About to be a cut-up!

April 28, 2007 (3:59pm)
63º F, Warm sunshine, E wind 6 mph.

Good afternoon,

A beautiful day outside. It is warm, very light wind, and gorgeous sunshine. Now, if the soil were dry, a guy could do something - other than wet feet. Hopefully close to sundown I can get to burning the trash. There seems to be a bit piled up after the rain we have had for the past couple of days. Weatherman wasn’t very honest or he just plum made some mistakes. The wind and rain really made it dad-gum cold feeling. Was good to stay inside, but it sure messed up thing for a couple more days.

The price of gasoline has gone crazy again. Went through Kewaunee earlier and the prices a sure goofy. Three stations downtown have prices at $2,929, $2.969, and $2.999 per gallon. It was $2.849/gallon a couple of days ago. The "state’s average price" has risen 40¢/gallon since the 1st of the year. They are talking of it going up another 50¢/gallon possibly. Ouch! Don’t like that no how, especially when we have some driving ahead of us this summer. Seems the price in the U.P. is a bit less, so will need to try and plan our fills differently. A lot grumpy for sure.

We went to Luxemburg the other day and stopped at Otto’s Meats. The freezer is filled with good things again. We also have been sampling some. Boy we sure eat good around here. Had liver and onions, with bacon last night with some spinach Margriet made Dutch style. She served the spinach with hard cooked egg slices and "soldiers" (narrow pieces of grilled, homemade bread sticks). The last of the fresh ham we had the other day went into some lentil soup I made. Boy is that thick! Could use it for masonry mortar on some project or other. It sure doesn’t taste like mortar and I am sure it will stick to a couple of ribs until supper. Hope there is enough room in my belly for the chicken and fresh broccoli Margriet is making for tonight. I sure will have to try hard to make some room.

We are really having a hard time believing the prices of food in general. Otto’s Meat’s as some of the lower prices, at least of what we buy, now. Almost everything and anything has gone out of site. Used to refuse to buy any meat for more than a dollar a pound, but that is nearly impossible to do anymore. About the only meat less than a buck is chicken (now about double of what it was 3-4 months ago) and occasionally ham and turkey. Me thinks we will be eating more poultry and ham. Hope when we get up nort’ I will be able to loosen up my shoot-guns and cane pole again to supplement our needs. Might have some fun doing it too.

After many years of drooling over a chainsaw sawmill and trying to figure out a way to build one, I finally ordered one yesterday. Not the one I have been drooling over, but a stripped down model which has no legs/table, just the guide rail and the attachments for the saw (which I bought while still working for Dale) and to a homemade legs/table. The cost is less than half of the full deal. The company suggest the table be made from 2"x6" stock, but I probably will make them from logs. Much more stable. When it is set up, I should be able to cut logs up to about 20' long and about 32" in diameter. Don’t think I will cut any that big in diameter, since the saw has only a 24" bar on it. Don’t think I could move a log that size either for that matter. There is a sale on at the time, so it will include a 3.3' rail extension for free. With out it, I can only cut logs about 16'+ long. I think both limits are more than what I will need it for. The drawings for the table only indicate two supports, but I probably make three to support the log. Have to figure out a way to support the middle of the rail I think too.

I do have the need to make some big sticks, so think I should be able to have it pay for itself sooner than later. Will have to do some cutting early in the process to allow it to dry before using it. Wish I could have cut the trees last winter up there, but have to do with what we got! If I can get it cut and sticked, I might be able to build a "solar dryer" with some clear plastic to speed the drying process some. We’ll see. In the meantime, more fun for our adventure.

This is the mill. The lower wooden part is what I will need to build. The log is placed on the top "step" and fastened down to be cut. The steps make it easier to load a log by one person, moving it one end up one step at a time.

.

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><

Studying

April 25, 2007 (12:49pm)
48º F, Hazy sun, E wind 8 mph.

Good afternoon,

We had a very profitable Bible study yesterday - a potluck brunch at on member’s home. We really delved into the topic at hand. Much interest a rather good discussion and better fellowship. Of course the food was good too. This is the end, actually between two studies. The last one on the book of Acts was a commercially written one and really only went to the "feel-good" stuff and not any deeper in to the book. I didn’t like it and it really wasn’t my choice. One of the gals, Helen, led the group for the past two studies. She asked me if I would again lead the next one, so I chose and am writing one on the Parables. One of the members took exception to my or anyone else leading other than herself. She didn’t think it was democratic or fair. Rather than study the Bible, she wants to "study" some of the feel-good books written by folks who have TV shows she watches. We tried to explain this is a Bible study and if she wanted to lead a group like that, she should, but not Tuesday morning Bible study. I expect Helen and I will experience her wrath in time and for a long time. Oh well, I have most of the first session’s study finished, but it probably will take two sessions since it is a lot of contextual setting and preliminary material. Stuff we don’t normally look at or study.

The gal, Lois, who hosted the study has spent most of the last year, in one of the Carolina’s I think, helping her son and his family as he died of cancer a little bit ago. It was so good to see her back (she lives with her daughter on their farm here) and she is happy to be home again too. It has been a tough year for her. She is a sweet lady and really adds to our family of Grace and most certainly the Bible study.

