Bells are Ringing

March 21, 2007 (1:26pm)
33º F, Light rain, S wind 9 mph.

Good afternoon,

Today the bells are ringing - Wedding Bells that is. Brenda and Arnoud were married about 10:00 A.M. our time this morning. We opened the website about a half hour before the appointed time and kept it open, with eyeballs glued to the computer monitor for a long time after we were sure the event was over. At present we are having a hard time scraping our eyeball off of the monitor!

The technology of today is marvelous. But ... wouldn’t you know it - the camera was move away from the city building and onto the fountain in the middle of the square more. That made it possible for the Bride and Groom and the rest of the party to sneak into the city building unseen by us. They were off camera to the left of the square. When I opened the website as I got up this morning, there was bright sunshine and I thought the prediction of rain had moved. Actually it didn’t. About a half-hour to an hour before the wedding, it started to rain. Very hard during the ceremony. We had it set up that they would go near the fountain and wave to us, but the rain pretty much messed that up too. We saw what we thought was the group, but could not make anyone out in particular. After most had left, it appeared that Astrid and Onno, holding M&M, lingered at the fountain. At least we think it was them, judging by their figures and Astrid wearing a light blue jacket we had seen her in before. The rain made the picture much less than normal quality.

Margriet had a chance to "chat" with Brenda last night (really about 2:00 A.M. or so here) using instant messaging. I think both of the ladies were very happy about that. At one point, Margriet let out a whop which woke me up with a start and my blood pressure about double of it’s normal high. My first thought was something was wrong, but in fact it was the opposite. A bit ago, Margriet called Brenda on the land-line and had a chance to speak to both Arnoud and Brenda. Both sounded very happy and had to get back to their party in the backyard. From the sound of it, they had put up a party tent for the occasion. Good thinking!

It really is nice to have the ability to have "instant" contact with the kids, especially for Margriet. They did promise to send pictures our way, again via the internet. This is surely a far cry from waiting for the mail to deliver the news and the pictures. Not sure how long the letter would take, but we know it is a lot longer than almost instantaneously.

We have been praying a lot for them to get married. We certainly hope and pray they will have a long and happy life together. Can’t wait to see the old married Man and Woman!

I made a very large pot of soup to take to church tonight for soup and sandwich supper before the service tonight. I am calling it, "What I Got, Went In The Pot" soup. Lots of dehydrated vegetables, along with canned tomatoes and corn, with fresh mushrooms and onions, and some smoked sausage. We picked up some German noodles at Aldi’s the last time we were there, so some of them went into the pot too. We sampled some of it for lunch today. Actually didn’t taste too bad and we are still living. If folks won’t like the taste of it, the smell is really good!

On our new homestead front, we received a rejection of our offer (assumed that would happen) on Monday with a deadline of today to make a second offer. We did, but did I have a hard time to get the paper work scanned and into an email to send. Not too sure what the problem was or what I was doing wrong, but it must have taken six tries to get it right. ‘Bout ready to take my 4# riveting hammer to adjust either this machine or the scanner! Was much frustrated and grumpy! We already have a confirmation for receipt from the realtor, having sent it about an hour or less ago. Still, all in all, using the internet sure do save time an money to get this finished. Now .... if we could start working on the place yesterday!

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><

Rang-ity-tang

March 19, 2007 (1:12pm)
41º F, Sunshine, W wind 10 mph.

Good afternoon,

Boy did I have a rang-ity-tang getting the blog for Friday and Saturday published! I finally got it done this morning late. I kept getting an error message that would not let me publish. Went to the website and really had a hard time finding a "fix" for the problem. It relies too much on forums to answer questions and solve problems. It means plowing through hundreds of entries describing a similar problem, but no answers how to solve it. I finally found the blog’s employees forum and ended up with a cure. It sure was frustrating though.

The number of folks showing up at church is getting less and less every week. Not too many folks showing up. The sermon was longer than the normal long too. Afterwards we went to the Penguin City Café for lunch. We were about ready to leave, when Charlotte walked in, wanting to talk. We talked for a long time. She is really unhappy with the way things are going in church and uses us for a sounding board a lot. We are a bunch unhappy too.

Had a bit of snow overnight, less than an inch. It is now pretty much melted, but it sure did look pretty this morning. Will be warm for a while not according to the weatherman, but with some rain coming Wednesday and Thursday. Not too sure I will be happy with that. Not sure I am ready for the season of mud yet.

