Growing Our Life in Northern Michigan
I hope everyone in the USA has a wonderful Independence Day tomorrow! The employees at EJ’s company voted to work on the 4th so they could stay up late with family to watch fireworks, etc. It would be a short night indeed for them… Continue Reading “Meet The Beetles”
Every Enchanted Forest has it’s villain, whether it’s a witch, sorcerer, giant spiders, dragon. Ours is a plant. A very evil plant. The first couple of years after we moved to our Enchanted Forest, we were busy fixing serious erosion along and across the… Continue Reading “Plants Vs Beetles”
The month of May has ended up being a bit more busy and stressful than I expected. A friend from Iowa had planned to visit during May. She’s been wanting to visit for a very long time. However, that plan fell through and I’m… Continue Reading “Merry Month of May?”
Our son, JJ, is a deckhand on a Great Lakes bulk carrier. Last Spring he slipped on deck and badly broke his leg. That ended the shipping season for him. He had to have surgery to insert a plate in his leg and recovery… Continue Reading ““Don’t Worry. He’s Friendly.””
EJ’s shift changed a couple weeks ago from 2nd shift to 1st. We are adjusting well enough. First shift isn’t as physically difficult for EJ as working nights was. The hardest change has not been the change in hours but the change in days.… Continue Reading “Michigan’s Storms”
March’s weather has been bi-polar with huge differences in temperatures. Last week the temperatures reached up to 70 and all our snow melted. The next day we had several inches of new snow. Up and down. Up and down. Yesterday we woke up to… Continue Reading “Early Adjustments”
Friday EJ and I got to go to the farm store. I say “got to” instead of “had to” because it’s fun rather than a chore. We’ve always gotten Rhode Island and New Hampshire Red chickens but last Spring we decided to get a… Continue Reading “Partridge Chanteclers”
This week we’ve had blue skies, ranging from cloudless to mostly, partly, or somewhat, blue skies. It varied. The point is that we actually could see blue instead of gray skies. We’ve had some cloudy gray skies, but not as much as usual. It… Continue Reading “The Dark Side of Sunny Days”
Today the sun has been peeking through the cloudy gray sky. My eyes are unused to sunshine–Michigan gets a lot of cloud cover because of the Great Lakes–so I lowered the window blinds halfway. I hated to do it, but the sunlight was blinding.… Continue Reading “Snow Fall”
It keeps snowing and the snow keeps piling up–one, three, or 5 inches at a time. I’m so very thankful for our neighbor, Dale, who faithfully snowblows our driveway for us with his tractor. What a a blessing he is! Last week I discovered… Continue Reading “Dog Crime”
Yikes! I haven’t written since January 2nd. I have a lot of catching up to do. After several mild winters, we are back to normal winters with cold temperatures and lots of snow. EJ read a couple weeks ago that we had gotten ten… Continue Reading “Catching Up”
I hope you had a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Our Christmas was nice. It was peaceful and free of unwanted stress or drama. Just as we like. EJ cooked us a nice Christmas dinner. We had our favorite holiday treats… Continue Reading “Clara, The Impossible Cat”
We have entered a period of cold weather with temperatures in the single digits. When we woke up this morning, the temperature read 1 degrees but it’s possible it was much colder. EJ read online that the temperatures of nearby towns were around -20.… Continue Reading “Dear Human”
The weather continues to alternate between cold and warm, snow and rain. We’ve been spoiled in recent years with mild winters, but it looks like the weather is back to normal now. Our friend lives a couple hours away and often stays here when… Continue Reading “Snooker, Curling, and Bowls”
Last week was a bit of a winter challenge. There are some winter challenges that people participate in for fun. Like Polar Bear Challenges, in which people, wearing only standard swimsuits, plunge or swim in a body of water in the middle of winter.… Continue Reading “Winter Challenge”