October!

Good morning, friends!  I've been missing blogging, but there just hasn't been the time in the mornings.  And, when I get home at night, I'm too pooped to pop.  Or write!

It's October already, and we're experiencing mild temps.  So, I haven't even fired up the Central Boiler yet.  A fire in the middle room's Kalamazoo at night takes the chill off enough for the house to be decently comfortable . . . as long as I wear a few layers.  ;)  One of the main reasons I'm putting off starting the furnace until the last possible moment is because I need new batteries for the electrical system.  They just don't hold a charge anymore.  And, with the 2 motors for the in-floor heat running 24/7, I know the generator will be running a LOT . . . which, in turn, eats up the propane . . . which costs money . . . and, well, you know!  But, aside from a dip down to 26 degrees this past week (when I DIDN'T cover the tomatoes - argh!), it's been, like I said, mild.  Nice!

Believe it or not, there are STILL a few mosquitoes out and about in the evening here.  Not enough to be more than a little irritating, but, man, what a year it was for the skeeters!

A while later . . . 

I can tell, this is going to be a post that takes all day to write!  Anxiety over What Needs To Be Done is preventing me from taking the big slot of time to sit down and write.

So far, I've gotten the kitchen almost all cleaned up.  Note, that's not CLEAN, just cleaned up!  Also waging full-out war on the cluster flies today.  It's so satisfying, vacuuming them up, but there NEVER seems to be an end to 'em!

I got to hang out with Baby Girl on Saturday.  The past three times I've nannied, we've built a fort in the living room.  All the dining room chairs get pulled in and arranged (my job) and then all the required blankets and dolls and toys and books and puzzles for the floor of it get pulled in by her.  Here she is on Saturday, hauling her "packin' bag" from her bedroom.  It took me a long while to understand what she was calling her little sleeping bag, but once I figured it out and asked her mom about it, the explanation made sense:  she uses it most when they're packing up to go somewhere!  Hence, "packing bag"!  ;)

 

While Baby Girl continues with the inside of the fort, it's up to Bopee to take the big, heavy blankets and create the fort's roof.  Here she is, getting ready to lay out her Dora blanket for our floor.  I really despise commercialism, but it's so darn hard when little ones fall in love with a character!  Do you say "no" to Dora sippy cups, Dora undies, Dora jammies?  I guess, in the Big Scheme, it's a little thing . . . and they WILL grow out of these stages.  If I were a parent, though, I know I'd struggle with it:  happiness of my child vs. that damned commercialism!

BTW, on Saturday I learned that nannying is a contact sport!  We were inside the fort, and Baby Girl was being squirrely and jumping around . . . when her hard little noggin connected with the tippy-top bridge of my nose.  She immediately knew something was wrong because Bopee suddenly said something that must have meant "Stop!" (I don't remember) while holding one traffic-conducting hand out in the air while the other grasped her face.  When I could open my eyes to the pain, the little peanut anxiously said, without prompting and 110% knowing the accident had really hurt me, "I'm sorry, Bopee!!!"


I said, "I know you are, pumpkin.  It was an accident.  How's your head?  Does it hurt?"


She brought her hand up to her brow and nodded.  I asked, "Does it need a kiss?"  She said yes, and I kissed it.  Then I said, "My nose needs a kiss, too."  She leaned over, and I felt the gentlest of kisses from her little lips.  :)  Kisses heal most all wounds.  That said, I have a new bump on my long-ago broken nose, and each time I forget to NOT rub my face when I'm tired or exasperated . . . I'm QUICKLY reminded of the tender cartilage there!

* * *

Okay, it's 8:22 PM now, and I didn't get back to finishing this post.  So, I'll throw it out there, as is.  Oh, and did I say the mosquitoes were only slightly annoying still?  Ha!  They drove me in from the woodpile tonight once the sun went down!

Memorial Day Week, Continued

Memorial Day Week Saga, Part III

Last Thursday, both the kids in my care had already-runny noses, so, between the three of us, there was constant nose blowing and wiping.  Despite how we were all feeling, it was a gorgeous day and so we got in two walks:  one in the morning and one in the afternoon.