Incase you are wondering where Amasa is, it is in the central part of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan - northwest of Iron Mountain, south of Copper Harbor (on the northern tip of the U.P.) and approximately straight north of Eagle River, Wisconsin. It is an old mining and logging area, now pretty depressed, economically. There are many not very prosperous homes and many empty. One thing that really surprised us is the high number of churches in the area. Seems to be more of them than bars! Michigan is doing a pretty good job of protecting the land, with a great deal of it in forest preserves and parks. They also are promoting the tourist industry with skiing and summer activities. I think they are on the right track. Their building codes in many ways are more strict than here. That’s a good thing - until it interferes with what we want to do. :-)

"Our" area is rather remote and under populated, even though there is a marked county highway going by the property. Some of the trees have been protected from beavers and what appears to be an apple tree is protected from the deer. There also are wolves in the area and lots of wild turkeys according to Jeff. He also had an excellent deer hunt with lots of venison in the freezer. I think I will need to find and unpack my hunting rifle and shotgun again. Might find a use for them. The driveway is about 3-4 times as long as this one, so it should give the White Spitter a real workout. One more reason we bought it too. We are excited to get a-going on the place.

We really don’t expect our first offer to be accepted, but have to start somewhere in the process. Not sure where the price will end up, but hope it is not too high. We are working on a fine line, if my figuring is right.

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><

Got Noodles!

March 19, 2007 (8:36am)

Good morning,

I have been trying to post this since yesterday without success. Finally figured out the problem - I think. Sorry for the delay.
Chris ><>

March 17, 2007, 5:30 A.M.

Good morning,

So we needed noodles and headed in the direction of the Amish store in Shawano yesterday morning about 8:30 A.M. Due to poor navigation, we ended up here on the shores of Ice Lake in Iron River, Michigan, spending the night at the Lakeshore Motel. Seems the van had a mind of it’s own and headed here since it has made this trip before. Maybe it’s memory is better than mine! Once here, with little to do, we decided to buy a house. Actually we put a down payment on log house and 10 acres in the woods near Amasa, Michigan.

This really has not been a spur of the moment decision. It all started on one of our sojourns up in this part of the country, with a remark this past summer of, "wouldn’t it be nice to live here." Shortly after that, we heard the sale Margriet’s house was nearing completion and completed in a few weeks. Just for the heck of it, I searched the web for properties for sale in this area. Found several, but this one stood out from the rest. It has been a hunting camp for many years and now the owner/builder died a couple of years ago, so it really has not been used since and the children have decided to sell it. I can see from the building and the property, there has been a lot of good times and stories there.

We have been up to the property several times, and many conferences with the realtor. The first sight of the place caused us to fall in love with it. Especially Margriet. That part surprised me, thinking she would not like to live so far out in the woods. Guess I was wrong. The 10 acres are more of a hardwoods forest, then the softwood forest we have here. That is not good or bad I guess, just different.. It will mean a better supply of firewood, but fewer building materials. Still, on 10 acres, there should be enough for both to keep us out of mischief. There also is a pond on the property near the house.

The "cabin" is 20'x28' with a 14'x14' addition. The main building is an open room containing all of the living spaces, other than the bedroom, that is the 14'x14' addition. Since this has been built and used as a deer camp, it is totally off of the grid - no phone, no power, no well, no septic - but the outhouse is heated! There is a small gas-powered generator in it’s own little outbuilding. It provides power for electric lights mostly. There is a plethora gas lights and a gas stove and refrigerator. Also a number of kerosene lamps along with a couple of gasoline lamps. For some reason there are 3 vacuum cleaners in the house too. Heat is provided by a big old wood fired, cast iron, space heater and a gas space heater as backup heat. While it is not big, it is bigger than what we have at FISKLAND. All of the appliances and most of the furniture comes with.

There are several very small buildings, 10'x10' or less, on the property besides the generator shack and heated outhouse. All are worthless and eventually will be torn down. Will use them for a time as "storage," after we evict the resident critters. There is also a very large supply of firewood and a lot of "stuff" around. That will get salvaged and cleaned up for sure.

We are excited. Can you tell? It is a pretty big leap for us too. Who ever thunk a couple of old geezers would be "homesteading" at our age? Guess we really are tired of sidewalks!

March 18, 2007 (7:30am)
20º F, Bright clouds, NNE wind 3 mph.

