Wishing you a Merry Christmas!

This post is special - it is for each of you.  Even though I miss you greatly - I really like our life here!  I am thinking that this post will show you why.  Living up here is a different from anywhere I've ever lived - it's raw, it's cold, it's windy, it's beautiful, and makes me feel alive!  My only wish is that each of you could experience what I have; if you did, you may feel the same way I feel.
 
Here, you can't take life for granted, it isn't easy, but it's worth it. It keeps you out of your comfort zone.

I went snowshoeing a few days ago to cut some pine boughs to bring a pine scent into the house.  I walked toward the woods...

With snowshoes on, you get to walk on top of the deep snow, but it takes some additional effort to lift the extra weight on the snowshoes -  you burn 600 calories/hr snowshoeing!

From the exercise, I was so warm that I put my mittens in my pocket...then realized that they dropped from my pocket.  I went back for them and chuckled as it made a great photo opportunity...even the imprint from them looked great.

 After cutting pine boughs and putting them in my basket backpack, I turned back toward the house and noticed a clearing in the woods and decided to explore it - I WAS SO GLAD I DID, see the videos below and you'll see why.  I thank my son-in-law, Mitch, for compressing the first video file so it fit the requirement of this blog.  I'm afraid that due to this compression it's lost some of the detail and beauty, but the others are untouched, so you will see the beauty in them:

I turned to start to leave the clearing I saw this little tree:

I was amazed at the beauty - I hope you enjoy it as much as I did:

I was awed by what I saw and started back to the house, enjoying the weather, sunset, and the memories of what I had experienced - hoping that my videos would be good enough.  I took off my snowshoes and basket on my way back into the house and I was wishing you could have shared the beauty with me!

Come out with me next year!

You are all welcome to come visit during the winter and enjoy this experience I just shared with you!

Merry Christmas!
Mark and Susan

New Cold Comfort Farm Photos and Videos

Merry Christmas everyone!  This is a very busy time for all of us, so I decided to just post some photos for you from CCF. 

Last week our temps were in the 40s, most of our snow melted

Then as the cold front moved in, we had a lot of dense fog

Mark moved three pines into the windbreak to fill in dead spaces - they are named for Rory, Sophie, and Claira - Liam's tree will be moved next spring.

 

 In the southwest US, they experience dirt devils, here we have snow devils.  When the wind is high and you are walking, sometimes it feels like you are getting a snow facial!  This video shows you the snow devils as they blow across the fields.

 See what retirement does - Mark needed something from the pole barn and just threw on a shirt (clashed) that was handy, his wellies, and hat.  Full YOOPER mode!

Kev and I talked about Sophie wanting a cape for her Anna (Frozen) dress, so I told her I would make her one...OMG this was not easy as the store didn't have the fabric that they designed the pattern for, so I had to make all kinds of adjustments.  I will put on the tag that it is from Grammie and Cleo, she sat on or near the fabric the entire time I sewed, watching me and the machine.

Cleo helping me sew

Sophie's "Frozen" Cape

Mark wanted to make Christmas better at the farm, so he strung lights on a lone pine tree in our pasture. It really stands out in the pitch dark (with no street lights, it REALLY gets dark here at night).  This photo does not do it justice - it is beautiful!

 Mark is prepping the sleigh for next winter (our plans are to have a horse to pull it by then).  As you can see in the second photo, he purchased coach lights that he will mount on the front sides and tail lights that he will mount on the lower metal back bar.  The coach lights are suppose to hold candles; however, he is talking to a company that can convert them to 12 volt LED lights, with a switch mounted under the dashboard.  Hopefully next year I can upload a video of an actual sleigh ride!  Since this is an actual vehicle and will be on side roads, but still roads, Mark wants me to be safe.

 

 Here was the weather yesterday - it was beautiful and very Christmassy

We will see many of you soon - until then, stay safe and Happy Holidays!

Learning to Milk a Cow

In order to start to build a community up here, I made the offer to neighbors, Steve and Melissa, to learn how to milk their two cows so that I can help them if they are sick or out of town.  In turn, they are very willing to assist us caring for our cats and any future animals when we want to go on vacation.  Mark will assist me, but caring for animals are not his strength (he likes his on a plate with gravy), while I LOVE animals!

So at 7:30 yesterday morning, I drove to Steve and Melissa's nearby farm.  They are a great young couple who are getting married this summer and really want to be successful small farmers. They own about 120 acres and want to grow into their farm slowly and successfully.  We've also offered to assist them with haying their fields if their they mow and bail our fields, so we will be able to feed our animals, our hay.  You will see that post next year during the summer and fall - with photos.

