Day 35 - Liver Update - Fridge Filter and Apple Pie

The Bicigo Family is very, very happy to announce that the liver is in and performing correctly!

From Bennet's Mommy:
Bennet has his breathing tube out! He is doing really well. Liver looks good so far and his lab work looks like it is improving since after his surgery. All good things so far so we are hoping it stays this way. 🤞🏻🙏🏼
Thank you to everyone praying for Bennet! Our prayers our being answered. ♥️

Truly a miracle! 

~~~~~~~

Hanging out with day 35 of our self quarantine. I mostly spent the day inside and did a few little painting projects and touch up projects, especially where we had the roof leak a few weeks ago.  I used some stain-killing paint from Zinsmer and will cover that up with the ceiling paint after it dries.

I touched up woodwork here and there.  Some spots I missed and some that got nicks or smudges around the house. It's nice to have all of the trim the same color, so once I have a wet brush, I can just buzz around and touch things up. 

I don't think the actual quarantine is really hampering us too much with our National Folk Farmhouse projects. Other than the fact that we can't just buzz out and get something that we want for working on supplies without going through extra steps for a curbside pickup.

Steve did order a new brake caliper for the motorhome. When it came in at the local Carquest Auto Parts store, we had given them the credit card over the phone. We were able to back right up to the door with our car, pop open the trunk, and the guy came out and put it right in the trunk for us! Once the weather warms up, we will tackle changing out that caliper. It's one that was hanging up last year a couple times and Steve would like to get it changed so it can function correctly again.

In Wisconsin, the weather has turned crisp and cold, and very blustery. Although it's sunny out, the wind cuts right down to the bone. Tonight the wind chills will be back down in the single digits.

It didn't prevent Mister Zoom Zoom from going out and doing a few tasks. He donned his lumberjack clothes and grabbed his chainsaw. Out he went to our little woods in the back. There was a funny angular tree that he wanted to take down before the brush grew up too much around it. He took care of a couple awkward stumps, and is planning to take care of a big invasive buckthorn tree on the back corner of the property.  It's best to get after the buckthorn before it spreads again with new growth.

We had ordered a new filter for our ice maker and in-the-door water feature on our Frigidaire refrigerator. We used the correct model number when ordering it online. We were happy that it arrived today, but it sure was different than the original filter!!!

(left - old one.  right - new one) 

Not only was it shorter, but there was a small ridge running down the side of the newer filter that prevented it from being inserted into the housing on the refrigerator.

We contacted the company's customer service. It was an automated system because of course there is no physical staff at work anymore. They offered on the automated mode to send us a free shipping label to return it. Then we would have to order all over again to get the correct one. I hesitated to do that because I think they would send us the wrong one again. I double and triple checked and it does show our model number being compatible with this filter.

My Brainy Mr. Steveio decided that instead of returning the filter, he would just cut a little notch in the housing on the fridge and let the new filter with the ridge fit in the correct place.

We always write the date on any filter we change, so we remember when to change it again.  The whole house water filter too, as well as furnace filters, oil filters and tranny filters and air filters on the cars and motorhome.

~~~~~~~~

We have been doing some card playing each day. Keeping our aging brains active. LOL... Lots of adding and strategy and decision making.  We are enjoying a few rounds of cribbage as we look out the windows of the She Shed to the backyard.

The birds out in the backyard are keeping us entertained.  We fill the feeders almost every day.  We ran low on birdseed, so the local feed store took our order on line and had it waiting on a cart outside of the door for us to pull up and load it in our car.  Nice!   So we have not gotten out of the car for any of the items we have picked up.  We clean each thing thoroughly before it leaves the garage to come into the house.

These huge Canadian Geese are out there right now, and I snapped this pic.  They are messy and sassy and MEAN!  Mr. and Mrs. Mallard who are nesting nearby are chasing them away each day.

So it's a battle for the Pfundtner Ponds in the backyard. 

A pair of pileated woodpeckers are hanging around the suet block, and we hope they are nesting somewhere nearby too.  They are sure big birds, as large a big chicken!

I decided to bake up an apple pie.  Immediately I was sad, because I didn't have any little goomers around begging to "makea da apples go round n round" for me! Or begging to eat the long strings of peelings.  So sad.  That is the worst part of this quarantine, no little grandkids hanging with us.

I love using this apple/peeler/corer tool to make up a bunch of slices very fast. They are all uniform in thickness to bake at the same time... so the pie comes out perfect.

A month or two ago... or maybe longer... I bought two big deep dish pizza pans at Aldi.  Boy oh boy I wish I had bought two more for the motorhome.  Will have to keep an eye out, because Aldi doesn't always have the same items in stock in that special section.  I decided to make the apple pie in that pan, so the filling doesn't bubble over or drip down into the oven.  I was not using the preferable green Granny Smith apples, so I had to use what we had on hand. Because these were juicier, and I had to add cornstarch to take up the excess.

The house smelt soooo good and the pie came out nicely golden. We both enjoyed a piece last night for dessert, then another with coffee this morning for breakfast. Then after lunch we needed a snack.  I think tonight we might need one more?

Time to get this posted and maybe strap on the dogs' harnesses to get them out and about.  Work off that delicious apple pie!

PLEASE

Stay in

Stay Safe

Stay Healthy! 

Day 34 - An Easter Miracle - and Trees

(Day 34 of self quarantine) 

For Easter, 

some people want eggs, 

some want bunnies, 

some want ham. 

