Coloring time!

September 22, 2007

(6:07am)45º F, Clear, No Wind.

Good evening,

Boy I had a hard time getting this machine up and running this morning. For what ever reason it decided to lock up and I couldn’t even restart it normally. Not too sure what was hanging, but seems to be gone now.

The new range did a good job of building breakfast yesterday, though Margriet needs to refresh her skills with a real flame again. It is a lot faster heat than the electric skillet! Didn’t burn anything, but she discovered she has to watch things closer. This range can also turn down the flame to a very small, low heat mode. That is really nice to hold food at a “keep warm” setting. We went to Crystal Falls for some walleyed pike and perch on their fish fry last night so supper was not prepared on the new range. Margriet did wake up her sourdough starter again, so expect there will be some good smells in the Hobbit Hus in the next day or so. That will be a good thing, as I know we are getting back to a normal again! Tasty too!

Took a run into Iron River yesterday and stopped at the realtor to see if they are still alive and kicking. Every time we have gone by in the past, they have had clients there and we didn’t want to intrude. Their office is very small and compact. They are doing fine and we had to swap lies of course. They seemed to be glad to see us, and we them. They are a really fun group to be with and around. I really didn’t get a chance to talk to Karla much and complement her on the quilts she had at the show last weekend. I was too busy swapping lies with Jeff. He and his family are on the front cover of the newest propaganda booklet for Ski Brule, so of course had to tease him about that. His wife’s father ran the place for many years and now has been passed to his son, Jeff’s Brother-in-law.

In the conversation with Jeff, we also found out that he has the same outdoor wood furnace as we are getting from Eli. Apparently he got a similar deal from him as we did. He loves the furnace and has not had any problems with it. Good to hear. Jeff is the one who steered us to Eli. So far that has been a good deal I think.

We did stop at Eli’s too to check on the tractor. The block has several cracks in it that cannot be repaired, so Eli is getting a different block to put into the tractor. Eventually, I think we should have a tractor in pretty good shape and last for awhile - if I don’t screw it up some how. Sounds like the cracks showed themselves when the machining was started and a really good clean-up was done first. They are in a place that can’t be repaired. Sounds like we will have an almost new tractor from the transmission forward.

The furnace had also come and he was in the process of cleaning it up and getting it ready for us. I must say the guy is through about his work. I can think of a bunch of folks who would not take the time and just look for the check at the end of the deal. I think Jeff aimed us at a good place to do business with in the future when/if we need his skills. In spite of the looks of his shop (like a blacksmith shop at the turn of the century), he and his employees really do some quality work where quality is necessary. Like that.

While in Iron River, we noticed that one of the grocery stores, usually high priced, had whole chickens on sale for 39¢/#. Haven’t seen that price for a long time, so stopped and picked up three for the freezer. Normally we buy hind quarters for that price, or at least did until the price went up to 59¢/# a few months ago. Now that we have an oven, roast chicken sounds pretty good!

The countryside is really starting to color up now, so decided to add a couple of pictures we took yesterday coming into Guds Nordtre. While you can only see about a fourth of our driveway (now you can see the main reason for a tractor in the winter!), it continues into the green trees in line with the end of the drive you can see on the picture, then there is a bit of an “S” turn to the house. You cannot see our land from this point at all. The picture is taken from the end of the drive at Section 6 Road looking north. The second picture is to the left, west, side of the driveway. Both look rather pretty.

The whole area here is really getting color. The ferns on the floor of the woods have turned from bright green to yellow and kind of a golden brown, giving the woods almost a fairyland look. The yellow, red, and sugar maples are the first to turn, with the birch and poplar just starting. There are very few oaks here, so their colors are not in the mix. The countryside is kind of a patchwork quilt, with areas of green pines and other areas of hardwoods. Also many areas of a mix of both as this area is. Margriet is itching to get her camera working taking pictures of the colors on the hills that cover this area. They are really beautiful for sure, and something she really didn’t have in the Netherlands.

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><