When I arrived yesterday, the two cows were already in their milking stalls:

After showing me how to assemble the clean equipment; they have a suction pump and enclosed buckets for food cleanliness and safety.  Steve explained how he brushes the cows and their milking parts well (utters and teats), then he cleaned the milking parts with a soapy clean cloth to ensure clean milk.    Now comes the cool part:

A leather strap goes around the cow's back and rests right next to it's back bony section and that connects to a metal hanging rod which holds the milking bucket.  These items do not come in contact with the ground or hay, it hangs from that strap and rod.  The cow and the suction machine does all the hard work, you just have to start the milk flowing in each teat, attach the cups to the teats, and stay close to test for completion so the cow does not become uncomfortable.  There are no open buckets to become contaminated or be kicked over - cool! 

These two cows are both pregnant and are very used to being milked, so they were quiet and compliant - no fuss!  It only took about 20 - 30 minutes to milk two cows and I got to take home a gallon of fresh whole milk - sweet milk!  It is WONDERFUL to see where your food comes from and be part of it creation, growth, and collection.

Our life here is definitely an adventure!

Decorating for Christmas In a Smaller Home - a Great Lesson on Less is More!

As most of you know, the Christmas season is my favorite time of the year as I think it brings out the best in most of us.  This year our plan was to go out, in our woods, and chop down a Christmas tree (we have plenty to choose from); however, with our visit to St. Louis we felt that an artificial tree was a safer bet - this old house has some funky wiring that we still don't trust.

As I packed last summer, I knew we were going to a smaller house so I got rid of almost half of our Christmas decorations.  Even with that paring down, it's still been a challenge decorating for Christmas.  At first I was frustrated -  the storage bins alone took up so much space that I couldn't move within the rooms - our dining and living room looked like a Christmas explosion.  I stood there and didn't know were to go or what to do next.  Kev, I feel your pain of living in a small house with way too much stuff...so I stood there trying to figure out where to start.  But then took a deep breath and dove in! 

In the midst of the mess we realized that our existing and very pretty, but very big artificial tree would not fit into the living room - we only have 8ft ceilings here (our old tree did not look that big in our old house).  So, we had to stop and go into town to purchase a new smaller/thinner tree.

Once Mark set up the new tree and I started to decorate it and the rest of our home, I soon realized that I was experiencing more than just decorating for Christmas - this was a personal growth exercise.  Again, I realized that this is stuff, just stuff...MOSTLY!  I made the decision right then, that I would only put out items that had a memory for me, the rest would go back into the bin for sorting, selling, or donating in a later year.  Our treasured items will always have a place in our home, they are:

Our manger set made for me by Joan and Marvin Hosler

Marvin made the actual wooden manger

Little hands - these are Sophies

These are Rory's - I'd love a set of Liam's and Claira's to complete the set (hint, hint)

old and new friends

Decorations  and ornaments given to us by

Our Bondie family tree from an 80s craft fair -always makes me think of my parents

Ornaments made by our daughters

Ornaments made by grandkidlets

My Santa collection was tough to find a place for, but is still small enough to fit (mostly) on the sofa table in the front window:

 We even welcome visitors with decorations on our front porch:

 As I was decorating the house, it was snowing outside and I was listening to Christmas music - the only things that were missing were the hot chocolate and family and friends - you all would have made it a more fun task.  Here is a quick video of my experience:

Merry Christmas - and as Tiny Tim said, "God Bless Us, Every One!"

The Winter Time Cadence in the North

Up here they say that there are two seasons, winter and visitation.  All our neighbors have visitors all spring, summer, and fall, but not so much in the winter.  Family and friends come from all over to stay and visit when the Michigan weather is warm and beautiful.  We hope we will be like them and have visitors next "visitation" season; however, until then we have some down time.  Winter, here, is the season for reading, writing, indoor hobbies, outdoor sports, learning, exercising, planning for next year, and sleeping.

I/We are really starting to finally get settled. Now that we have completed all outdoor projects for the year and most of the indoor ones as well, we are starting to have TIME for more than work.  That brings me to the point of this posting - the part of living here that I really like the best.

There seems to be a different time cadence here - I felt it the very first time we vacationed in the UP.  Summer has one cadence and winter has a different one...a slower one.  It's hard to verbally explain it, you have to feel it.  I think that it is what makes Uppers, Uppers!  They don't seem to sweat the small stuff.  Maybe it's because they are much closer to nature - they seem more grounded that we are in the bigger cities.  Maybe it comes from only having one big box store, one very small mall, and one theater.  Maybe it comes from the cold weather.  Maybe they are like salamanders - they slow down in the cold. We (people who live here) do go outside (all the time), walking, running, skiing, snowmobiling, snow-shoeing  - so we are not going slow, the time just gets slow and quiet - if that makes sense?