But this Easter, our family wanted 

LIVER!!!!

Yes, can you believe it? Our darling little Great-nephew Bennet Bicigo has been suffering and struggling for a year now with liver cancer. The first tumor was removed and a second one grew back quickly, and even larger. He just had surgery last week trying to remove it and it was too big and instead he was put on a liver transplant list.

Amazingly and miraculously, on Easter Sunday, a liver became available from a donor. Thank goodness for people who are willing to put other lives ahead of their own grief, and offer an organ donation from a beloved family member who is dying.

Little Bennett went through an extremely long surgery on Easter Morning, and we got the happy news last night before bedtime was that the liver was in and it was functioning! It's an Easter miracle for the Bicigo Family!!!

This is my older brother Steve's (Butch) youngest son Darren and his wife Chelsea who have Little Bennet, along with their little daughter Lilyan.

The world has been tumultuous and they have had a financial crisis during this questionable time of employment. I never solicit donations on my blog, but this one is awfully special and close to my heart.  A GoFundMe page has been started on their behalf:

Link to little Bennet's GoFundMe:

Bennet's Fight

from the page: Please add them to your prayers, and reach out if you might be able to help them in any way (both are facing losing their jobs due to the duration of his stay exceeding FMLA), I would be grateful, and I know they would too!

~~~~~~~~~

We are counting our blessings as Steve is finally starting to feel better. He's not totally up to snuff, and we're not sure exactly what it was that took him down so low and made him feel so miserable for a good two weeks.

Since his energy returned, a bit, we decided to hop on a new project that we have been thinking about.  It was a beautiful day earlier this week, with sun shining and warmer temperatures. A very kind friend of an old neighbor friend offered to let us dig up some beautiful young White Birch saplings from their woods.

We grabbed the shovel 

and in no time flat 

we had a trunk full to bring home!

They range between about 6 to 10 feet in height, so we staggered the variety of heights amongst each clump to make them into a nice landscaping feature.

These should transplant very well because where they were taken from is very similar to the land we are putting them on, and only 6 miles away.

By putting in a clump of 4, if one of them dies off we would still have a nice clump of 3 which I think is the most attractive way to grow white birch trees. We planted the clumps of birch trees in the front yard, balanced on each side of the house, so they are evenly lined up with the corners of the front porch. 

Let us hope they grow quickly and offer good shade and become a beautiful accent to our home.

~~~~~~~

They also told us to dig up a bunch of these small little fluffy White Pine trees. They are so soft and lush, and remind us of the huge white pines that were in our yard when we lived along the river. These little pines were actually located just around the curve from where our old home was. Perhaps some pine cones from our own original trees were part of the seeds that eventually spread down to create these children of the children of the white pine trees from our old yard?

We planted the little white pines into L-shaped formations, about 10 feet from the borders on each front corner of our property. They should make a nice accent and a definition to each side of our property, as well as a nice little backdrop. Might set up maybe a bird feeder or bird bath to look at from the front porch after they grow a bit?

Steve said he loves the sound of the wind passing through the long white pine needles --- kind of a whispery sound on the breeze.

While we were busy doing this planting, Steve remembered a cute little spruce tree back in our own woods. We moved that up to transplant into the front yard, front and center between the house and garage.  He said he hopes that someday it will grow large and we can decorate it with Christmas lights!!!

~~~~~~~

On Easter Sunday, I baked two adorable little Easter Bunny cakes. I was almost out of powdered sugar, but just like the old adage:  "Hey Neighbor, Can I Borrow A Cup of Sugar?"  my neighbor Sheryl had a bag to lend to the cause.  I decorated them up, and dropped them off at both of our daughters homes, along with some Easter surprises for the grandchildren. It felt good to do a little something extra special, even though we weren't going to see the children in person.

Our Easter Dinner was made extra special this year in spite of the corona-virus quarantine. Our oldest daughter cooked up a big family celebration meal at her home. Her husband got some aluminum takeout containers and with the help of their oldest daughter, they cooked up a wonderful meal. Their son kept their younger daughter busy, and they also colored wonderful Easter cards for Grandma and Grandpa.

When the meal was ready, they divvied it up among all of the takeout containers. They split the meals into two transport bags and had us come to their porch to pick them up.

One bag held a complete meal for us, and the other bag we transported out to our youngest daughter's home with her husband and two children. So everybody got a wonderful Easter dinner and we kept together by social media while maintaining our social distancing in each of our own homes. What a wonderful thing for them to do, and was an extra special effort during these difficult times.

Of course, she gave us so much food I think we will get two more meals out of the leftovers!!!

~~~~~~~

We woke up this morning to a final April Fool's Prank! 

We knew it was being forecast in the 4 to 6 inch range. We're very lucky to only get about 2 inches. It was still coming down this morning at 7 a.m., so we crawled back into bed for a while and waited for it to stop. By 8 a.m. the sun was out and everything started melting! Hopefully this will be the last snowfall of the year!!!

I popped out the door onto the front porch to get a couple pictures of our little L-shaped rows of White Pines in the two corners of the front yard. They show up better against the snow than in the grassy photos posted up above.

I saw the little neighbor girls next door quickly making a snowman this morning. It will be the last one of the season and it's going to melt fast. Goodbye Frosty, until next year.

The day is zooming by here, it's already after lunch.  We reheated some of our Easter Dinner leftovers for lunch. Thank you, Erin and Waylen!!!