Off her feed

November 13, 2007 (4:30am)

29º F, Clear, Dead Calm Wind.

Good morning,

Plan to head to FISKLAND today for another load of stuff and to drain the water system. Not too sure that actually will happen though. My Woman was off of her feed yesterday morning and didn’t feel really up to par all day. Soon after getting up, she didn’t seem to be her normal self. She did build muffins for breakfast, but then didn’t eat anything. She went back to bed for a long nap and felt better afterwards, but ran out of steam very quickly. She did have a bit of a fever still at noon. If she feels the same this morning after going to bed early, we will not go. At the moment I am waiting for the fire to warm the house up a bit before waking her. Then we will see if we are going or not.

Spent most of the morning sticking pretty close to the house. Kind of keeping my eye on my Woman. She seemed to gather some steam, after popping a couple of pills, after lunch, so went out to play with Fjord some. It has not been easy to start, so checked the ignition, again, finding that OK. Ran a compression check and that turned out much better than I expected. That pretty much left only the fuel system to be the culprit. It has been flooding out very often, so removed the carburetor and took it into Eli’s as I couldn’t find the model number on it. Eli wasn’t there, but Mick was and he found the number, then proceeded to take the carburetor apart and rebuild it. He used some “leftover” parts and put it back together again, guaranteeing it would or would not work. When I tried to pay the bill, he said there wasn’t any, “Just a little time and the parts were laying around.” Heck of a deal! I like his rates, but didn’t/don’t expect that.

When I got home, I replaced it. After fooling around with Fjord a bit, managed to flood it and it was getting dark, so ended my efforts for the day. It did take some time to get the fuel to fill everything that was filled with air and not supposed to be. Fjord has a gravity fuel system and no fuel pump, so one has to be a bit patient. I was not smart enough to put Fjord in the shop earlier, so working by flashlight isn’t a really good option. Will play with it some another day.

Just discovered that I made a nice pot of hot water. Forgot to put the coffee grounds into the coffee maker!!! (*^(*%*&*(^(*&((*&GPJKJU(&*)(&)_+ !

Eli was on a trip to Wausau, to pick up an engine block being machined for another Ford tractor, when I went there yesterday. I think Mick was pleased to have someone stop in for company. He did say that hi Mom was home, but in quarantine for 10 days - no going out or anyone coming in of the house. Guess she is some grumpy about that, but at the same time glad to be out of the hospital. Suspect that Eli I also happy, especially since he doesn’t have to drive to the hospital every day. We are really surprised that she is home so soon, but also glad she is. Indicates that things are not as dire as first thought.

Can’t believe the weather. It is too warm and nice to be a couple of days before deer season. In the 50's yesterday and should be again today. The temperature is about 20º F warmer than the average and no snow on the ground. Can remember one season when it got up to 64º F one day, then dropped to -7º F the same night. A real shock - looking for red wool jogging shorts (before the time of hunter’s orange requirement) to be in the woods, then finding our rifles frozen in the morning and our freezing all the next day with a high of 0º F.

Time to get the day a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><

Lazy

November 12, 2007 (4:34am)

44º F, Partly cloudy, WNW Wind, 4 mph.

Good morning,

A very lazy Sunday for us. Seems to be a habit with us. Probably a good thing. When we get home, it seems that everything else is put a side and we are even more laid-back than usual. Margriet digests the paper and I usually watch a NASCAR race, but that season is about over. Only one more race left. Wonder what will occupy me then. I imagine I will find something.

We survived the two church services yesterday morning. Last week was the first time I had worshiped in a Presbyterian church in my life. This week is led worship in that same church. They have a very short service, thanx to the need to be finished before the Lutheran church service begins, then a second service after Bethlehem’s, with joint Sunday school in between. We didn’t have communion (I am not yet licensed) so the service was some shorter from the git-go. I was very worried that I would run overtime, so probably hurried the service too much. It didn’t help that my watch batteries died, so did have the use of it. There was a clock in the sanctuary, but it was not anywhere near the real time, even though it was running. Never did figure out what the real time was. I ended up hurrying the service and my sermon, so the service was really short.

