December, but am not all that sure. It is nice to see the speed and accuracy of our government in action! Or is it. In the mailbox today was a notice to appear in Milwaukee on the 22nd at 8:00 A.M. This notice was dated the 8th, mailed the 9th, and we have it today. Service is improving it appears. So now we get ready for another early morning drive to Suds City. Not my favorite pastime.

Overnight, 3:00+ A.M. according to the time stamp, Margriet got an email for a Notary Public in Enschede with some of the papers for the sale of the house there. It is the first things for us to actually do in the deal - other than worry. The email contained two attachments which total 8-9 pages of stuff written in Dutch! The hardest part of this is to translate into American, try to understand it, then progress onto the task at hand. What has to happen, when it is all said and done, is to have Margriet sign some of the papers, get them notarized and returned to Enschede my snail mail.

Brenda said several months ago that there were some papers coming our way to be signed, but we never saw them. We assumed they would be coming by snail mail. Never came. Actually they sent them by email instead. Never came. Apparently the email bounced and no one thought to do anything more. Nothing has been happening all this time. I had emailed Brenda and Arnoud the other day to find out if any progress is being made. Guess he called to find out and a second email was sent. It bounced too, but this time called Arnoud back again and we told him to send it to our other email account. It came this time.

It took me most of the morning to run 3 pages through the translation program. It is some comical to see some of the translations for various words. The street address of the house is Wulpstraat 3 which is translated as "Voluptuous tear 3"! Of course that caused me to chuckle a lot and finally Margriet did too. There are others that are humorous too. The structure of sentences is also different, so the combination of words end up with whole new meanings. At least to me. I like to play with words a lot and often do. The "Pennsylvania Dutch" dialect we have in this country matches pretty close to the word order and sentence construction.

The really hard part is trying to translate the words which do not translate. Margriet knows what the words are - in Dutch, but trying to make me understand and then find a substitute word to use is not easy. That too leads to some chuckles for me. The end result is that I hope by tomorrow I will have it translated and understand what the documents say. Of course the fact that there is much Dutch legal-eze being changed into American legal-eze doesn’t help much either. Would like to get them notarized on Monday, but it is a legal holiday and I don’t think the banks will be open until Tuesday. Am shooting for a goal of getting in the mail on Tuesday too. This is not at all what the plan was for today’s task’s to accomplish.

Time to get some chicken frying and supper going. We did have the pasties last night and Margriet made some mushroom gravy to go with. Boy they were good, but I could not eat all that was prepared for me. I did start the pork neck bones a-cooking a bit ago and hope to get the beans into it to night so they have a chance to cook for a long time. Bean soup for lunch tomorrow!

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><

The wind is blowing the sun away!

January 11, 2007 (1:00pm)
41º F, Bright and windy, SW wind 11 mph.

Good afternoon,

Boy was Margriet ever busy yesterday. She decided to make some pasties and did it in a big way. The total was 16 pasties and two small casseroles with the filling. All were baked and freezer ready. The idea was to eat a couple of the pasties and the rest would be frozen for future chewing. Because of a mis-communication between the Man and Woman living here, they got too cold to eat, except the casseroles - so we ate one of them. We will have the real thing for supper tonight. The filling was good and the pasties will be better. I know!

One of the special things we needed to pick up on Monday on our ride south, was a rutabaga. It is one of the necessary ingredients of pasties. It didn’t trip my mind at all that pasty making was on the agenda for Margriet. I suggested that I would make some Southern fried chicken for supper last night and really got a reaction I didn’t expect. We had also picked up some "cheap" hamburger (less than $1.00/#) at the Pig on our return and decided on the pasties. I heard it, but like most men - the message went right through my ears, not even slowing down a little bit. Oh well. The result was good. Maybe tomorrow night I will make the chicken. Or maybe not.

While we were in Manitowoc, we stopped at the Cook’s Corner store. It is going out of business - almost. They are closing the store in Manitowoc and have opened a new one in The Valley under a new name. This one has been closing since before Christmas, so we stopped to see what was left. Not much there of real interest - except for an apple corer we have been looking for a long while. Few of the small appliances were there. It appeared that they were taken to the new store, along with much of the higher end, lower profit margin items. Kind of disappointing. Was hoping to pick up and attachment or two for Margriet’s mixer.

She did find a set of molds to make turnovers and such. There are four different sizes and Margriet figured the largest one would work well for the pasties. A little small, but would do the job. As much as she tried, she only got one that worked satisfactorily. The rest kept falling apart as they were folded. Guess she will just have to use them for making some desert type of things. They looked good, putting the pastry on, filling the pocket, then folding over. Maybe it was just too much in them or something. Think they will work just fine for desert items though.

We have been checking out some DVD’s from the library recently. Of interest to us are a series from the TV program "Globe Trekker" ane the really old TV show series "Your Are There." Both series are very well produced and the You Are There series is teaching some history, especially of this country, to Margriet. I remember seeing them the first time "live." When I saw the they were in black and white and still are now. Kind of cool! They have a short use time, so we have to be careful to get them back on time again. I had a book over due last week, by one day, and the fine was 10¢! Almost broke me.

