Surprise, Surprise!

 

Saturday before Easter, Marc had driven to Appleton to do some shopping and attend a couple hour wood workshop. Around 2 p.m. I heard the back door open and got up to see if I could help, asking “Can I bring some groceries in?” to which he replied “No, I’ve got it.” By this time I was across the room, rounding the corner into the laundry room where the back door enters when out pops my son, Neil! Talk about the surprise of a lifetime; I was dumbfounded I was so shocked as I kept hugging him tightly. It had been since mom’s death in September ’21 since I had seen him and his wife—way too long. 

Neil was due to leave early on Tuesday so we didn’t have a lot of time to do much beyond a tour of the local area; a visit with some of our best friends and meeting our favorite neighbor; a good luncheon out at an old restaurant on one of the chain of lakes; and a special homemade enchilada dinner for Easter—his favorite. 

Marc took advantage of his help to make further progress on the kitchen island by lifting the long, heavy butcher block pieces onto the top for measuring and cutting. It’s still coming along; he’s waiting for weather to warm up so he can spray additional pieces rather than brushing them. It’s functional as is but no where near being finished.

Our weather finally shows some signs Spring won’t be far off and we managed to get the lawn fertilized for the first time in years. Due to off and on rain, we’re still dealing with trying to get the garden soil in shape for planting but our last frost day is May 13^th so I’ve not yet bothered about putting out flowers. I’d say the next week we should be making huge strides on that if our backs can take it.

I’ve been producing quite a few art pieces to hang in the shelter surgery center. 

My new tangent is working with a gelli plate to do pulls of acrylic paint on paper which I then use as backgrounds. It’s great fun but often hit or miss. Looking at a background often gives me ideas of what I want for the art pieces, as in this first one of the bird. The marks lent themselves to suggesting simple flowers. 

I’ve also been coloring my own pieces of fabric to use in more abstract pieces.

 

Am I Losing Interest?

 

(Moon set early a.m.)

In what, you ask? Maybe general life, daily things, this blog. I don’t like the way life has become so much smaller in older age and retirement income. On one hand, my body tells me it’s good to slow down and take it easier but my younger-brain self says there’s still things left undone and I should be more energetic about doing them. The daily barrage of political angst doesn’t do anyone any good either and I’m extremely resentful that what may be some of my best final years have to be constantly colored for the worse by an absolute maniac and his endless-baby daddy-sidekick. 

I give the excuse that Wisconsin winters are hard for trying to accomplish much outside of the confines of four walls and my cabin fever this year was a real thing. I have managed to churn out quite a bit of sewing art though. We’re finally getting a few days where, like turtles, we can stick our heads and necks out and do something under the glorious sun for a few hours of the day but I’m so out of shape my body screams with the effort.

We’re trying to knock the garden back into shape since we plan on spending the entire year here instead of up North. We’ve kept it covered with lumber tarps held down with small pieces of leftover Trex decking material in a futile effort to mitigate the quack grass from totally taking over. A losing battle if there ever was one! We gathered all that up, with the plastic shredding in our hands, for Marc to haul to the dump the other day (800 pounds worth). He bought a burner torch so we can eradicate the dead weeds when they dry out and he has started rototilling. We want to build some beds up high somehow, to prevent having to work at ground level. That’s still in the planning stages of what will be best to use on a limited budget.

The humane society’s latest online auction has come and gone and I contributed 32 items and all but about three sold. The shelter made around $7300, a real shot in the arm for them, out of items folks had donated. Speaking of the shelter, they’ve been very successful at running their low cost spay and neuter clinic from the new building Marc was overseeing last year. They also offer very reasonably priced vaccinations, charging a mere fraction of what a normal vet clinic charges. This has actually now become their prime money-making endeavor so we have to hold less small dollar events in an attempt to raise money. Keep in mind folks, that most Humane Societies are not supported by anything other than a few small grants and loads of donations from people in the communities they serve. If you’re an animal lover they deserve your support once in awhile! 

We took advantage of their services for our feral kitty yesterday and found out it was a female and we got her spayed just in the nick of time. We’ve set up a small shed as her abode, where we provided a heated water bowl and food all winter and a box specially fabricated with a heating pad so she could survive all the minus temps we endured. We’ve now got her locked in the shed for a few days while she heals. We first noticed her hunting her little heart out as a young kitten, trying to stay alive, so we worked to get her to stay on our property. We’ve got plenty of rodents and now that our primary hunter Jerry has passed on, no way to control them, so we hope she sticks around as our “barn kitty”, which is what everyone calls them here. 