The service at Bethlehem went much better. Still was a bit on the short side, but without communion, was to be expected. The church was really filled and being small, I really didn’t have much room to wander as I like to do. Almost never use the pulpit. In both services, I had the folks hold hands during the prayers of the people and the Lord’s Prayer. They are not used to doing that apparently. Was some interesting to watch the people try to figure out how to do that. They eventually did. Lots of folks said they liked the message and I hope they meant it. I was surprised at the attention given to the sermon. That is some different than other churches I have been at. The congregation sure looks different from the front than from the pew though.

The parish has a Lay Minister, graduate from the Synod here. The school is called the Lay School of Mission and they have a bit of a different focus and method than ECSW’s does. We had a bit of time to chat with her before the service at Bethlehem. She is hoping that I will take the services at a couple of small churches during the winter snow storms, as she has difficulty getting to them. I think she may have had polio in the past, wearing braces on her ankles/legs. Not sure though. Not too sure where the Spirit will lead us next. Time will tell.

Most of Saturday I spent splitting wood and trying to get this machine to print. When I got too frustrated with this I would go an split for a while, then come back to this again. I got a lot of wood split! Continued to empty the lean-to at the main house and split it smaller to fit the stove in the Hobbit Hus. Found that the wood box holds one wheel barrow of split wood. Got a few others into the lean-to attached here also. Also did some wacking on the wood I brought to the wood splitter last week. Started to stack it near the shop too. Suspect it will grow to a pretty good sized wood pile in time. Need to put a cover over it, probably with some of the pole-barn siding left here.

I get a kick out of Margriet going to “our store” in the main house. Our “extra” supplies are kept mostly in the basement there. Every time she needs something she says she is gong to our store to shop. Love it! She does too. It really is the first time, in many years, to have a supply this big on hand. Never really had the space, nor money for that matter, to really build a supply. Going back to my roots a bit and the supplies we had at home when I was a kid. Very useful and money saving too. Besides, we get some pretty good eats.

Yesterday was Armistice Day and today is the legal holiday observance. No bills coming! No mail coming! No banks to go to! Guess we will have to stay home. Love it! The wind is starting to kick up. Love to listen to it howl through the nicks and crannies of this little house. For some reason that is comforting to me. Most folks would think it is the sign or remember a bad storm. Think I am strange? At least for another reason maybe. Of course I may not enjoy it so much when I need to shovel the eyeball deep snow.

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><

Week ender

November 10, 2007 (4:10am)

19º F, Cloudy, No Wind.

Good morning,

Another week is about finished. Where did it go? We have been busy, yet it doesn’t seem to have made a dent in our 2-DO list at all. In fact, I think it is longer than last week! The week started with snow and is ending with some reasonably nice weather. At least for this time of year. Elections were held on Tuesday, but there was only one election in the county and that was a referendum (defeated) for one municipality only. Seems impossible to think that deer season starts next week already. Guess I had better get my bang stick out and see if it is ready to bring down a big buck.

Did manage to get some wood split and into the Hobbit Hus lean-to yesterday. I want to put in another furnace in the basement of the main house. It will be installed where the present wood pile is in the main house lean-to at the basement door. Took some of the wood to the splitter and made 3 wheelbarrow loads of wood to stack here. I also split up some of the wood I brought over the other day for the outdoor pile left by the previous owners. That will stay outside for a while to dry as it was on the ground and is some wet. Will use that last or in the shop. The wood in the lean-to’s is really nice firewood. Hope I will be able to produce the same for the future and keep a good supply on hand. Most of what I am using is maple, birch, and some cherry thrown in the mix. Nice firewood. Expect I split a bit more than a face cord. Probably will do more today.