We still are having problems getting emails to come and go from the Netherlands. Not sure what the problem is, but it is some frustrating. The instant messaging accounts work well. I also am able to use my Gmail account without any apparent problems. I keep saying I need to contact our ISP and see if they have any thoughts on the problem, but have not yet. What is really strange though, is that Sandra, living in Pennsylvania, seems to get the emails OK - she has a Dutch email service. Not too sure what that is all about.

We really had problems with the ISP staying connected this morning. When I first got up, it would only stay connected to the web for 30 seconds to maybe a minute. Couldn’t even get a hold of the technical department as it would go down before I could start the email! At the moment it is working just fine and hope it stays that way.

The weather has taken a turn for the warm again today. Tonight and tomorrow the temperature should start to drop, with flurries possible in the morning. Then the temperature will plunge and stay more at a "normal" level again. There also is a snowstorm brewing out west, but that is expected to go south of us. This has been another strange winter!

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><

A really fine day

January 9, 2007 (1:04pm)
19º F, Sun & partly cloudy, W wind 12 mph.

Good afternoon,

We had a very nice day yesterday. We met our friend, Bruce (the second best man in/at our wedding), in Two Rivers for lunch and some fat chewing! We "done good" at both. It really was nice to sit and catch up on all that has been going on in our lives. Bruce was the instigators of LSM and have known him since it started. A really good friend. Of course we did have a few lies to swap too.

Bruce drove up from Manitowoc to Two Rivers and we drove down from FISKLAND to meet in the "middle." The restaurant we ate at is on the shore of one of the Two Rivers in Two Rivers and we sat at a window booth. Since it was a very nice day, we really had a nice vies of the river and surrounding area. Surprisingly, it was very un-busy, so we sat a talked over coffee longer than normal. Very enjoyable. As we are, Bruce is slowing down the number of activities he continues to be involved in. Seems that grandkids attract more of his time than at first expected, much to his liking. Unfortunately they are spread away from home, so he makes a trip periodically to get his "Grandpa fix." But not as often as he would like.

After we solved all of the world’s problems, Margriet and I drove to Manitowoc to do our supply run. Actually it seems weird to meet Bruce in another town than Manitowoc, then driving there to shop. Maybe next time we will organized things better and meet in Manitowoc. There were not too many items that we needed right away. It was a good thing too, as the prices of food in that town (Even at Aldi’s) are much higher than we are used to in Green Bay. Passed on a number of things, waiting until we get to Green Bay. We did stop at one store in Two Rivers, which also used to be much more reasonable than now. We stopped in Kewaunee on the way through to pick up a couple of items that were cheaper here than there. That surprised us some. Still forgot to pick a couple of things up, so will have to go into town today anyway.

The price of gasoline has come down some. It was $ 2.289/gallon here and $2.299/gallon in Two Rivers and Manitowoc. That is until we drove back. The prices dropped, or were dropping as we drove by, to $2.229/gallon! At least it is headed in the right direction, but fear it will stop dropping soon. The price of crude is as low as it was on June 15, 2005. Just for the heck of it, I looked up what we paid then - $2.159/gallon. Really would like to see it drop below $2.00/gallon again so we could do some traveling again. Much to show my Woman of this country yet.

The New Year’s Frog has come and gone, and so has our Christmas tree. It went out a few days ago. Normally I will stick it in the snowbank along the driveway for Margriet to put bread and like that on it for the birds. Not possible this year - there is no snow or snowbank! Just brown grass. It looks very forlorn laying on the grass, waiting for some snow to come to stand tall again. Birds probably would like it too.

Just finished having a bowl of soup from the new batch I made Monday and today. Cooked down some beef bones on Monday and that almost was a disaster. I make the soup in one of the larger pressure cookers we have, but without the weight in place. It allows the cooking to be more contained, and when I put the pan outside instead of the refrigerator, keeps the critters out too. Anywho, it came to a boil so I wanted to slow it down some to simmer for a time. Guess I didn’t realize how hard it was boiling and when I unlocked the cover, about a quart of boiling liquid came our with some vigor. Fortunately, it didn’t get on me, but the stove, counter, and floor were a mess. My Woman insisted she should clean it up. Feel some guilty about that too. I let it simmer for some time, peeled the meat off of the bones, and put it out for the night. This morning I added a couple of handfuls of dehydrated vegetables, some noodles, and some sliced celery along with a can of diced tomatoes. The results were rather good - even if I do say so my self. Had to have two bowls of it!

In yesterday’s mail, we got a catalog from Elderhostels explaining their programs and trips for old folks. Some of them really looked interesting. Some are fairly reasonably priced too, at least for what you receive during them. One takes a train from Milwaukee to Saint Paul and back over 6 days. All of the meals, lodging, train, and activities are included. Others go to Alaska ( but the transportation there is more than going to the Netherlands ) and other places in and out of the U.S. We were very surprised at the number of programs/trips offered. Fun looking though the catalog. That part doesn’t cost anything.

