...And now some photos

We now have a mailbox!!!  This property has not had a mail box since before we purchased it - they always had a PO box.  Now you all have our address - we'd love to hear from you!

Our address is 53920 Canal Rd., Houghton, MI  49931

Here are a few photos of the barn hay loft and the loft storage area we've set up.  I'm now working to fill the shelves and put things where I can find them when we need them.

This is one side of the barn loft.  All the wood you see on the floor was cut on the property's saw mill from trees on the property

I know this is odd lighting - the lights you see are from two windows - but you get the idea of the size of the loft.

I think you can see the bricks and board shelves on the long barn roof ribs and along the back wall.

The barn from the road

I'll add more photos now that I've worked through my technology issues.  Have a great day!

Our achievements in the first four weeks of Mark's retirement

As we went on our evening walk tonight, Mark reminded me that he has been retired four weeks today; therefore, I've been retired 8 weeks.  Since we've arrived on Aug 4, we've:

-Unpacked at least 50 boxes and sorted many more - and I still found one more box of winter sweaters just yesterday.
-Set the furniture and arranged all the bedrooms but we have not hung pictures yet.  Again, we have too many for the walls we have now, so I dread trying to choose which to keep and which to either give away or sell.  Too many of them are dear to my heart.

-Almost finished organizing the kitchen and dining room...but every time I think I am finished, I find another box of kitchen items.
-Cleaned part of the barn loft and built shelves of bricks and boards to hold the garage STUFF
-Cleaned out the milk house, scrubbed it down and took photos of the milking equipment and tanks so I can find its value and put it up for sale. This is important to do before winter sets in for the buyer as well as for us.  If we have another bad winter, the buyer may not be able to come here to pick up the equipment. We need the space to put our freezer and second fridge.
-Scrubbed and dried out the dank hole in the ground that is suppose to be our basement.  Got a laundry room put together.  Bought a second dehumidifier.  Then built shelves in the basement to house the overflow of items we use now and again but don't have room for upstairs.
-As you saw a few posts ago, Mark scrapped and I painted the windows on the main floor.  We painted the front door.  We start on the second floor windows next week.
-Mark measured all the windows and we drove to Marquette and ordered storm windows for all the windows and a new front screen door.  This should make the house more energy efficient this winter.

We've put in twelve hours a day to accomplish all this, but we've slept hard at night.  It's been hard work, but good work!  We get instant gratification and I've been smiling most of the time. I do miss my girls and my babies, but hard work keeps you from dwelling on the tough stuff.  We have taken time off to sit and watch the sunset, go to the beach and take a few afternoon naps (well deserved)! 
Mark's brother Chris and his wife Vickie are coming to visit this weekend, so we are taking time off to enjoy their visit and rest.

I know you all want to see more photos and I'm trying to achieve that, but during all this I've had challenges with the internet, my phone and the camera on my phone...I'm working on getting my tablet to take its place and now I'm having issues with transferring the photos from the tablet to this computer.  Oh, the challenges of technology - when it does not work the way you need it to!!!

Mark's ALS challenge video

Mark is a very good sport.  As I used my phone to video his actions, I did not realize that the phone would pick up the strong wind and not his voice.  He ended up doing the challenge twice, see below:

Our ALS challenge videos and our challenges of others

Keva and Rory challenged us so we had to meet their challenge.  Here are my video - I will have to do a second posting for Mark's as it, added to mine, exceeds the video size for a posting. 

Prepping the house for winter as we get settled

We've owned this farm for four years now and stayed here in all kinds of weather.  We've lost sleep at times with the windows rattling with the wind, had to install insulated window film that you shrink with a blow dryer on each window, and agreed that when we moved here permanently we would have to address the windows.

As you look at our house in the photo below, the right roof peak side of the house was built in the mid 1880s, the left side was added in the very early 1900s, so this house has its issues - and one of them is windows.  Until we decide IF and when we are updating the house and windows, we decided to stop unpacking and, while the weather is still good, fix the windows.

Mark scrapped and puttied the windows, then it was my job to paint them and the front porch soffit and finally he will calk them to make them more air tight.  Since the house has very light gray siding with a red roof (that is almost weathered off on the south side), we chose a very dark Williamsburg Blue and barn red for the front door.

We are driving to Marquette, MI on Monday to buy a new front screen door and try to buy replacement storm windows - if we can find them.  I thought I'd share what I've accomplished.  We will have to rent scaffolding in order to paint the second story windows.  As you can see, they need painting as well.  I'll post the finished pictures when the project is completed.

Oh, on a totally different note - Keva was ice bucket challenged by her Uncle Peter to support ALS - she and Rory accepted the challenge and went through the ordeal today. She challenged me and Rory challenged her Popi.  We both accepted the challenge and I will go through it tomorrow.  Mark, instead of the bucket of ice water, will jump - full body - into Lake Superior.  We both know that this will be worse then just the ice bucket.   So check out Facebook and the blog tomorrow to see our video.