Good morning,

We arrived home late afternoon yesterday. Very tired, but with minds racing with "what if’s" and "how do we" and so on. We really did stop at the Amish store and pick up supplies. More than we thought we needed as we walked in. That is a normal thing with us. This was the first time we stopped there on a Saturday and it was rather busy. Was profitable for us and now we have enough noodles for a while.

Our trip was very fast and on short notice, but a good one. We kind of threw things into the van and headed north. We forgot several things as a result (like the coffee maker), but we survived. The gal at the motel couldn’t figure out who was emailing them, until we got there.

The "Happy Italian" restaurant which we like very much, had a kitchen fire during the winter, December I think, and the owners decided to not repair remodel and have sold it to the gas station next-door, who are in the process of tearing it down to expand their business. Don’t like that at all! Very good food and very reasonable prices. As the realtor, Jeff, said, "Where else can you get more good food than you can eat for $5.00?" We did stop for an old fashioned fish fry at "Woodz" just down the road from our new home. It was very good and comparable to the price we expected. The place is literally an old, big, farm house converted into a neighborhood restaurant/bar in the country. The owners live upstairs. We might eat there again. Also on the return ride, we stopped a "Augie’s Café" in Shawano for lunch. It was like stepping back to the 1950's. Lots of pink and chrome decor, with black and white floor tile where the gray terrazzo flooring wasn’t. Other than being repainted occasionally, I don’t think anything has changed since the 50's either. Grill, dishwashing, service on one wall with counters down the middle and a very few tables. Really cool and reminded me of Dan’s Café I ate a lot of meals in while I was in college.

We have been spending several months wearing out pencils and adding machines trying to figure out if we could swing the deal up nort’ or not. There is much to do, much of it in unknown territory for us. The first project is to put up a garage/shed to work in and out of, while the well and septic are put in.. We checked with the power company (same as here but with a different name in a different state) and got an estimate to have power to be brought in - $15,000 to the driveway, plus an additional cost to have the line brought into the house. That is a bit expensive, but the nearest service is about 2 miles away. After a lot of digging, we found it probably will be cheaper to put in solar with back up generator, so that is what we plan to do. We have most of the necessary sizing and equipment picking completed. The solar panes will go onto the roof of the garage.

We will add an 8'x18' bathroom/entryway to the north side of the house. Under the addition will be a "deep" crawl-space to contain the battery bank and other electrical equipment, along with the gas-fired, on demand, water heater and the heating distribution system. Primary heating with be wood fired hot water radiant heat in the floor. I finally did enough research to find a way to do that without raising the level of the floor very much. The boiler will be in the garage also. Should not have to fill the firebox as often as the parlor stove and a filling should last 12-24 hours, depending on need and wood quality.

The communications will be handled by a T1 wireless system in the area. We will be only a couple miles for each of two of their towers and about 5 miles from a third. Our phone, I think, will also be handled by the system using the computer. It will considerably drop the cost of phone service. Overseas calls will be about 1% of the current cost through normal phone systems. The internet speed and service will also be greatly enhanced. Really am looking forward to that. They seem to be still using barbed-wire for phone lines here. A satellite system is extremely expensive to install and to operate monthly here, and there. Checked it out. Not too concerned about TV, as that is not a priority for us.

Inside of the house we also have much to do, getting it ready for permanent habitation. A real kitchen, replacing the wood heater with the parlor stove we now have, replacing the chimney with one of stainless steel, and a new gas backup heater. Lots of things to keep us out of mischief and maybe get us into some better physical shape again.

Time to get the day a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><

Cool-der

March 15, 2007 (1:22pm)
23º F, Cloudy, NNE wind 4 mph.

Good afternoon,

Not too sure if I will be able to get this out in a timely manner today. We have been experiencing some problems with the internet again. Not all that sure it is a problem with the phone lines this time, but that might be contributing to the problem. We both have downloaded some updates from a couple of programs, which also may be the problem. A couple were automatic downloads and for a bit, they fell at the same time, causing two large users on the line at one time. Margriet disconnected her computer from the LAN and things greatly improved for my computer. Have to do more investigation into this and hope it will be solved.

One of the other programs, Adobe, has had a couple of updates in the past week or so. After the first, we are unable to access any pictures or drawings appearing on the site. Don’t know how that happened, or how to tackle that problem either. Tried to figure out Adobe’s support services, but without any success. There is a lot of help for things not printing correctly, but all I want at this point is to see it on the screen!

