Working again

August 31, 2007 (7:15am)

37º F, Clear, Calm Wind, 0 mph.

Good morning,

So it appears our ISP problems seem to be solved. The two techs came out yesterday and spent most of the morning here redoing their work when they installed it. They put in a more “powerful”, probably more sensitive, antenna and repositioned it. It now is at the peak of the house, rather than on the lower edge of the roof, aimed over it. I really think the metal roofing so close to the antenna at the first location had an effect on performance. Anywho, things are much better now.

One of the techs also “tuned up” Margriet’s computer while he was using her’s to set up the system. Actually he cleared off a bunch of junk that had accumulated and showed her how to do it in the future. He also reset some of the settings to eliminate much of it from reoccurring again. His suggestion was to add more memory, since it was slowing down things greatly. Since we have my old computer sitting there and a similar model, the techs thought they might be able to swap out the memory cards, since my old one had considerably more. Didn’t work as the cards were a different series. The end result though is that Margriet’s computer is much more responsive than before and she is less grumpy.

We met our tractor yesterday. We were in Iron River, so stopped to see Eli and how things were progressing on getting it in and looked at. It is a 1950 Ford 8N tractor that looks it’s age. I was a young kid when it was built. The sheet metal on it has seen much better days, but as I told Eli to start with, I am very much less concerned how it looks than how it works. The working part he assured me will be in good shape when I get it.

At the moment, it is up on blocks in his shop. It quit running for his son sometime ago, and when he got it into the shop and tried to start it, he hear some funning noises from the lower end of the engine. He didn’t complete the starting, but thought one rod bearing was sounding funny and decided to pull the pan to have a look and a repair. From a mechanics point of view, I like that attitude. Rather than cause more harm, find out what is going on.

The tires didn’t look too bad, the rear better than the front on wear. I also noticed the electrical system had been changed over to 12 volts with an alternator to produce power. A good thing I think, especially for starting in the winter. The grill in front of the radiator is missing, so will need to do something about that I think. Want to keep the snow grasshoppers out of it! There is a pretty sizeable “bumper,” really a crash guard in front of it. The tractor doesn’t have live hydraulics, but I did notice a power drive shaft on the front of the engine, so there is a possibility of adding that in the future without a huge problem, other than cost. Looks like I will have things to do on it while Margriet gets it ready for paint and painted. She really liked the looks of one Eli has restored and on his lot. It is pretty.

We also stopped to see if our range had come in per chance. It hasn’t but probably will today. While we were there, I had a good chat with the guy watching the store, an older part-time employee. He had also been an appliance dealer in years past, so we had a chance to talk shop, albeit old shop, for a time and swapping lies. Kind of fun. Margriet just shook her head as we were talking and enjoying the conversations.

Gosh! Labor Day weekend is upon us. Seems like just last week we signed the papers to buy Guds Nordtre and here it is the end of summer. Where did the time go? As far as progress here, we are at about the point I expected to be on June 1st! There is much to do yet before the really cold weather comes. When I went out to close everything up last night, it really felt like fall. At least the falls I remember of years ago. The air was crisp and clear, lots of stars in the black sky, and no manmade noise of any kind. Really felt pleasant and a nice way to close a day.

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><

P.S.

The pictures are what our tractor looked like when it was born, but not as we saw it. We have named it Fjord - for obvious reasons.

Cool morning

August 30, 2007 (6:33am)

39º F, Clear, Calm Wind, 0 mph.

Good morning,

A really cool day breaking this morning. Really is nice out though. Should be out working I think. Wonder how many more of these days we will have before the snow comes. Whenever it arrives, we will not be ready I am sure. At least not totally.

Our ISP tech never showed up yesterday nor die we get a call. I am grumpy about that! We pretty much stayed close to the house all day, waiting for a call or a guy to show up. I wrote an email this morning complaining. We did have some errands to run, but didn’t - waiting. The system is still not right. Still get too many errors instead of completed connections.

I did find that I can run a wire from one end of the eating kitchen, the entire length, into the bathroom. That will eventually make a lot of the surface wiring disappear. I did run out of one kind of electrical boxes and need to get more, so the progress was rather limited yesterday. We will go and get more this morning, along with some other errands.

I did get all of the nails pulled from the pieces of the walls we have taken down yesterday. Now I need to put it up in the loft of the “wood shop” and sort it to make it easier to find what I need. There are a lot of pieces to move! Didn’t think there was that much. There also is a lot that is kindling. That I am putting in smallish boxes and will put them in the wood box, one at a time, to use. I don’t think I really will use that much kindling, at least not as much as the past few years, as this woodstove will be operating more and longer.

I have a pretty good selection of 2"x4" s but they are shorter than I need at the moment. Want to fill in the huge doors in the shop before winter, but need them 8' long for that task. I am thinking of putting in three swing doors, two hinged together, rather than the monsters now there. Not all that keen on an overhead door as the leave too much cold air in when opened. With the conventional style doors, I will be able to open one as and entrance door, eliminating the extra small door now there. Eventually will put a ceiling in and the space above will be storage with a door opening to the outside to put larger things in and out. I really am not looking forward to taking down the big doors. They are built very heavy. Probably will dismantle them while they are vertical and still on the hinges. Since the wall is rather thick, I think I will be able to build the new wall/doors inside of the present doors while they are closed. At least that is the hope.

There was a hen turkey with about 8-10 chicks in the driveway yesterday morning. The chicks were very small, about the size of a softball. I thought they would be larger at this time of year, but a late crop I think. Wonder if they will survive the winter. They sure were busy eating weed seeds, but better grow very fast not to be easy meals for fox and coyotes in the area.

I also need to get busy on a couple of deer stands too. Not too sure if I will be able to hunt this year or not. Have to check on the residency requirements. If nothing else I will do some “scouting” this season and see what the patterns are around here. Of course our moving in will change them some. Lots of good stand areas on this chunk of God’s Northwoods.

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><

Bang start- Bang end

August 28, 2007 (5:30pm)

76º F, Heavy rain, SSE Wind, 2 mph.

Good evening,

Our day started with a bang and it looks like it will end with one. Well.. Really several bangs. Woke up this morning to some very loud thunder and the accompanying lightening. We really need the rain and mother nature seems to be cooperating. This morning’s rain was about ½” I would guess and we have probably an inch so far this afternoon/evening. It is nice to have after the humidity really got up there this morning. At the moment the power is off. First time for that. Guess we will have to light the kerosene lamps pretty soon. Of course now that the old range is out of the house, Margriet is cooking with electricity, which is interrupted also. Now she has something else to fret about.

During this mornings rain, the internet caused some problems, and now it is again. I suspect the weather has something to do with it, but it should not. This morning, about the time I was heading for the phone to call the ISP, everything started to work again. I have a feeling it will again, after the storm blows through. I will call/email them and try to find out if this is something we can expect to happen due to weather. I don’t think it should, but not real sure about that.

6:20 pm

So the pasta finally sat in hot water long enough to finish cooking. The chicken was at the “done” point already when the power went off. There ain’t none left now, so must have been good. The power came back on again too. So things are getting back to normal again. We lit Grandma’s kerosene lamp and it works as it has for so many year. Really a cool light source and very vintage. Love it eh!

The internet is not back, so called the ISP and they tried to reach us without any success. They well be sending someone out tomorrow to hopefully take care of the problem. The tech said it sounded like a router problem. Hope they come early and repair it early too. This will not go out until tomorrow at the earliest. Sounds like if it is the router, we may be getting a new one I would bet. Looks like this will be combined with tomorrow’s.