Went to see Eli yesterday in Iron River. Pat told him on the phone she may be coming home today. We thought it was probably wishful thinking and probably would not happen. The doctors have said the only thing they know for sure is that the mass was not cancer. Other than that, they are still working on several possibilities, but are not that sure. They are also leaning to ruling out TB also, but it may be one of TB’s “cousins” that are similar, but not contagious. Both Eli and their daughter had TB tests and don’t appear to have it. Pat had the tubes taken out on Thursday and was pleased not to have them anymore. Eli looked much relived, but frustrated at the same time not knowing what the problem really is. Suspect the doctors are too.

Eli had an interesting ride taking Pat up on Monday morning and then again on Tuesday morning to see her. It was the middle of the snowstorm and the area got 10-12" of snow. He said at one point, going down hill, a pickup came across all for lanes to his, sideways, very slowly. He thought he was going to hit it broadside, but was standing on the breaks and somehow missed him. He looked in the rearview mirror and saw the small car tailgating him start to fishtail, so decided it was time to get on the gas pedal before he was hit from behind. Looked in the mirror again in time to see the car spinning on the highway following him, but slowing down. He suspected that both drivers needed underwear changes.

The toolbar and the top link I picked up on Thursday, are the wrong size. I had measured before going and, according to the marking on each got the right size. Actually they were supposed to be 1" diameter mounting pins, but both were 1 1/8"! I do not have a big enough hammer to pound them into place for use. So much for markings, will measure the new ones when I trade these in. At least the muffler was the correct one and I did that by guess. I have had problems starting Fjord and suspect I will need to rebuild the carburetor sooner than I thought. I think the float is hanging up flooding the carb. That and the low compression I am sure is there, makes things not work.

I have been working on my sermon for tomorrow. I think I have it cut down from the couple hours of a few days ago. We will see how it goes, learning a new literary, more or less, as we go. Hope the Spirit remembers to help me a bunch.

Time to get the day a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><

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 <><

Still white woods

November 7, 2007 (4:04am)

28º F, Cloudy, NW Wind, 6 mph.

Good morning,

There is a bit of snow on the ground yet. The temperature has hung around 32-34º F all day yesterday. The sun was shining some of the day, but the wind really made it feel cold. Even had to get out my heavier chore coat to wear! Even got the winter boots out and used them too in the snow. Guess the weather is to stay pretty much the same for the next few days at least with a bit of warming, maybe to the mid-40's. Possible light snow too. Found the tracks of a couple of turkeys that wandered through the yard in the new snow.

The price of gasoline has been going wild. It has gone up 35¢/gallon this last week! Now at $3.349/gallon. The talk is it is supposed to go up even farther - soon. Someone is making big bucks off of this deal and it sure ain’t me! Seems the weak dollar has something to do with it, but bet there are other reasons, greed, more numerous. This trend sure will cut into our budget a bunch. Grumpy about that. Maybe walking isn’t such a bad option.

I realized yesterday, that I had not included any pictures of Fjord. Will change that today by adding one of Fjord coming home. She ain’t a beauty queen, but hope it will save much work around here for the duration. There is much work to do on it yet, but that too will come. As you can see, I am unfastening the tie-downs from Eli’s trailer to take it off. The ride off of the trailer was some exciting. Once it started down the ramps, the brakes would not hold it. Was real glad I hit the ramps and went straight down them, rather than slipping off to one side and going down boom!

Also including a picture of the wood splitter and the results of a couple hours work. I will have much more wood to do, so it will not get much rusty from sitting around. While I enjoy splitting wood, I just can’t do enough fast enough by hand to keep up with the needs, especially in the cold weather coming. The splitter sure has been a good investment and I really do enjoy using it too. Either by hand or using the splitter, one nice thing is that you can see you are accomplishing something as the pile of split wood grows.

Margriet built bread yesterday. It was a good day for it. Of course every day is a good day for fresh bread to me. She made three loaves. We took one to our neighbor and intended to take another to the neighbor on the other side of us, but they were not home, so took it to the gal who listed Guds Nordtre originally. When she took us through here, she talked of the smell of homemade bread that the previous gal was baking. So .... we filled that need for her too. She was more than pleased to get it and said her husband would be even more pleased. Hope she gets some.