Marc continues to slowly work on our kitchen island, the longest woodworking project ever, LOL. We continue to have lots of fun with Buster but have been unable to get him and one of our girls, Spirit, to get along. It presents a lot of stress and aggravation into our daily lives but it should ease a little this summer as we are able to let Spirit outside more. Buster will remain an indoor cat.

(isn't he just the picture of trouble?)

(thankfully Munchkin & Buster get along)

On a final note, as we watch the economy and housing market absolutely turning to shit under Trump, we became delayed with getting our lot on the market. The Realtor we want to use, a very nice and professional man, recently lost his 22-year-old son in a horrific car wreck, so we told him to just take the time he needs to deal with everything and let us know when he’s ready to work again. Although Wisconsin still deals with a lack of inventory, the buyer statistics are sure in meltdown elsewhere in the nation, so we’ve no idea how it will all play out. It will sell at our price or it won’t, and if not, we’ll just continue to own it. 

 

 

Getting It Off My Chest

 

This has been a very trying winter for me; feeling sad. Heavy…rudderless…not knowing what comes next. Of course, I think since the election, many of us are feeling that way. 

I abhor our modern-day politics and won’t make this blog about any of it; people get enough of that bombarded constantly on every source of media they invite into their homes. In fact, that is one of the things I most despise; it’s like there is no where to turn to get away from it all or shut if off. When did this happen that it became like this? Suffice it to say that some of us can see the upcoming implosion and some of us can’t. 

We’re on a mission to simplify our life and essentially just hunker down because we feel the fabric and economy of our society is on the verge. We made the determination to try selling our Northwoods property this year and hope to get it on the market by early spring. Marc still needs to complete the handrails on the new stairway and do some log and tree burning. We’ve not decided as yet whether to set up the RV for occupancy or not. It’s not the easiest thing for him to do as it requires quite a bit of blocking and leveling and him crawling around underneath it. In addition, with our new little kitty as part of the mix, I’m not sure having the three cats in the RV is wise as Spirit does not get along with the new boy Buster whatsoever. It seems easier for me just to remain at home. If I’m honest with myself, it could also be much easier on me because in my heart of hearts, I’m going to miss that place so much it pains me to even think of getting rid of it.  The way the air is always so fresh and pine scented; the call of the loons; the peaceful wonder of gazing at the lake and hearing just the wind in the trees. It’s been beyond belief to own such a slice of magnificence.

From all indications, the market is changing in many parts of the country, but in Wisconsin there is still a shortage of inventory and the Northwoods is unique for the fact that in many cases it’s a second home environment and those buyers usually have money regardless of the economy. It would be wonderful to obtain a quick sale at a price that rewards us for all the hard work we put into it for four years. 

Here on the home front, Marc continues to work slowly on the kitchen island. I’ve slowed down on making my art work as the shelter has enough for two auctions; one of which will occur in late February. I’m looking forward to spring to be able to get outdoors and do some much-needed yardwork catchup and cleanup. This winter has been empty of snow but has been very cold for the most part (minus temps) so it’s become day after day of indoor activities. 

Buster is proving to be a delightful cat and is highly intelligent but is into everything. He’s a counter-surfer extraordinaire so we often have to sequester him in the bedroom while we’re cooking. He’s always up for play and his leg has healed nicely and he’s growing like a weed. Despite how fun he is, I still struggle and grieve over the loss of Jerry. I’ve never felt this depth of loss before with a pet, and it has led to a fairly depressing winter as the other cats fail to make up for missing my boy so deeply.

 

 

Dreams Die in Old Age

 

Much as we might rail about failing abilities in our older age, Father Time seems impervious to listening and keeps marching right along. As I alluded to in other posts, we’ve been giving lots of thoughts to our future and continued ownership of our lake property. Sometimes that was hard to do when we were actually there as the property is so special and magnificent, it sucked us into the sheer joy of  our ownership and the surroundings that are so peaceful, quiet and private. We miss all that when we’re away but more and more some of the impracticalities begin to show themselves.

The burden of maintaining two places has fallen hard on our aging bodies. Our main property has been poorly neglected for three years since the only time frame when we can accomplish stuff at home is the summer window when we’ve been up north. Since we enjoyed a warm Fall Marc was able to mostly complete the shed build but we still haven’t gotten to pressure washing the house and shop and trim paint touchup, nor replacement of our back door and frame which dry rotted from standing snow. Obviously, that now waits until next year.