Today is the coldest in the past 30 days and it still is above normal temperature outside. The wind is really ripping too, making it really feel cold for us folks spoiled by the hot weather of recent weeks. The high temperature records that have been broken are from the mid-40's and the 1880's. Seems like a cycle happening every 60 years or so I would guess. Reading our local newspaper, we see that there also have been some very large snowstorms too at this time of year during the past 125 years. Kind of fun reading the "latest news" from long ago.

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><

Un-well day!

January 5, 2007 (5:45am)
47º F, Hot and dark, W wind 5 mph.

Good morning,

As you can see, I wasn’t able to get this on the blog last night. The download took up too much of the "pipeline" to allow that. The download is a puzzle as it takes about 24 hours to download and the ISP will only stay on for 8 hours at a time. When I restart, the download starts from the very beginning again.

Hotter this morning than when I went to bed. Set a new high temperature record at one second after midnight this morning. Expect the temperature will drop a bit at sunrise, then rise again - close to 50º F. This is supposed to be January - isn’t it?

Time to get the day a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><

January 4, 2007 (4:57pm)
38º F, Record setting heat wave, S wind 3 mph.

Good afternoon,

Things have not been going well for this machine the past couple of days. Yesterday, I spilled a cup of coffee and some landed on my new keyboard. I initially didn’t think much more than a few drops landed on it, but time would prove me wrong. My coffee cup has a top on it, since I am rather prone to tipping it with these goofy hands that don’t always work the way they should. Since the top was in place, usually very little runs out - only through the drink hole and the vent. Apparently everything was lined up right (or wrong) causing the coffee to stream out. Maybe the coffee wasn’t strong enough either. Tried to dry and blow the coffee out, but with limited success. Only some of the keypads worked. I took the keyboard apart as far as I could, but there apparently was still some coffee between the plastic sandwich making up the contacts. Never did get it to work, so plugged in the old one again. Will try the new one again, but after a couple of days to hopefully dry out without any residue left behind.

If that wasn’t enough, I dug out my book on prayer to continue it’s writing. After doing a bit, I tried to save it and found the program gave me a strange error message and closed the program down. After doing the same procedure several times with the same results, I finally decided either the program on this machine was corrupted or the file on the memory stick was. I opened the WordPerfect website to run an update/repair program, but that takes about 23 hours to download. It is running at the moment, so really am not too sure if this will get into the blog or not. Time will tell. I hope it is only the file, but that still is 150 pages, single spaced, of work I really don’t want to do over again! I do have a back up and a hard copy, but almost afraid the hard copy will be the only one useable. In the meantime, I wait for the repair/update to down load to finish and will try it again. With my fingers, eyes, and toes crossed for good luck.

The miserable weather continues. Looks to be at least another week of hot weather. I don’t know how many weeks it has been now that the temperature has been at least 10º F warmer, usually 20º F, than "normal" temperatures. The lows at night are often higher than the normal highs! I notice in the paper and some of the stores, there are all kinds of sales. On things like: ice fishing gear, snow shovel, kid sleds and toys, coats, boots, and all sort of things. Snow blowers have also gone on sale, but $10.00 off of a several hundred dollar item ain’t much - yet. Expect they will also drop before too long too. There is a lot of advertising for sales on snowmobile clothing and how easy it is to buy a snowmobile or ATV. Expect they too will be coming down in price soon too. Glad I am not in the snowmobile business any more! The month of December recorded about 10% of our normal snowfall and about 400% of our normal rain fall. The average temperature also has been about 30% higher than last year. Of course the electrical and LP usage is down correspondently, but the price is up.

It really is interesting to see all of the snowmobile trails so neatly laid out across the fields and through the woods around here. The little orange diamond shaped trail markers are very visible against the bare plowed field or grown vegetation. I think they are more visible now than with the snow on the ground. The trails across the plowed fields are also neatly smoothed and really look inviting - if they weren’t mud instead of hard, frozen soil. Would make nice hiking or walking trails - almost.

I did manage to finish building a pretty good pot of chicken/vegetables with noodles today though. It really is tasty and we have lunch for the next few days at least. We bought some "used" chicken wings sometime ago, so used them as the base. They had more meat on them than I usually use and are very tasty too. Easy to make this time, rather than picking the meat from the backs I normally use.

Margriet built some awesome hamburgers for supper tonight. The local Piggly Wiggly had hamburger on sale, so we picked up a couple of packages. We bought some hamburger buns to go with too. The hamburger has been split so there is another meal, with half of the buns, for another meal. Also some packages for meatloaf or meatballs too. Leberkase was on the menu last night and that sure was good too. I think there may be one more meal still in the freezer. If not, we will going to Otto’s again before too long.

Most of the day, Margriet got our ledger up to date. It is a tedious task and I think she has decided to do it more often than not. Since we have a new year, it also means a new ledger. I thought I had a matrix set up, but didn’t and had to make a new one. Still have to get a new check file folder to keep the receipts in of the new year. So the routine goes on for another year.

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><