Ice Shove

Marc wasn’t witness to this as it happened on his latest trek to Marquette, MI but caught the results on camera. Ice shove is when floating ice in Lake Michigan is rapidly pushed ashore by high winds and it’s surprising how far and how high it can pile up. Ice shove is happening early this year in honor of our mild winter so spring must be just about here!

Our February World

Right before the latest big storm, we looked like this with freezing fog then the snow started.

It wasn't long before snow started moving in and then it ramped up.

Within a couple hours, it was looking like this and was snowing in earnest.

It makes for a beautiful world when all is said and done!

It's Cold Here!

With a wind chill of -20 we're getting lots of transference of the cold onto metal inside the house. I guess it's time I chipped the ice off the door knob before it leaves a melting mess on the floor. (Please don't mind the messy door; it's a used door that we haven't had time to paint as yet.)

Our winter sunsets can't be beat lately.

A Couple Things...

I snatched this photo off the web of my daughter Rachael and her boyfriend Eric on a New Year's hike in Oregon. I thought the originality of the photo was just breathtaking...and striking!

Along with that, I thought you might like to see my latest artistic creation for my living room wall. Marc managed to stop and pick up some birch bark for me on one of his forays to the Upper Penninsula of MI in Marquette, where he has a project. The drive takes him through hours of thick forest. Earlier I had picked up this framed art at Goodwill because I liked the frame, figuring it appeared to be wood (it's not) and rustic enough that somewhere along the line I'd be able to put it to good use, matting and all. So I started playing around with the birch bark and decided I could trace out a Northwood's animal. I initially tried a moose but it was just too intricate for the bark being cut with utility scissors, so I ended up with the bear. From a distance it is hard to tell it's a bear; it looks merely abstract and one has to study it up close to get the nuances. I rather like it like that.

Marc has been away a couple days at a work conference in Wisconsin Dells and then had to also check on his Madison project, so it will be late tonight when he arrives back. He's still working on his happy place in the basement as he has time. There's just not a lot new to report from this snow covered tundra.

What We Do in WI to Stay Warm in January

So... our ever-growing debris pile from building the house, tree trimming, and acres of cardboard seemed to beckon us to finally get rid of it on the start to this New Year. Early on a beautiful morning we trudged out and Marc threw some gasoline on to get the party started. 

Things were taking off pretty slowly given the snow pack on top of the pile so Marc went back to clear a path with the snow blower with another idea.

After stretching out numerous electrical cords he appeared with the leaf blower and set to work feeding oxygen to the fire. Now we’re talking!

Marc has spent his holiday three day weekends on further progress in the basement. He made a storage room for all our canning goods and equipment in what we had originally laid out and plumbed for a bathroom. We have no need of another bathroom and doing this provides a good amount of storage. Since under cabinet lighting was so expensive he decided to try rope lighting and we rather like the effect.

His office is now more cleaned up with the addition of the wall of shelving he built and he is currently working on a chop saw bench in the main work area. This area will eventually have an entire row of built in cabinets above it. Once he gets things in order to be able to use his large chop saw, he’ll be in a position to be able to tackle the tasks that need doing up top: the baseboards, window sills, kitchen shelving, and island building. For us, it never ends!

Merry Christmas!

May your joys be bountiful and your troubles few. We wish you happy and safe holidays! 

Marc and I are again without family close; just the two of us and our four fur babies. We are not even getting a white Christmas this El Nino year—yesterday we broke a 120 year old record for the warmest day ever in December, 49 degrees. I’m sure at some point this winter we’ve got to see snow; they are predicting winter may finally settle in here next week and drop three to four inches in Waupaca and much more up north. I’ll need a refresher on how to operate the snow blower!

Tis the Season

While everyone else seems to be scampering and scurrying with the holiday rush, the only thing keeping me busy seems to be clearing out my inbox of all the “black” this and “cyber” that sales recently clogging it up. Why must these companies feel as though you need to be notified of the same sale three times a day? My memory is getting bad but not such that I can’t remember the email just sent to me a few hours ago. 

Actually, I have been doing some things, and Marc is continuing to build in the basement. He is erecting framing for a bathroom; which will not be built out at this point in time, so will in effect become a darkened canning room with shelving. He’s also building the shelving he wanted in his office area, hoping to get a lot of the basement mess into totes and organized in storage. Next up it will be my job to paint them all.

I decided to make more free art for our walls, heavy on the lodge rustic, using some old pallet wood and lilac twigs and birch bark. Marc loved them and wants another now for the shed naming it “Marc’s Smokehouse”, and his sister feels I should start a business on Etsy. I gotta say, I do love them myself!

This past Saturday I worked most of the day as a Santa’s helper, as the community was invited to come in to the shelter and get their pet photos taken with Santa. We had a variety beyond dogs, including a cat, and a rabbit that had been adopted from us awhile ago.

Mother Nature continues to bless us with a mild winter so far but did offer up just a morning‘s brief kiss about a week ago. That was followed by some freezing fog and now has just settled into plain ‘ol damp foggy skies. The upcoming Christmas won’t require much of me since we won’t be traveling and no one will visit. It’s a real question as to whether it will be a white one for us. Time to get back to my inbox and its two hundred ads….