So I pretty much disassembled the old range. I hope I can salvage parts of it to make a small cook top to use as an auxiliary cook surface for picnics or some such in the future. Might even use it in the shop to make coffee too. The oven part is shot, needing a new gas valve/thermostat so the cost is out of the question. The range has not taken very good care of it. Lots of broken/bent parts on it. I hope I will have a small supply of some sheet metal if nothing else. There is some stainless steel in it as well. Hate to throw that away.

We did get a couple of bills paid today. Still have some to go yet. Sure am having continuing problems with the phone company in Kewaunee. Glad to have that ended and we don’t have anything to do with it. We still get a notice one day that we owe some money, then a few days later telling us we have a credit balance. Goofy!

This morning, we took a ride over to see the pastor and find out what the lessons were I will be reading on Sunday. He was in the process of getting things together for Sunday’s service. I teased him that he better get after his sermon. He said he would not be there as he and his wife would be on vacation! The service will be conducted by a member who is also a Lay Minister. Sounds like the Lay Ministers are taking over! There will be 3 of us taking care of the service. Cool eh! We had a very nice chat. He and his wife have been married 2 years. At least it is his wife’s second marriage, but we are not sure of Doug’s past. Interesting. We will I think have some good times with them.

Now the rain has stopped, and before long I will be hitting the sack for the night. Maybe I will add more to this in the morning - if we get the ISP working again

August 29, 2007 (6:10am)

Good morning,

The ISP is working this morning (Hooray!), so will send this as is.

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><

Adding currents

August 27, 2007 (6:26pm)

65º F, Cloudy, SSE Wind, 9 mph.

Good evening,

I finally have my extension cord back! The one we have been using to power the refrigerator, rather than the lamp cord extension that was on it. We now have two new outlets installed, one for the refrigerator. Hooray! The hard part was stringing the wire in the wall. I did find that there was a gap at the top of the wall to run the wire through. I didn’t think I would be able to do that and was expecting to put the wire on the surface again, but in a less obvious place. I did need to make a slot about 3" long in one place, but it will disappear when I build some cabinets. All of the wiring is now complete in the old eating place. I will add one more outlet one the opposite wall from the refrigerator, and it will also supply a new outlet into the bedroom too.

Before breakfast, I had the old range out. I thought Margriet would be jumping for joy - she was. She was glad to see it disappear. So was I! I do need to re-pipe the gas to the new range. The old line was put through the back splash of the counter top. Not too sure how I will repair that, but no matter what I do, it probably will not look all that good. Margriet sure didn’t take very long to find a use for the added counter top she has not been able to use before, even though it was only about 2' wide. I think we will pick up a section of counter top to fill the space between the refrigerator and the new stove. The cabinet from the main house will support the counter top, with the help of a couple of wall brackets, since the cabinet is about half the width of the new counter top.

Before I started the wiring this morning, I figured I would be a bit short of wire, so we ran into town. As it turned out, I had about 4" too much of what I had and didn’t need any more. Of course if we had not gone, I would have been about 4" too short. What else is new? Eh! I also need a cover for a 4" box to provide a place to gain power for the lamp over the table. They didn’t have one of those, so may need to go into Iron River tomorrow to my favorite Ace Hardware store to get one. While there, I think we will pick up a table saw. I have been using my Dad’s old saw for everything I needed cut, but haven’t used it for a few years now. It is old, very small, and the bearings need new babbitt again. I really don’t want to fool with that, or even know now where to get some.

The saw I have been drooling over is a house brand of the good old Delta I have used while teaching forever. It ain’t fancy, but will do all I want it too, just as the style did in the school shops I taught in. It no longer is the same Delta I knew, in that there is a lot less cast-iron and much more stamped sheet metal in it’s construction. I will modify it to fit my needs anyway, so as long as the basic structure is there, I will be reasonably happy. I certainly will need it to build moldings now, and cabinets, windows, &c. later.

We didn’t go to church yesterday. For some reason, I got messed up in the time and Margriet got messed up in what day it was. The end result was the we got it all together about the time we were supposed to be a church! Felt really bad about that and something was really missing from our life. This coming Sunday we are assistants for the service, so we will not miss it. We do have to stop at the pastor’s office, probably tomorrow, to see what is necessary and what the readings are. Should be interesting, since the assistants read the lessons, usher, greeters, and are communion assistants. We told you it was a small church!

Instead of going to church, we went to Alpha for brunch at the Circle Café. The café is in the old school and very interesting - food is excellent too. The furniture is made from pine in a massive, rustic style. The table in the booth we had was about 4'-0"x6'-O’ made of 2" thick natural edge pine! All of the tables and chairs are similar construction and very solid. We like the style. We really got a BIG breakfast. We ordered it with ham, which was cut from a “real” ham about ½” thick, two pieces, along with a pancake, hashbrowns, 2 eggs, 2 slices of homemade toast, and coffee. We didn’t need to eat anything for the rest of the day, but I did have a bowl of ice-cream in the evening. Me thinks we will stop there again. They are only open for breakfast and lunch though.

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><

Fishing of another kind

August 26, 2007 (6:09am)

40º F, Clear, No Wind.

Good morning,

The last Sunday of the last week of August begins a bit crisp out. The morning temperature is a bit cooler than the past couple of days. The trees are beginning to change color a bit more each day also. The geese are starting to flock up, as are the Sandhill Cranes and the noisy crows. Both are very loud at dawn and sunset. No question that they are about. There also is much talk of hunting (deer, turkey, elk) on the radio/TV. The kids are heading back to school around here this week too. Yup. Fall is on the way. Eh?

We picked up a couple of ceiling lights to replace those in the new eating kitchen. The old ones were not very attractive and one was not very useful, kind of a homemade hybrid. The new fixtures are white globes (actually they look like someone stepped on them and made them more oval than round) and much cleaner looking. Oh yes, they also produce adequate light. I also needed to resupply some electrical fittings and boxes too.

I finally invested in a fish-tape to snake the wires through the walls. I have been using hay-wire in the past years. The new fish-tape earned it’s keep yesterday. The wiring for one ceiling light is now within the ceiling and more work for it to come. It sure makes life easier. Part of the bad spider web is now gone, along with one light switch. Both of the new lights will be operated by one switch. The lamp over the table is now on it’s own circuit and we will use it’s internal switch. While I had the fish-tape in the ceiling, I pulled two wires through. Also one for the outlets on the north wall. I should run a separate circuit for the refrigerator, but will have one outlet on it too. It should be able to handle the occasional load, but the real advantage is to be able to leave the refrigerator on and the rest of the electrical circuits off when we are not around here or don’t need the electricity on.

Margriet is anxious to have the work done already, and the range in, so she can get her kitchen back to normal again, doing some real cooking and baking. Me too! There still is much wiring to change before that happens. I did bring the small, 18", loose counter over from the main house. It is just sitting in the gathering room at the moment. It is narrower than the space it will go into, so I am considering putting a piece of plywood on it for a top to take up all of the space and give a bit more counter top to Margriet. It is a temporary thing until I can actually build some cabinets in, but that is a long time away. Still don’t know what I am going to do with the floor yet.