Una forgot how her sick self would feel when we were on the way home and she had to push the double stroller UP this hill!  ;)

The rocky knob in the distance is called Camp Five Mountain.  It's a 30-minute hike from Swamp River Ridge, and you can see both the Pigeon & Swamp Rivers from the top of it.  Just GORGEOUS!

Here's E with Tucker:  he's just the right size for little ones!

E was AMAZED at all the "pwetty yewow flowews" (dandelions)!

"Hewe, I picked these flowews for YOU, Una!"  (Awwwww!)

Our second walk of the day took us up to the trapper cabin, and E felt he should clean the porch.  :)

While I oversaw E's cleaning endeavors, C and the dogs patiently waited.

It wasn't until the end of the day and time for jammies that I had the occasion to see the top of C's onesie.  I think you can "read" why I had to snap this picture!  :)

Do you notice how bundled up she was?  Una doesn't really realize just how cool she keeps her house (especially in the shoulders months when the Central Boiler is turned off but it's not yet hot outside) until she has little ones in it!  It took a couple of days of nannying before the brain finally kicked in and I had cozy fires going each morning when they arrived!

While the daddy of the family continued the work on the second story of their cabin on Friday, the mama had her first whole day there and spent the majority of it cleaning, cleaning, cleaning the interior with solutions of bleach water and vinegar water.  The mattresses, comforters and even the new bed frames had to be thrown out.  Everything had to be pulled away from the (finished) walls and the tongue and groove liberally sprayed with mold-killing substances.


As I headed to their land that evening with the kiddies both tucked into their jammies and a good dinner in their bellies, I met them already on the road & driving towards Swamp River Ridge.  Even though the late light would have provided them with visibility for a couple more hours of work, they were plumb exhausted come 5:00.  Matter of fact, on a couple of mornings, the daddy headed out early to work from 5:00 - 8:00 AM before meeting up with the mama to either drop the kids off with me or make runs to the lumber yard, etc.  (Remember, too, that their land is off-grid AND they have a bit of a hike in to their building site.  EVERYTHING needs to be hauled in their long, single-person-width trail.)


What did I do that night after the vehicle / kiddo transfer?  Beats me, but I'm sure I went home to do chores and then collapse!

The weather was gorgeous on Friday, and it was warm out, but the bugs were TERRIFIC!  I didn't realize that until we were well into that day's walk.

It was hot enough that both Maisy & Tucker took every opportunity to get into the cool water along the sides of the road.

This picture is not the best because the mosquitoes & blackflies were SWARMING when I stopped the stroller to quickly take this shot, but they are Bird's-Foot Violets.  (I think.)

Right after I took the picture of the flowers, E asked me to take a picture of him.  He had a GREAT smile on his face, and it would have been a terrific shot . . . but just as the shutter snapped, a blackfly got him!  So, instead, you get reactionary action shots!  ;)

OWW!  Somethin' just bit me!

Poor little guy!  Una, DO something!

And, with that, I'll leave you for today.  Hold tight for the 4th installment.

Good Morning!

It's a shocker, I know, that I'm finally here.  What's MORE of a shocker is that I'm up with hot coffee and beginning to write at 6:39 AM!  Maybe I'm making up for yesterday when I didn't wake up until noon after 13 straight hours of sleep!  Last night, I got just over 5, thanks to Dosie (the cat) who was tearing up and down the board walkway that connects the two decks, right underneath the bedroom window this morning.  How can 6 pounds of cat sound like an elephant when they do that?!  Then, of course, just as I was plodding downstairs to show her that I'd left the front door open a crack, specifically to avoid being wakened by animals wanting to go out or come in, she came scampering UP the stairs!  Sigh.  Kids!

I was just reviewing the pictures I've taken in the past several days to remind myself what to post about, and there's a lot!  But, you won't get it all right now: tooooo much.  Last Tuesday was the day my dad, Papa Pea, came out and when I started making some real headway cleaning up the front yard and prepping for it the summer.  Within this past week, we had our first real day of spring . . . and then it was summer.  I kid you not.  One day of spring, yep:  that was all we got.  Cold, cold, cold and then HOT (by my warped standards, anyway).

