Happy Birthday to my Sister!

September 12, 2010

How time does fly! Happy Birthday to Margie! And thanks to all who sent me birthday wishes. I had a really great birthday yesterday.

I went shopping in Boulder Junction, ate pizza at the Sayner Pub, talked with Mike on the phone, watched movies, and knit. I did get a very quick dip in the creek to celebrate my birthday. It was cold. I’m not even calling it chilly or refreshing anymore, it’s just cold.

Today I took a bike ride over to Crystal Lake. The bike paths up here are fabulous, with the possible exception of two or three hills. It’s around 7 miles each way. It took me about an hour to get there, because I did have to stop to take a picture or two. So my legs were a little tired when I got there.

The lake is as beautiful as I remember. Of course I stuck my feet in. It’s such a pretty lake, all sand and you can see your toes even if you are standing waist deep in the lake. I think you could see your toes even if you were shoulder deep, but I didn’t get that wet today. It was about 65 and a bit breezy. I think the last time I was in Crystal Lake was around 1963 or so. I remember pictures from around then, and I remember it was so much fun to swim and play with my parents and sisters.

After I got back I took a quick bath in the creek, and it was every bit as cold as yesterday. Mira had fun chasing her tennis ball, which has replaced the sticks I used to throw for her. I think she can see them better and she brings the ball back a little bit better than the sticks.

I gathered up some blankets and towels to wash and headed into St. Germain. I ate a double scoop of ice cream at Cathy’s and am now sitting at the Red Canoe Coffee Shop. It took quite a while to round up Mira, since just before I was ready to go she happened across a porcupine! Luckily, even though the porky was slow, she had absolutely no idea what she was supposed to do, other than bark at it. I am very, very glad that she is so clueless because pulling quills from her nose was not on my agenda.

The porcupine was slow, but not stupid. It climbed up a tree just past the wood shed while Mira was running around the garage looking for it.

So, off to do laundry, then back to the house. The sun is shining nicely and I can see some porch knitting in my future.

Mostly Cloudy with a Chance of Rain

September 8

That has been the weather for the last little bit and is the forecast through the 13th or 14th. The high’s supposed to be no higher than upper 60’s. The hummingbirds have left for the year. Good thing the trees are turning such pretty colors and that fall is my favorite season. It’s decent compensation. I expect the colors to be getting prettier and prettier until I leave. The trees around the house don’t seem to be changing as quickly as those along the roads to town.

Really, other than the roof being done not much is happening here. The roof looks great and the sound of the rain on it is nice and quiet. I was a little concerned since it is a metal roof. But they put down a layer of rubber stuff on top of the weather/ice layer, and so no worries. I’ve had plenty of rain to make sure the noise level is low. I haven’t had a really huge storm or hail, but I think it will be just fine. It looks quite nice.

I got the stove cleaned out and polished. It was very messy, but it looks great. Unfortunately, Mira decided that she would check out how well I did and managed to get soot all over herself. She went in the creek today and some of it came off. But I think I have to get in the creek with her and try to give her a bath with shampoo. Y’all can wish me luck since the creek is chilly and she really hates shampooing. I hope it’s at least a little sunny tomorrow. I had to make the house really warm so that she wouldn’t be chilled when we came up. I tell you, there’s nothing like a wood stove to throw off some real heat!

So that’s about it. More reading and knitting and spinning. I did go out to do the laundry, which I didn’t get to like I thought I would. I also went to Wolf Pack. Even when I am starving, I can’t eat 3 whole pancakes. Just a thing to remember for next time....

September 10

The weatherman lied. Today was an absolutely beautiful day at the creek. The sun has been shining all day long, it’s about 66F right now at 3:30 on the porch. Mira and I are up from the creek, which is quite cool. Let’s just call it very refreshing.

I did give her a shampooing yesterday after all. It helped, but there’s still a little sootyness left since washing a dog who really doesn’t enjoy baths in a relatively fast moving stream that is cold is perhaps not the easiest job. Today she made sure she stayed farther than an arm’s length away. She learns quickly when she wants to. Right now she’s in a nice sunny spot under the big white pine just outside the porch.

I did get the new wood under the eaves stained and the doorframe painted (2 coats). As I was painting the door frame, I noticed that the trim around the window in the door need painting also. So it has one coat, and I will give it a second coat tomorrow. Then I noticed the bottom of the door could use a little repair and staining, but I haven’t figured out exactly what to do about that. I think the door needs to be taken down, some repair done then sanded and stained. Perhaps a kick plate. I don’t think that I have enough time and the right weather forecast to do a proper job. So either my sisters will do it next summer, or I will the summer after that when I get up here again.