We decided to hit a fish-fry Friday night. We both were covered with dust and not too clean from tearing out the wall, so a shower and someone else cooking sounded rather good to us. We went to a supper club west of Crystal Falls for their fish-fry. It was rather good, but out of walleyed pike we had our eye on. The scallops and cod were excellent. It looked like the place was busy, so decided before going in that if we had a wait, we would head back to Fob’s. It turned out the place was bigger on the inside than it looked on the outside. Lots of room.

There are new water and sewer lines going in all over Crystal Falls. Outside of the city too. Some of them are for fire hydrants and they extend at least a mile west of town - so far. The main street has been more or less complete and open. There still is a top coat of blacktop yet to be laid and some of the sidewalk special corners, &c. to be completed, but everything is open. At present they are putting in some very nice “old-fashioned” looking street lamps. We hope that some of the merchants do some remodeling to the building fronts, going back to an older style of look. Some of the buildings have been painted some weird colors, but still are the old style look to them. Not pretty, but one does notice them!

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><

Here then, gone now

August 25, 2007 (7:06am)

54º F, Cloudy, Calm Wind.

Good morning,

The Hobbit Hus has changed again! The wall between the eating place and the kitchen is now gone in preparation for the new range a-coming. Now we are confronted with a dilemma. What do we call the new room? Do we call it a kiting or an eathen room? Margriet said the Dutch would call it am eating kitchen. Probably what it will end up to be called.

The wall came down quicker than I thought it would. The most frustrating part of the whole deal was trying to figure out what fastener was holding everything together. Everything from a 2" clip-head nail to 4" ring-shank pole barn nails. Seemed as if in some places all were used in a string of nails holding something together. The wall sheeting was made from OSB, which shatters if the nail is too close to the edge of the sheet, causing some nasty, sharp shards to tear into my meat. Not a good thing. Now I have a pile of boards and OSB to pull nails from and to store in some orderly method.

All of the wiring is hanging like a bad spider web, now that is has no wall to be fastened too. I have some work to do with that! I think I will tie the two ceiling lights, one in each room, to a common switch and power the light over the table separately. I also want to put an outlet in for the refrigerator, rather than using an extension cord. All of the boxes were held in place on the walls with 2" pole barn screws and the wires with pig staples. Both will change. I also will rearrange the outlets, hoping to put them in the walls rather than on the walls. It will be a challenge to bury the wiring in the walls though. Might not succeed in all cases. Also need to move the gas line. But that will be mostly done outside of the building and fairly straight forward.

The floor is another matter. Each room had a different floor covering. The kitchen and bathroom have a vinyl sheet covering, but the eating room has a hard maple flooring. Not your normal wood flooring though. It is made from “tiles” each made of about 8 pieces of maple about ¼” thick x ¾” wide x 6" long held together with a wire embedded into the wood. Everything is just laid on the floor with no adhesive or other method to hold it in place, other than wedges along the two edges of the room. Of course there is a “slot” in the flooring where the wall was. Not too sure how I am going to handle it. There are some pieces around here of the maple flooring so may piece them in place. How to hold things in place is another matter. Would like to replace the whole flooring, but I think that is out of the question for the moment at least.

It will be nice to get rid of the present stove. The through the wall exhaust fan also. Both are not what I would call anything close to adequate for us. While the fan does take out the air, it also howls like a tornado in the kitchen. I never have liked them, even when new. The over-the-stove kind is much quieter and much more efficient. Don’t think we will put in either again. Also thinking of painting the walls/ceilings so at least they look like one room. Thinking of a light blue with yellow strips and orange pok-a-dots.

I did manage to get the sawmill more or less assembled, at least the hardware, the other day. Since I am making it twice as long as it was originally designed to be, I need to figure out an adjustable support for it in the middle. The rail is a total of 21' long, 2 - 9' sections and a 3' extension. The 9 footers will be the cutting area and the 3 footer the starting position for the saw. The original design calls for two supports, about 5' apart in the center of a 9 foot section. I think I can get by with 3 supports with some bracing in between. Have to do some head scratching on that though.

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><

Been runnin'

August 23, 2007 (6:34am)

64º F, Overcast/Fog, Calm Wind.

Good morning,

So .... What were you doing 4 years ago today? We were in the first day of our adventure as Man and Woman - the married kind. It really doesn’t seem that long, but we really have covered a lot of miles of life during that time. It has been an interesting experience for this stubborn Old Norwegian and a stubborn Dutch Lady to get their stubbornness on the same road. We have found that we have melded the two together and they seem to complement the other. We really do celebrate each day we are together. In fact, we celebrate so much, that we both forgot it was our anniversary yesterday until we were eating lunch! Fortunately for me, Margriet remembered she had forgotten before I did and told me.

For me, the adventure has been an exciting one. I hope it is also for Margriet. I have watched (and hopefully help) my Woman grow in so many ways. Her English has become American. She is in awe of the beauty of this country, just as I am in awe of the beauty of the Netherlands, and can’t see and do more here. She counterbalances the American “attitude” with the European experience, some we don’t agree on. Many of her tastes have been Americanized, while retaining and sharing so much of the Dutch tastes (not only food, although that ain’t bad). Often, it is me watching her enjoy something with an attitude akin to that of a child, seeing/doing something for the first time. We decided yesterday, that our adventure would continue for another 50 years as a start, then we would reevaluate the situation for the next 50 years.

We did go out to eat last night to mark the occasion. Went to Alice’s in Iron River for Italian food. It was excellent and way more than we could, or at least should, eat. Margriet had chicken, with spaghetti as a side dish and I had a kind of pasta (it looked like small pieces of dough about the size of sugar lumps) with meat sauce and Italian sausage. Margriet’s chicken was actually half of a whole chicken. She ate about half of it and the rest, along with the spaghetti, we brought home. Everything was homemade, in house, even the pastas and breads. The whole 9 yards. The owner, Alice, came around to each table to make sure everything was OK. I think she is pushing 80 years old and still works every day apparently. Excellent place.

Our ride to Escanaba was kind of a wild goose chase. Before going we searched Social Security’s website to make sure we were doing the right thing. All of the criteria Margriet met. It said that she had to be a Permanent Resident, but it didn’t say that she had to be a Permanent Resident for five years. She has been a Permanent Resident for four years! So .... we wait one more year and try again. In the meantime, we need to continue the health insurance she now has. Probably will renew that today.

Yesterday, we also finally found a 20" gas range at a local Iron River appliance dealer. It costs nearly $150.00 less than we have found the “big box” stores could order for delivery who knows when. This also is a special order, but will be here next week. It is a brand I sold at the store. Then it was my “cheap” line, but very serviceable. We both liked the store, a Mom and Pop store. For me it reminded me much of my store, but with far less inventory on hand. So .... it shouldn’t be too long before there is the smell of fresh baked bread in the house. And one happy Old Norwegian at least.

On the return from Iron River, we stopped at a machining company to ask about buying a small Ford tractor to move snow around this winter. It really reminded me of a 21st century blacksmith shop. If this had been 1900, it would have had an anvil, forge, and horses being shod. It has been there a very long time and I don’t think the floor had been swept more than a dozen times. It reminded me of a couple of places I frequented while I was in college and building race cars. Eli had a couple pieces of computer controlled equipment, but most was the old-fashioned kind that an operator needs to know what he is doing to use. From what I saw, his business has many different types of jobs going and all with excellent quality of craftsmanship just as Jeff, the realtor, said he did. Eli and I had a really good chat about many things for some time. Cool eh?