Last Wednesday, I shut down the outside wood furnace and made all the appropriate adjustments necessary to transfer production of the house's hot water to the water heater (which just serves as a hot water storage tank in the wintertime when it's heated from the boiler).  The mosquitoes arrived but not in droves, thank goodness.  I haven't had to wear a headnet or bug dope yet.  No blackflies, either, but I hesitate to jinx things by even mentioning that!  I also refilled the batteries.  Papa Pea had taken a look at them when he was here (I had some concern about the sulfuric build-up on some of the terminals) and cautioned me that they off-gas and, therefore, lose more of their acid/water balance as they age.  So, I need to keep a closer eye on that.  We also discussed a new physical layout for the batteries when I get my new ones:  as I've mentioned before, the 24 large, deep-cycle batteries are place three deep and eight across, and the depth is too much to allow for any sort of personal physical comfort when maintaining them.

We northeastern Minnesotans put our hummingbird feeders out around the 15th of May, and I thought I saw a quick glimpse of one on Sunday, but I couldn't be sure.  At any rate, I got their sugar water made and out on Monday, and I saw the first . . . and then a couple . . . little guy(s)/gal(s) yesterday morning.

My days before, during, and after the upcoming holiday weekend are gonna be a whirlwind of activity:  my oldest girlfriend and her family are coming from their home in St. Paul to put the second story on their cabin, just 9 miles east of me (keep your fingers crossed for good weather!).  She's a physician's assistant, and her hubby is a physicist, so their schedules are tight.  Due to that, they'd planned this trip last fall and booked me to nanny for their two little ones - ages 2 1/2 and, let me count, 9 months - for five of those days.  I begged off from the Saturday & Sunday of the Memorial Day Week(end) so I could be in my gallery in town, hoping to grab the first of the season's tourists.  AND, my uncle and his wife from California might be visiting over those same days . . . so it's gonna be a BUSY time!

I've really kicked it into overdrive concerning my business, too, and my days "off" seem to be more productive than my in-office days.  While I'm not necessarily complaining, the problem with being in my office is that friends know that I'm in my office!  So, getting things done there seems to be a bit ineffectual.  I think I'm going to start trying to change that by keeping the door to my office closed.  If that doesn't work, I'll have to start putting the word out that I really can't be visited.  And/or just really limit those visits.  It's my own fault, I know:  when they say, "I really shouldn't be tying you up!" . . . I tend to respond, "I know, but I never see you!"  So, WHY am I complaining?  Yes, I am in charge of my own schedule:  I need to learn to put a cap on things.  ;)

But, following a COMPLETE waste of limited time in the office last week, I've made the first two of my three consecutive days here at home count.  I've put myself on an hourly schedule, and it's all about my 60-minute timer.  I'll do one hour at the computer on business work, then one hour on Swamp River Ridge work.  Rinse and repeat until the end of the day when I'm exhausted.  Usually around 9:00 or 10:00 PM.  BUT, I am getting things DONE, and that feels good!

My "around the homestead" accomplishments these past days have been based around the good weather:  laundry out on the line to dry, high-pressure washing of the second and larger slate walkway, planting a border of lily bulbs in an area susceptible to erosion, intense vacuuming (while the sun shines & charges my w-e-a-k and desperately-needing-to-be-replaced battery system), keeping an eye on the chicks (haven't lost one yet although I did have to perform an "emergency procedure" on a very pasty vent Sunday night), weeding, pruning trees, putting rock borders around perennials and trees, and more general clean-up of the front yard.  Even though there's no substantial green on the trees yet, I could already mow some of the grass . . . which I think I may start today.

I took a short walk in the woods the other day to see what I could find poking up through the duff:  wood anemones only, so far.  The unopened blossoms are particularly pink this year.

