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!