Growing Our Life in Northern Michigan
Three or four times lately, I’ve heard an odd sort of thumping in the house. I didn’t know what it was, until finally…Wait. First, let me tell you that our house has an unheated hallway connecting the house and the garage. At one end… Continue Reading “Monsieur Mouse”
The hen I’ve nicknamed “White Feather” because she has white feathers among the red, is lingering on–but just barely. I didn’t really expect her to last so long. She’s been looking like a grizzled old dog. I’ve read that chickens only last 7-8 years… Continue Reading “Wren, Hen, and Coons”
It’s been a very dry summer–at least for us. On radar, we often watch large areas of rain go right past us without hitting us. Because of the lack of rain, I have to go out ever day to water EJ’s vegetable garden and… Continue Reading “Mean Girl and White Feather”
Ej had 5 days off last week. Three were his normal days off, one was for the July 4th holiday, and one he took off as a vacation day. We spent the five days working around our place, getting several tasks and projects done.… Continue Reading “Only Us”
It’s been very dry here this summer. Except for areas where the sprinkler hit when I watered the gardens, the grass was turning yellow like straw. When I mowed the lawn last Friday, the mower blew up clouds of sand. I made my own… Continue Reading “Chicken Run”
It is mostly Summer now. I say “mostly” because we have more warm days than not, but most mornings and some days and nights are cool enough that I still wear a jacket. Actually, Summer seems to stay firmly fixed in place around the… Continue Reading “Mostly Summer Now”
EJ has finished his first week of working first shift and is now beginning his second week. He is enjoying this shift because he is naturally a morning person and feels less tired and more productive. He enjoys the beautiful early morning drive to… Continue Reading “Cough, Wheeze, and Sneeze”
For most of our married life, EJ has worked second shift. It has worked well for us. I get up earlier than him in the mornings and he stays up later than I do at night but we are able to spend mid-morning to… Continue Reading “Rhythm Shift”
Last week we had three nights of frost/freeze warnings with temperatures that dipped into the low 30s. Each evening we had to cover up our tender garden plants. We do this every year. The temperatures have risen into the 80s, even touching 90 degrees… Continue Reading “Eight Years Ago Today”
Today is May 1st. Today it is Spring. Today it is Winter I guess you could say that it’s Spr-inter. A few years ago, I was amazed to learn that people in southern states are planting their gardens in February. February is winter here… Continue Reading “Happy Spr-inter”
We’ve had alternating warm/cold weather. Saturday morning it snowed quite hard but by the afternoon it warmed up enough that it melted all the snow and I didn’t button my coat when I went outside. This week the temperatures are in the 70s. It… Continue Reading “Nesting”
We have spent the last week trying to set up EJ’s new phone. He really hates to be bothered with it. He’d prefer to just turn on his phone and start to use it. So I try to help him as much as I… Continue Reading “Qapla’!”
Last week was a bit tough. Well, perhaps not really as tough as much as inconvenient and annoying. EJ got up early on Thursday morning after only a few hours of sleep to run an important errand. While he was out, he dropped his… Continue Reading “Lost and Found”
Yesterday morning I woke up to heavy fog. As the sun rose, it tinted the fog with a sort of pastel pinkish-orange color. I went out to take a few photos and saw that raindrops had frozen on the bare branches of trees. It… Continue Reading “Homestead Magic”
Hannah Joy asked to go out at 10 pm on Monday evening, several hours after I wrote my last blog post called, “The Pantry Cat in Space and Time.” I found Millie in our entrance hallway, indicating that she urgently wanted to back out… Continue Reading “The Incubator”