We went into Iron River to pick up some supplies at the hardware store so stopped at Eli’s to see how Pat was doing. The surgeons didn’t find any cancer (the think, but are doing further tests) and think she has TB. Still working on that diagnosis too. TB can’t be cured, but can be managed, so that is some good from this. She will be in the hospital for about 10 days to recover before she can come home again. It was late in the afternoon when we got to Eli’s and apparently he was at work earlier in the day, but went up to see her before we got there. If she has TB, that probably will end her career as a Certified Nursing Assistant. She has been working in a senior care center for some time. That will make her some grumpy and really effect her health insurance coverage too. Eli is really worried about that - before she went for surgery.

The new furnace is working nicely. So nicely the flies decided it must be spring and came out of all the cracks and crevices! They are all over the place. Big ones too! I got the fly paper from the shop and hung some in the gathering room. Discovered that I had to warm them before they could be opened though. Tore the first one not thinking about that. Hope the fly paper will at least cut the number of them down some. Now Margriet can get back to finishing the cabinets for in here, now that it is some warm there.

Time to get the day a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><

Snow time!

November 6, 2007 (5:01am)

28º F, Snow, NW Wind, 25 mph, 40 mph gusts.

Good morning,

Finally - it looks like winter may get here yet. From what I can see, with the help of the door light, there is a couple of inches on the ground at the moment. The wind is really howling and has been all night and since noon yesterday. Most of the snow fall is to the north of us in the “highlands” or “mountains” a bit inland from the lake shore. Some places up there have 8-10" so far and are expecting more to come before this ends about noon. We have sever storm and storm advisories up for all of the U.P. until this afternoon. The wind is causing some problems and closing a bunch of schools. Don’t think we will go very far from the house today, but I may take a walk in the woods later. We intended to head to FISKLAND yesterday morning, but with the prospects of a serious storm, we postponed it a bit.

If you want to see what is happening here, check out http://www.yooperland.com/ as there are a lot of webcams available at this site. Most of the webcams are somewhat near the lake and many are at various businesses, but you can get an idea for the conditions here. They are some interesting. Also on the site is a listing of many of the newspapers in the U.P. if you want to get caught up on the latest of the really important world news - our world.

Finally got the furnace in the main house connected and working yesterday. None too soon. I had to stretch the LP line (copper line) yesterday to it, but had the necessary parts on hand. Think I need to check my supply though and keep it more complete then it is now. I had finished the installation of the chimney on Saturday afternoon. Happy to have that finished. After checking everything over twice, and getting the air out of the line, the furnace worked! It will take a while for the furnace to warm things up, but it was warmer when I checked it before going to bed last night. When I carried out the old furnace yesterday, I discovered it was about 3 times the weight of the new one. So now I have more “iron” to use for other projects - someday.

Decided to build a barrel stove for the shop to take the chill off until I get the wood furnace out of the main house and into the shop as the central heat supply. I talked Eli into letting me have one of the barrels he had sitting outside to make it from. I got all of the cutting of the barrel done and noticed there was a spot on it that was rusted through. Not good. Have to get a different barrel. It probably would work for a while with a patch on it, but will burn through in a hurry and be hard to control the intake air with the present hole. So .... another project yet to do.

We went out to Eli and Pat’s on Saturday afternoon. He had invited us when we brought Mick’s truck back. They really do live in the boondocks on the family farm that his Grandfather homesteaded. Their youngest daughter still lives at home and is in charge of the animals - four horses and an equal number of beef heifers, along with a couple of rather large Pyrenees dogs to keep the wolves and coyotes at bay. Margriet made a real Dutch apple pie to take along with. We did some serious damage to it while sitting around the table and solving the world’s problems - at least our corner of the world. I called Mick yesterday afternoon and Pat’s surgery apparently went well, but she was still in ICU at the time. Good to hear so far.

