Up from down and down from up.

May 17, 2007 (8:16pm)
61º F, High clouds, E wind light breeze.

Good evening,

So we have made it here with the second load of "stuff." We arrived a bit before 3:00 P.M., leaving about 10:00 A.M. On the way we stopped for some gas, the mail, my medications, pay the insurance on the truck, and robbed the bank in Kewaunee. While I was paying for the gasoline, the owner was checking the current price on line and said that it had just gone up 5.8¢/gallon. Fortunately, I got gas before the price at the pump raised. We were pleasantly surprised at the low cost for 6 months. Of course we only carry the absolute minimum coverage on it, but still was really low. About 25% less than we were told when we had the truck bound. Going through Green Bay we stopped at the Country Buffet for lunch. Really the main meal of the day. Where else can you get a very large and good meal for $5.00 each? We probably ate too much, but it would last us for most of the day.

The trip itself was rather uneventful. Made good time when we were on the road and no real problem drivers either. We did stop at Iron Mountain to check in with the wireless company and let them know we were here for a few days. As it turns out, they don’t need anyone here as all of their tests to see if it works is done outside of the house. No need to go inside of have anyone to open up anything for them. Sounds like they will not be here until next week sometime. So .... we will make some long blogs for a bit, but not very many. Hope to get phone service hooked up on Saturday.

We got our first letter in the mailbox here. It was from the electric company saying how happy they were to have us send money to them! Oh yes there also was some advertisements too. But at least we know the mailbox works! Kind of exciting, eh?

May 18, 2007 (4:42am)
41º F, Clear, Almost nonexistent W wind.

Good morning,

A clear day is breaking outside - looks to be a nice one too. Much warmer this morning here than it was yesterday. Yesterday turned out to be a very nice day though. Fired up the little woodstove last night and it kept it very warm, with it almost closed down totally. I do have to do something about the wood supply though. It has been cut so the pieces are as large as can be put into the woodstove. That is fine once a bed of coals has developed, but really tough to get a fire started. I didn’t bring my splitting axe along, so will have to improvise a bit. I think I do have one wedge here so far and do have a couple of big hammers. It really is neat to watch the smoke come curling out of the chimney too.

After our huge meal yesterday noon, we dined on cheese, crackers, and some hard-cooked eggs for supper. A rather late supper too as we were busy unloading the truck. That mission was accomplished. Not a gourmet meal, but one that was good and produced no dirty dishes, other than dirty coffee cups.

One small box we opened came from Mom’s house that had not been opened before. It appears as she had packed it when we left the old south side house and moved to the 36th Street house, but never opened since. It is filled mostly with items from the days when Dad was courting Mom in the 30's. There are a couple of telegrams Dad sent from Rhinelander, where he worked as a boys camp counselor (about 60 miles from here), and Cranbrook, where he began his teaching career near Detroit. There are postcards, letters, and gifts that he sent to Mom during that time. Souvenirs he apparently sent from a trip he and his brothers, Carl and Adolf, to Mammoth Cave in Kentucky. Even a ration book used during WWII. The real interesting items were a pair of diaries Mom had written during that time period. I didn’t know they existed and had heard that Dad had given Mom her first diary for Christmas the year they were married. Guess she had some from before that. I have a bunch of stuff to transcribe now in my "spare" time. The box contents was very interesting and spent way too much time going through it and managed to stay up too late. Am feeling the effects of it this morning. Also am sure I will be spending more hours on the box in the future.

In looking over the shop yesterday, I found the big doors to it are indeed big. The opening is 12' wide and 14' =/- high. To fill the opening, he made two 6' wide barn doors, they are extremely heavy, built from 2"x12" s sandwiched between ¾" OSB on either side. I have no idea how I will take them down and replace them with a more normal sized doorway, probably something like 10' wide and 8' high. The present doors are no where near weather tight and critters can come and go at will. There is at least one resident squirrel which gave me what for because I invaded it’s territory. I clapped my hands and it scurried in-between the walls. Now I know one way it gets in and out! I did pick up a rat trap, but think I will get a couple more to reduce the population some. At least in the shop.