Helen is mad at me for our move to Up Nort’ too. She hoped she would not need to lead anymore in the future. She is more than capable and has really grown in the past decade I have known her. I told her that on this study I would write it, but she had to be ready to step in and lead if we could not be here with the moving &c. She really didn’t like that idea, but agreed, then it hit her that we would be moving! Yesterday was the first time most of the folks there also found out about our impending move. All were surprised. We did take some pictures of the new place (have to figure out a name for it yet) and they seemed to agree it was a good buy and nice place. I did offer that they could come up every Tuesday morning for Bible study and we would feed them in the deal too. Not too many takers on that idea though.

Part of today, too big of a part too, we have been looking at the pictures we took of the house and trying to decide on some of the finishing and modifying we want to do. Part of the "thinking" is also trying to get a handle on the cost and the labor involved. Probably more of each than we anticipate or wish. That’s part of the fun - isn’t it? Since we have many good sized pine trees on the property, some of them will become lumber. That means I will finally have to set up a sawmill and get cutting. Probably will be one of the first things done, so the wood cut can dry before we really start to use it. There are many projects I will have for it and a lot cheaper in the long run than buying the lumber. There are many hardwoods on the land too, so might find uses for some of them, besides firewood if the logs are good.

One of the major changes will be the heating system. At present, the hot-air wood furnace is actually an add-on to an existing furnace burning some other fuel than wood. The net result is that there is no real distribution system for the air, or any air filtering. Not very healthy at least - moves dust and other things from here to there. I will put in an outdoor boiler and it should be fairly easy (as compared to most houses) to install all of the piping. There is a dealer on the other side of Crystal Falls, so hopefully shipping should not be a big problem, since they normally weigh well over half a ton empty. The brand they carry is a pretty good one too. The wood it takes is about twice the length of "normal" firewood we now use. That is good and bad. Big logs I will have difficulty splitting blocks that long if I can’t lift a whole block that size to carefully put it in the firebox. Might have to figure out some kind of a funnel to handle them. Worry about that tomorrow.

Margriet is building Bavarian pork hocks for supper tonight. Actually it is the shank end from a fresh ham we bought before Easter. We think it is big enough to use in place of the two hocks the recipe calls for. It sure smells good? She started it early, since it still is partially frozen and she is doubling the time called for. I have to suffer longer.

We also talked with the real estate agency yesterday. More information needed and more questions for answering. This time it was not necessary to send anything there. The "noble assistant," Karla asked in the email though that I call her. When she came on line she said she was glad that I called, as she likes to talk to me. That is mutual. She is a character and we make a good pair in that. Still no indication on the end of this, before the next adventure, but expect the widow that owns it will need a couple of weekend to take the rest of her things from the place. We are anxious to get up there though, even if it will mean many trips between here and there. More stops at the Amish store I can tell.

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><

Hanging paper

April 23, 2007 (4:44pm)
61º F, Wet now sun, NNE wind 4 mph.

Good afternoon,

The documents have been flying via email and fax between Iron River and here for the past several days. The final word is that everything is agreed on and signed to agree on a sale. All that is left is for the owner to finish moving out, get all of the pro-rated things pro-rated, the final walking inspection, signing of the final sale papers, and leaving a bag of greenbacks behind. Then the adventure we have been living, moves to 162 Section 6 Road, Crystal Falls, Michigan! Hooray!.

5:22 pm

Just interrupted by an email from the real estate agency. The ‘noble assistant," as the owner Jeff calls Karla, giving us a bit of a handle on what the total bill will be that is still due. The closing costs are considerably less than I expected. Like that. Michigan law is a bit different than Wisconsin’s, but basics are the same, even though I have questions that seem rather elementary to a Yooper.

Our scanner is not working correctly, so went uptown to a gal from church who is a realtor and used her fax machine to send the final, almost, document up nort’. Addie was not in the office, but her husband was there minding the store. He wasn’t sure how to use the fax machine, but made an attempt at it. As the fifth page was just leaving the machine, he says, "I always have problems remembering which side of the paper is up when I send it." I looked at the machine and the diagram on it showed he had put it in backwards, so the first five pages were literary blanks! Resent them, right side to! Later we got an email from the realtor saying that when the first came in, they couldn’t figure out what went wrong and were about to call Addie’s office when the second try came in. So .... I think we have all of the quirks out of the process and are ready to head north to finish the job.

After the letdown of the last house, I have been rather reluctant to get too excited. Now I really need to get things in gear and figure out what really will be first to do and so on. Also have to figure out costs of each step and keep enough money back to cover the cost. I had that mostly in order for the other house already. A good exercise in organization? There is far less to do here, but also very different tasks. Guess I had better get a bunch of pencils sharp!

A little more detail about the house. The basic part of the house is 24'x40', with an addition about 12'x20' addition on one wall, with a 20'x24' carport on the end of that. There is a lean-to on one side of the carport that also will disappear. At present, we plan to take the outer most 16' off of the carport and build it in as an entry. That should also make the house look more like a house too. The house has a 24' square kitchen/living/dining room a 16'x16' master bedroom, 8'x12' bedroom (probably will end up as computer/sewing room), and an 8'x12' bathroom/laundry hook-ups. In the basement there is another very small bedroom, a partial bathroom, "fruit cellar" storage area, and an open space for the mechanicals. There is also some crawl pace out side of the full-height central portion.

With all of the lean-to and carport removal, I should have enough material to nearly build a garage. There is also a lean-to attached to the guest house that will also come down. Don’t want a fancy garage, but somewhere to shelter the truck and like that. Don’t think there will be any heat in it.

The guest house is 20'x28', with two small bedrooms and a kitchen area, which is split in two. There is a small wood stove in the living room, but it will go with the present owner. Probably will pick up a boxwood stove or a potbellied stove to replace it. Not too worried about that as there is also a gas space heater in the building. There is a counter top gas range with a very small attached oven above. That should be more than enough to get by with for sometime.