The ticks seem to be out in force already, though:  while at The Peanut's & Bunny's house for dinner last Friday night, I had to rather suddenly excuse myself to the bathroom as I sqeaked, "Excuse me, I have SOMETHINGCRAWLINGUPMYLEG!"  Their dad just said, "Mmm.  Tick."  I dropped trou in the bathroom and The Peanut came zoomin' in to say, "Can I see?!"  Yep, first tick of the season.  I showed her how to CRUSH their hard shells to make sure it was d-e-a-d!  Then, last night as I was sitting here in this chair in the library crocheting, I felt something drop onto my neck.  Yup, another one.  (How many of you are starting to itch and creep out, reading this?!)  I'd felt something in my hair earlier in the evening but couldn't find anything . . . I suspect it was the tick.  Yuck.  BUT, I'll take ticks ANY day of the week over (shudder) spiders.  (As I look overhead to make sure there isn't one ready to fall down on me.  Spider, not tick.)

I took the new header photo last Thursday as I headed into town, less than a mile down the road from home.  At first glance, I thought, "Oh, a baby!"  I was even a little hesitant to stop to take the picture, wondering where protective Mama was.  But, then I realized that it was just a small yearling:  freshly kicked out of the nest.  Cow moose (meese?) keep their calves through the whole first year until they calf again in the springtime:  then the 1-year old gets kicked to the curb to fend for him/herself!

So, with that, it's time for pictures.  Let's see what I can find of interest to post.

I took this picture a week ago last Monday to show how things were starting to green up.  Yes, that is snow in the right-hand side of the picture.  But, it's - finally - all gone now.

The soft needles of the Tamarack (aka American Larch) are starting to pop.

I took this yesterday to show that there are no green leaves on the trees yet.  This, across the driveway from the chicken house and poultry yard, is where I'd like to build a small barn - just out of view at the far left.  The structure that you see was going to be the home for the bee hives, but I've since found a better spot for them.  Instead, I will use this as a small, enclosed garden area . . . once it's repaired from the damage caused by a huge tree falling on it a couple of years ago.

I got the large front deck completely cleaned up yesterday.  Outdoor rugs moved and vacuumed, spider webs cleared.  Then, moved as many houseplants as will tolerate the outside conditions out there.  Got the new cover on the table, too.  Now, aside from the furniture cushions which need to stay inside unless being used, it's user-friendly and ready to go!

Finally, I'll leave you with a picture of the kitties, curled up on the afternoon sun.  I love it when they cozy up together!

I hope you have a terrific Wednesday!

HOPPY EASTER!

Hoppy Easter, Friends!

I'm a wreck this morning . . . The Peanut's baby brother is ON HIS WAY!  I was hoping he'd be born today 'cause I want to be able to call him "Bunny" . . . and the wish is coming true!

I've been trying to write out Easter cards, and I'm so excited / nervous that my hands are shaking like an 80-year old woman's!  Ha!

Anyway, I hope you and yours have a wonderfully special day.  And/or if you're spending a quiet day at home, make it a lovely one, okay?  Take some TIME for YOURSELF!

xo Bopee!

P.S.  I don't think that anyone who reads this blog knows The Peanut's parents (and doesn't already know what I'm about to say), but, if YOU do, PLEASE don't try calling them today:  they are very protective of their time and space during these sorts of events.  Thank you!

Finally, some PHOTOS!

I know it's been an AGE since I've posted any photos, but I was waiting until I had the two new computers set up enough that I could upload to them instead of the old computers.  So, without further ado . . . .

Back in January, Baby Girl's mama called at the last minute to ask if there was any chance I could pick her up from daycare (remember the little boy asking if I was her GRANDMA?!).  I said that I'd love to but that I had a dinner date at Bundle of Joy's house.  I'd be tickled pink to pick her up and take her there for the evening if that was okay.  (It was.)  So, here they are, two of Bopee's sweeties.  They are exactly 1 year (and 24 hours) apart, so it was fun to see where Bundle of Joy will be, developmentally, in one short year.  I can't remember if they'd ever met each other before (I don't think so), but they hit it off like gangbusters!  :)

Here we are, reading Bundle of Joy's favorite book.

Bundle of Joy's mama was taking the pictures.

Then, completely spontaneously, Bundle of Joy reached over and gave Baby Girl a hug!  Oh, my gawd!  Adorable!!!

Moving on to when both vehicles were stuck at the end of the driveway during The Great Ice Melt.  The truck is, indeed, stuck in these pictures - the car is waiting for me to ash the hill (although it doesn't look like much of a hill in these shots!) so I can drive it all the way in the driveway.

