PURELY MICHIGAN gets hit with Blizzard of 2011

Welcome, Winter of 2011!

The news has been warning of a blizzard to hit our area for nearly a week now.  Angela in West Virginia first alerted me to the broadcasts she heard in their local news.  I watched the skies last evening before bed and I admit, I was a scoffer.  But look who is not scoffing NOW!!!

Winter is for the BIRDS...but even THEY don't look too thrilled!

Better hunker down again for a while - -  Happy Ground Hog's Day !

Very Cold, but LETS Find CHIPPIES!

The temps have been sub-zero towards the end of most evenings.  Our oldest Corgi, Sissy, loves the winter snows with all her Corgi Heart!  Her favorite thing to do, when I will let her, is to go DRILLING for CHIPMUNKS!  These aren't the best photos, but taken out the window in our "Observation Room", it was the best I could do for now!  I don't want to be brave and freeze my fingers off!

She looked so satisfied at the end of "the chase"!  Nothing better than a Corgi Fulfilled!
Have a great day -

December...time to remember...

It's been a busy couple of months for me learning my new job.  Each day it gets a bit easier, but part time equals nearly no time for nearly anything else I'd like to do!  Blogging became a new and fun adventure a couple years ago when I first became unemployed, and it filled an empty space in my life.  Right now it seems that weekends are the only time I have time to check out anyone else's blogs, never mind writing for myself!

Dixie (L) and Sassy (R), 2 yrs of age (2 years ago, Christmas time)

This year we put up a SMALL 3 ft tall artificial tree - it's sitting on the sideboard - high enough so the Corgi girls cannot reach it.  The younger two girls think the ornaments are chew toys made especially for their little seam-ripper teeth!  Naughty girls!  I remember when they were just young pups - and when they'd chew and destroy a decoration I really liked, I'd think "gee, I'll be so thankful when they're about 3 yrs old-- they should be done teething..."  WRONG!  They're 4 now, and they still get into trouble with those pearly white tools!  Nothing is safe if those girls are left unsupervised for a moment!  And so - the tree is sitting up, high, on the sideboard.

Teeth like seam rippers!

My other 2 Corgis eat only food, and the rawhide chews that I give them.  Sissy is elderly and so mellow.  Prairie has always only gnawed on raw-hides (unless she has access to an open cupboard and helps herself to boxes of jello or pudding mixes....but, if it was open, or there was no door installed yet, it's clearly FAIR GAME, right?!?)  Since Mr. Wonderful built new cupboard doors, Prairie can't access any of the bagged or boxed foods.  It's no longer a "Self-Serve Cafe"!  This is something I can be truly thankful for!  But Prairie is not.  She just grumbles under her breath, disgusted that she has not got opposing thumbs to pry that door open!

 Be Thankful -

Chores Galore!

Our 5 acres of "Heaven on Earth", as its been called, has hundreds of trees.  In Spring, the leaves provide a back-drop for the flowers of the Dogwood trees; in Summer they block the view of the neighbor's house and garage, giving us our own private little world.  In Autumn, the colors and shapes are amazing!  In Winter, the snow rests on the branches and trunks, offering a view out our large windows that makes me glad of the toasty heat from our corn stove and wood burner!  I DO love them, but at this time of year, they mean more work.  It's FALL, after ALL!!!  And FALL, they must!  More chores AFTER work!
  We rake only the area surrounding our house and outbuildings, of course.  We don't clear the entire 5 acres.  But when we're finished with this small patch, it FEELS like we've raked 5 acres, let me tell you!!!  Every muscle, every bone in our bodies ache!
   The musky odors of the leaves as they are moved brings back thoughts of Autumns long ago - when us kids used to "help" dad as he raked huge piles of leaves in our yard.  He'd no sooner rake a huge pile and he'd gently toss us into them, covering us over with a blanket of leaves!  They were light and fluffy, and we would beg to be tossed in again and again!  Dad knew how to let kids have fun, and how to join in!  Never mind he had more raking to do when the games were done for the night - he had the heart, mind and soul of a child, and shared in our delight of the season!
  Later on, we'd help truck those leaves by the handfuls and Dad would lug the largest share - to the burn barrel in our alley.  The main portion of leaves were from a tall Oak in the neighbor's yard, so they would smoke and barely burn.  A sprinkle of Maple leaves would renew the flames when smoke had taken over from the oaks, and the smell is something I enjoy now, away from my fire pit.  The scent takes me back... decades back...as the flames fire my rememberings of the BEST childhood a girl could ever wish for.

The Leaves are Waiting....

Our Place - Kitchen Final Touches -

The weekends have sure been flying by since I started my new little job.  The noon till 5pm hours cut into the day, and rush hour traffic leaves me getting home at 6 or 7pm, which I don't care for particularly.  I should get books on tape to listen to on that evening drive.  Any Library Employees out there with recommendations for me??

