I Love To Go A Gardening
Growing Our Life in Northern Michigan
Freezing Ordeal
It is so f-f-f-freezing cold here this week!
As I begin this post (at 7:30 am, sipping a cup of hot coffee), it is 1 (f) degrees. the windchill makes it feel much colder. When I took Hannah Joy outside this morning, the cold sliced right through me. Hannah wasted no time in finishing her business and then she ran, ran, as fast as she could to the front porch, dragging me behind her in complete agreement. After I got her harness off, I went back out into the morning darkness to fill up the feeders for the birds and deer.
Yesterday morning EJ drove to the gas station to get gas in the Xterra and also to mail a package to one of my Etsy customers. On the way up the driveway, the Xterra slipped off into the deeper snow and got stuck. EJ had an appointment in Traverse City so while he worked at getting the Xterra unstuck, I cleared the two-feet of snow off the Suburban just in case he needed to drive it. Good thing he did because he couldn’t get the Xterra unstuck in time. He had to drive the Suburban with its broken heater. He was about frozen when he finally got home.
As soon as EJ left for TC, I took a shovel down to continue digging out the Xterra. Ideally, we would have worked on getting the Xterra unstuck when EJ returned home–before more snow and wind filled in what we had dug out. However, with the dangerous temps and wind chills, we may let it sit until it warms up a bit this weekend. When we took Hannah out yesterday, she saw the Xterra in the driveway and barked at it as if it were a stranger’s car parked there. “It’s OURS, you goofy dog,” we tell her.
Yesterday when I opened the coop door after caring for the chickens, the wind was blowing the snow around so much that I couldn’t see. It was a complete whiteout. I shouted, “Whoa!” and waited until the gust blew past and the snow settled down before I ran for the house.
While we were out working on the vehicles, Hannah Joy got into a few things. She ate something that didn’t agree with her–maybe the roll of toilet paper I found ripped to bits on the bed? Or one of the other items she grabbed off the counter and took to the bed? Whatever it was, it made her sick and she vomited several times while EJ was gone. She perked back up after she got the whatever-it-was-that-she-ate out of her tummy.
White Shoal Lighthouse is located near the Straits of Mackinac. For the last week or so, on the actual dates the events occurred 90 years ago, their Facebook page has been sharing the story of Lewis Sweet who was ice fishing along Lake Michigan with two friends when he got stuck on an ice floe during a blizzard. He survived about 16 hours before the ice floated close enough for him to make it to White Shoal Lighthouse. It’s an amazing story of endurance and courage, and well worth the read. (Here is the link to Day One of the story. Scroll up their page to continue reading). I think about how cold it is here this week and wonder how he could have ever survived out on Lake Michigan.
I’ve been busy, busy, busy crocheting. I have been working on a baby blanket for a customer and last night got two orders for Michigan Trolls. Yoopers (residents of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula) call those of us who live south of the Mackinac Bridge “trolls” because we live “under the bridge.” One woman wants a troll for her 80-year-old Yooper uncle who calls her his favorite troll. I love when people share personal details about who they are giving my items to. 🙂
Well…time to get started on my day!
I Love To Go A Gardening 
Finally we might get to regular Winter temps and then the rain comes – they say we’ll have black ice from tomorrow’s rain as the pavement is still so cold.
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I will be glad to have higher temps as well. However, rain/melted snow refreezes and makes our driveway treacherous, so that’s not good either. 😦
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I know and that’s what happened here too – it is slippery underneath and on top of the snow – I remember your ordeal last year and I decided today that I was not going to drive, nor walk today, much as I wanted to go to the Park. Perhaps the higher temps will help, but they say Sunday morning will be a re-freeze and freezing fog – ugh. And maybe wintry precip this Tuesday … so glad the Groundhog did NOT see his shadow if he can be believed!
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