The pole bard has a20'x40' shop area and a 15'x40' lean-to added to one side. The lean-to I will close in and make into a woodworking shop. Both areas will have a ceiling put in and the above space made into storage. There is provision for a wood stove in the main shop. The chimney is homemade - - from a piece of 8" well casing. Don’t think it will change that out anytime soon. Would need to get a sky-hook to move it. Sure don’t want it to drop on my toe! Don’t think it should burn out too soon either.

On the way to fax the documents, we also stopped to make appointments for new eye glasses (eyeball covers I used to call them). Seems we both have less than really good sight and it has been a few years since getting the pairs we have. Seems our sight has really gone south reticently. Maybe it is from reading all of the fine print in real estate documents. Anywho, next week we let someone play with our eyeballs.

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><

The "great room of the house, showing about half of the width.

Living room in the guest house. Wood stove to the right of the window.

The shop in the Pole building. Car goes, not part of the deal.

Pictures

April 20, 2007 (3:57pm)
58º F, Sunshine, S wind 2 mph.

Good afternoon,

So .... I have had a request for pictures of our new abode. I won’t mention any names, but her initials start with Astrid. Here goes.
The first picture is of the "front" from the southeast. As you can see, there is some work yet to be done here, but nothing we can’t handle. The construction is of manufactured logs. It isn’t my idea of first choice building materials, but that is what is there. There is a provision for a deck across the front, but not sure that we will. Might put an external entryway in front of the door. Slow down the entrance of cold winter air. We will not use it as a main entrance for sure, that is on the side or "back" of the house.

The second picture is the side or "back" of the house. The lean-to and the carport will disappear rather shortly after we get there. Garages/carport don’t belong attached to the house. When in the country, one has to consider fire danger closely. Also they look ugly! We probably will keep the 8 feet closest to the house, build it in as an entryway. The stairway to the basement is also an outside door and that would make it an inside door. There is a walkout door to the basement on the opposite side of the house.

The last picture is of the guest house. Actually it is kind of like a Hobbit House. Very small and compact. Really kind of cute and we probably will use it to live in at first, until we get some things finished in the main house. Both houses have wood and gas heat. There also is room for the "hired hand" in the loft of the shop. WE already have visions of the Dutch handsome dudes sleeping there.

So, Astrid, now you have a couple of pictures to look at. More will be coming and more details too!

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><

Interesting couple of days

Good morning,

I am writing from the desk at the Lakeshore Motel, with the view of Ice Lake through the window in front of me, in Iron River, Michigan. The lake is dead calm and it is just becoming light. The lake is clear of ice now, except for a small part on the other side of the lake near shore. Some of the lakes still have ice on them here, but it pretty much is the slush ice and will not last much longer. I have no idea what the temperature is, but it is not supposed to be too cool today, something in the 50's I think. I can tell you that the wind speed it 0 mph from no direction. The sky is fairly clear and it too is just waiting for sol to appear for another day. It is so pretty out the window, that it really is hard to look at what I am doing, or write this for that matter. My minds I tries to look at the view as would have been when white man first saw it. Then I bet it really was pretty!

We arrived at the motel about 4:30 P.M. earlier than I thought. Checked into the motel and after unloading, went uptown to eat a "Alice’s Restaurant" for supper. Since the Happy Italian Restaurant is no more, we are on the look for a replacement. Alice’s is also an Italian restaurant. It was closed, just as it was the last time we were here a few weeks ago. Dang! So we set out to look for another, and it seemed those which had interested us in the past were all closed for the day. We did find a mom-and-pop version of a fast food joint. We went inside but it was not to or wishes. Ended up at Mr. T’s, just down the road from here. The food is good there, but we wanted to try something different.

This morning we have scheduled a meeting with the realtor, Jeff, about 10:00-ish so will see what happens from there. Boy the emails sure are a useful tool. Set up our stay here at the motel as well as meeting Jeff. Jeff and I have corresponded often since meeting him last July. Email and the web are impressive tools. Always think of my Dad and how I think he would have enjoyed computers and what they can do.

The meeting with the Bishop and pastor went very well and longer than scheduled, but I expected that. I think it may produce fruit in the future. At least I hope it does. Some of the things that pastor has been saying and doing have really put folks off. He has been too aggressive too many times. Folks want to be led more than pushed. Myself included. Even though several others had also told him of the problems, he really didn’t hear/understand them. I think he heard the message yesterday. Hopefully loud and clear. I think he genuinely had no idea of what was happening within the Family of Grace. Jim was very gracious in the handling of the situation, as I expected him to be. I like Jim very much and have worked with him in various situations in the past. I really leaned on his friendship and position to get this meeting. I hope and pray it works.

While I was in Jim’s office, Margriet was in the Recourse Center at Synod office, trying to get something together for our friend Dan, who is in prison, as a Bible study of some such for him. His first request in a letter sometime ago was to be involved with LSM. After doing much thought and picking of other folk’s brains, we really didn’t come up with a way to do that. The other alternatives are to get him a workbook type study from a publisher for him to do, or write something for him to complete as a correspondence type of course. I think it will end up as something of a combination of the correspondence and written "class" for him. Another task I see on the horizon. Margriet did a lot of looking and reading while there and I think really enjoyed herself. As always - give her a good book and a chair, she’s happy as a clam.