Here we are, a week ago Sunday, when I was ferrying / coordinating / moving vehicles.  Here I'd moved the car and was walking back to the truck.  If you enlarge the picture, you can see two white roofs.  The one at the top left is the house roof, and the other, more hidden at the top center, is the garage.

The view looking to the left off the bridge pictured in the previous shot.

So, remember when I'd written about trying to drive the car in to work following The Great Melt & Re-Freeze?  When I'd gotten stopped on an incline of about 5 degrees?  Taken from the 1-ton, heavy enough to traverse the glare ice covered by light snow, here's a picture of that spot and my tracks, where I'd easily (accidentally) whipped a 180 to head back towards home.

And, lastly, I'll leave you with a poor representation of a beautiful sunset a week ago today.  :)

Whadda BUSY Week It Was!

Oh, my GAWD, this past week was busy!  Oi vey!  I am SO happy to have a couple of days here at home now, I can't even tell you!

I woke to beautiful blue skies, but now the clouds are moving in - still, it's lovely and mild out (24 degrees last time I looked).  I have so much to do both inside and out that I'm not sure what to tackle first.  One thing is certain, though:  I MUST tend to the refrigerator POST-HASTE!  There is something SO dead in there than it's infecting everything else . . . coming through the milk container, and everything.  Absolutely horrendous.  I thought I'd pulled the offending object during the week, but obviously that one thing wasn't causing the problem.  I may have to put on a HazMat respirator when I "go in".  ;)

Not being with anyone - nor in pursuit of anyone - I keep forgetting that today is Valentine's Day!  And, you know, it's kind of a blessing in disguise!  I don't have to worry about what to get any "him" . . . nor if the day will be made special by "him" or completely forgotten or consciously ignored as a protest against an "invented Hallmark holiday".  And, in thinking about it, I realize that I've NEVER been with a guy who made Valentine's Day be what I think it should be (special)!  So, phooey on THAT!  I think I'll start a list of requirements for the next Chicken Mama Man, and put 'make me feel special on special holidays' on it.  ;)  I remember that the ex would make me a neat, hand-made valentine, once in a while, but "once in a while" out of some 14 years doesn't quite hit the mark, if ya know what I mean.  (And not that I was always perfect, either, but, hey, if we're going for The Ideal here, we may as well aim high, right?!)

I was planning on filling you in about my past week, but it was so downright exhausting that I may just put it behind me and focus on the upcoming.  There was some horrible stuff involving the ex but there were also 5 (!!) separate visits with three of "my" little ones.  First, I got to pick Baby Girl up from daycare* and then take her to dinner at Bundle of Joy's house (at 2 years and 1 year old, respectively, they played and played and played and played until both their eyes glazed over and they started resembling adorable zombies)! Then, The Peanut and her mama and I took in a JV basketball game at the high school early on Friday night, and then it was back to Bundle of Joy's house to help out her and her daddy while mommy was away at work.  And, last night, I got to hang out with The Peanut again while her parents went out for a Valentine's Eve dinner!  Lots of baby time made my busy week all worthwhile.  :)

*  When I picked Baby Girl up from daycare, she was seated in the eating alcove and couldn't see me.  L, the daycare provider, said, "Ooooh, Baby Girl!  Somebody special is here to see you!"  I peeked around the corner and was rewarded with flailing arms and screeches of "Bopee!Bopee!Bopee!" while she scrambled out of the booth.  Once she was up in my arms, a little boy who'd been watching the scene play out asked Baby Girl, "Is that your grandma?!"  

(And then I booted him across the room.)

Little shi . . . shizer.  I explained to him that a bopee was kind of in-between an auntie and a grandma.  He seemed satisfied.  (We should really spell my moniker as Boppee 'cause it's pronounced BAH-pee, but, somewhere along the line the Bopee spelling stuck.  So, it is what it is.)  I also have the honor of being 'Una', to two little ones down in St. Paul, and I love that name, too!  Una = Up North Auntie.  :)

Okay, I think I'll sign off for now, and get going on this disaster of a kitchen.  Then it's outside to get some work DONE!

