The Couple That Logs Together...

...Stays Together

Case is wearing a hard hat, face screen, noise protection for ears, steel toe boots and Kevlar chaps that will stop a running chainsaw.  I was told that I am too delicate to run a chainsaw so I am merely lifting the cut logs.  LOL   Also, note that we are both wearing black and white flannel shirts - coincidence.  The best part is that the tree is on our neighbor's land...with his permission.

Changing Blog Format

A picture is worth a thousand words.  I wonder who said that originally?  I have decided to change to pictures for the retirement blog. 

Here we are on our 37th wedding anniversary a couple of weeks ago.  The watercolor above the couch was painted by a good friend of ours.  We wanted to capture our "Foxy" who is still around. 

Ice and Snow Melted

Finally, I have surfaced.  I did not sign up for 6 months of snow and ice.  We have had back to back unusual winters.  Last year was one of the shortest and this was the longest.  We are looking for normal next year.  What's been going on...

• I am now in official retirement.  Stopped my 8 hour a week job.  It was getting in the way of fun things I want to do.  I was there over 2 years.  When we first moved here, having a job helped me to organize my week. Now I am so involved with community and church that I no longer need that.
• Kayaked yesterday for the first time this year.  Great to be back in the "saddle."
• Spent 3 days in mid May at a Birding Conference.  Because we had no leaves yet this year, it was easy to spot them.  We also saw bird banding, a flying squirrel flying, and salamanders.
• Attended a quilting show in Beaver Dam and bought a lot projects for the future.  Great to meet other fabricoholics like myself.  Thanks, JB.    
• Mother's Day weekend Tad and Carrie and her parents visited.  I think we spent the entire time thinking of serious and silly names for our first grandchild (for both sets of grandparents). 
• And, I guess that means, I am announcing that Case and I will be grandparents in November!
• Visited Lucyna in Iowa and she visited here.  She was here on a Tuesday and got to meet my "posse"  that I hike/snowshoe/kayak with all year.
• Wished Tad Happy 26th birthday and the next day...
• Celebrated our 37th wedding anniversary!
• Last Monday our Lions Club hosted all the 3rd graders in the county at the Chippewas Flowage to learn about Water Habitat Study Day.  All about fishing and the lakes.  Good service project for our club and our specific area.
•  I am adding to the list of activities for the women of our church.  We now have a Prayer Shawl Ministry group.  With so many on the prayer list, they will be quite busy. 

Even though the weather was crummy, I was still busy and having fun.  

We have gotten our money's worth.

Dateline:  April 23, 2013 - 17 miles east of Hayward, WI

10 inches of snow fell last night.  Schools are closed - even the school in the town of Winter is closed.  So...Winter is closed.  I wish it were closed.  Winter is open and thriving here.  Two of the spring sports teams haven't even suited up:  baseball and soccer.  The track team had two indoor meets.  (Watch out in the bleachers for the shotput or discus coming your way.)   We trying to be positive.  I have finished a quilt.  We are working on spring cleaning.  Once spring is here - who wants to clean?  Anyway, this is a minor inconvenience when I think of people whose homes are flooded around the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers.  Or those who are recovering from a bombing or the families of those who aren't going to recover. 

Let it snow.  Let it snow.  Let it snow.  We have gotten our money's worth of Northwoods weather.  We're retired so we don't need to tackle it and then put in a day at work. 

Saturday's predicted high:  50

The Blog You Have Been Waiting to Hear from the Northwoods

Spring is very late this year.  Locals can't remember when it was this late.  Many people go away for March and return in April when Spring is suppose to return.  These folks are walking around in a daze.  Those of us who stayed have hidden away the kitchen cutlery for our own protection.  Last Saturday, it rained and sleeted all day.  Scheduled to read at church Saturday evening, in town I went.  (Case was at our son's house.) During the one hour at church, it started to snow.  Then I went to Walmart for the weekly food supply.  During the one hour in the store, the truck got covered with snow.  Covered.  Yesterday I was in town for errands.  I knew most of the shopkeepers.  "Did you hear the weather report?" they would say with this look on their faces.  Think Jack Nicholson at the end of The Shining. Weather says there is a winter storm warning because 6-10 inches are expected with lots of wind.  The lake still has over 20 inches of ice.

And that's why you don't live in the Northwoods. 

A Good Friday

I was awoken to the sound of birds.  Not my two Lovebirds chirping for breakfast.  No, these were outside and very close and not familiar to me.  What a thrill to see a pair of Pileated Woodpeckers!  (You know that I am "for the birds" in the Northwoods when I am happy for a new sighting!)  They are not rare around here but I have not actually seen any in my 2 1/2 years in residence.  They are crow-sized, mainly black with a few white markings, and act like woodpeckers drumming on dead trees.  The exciting part is that they have a bright red mohawk of feathers on the top of their heads.  Wow!  I see where they have been when I am hiking in different parts of the county - they hollow out a tree, leaving a huge pile of wood shavings at the base.  It is distinctive.  Well, now I've seen Pileated Woodpeckers for myself!

It was also a Good Friday at church today at noon.  There was a reading of the Passion of Christ by several people.  I was the voices for Peter and Pilate.  Obviously, I was the last one to sign up.  Nonetheless, the church was full and we were glad we went. 

Spring is in the Air!

The sun was shining brightly in a cloudless sky as I walked on my daily constitutional. Spring is definitely in the air...a small woolly worm was crossing the road...the pussy willows are showing its buds.  I can forget that the ice on the lake is still thick enough to drive on.  And the snow in the woods is still knee-high.  What is the saying?  Hope springs eternal.  I came home and looked at my seed catalogs.