Snowy Sunday

The cute little Beetle Bug woke up at 7 am. It's so nice she slept in. She is accustomed to getting up at 5:30 - 6 a.m. I think we wore her out last night so she slept well in the grandkid's bunkbeds in the guest room, all by herself.

She enjoyed a fun time this morning, crawling around on our bed with us, snuggling and tickling, giggling and watching cartoons. Grandpa brought us in each a donut with my cup of coffee. What a wonderful treat! Except now we have to change the flannel sheets on the bed, due to the crumbs all over the place, now crushed into the flannel fabric.

She figured out how to put her boots inside of Grandpa's big shoes.  My oh my, what big feet you have?

Her mommy came to get her around 10 a.m. and it was time to send her back home. It's nice that we now live close by and we can babysit for special occasions for all of our grandchildren. Her parents celebrated Valentine's Day early, as their schedules allowed, to spend the entire Saturday day doing couples things--- including manis and pedis, a couples massage, and a nice dinner out.

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We were forecast for some snow today. They first said about 6 to 8 inches. Then the forecast crept up from there to 8 to 10 inches.  We went over that by the end of the day.

It started coming down about 9 a.m. it snowed steadily all day.  It was so peaceful and pretty.  So fresh and white and fluffy.

Honestly, it was very cozy and we were warm and dry, well fed and comfortable. Our power stayed on all of the while, and our gas fireplace in the she shed added to the coziness.  The heat from that room goes up into the house and supplements the main part of the house too. 

and the snow kept softly falling down 

As we sat by the big windows, watching the snow, we were also watching the birds outside at the feeders.  They really scavenged our bird feeders down to almost empty levels. A big pileated woodpecker, which is huge, finished off the rest of the suet block. 

They are between 22 and 24 inches long and weigh close to a pound.  They are very shy birds and don't often come near developed neighborhoods.  We are located close to the nature preserve (backs up right to our backyard) so they probably feel safe enough to scavenge over to our feeders.

By 1 pm those feeders were almost empty.  I bundled up into my snow gear and high Iceman snow boots and went out to refill the feeders. As soon as I put that fresh new suet block out there, that big old woodpecker came right back to test it out when I went back into the house. I think he was watching me.

I went through three loads of my 2 quart pitcher filling up the big bird feeders with sunflower seeds, and a good chunk of the bag of thistle seed for the little black-capped chickadees. I get flocks of chickadees and some finches at the niger thistle seed feeders. We get such a nice variety of big blue jays, cardinals, and woodpeckers hanging around.

Here are the thistle seed feeders, before I got them filled.  There are 12 perches to eat from and they are usually filled up with 12 birds at a time....with others waiting for their turn, perched on top of the rods.

We had the dogs out in the snow for a while, they were plunging around in it but it was up to their bellies and they didn't get too far.  It was snowing pretty heavy, so we didn't push them out for a walk.  We came back inside and pealed off the layers of winter outerwear. Whew!

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Steve finished putting up some more of our beadboard panels. This time he added them on each side of the window in the kitchen, on the ends of the cabinets. Once he had them nailed securely into place, I gave them two coats of paint throughout the day.  I think that they sure came out nice.

LEFT SIDE              RIGHT SIDE 

These little beadboard panels added a touch of "farmhouse" style to the kitchen. Maybe some day Steve will build some different beadboard doors to go on the fronts of the cabinet boxes.  For now, just trimming up the ends is enough.  I like the layout of the kitchen as it is, and like the sturdy old wooden cabinets. I can load them up and not worry about them flexing under load like the fiber manmade composite boards of newer cheaper cabinets.  What I have is enough to make me happy, and that is what counts. 

(still working on the idea of a 

new single basin deep stainless steel sink) 

He cut the rest of the 5 beadboard panels to insert on the doors of the island, but he realized that he was getting low on construction adhesive. I told him that "tomorrow is another day". It was too snowy to go out and drive just to pick up a tube of adhesive. So instead he heeded my advice, cut off work for the day, and we took a nice nap!!!

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We popped a couple frozen pasties in the oven for supper and the house smells so good this evening. The smell reminds me of when my mom would make rows and rows and rows of pasties. It was like an assembly line on the counter and table to put them all together.  Then we would stack them up in long empty plastic bread bags to close up and put them in the freezer.  With 6 kids to feed, it made sense to make a bunch of them in advance and freeze them until needed.

For anyone who wants to know what a pasty is, it's what the Cornish miners would use for their meal, taken down into the mine shafts where they worked. It became a staple food of the miners in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The miners would heat them up by setting them on there lanterns and they would be ready to eat by lunch time. In the old days you pierce your initial into the crust with a fork.... so you knew that was your pasty and not your brother's or father's or uncle's. Womenfolk would make bunches of them for the entire family of men who were miners going down in the shafts underground.  Nobody came to the surface for lunch breaks, they ate underground. They would eat part of it at one meal break and wrap it back up and then eat the rest of it at another meal break. It is definitely a traditional food from the upper peninsula of Michigan. I buy them pre-made frozen in the unbaked form. Then I just have to thaw them a bit in the microwave and toss them in the oven on a piece of parchment paper on a cookie sheet to bake them to their golden brown crust ---   the insides are delicious.