Maybe it has to do with the amount of daylight??  We wake up in the dark and soon, it will be getting dark by about 3:30ish.  But so do all of you - so what makes the time seem slow?  I don't think it is because we are retired, I'm not the only one up here who feels this.  I've had this conversation with other locals who have lived elsewhere and then moved here; they all have experienced this sensed time warp.  I really don't think that this slowed time will have any effect on our age - but we can hope!

I invite you here sometime in winter, not only enjoy our winter sports, but for you to experience our winter cadence!

Thanksgiving Reflections

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving holiday!  At this time of year, we all find ourselves going over all the things in our lives we appreciate and love - I am no different.  Now that we are no longer living in St. Louis, it's more important than usual.  I'll try and keep this short and not too sappy.

1. I appreciated the time, energy, cost, and patience from my girls and son-in-laws to drive 12 hours (one way) with little ones in tow (when we all know that after the first mile, all they heard was, "...are we there yet?")
2.  I LOVED that the four little ones were all healthy during their visit and they ALL slept all night and allowed their parents and us to sleep.
 3. I was thankful that all the kids were happy, well behaved, and seemed to enjoy themselves.  They LOVED sledding and playing on the Lake Superior shore.  I'm sure Keva will post all the wonderful photos she took.

As in the movie Christmas Story - she looked like a tick about to pop!

4. I appreciated all the help that everyone gave me! Since we don't have a dishwasher, just keeping up with the dishes took effort - everyone took their turn, even without being asked.

Mark doing dishes after the big dinner

5. I appreciated the lesson of letting-go, when the apple pie burned in the oven because somebody turned off the timer (no one remembers doing it) when we walked out to the barn for about 15 minutes.  I also learned that even if the top of the pie is burned - you can take off the burned top and the rest of the pie is still delicious!
6. I am SO thankful that the girls and their families are now back in St. Louis tonight safely!

As Mark and I were cleaning up the rooms after the girls left, I had moved some toys and set one on the shelf in front of the window out of my way (without really thinking about it) ...later Mark told me to come see what he saw when he entered the room later today...

Peter Rabbit - watching and waiting for the kids to come back and play!

We had a wonderful holiday and I, no - we (Mark and I), know how lucky we are!!!  We are looking forward to visiting St. Louis over Christmas.  We'll see you all then!

Kitchen Update

With Thanksgiving right around the corner and family arriving, Mark continued to install the three new cabinets we brought with us - one for each bath (to replace the ratty old ones) and a base cabinet, sink, and faucet to replace the kitchen sink cabinet. Seeing the original one below will show you why:

Original FILTHY kitchen.  The ugly off-white cabinet centered under the kitchen window is the one we replaced.  The dishwasher is gone and, after cleaning, we have added a stove and fridge.

Mark found mold behind the cabinet from the burst pipes that occurred when the house was empty, below freezing and the main water valve left on.  We scrubbed, Kilz'd, and painted the wall.  After that, Mark removed the plastic tiles from beneath the window and replace them with neutral ceramic tile (matched the best we could).

Then he installed the new cabinet, sink and faucet that will allow me to wash my big soup pot and other larger items (YEAH!!) Here is what we ended up with.

New base cabinet, sink, and faucet

The kitchen and dining room are actually the same room, so you can see my dining server next to the kitchen sink cabinet.  I would never have designed a house this way - but we will live with it until we decide exactly what we want.

Now, he has moved on to installing the last vanity in the main floor bath.  I'll post those photos after Thanksgiving.  Right now, I'm working on baking ahead so that I can enjoy Thanksgiving with family.  I'm SOOO excited and can't wait for them to arrive today.  Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

New Cold Comfort Farm Photos

The summer kitchen & barn - snow between the house and the barn is about 8-12" high (due to drifting).  The taller pile of snow on the side of the summer kitchen is from snow plowing...it has to be pushed somewhere.

We are trying to train our cats, Cleo and Tea, to go out in the cold and snow.  We take them out and put them in our barn each day and let them run for awhile.  When Cleo ran back from the barn to the house, she didn't stay on the plowed path. She ended up in the snowbank that was as tall as she was.  She now stays on the path.

No caption needed.  The evening here gets soft and purple.

The winter runner!

This picture is for Keva.

This one too!

 

Yesterday morning's view out of the north living room window.

Portage Lake, which is the canal running between Houghton and Hancock, is starting to freeze over. Beyond the little tree in the lower right of the photo was water - is now ice.

Refreshed Bathroom - One of Those Snowballing Projects

I almost titled this post "This Old House" or possibly "The Money Pit."  Here is the story from the beginning.