Margriet had a good time going through the load we brought. Much of it she had not seen before as it was in storage. We now have more chairs than we can sit on. Some need repairs so are in the basement of the main house. Also on the load were several shelves that Dad had made over the years, so she has cleaned them up and now is trying to decided where they should be hung. There is a shelf that goes along two walls of the "gathering" room in here, about 10" down from the ceiling. It is becoming filled, double deep, with books from both her and my collections. All of our books will not fit on it, but should keep us busy reading through the winter at least! This little house is getting more filled and looking more like a home.

While we were gone, there were a couple of storms through the area. One at least knocked down a couple of pine trees across the road leading to Guds Nordtre. Someone, I presume the neighbor had cut them so the road was open again. They were pretty good sized pines too. The new growth is behind that at FISKLAND. The pines are just starting their new growth with about half inch bright green buds and the end of each branch. At FISKLAND they are pretty much dark green now and a couple inches long. We also discovered a lilac tree outside of the bathroom window of this little house. The white flowers are just beginning to open. Not too pleased that it is so close to the building, but probably will not move it, at least this year. We want to bring some of the plants from FISKLAND here yet. Not sure where we will put them, so not much sense in bringing them just yet.

May 19, 2007 (5:06am)
56º F, Light rain, Light SE wind.

Good morning again from Gus Nordtre,

The rain is again welcome this morning. The countryside can use it. While there are not that many farmers in this area, everything is fairly dry. I hope it will promote more grass growth, even though I don’t have the lawnmower here yet. Our yard is pretty bare of grass in some places and what is here isn’t that well established. Hopefully in time, with less traffic on it, it will come back better and stronger.

I did manage to get a new cap on the chimney. The one I bought was the same size as the stack, exactly the same size. I had to flare the bottom of the cap to be able to force it to "slip" over the stack with a hammer. I would have liked to see it farther down with a bigger overlap, but that was not to be. Seems as the timing was perfect with the rain last night and this morning. Yesterday I also got the woodshed attached to this house straightened out a bit. All of the larger pieces of wood are now in the back of the pile and the few smaller ones are in the front where I can reach them. Also made the pile higher so there is more room in it for other things. I was pleasantly surprised to find the floor is poured concrete. In the future I will put some sleepers under the fire wood to provide a bit of air circulation and keep the wood from "drawing" moisture from contact with the concrete. Not much for kindling in this house either. Will need to do something about that.

Yesterday in frustration, I opened the valve in the large well casing next to the well. I had gone over the entire water system again a couple of times and still could not get it running in the little house. I had just cracked it the other day and then shut it when the water started to come. I thought that maybe, just maybe, it would leak when partway between open and shut. Wrong! When it was fully open the water came out at rather high pressure, filling the casing with water about 4' deep before I could get the pump shut off. The shutoff key slipped off of the valve and I could not shut it off again, except by turning off of the pump.

After a few hours, the water had seeped away and all I could see was sand - no valve! The water flow had displaced the sand, covering the valve with a couple inches of sand! All of the probing I did with the key through the sand, I could not find the valve even though I KNEW where it was. I tried to use a hoe to lift the offending sand from the hole, but it has a 5' handle and the hole is 6' deep so couldn’t get much leverage to do much. Lifted about a ¼ C of sand each time. After so many of such lifts, decided there had to be a better way. It dawned on me that the wet or dry shop vac just might work. It did! I am sure I will need to buy a new filter as I didn’t have the right one, but did manage to shut the valve, turn on the pump again and everything is hunky-dory again. Apparently the valve is on the main line to the house and the water system. I have no idea why that valve is there. Never seen one before, but it definitely doesn’t solve the problem to getting water to this little house.

We made a trip into Iron River to get a couple of things we needed. One was a lopper. There are many branches needing trimming around here that are too large for my pruning shears. It works too! Had to try it out on some stuff around this house. It seems to be a good one, but the price was a good one too. The one I had, someone borrowed and didn’t return it some years ago. Also picked up a plastic owl decoy for hopefully keep some the birds and critters out of the shop. Also had to pick up some dark colored woodscrews. I don’t have all of my shop stuff here yet (think the next load up will be mostly filled with it so I can get more done here) so had to buy some. Margriet wants to hang some of the shelves we found. Would not like to put them up with bright screws looking like a couple of bright lights shining.

We headed for Amasa to pick up the copper tubing for the LP system. It was there and very expensive. I think the last time I bought a roll was when I had the store and I think it probably was $100.00 less in cost. The T was also there and that would be the hardest part to buy locally as it usually not a common part. I have the trench about dug, so that will be one project for today. Will be nice to cook inside this house.