The Weekend!

Hello, friends!  

Sorry I kept you waiting for the Chicken Mama Designs Christmas sale and open house report, but you'll forgive me if I was a little exhausted and needed a couple days off.  Matter of fact, I hardly opened my computer these past two days.

Saturday went WELL!  A good, solid "well".  It wasn't fantastic, and I didn't sell any of the big ticket items, but I sold quite a lot of cards . . . enough to cover what I paid My Girl for her FANTASTIC help on Thursday & Friday (thank you, thank you, thank you, my dear!) and then some.  To my disappointment, the calendars did not arrive (by 11:30 on Saturday) as I'd hoped, but I got a lot of pre-orders . . . which strikes me as kind of bizarre since no one's seen them yet!  But, as my oldest girlfriend said when placing her order via e-mail, "I love your photography, so I know I'll like it!"  I'm hoping they'll be waiting for me today when I get to work . . . at which time I'll video it and post that for you all to see!  I'm super, super excited about seeing them!

One of the reasons I probably didn't sell as much as I might have was that I didn't have time to get prices on everything (duh)!  Folks who were very interested in particular prints did ask how much they cost, but I'm sure others who didn't know me didn't ask.  So, putting all the very final touches on the gallery is on my list today.  At least I got it all looking good via "smoke and mirrors", and that was the ultimate with-time-constraints goal.

Thinking about not getting things to look how I ULTIMATELY wanted them to look makes me think about how I normally would have REALLY been stressing about that and the steadying influence My Girl had on me during those 48 hours previous to the sale.  Had she not been there, I certainly wouldn't have taken time for meals.  I wouldn't have worried about keeping my mood up for anyone.  I would have been head-down, nose-to-the-grindstone as I have (always!) been in the past.  And, how has that worked for me?  Ummm, not so well.  So, because I wanted to be "up" for her, because I knew she needed to eat (therefore, I ate, too), because she kept telling me how proud she was of me and asking, "Do you REALIZE what you're doing here?!!" . . . I was kept on an even keel.  While I don't know what I would have done without the truly lovely sidewalk sandwich board she made (to draw people in), I know that the greater assist was her keeping me grounded.  If we all had an (adopted) daughter like that, the world would be a better place!

I know, too, that the sale provided a lot of free advertising.  People who stopped in but didn't buy assured me that they'd spread the word about my little gallery.  And, once news really gets around town about Chicken Mama Designs, that will help.  Out of town friends who didn't know exactly where I'm located (and hadn't grabbed the address) weren't helped much by asking around town.  Since I'm tucked into a set of pre-existing business offices, it wasn't like the locals had seen a changing of the guard at one of the shops in town.  So, more advertising will help that, too.  And, to tell the truth, I purposefully neglected to do a lot of local advertising because I was afraid I was going to be woefully (un)prepared.  And, had the 14 new large pieces & canvases I'd ordered NOT arrived in time, I would have been.  So, six of one, half a dozen of another.  In the end, I feel it was a SOLID START to becoming known as a new business and one of the many galleries in town.  End of story.  :)

(Re-reading this before I post, I've remembered that I also snagged the confirmation of one expected web design job AND two brand new ones at the open house!!!!!)

After a good lie-in and lots of mindless movie time (watched 'Leap Year' and cried - I'm so damn mushy) on Sunday, I went back into town.  Had to put the common area of the office building back to rights and clean up a bit.  Returned the rented coffee carafes to the local coffee shop, etc.  