The upshot of the visit is that he does have a Ford tractor that I am looking for, but it was at his son’s house. Apparently the son said it just quit, so left it sit. Eli said he would get it in to the shop, find out what is the problem and repair it. He said usually it is nothing serious. At the moment it doesn’t have a bucket on it, but he would put one on. He apologized that it was rusty and didn’t look pretty. Told him I was interested in something that worked and ready to do work then look pretty. He did have one on his lot he completely restored as a “winter project” that really was pretty. Looked like it had just come out of the factory. If the tractor is a work machine, we probably will get it. Eli is quite the Eli!

I also opened an account at a bank in Crystal Falls yesterday (we were busy yesterday). The bank is as friendly as the one in Kewaunee I have used for the past decade. Pleased with that. They pay more interest than the Kewaunee bank too! But not much. The head teller took care of me and offered to get my Social Security payments deposited there for me. Never thought the bank could do that, so was pleased to allow her to do so. The transfer takes some time, so will do this one step at a time. Next will be getting the insurance withdrawals to come out of the account too.

We have fog this morning and the weatherman says it is to get hot today, in the mid-80's. We have needed the heater to be turned on a couple of days this week. Some of the trees, mostly maples, are starting to change color already. I think it is mostly due to the dry weather, but it sure is early this year.

Monday afternoon, our internet stopped. The LAN was working solidly, but nothing else. Like we were sending/receiving messages and they would get to the antenna, but then could go no farther. Tried everything I could think of to reset the system, but nothing worked. Finally called Uplogon yesterday morning, thinking it was just a temporary situation. The tech told me a couple of things to do, which I had already done, plus one more. None of them worked. After calling him back with the bad news, an hour later the sun came out and the internet worked again. Emailed the tech to let him know. After we got back from Iron River, the service truck for Uplogon from Iron Mountain, followed us down the driveway. They sent two guys, who installed it, out to make sure everything was working correctly. It was, and they made sure that we would call them as soon as anything happened again. We will. Really didn’t expect that kind of service at all, but nice. We haven’t been able to get one of these out since Monday, so this is a bit long. Hope your eyeballs don’t fall out for the length.

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><

Drip-atation

August 20, 2007 (5:26am)

58º F, Light Rain, No Wind.

Good morning,

It really is dreary outside this morning. There is a light rain hanging in the air, not really coming down, just kind for sitting on the ground. It is welcome for sure, as there still are some forest fires in the eastern part of the UP burning. From the sound of it, the fire is burning the roots of the trees a couple of feet underground. The firefighters are having a heck of a time, since as the roots turn to ash, the soil collapses under their feet and vehicles. Sounds like fun!

It was a pretty slow day around here yesterday. I fed some pills to Margriet and after a nap yesterday morning, the seemed to take effect pretty much. At least she was able to walk upright and move fairly close to normal again. By the end of the day, things were really back to normal again - more or less. Hope today is more normal than yesterday for her.

Some of the things we brought back we can use in the Hobbit Hus, but there is not any room for them. We are dealing with a real three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle! Mostly we need storage in here, but the shelving we brought back doesn’t really fit anywhere. Some of the things we don’t use that much can be kept in the main house, and retrieved as necessary. But there are also other things that would be nice to have in here too. Eventually everything will kind of settle into a place that works. Margriet is having fun with the puzzle - I think.

I did get part of the truck unloaded, but there still is much on it yet. Some of the most important, like groceries, are in the front of the truck, so will be the last off. Much we are trying to decide whether to bring in here or the main house. Don’t want to move it twice if we can help it. Most of the shop stuff and lumber is off. That was the last on, more or less, after the ladder and long lumber were on. I do have to take time one of these days and change the oil in the truck too. Come to think of it, I left the drain pan in Kewaunee. Have to figure something out.

Margriet mentioned yesterday that she has not been signed up for Medicare yet. With the moving, &c. I plum forgot about that. Did some web searching yesterday and think we will need to take a ride to Escanaba one of these first days. That is the closest Social Security office. It will be a drive of about 75 miles each way, but too important not to make. I think she could apply via their website, but with the lack of some of the immigration papers (they are about 2 years behind) we probably will need to show them what we have. If the truck were empty, we probably would go today as it is raining out and every thing is wet.

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><

Went-ed and came-ed

August 17, 2007 (7:57pm)

66º F, Overcast, Brisk NW Wind.

Good evening,

Pretty much of a wasted day in many respects. One of our major goals today was to pick up a 20" gas range for the Hobbit Hus. Didn’t happen. Found electric, but no gas ranges at all. Didn’t think it would be a problem, as we had seen them in at least one store before. We went back and only electric on hand. One store had 46 in a warehouse somewhere, but none for a couple of weeks too the store. Not too sure what the next step is, but we will check our a store in Luxemburg on the way back. Sure do hope they have one, or we will need to probably order on through a store in Iron Mountain or some such.

We made pretty good time coming down. Better than usual I think, but Margriet said it was pretty close to a normal time. There were lots of folks heading north. Hope they don’t head south until Sunday, so we have a fast trip back tomorrow. For some reason, we just can’t seem to get on the road until about 10:00 A.M. or a little before. Same today, even when I got up early and started things moving - at least for me. Expected to pull into Green Bay about noon:30 P.M., but arrived about 20 minutes before that. Of course we headed for the Old Country Buffet for lunch before doing anything else. Good as usual.

The price of gasoline when we left was $3.009/gallon (never seen even dollar amount before) and the web said the price in Green Bay was $2.859/gallon. There is a huge fire at a refinery in Louisiana and the price is expected to go up because of it. The price was $2.849/gallon on the west side of town when we pulled in. With all of the running around we did, we couldn’t make it to Kewaunee to fill up, so stopped and put some in. The price had gone up 5¢/gallon while we were running around town! Put in about a third of a tank and filled up in Kewaunee at 1¢/gallon less.

The hardest part of this whole deal for me, is trying to give up all of the plans, dreams, and ideas I had for this place. I can still “see” the little house and the garage/shop I intended to build of logs. The stakes are still in the ground for the corners of both. Many logs cut, but no longer useable for the task any more. That is probably one of the saddest things, to see the logs going to waste. Do wish I had a nickel for every hour of work I have put into this place in the past 10 years.

We did stop and pick up some groceries before looking for a range. We were surprised to see brocolii and calaflower were 20¢/# higher than in Crystal Falls last week. On the other hand, tomatoes were $2.00/# cheaper, so picked up a supply of them. Some may get dried. Peppers were also much cheaper than we have seen them in a long time too, so they many find their way to the dryer too. Generally though, the food prices, like everything else is really getting expensive. There is a place in the basement of the main house that lends itself to a root cellar. Think I just might do something about building one in there. Would be nice to have 100# of potatoes and 50# of onions on hand. Carrots and squash too. Now that we have the freezer, we can pick up meat and other things on sale too.

This Old Norwegian and his Woman are very tired tonight. We both are thinking of calling it a night and get up early and at the packing. Hope to stop and pick up the mail and my medications early in the morning tomorrow, then finish packing and get out of town as early as possible.

August 19, 2007 (5:43am)

50º F, Cloudy, Calm Wind, No mph.

Good morning,

So we are back again at Guds Nordtre. Good to be home again. It appears to be a close to home day. Margriet pulled something in her back, above right hip, reaching yesterday. It has her all stove-in and very difficult to move from one position to another. Sure puts a kick in her style (pun intended). I don’t like to see her hobbling around or hurting at all. It doesn’t happen often, but that is still too much for her to be hurting. Suspect we will not be going to church today either.

