A hot time in the eating kitchen

September 21, 2007 (6:01am)

60º F, Rain, SSE Wind, 1 mph.

Good morning,

The rains are here for the day it seems. By afternoon, they should be some serious thunder storms and rather warm. Guess it will be an inside working day today. Doesn’t change much, just the task at hand. Lots to do to keep us out of most mischief.

Got the truck unloaded yesterday and most thing put close to where they belong eventually. Took longer to unload than load! Margriet is please to have some reasonable storage places - especially for clothing. The dresser that was originally in my Dad’s den is now in the bedroom here. She was delighted to be able to put our clothes in it, rather than a small cabinet with shelves. The dresser make the bedroom a bit tight, but we can live with that. Also put a round top trunk, which came with my Grandfather from Norway, at the end of the bed for more storage. When lifting the trunk onto the truck, I noticed a small paper tag attached to one end with “C Nelson Milw, Wis” written on it. I had never seen that before. Doing some further inspection, I found a similar one on the other end too! Kind of cool!

The range also came in, un-crated, connected, and setup. IT WORKS! She prepared supper on it last night and that worked too! The instruction booklet which come with the range is excellent. Much better than when I was selling them. I used it as a check list more than an how-to, since it has been 20+ years since being in the business. While this is a “basic” model, it is well constructed and has good controls on it - the most important part of any appliance. Should last us for the duration.

Just opened the webcam from Enschede’s town square and there is a wedding at the city government building. It must be a large one - two horse drawn carriages (one white) and a big, white limousine. Lots of folks around and lots of activity. At least it isn’t raining as it appeared to be last night when we looked.

I suspect that Margriet will be trying to wear out the range in the next few days. She has a long mental list of what she wants to bake and prepare. Been a long time since she has been able to do any real cooking or baking. I think the Hobbit Hus will smell more like a “normal” (for us) house now. I don’t think I will complain too much either.

Since the base cabinet we bought is unfinished, Margriet was introduced to the wonderful world of woodworking a bit yesterday. She has never done any of that kind of thing before, so we are starting her lessons slowly - learning how to use sandpaper! I took the doors off and the drawers out of the case so it would be a bit easier for her to work on. The idea is to get all of the scratches out and the arises broken. Then will come the next step - staining. We went to the hardware store and picked up some natural stain and some satin finish. Expect the stain will need to dry a day before putting on several coats of finish. At the moment, the cabinet is the focal point of the gathering room! It adds so much to the look of the room, not to mention the aroma soon.

Suspect I will try to manufacture (re-manufacture) a reducer for the woodstove stovepipe today. Good day for it. I noticed it has a rolled hem on the end I need to crimp. That will probably need to be cut off, so the crimping tool to function correctly. There will be lots of time into it I have a feeling and a lot of putzy stuff to do. I really don’t have a proper workbench yet, so that will also make it more interesting-er. Might just get something of the shop organized today too. Depending on my frustration level.

We really had some excitement and almost a riot at Guds Nordtre yesterday. Three hen turkeys and three very small young ones decided to dine on the seeds falling from one of the trees near the main house. Two yearling deer have been doing the same now for some time. All of them decided they wanted lunch at the same time and some territory problems developed. While the yearlings are much bigger than the turkeys, the turkeys took exception to them being there. Every once in awhile, one or more of the turkeys would make a quick move toward the deer when they got too close or just grumpy for some reason. The deer would jump straight up, the dash off a few bounds, before returning to the feast. This happened over and over again, until the deer finally left. Without the competition, the turkeys then left shortly afterwards too. We sat and watched them for the longest time. Of course both of our cameras were in the truck, so we couldn’t record the episode for our archives. Cool!

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><