Leaving a restaurant after eating lunch yesterday, I banged my left knee into the car parked next to ours. It was a pretty hard lick too. I think the knee hit the tire and my jeans pretty much stayed in one place while my knee slide on the denim. There is a large "rug burn" on the knee cap and a bruise. It was an adventure sleeping, trying to keep the sheet off of the keen cap. It is not something serious, but sure is irritating.

This has really taken a long time to write this morning as I have been watching a couple of ducks swim by, about 10' from the shoreline. I can’t remember what "brand" of duck it is, but do recognize it. Will have to do some looking when I get home again.

Time to get a-going.

April 19, 2007 (7:50am)
41º F, Sunny, N wind 2 mph.

Good morning,

We are back again. Got home about 7:30 P.M. last night. A very long and tiring day. The upshot of the day - we made an offer on the house south of Crystal Falls, Michigan about 3 miles on the end of a dead end road! The house is located in Mastodon Township. I told the realtor that a couple of dinosaurs were moving in! Margriet got a bit grumpy at that, but the realtor and his staff had a chuckle.

The process was rather tedious. For some reason, Jeff forgot we were coming. He left his home with the word that he was heading to his office, but wasn’t there. The gals in the office kept trying to get him on his cell phone, but it was turned off and forwarded the calls to his messages to voice mail, but he didn’t pick them up. We were to meet him at 10:00-ish but when it was after 11:00 A.M., one of the gals suggested she run out with us and Jeff could come later. Jeff’s "noble assistant" took us out last time, so she knew the routine. The gal from the agency listing the property, Punner (she had her given name, Julie, legally changed since everyone called her that), was out of town. Eventually we did make it out there and took a detailed look around since last time we kind of skimmed the surface..

What we found was more work needed than we saw the first time. Not that it was unexpected really. The main house is pretty much set up for extending warmer weather living, not full time year-round living. There are some short comings in heat, insulation, and plumbing needing attention. Of course we will find more, hopefully not many, more things needing attention as we get into the project. The most important part is that the main house was built starting in 2004 so materials are not old and needing major attention - yet. The guest house, was the main house for some years until the apparently decided to build the main house as a permanent home, but the man died too soon for that to happen. The garage/shop building also was built in 1999 I think. It does need some attention also, but not something that is impossible.

The house has a 200 amp service, the shop has 100 amp service, and I think the guest house also has a 100 amp service to it. The wiring seems to be solid, but crudely installed, as is the plumbing. Both the main house and the guest house have their own septic systems. There appear to be two wells, right next to each other, one is the normal 6" casing and the other a 10" casing. All three buildings are set up for wood heat, the shop having an 8" well casing for a chimney! The wood, hot-air, furnace in the basement is not at all adequate. That will be one of the first changes made - to wood fired hot water, with an outdoor boiler. The exterior of the house has not had any finish applied, so that will probably be the very fist thing on the 2-DO list. Don’t like no rotten logs!

So today I work on some computer problems, WordPerfect is not totally right. (Had to restart this a couple of times, so is much later now.) Causing some problems with other programs too. At least you have an idea of what we are doing in our continuing adventure. I will include pictures as soon as I can get the edited a bit.

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris ><>

Frustrated

April 14, 2007 (4:55pm)
45º F, Sunny and nice, SSE wind 6 mph.

Good afternoon,

Today is a beautiful, but frustrating to beat all heck. I am still trying to get this machine to where the other one was, without the problems. It seems every time I try to do a task, I find there is another program or download I need to make! Much of the other commuter I cannot transfer to this one effectively or efficiently. Seems like some that I really don’t need at the moment, transfer just fine. One problem I have too, is that I have can’t fine one CD book with most of the Biblical programs on. It just got up and walked away. One of the most important is a program containing the NIV Bible with associated search/use files. It is one that we use for our morning devotions and very often for other projects. I found several sites on the web that have it, mostly for cost, but some for free also. A couple of the "free" sites are "under construction" and a couple others are corrupted in one way or other. At present I am downloading hopefully the last one, and it will work, while I am writing this. 2+ hours left. The only problem is, the downloads take several hours each - whether they work or not! (*&%$C*&%#_ ! ! !

Today’s need for a download really started yesterday. I did some work on the next Bible study and found I needed some passages to include in the body of the study. Thought it would be no sweat to accomplish a transfer from the old PC. Didn’t work that way. So ..... I have been playing with downloading for the better part of two days. Much of the research I am able to access, since I have it on stick drives, but not the Bible - yet. It really is pretty easy to cut and paste passages, rather than typing them in. Saves a bunch of time and eliminates a pile of errors too. I have enough of those in other places.

It really is a beautiful day today. The wind is fairly light and the sun is bright. When I went uptown to get the mail, the parking lot at the harbor landing had a number of pickups with empty trailers in it. Guess there were some fisherman who thought fish would be nice for dinner. The slips have been in the harbor since before Good Friday, but no boats have been in them yet - that I know of. Last year I thing they were at least a few shortly after the slips were put in for the summer. It would have been a nice day to be out on the lake today - the first in a long time.

With the temperature so high, it took the plastic off a couple of windows so we could open them. It was nice to have the fresh air in again. While the air was cool, it still smelled better than a closed up house. This coming week is supposed to be normal temperatures, so expect the windows may be open more. Now if the soil was drier, something could be done outside too.

The price of gasoline has jumped another 10¢/gallon this week, but for some reason, the stations in Kewaunee are staying at least 5¢/gallon lower than anyone else in this part of the state. Like that part. Talked to our local dealer a couple of weeks ago, and he thought the price would be going down some. Guess the oil suppliers had other ideas. Would be nice if they took a bit less profit for a change.