The weather has cooled a bit, so the water flow in the fields and rivers has slowed some. All of the major rivers in the area have more or less returned to their normal size again. They are some high, but not at flood stage any longer. A good thing. From what I have been able to gather, the flooding has been caused by ice dams on all of the rivers. County highway crews have been working over time to break them up and get the water flowing again. Didn’t hear of anyone using dynamite as they have in years past. Ah - the good old days!

I checked on the driveway as I went out to get the paper yesterday afternoon. It appears the driveway is in fair shape, but there is about 2" of the top gravel which has been washed off and into the woods. Suspect that I might try to retrieve some of it when things dry some and put it back onto the driveway again. Also spooked a couple of partridge up too. Haven’t seen many this winter. Usually see more. Haven’t seen many deer either come to think of it. Not even many tracks lately. Wonder where they are. I know the turkeys are much happier with the snow clearing off of the soil and their dinner plate exposed again. There are some really big turkeys around this year.

We are out of "Mrs. Miller’s Noodles" again. Sounds like we NEED to head to the Amish store in Shawano again rather soon. Margriet used the last of them making goulash last night for supper. We have been eating them often recently with meatballs and mushroom gravy and another time with some leftover lamb roast and mushroom gravy. The last of the lamb roasts is also history now. Hope they have them on sale again. Really good. We still eat too well around here, but who’s complaining? No I for sure. Margriet also baked some bread the other day and I am sure it evaporated before the second loaf was frozen solid in the freezer. It sure are good when it is fresh! Honey-butter doesn’t make it so worse either. Tonight leberkase is on the menu. Told you we eat well here!

I picked up a LED "puck light" on Tuesday. I have been looking at LED as an alternative to "normal" lighting for some time, trying to figure out how to build something that would work. Picked this one up to experiment with. It sure does put out the light with very small batteries. As an experiment, I held it near the ceiling over this keyboard and it provided enough light to work with. Surprised me. In theory, I think they are supposed to use about 1% of what a normal incandescent light bulb uses. That would present a pretty good savings on the electric bill I think. We do use the mini-florescent bulbs as much as possible now, but these would be even greater savings. This puck also has a dimmer on it. Not too sure how it works - yet - but it is an accessory worth looking into. Gee! A guy has to have something to play with!

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><

Corduroy road?

March 14, 2007 (2:30pm)
43º F, Cloudy, NW wind 7 mph.

Good afternoon,

The mercury topped 60º F yesterday. In fact it was in the mid 60's! Not natural. The snow is disappearing at a very rapid rate to say the least. For the first time in 10 years, there is water flowing over the driveway, just around the corner from the split. Not just a trickle either - a real stream. I will need to check the spot before driving out. Afraid the water flow may also have washed out the gravel in the driveway. If I has, I probably will throw some logs into the space, to allow traffic and also a drain for any more water. We will have a real corduroy road! Haven’t built any since a number of years ago at deer camp. There is also a flood watch for the Kewaunee river. That too is a first in the 10 years here. The water at last report is about a 1½ feet over flood stage. So far the only areas of inhabitancy flooded is the campground to the west of here. We drove back that way yesterday and I commented that the water was higher than I had seen it before. The new bridge is high and dry, but the old one it replaced would be about a foot under water. It had a couple of inches of water flowing over it most springs, but not this much. Suspect there is an ice dam somewhere as the drop of the river is pretty fast until it gets near Lake Michigan. There are problems on other rivers south of here along the lake shore too.

One week from today, Brenda and Arnoud will be married. Then the fun begins? Would like to be there, but will be satisfied with watching them come and go from the city government building on via the web. It is something that has been worrisome for Margriet, and me too, for some time. Figured it would happen eventually. Margriet had a chance to call her on the phone last night. Guess they talked a long time and got everything that was needed to know known. That is until something else comes up. Brenda sure was excited to have "everything just so." Sounds like every other wedding I have been acquainted with. We wish them the best for sure and continued God’s blessings.

We did make it to Green Bay yesterday after Bible study. Seems some of the gals decided to not have any sweets for eats during the study during Lent. We were stuck with fruit and like that. Nothing for "real men" to eat, so were forced to eat some of it. Oh well, Easter is coming. We did pick up some German pumpernickel and Emmentaler Switz cheese for next week. At least we will have some real food to eat!