As you all know, we've owned this farm for the last four years and the house was condemned when we purchased it.  From the beginning we've never gotten the only bathtub to drain properly.  Mark has gone through at least two bottles of professional drain cleaner...with no luck.  Well, last week it stopped draining - completely.  Beside the tub was a clean out port - an OLD cast iron clean out.  The tub also was plumbed expecting the water to drain out of the tub and then the water had to flow UP through the clean out  - VERY poor design indeed.  Mark did not want to tackle re-plumbing this as he has had experience of trying to fix old pipes; sometimes it just crumbles when touched and causes more issues.  Here is a before photo of the bathroom - four years ago:

Cleaning didn't change this busy bathroom

Well, he found exactly what he feared - a real mess.  The drain issue was a physical shower head swivel joint inside the drain pipe (someone before us had to have dropped it in the drain), which plugged it to the size of an eraser head - which was plugged too.  It took him about six hours to re-plumb and retrofit the piping.  Then he closed and repaired the 9" x 14" access hole in the bathroom floor.  I happily told Mark, "Don't worry, I'll lay new vinyl - I've never done it before but how hard can it be, it's a very small room."  You can see where this is going, can't you?
 
I went to the local flooring store and they had nothing that matched the current wallboard (faux ceramic tile - very busy pattern).  I found wood-looking vinyl that, I thought, would not look HORRIBLE.  Since it was a wood pattern, the boards had to run the length of the bathroom, so I had to purchase twice as much as I needed.  I hated to spend the extra money but I figured that if I really goofed, I'd have enough for a back-up! LITTLE DID I KNOW...

I brought it home and it still clashed, Mark suggested that we paint the wallboard - here we go - slipping down that slope.  We went back to town and chose a solid color paint that matched our towel, rugs, and the new flooring.

I painted the walls, watched Y-tube videos on vinyl installation, and felt ready to take on the challenge. The videos said that you can either make a template or measure/cut a little big and then trim when you have it in place.  I chose to measure/cut and then trim in place...well...that was the worst choice as there was not one straight wall in the bathroom, so when I took the already cut, slightly-bigger-than-the-measurement piece into the bath to make sure it fit...it did not - a caulk joint would not cover the gaps.

Mark was very sweet to put up with all my swearing.  He said, "And you kiss your grand kids with that mouth;-)?"  I had even measured twice - I swear that the walls moved!!!  Well, this time I drove to town again and bought brown paper and created a template... I learned to ALWAYS USE A TEMPLATE!!!

I cut the new piece from my now-happy-I-bought-extra vinyl and was ready to install it. Mark bought me two grooved plastic trowels - a narrow one to dig the glue out of the small bucket and a wide one to spread the glue on the floor.  OMG - I had no idea just how sticky vinyl glue was!  In short order, I had glue on my fingers because the plastic trowels bent so you have to have your fingers way down on the handle to move the stiff glue.  I then had to try and lay the vinyl with sticky fingers and make a few small trims along the way.  At one point, I had glue on the base floor, my trowel, my fingers, and I was suppose to lay the vinyl down and smooth it and fit it in around items, like pipes...with one hand???  I tried and got the small trimmed vinyl stuck to my other hand. Now I had glue on both hands.

The video made it look so easy! Every time I spread the glue on a section of floor, I had to stop, walk down stairs (Mark had to take the bathroom sink out to lay the floor and replace the vanity) and wash the glue off my hands.  I had to stop and laugh when I opened my hand to set down the exacto knife and it, too, was stuck to my hand.  I had to ask Mark to remove it from my gluey hand. I was afraid that Mark might find me glued to the floor!

SO - all this started with a plugged drain and now we have newly painted walls, a new vanity (which we had planned to replace), floor, lights, and mirror - the only original item is the tub.  This project REALLY got me out of my comfort zone and I've now walked only one mile in the shoes of a vinyl laborer - and I TOTALLY respect them and their work.   Here is the finished bath room - for some reason, even with the longer vanity, the room looks bigger!  We are happy we did it.

Winter Storm Update - from Cold Comfort Farm

I know that some of you will want to know how we are doing in this early winter storm, so I thought I'd give you an update.  Yesterday, we got about six inches, here are a couple of photos from our windows.

This pine tree is right outside my dressing room window - yesterday afternoon, the snow had just started to stick

I was seeing actual snowflakes, but the camera caught them as streaks

Last night, Mark attached the plow to the truck and plowed both driveways - or should I say the circle driveway.

This morning, we woke to this:

This is the living room window - looking north toward the windbreak

Up here they don't install gutters, so you get a lot of icicles

Same tree as yesterday - lots of snow

Through the day we got another 12" -  so we have about 18 inches total.  Mark plowed again this afternoon, here is a short video:

We've both been outside in this storm today - the average wind gusts were about 30 mph...the best part of today was that we didn't not HAVE to go anywhere, so we didn't.  Mark worked on inside jobs and I finally finished canning applesauce.  We now have about 60 jars of honey applesauce - I know we will all enjoy them.  Stay warm were you are and know that we are very toasty up here on Cold Comfort Farm!