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><

SUNSHINE!!!

April 11, 2007 (12:22pm)
34º F, Strom a-coming, E wind 10 mph, 30 mph gusts.

Good afternoon,

The wind is really strong at the moment and supposed to get worse. Some places to the south of us have gust up to 54 mph so far today. We are expecting a pretty good snowstorm beginning this afternoon, through the night, and into tomorrow morning. Earlier this morning the weather predictions were for us to have 9"+ before it is all over. At the moment the prediction is down to about 7" only. Whatever we get it will be very wet. The temperatures are supposed to rise again before the weekend, reaching the mid-50's by early next week. That would be back to normal again. It seems the weather has been on a yo-yo this spring so far.

When I went to the post office this morning about 10:00 A.M., there were some very fine snowflakes starting to come down. Since it has been a hit or miss deal with the small flakes. There were some men washing the windows of the post office (not a job I would want today) and of course I had to tease on man, standing on top of a ladder. Told him that when I washed my car it always rained, but his washing windows will make it snow!

April 13, 2007 (9:36am))
37º F, Sunshine, NNW wind 4 mph.

So as you can see I started this the day before yesterday then got waylaid with some other things, never getting back to it. Actually a number of things got in the way - for two days.

We have had 7" of snow on the ground yesterday morning. There was a a lot of wind too, but that finally seems to have abated some today. Thank goodness. When it got dark and at bedtime on Wednesday night, the weatherman and the radar indicated we were finished with the snow. There was only about 3" on the ground, so didn’t put the van at the end of the driveway. We have not been away from FISKLAND since the snow started to fall. I expect to use the White Spitter and shovel some, but with the warm weather, I just let it melt down. This morning the snow is only a couple inches deep and easily traversed - I think. I did manage to shovel off the ramp and deck. Boy that was very heavy heart-attack snow. The temperature is supposed to rise and remain in the mid-50's for the remainder of next week. Hope so. We are ready for that to happen anytime soon.

I have started to write a Bible study on the Parables in the New Testament. Interesting subject - more than just a catchy little story. I have finished the first three pages, more or less, all introduction. That is the easy part. Probably will not cover all of the parables, but pick and choose some. There are a bunch. Found one author that goes into the parables found it the apocryphal writings also. Don’t think I will get into those.

The mail on Wednesday, brought a package. I had to call for it at the window and hoped it was filled with $100.00 dollar bills, but it wasn’t. Instead it was filled with approximately 100 3-ring binder pages (sans binder) of small print on both sides of the pages from the ELCA National office. The cover sheet indicated is the first installment of the preprint for the Church Wide Assembly in August. The material sure looks like it is good medicine to put a body to sleep. Looks like I will need to tackle it a small chunk at a time. Highlighter and computer probably will get a workout too. In May, the delegates from our Synod will get together for dinner at the Synod office. I expect we will find out more about transportation/lodging and like that then. Hope I don’t have to drive. Will also try to figure out a way to smuggle Margriet along too. I am not very keen on leaving her here in the woods for a week by herself.

At present we are thinking of heading to Crystal Falls next week. I have a meeting with the Bishop and our Pastor in Appleton that day in the morning and plan to head north from there. Margriet can spend some time in the Resource Center while we are talking. Give her a book and a chair - she’s set for a long time. At least until she is finished with the book!

Yesterday was a busy, sit down day. I did manage to get our taxes completed and into envelops. There sure is much work to get them in. Normally they turn out a wash, with out owing anything or getting any refunds. Kind of spinning our wheels and an effort of futility. Wish they would abolish all of the deductions/additions and like that. The State forms are worse than the Federal - two pages for Federal and four for the State returns. All for naught. We do get a $40.00 refund for having paid too much phone tax in the past. Not holding my breath on receiving it though. Most of these things in the past seem to have gotten lost somewhere. Time will tell.

Need to get uptown today. About out of medications and need to get a letter off to Dan. His last letter has been very uplifting. But .... he still has a long, tough, crooked road to go. He needs a lot of prayer.

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><

HAPPY EASTER

April 8, 2007 (2:43pm)
36º F, Overcast, 5 wind NNW mph.

Good afternoon,

Easter Sunday is here and th ham is in the oven. Sure starting to smell good too! We are not doing a big celebration thing this year. As if we really ever do. We picked up 7# ham last week for 79¢/#. About th cheapest we have seen for some time. Also having peas and cornbread. Then there is the Tiramisu for dessert! I am sure we will have more than enough for the meal. Margriet seems to enjoy fussing for these meals, but eventually we have figured out we don’t eat as much as we used to and there isn’t any company coming to share the meal.

Margriet and I were ushers for the second service today. I figured the number of folks attending would be down, but there were less than 150 total for both services. Usually we have had more than that on a "normal" Sunday, many more on a festival Sunday. There really wasn’t anything much special in the service either, other than the choir (only 8 folks) sang at both services. I really was rather disappointed.

The Easter brunch between services, had more food than people, but that is somewhat normal. There is always good food and plentiful. Today was no different. It seems the gals in charge have settled on a standardized menu - which ain’t too bad. There always are some differences with the different cooks involved. Both of us were more than adequately filled.