Staying home will give me a chance to unload the truck and get some of the things put in at least their general area, so my Woman can organize them when she straightens herself out again. We didn’t bring as much along as I had planned to. When I was taking some lumber out of the storage shed, I found that there were 4,509,673,120,946,845 ants nesting between the pieces. They were small ones and I tried to get rid of as many as possible with some bug spray. There sure is a pile of dead ants outside the door of the shed! It took a lot of time to spray and sweep them from the lumber. It really surprised me to see them, at least that m any. I expect an occasional mouse nest, but not that many ants. Some of the lumber, came with the place when we bought it (OSB that I don’t like to use) and hasn’t been moved since I built a rack for it in the rafters.

I also brought back and extension ladder that I thought was 20' long. Turned out to be a 24' ladder. The interior of the truck is 12' long, actual, and the ladder would have fit in, if it weren’t for the feet on it. I had to put it in caty-wumpus so it kind of messed up the packing of square boxes some. It is hard to fit a rectangle into a triangle. All this time I thought it was hard fitting a square peg into a round hole. Guess there are other problems in this world too! We also did bring back more of our metal shelving (I think that is all of it) and now need to find places to put it. We can really use it in here, but there isn’t that much room for it here. I know there is room for it in the main house and we have more than enough to put on them!

We got a later start coming up than planned, so had a very late lunch at the “Buffet” and ate too much. It was pretty much the only meal we ate all day though. On the way back I was getting sleepy (I started to pack at 5:30 A.M.) so “had” to stop at the “Ice Cream Station” and pick up a malt. Really needed to get out and walk around a bit. It was fun to listen to some of the little kids there with their Grandparents and trying to figure out which flavor to pick from. I didn’t mind the wait in line in the least. I told the gal she had too many flavors to pick from. They, kids and Grandparents, sure were cute. The malt was good too.

Our post office box runs out at the end of the month, so the Kewaunee address will be dead after that. I shut off the phone, so that is gone too. Things are slowly shutting down in Kewaunee and the expenses there are also getting less. As soon as the refrigerator is empty (we keep finding too many bargains to bring up here), we will be able to shut off the power when we aren’t there. The hot water heater will also be shut down so the LP can also be shut off. I am trying to decide if I should just drain everything and leave the heat off for the winter or not. Probably will.

We always notice the change in the landscape from farmland to forest, as we travel north. Yesterday I paid particular notice and discovered that it pretty much was farmland until we got the Crivitz, then it changed very quickly to forest. By the time we had traveled 10 miles, everything almost was heavy forest with very few farms and they were small. The hills also start to be much more numerous as did the ATV/snowmobile trails. ATV’s/snowmobiles are allowed on most roads and right-a-ways in this part of the world, so occasionally you have to duck them too. The drivers are pretty well mannered, so it really isn’t a problem at all.

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><

75% here!

August 17, 2007 (5:52am)

41º F, Clear, Calm Wind, 0 mph.

Good morning,

It is a bit cooler this morning. The weatherman is talking of frost possible Saturday or Sunday nights. Cool! Wonderful, sunny, and nice day yesterday. Last night before going to bed, we heard coyotes “singing” in the not too far distance. A first for us to hear here. Kind of raw wild sound. Sure don’t hear that in the city.

Finally, the sawmill arrived - almost. Three of the four boxes arrived late yesterday afternoon. The fourth, one 9' rail, is still to come. Some how it missed the truck bringing it from Memphis north the other night. It should come today and I asked the driver if he would just leave it if we are not here. All of them went from Madison, Mississippi to Kewaunee, before coming here. Sent several emails to the company trying to figure out why the detour. Someone there forgot to change the address on the shipment papers. The change was made about a month ago. When I sent a copy of the email changing the address, the boxes were redirected at once. I think they assumed I had not told them and would be responsible for the extra shipping charges. Implementation!

Of course I had to take everything out of the boxes and play a bit with the pieces. It is a pretty healthy construction of all the pieces. Much of the mill is made of some pretty heavy aluminum. The machining and extrusion is of excellent quality. I really am impressed. A lot of care has gone into the design and construction of the mill. Much better quality than on some others I have actually seen “in the flesh.” The extra rail, not normally with the mill, should allow me to cut logs a bit over 20' long. I can cut longer, but would have to re-set the log on the mill. Now I am anxious to get it set up and working. It is pretty late in the season, but still expect to be cutting lumber before the snow is eyeball deep.

The rails are connected together with a very clever system. The rail is a rectangular box, about 1½”x4" (but in metric measurements of course coming from Sweden) in cross-section, with several “ears” for the carriage to slide on. A very interesting piece about 1' long is machined that fits into the open box. It has a “V” on each side that is pressed onto the edges of the box. Between them is a “W” shaped member of aluminum, that is expanded to force the “V’s” into the four corners of the box with 4 cap screws, aligning it and holding it in place. Very interesting concept and one I would not have thought of at all.

The entire system is very simple in implementation. The machining and extrusion of the parts are the difficult part. The entire mill is also surprisingly light weight too. Of course that doesn’t include the base that I need to build to make it function. That should give me some exercise for a while. The entire mill can be made stationary, as I intend to do, or can be used in various parts, taking it to the log and milling it, after attaching the mill to the log. Really some though and experience went into the whole system.

We are heading to Kewaunee today, hopefully early this morning. We want to pick up an apartment size gas range on the way down. We think we have a way to “jury-rig” it for use until I can knock another wall out and redo the kitchen some. Too many other items on the 2-DO list ahead of that however. Margriet is excited with the possibility of being able to bake bread again. Me too! In the process, she will gain a couple of feet of counter space next to the sink, but lose it in the eating place part of the kitchen. The range will also stick out some, but we will make do and eat better I think.

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><

The Notebook has some if it's pages back in again.

August 15, 2007 (8:02pm)

71º F, Clear, SE Wind, 3 mph.

Good evening,

So we have our “old” notebook back again. The tech was able to restore the operating system and the Windows programs. Most importantly was my address book for emails. He wasn’t able to restore the address book for WordPerfect however. That is the one I use the most for snail mail. I do have a bunch of programs to install again too. Seems like that is all I have been doing this week - installing programs. I still don’t have them all installed on the new notebook yet. Probably another week. ☻

The new notebook really works well, but it is taking some getting used to. I really enjoy the monitor screen. Not too sure I will even use the large monitor I have. This one is really working well and much better color detail. I might have the monitor set up wrong, but this is nice.

One of the other problems I am having is changing over the various programs to reflect our new digs. ITOL email will die at the end of the month and our phone in Kewaunee is already disconnected. I am getting confused with the different passwords and keeping them straight. Someday there will be fewer and I will have my fill-in program set correctly so I don’t have to worry about them. ICQ really threw me a curve and would not allow me to open it, with the settings from the other computer, and use it. I had to reinstall it again, which also means all my “contacts” have to accept the new site. Oh well, eventually it will all shake out. I still have a couple of instant message programs to reconstruct yet.

I spent a good portion of the day cutting brush and clearing up the north side of the Hobbit Hus. There sure are a lot of tangle brush back there. There are several small pine trees I am going to try to transplant. I hate to see them just get thrown away. I am saving as many trees as I can, but mostly the pines. Some birch and poplar are also being saved, but there are a lot more being cut down and some are big enough to use for firewood. We want the pines to be a windbreak during the winter. Those that I am moving, will be planted as a windbreak also or along our south lot line as a sight line break.