I’m off now to get myself together for a nice drive around the area and perhaps a visit to Trout Lake for a sunset.

The end of summer....

September 3, 2010

There is a definite nip in the air today. It’s noon and only 55 degrees on the porch. There is a little tree I can see from the couch that has turned a goldish color. Pretty, but I was hoping for a little bit more hot, or at least warm, weather. I still am hoping for some more days that will be warm enough to spend a lot more time at the creek.

It’s an afgan day today. The sky is gray and dripping, the wind is more than a little breezy, the afgan is cozy warm, and the pot of tea is steaming hot. I’m splitting time today between knitting and reading. Not too bad. I’m going uptown in a bit to catch up on laundry and internet stuff.

The roofers came yesterday at 7:30 AM, after all of these weeks that they have been putting us off. Fortunately, Russ and Betty were already up. They were packing to leave (more about that in a bit). So, I got up and threw on some jeans and talked to them. It was raining, so all they did was drop off their trailer and some materials. They came back around noon, after it started to clear up. They worked about 4 hours and promised to come back today around 7 AM. They got about half of the creek side torn off, and the weather/ice shield layer down. Good thing that is waterproof, because it rained a lot last night and most of this morning. They showed up at 7:15 this morning to drop off the rest of the materials, and to let me know they will be back when the weather co-operates. Anybody who knows me at all will realize just how happy I am about having to be ready for roofers at that time in the morning. Oh well, at least it is finally getting done.

I’ll try now to catch you up on what’s been happening since the last entry, over a week has gone by which I can hardly beleive. I did get into town and uploaded some photos here. Not all of them went through, but at least there are some. The Red Canoe in St. Germain is a great little coffee shop with good food and internet access. They also have a lot of nice little knick-knacks, wine, and candles to buy. I resisted them all, which was harder than it sounds.

I did some grocery shopping for my company, and some laundry. Went to Wally World and got a new coffee pot for the house, a bookcase to hold the three new bags of books I picked up at the library “Basement Buck a Bag Book Sale”, and a baby gate to keep Mira out of the bedroom that the company will use, since I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t want a dog sleeping on their pillows. Other than that, not much happened. I got to spend a lot of time at the creek, did a lot of reading, spinning, and knitting. Also did a bunch of just sitting on the porch enjoying the experience.

Bob’s Dad and Betty came up on Monday, August 30th at about 3 pm. We had a nice little visit and Italian Dinner. We went to Three Lakes, which was apparently named “The Best Single Town in America” for 2010, on Tuesday. We took a short tour of the Three Lakes Winery and I bought (more than) a little wine. They import chocolate and raspberry chocolate wine! Sounds like an unbeatable combonation, and it is very tasty. I couldn’t resist.

We went to a couple of little antique shops and several tourist-y shops in Eagle River. Had lunch at a soda shop/diner, then headed out for the quilt store. Betty and I had a good time there!

On Wednesday, we headed towards Lac du Flambeau because Russ wanted to track down one of his cousins who lived there. I decided to see if I could find any information on my phone for her, and I tracked down somebody who knew where her husband worked, which happened to be Woodruff, so we headed in that direction. We found her husband, Ken Ferg, and he told us that Carolyn was on vacation in the U.P. with some of their grands and great-grands. But at least he got her new address and they can keep in touch.

We went to the little antique shop in Woodruff near McDonald’s after lunch. Betty and I both found a few things that we couldn’t pass up. Then we went thru some more shops in Minocqua. I have picked up a few little things for Christmas presents, so I’m ahead of myself there. They wanted to tour some of the model log homes, and then we went home for supper and to visit some more.

They left early Thursday morning after the roofers left. I did a bit of straightening up, then some knitting. For those who are interested, I am about half done with the Triple S Shawl that I started when I got here. It’s looking really nice. I have the blue wool singles to ply, but I’ve been having a little trouble with the wheel, and have to create a lazy kate. I really hope to have that done before I get home.

So, that’s what’s been happening around here. I still have to tweak a few more pictures before I can post them. I haven’t exactly been able to figure out the most effective way to get photos to the blog, Ravelry, and email from this Mac. The mail program seems to not recognize me, so that makes it a bit harder. I’ll be working on that pretty soon, since one of the books I got at the library sale was Mac for Dummies. Like I said before, I think I’ll head uptown to upload this and to do some laundry. I really wish the laundromat had WiFi, that would be very good. Maybe that should be my new career, laundromat/internet cafe. Hmmm

The sun started peeking out just as I was leaving for town. Still cool and windy at 2:30.