This past weekend I had a goal in mind - RECLAIMING MY KITCHEN!  It's been a disaster since spring, when we first began to work on renovation.  Mr. Wonderful had the cabinet doors built and mounted, new counter-topping, new red paint, and some of the plug ins installed (after finding many live electrical wires hidden beneath back splash and/or drywall!)  The kitchen was safe and operable, but no lighting and no back splash, no window frame or sill...It was lacking in charm.

TA-DAAAH!  Lookie Lookie, see what's new! 

New copper colored tile...

New corner shelf for nick-nacks...

...and note the light bar with shelf over top of it - custom made just for ME!

I'm LOVIN' IT!!!

Happy Fall, Y'All! - a Celebration of Harvest

Getting ready for winter heating

Some of you know that on my BIRTHDAY, the Lord graciously provided a new part time job for me.  I was wondering if the job was my gift from God, or if the previous 2 years of unemployment was my present!  Perhaps it was both?  We cannot know or understand the mind of our Creator, but at any rate, in all things, be thankful!

I've enjoyed the colors of the trees and foliage on my daily drive to the office each day.  Tractors are in the fields, "bean heads" at the ready, and have been harvesting corn in some areas as well.  Our harvest this year has been from our 3 tomato plants, which delivered plenty for our sandwiches, a few jars of tomato jam, and "dainties" for our hens!  Our flower garden has flowers - and the sun in the woods does not allow us to have extra space for a good vegetable garden.  But we've had a harvest of a different kind - a harvest of fallen trees!  We've been cutting and splitting on and off this past summer, when time, heat and humidity allow.  We still have some wood to split yet.

Ready to split!

The new job hasn't required much of me, except to plan my schedule, as I don't start working till 12 noon, and I return home around 5pm.  But still, anything new can be tiring on the mind.  I've been learning the phone system the past couple days.  It's different than any I've used before, and seems to me to be a little old fashioned.  But, that is what they use, so I'm a-learnin'!

My drive home last night was a nightmare.  "ART PRIZE" was going on downtown, with all of its various venues, and thousands of people wanting to get off the expressway to find a parking space to see the artistic creations, and to vote for their favorite Artist.  Big money involved on the streets of Downtown Grand Rapids!  Then, a huge traffic jam...an accident that slowed traffic for miles.  Even the southbound lanes were slowed to a crawl, because of "gawkers" trying to see the wreckage!  I got off as soon as I heard on the radio what was causing the mess, but it didn't help me one iota!  I think I headed out into a mess that was just as bad - the cars wanting to park to see Art Prize, AND local college students going to and from their classes!  Oh dear!

So, for a job that should get me home about 5:30pm, I arrived home at 6:30pm, and look what I found after my tiring day???

Deliverd, but not stacked!

Mr. Wonderful found a deal on wood, and ordered 2 cords of it.  This is part of the first load.  The fella was supposed to deliver and stack, but he changed his mind on stacking it for us, even with the offer of extra pay that he agreed to.  So - he gets less money, and we have more work!  We stacked one pile of it last night when Mr. Wonderful got home, and this pile will get stacked when we get home tonight!!!

Happy Harvest!

It was a dark and stormy night.....

Obligatory Corgi Photo - Sass Dog on Deck!

This past weekend I worked on the Laundry Room - cleaning cob webs and dust, defrosted the ice from the chest freezer...and Mr. Wonderful installed a new hot water heater!  We needed it, as the other one was starting to take a dive...took too long to get hot water to any of the sinks or faucets upstairs, not to mention the SHOWER....and I could hear the lime rattling around inside of it when it would start to heat a new water supply.  Mr. Wonderful even sprung for a new shower head - the kind that sprays a wide rain shower on you, and the shower head removes so you can "spot-spray"...sooooo nice!

Yesterday we had a hum-dinger wind a blowin' most of the day.  Things started out bright and sunny in the morning, but as the day progressed, it got more windy.  The power went out in early afternoon, so no hope of catching up on blog reading!  And, I must make mention that the power outage most likely happened because I defrosted the freezer (no extra ice to keep things frozen) and because of the new hot water heater installation....(kind of like washing your car makes it rain outside???)   I have Consumers Energy on my cell phone contacts list, so I dialed them up, and waited.  And waited. 

About 3 hrs later, the power came back on, but Mr. Wonderful had phoned, asking me to meet him for dinner.  How could I refuse Pizza???  MmmmmMMMMM!  We returned home about 8pm, and.....NO POWER!  So, I dialed up Consumers once again, and of course, there is no updates on when power would be restored.  No phone.  No lights.  No water.  We spent the rest of the evening reading our chosen magazines by flashlight, glad we had eaten dinner out!   For entertainments sake, I phoned Mom on my cell - she gets rattled when Caller ID does not say who is on the other end of the call, but she put on her "Big Girl Panties" and answered my call anyways - Yeah MOM!  We had a nice little chat, and decided to hit the hay at 10pm.  The power came back on at around 1:00 am.   So today, it's back to normal chores as usual!

