Poor planning

November 9, 2007 (6:09am)

26º F, Cloudy, No Wind.

Good morning,

Yesterday was not what you would call well planned. In fact it was rather poorly planned. The intention was to go to FISKLAND, pick up a load of stuff, and to drain the water system. Didn’t work that way. We left a little later than I would have liked, but the real problem was going to the Amish store in Shawano on the way. While it really is not that far out of the way, but the ride is slower, especially through the Indian reservation. The ride is also beautiful and we have to “rubber-neck” a lot, it follows the upper end of the Wolf River. Beautiful! Any time of year. As it ended up, we stopped at the Amish store and in Green Bay, picked up other supplies. But ... we also didn’t plan on the amount of money we brought along, so didn’t pick up all that we had intended or wanted too. So .... we shopped until we ran out of money, headed to Kewaunee, stopped at the bank for a withdrawal and headed home again without even stopping at FISKLAND! I had forgotten to bring my medications along, so an overnight stay was out of the question. Going to FISKLAND would have been a real waste of time. We would have spent at least an hour there, getting the main furnace lit and little else. Since we had not eaten lunch, we stopped at Grandma’s Café to have a sandwich before heading home.

We did stop at the Circle Café in Alpha on the way since we needed to head in a different direction than we normally use. Of course the food was excellent and a large portion. Good thing since we didn’t stop for lunch. We had an additional inch of snow overnight, so the ride was beautiful-er than normal. By the time we reached Lanoa, the snow pretty much disappeared. Each area has it’s own beauty, FISKLAND has Lake Michigan and we have the hills and trees here. Both are more beautiful with the addition of snow.

The stop at the Amish store was very surprising. As we walked in, it looked like they had electric lighting in the store! That goes against almost everything Amish! On our way out, I noticed there were several plastic “bubbles” on the roof that were not there before. I went back in and noticed the bubbles matched up with the “electric lights” and there was the brand name Day Star on them. The lights turned out to be skylights and very efficient ones at that. I looked them up on the web, http://daystarsunlight.com/ , and found they are very expensive, but I was impressed by the light generated in the store. Much more than their normal LP gas lighting. I can see where they will pay for themselves in saved LP gas and for normal folks, electricity.

The store is now short a lot of supplies. Judging by the amount we put into the truck, they will need to resupply some. We bought a 50 pound bag of bread flour among other things. We have found that the bread flour from there is much better than what you get in a normal store and much cheaper to boot. Cheaper by the 50 pound bag too. We also got a lot of staples to store here for future good eating. Think our basement larder will be filled pretty soon and may have to build an addition to it. Since the store sells in bulk, almost all prices are cheaper than the average. The quality is also good and they have things that are hard to find other places. Really is a good thing that they are some distance away or we would be buying stuff whether we needed it or not. I noticed there are a couple of other similar stores that have cropped up in the area too. Might have to check them out in the future, but I don’t think they are Amish.

I did manage to pick up some things needed for Fjord at Fleet Farm along the way. Not everything as I had not brought a shopping list along - the printer decided it needed a vacation for some reason and would not print before leaving. Something more for me to check today. I did pick up a tool bar and top link for the rear lift. I don’t have anything to attach to the lift yet, but want something in the way, so I don’t walk into the PTO shaft and get tangled up in it while it is running. I need to get a cover for it, but have to order that from an outside source. I do want to make or buy a hitch bar, as I will have some use for that I know. Also got a new exhaust pipe/muffler for Fjord. Wish those for cars were as cheap and as simple. I do want to pick up a supply of stainless steel nuts, bolts, &c. to change out those I need to take off for various repairs and changes. With the environment Fjord will be operating in, the normal ones rust up very quickly. That is also true of those in place at the moment. Need to clean up the shop so I have enough room to bring Fjord inside and really get after the work on it.

The Hobbit Hus was reasonably warm when we walked in about 8:00 P.M. last night, about 12 hours after leaving in the morning. I continue to be impressed with this little stove. While it was shutdown pretty much, it still had a good bed of coals and nearly half of the wood I put in it. I opened the draft and it relit again. Same this morning. The old parlor stove needed to be fed every 4 hours or so, depending on the wood being burned. Suspect I will not be able to close this one down as much in the colder weather, but it appears to need much less fussing than the other one.

It sure is tired out this morning and we have much to accomplish today. Time to get the day a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><