One of the gals of our membership raises sheep. She brought a rather small lamb along for the children after the second service. I think the adults enjoyed it more that the little ones did. It was about the size of a long-legged, skinny, cocker spaniel. I figured it was about the right size to make a sandwich from. Got into some trouble when I mentioned that to a couple of the gals standing near me. The lamb was rather well behave, following Gabriel around rather closely. It was also house broken - almost. Did cause one small problem.

We made our normal Sunday morning run into Algoma. Not for lunch, but rather out of habit and to stop at the grocery store there to pick up a paper. There were also a couple fo bargains. Country style ribs and chicken backsides were on sale and we were about out of them. It won’t be long and we will be forced to stop at Otto’s Meat Market again. Seems we are about out of the really good stuff. Still a couple of meals left yet. We sure do eat poorly around here!

We went to the Good Friday afternoon service at the Congregational Church in Kewaunee. Normally we have an ecumenical service at one of four churches in the area. This year the afternoon service was in Kewaunee and the evening service at Grace. Don’t know what happened to the other churches. Most of the folks at the afternoon service were from Grace. Wonder how many were at Grace in the evening. It really was a nice service and the church, being some older than Grace, was very charming for a change. Looked like it was built in the 20's or 30's and looked/felt like a church of the time. Nice.

I still am fussing with the computer system. Not everything is up to snuff yet. I still have a lot of "stuff" from the PC to this notebook. I wasn’t even able to get Easter e-cards out this year as the addresses are on the PC and I have no access to them from here. I have managed to get all of the Windows and Norton updates made (a lot since the time this machine was made), which too A LOT of time. WordPerfect is also on now and that makes life a bunch easier. It was installed before, but when I wiped the hard drive, it too disappeared. Lots of programs and websites yet to load too. Should be out of mischief ro a bit yet.

We woke up this morning without any new snow on the ground. First time fo several days. We have been getting ½"-1" overnight, only to have most of it melt during the daylight. The wind has also been fierce for about the past week. Today, the wind is down and the temperature is up. Finally feels less than cold outside. The weatherman is predicting a pretty good snow towards the end of the week again. It really has been snowing rather hard in the U. P. for the past few days. Some places well over 4 feet deep!

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><

We're in LAN-land again.

April 5, 2007 (12:38pm)
Windy sun.

Good afternoon,

Guess we will see how this works. I am working off of the notebook as a replacement for the PC. It is on the desk and the PC and old monitor are out. I don’t have everything hooked up on this set up - like printer, scanner, LAN, and other minor things. At least what I have hooked up - works so far. The notebook is on the desktop with the new monitor pushed back farther than the old one. The monitor is far less deeper than the old one, so the desktop usage is some different. With the notebook dock under the notebook, there are far fewer wires running to the underside of the desk. The power cord for the notebook has to be separate from the dock and finding a convenient way to power it is a problem a the moment. Need to have the plug-in accessible when we travel. Need to take it along. That too will be figured out eventually. Sure does seem strange though with the new configuration. Will take some getting used to.

I found out what the problem with the LAN was - I think. Didn’t have anything to do with the problems of a couple of weeks ago either. The cord connecting the two computers together was unplugged on Margriet’s end. Or at least not a solid connection. When re-stringing the wiring, the wire just fell off of her computer and up through the openings in the back of the desk. At least I hope that is all that is the problem. I tried to connect the LAN before lunch and had some problems. This notebook has too many LAN drivers and possible connections built into it. I, and I think the installation program, are having a hard time figuring out which is the right combination to use. Hopefully, that too will be resolved.

5:27 pm

Well I finally got the LAN st up a little bit ago. As I thought, it was matter of getting the right combination of variables to get it to work. Margriet is now less grumpy. At least about that. She now has a lot of emails, etc. to work over. I really am glad it is finally working too. It was a real pain for both of us trying to use the same computer to get on line with. Seemed we both like to do the same thing at the same time. There still is one almost major problem - I have to get the phone back on line too. The PC had a switch on the card to do that, this one doesn’t. We do have a second phone on another part of the phone line, so at least are not out of contact. Oh well - need something to figure out.

I also managed to get the printer and the scanner hooked up too. I also got Enigma Browser loaded on this, so things are getting closer to finished. I really like Enigma, especially their search feature. I do have a lot of "favorites" to add too. Many of them I have on a flash memory, but many more to go. At least we have more or less a working system for now. It will be better.

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><

Snow again!!

April 4, 2007 (12:47pm)
25º F, Snow, 22 wind NNW mph., gusts 40 mph.

Good morning,

Monday night when I went to bed (later than usual) there was a vertically challenged, Dutch Women in the house. A short time later, I was awakened and there was a rich Dutch Women in the house! She had just opened her bank account on the web to find that the money for the sale of her house had hit the bank. That is more money in a checking account, or any other account, we have ever seen in our lives! This has been a very long process, something like 2½ years I think. It is a huge weight off of Margriet’s shoulders. Now I can tease her about being a rich Woman. As if I need something more.

Now we can actually plan our next few months with some accuracy. Unless there are some changes. The longer we sit and think (unusual) about the last place we really looked at, the more ideas and the more possible the deal becomes. We probably will drive up again in the near future to take a really good look at the property - with a yardstick and a calculator. One thing about the place, there is a "guest house" on the property. We probably will make that our base of operations while working on the house. It has all of the necessaries for a long term stay and we will not need to be constantly cleaning up the mess and dust construction creates. The pole barn/shop also has a loft in it with a small bedroom for the "hired hand" as the realtor told us. I will have a place to sleep when my Women gets grumpy with me, since it doesn’t have a dog house.