While I cleaning up the brush, I am taking it to the crest of creek cut. It will be a good deer stand for later. The spot overlooks the creek bottom on the end of a point. There are a couple of places like that on the property, so at least I will have a decent place to stand. I am also finding deer beds in various places. Some are very close to the buildings, at the edge of the woods. Some are right out on the lawn, if the lawn were cut. They probably would not be bedding down there if it were mowed short. We saw a doe in the driveway on our way to pick up the notebook. She walked straight at us, until she was about 30 feet from the truck moving toward her. She finally walked down the driveway, just a little faster than I was driving, before turning into the woods. Would like to meet her in November. Love it!

The sawmill has been attempted to be delivered - in Kewaunee! The shipping address is supposed to be here. I followed the progress on FedEx’s website. Don’t know when it will arrive now. We want to go to Kewaunee tomorrow, so it probably will show up here - just after we leave! The attempt to deliver was a bit after 8:00 A.M. this morning. I am sure they tried to call first, but the phone is disconnected there. Oh well, another thing to shake out. I need meds, so we will be going very soon. I run out on Friday.

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><

Missing pages

August 14, 2007 (8:48pm)

63º F, Clear, Calm Wind.

Good evening,

Don’t know how long this will be, as it is tired out tonight and much later than normal for me. We have had a beautiful day today - temperature in the mid-70's, a nice breeze, and sunshine most of the day. A really nice day. Looks like the next few will be similar, but a bit cooler. Like that.

So the notebook is at the doctor, apparently it has lost some of it’s pages. At first the tech thought the hard drive may have died, but after calling today, he said that some files were corrupted, but he could bring it back to life. The most encouraging part is he thought most of the files are OK, but I probably will need to reload some programs. Hope that is the case. Needless to say, the cost will be much less than we at first thought. Should be able to pick it up tomorrow afternoon.

While we were at the store, in Crystal Falls, we noticed a couple of notebooks at reasonable prices, as reasonable as they get I guess would be a fair statement. One, an HP, was a couple hundred dollars less than we have seen for a comparable model at the big box stores. Our plan was to pick up another laptop and use it for our “second main” computer - so we did. I have spent most of yesterday afternoon and a good chunk of today, getting it set up and operating. It still isn’t all set up, but as you can see it is working well enough to compose this. Can you tell the difference in the quality? The screen on this is wider than the old notebook and it is about half the weight and thickness. The only drawback so far is it only has two USB ports, as opposed to 3 on the old one. As soon as I can find the power supply for the dock (it is in one of these boxes around here), that problem should be solved. The quality of the image on the screen is outstanding. It also uses considerably less electricity, while the battery life between charging is about double. Like that part a bunch.

I did get outside for a few hours today and get some of the brush to the north of the Hobbit Hus cleaned up and some of the hay field around it too. The north side is mostly tangle brush. I want to get all of the trees within 10' of the house, both houses, cut down and 50' around clear of undergrowth. I did trim the branches off of the houses, but next will be cutting down the trees. At least I will have some firewood. I also have to get out and mark trees for cutting this winter. Hard to tell which is with out green leaves during winter.

The sawmill was shipped yesterday from Madison, Mississippi and made it as far as Memphis, Tennessee this morning. FedEx has a website to track the progress of the shipment. Coming in 4 separate containers. We had thought about heading to Kewaunee for another load today, but will wait for the freight to arrive first. I am some anxious to get it and start to play with it. Better start cutting some cedar trees for the bucks and base of it too. Been eyeing a few for possible materials.

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><

Nice to breath air you can't see!

August 13, 2007 (8:29am)
56º F, Beautiful Sunshine, Calm winds

Good morning,

Finally I am on this site and able to blog. Whew! When we arrived back, I discovered that the laptop had decided to lose it’s operating system for some reason. Fooled around with it all day yesterday trying to bring it back to life with no success. Me thinks we will be making a trip to the confuser doctor this morning and let him pronounce a plan of action for repair - hopefully. I also spent a very long time last night and this morning, trying to remember all of the passwords, &c. to use this one, Margriet’s, to access the various accounts. Finally was able to bring this up a couple of minutes ago. Whew! Whew! Still don’t have them all, but getting there. The big reason for not remembering the passwords, besides having a terrible memory, is that I have them automated on "my" computer, so don’t use them very often.

We had a very good trip to the Churchwide Assembly, but very happy to be away from Chicago - too many sidewalks, too many people, too many big building too close together, to much bad air (don’t really like to see the air), and way too hot. The hotel was too fancy for these old folks - pretty fancy digs. At $180.00/day, they better be. The food provided by the Church was excellent and I know we ate too much, but it ain’t gonna’ happen again for some time, if ever. Thank goodness for the transportation provided by the Church. Rides to/from the airport, to/from Chicago. We are amazed how the whole event was so well organized and so few glitches. It was a wonderful experience. Now if we could get them to have it say at Alpha next time - not.

We were in awe of the Assembly experience. I didn’t expect so much prayer, quiet time, and such a calling of the Spirit to guide us in our deliberations. Not sure why, but expected it to be more of a school board meeting like event more than a church event for some reason. Before EVERY vote, we called for the direction of the Spirit to guide us and a prayer. Really didn’t expect that for some reason, even though I normally would have on my own. Awesome! Each day had a Bible study and a worship service. They were awesome. The theme of the studies was the book of Galatians with the opening study a very dramatic reading of part of the book. Absolutely wonderful. Very thought provoking too. The worship services were many different settings and music than we are used to. Some with a Latino emphasis. I really liked the music of it, and the others too, but that style of music doesn’t have a bass line as such, so it was some difficult for me to sing to, besides being unfamiliar music and words. Still the services were totally enjoyable and inspiring for us.

The business of the Assembly also was awesome - in the amount of work before us. We re-elected our Presiding Bishop to another 6 year term. He has turned out to be a terrific leader, not only of the church, but of the Assembly. His patience is unbelievable, as is his knowledge of procedure. We also elected a new Secretary. This time an attorney who has been the Parliamentarian for the past couple of Assemblies. He seems capable, but we wonder if a non-ordained person will leave some holes in his fulfilling of the duties. Time will tell. We also accepted full communion with an expanded Morravian Church. That is a good thing. A new worship hymnal was also approved and consecrated. It is the one we used in our worship services. Many new settings and some of the good old hymns left out of the present one as a concession to another Lutheran church who also wanted to use it, then didn’t in the end. I like it. There also were some 30 actions taken my the Assembly. Some created some huge debate.

The gay lobby got one of their agenda passed, a fall-back item when their main thrust was not passed, but defeated soundly. I was not happy with it being passed at all, but it really has little effect on the scheme of things for the present time. The true measure comes in the 2009 Assembly. They tried to backdoor the measure, but it didn’t work. Instead they gained some time of no further discipline for gay pastors, but also no further ordaining of any either. I was surprised to see any gay pastors, but there are a number of them, some have been relieved of their duties. Most of the folks supporting the gay movement were guests/observers, so didn’t have any vote. The final resolution in 2009 will need to pass by a vote, so for the present, it looks like the gays will be defeated. Hope the margin stays that or increases. This whole issue is involving a very visible and blatant sin. The backdoor movement was to turn it into a discussion of "this ain’t fair" issue. Sin has consequences, but these folks seem to feel they don’t deserve the consequences for some reason. In the end, I believe the issue will exclude gay folks from the pastorate, but we still will minister to the gay influence. Some folks, and the media seems to encourage the idea, think there will be a split in the church, but if there is, it will be the gay folks leaving I think. At least that is my hope and prayer.

