The Rest of Christmas and a Family Treasure

I pooped out the other night while writing my blog. I only got up to writing about Friday and Saturday of our Christmas celebrations.  I was too tired to finish... so now I will try to catch up.

Sometimes I feel this blog is kinda like a diary of my own thoughts and family happenings, but other times it amazes me on how many people read my blog.  Did you know already today I have over 3,000 people looking at my blog?  And yesterday it was almost up to 3,000? It just totally boggles my mind for sure!

I wholeheartedly thank each and every one of you for coming here to see what I have to say, enjoy my photos, and leave comments about what I write.  I try to add a lot of motorhome renovations and projects around the house, and not gum it up too much with baby pics and doggie stuff!

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OH well, on to Christmas!  For Christmas Eve, Steve and I planned a quiet evening at home. On our way back from Oconto, we popped into Festival Foods to get some of their fresh snow crab legs for our evening feast.  Yummmmm  Steveio steamed them up in our propane burner unit outside with the big steaming kettle. That keeps the smells and the excess moisture out of the house.

With soft Christmas Carols playing in the background, we sat down to a great meal with glasses of wine, good food, and wishes and plans for the upcoming year. Our conversation wandered from projects to do, places to see, working out the retirement budget, and of course how great our meal was together. It was great to sit back and unwind a bit after two days with our silly kids and energetic grandkids.  We did some pretty good damage to 3.5 pounds of crab legs for sure!

Christmas morning was exciting for the dogs, so things were not too quiet.  They unwrapped their own presents and little Binney had to tell us ALL about what Santa brought her.  Toys and doggie treats is all they wished for.  And they got it.  LOL

About 11 a.m. the patriarch of the Pfundtner Clan came over. Steve's dad drove over from Waupaca to spend some time with us and exchange presents.  It was so pleasant spending the morning with him and his companion, Millie, the springer spaniel he has trained for therapy dog visits to nursing homes.  We then hopped into his truck and drove on down to Belgium to take part in the Pfundtner Family Gathering at Steve's sister's house.

Wonderful food, family laughter, presents and fun stories...  it was a great way to finish off the Christmas holiday.  Dangnabbit I set down my phone when we came in and never took a single pic! We drove on back home as the weather was changing from rain to sleet!  Nervous about sending Steve's dad on home that last 45 miles or so to Waupaca... but he said he would be fine and call us when he arrived home safe and sound. He did and we slept peacefully that night.


I wanted to mention a Pfundtner Family Treasure that was recently bestowed on Steve.  If you remember, I was bestowed a special family heirloom a while back by Steve's dad:

http://kareninthewoods-kareninthewoods.blogspot.com/2016/11/family-treasures.html

Now it was Steve's turn!

When he was a child, his parents had this little cast iron match holder device hanging by their fireplace in a couple of their homes, over the years. It moved from house to house with them. Steve always liked it. Recently, Steve noticed it laying out on the bench in the garage at this current home his dad has. It hadn't been mounted because they didn't have a fireplace.  It was just laying out on the bench in the garage.

His dad mentioned about having some guys come to work on his garage and do some tool organizing and storage solutions. Steve asked his father if he was ever going to need this little match holder, or plan to use it, or was it going to be tossed?  His dad gladly gave it to Steve!   

It was in need of a bit of rusty surface cleaning and a new coat of paint..... 

It is called a ''Venus and Cupid Match holder''

The new wooden matches go in the bottom compartment

and the spent used ones go in the top trough. 

Steve got to work on it yesterday.  He ground off the rust gently with a steel brush on his drill.... and he also took care of some of the rust on a rotating disk for my old Sunbeam stand mixer. Since he was going to be painting, I asked him to add a coat of paint to that, too.

We didn't want to drill holes into the lovely tiles around our fireplace. So we bought a roll of black super heavy duty exterior 3M double stick tape. It is made to adhere mail boxes to brick, so I think it will work for this.  It is rated to hold 25 pounds!  At $7.39 a roll, it better!

He measured carefully and used a level to get it just right..... 

ahhhhhhh looks great! 

We put wooden safety matches in it, just for looks. We really do not need the matches in it except maybe to light candles on the mantle. Our fireplace is gas log with electric igniter. I even burned some of the matches to put in the top trough to be even more realistic! 

Ahhhhh another Pfundtner Family Treasure 

to adorn ''Our Old House'' 

Tomorrow, technically, is Steve's last day of work!  He has been burning up vacation days since the 22nd until now. He said he is not retired yet, just on vacation!  hahahahhaaaaaaa

We will see what he calls himself after 4 p.m. tomorrow?

Making Plans- Twenty Working Days and Counting Down

It is here--- the final countdown.

In a mere 20 workdays (not counting Saturdays or Sundays or Thanksgiving)  means that my darling Steveio will be RETIRED!

After an *almost-retired* time in 2012, he changed gears and changed jobs to a better state position at High Cliff State Park.  He was only going to finish out his last few months there. They needed help for the summer and he wanted to get away from his other state position.  He had put in 35 years at the Wisconsin University of Green Bay, and he was going to retire back then.  We sold the house and we were going to hit the road in our motorhome.

 But---

Things changed.  