Bible study was pretty good yesterday. We were studying Acts 15 and has some reasonable discussion. It is a really good one for our congregation to be considering at the moment, as we are having a bit of strife within the church. I don’t think the all of the folks took it as seriously as they should, especially a couple of the leaders of the church present. It seems sometimes folks read/hear only the words they want to and not the real meanings.

Picked up some new winter shoes for Margriet. We have been keeping our eyes open for the kind that she likes for most of the winter. Her present ones are worn and old, so it was time, but we didn’t see anything. Went by a big shoe store yesterday so stopped in and found a pair for her on sale. Then they took another percentage off, so got a really good deal. The old ones will hit the fire pile for sure.

Also picked up an new smoke alarm and carbon-monoxide alarm. Both were 10 years old and it was time to replace them too. Much to my surprise, both snapped right into the old mounts, so I didn’t have to redo that. Easy! They even came with new batteries in the package. Took the wrong wiper blades along to replace them. Got my money back, then forgot to pick up new ones! Senior moment? At the moment there is none on the rear window. I took the arm off so the glass doesn’t get scratched. Easy to turn on with not thinking.

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><

Phoney problems

March 12, 2007 (4:35pm)
41º F, Partly cloudy, SSE wind 3 mph.

Good afternoon,

just back from uptown and the bank thermometer indicated 58º F! First time I have seen that this year I think. The snow covered fields a re turning to water covered fields. In the last couple of days, the warm has really made the snow disappear. The 18" of show cover is now down to less than 6" in our yard. The snowbank piled up by the snowplow at the mailbox at the end of the drive, was about 6" higher than the box and now is about 2 feet lower. Melting is really happening too fast and will cause some problems down the road. The soil finally did freeze and all of the water is lying on the surface. Eventually the snow banks will melt, allowing all of the water to flow out, or it will turn everything to mud - especially our driveway. Oh well. We each have a pair of knee-boots if we need them.

Our computers have been causing problems for a bit. Slowly, they have had more and more problems with internet line speed. Seems to be a periodic problem, happening the last time about a month ago. Before the speed slowed down too much, I was able to get an email out on Saturday to the phone company asking for their repair folks to look at it. They did come out this morning, the first guy found the line from the first junction box to the main line to be faulty. He change the line to a different one, already in place, but he still got some very poor readings. His only solution was to ask the company to send out a different class of repair folks to work on the underground lines.

An hour after he left, I tried to contact the phone company via their website. Instead of completing the connection and the maze of questions to get online with them, the line dropped and I could not get back on again. Checking the phone, it too was down. Figured that either the line had finally died or someone was working on it. As it turned out, the latter was true. A few minutes later, repairman came walking up the driveway (he didn’t want to get stuck in the snow). He was not a line technician, but the same as the first guy with 37 more years of experience. His testing snowed the problem had been corrected and he got good readings. Since, the speed has improved and no dropped connections since. Hope it stays that way.

This has been a persistent problem periodically since I have had internet. At least once a year, I need someone come and find the problem, to get it repaired. The last time it happened, the weather was similar, with a lot of melting snow and wet. I am not able to remember if similar conditions happened during each of the others, but suspect they were. Hope it will happen often enough for them to replace the lines or some such, permanently ending the problem. It sure is a pain when it happens.

I did have to chuckle at the first guy who came. Every time he walked to the connection box out in the woods, he took a different route, through fresh wet snow. My thought was he must be a city dude not used to walking in the woods. Sure enough he is. Talking to the second guy, he said he had just moved here from Milwaukee. The second guy also got all twisted up coming in here and tried to tell me the end of the main line was at our neighbors to the north. We don’t have any in that direction, at least with a junction box. No matter how hard I tried to convince him otherwise, he insisted, almost getting angry with me. I finally gave up. Later, he noticed Winding Road through the woods and asked where it went. I told him that was the road he came in on. At first he started to argue that too, but saw that maybe he had been wrong. Had to explain it one more time and he finally got it. So .... I got a chuckle from each of the two guys, but the system seems to work as it should now.

I intended to get things some squared away in the van, but snow in the driveway at that point had turned to glare ice. It was slippery enough that I was having a hard time standing up. Finally gave up, about the time the first repairman came. I did try to replace the windshield wiper blades (finally) only to discover I had bought the wrong refills some time ago. We are heading to Green Bay tomorrow, so will trade them in on the right ones. Managed to mangle the old rear one enough so that I cannot put it back on again. Took the whole arm off, so now it is back to the way rear windows used to be years ago. That will change tomorrow!