It was really good to be back and worship in our little church in Florence yesterday. The pastor surprised us by introducing us to the congregation during the service while commenting on the Assembly. He had followed much of the Assembly via the internet, www.ELCA.com which also has summaries of the Assembly online now and for some time to come. I have not viewed it much yet, since my computer has been down and I have been fooling around to get my computer back up again. I will though, as we left before it was over to catch our plane here. More about that in the future blogs I am sure. We did have some interesting experiences on the way to/from the Assembly too.

So today we get back to normal, resting up some and getting things done around here too. It is sooooooo nice to be home again. It was an absolute delight to step out of our vehicle, feeling a light, clean, rain falling. Not seeing any people or tall buildings, and no sidewalks. Just the sight of trees and actually seeing the sky without all of the thick air (we don’t like being able to see the air) and buildings in the way.

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><

The General Store

August 4, 2007 (5:24am)
38º F, Clear, Calm wind.

Good morning,

Coolest day we have had in some time. Looks to be a beautiful day a-coming with a high of just over 80º F and partly cloudy with a nice breeze. The days are getting perceptibly shorter now. Would like them to stay brighter longer, but not too much I can do about that. We had are really beautiful day again yesterday. We sure can use rain though. There are several forest fires to the east and one to the north of here. Most have been contained, but since they are in timber, will take a while to out. One is at the sight of an old sawmill and the fire is burning 4' underground in the old sawdust. The fire department said that would probably burn for a month or two, even though they are pouring water on it constantly.

So .... besides having a Turkey Trot yesterday (which was way cool!), we went to the thriving metropolis of Alpha yesterday to check out the new Alpha General Store. It really is nice and is set up similar to an old grocery store from my kid-ship era. Only difference is the butcher counter is missing. No carts, but I think they do have baskets available to carry. Shelves are cram packed and high in narrow isles. Also an ice-cream counter. Something we will need to check out. Their prices are reasonable and cheaper on many item than Crystal Falls. Like milk is about a dollar a gallon cheaper! We did pickup a couple of things to take along on our trek to Churchwide Assembly. I think we will be stopping in there some often, especially to check out the ice-cream.

The store building is detached from the school and served originally as the bus garage. The last use, before the store, was for the town’s fire trucks. I thought it may have been the old industrial arts shop, but in chatting with the owner, the old shop is in the basement of the main school building, complete with the old machine electrical hookups and safety instructions on the walls. Bet there is a lot of gray and/or green paint there too! Seems all shops used those color schemes eventually. Sometime I will have to con the owner into letting me go into the old shop to look around. I probably have set a couple up very similar to it.

The main reason for the trip to Alpha was to mail some papers to the Netherlands. We had the postmaster scratching, especially when we wanted the envelop sent registered mail. It takes a whole different set of paperwork to do internationally. She did accomplish the task and was apologizing for the high cost. Much higher than the normal rate. She wasn’t used to the high cost at all. Of course we/I had to tease her a bit too, since she will probably be learning more about sending things to the Netherlands.

I finally found a dealer for the water filter replacement elements thanx to the web. Turns out there is a dealer in Crystal Falls that handles them. Boy are they expensive though and need to be replaced every 3 months. We will have to find a place to purchase them as cheaply as possible in the near future, then will buy in some bulk. We will check out the local guy first though.

The weather finally cooperated enough so I could start the repairs of the old water shut off. In the hot sun, I really didn’t want to work in a 5' deep hole in the sand. Too much like a solar oven! Since the electrical wiring for this house and the shop are also at the bottom of the hole, I have to pick my work time so I can shut off the electrical service and not cause too much disruption. Don’t want no grumpy woman in my house! Also I really don’t want to be a crispy critter testing the electrical service for breaks.

Monday morning, about 3:30 A.M., we leave Guds Nordtre to drive to the airport, near Gwinn. From there to Chicago via a stop in Green Bay. It will be interesting to be in Green Bay on the other side of the security lines and wait for take off again after a 30 minute stop-over. With the time change, central to eastern to central again, we arrive in Green Bay 20 minutes before we take off from Sawyer International Airport! I think we are on the first flight out for the day on Monday. I was able to download my ticket from the website, but need to wait until 24 hours before takeoff to download Margriet’s. Not sure of the reason, but think it has something to do with my ticket on a corporate account and her’s isn’t. At least everything is paid for and we should be in good shape - at least until we get to Chicago, then the adventure starts. We are looking forward to the Assembly, but not too sure of life in Chicago.

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris ><>

Turkey Trot

12:21 pm

Good afternoon,

Just got home from the post office a bit ago. Waiting for us were a couple of hen turkeys and 11 young. They didn’t take to the woods as usual for some reason, but headed for the weeds and some wild raspberries, eating as they slowly wandered on their way, after a detour to check out the pole building. This is the most turkeys we have seen in one flock since arriving here. We probably watched them for close to 10 minutes before they were gone from sight. Cool! Eh?

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><

Churchy

August 3, 2007 (5:55am)
47º F, Clear, Calm wind, 0 mph.

Good morning,

A snitch cooler this morning than past mornings. I actually had to close all of the windows when I got up. Only 69º F in here at the moment. There is a "Fire Weather Advisory" posted for this area yesterday to be in effect today. I see however it has been dropped this morning. I have never seen that posted before or even knew it existed. It sounds as if the humidity is low and temperature is high for a period of time, the chance of forest fire is elevated. It makes some sense, but never saw it before.

We drove to Florence to chat with the pastor of our "new" church. Interesting chat. He is half time at Bethlehem Lutheran and half time at the Presbyterian church in Florence. Seems to be a strange combination, especially when he has been there for 19 years. Very uncommon then. He also is Interim Pastor for the ELCA church in Amasa (the one we visited some time ago) and one in Iron River. That should keep him out of some mischief now and then. He also has just been elected as Secretary to the Synod. In his "spare time" he also is an EMT and a member of the local rescue squad and in the finishing stages of building a new house.

We told him we both had graduated from Lay School of Ministry and he was interested for sure. We offered our services and told him to put us to work. One of his first thoughts was the probably there would be one or two folks very happy to back away from council to make room for me. Not for me anymore. He also wanted to know if preaching was in the possible "tasks." Of course I said yes, when needed. He also wanted to know if we would help with communion and as service assistants. Again a yes from us. It sounds like he really would like some help and we would be able to fill that need for sure. They have a Bible study which meets Sunday evenings at one of the members homes around a fireplace - hopefully not lit until winter! I asked how come there is not coffee after the services, since that is very un-Lutheran. He didn’t know, but they do have it apparently after the first Sunday of every month, up from about 3 times a year during the summer months. Have to work on that.

Many of the activities, especially the youth, are shared with the Presbyterian church. The parsonage, now the church office, is owned by the Presbyterian church and located next door to the church. On the other side of the house is the county courthouse and jail. Guess the folks who are in the office will go in one direction or the other, depending on their actions! I at least got a chuckle from the location. The parsonage has been the home of the pastor and he is still taking his belongings out of it. The youth group has commandeered one bedroom as theirs and another has been claimed by the ladies for their ministries.