It is now later and I am including a couple of pictures Margriet took through the window a bit ago. The world changed over night. The first is out our gathering room window looking at the driveway to the south. The second is the picture we see looking out of the eating kitchen window to the north. Wind is still howling, but the sun is now out. Don’t expect the show to last all that long as the temperature rises.

Time to get the day a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><

Cooler in the woods

November 3, 2007 (5:27am)

24º F, Clear, SSE Wind, 2 mph.

Good morning,

The cool nights seem to be here for the fall and into the winter. Has not really been all that warm in the mornings of late. Probably what is normal for here. I actually thought it would be some cooler sooner. Maybe it is just the year. This area is still spectacular. Now that most of the forest floor has turned to brown and the vegetation has fallen to the ground, you sure can see farther in the woods. Things are much more open that a month ago. It was a bit cooler in here this morning when I got up. Guess I shut down the woodstove too much when I went to bed. There still was some coals in it when I got up, but the wood I put into it didn’t burn. Just got warm from the coal bed. The fire is cackling at the moment, so will be warmer shortly.

I went into town to check on what happened to Eli on Thursday evening. He thought we were to meet there at 6:30 P.M. and I thought it was 7:30 P.M. He and his wife were there and waited for about a half hour before leaving; we were there and waited for a half hour before eating. My original time was 6:30 P.M. to 7:00 P.M., but he thought it would be better to set it an hour later so he could clean up after work. Oh well, we will reschedule it for after Pat’s surgery sometime. He did invite us to his farm this afternoon and we just might do that. Margriet intends to bake a Dutch apple pie (the real one, not what is here) to take a long. She is all excited to build it to take!

I finally finished installing the support for the chimney of the new gas furnace. It took a bunch of whittling to accomplish the task. Once I got the bulk of the wood cut out, it didn’t take as much trimming as I expected to get the piece of OSB to fit flat. When I got my tube of construction adhesive to install the OSB, I discovered it was a solid tube! So I used some caulking to keep it in place and some water out. Will apply more on the outside as it warms up some today. I need to cut the two pipes (one intake and one exhaust) to length and fasten the cap on the outside. Then it is a matter of connecting the gas line and I hope we have heat. Should have that finished today. Really glad the coolness has not been cooler.

The price of gasoline has finally started to climb again. Surprised it hasn’t happened sooner. It has risen 25 cents/gallon in the last 3 days. Now it is up to $3.249/gallon. Expecting much more of a rise soon. Not real happy about that at all. One of the gas stations in Crystal Falls has been building a new convenience store for as long as we have been coming to this area, nearly two years. Thursday the old one disappeared! It was really a surprise as it was being used one day and the next it is gone and the new one apparently being used, even though it is not complete. They also are installing new pumps, so the gasoline pump haven’t been operable for the past week or more. Only the diesel islands have been hooked up. Expect it will not be too long before the gas islands are hooked up and pumping again. Must be costly without them for so long.

We went to Fob’s for walleyed pike last night. They must be catching bigger fish of late (must be using bigger worms to catch them). The size of the fillets are bigger than in the past I think. The taste is just as good though. I get to eat more, as Margriet can’t seem to finish her portion. I don’t mind - too much. We went a bit later than in the past, so the seating was not a problem at all, but they were busy just the same. Fob’s is the only real restaurant in town so they really get busy at times. Crystal Falls really could use another.

Fjord would not start at all yesterday. I really didn’t fool around with it too much as I wanted to get the furnace chimney hooked up. It did fire first thing in the morning, but then could not get it to do so again, more or less. Almost everything I went by it, I tried to start it. I fear the compression is down enough not to draw the fuel/air mix up the updraft carburetor (dumb invention) and it floods out. Not sure, but think that is the problem. Might be the float being stuck, causing the problem. Lot of years have gone by since playing with that!

Time to get the day a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><