For some reason, the gasoline price in Kewaunee has stayed the same - 5¢/gallon below everywhere else in this part of the state. While I like to leave my money in the local economy, it isn’t always possible. When the price is 5¢/gallon below here, I will buy it somewhere else. It is not something I like to do, but need to do. The predicted price is supposed to rise more and stay high during the summer. Not happy about that at all. Still think they are too high, but what do I know other than the oil companies making huge profits.

I was noticing today that there are a number of birds coming back. Many were out souring in the light winds and making noise. Especially the crows. Also saw a couple of red-tailed hawks. Don’t remember seeing them this early. The snowmobilers are pretty much finished with their season too. It was a short one this year, maybe two weeks. Talked to one of our members at church yesterday and he said the snow in Upper Michigan was about as bad as here. Not normal. He went skiing. There was enough snow this time, but a few weeks ago he went to Porcupine Mountains and there was very little natural snow there. That is about unheard of, since they are right on the Superior lakeshore there. Not a normal year.

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><

Bright and sunny!

March 8, 2007 (12:52pm)
25º F, Bright sunshine, S wind 10 mph.

Good afternoon,

‘Bout time I get one of these added to the blog. Has been awhile. We got a pretty good snow storm on Friday and I waited until Saturday to clear things out. No where in particular to go or reason either for that matter. With the rain from the night before, the snow was pretty tough to move by hand. The snowblower had less trouble. My real concern was the end of the driveway and how much the plows had put there. There was about a two foot curl of very compacted snow/ice to move. While it took some effort for the blower, it was nothing compared to using only a shovel! Might still be at it.

After the drive was cleared. I headed for town to do the uptown chores. Well at least that was the intention. I had checked the snow on the windshield before starting the blower and found that the snow was loose on the glass - until I started the van and found the wipers wouldn’t move it. Apparently I picked the only "loose" spot on the glass - the remainder was covered with 1½" of snow/ice mix and not moving at all. I really tried, but it was really stuck. So .... I let the engine run with the defroster on for a few minutes, then everything slid off of the warm glass. What I didn’t know was the end of one wiper blade was damaged and a piece of it remained in the ice - when it slid off of the glass. When I did get to town, I ended up buying a new wiper blade! More expensive than in the past, but could not do without it at the moment.

We did have another snow storm scheduled by the weatherman on Tuesday afternoon, up to 6" of snow. It came in right on schedule and a few hours early. I saw it coming so we decided to head to Green Bay for our supply run during the morning, rather than wait until after Bible study and then go. As it turned out, I was right on my prediction and it started to snow just after noon, instead of mid-afternoon as predicted. Very small flakes, but a lot of them. By the time we got home there was maybe a couple of inched on the ground, but here was not appearance of them letting up anytime soon. The next morning there was about 4" total of very light, fluffy snow. Not enough to crank up the snowblower, so just shoveled off the deck and around the van.

While in Green Bay, I finally picked up a pair of choppers (leather mitts). Been talking of getting them for a couple of years, and after using the snowblower, it became a requirement. I found that holding onto the handles caused my hands to get really cold and numb with the inactivity of just holding on. The gloves also get a lot wetter too, adding to the coldness of my hands. I got the biggest pair I could find, so I can wear my normal leather gloves underneath them. The pair I got, were also lined, which is more than I expected. Should not have cold hands anymore. Wanted them mostly for hauling wood, but they will do just fine for this too.

We have missed a couple of Bible studies now, but we haven’t missed church on this past Sunday. A very long sermon this week. Hope the snow will cooperate so we don’t miss too many more.

The kitchen cabinets have spring loaded hinges on them to keep the doors closed. As the years go by, more and more of the springs break or their bracket do. I picked up a bunch of catches and will install them on as many as I can. One, over Margriet’s mixer really caused a nuisance as it broke the other day. She really gets grumpy when she has a cabinet door on her nose! Got the problem fixed this morning and it sure is a lot less grumpy around here. A bunch more to go. Hope to get all of the doors with catches on them before too long.