Something went hay-wire with the camp stove yesterday. Lit it to cook supper and a short time later it went out and I could not relight it again. I think I may have gotten some dirty fuel into it. No sure, but might have gotten some chainsaw gas into it instead. Don’t know what the problem is, but will dump the gasoline and put in new after cleaning everything out. More fun. Margriet had found an old electric casserole of my Mom’s so decided to use it. Had forgotten about it earlier. We were having some leftover kraut and hocks from the other night. It would not heat! We were so frustrated, we went to town and had fish at Fob’s Family Restaurant. Was good.

Hopefully the phone will be hooked up today. The main stop on our ride to Iron River was to talk to the realtor who listed this property and have her call Betty about trying to get water into the little house. She or her son were to call me Wednesday night, but didn’t. She apologized for not calling, but didn’t have any different ideas than what we already have tried without success. She did say she would talk to her other son and maybe he had some ideas or possibly come here. Hope he comes as we have other questions too.

Margriet decided that we should call this house the Hobbit Hus, Hobbit House. Think that is a good name too. Have been trying to come up with something so now we have it.

The sun is starting to peak out and I think I heard something about breakfast time too.

May 20, 2007 (5:12am)
38º F, Looks like rain, Very light NW wind.

Good morning,

The coffee really tastes good this morning. I really make a good pot of coffee - for me at least. Have to get a normal sized coffee maker up here though. This on is the one we use when we travel, but it only makes "4" cups. Must be for the Gnomes to drink. One pot makes enough to fill both of our cups only once.

It rained off and on all day yesterday. Nothing in large quantity, but very annoying. Kept chasing us inside often. Been too wet to put our name on the mailbox yet. The only real mail, was another letter from the electric company telling us how happy they were that we would be sending them money. Oh well, won’t be long until the bills start to come too.

I just stepped outside to get a piece of wood for the fire and it is snowing! Very light, small (tiny would be a better word) flakes are coming down. Not very many and not sticking, but a pretty steady fall for a while. Guess this is the UP!

This little woodstove is a really good one. While the temperature outside has not been that cold, it has kept the Hobbit Hus nice and cozy while it has been burning. Holds a fire all night long. It is taking me a little practice to get used to it and how to fire it, but sure does a complete burn of the wood. Very little ash, and it is white ash, left after the wood burns. I was considering buying or getting a bigger, boxwood stove, but don’t think that will be necessary. Raise the floor, put in some heat reflective ceramic tile behind it , and a new chimney, we should be set pretty well. Yesterday while lighting the fire, I was going to put the small, stainless steel, coffee pot, (throw out from when I worked at Dale’s) filled with water on top to add some moisture to the house. Then it dawned on me to put the large stock pot on instead, then we could have hot water to use. It worked fine, killing two stones with one bird! Now if it could find a way for it to come out of the shower nozzle!

While waiting for the phone company to come and since everything was pretty wet outside, I decided to put up the telephone shelf Dad had made for our kitchen when I was a kid. There was enough space here where the phone is, but I needed to relocate the phone up about a foot, wall mounted phone, on the wall. Eyeballing it, it thought there was enough slack in the incoming line to allow the move. Wrong! It was about 6" short so had to install a longer line. Nothing I had brought up was long enough, so I took an extension jack down that ran across to the opposite corner of the gathering room, since it was surface mounted, it didn’t cause that much of a problem other than the wire tacks Leo used were very large for the task. They were not easy for the task. Eventually, I did get the new line in and the shelf mounted. The phone company never showed up! We still do not have any phone service here.

There are showers of much heavier snow coming down now. Not up to the showing on the ground variety, but still a snow shower.

Margriet gave me directions as to where she wanted shelves hung so I followed directions as I always do :-) and put up three shelves that Dad had made and were hanging at our house in Milwaukee. Now she is trying to decide what to put on them. One small one on the wall in the eating corner above the table. One in the bedroom and one in the gathering room. There still is one more to go, but it has not really gotten a place yet. She has so many decisions to make.