In 2012 his mom was dying of cancer. His father was recovering from cancer. His uncle had cancer, then both his brother and sisterinlaw had cancer.  On my side, we have a brother and brotherinlaw and sisterinlaw surviving cancer, and lost both my dad and my stepdad to cancer.  That much of a loss in four years REALLY makes you sit back and take notice.  Being close to family is what we needed to do.

In the past four years we have had two preemie grandchildren born, and things were scary. We felt that we were needed to be here to help out. They both made it, thankfully. Our children suffered some losses of babies that did not get born. All of our grandchildren are pretty young yet, under the age of 8. We have enjoyed spending time with them. Hopefully a lot more before they get too old to want to hang with Granmuddah and Granfaddah.

Sticking around for them has been pretty important too.  I do not think we could get in enough visiting with them if we were on the road full time.  Every second is precious to be with them, and every second away would hurt from both sides.

So, I guess changing our mind and not hitting the road was the best choice for us. We did live in our rig full time for 7 months and it was fine. We were prepared to live in our motorhome and had it all figured out. We were comfortable, and made plans to get back to Wisconsin for the the holidays for the family. We planned to be around in the summer months when the kids were out of school. We do like travelling and exploring new places. The road has beckoned, but we decided that maybe it is better for us not being Full Time RVers

Working another four years at High Cliff has been enjoyable for Steve. He said it is great to work with Happy People!  Ya know, people on vacation, people enjoying nature, and people who love to work in a natural setting like a park.

The years are wearing him down. He said he is getting tired of 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, 12 months a year, for 38 years.  It is a very physical job. He turned 58 this year. He started working for UWGB at the age of 20. That is a long time to be with the same employer in this day and age. He is a reliable responsible person and has worn many hats on the job... many times more than one or two or three or even four hats at the same time. He is always willing to go the extra mile and help out and be a team player. I guess that is why he lasted so long at the same place.  I admire that in him.

Now that we are settled in this cute little house in a small town, we are comfortable and cozy.  We have cut our housing expenses by 2/3 from the previous home in Oconto.  That will make it easier to retire. We can keep the house as a home base and also travel when we can manage it.

Steve is still thinking of finding some work, very limited part time, or perhaps work on repairing things and selling them. He is great at small engines, woodworking and helping me fix up old looms and spinning wheels and fiber tools to resell them.

I guess he will have to decide what he wants to do after working so hard for 38 years. Perhaps he needs to just relax a while.  We both do. I have been disabled/retired since 2003 but I keep working at home in my studio and selling in my online store. I can keep doing that wherever we are. As long as I have a post office to ship out orders, I can keep on doing what I am doing.

Sounds like I am rambling. Hey?  But a lot of folks considering RVing full time read my blog. So I thought I would write about both the ups and downs of it.  It is a big decision. We decided. Then we decided back!  haha

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Tonight, after a good meal in our pretty diningroom, we are now curled up in the livingroom with a glass of wine, the fireplace going, and we are both futzing around on our computers. Him looking at Craigslist and Ebay stuff.. .me writing a blog.  LOL a Modern Couple!

That brings me up to this winter. Usually Steve takes most of his 6 weeks of his hard earned vacation in the winter months... when the park needs him the least.  We try to head south for about 5 weeks of vacation--- either to the desert or to Florida by Mom.  He saves a week of vacation for taking a day here or there during the summer if we need to have a long weekend.

This winter might be different. He will be retired by Christmas, with a few vacation days to use up between then and New Years.  By Dec 30, 2016 he will be officially retired.  We already signed the papers in Madison and made provisions for healthcare and pension.

After going over our budget and our calendar we are thinking we might instead STAY HOME this winter!  OH MY! That will be a REAL change for us.  The rig is winterized and settled in for a long winter nap.  Our idea is that we can then save up to afford a nice long trip in the Summer ... to places we never get to otherwise.

Like:

Out West! 

 Out to the Rockies... 

Out to Glacier National Park! 

Up into Canada to see a few friends. 

Loop around Lake Superior like we did on our honeymoon 20 years ago. 

We would even like to manage a summer up in Alaska??? 

It is a little easier to leave our home in the summer months and not worry about the furnace breaking down, or the driveway not being plowed, or the sidewalk out front not being shoveled (one year we got fined twice by the city because the guy we hired did not show up!)

So ... I think our plan is snuggling up close to the hearth and home this winter with a retired crazy super active speed demon worker. That might be a challenge????   I am asking him to make a list of all the things he wants to get done inside the house and we can whittle away at that.  There is always something to do on Our Old House.  We do not like to modernize it, just keep it in good repair, and keep its original charm.

For example, the foyer and upstairs hallway need painting, a bedroom needs paint, our microwave vent hood could be vented to the outside instead of inside the room. The garage can use some work with a new work bench and re-arranging and installing his garage heater unit for a workshop. He might even insulate the whole garage as a workshop.  I think that would be just dandy.  I think we can keep him busy.

Everyone is asking him what will he DO all day long????   I tell friends and family:

We are going to stay in bed all day 

and make mad passionate love! 

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In yesterdays blog I hinted at a new project I was going to do.  Well, I started it, but then we took a nice afternoon nap.  Sometimes us old almost retired folks have to do that.

Here is a hint... these are some great french doors we bought four years ago off Craigslist. They came out of a church that was being remodeled.  We set them up as sliding doors on a track between the diningroom and  my Loom Room.  This is the BEFORE pic:

I am gonna do *something* to them.... 

 perhaps tomorrow I will finish it.