This is from a Pasty Website: 

To many people in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, the pasty is much more than food, it is an identifying cultural mark that gives them their own identity. When the Cornish came to the copper mines of the Upper Peninsula, they brought with them a lot of mining knowledge which the other ethnic groups did not have.  The pasty was the standard lunch for miners.  The pasty became popular with these other ethnic groups because it was small, portable, was very filling, and could stay warm for 8-10 hours.  Pasty rivalry occurred between the Finns, Swedes, Irish, Poles, Germans, Scots, Italians, and French with each group  contributing something in the way of seasoning and other ingredients.  All groups agree that pasties must contain two things, potatoes and onions. The portability of the pasty not only made it easy to carry, but if it should get cold it would be relatively easy to heat up.  This was done by putting the pasty on a shovel and holding it over a head-lamp candle.  Miners never ate a pasty with a fork, they ate it end to end, and held it upright to keep the juices in.  Since entire families worked in mines and each member of the family wanted different ingredients in the pasty, the wife would stamp the bottom corner of each pasty with an initial.

According to the Cornish Recipes, Ancient and Modern, "The true Cornish way to eat a pasty is to hold it in the hand, and begin to bite it from the opposite end to the initial, so that, should any of it be uneaten, it may be consumed later by its rightful owner.  And woe betide anyone who take's another person's corner!"  There was a superstition among the miners that the initial corner should not be eaten, instead it was dropped on the ground for the mining gremlins (also known as Knockers) to eat.  These "gremlins" caused mischief in mines, causing accidents and mine collapses, feeding them supposedly kept them out of trouble.

The pasty is a simple food and can be described as a portable meat pie.  It remains relatively unchanged today, a few places have put in healthier vegetable shortening instead of lard, and a couple of other minor changes like the cut of meat used.  

(I like the beef and pork sausage meat and rutabaga cubes along with the slices of potatoes and onions) 

The snow seemed to let up a little bit around 6 PM. It's still coming down but lighter. The plow finally went through and of course it piled a huge snowbank across the end of the driveway.

Steve decided to get out there and snow blow it out of the way as soon as possible. Otherwise it hardens into a very heavy row of chunks of snow that are difficult to move.

The temperatures are dropping out there, so he put on his gloves that were a Christmas present from our daughter Erin and son-in-law Waylen. They are electric gloves!  They are from Global Vasion and are really worth their weight in gold in cold weather.  It seems as Steve ages, he said his hands get colder faster.  These gloves do the trick.

There are 2 little battery packs that you pre-charge and then plug them into the gloves. There are electric wires within the gloves that go down into the palm and finger areas. 

See the blue glow on each of his wrists? Blue is the lowest setting. Then green is the middle setting. And then red is the highest setting.

It looks like we have about a foot of new snow on the ground... And Steve did a great job getting it all snowblowed away. He did the driveway, the walkways, and even around the fire hydrant in front of the house. I didn't go out there tonight but I will help clean up a bit in the morning and do the front porch and steps.

In our little town it's a city ordinance that you need to keep the fire hydrant clear if it's on your property.  If not, you get a fine if the city has to come by and clear it out. It's a good thing to do as an added benefit for all of the neighbors in the area. If there ever were a fire at any of our houses, the firemen would waste precious minutes trying to dig out a fire hydrant from the snow. So we will do our part by keeping a nice clear berth around the hydrant, and we avoid any nasty letters and fines from the city.

He turned his gloves up to red HOT! 

He is back in the house now and taking a shower to warm up. Now that we are cozy warm inside I think we will snuggle down with the movie for the evening, after I finish this blog.

MOTORHOME MODIFICATIONS - *H* Headlights, Heater, Hooks and Old Fart Party Bus

I am going to start off the new year with posting some of our motorhome modifications, a few at a time. I will post repairs, modifications, or neato things we have found for RVing.  I have lots of pics in my files so I will do them in alphabetical order.

Underneath that stuff, I will post my regular daily stuff..... kinda sorta fun, eh?

So here it goes, we are up to the letter G now!

MOTORHOME MODIFICATIONS 

STARTING WITH THE LETTER H

Headlight Replacement:

As many of you know, we HATE to drive at night!  The Safari motorhome's headlights are very dim. Various Safari owners have tried all kinds of work-arounds to fix that problem.  It's just the way it was designed and the bulbs that were selected when built in 1996. Some owners have used relays to increase the voltage to the headlights to make them brighter. Some have installed different LED headlights to overcome the problem too.  Trying to fit different bulb/lens shapes into the existing fiberglass framework and grill is a problem too.  Well.... Steveio took a different approach:

He bought two 65 watt type headlights from Fleet Farm (a locally based Farm/home store in the midwest) for $19.95 each. Sylvania H4666 They were the same size and shape as the headlights we had.