It really is not a nice day outside. When I woke up this morning, there was about ½" of snow on the ground and very high winds from the northwest and still snowing. We got, I would guess, about 1" total, but that is kind of hard to gauge since the temperature is hovering right at the freezing point. Much melting as it hits the ground, thanx to the soil having been warmed in the past couple of weeks. The police departments have been trying to keep motorists off of the main drag, US #41, between Oshkosh and Green Bay. Brown County, area around Green Bay, had over 75 accidents before 8:00 A.M. this morning. I know we ain’t going anywhere until possibly late in the afternoon. The U.P. really got some snow, with some reports of a foot or two of the white stuff. I have not checked the website up there so really don’t have any "first hand" information.

Bible study for me was a real bust yesterday. I had studied the wrong material. Normally I do my study in the morning before my Woman gets up. With all of the problems with our computers, that schedule got really messed up. I really didn’t finish last week’s lesson, so when I started my studies for this week, I worked on the material for last week instead! I didn’t discover the error until Sunday evening and by then there just was not enough time to catch up. We did have some very good discussions, but had a few left turns, so it went very much longer than normal. Some how or other, I did manage to get through the time and even managed to contribute some. One upshot of the deal is that I got hoodwinked into leading the Bible study again, beginning in about 3 weeks. Only one dissenter to the suggestion made by the present leader. So .... I have been getting a feeling that I should write a study on the parables, so I guess this reinforces that. Back to work again!

We did go to Green Bay yesterday, in spite of the high gasoline prices. The price in Kewaunee for some reason is a nickle/gallon cheaper, so we buy here. One thing we picked up, really two, was 1 GB flash memory for $15.00 ea. They are the largest capacity we have had, and about the cheapest too. I had planned to get a flash memory to unload all of the files on this machine and transfer them to the notebook. Will keep the other for a spare or backup.

I still am in the process of "up-grading" the notebook. It sure is a long process. The hard drive was cleaned, the operating system has been reinstalled, and now I am downloading all of the Windows updates and patches. There sure are a bunch! This time I put the virus protection in first, since I had the CD this time. It is still very frustrating, since we only have one computer at a time capable of accessing the internet. Eventually it will get finished - I hope. Got other things to do!

We are really worried about our church. Some other very solid members have left. Our choir is down to only 7 members who sang on Palm Sunday! Normally it is about 20 voices + or -. Pastor is really trying to force some things onto the congregation that they are not all ready for. I think his time schedule is different than God’s at this point. Several weeks ago, I contacted the Bishop about the situation and in the past couple of days. One of the suggestions is for the Bishop, Pastor, and I to go over the situation. Don’t know what or when yet, but there needs to be something happening - one way or another. One of the Pastor’s big points now is for those who are not happy to go somewhere else. He also wants our church to move away from the ELCA. Neither idea am I happy with - or are other folks.

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><

Finally a new blog.

April 1, 2007 (3:07pm)
40º F, Rain, S wind 6 mph.

Good morning,

A lot has happened since the last entry, March 25 but posted a short bit ago today. Much of it surrounds these machines. Everything is still not working right, but I hope we are closing in on the problems. I was not able to post anything on the blog until last night, when I tried a short test which worked, then deleted it again. Intended to get at writing this one this morning, but that didn’t happen.

Our computer system still is not right. This machine has most of it’s capability back, but there are still some short comings, like the LAN not working. That is a very grumpy point for Margriet. The notebook has several problems. In the short time I had it online before getting the proper virus scanner in place, it apparently picked up some kind of bug. It progressively got worse, so this afternoon I just cleared everything off of the hard drive and will be reinstalling everything again. Not what I wanted to do, but I need to get things back to how we like it again. Enough of this fooling around. I will be setting the notebook up as the main computer, then use the "old" one for other things, but probably not on the desk.

Along the way of playing with the notebook, I discovered the mouse I use with it was in really bad shape. We picked up a wireless optical mouse for it. Boy what a difference! No more wires to tangle up in the carrying case when we travel. Only complaint I have is that it needs a surface with some kind of texture to it. Guess we can live with that. We also picked up a couple of new monitors, one for each at the desk. They are wide screen LCD units. Should make it easier on the electric bill and our eyes.

Just as the computer went down, we did get an email that pretty much killed the house deal in Amasa. The house was in an estate and the children didn’t want to lower the price any - just wanting to get as much money as possible. That put it out of our budget range. The cost of bringing in and installing necessary essentials is way too high, especially the electric service. The house has not been used for a couple of years since the father died and the kids figure they have nothing to lose by holdings firm on the price. It will depreciate without any maintenance and the market is a buyers market at the moment. Oh well. The relator was some surprised and upset by the deal too. He wanted to sell it. We really did fall in love with the place and spent untold hours planning for the purchase. We learned a lot in the process.

We did take a ride up to Iron River to look at some other properties. The relator had sent some other properties for us to consider before he and his family went west to enjoy a week skiing in Colorado. We left Wednesday morning and stopped at one property that was on the way, to the office, just to see the lay of the land, before getting to the office. We chatted with his "noble assistant" and got some information to see some of the others. We also made arrangements to view the property we saw on the way in, the following morning. Some of the properties were really out there in the boon-docks. Much like the camp I hunt from, but with a bit easier access. Others would work for us, but had some real down sides - like the railroad tracks 50 feet away from the house!