The travel distance also comes into play—the necessity of returning home weekly to keep up with yard work, mowing, laundry and grocery shopping grows old when it’s a three hour trek each way. Since we don’t want to subject the cats to constant travel, it’s one or the other of us that makes the trip and it was during one such trip when Marc went home that I endured (alone) that horrific PTSD inducing wind storm which destroyed so many trees on our property and had me in fear of my life. 

There are other trivialities: the electric co-op charges a whooping $45/mo. service fee year round before any usage charges; major shopping (Walmart, Menard’s, Home Depot, Petco) is at least an hour to an hour and a half away); our well, while producing just fine, is so filled with iron that without expensive correction in the form of softeners and filtration, is ruining the RV fixtures, is undrinkable, and turns everything pink or yellow. 

The weather there is more severe; winds and winter storms come off the lake and without fail we can count on major deadfall and tree cleanup every year when we return. 

But the real shocker came just yesterday when we received the annual tax statement and found that our taxes increased by a staggering 20%! I suspect that is due to the completion of the shop, but it now really puts future ownership into question given that our home place has also taken a significant leap of 10%. 

We plan to be in contact with the Realtor we purchased from to get a market analysis soon and are leaning towards returning there this summer with the intent of completing a few tasks (staircase handrails, burning of the last of the deadfall and downed trees) and then getting it on the market. If that’s the path we pursue, it would be nice if it would sell in one season but if it doesn’t, its not the end of the world. Many are of the opinion that “but you did ALL that work”—well, yeah, but that sweat equity should be worth money and money cures many woes!

 

I always had dreams of a waterside getaway and fortune smiled on us and allowed for it as an experience of life we got to enjoy for three/four years. I’ll need to be happy with that and realize that options and the world get smaller and smaller as we get older and older. It’s life.

It's Been a Month

 

It’s been a harrowing, ugly month since my sweet boy died and I’ve regretted every moment of it. He truly was my soul cat and I feel as though I’ll never get past his loss. He should still be here; begging food from us and sleeping by my side every night. It’s gotten a little easier but it still shakes me up to remember him dying in my arms. Unlike me, I think the other two cats have come to terms with it so we’re about to make a big change in their lives.

One day when I was working at the shelter and visiting the cats, I came across a newly surrendered four/five month old kitten with a broken leg. He was a little purr machine and so friendly, despite his broken bone jutting out from his hip area and his back right foot dragging. Knowing he’d have quite a time to mend after surgery, I volunteered to foster him during his recovery and to see if he might work out getting along with our other girls. 

He came through surgery ok on Saturday, where they pinned his bones together and there’s a good likelihood we should be able to bring him home soon; maybe Tuesday. We’ll keep him sequestered and quiet for a few days or however long it takes and see how everything goes. We’re excited to help him out and hopeful it gets our mind off our grieving for our sweet Jerry. 

Time is going quickly although it’s been tough for me to get out and try and do anything. I did help out at a Victorian Open House where the owners had their lovely home decorated for Halloween and collected a $3 donation for the shelter for every person who wanted to tour. We had hundreds! We offered sweet treats and there were vendors there as well.

I’ve also been able to continue to put together some of my art work for the upcoming craft faire this coming Saturday where we set up a booth showcasing a puppy or adoptable dog. I’ve got rope baskets, a new kind of lacey basket, bookmarks and earrings to sell and I’ll be donating all proceeds to the shelter. What doesn’t sell, I will turn around and list on the shelter online auction which will occur in February. 

I’ve been working on paper collage bookmarks which have turned out quite well so I’m anxious to see how they go over with the public. I hand paint the background paper I glue collage to, and then also glue momagami paper I’ve made onto the back side. This stuff comes out feeling like suede leather so is very tactile when touched. I use junk mail and cartons for card stock for the stiffness layer. Here’s a few examples:

Marc’s been keeping busy building a new storage shed, despite having said he was done building stuff! He’s not been in any great hurry but it should soon be done. It’s planned to hold all the yard utensils and mower so we can get that stuff moved out of the garage. Speaking of mowers, ours died before we got in the last mowing of the season but I think it’ll be OK until we have a chance to purchase another and start mowing again in May. Once the bad weather is here, he’s talking about starting on building our kitchen island. That is long-awaited so I’m excited for that.

Other than the above, we’ve got no plans at all for the holidays or winter; we’ll just be hunkering down trying to stay warm and making a good home for a new little sweet boy. He's got really big shoes to fill! We can’t save them all, but we try and do our part!