Margriet’s major work yesterday was the cleaning of the stove. It is a small counter top gas range designed for mobile home or travel trailers. Not the newest, but it has a small gas oven above the burners, instead of a microwave as the newer ones would have. When we lifted the cooktop, a mouse had taken up residence sometime in the past. After cleaning up most of it with the vacuum cleaner, I took out the burners and she really got after it. It shines and is spotless now. Ready for use, but waiting for the LP to get to it. In the meantime, we went to the local discount house in Iron River and picked up an electric frying pan to use. Much bigger and fancier than anything I’ve had before. It also has a glass cover. Now we can watch the food turn to charcoal! It also has a nonstick surface, inside and out. Dang! Don’t even have to wash it - just dump and everything slides out and off! Not! Does heat kraut and hocks with dumplings well though. I think I heard something about making potato sausage today. Not too sure though.

I also did get some of the boxes of shop stuff unpacked and stowed for now. At least it is on shelving so I can see what I have. There is much work to be done in the shop before it is workable for me. For now though I am tickled pink to have a shop of any kind! The heavy iron needs to be taken out and more reasonable cabinet construction and layout completed. I also want, and they are needed, to put in a couple of windows on the west wall. Need some light and fresh air. At present the work bench is made from an old cabinet of some kind and what looks like a metal table top of some kind. The cabinet and top are both turned upside down. Not sure why but most of the pre-made shelving use around here is turned upside down with the reenforcing lip up. Things can’t slide off of them, but it must be a job to clean them. The bench base is the same, the shelves are also with an upturned lip. They will get changed. The bench at present is located under the stairway in the shop. The stairway, made of an I-beam is a good head-knocker and it feels like I am working in a cave! Not your typical woodworker’s bench either. It will make a good metalworking bench when I get it turned right-side-to. I think it will end up on the west wall and hopefully with windows in front of it. I also need to get a wide shop broom. Never needed one before except in the shops at the schools I taught at. Cool!

While we were uptown yesterday, we picked up a couple of flowers to put at the doorway to the Hobbit Hus. It has to look a bit Dutch around here you know. One is a red geranium and the other pink one we can’t remember the name of! Oh well, I don’t pay a whole lot of attention to plants you can’t eat. We will be putting others, flowers and eatables. Some we want to bring from FISKLAND too.

We continue to be shocked at the price of gasoline up here. Most is $3.499/gallon and one place is at $3.699/gallon! The state tax is much less here than in Wisconsin, so normally it is about 10¢/gallon less at least. Only the past couple of months has it been higher. The interesting part is that the prices, from what I am able to find, are dropping in Europe! LP is also higher there too. Not really happy with either price. In fact, downright grumpy!

1:03 pm.
58º F, Bright sun,

So we have eaten our first homemade meal at Guds Nordtre! Grilled cheese sandwiches and fried eggs. The new pan does really know how to cook. As Margriet said, "It tastes better after such a long wait to really cook." I agree. Good and gone!

7:18 pm
61º F, Sun on the way down.

It was an interesting day today. Had our first snowfall while in the place and our first flood. Snowfall cool, flood not so. A bit after lunch, our neighbor came over to help figure out our water problem. He went through all of the things I had and still the same result - no water in the Hobbit Hus! I told him about the experience with the shut off near the well and after looking down the hole memories started to come back to him. He was sure that was the shut off to the Hobbit Hus and remembered he and one of the sons dug it up a few years ago. He decided to dig it up again and see what was down there. He has a bigger shovel than I do - a backhoe tied to the back of a Case industrial tractor. Shortly he came back driving the tractor and had talked to Betty on the phone in the interim. She mentioned that there also was the main electrical power in the same trench. Glad she did. Shut off the power and he made short work of digging up the offending valve. Even though it is sand here, it sure is a lot easier with a backhoe than Armstrong!

As it turns out, the valve I opened was indeed the shut off, but in the process of opening it, I twisted the plastic pipe causing it to tear! Didn’t know I had that much for breakfast that day. There is also another water line heading in the same direction, but have no idea where it leads too - yet. I suspect it will end up in the bathroom of Hobbit Hus, as there is a stub of the same pipe material, capped off there. Didn’t find that at all until this afternoon. Lyle, our neighbor, was able to stretch the waterline enough to reconnect it, but needed new clamps. I discovered that most of my plumbing supplies didn’t make it here yet, but Lyle had a couple of clamps at his place, so we went and got them. Once attached, I turned the power back on and opened the valve. We had water. Boy did we have water! Almost every pipe in the Hobbit Hus was broken from freezing. Apparently the last person to use it didn’t drain the pipes. They had drained the hot water heater though - and left the drain valve open. That was the first leak found and pumped a ¾" stream of water onto the bathroom floor. After shutting that and turning the water back on, the rest of the pipes started to spray every which-a-way and throughly drenched the bathroom and under the sink cabinet in the kitchen. Some of the leaks were really sneaky. As I shut off the various valves, other leaks would show up, but not with the force the others had. Thought we had it so we at least could get water to the kitchen sink, but that also had a slow leak - into the drawers filled with towels and assorted supplies. Gave up!