The ride the following morning holds the best prospect. It is a manufactured log house, a guest house, and a 40'x50' pole barn/shop on 18 acres of mostly woods. The man of the place apparently worked for a mining company in the area before he died a couple of years ago. There are lots of materials (probably "borrowed" from the company) in various places. Most of the place is in need of a lot of finishing. Much of the place is a series of "small" projects that still need to be finished. Everything is there to make it a permanent home with more amenities than we expected. We pretty much walked around and through the place, but not in any real detail. We will make another trip up after Jeff gets back and take a really close look. Then .... who knows.

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><

Finally published on April 01, 2007

March 23, 2007 (11:41am)
40º F, Bright sun, SSE wind 4 mph.

Good morning,

I started this a little after 5:00 A.M. so I could get a couple of pictures from Brenda and Arnoud’s wedding included. However, they would not upload to the blog for some reason. I have been fooling around with it more or less since. No luck yet, but I do have one more thing running at the moment, so I still might be able to get them in before I finish this. Time will tell.

Yesterday was kind of a goofy day. It started out really great, receiving the pictures from the wedding. It did take me some time to get them transferred from Margriet’s gmail account to this computer then onto the flash drive. Eventually it all did come together, without too many funny words. So far we have only gotten two pictures, but they are great. They were taken during the ceremony inside the government building. Bram and a couple of his buddies were also included - wearing black derby hats, black sweat shirts with the word "Kroew" on them (meaning crew). Guess they were part of the wedding group and looked like some miniature mafia guards or some such to me.

In the phone conversation with Brenda, she was disappointed that we had not sent the a family Bible. Instead we sent a plaque. The thought of a Bible had crossed our minds, but we don’t have the written in Dutch here, so gave up on the idea. We also thought about waiting until the next time we got over there and then picking one up. Brenda thought an English version would be just fine. So ..... yesterday we ran to Green Bay and picked on up. Margriet has been practicing how to do some fancier script than she is used to so she could put in the inscription/dedication. I gave up after a couple of practices on my doing it. The old hands don’t work as they used to. Anywho, the necessary script is in place and the box is wrapped, ready for me to wrap and get ready for mailing. That should be accomplished this afternoon.

While in Green Bay, we also picked up a couple of minor office supplies and found a restaurant to try, "Old Country Buffet." Every time we had been near it in the past, it was either too soon before or too late after time to eat. My Dad would have had a ball there as he really liked that style of restaurant. Of course then it was a bit cheaper. We usually don’t have that big of a meal at noon, but it was too hard to ignore when the price is the same, no matter how much you eat. The food was excellent and seemingly an endless variety. Since we are old geezers, it only cost us a bit less than $5.00 each. Not bad we thought and ate our fill - probably plus a little bit. We will keep it in mind for the future. The place was mostly filled with folks our age. Others looking for good food at a reasonably reasonable price.

March 25, 2007 (10:33am)

Good morning,

I’ll be dad-gummed! The above was saved when everything on the machine went wacky! Somehow the graphics driver disappeared and the screen looked like it was in "Safe Mode," but worse. Finally, yesterday afternoon, I called Onno to pick his brain (I had run out of things to pick in mine) and seek his solution. I didn’t know what the problem was and I thought I had tried every fix in the book, without success at a repair, but great success in raising my frustration level.

After asking me to bring up a couple of screens within the settings, he had the problem solved, but I still had to correct it. He continues to amaze me with his knowledge, even though he says doing it by remote control over the phone is not a good way to do it and he is not good at it. Boy I can’t wait to see his good! I still do have some things missing on this, but they are minor and I can live with them for now. I will, hopefully, get them back before too long.

Eventually I did get the driver reinstalled, but it was difficult. Had to use the download from the web. Almost everything worked on the computer worked, but the screen only showed about ¼ of the normal screen information in very large type and poor resolution, just about invisible, and I could not access all of the page. Made for difficulties going to the next step, &c. I was able to accomplish the task, and raise my frustration level went even higher. After a restart, every thing was cool again.

Guess I could blame this on Brenda, but probably won’t. I still don’t have the pictures uploaded to the blog. Kind of afraid to try it again. They really are good pictures too. We will be getting more I am sure, but they have other things to do at the moment - like celebrate their wedding.

The upshot of this whole deal, is putting the notebook into service online. It has never been online until yesterday. There are many, many, updates for it. We have had the notebook for 2-3 years, so a lot has changed. I think there are close to 100 updates available, after the first major updates were in, I am now starting on the rest, but in small batches. As soon as all of the things needing updated are updated, I will copy/transfer all of the programs, &c. to the laptop. If we ever need to, we can just plug the laptop in place of the PC. With this machine messed up, it also messes up Margriet’s ability to get online too. She is not happy about that at all! Grumpy would be a really good word I think.

Being so frustrated Friday night when I went to bed, I decided when I woke up that something was going to happen to get the problems solved. I had not talked to Onno the. So we went to Green Bay to see if I could get a "router" or some such to connect the notebook in a LAN here. Onno put in a LAN card on this machine and assumed I had to do the same on the notebook, but there was no way I would tackle that on my own, if it was possible. So .... I asked at the store and the only solution was to connect one computer at a time to the phone line. I know there as a better way, but didn’t know what. The tech sold me a patch cord to connect the two machines so they could "talk" to each other - off line. After getting home again is when I called Onno. Didn’t ask him about the LAN, but Margriet pointed out to me the laptop already had a LAN card/program already installed! Came with the machine. So .... as soon as every thing is up to snuff, will set it up. Might be a day when the PC will be replaced by the notebook completely. I really started to look at the capability of the notebook and found it has many more features than I thought. Have to do more looking at it.

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><