Back to FULL POWER!

Who CANOE??

This weekend was so hot and miserable across most of the United States - humidity was the chief culprit.  Mr. Wonderful was out there in the thick of it, mowing and weed-eating our yard, and also way down by the roadway, sweat just dripping and causing grass clippings to stick to his skin.  Thankless but necessary chores like these need to be done. 

Canoes of Many Colors

After he showered and changed, he said he had a brilliant idea, and we had to leave right NOW!  He grabbed us each some bottled water, and we headed out to Rockford - to a CANOE LIVERY!   We had talked of doing this a year or so ago, because he knew it was on my 'Bucket List' - things I had never done before.  Because HE is MR. WONDERFUL, he knows how to do most EVERYTHING, and he enjoys doing most anything we can dream up to do!  I was taken totally off guard, but I was game, and the humidity was letting off due to a cold front that was moving through - what a relief!

Water so clear we could see the bottom!

Since I'm a greenhorn, I knew absolutely nothing about canoes, balance, paddles - so you can imagine the possibilities for disaster were endless!!  He had to tell me to relax, because the canoe was wobbling back and forth as I tried to figure out how to steer and balance so I didn't tip us into the Rogue River!  In a short time, I began to feel like Pocahontas with her Warrior, paddling down the rapids!

That's ME in the front!  (SURE!)

Muskrat

We saw turtles, many ducks, wildflowers, and even some magnificent homes hidden far from the roadways that we would never have imagined were back here!  One of the most surprising sights we saw was a clump of grass, possibly a foot long and equally as wide, "swimming" to the shoreline!  We watched in amazement as the "grass" lumbered forward onto the sand, and we could see a muskrat shedding its' baggage, venturing out to collect more of the same!  So funny!

The 2 hour trip ended far too soon for me.  Mr. Wonderful took me out for pizza afterward - and he gets an A++ for a surprise date like this!

Who CANOE?

Good Morning Sunshine!

This is the view I wake up to most every morning.... 
There's a bit of open sky in our woods and the sunshine peeks in to warm my little flower garden! 

Do you see how the trees are leaning in the picture below?  It's no trick of the camera - and it gives me the feeling I'm living inside a glass globe, like the snow globes we used to get as Christmas gifts when we were small!  Imagine what a view God has as He holds HIS globe in His hands and looks down on US! 

Mr. Wonderful fills the bird feeders with "Black Oilers", as they are known at the feed mill.  Both birds and squirrels enjoy feasting on what we supply, and we have good fortune of being able to watch them from our dining room window.  A perfect set-up for us nature lovers!

The rest of our yard requires me to search for plants and shrubs that require mostly shade to survive.  But Let There Be Light - and I'm filling it up with bright flowers and lots of color!  A good contrast for all of the "greens".

Make it a GREAT DAY!

The Big Reveal - The Great Dining Room Challenge

If you recall (or not) last week Angela of West Virginia Treasures and I were going to reveal our dining rooms after giving each other a week to get them all spiffed up. No big remodel jobs here, just a good cleaning, as these rooms are the dumping grounds of household accumulations of mail (opened and unopened!) and other things that are placed here as people walk by to grab a drink in the middle of working on projects, etc. You know how that goes in your own homes, I'm sure. BEFORE pictures are ABOVE, and without further adieu, here are my AFTER pictures!

First off, the large windows needed to be washed. That was a big chore because they tend to streak when they are cleaned as the sun is shining through them (which is most of the time!). My canary cage was relocated so he could look out the windows and enjoy the goings on in the yard below.

Since I have such a lovely garden happening outside, I decided to create a flower arrangement for our table. Flowers should inspire a dining room table to REMAIN for dining, don't you agree?

Vacuuming the area rug and mopping the wood laminate floor was not too difficult. For laminate we were told to clean it with Windex - and we would have no streaks! I've always done that since Mr. Wonderful installed the flooring, and it's always looked great. I proceeded with arranging a cozy "table for two"...

...and arranged the decorative items on the sideboard....

As you can see, I've brought the outside INSIDE with the use of houseplants, and of course, my little chicken salt/pepper shakers and antiques are things I can't do without! Love my little "cobwebby" Hens & Chicks! Looks rather cozy, don't you think?

Now, I'm headed off to see how Angela fared this week - she has a much busier schedule than I have, with young children to deal with. Wonder if she had to lock them in a closet in order to keep her dining areas clean for her photo shoot?? Click HERE to visit her house in West Virginia!

Keep it Squeeky Clean -