Yesterday was also the clean the fans and replace the furnace filter day again. This time it was much easier for some reason. Not as much dust and dirt in the fans, but the filter was really loaded. Don’t know why, but glad there is a filter to change. I have enough filter media left for the rest of the year I think, then have to get more. Bet the price us up again.

Our gasoline prices have gone up again too. Up to $ 3.549/gallon again. Was really hoping that it would stay lower for sometime to come. Not to be I guess. Seems like last week it was below $3.00/gallon! Sounds like it will go up more too. Forgot the reason this time, but it happens all the time and with the seasons. Wonder how much a bicycle costs?

Margriet was able to "chat" with Woelter online today. After apparently completing a portion of his treatment in the hospital, he is now home for a bit before the next phase. Not too sure what that is, but he will find out on the 19th. He really had a rough time of it. Not being used to confinement without any visitors, he really was down. It became impossible for him to eat, so was fed by a tube in his arm. He was not a happy camper there at all. This chats were about ½" long and very depressed sounding. Margriet was really worried. She did chat with one of his daughters last night, saying he was home and eating macaroni and cheese. Eating is always a good sign. Today he acknowledged he had a pretty rough time and things were not happening as they used to. Probably will be that way for the duration and not a happy prospect. We are overjoyed he is home and sounding so much better.

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><

Still coming!

March 2, 2007 (5:40pm)
29º F, light snow, W wind 3 mph.

Good afternoon,

When I turned on the computer and brought up the radar site this morning at about 4:30 A.M., it looks very much as it does now, some13 hours later. The screen is filled with blue and white representing snow over all of Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, Iowa, and Illinois. It has been snowing steadily, just as the radar has shown for the past few days. Today the snow has been much lighter then in the past, but we remain under a winter advisory for a time yet. We have gotten about 3" of snow today and I really don’t know how much rain fell last night. I really think the rain, reported by the media as I didn’t stay up to look for it, was really very wet snow here. Compacted things some.

Many schools delayed opening a couple of hours this morning in this area. Many schools in the north central part of the state and upper Michigan were closed all day. The rain did fall in some areas and really messed up the roads there. The real problem is the location of the low pressure area. It has been over the center of the state and is now finally moving east, causing the wind to shift to the west after being from the east for most of the past few days. The low was nearly stationary. Lots of electrical outages west and north of here also.

Since the snowfall is not huge today, we are taking an "R&R" day for our sour muscles. Not much real physical labor done today. Margriet found that she had snow shoveling muscles she had never used before or at least to the extent she did the other day. I found that the muscles used to shepherd the White Spitter are different than those for the snow shovel. Now I have two sets of muscles some sore. Nap time was rather enjoyable too.

The first picture is our ramp from the deck when I went out to shovel for the first time after the big snow. The branches of the cedar normally are above my reach. If I were to walk down the ramp, I would have to keep my head about the height of the hand rail! I shook the snow from them first, then did some trimming as long as they were in reach. The second picture was taken during the first shoveling. The blade of the shovel is about 14" high and the snow about 4" above that. More was to come and it got deeper. It is along way to the road from the house - longer with 18" of snow on it!

This snow storm has set a number of records. Not only that, but it has brought our near snow drought to very close to our normal totals for the year. Seems we have received nearly our normal snowfall that should have started in November in a very short time. The storm is still hitting the Dakotas now. Our friends Sue and Don are getting higher winds and poorer conditions than we are. I have been watching the road reports and radar out there.

Margriet did a load of laundry today and started the starter to make some cookies tomorrow. I managed to build a new pot of soup. This time I made it almost totally from dehydrated vegetables, only adding a can of diced tomatoes and some sliced up bratwurst. Turned out not too bad! For supper, Margriet pulled some pasties out of the freezer and made some mushroom gravy to go with. They are still good and I ate too much again. Boy we sure eat good around here.

Much of today I spent re-doing our file cabinet. We are switching over from the standard file folders to the hanging folders. We picked up a box of them sometime ago, but needed more so picked them up the last time we were in Green Bay. We still need more. Did manage to get rid of some "stuff" that doesn’t apply anymore to our needs. It is amazing how much Medicare publishes every year. I threw out over an inch thick pile of books from years past. I haven’t been on Medicare that long! It is a giant increase from the time I was in the insurance business. All I had to haul around and give out were pamphlets, 5"x8", of about 35 pages. A far cry from the full-sized thick books of today. Glad to see the reduction of paper statement in them yet though! :-)

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><