Yesterday I got to do something I've wanted to do for the last four years

I actually got to start cleaning the barn!!!  Most normal people would HATE to clean a barn, but not me.  When we bought Cold Comfort Farm (CCF), it was a MESS - see for yourself.  I wanted to dive right in and spend my vacation cleaning out the barn...I know, I know, I'm nuts!  But there were so many other "issues" to worry about on the farm that each time we visited here, we worked on the house and figured the barn would have to wait.  And it did until yesterday. 

The left is the actual barn, the right is the milk house attached

Well, now in order to sell the milk house equipment which we don't need, Mark got in there and bagged up all the bead styrofoam insulation, which locals put on the floor to protect the equipment during the winter (doesn't really work). It was almost up to your knees if you tried to wade into the milk house.  Once Mark bagged up the insulation, I got to go in and clean, wash and this is the result.

Now the room is scrubbed and hosed down

and I can photograph the equipment to sell

 

 

 

 

Taking a break to swim in Lake Superior

We know that you all think of Mark and me as A-Type personalities - all work and no play.  But here we believe in taking time off to swim when the temperature hits 80 degrees. Lake Superior in August is usually about 60 degrees.  As you can see, Mark swims as I wade in up to my knees - it is refreshing!

It took Mark about 10 minutes to get all the way in.

He swam as I watched and played in the sand

These little dried stalks gave me the opportunity to show off the sand at the black beach.  It is not really black, but all these crushed colored stones makes it look black and therefore absorb the sunlight making it warm.  And the deeper you sink your feet or body, the warmer it is.

When we are not at the beach, we are slowly settling in to our home.  We've been up to our eyeballs in STUFF, boxes, and projects.  We almost have the mailbox up.  We had to order the mailbox post as they don't keep them in stock. 

We started scraping and caulking and painting the outside windows in preparation for winter but rain slowed us down so we are now cleaning the barn so we can put shelves up and move some of our garage STUFF into the barn...slow progress, but progress.  I'll share more in the next post.

The Last Two Weeks at Cold Comfort...

have been long, busy days!  But if I wanted an easy retirement, I would have stayed in Columbia.

The weather has here been about 10 degrees cooler than their normal summer, so working outside or inside has been lovely.  We've had lows as low as 49 at night (enjoying sleeping with the windows open) and highs around 72-75 (no air conditioning needed). We have heavy dew every morning and in our front yard I noticed, what seemed to be, white splotches.  As I was making breakfast I wondered what they were.  Mark went out with my phone and took these photos - I thought I'd share them with you.

Front yard - white splotches

Spider webs - the spiders worked nightly to build these...

and the dew made them beautiful, sparkly and reflective

Can you imagine how much work these are to the spiders. This is an oddity that I had not experienced before and now that I know what I'm looking at, I look for them daily.  

We have a connection!

We are living now in a part of our country that has NEVER had broadband Internet connectivity.  They have had dial up, mobile hot spots, or they have paid dearly for HughsNet.  Well, we have now signed on with new company that is installing broadband Internet and we are one of their first customers here.  They have had their issues over the last week, but I think the problems have been resolved as this is the second day that we have held our Internet connection.  If we were on vacation here, we would not care; however, with living here permanently it becomes important.  We NEED to be in touch with our girls and grand kidlets, especially with all the upheaval in Ferguson, Missouri.  Thank you Lauren for your update, PLEASE be careful and stay safe.  We thank all of Lauren's friends and her sister for offering them a refuge, if they need it.

Without being able to update this blog, I've fallen way behind.  When we left St. Louis, we drove 12 hours to the farm to drop off the two cats - we could not see trying to stay in a hotel with two scared cats, even drugged.  When we arrived, we spent the night and got them situated with enough food, water and other cat needs; opened all the inside doors (so they could explore their new home entirely); and then drove 6 more hours the next day to Clare, MI for a family wedding.  Mark's brother Chris' stepdaughter's wedding.  We had a great visit for two days and then drove another six hours back to the farm.  For all those who know Mark's family of ten siblings, six of the ten attended the wedding so we are glad we made the drive.  If any of you have good photos, please email them to me.

On the way to and from the wedding, I took a few photos that Keva and Lauren will appreciate...do you two remember one vacation when we had dinner in a snowstorm at the Brownstone Inn?  We stopped for dinner on the way home - still VERY good food and service.

The same owners, since 1946!

This one is for you Kev - very innovative way to use hay bales

We officially arrived at our new home on Monday, Aug 4.  That was ten days ago.  We've accomplished a lot in that time.  We also took some time to go to our neighborhood beach...

Even though my camera is not the best, you get the idea...

I sat on the wonderfully warm black sand beach watching your dad wade into Lake Superior's chilly water

 I've got lots more to share, but all in good time.  I'll sign off tonight and start again tomorrow.