Growing Our Life in Northern Michigan
We are already into August. Soon–as we do every year–we will exclaim, “The trees are already beginning to change color! It seems awful early this year!” It doubt it is ever early. It just feels as if summer is over too quickly. Several months… Continue Reading “The Monarch of the Glen”
Last Thursday EJ and I went to the home improvement store to buy supplies for the floor in our exercise room, a corner of which was ruined by our leaky roof. He bought underlayment, tile, and a couple other things. EJ was going to… Continue Reading “Bearly Seen”
Well, our battles, described in my last post, continue. A couple days ago, we did a load of laundry. Well, we tried. Our washer’s error code, Elf 9, reared his ugly head several times. We took turns trying to clear the code. One of… Continue Reading “The Forbidden Zone”
We’ve had a series of battles lately. Three of them, in fact. It sort of reminds me of fairy tales in which a hero must complete three difficult tasks in order to win the reward. The first battle has been with the heat. The… Continue Reading “Three Battles”
I intended to write before this. I now have so much catching up to do! Our weather went from chilly through mid-June to a very sweltering hot (90s). Ugh. I prefer cooler weather. Thankfully, we have central AC, although we didn’t turn it on… Continue Reading “July Update”
We are now past the summer solstice and the days will be getting shorter. So far the weather here in Michigan has been cool–with temperatures dipping into the 40s at night and mornings quite chilly. However, the temperatures are warming up. The National Weather… Continue Reading “Chick-Palooza”
Yesterday, June 1, was the 11th anniversary of our move here. Eleven years ago, EJ drove up from our old house with our dog, Danny, and as much stuff as we could get in his pickup truck. JJ and I followed him in our… Continue Reading “What Happened Next”
In my last post, I wrote about our rooster, Richard VI, escaping from the fence. Before I wrote that post, he had escaped four times, and a fifth time as I was finishing it. Throughout that day, he kept escaping–so many times that we… Continue Reading “Child of Richard VI”
This morning began about 4 a.m. with Timmy insistently “mmfff, meow, mmrfff” in my ear, walking up and down my body, and occasionally leaping on me as if I’m a trampoline. He’s become a bit of an annoyance since Hannah Joy died and he… Continue Reading “A Brisket, A Basket”
We made it through the month of April, with its heavy rains that caused massive flooding which invaded basements, washed out roads, destroyed bridges, created deep sinkholes, and threatened dams. Unlike others that had to deal with flood damage, we were unaffected by it… Continue Reading “Ridding and Reading”
There’s a quote that goes “April showers bring May flowers” but we are getting so much rain that April showers may DROWN May flowers. We went shopping on Sunday and the rain was so heavy that we could hear drumming on the roof like… Continue Reading “April Showers”
It is a gloomy, rainy day today. The gloom is constant, the rain is not. It mostly just drips with an infrequent distant rumble of thunder. It’s just rainy enough that it’s a good day to write. EJ has a co-worker that keeps urging… Continue Reading “Cats, Hens, and Deer”
The weekend after Hannah Joy died, we buried her on the eastern slope of our property. EJ dug the grave, which wasn’t easy on snow covered frozen ground. Later, I moved a small boulder to mark the grave and to keep predators from disturbing… Continue Reading “All Our Needs”
I’m looking out the window at a very snowy landscape. Not surprising for a Michigan winter. We’ve had a lot of winter storm systems come through, dumping quite a bit of cold and snow on us. Sandwiched between the winter storms, the weather warms… Continue Reading “Döstädning”
Both EJ and our son work four 10-hour shifts at their companies. EJ works Friday through Monday and JJ works Monday through Thursday. Mondays are the only days when they are both at work and I have the day to myself. I still accomplish… Continue Reading “Friends”