He creatively bent one of the three prongs that was slightly manufactured at an angle on purpose.  With gentle persuasion of a pliers, he was able to match up the new prong configuration to our original Safari plug.  Voila....   He has been waiting to see how they would shine in the darkness on the road.

It was a HUGE difference.... much more than we ever expected !!!  

With this type of lighting, we won't mind night time driving when we choose to do it.  

Heater:
We have a nice propane Olympian Wave 8 heater in our motorhome, and also the original propane ducted furnace (which eats up a lot of battery power for the blower).  Sometimes when we are camping at a site with power hookups included, we like to run a little electric heater to take out the chill.  We tested various ones in the store, noting the noise level, the appearance and the size to fit in a little area of our closet....

This one is the winner! It kinda looks like a chiminea terra cotta exterior on a fancy little stand.  (It's really a thick solid plastic) and it rotates or sits still.  It is very quiet and does not tip over too easily.  I like to set it in the bathroom to warm it up before taking a shower. It is thermostatic with a HI and LO fan speed too.  Plus a tip-over safety switch is nice.  We can set it right up on the kitchen table and blow backwards to the bedroom to circulate the heat.

 Sometimes it is the little things that make you just a little more comfortable.  Ahhhhhh

Hooks:
I found these acrylic hooks one day at Walmart. They are great for extra hanging space in the bathroom to dry towels or hang clothes while taking a shower.  They can easily lift off and flip to the inside to hang wet raincoats or umbrellas to drip dry off in the shower/tub enclosure.  They do not rattle much and don't scrape the top metal trim as much as the first ones I bought which were metal.

I like these so much I bought a few more for in our house too! 

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Whoooo boy, as most you know, the midwest is getting hit with a doozy of a storm.  After all those wonderful warm days, this snowstorm flew in with a vengence!  We woke up to thunder, lightning, sleet and freezing rain.  Soon it was dumping snow like the dickens. Wet Heavy Snow!   

We knew it was coming, but didn't know how much we were going to get. The local forecasters were baffled as to only 3" or 6" or 12".  It had a lot to do with the gusting winds... which were in the 20-30 mph range.  Even at 8 am, the skies were so dark, we had to turn on the inside lights.

Before Steve left the house at 10 am for his part time job, 

he had time to run the snowblower. 

It was very heavy and wet, and tough going.  He also finished up the elderly neighbor lady's yard and parking area. She uses our driveway, so it is not too much more for Steve to just whip out her parking area for when her kids come to visit.  She was trying to shovel it herself!!! Steve scolded her and sent her in the house!  He is getting good at handling those old folks.  hahahahha

Imagine my surprise at noon to hear a BEEP BEEP BEEP as he backed up his little bus into our yard for a quick lunch! His 11 am patient was delivered back to his home early from his route, so Steve had time to hop by the house for lunch with me! 

I have laughingly dubbed it the 

"Old Fart Party Bus"! 

This is the handicapped elderly bus he drives for the Commission on Aging.  It is a county run program and he will work 15-20 hours a week.  This week he really put in 25-26 hours due to training.  There are three busses like this and also a van.  He transports elderly or handicapped folks to their doc appointments, dialysis or even errands for grocery shopping.  They pay a fee to the office and he just has to log in the books his pick up and drop off times.

He entertains me with stories of the sweet little old folks he hauls around. They seem to love to chatter and question him all about himself, since he is the New Guy!

We had a nice little lunch together, and he took care of some more snowblowing of the newest snow that fell.  Then he had to take off again.  We are only a few blocks from the County office at the courthouse, and his next pickup was nearby at the local nursing home.

He was done and home again by 4pm....  so his first full week is complete. He is finding it enjoyable and it is not hard work.  Just being polite, patient and careful with the folks are his finest qualities.  He makes sure their wheelchairs are secured, and everyone gets where they need to go on time.  Sometimes he gets to wait while they are inside, other times he is dispatched to another place while that person is seeing the doc.  The head office figures that all out for him, so he just goes where they want him to go.  Easy Peasy! 

Well, the winds are kicking up here tonight and the storms are continuing to blast across Wisconsin. I think we are due for a few more inches.  Tomorrow Steve is going to help his brother Pete move into his new house.  I am a bit under the weather and thinking I am having gallbladder problems. I had another attack today and after some rest, I am feeling better tonight. Going to the doc next week to check things out.  

Tomorrow evening we are set to babysit little granddaughter Whitney up at their house while daughter Heather and soninlaw Jesse take our oldest grandson Jameson to a hockey game! We are looking forward to spending time with Whitney and I think this grandma might bake some cookies to take along. I have a few special toys to play with and of course our favorite story book: Brown Bear, Brown Bear! 

Off to beddy-bye with the howling Winds of Wisconsin Winter that are blasting around us while we sleep in our snug little house.... 

 Me in my kerchief and Steve is his cap... 

just settling down for a long winter's nap.