So ..... the next urgent project is the water system in the Hobbit Hus! As long as I have to replace everything, I think I will put in PEX as much as possible. On the way home tomorrow, I will pick up a couple rolls of PEX piping and a couple bags full of assorted other parts. It should go a lot faster using PEX with so many fewer joints and possible mistakes cutting hard pipe. One joint at each end of each line from source to use, with a shutoff valve at the manifold. Also appears to be a break in the shower mixing valve, so will check that out tomorrow before leaving. I also need to figure out what is necessary to extend and secure the valve at the well. Lyle said he would come back when we return and fill the hole after repairs are completed. Before I could ask what his efforts would cost us, he said there wouldn’t be any charge - "That’s what neighbors are for!"

I went into his shop and he apologized for it being only 30'x40' and filled too full. Too full? I don’t think so. But three walls are covered with workbenches, machines, and storage for hardware and like that. I think he could open a hardware store! The fourth wall is filled with two huge overhead doors. The center isle between them is even filled with machines of various kinds. I know where I can go to get help and advise for sure - as well as helping hand when I need it.

In our chit-chat, I found he is about 2 years older than I and retired from the county shop. He was the last blacksmith working for the county, making snowplows and the machines to make them. Suspect he knows how to work with iron and is pretty sharp to boot. I think I can get along with a man like that pretty easy. He and his wife apparently have a couple of handy/smart sons too. At one time he owned Guds Nordtre too! Sure am glad we had the water problems to meet a couple like Lyle and his wife.

May 21, 2007 (5:28am)
43º F, Overcast and humid, Very light SE wind.

Good morning,

Today should be a short one here. This probably will be short this morning and will publish it as soon as we get to FISKLAND. Might have additional pictures to add in tomorrow’s edition of TheOldNorwegian.

Before leaving this morning, I want to make a schematic of the plumbing in this house so I know pretty much what to pick up from the store. Not having enough will be a problem, as the materials for PEX are from Maynard’s, which is a long ride from here. Probably will get an oversupply, just in case. I will be able to use it in the future on the main house. I think I have the necessary tools to accomplish the task - if I get them here. I will also find out how these old joints can get into weird corners and contortions. Suspect I will also need to flush out the system, especially the water heater as I bet there is some sand in the system from the line breaking.

It just started to rain. With a metal roof on the building, the rest of the building too, it sounds something like staying in a tent during rain. Kind of neat, but makes me wonder a bit what the noise is at first. Not used to the sound that much or often. The area is rather quiet, but there must be an ATV trail in the bottoms close by. We can hear them snarling fairly often, especially on the weekends. It would be nice if the powers that be, would write some laws to quiet them down as they have the motorcycle and snowmobile. Don’t mind folks riding them, but do like my quiet at the same time. In an earlier time, if they had been available, I probably would have enjoyed riding them too. Those years are probably gone though. ATV riding is a big sport and deal up here. Getting as big as the snowmobiles are. There also are a lot of older folks riding them too.

In between acts, I have been working on the Bible study too. When one task wears me out, I switch to a different one. I normally work on the Bible studies in the morning and use if for my personal daily study time. Probably get more from the time this way, than if I just read and studied particular passages or books of the Bible. When they are finished, I can email them to Grace for printing. Of course that is when we will have email here. Until then, I just wait until we get to FISKLAND and mail it from there, usually at least a week ahead of time.

5:23 pm.

So we arrived home about 45 minutes ago. Stopped in Green Bay and spent half a fortune on plumbing and building supplies. I think I have all of the supplies I need to complete the plumbing repairs, but will bet you a dollar to a donut that I have forgotten something or other.

Time to get a-going. Belly button is chewing on my backbone.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><