Both churches have a long history of cooperation and sharing pastors. Both were on the brink of dying, so decided some cooperation was their saving grace. Small towns seem to be able to do that better than in cities I think. The churches are located about 4 blocks apart, but still have some time coordination problems. The service at Bethlehem ends at 9:30 A.M. and the Sunday School starts at 9:45 A.M. at the Presbyterian church. Things like that apparently happen all of the time. I teased him that it sure made sure his sermons were on time and short! He said there were a few folks how let him know if it goes over 9 minutes. I didn’t tell him that Howard’s were normally about 30 minutes long - which is too long for my head to stay with.

I think there are some real things we can do to further God’s mission at Bethlehem Lutheran. I think we are going to bloom some, having been planted here. One thing, even though the congregation is well over 100 years old, it doesn’t have a constitution! Apparently at some point there was one, but when the church really fell on hard times and was a satellite of a church in Iron Mountain, all of the church documents were taken there and have since been lost. From the sound of it, the folks are not all that anxious to have one either. Not too sure how they get around that with the state and the tax laws for both State and Federal governments.

Just before we left, I asked to see a local phone book (our listings end at the state border) to look up one of the guys I hunted with starting about 40 years ago, who lives in Florence. I found his name his name and address, but the pastor said he had died a couple years ago of a brain tumor. He is about 10 year younger than I and was really a shock. Dave was a character and would help or give the shirt off of his back, even if he didn’t have any, to anyone in need. I had hoped to hook up with him again, not only to review old lies, but to create new ones. He was a really good egg.

We have a new "general store" open in Alpha as of the 1st. We will have to look it over as we have to go to the post office this morning to mail an envelop to the Netherlands. Alpha General Store is located in the old school on the city circle. A couple has purchased the entire building and grounds, intending to add small shops and apartments to the existing restaurant and now general store. There intent is to keep it "old" looking and return the building to it’s original style and feel. I applaud them.

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris ><>

Hottest, hottest, hottest.

August 2, 2007 (6:18am)
67º F, Clear, Dead clam calm wind.

Good morning,

Feels like another hot day a-coming, but not as hot as the past couple - by a few degrees. I think our high yesterday was 97º F, but the saving part was that we had a pretty good SW wind most of the day and with the humidity down, the temperature didn’t feel as bad as the day before. Seems like a forever ago that I needed to use any kind of covers at night. Today the humidity is back up again. There were some storms to the north and east of us during the night, but nothing here. Could use some.

A major bridge in Minneapolis collapsed during rush hour yesterday afternoon. The last I saw, there were six dead and many injured. Not a good thing. We have been over that bridge many times, lately when we went to the Holy Spirit Conferences. I first heard (saw) it on the BBC’s news website. Seems strange that the BBC had coverage of it before our news services. They even had a video story about it. English and American language and customs are some different. The BBC had an interview with the "Governor" of Minneapolis, but not the Mayor.

The pictures for today show a couple of changes we have made in the eating place. The old homemade table light made of 2"x4" s and 2"x2" s with a surface mount light socket, has been replaced by a hanging "kerosene" swag lamp. The surface wiring to the light is now gone and replace by what I hope is a better looking gold chain. There also is a shelf on the wall next to the refrigerator, adding some much needed storage for Margriet. It already too small. It came from the main house, hanging on a wall in the bedroom unused and the wall it was hanging on is going to move eventually. The ceiling light will also be chance to something else and the wall to the left, between the eating place and the rest of the kitchen will be removed to make room for a real range.

We are very slowly making our way through the last batch of boxes we brought up, even a couple of those we brought the time before. It is a tedious task to accomplish. Usually I wait until the heat of the day to work on it. I had a chuckle at Margriet yesterday. She was working on the ledger yesterday and she said the heat had damaged her brain! Seems her concentration level drops considerably and after making a couple of entries, has to do something else for a bit. I know the feeling well.

One of the unexpected benefits of this going through things that I haven’t for some time is I am finding some of the old Bible studies I wrote in the past, stored on floppy disks, and found I can’t recover them from the disks any more as they have died. I reused paper that is blank on one side. Too cheap to throw something away that still can be used. The Bible studies are on the backs of many of the pages. Maybe someday I will have a complete set of those I wrote. Since we are at a new church, might be able to use them again. I hope.

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris ><>

Hotter, hotter, hotter.

August 1, 2007 (6:14am)
61º F, Clear, Dead calm wind.

Good morning,

The hot continues. While it didn’t get as hot as the weatherman predicted (by 2º F), it was still hotter than the previous day. Again there was almost no wind all day, which seemed to just intensify the heat. The humidity is way down, thankfully, but there is no rain in the immediate forecast either and it is needed. I can’t imagine working outdoors for a full day, yet I have and a lot of days too. Many days during and after college, I worked as a mechanic in service stations, which also included filling cars with gas on a very hot, blacktop drive. The summer I graduated from college, I worked in a station in Menomonie during one of the hottest summers on record. It was in the days when we all wore uniforms - dark green, made from the first polyester fabrics which didn’t breath and trapped our body heat. No wonder I only weighed 144# at the time! Guess this old body has changed considerably.

We really didn’t do a whole lot yesterday, other than try not to sweat. I had some "paperwork" to get out in the morning. By the time I finished, the temperature was really up there and rising. I did get about half of the new lock set put into the door, before the sun came around there and turned the entryway into a solar oven. I finished the task after supper when the shade returned again. We bought a house brand, Ace Hardware, lock set and that really turned out to be a good thing. It is much stronger built than the previous one and much stronger than the price indicated. The door portion of the set, fit where the old one was like a slap in the face. I did need to do some whittling on the door frame, since the bolt and receiver are larger/heavier than the old one. A shape chisel made short work of it though. The knob is actually a lever handle. We like those better, as we can open the door will carrying something. Sure it will also make a difference when our hands work less well than they do now tool.

I am becoming a firm believer in Ace Hardware’s house brand products. Those that we have bought, have been of excellent quality and most have a lifetime warranty on parts at least. When I stopped the other day to pick up a new seat for the kitchen faucet, the clerk found them on the shelf, handed them to me, and said, "Put them in your pocket." No questions asked, no hassle, no grumpy me! While I worked at Dale’s, True Value, the same was true. Ace and True Value are fierce commentators and very similar in product lines and attitudes. All of their tools also have a lifetime no cost replacement warranty with them also. They carry quality, name brand products too. Like all stores, they also carry a lot of sucker bait for the city dudes too.

I piked up a pack of Dad’s letters to Mom. They were written while Dad was teaching at Cranbrook. I must say, there is a lot less "mush" in them than I expected or what I wrote when I was courting. Rather business like. Seems they both wrote each other once a day at least (wonder where I get the writing everyday.). Apparently Mom went trough them sometime before she died. All are numbered, I am in the 300's, and the stamps are cut off. I remember her cousin Ralph, was a stamp collector and that is probably where they went. I can remember sending some to him, or at least giving them to Mom to give to him. Ralph also took a number of pictures over the years of Mom too. He didn’t come back into Mom’s life until after Dad died. Don’t know what happened during the years in between.

The pictures here are of some of the changes we have made here. The most notable is removal of a wall. The first picture is before and the following two is after. Notice that we now have more room for boxes and stuff. Hopefully all will gravitate to their own places for the duration - until the next thing added or changed. Margriet now has a "desk" for her computer and sewing machine. This is absolutely temporary - I want my sawhorses back again!

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris ><>