That night was the annual Christmas concert in town (primarily songs from Handel's 'Messiah'), and I had an unexpected treat taking care of Bundle of Joy for a while before the concert.  Her folks had just driven the 3 1/2 hours up from his maternal family's in north central Minnesota where they'd been celebrating a matriarch's 80th birthday.  Bundle of Joy's mama sings in the choir each year and needed to go right to the church, but Dad had to get the dog home and get the fire going, etc. after having been gone since Friday night.  Talking to them on the phone to plan when to meet up (I'd been planning on sitting with Dad and Bundle of Joy to help keep her entertained - she'll be 1 year old in 8 days), I learned of his rush-rush plans and said, "Oh!  Why don't you leave Bundle of Joy with me?  That way, she won't have to spend another hour in the car and can get a little of her energy out!"  With a huge amount of appreciation and relief, her daddy immediately accepted, and I told her to meet me at Mama & Papa Pea's house (which would be a lot nicer than my office).  So, Mama Pea got some unexpected baby time (which we ALL love, right, ladies?!), and Bundle of Joy and I both got dinner, too!  As Papa Pea returned from the garage with The Yellow Chair and I placed Bundle of Joy in it, Mom said to Dad, "Who would have ever guessed that we'd have such a revolving group of little girls* sitting at our table in this?!"  

(*For no particular reason, all the little ones I've taken care of for long periods of time have been girls, but soon (yayyyy!) there will be a little baby brother arriving to The Peanut - around tax day in the early spring!)


The story of The Yellow Chair is a neat one.  Mama Pea will have to weigh in on where it came from, but, when I was little, they had this chair for me.  It's kind of like a high chair . . . but more like a bar stool in height and without a tray.  The back is low and curved, like a captain's chair, and it slides right up to the table . . . at a perfect height for a little one.  The seat isn't large enough to encompass a tukhus like mine, but a petite, skinny person could probably fit into it.  Anyway, I'm not sure why Dad's always kept it (sentimentality?  again, Mom, please weigh in), but after it was clear that I wouldn't be having children, I'm sure my folks were disappointed that it would never serve a new generation.  But, as the wonderfully silver lining to that particular cloud, I know I'd never be able to be auntie, nanny, and Bopee to so many little ones had I had my own . . . and I thrill at the relationship I have now with all of them.  :)

Yesterday, I was a completely lazy slug for the majority of the day.  Even though I woke thinking, "The world is my oyster!" (or, more accurately, "Swamp River Ridge is my oyster!"), I couldn't quite get myself moving until well into the afternoon.  About all I got done was the kitchen cleaned up from the week's accumulation of stuff dumped, the dishes done, and two pillar candles made for Christmas gifts.  Oh, and a healthy dinner (Taco Appetizer) made for myself.  Too, I got outside and tried to do some clean-up shoveling, but, at 5 degrees, the packed snow wasn't budgin'.  Fed the wild birds and took care of chicken / goose chores (hey, Dad, those chickens haven't laid a single egg yet!!!).  Unloaded the car from the extra stuff I'd emptied from my office prior to the sale, and finally shoveled in front of the garage so I could park the car inside.  Drove the Yaris up and down the driveway to warm it up after sitting in the cold for a 24 hours and before it sat in the garage overnight.  Good way to get the dogs warmed up and out for some exercise, too, as they ran alongside.


Then, knowing I wanted some inside fires and needing to cut some large pieces of birch to fit in the woodstoves (vs. the size they're cut to to fit in the huge outside furnace), I argued with the chainsaws for a while.  I just CANNOT get the larger one started.  I'll have to bring that to my technician (Dad) again.  (If you ever want to know how to warm up - and end up sweating and panting - in 5 degree weather, just struggle with starting chainsaws.  It'll heat you RIGHT up!)

After refilling the gas & bar oil and then flooding (that's a negative) the chainsaw, I finally got the small one going.  Ahhh, the satisfaction of that blue smoke FINALLY filling the workshop!  Nothin' like it!  ;)  I didn't cut long - only until my arms and back protested for an end.  Then, I split wood.  I LOVE splitting frozen wood!  SO damn easy and rewarding!  :)  (Just re-read that, and, for someone who doesn't know, that could have sounded like sarcasm.  I'm actually completely serious:  dry, frozen wood splits incredibly cleanly and easily.)


Anyway, after accomplishing all that outside stuff in the time it went from afternoon daylight to completely dark, I headed inside for the night.  I was considering watching my latest Netflix movie, 'The White Countess', before bed but, it being 11:00 already by the time I finished the dishes, I opted for a cup of tea here in the kitchen rocker and a couple more chapters of my latest audio book.


Now, today, back at it in town!  I'll post pictures when I download 'em (at my office).

Quick Update

I haven't been on the keys since last Wednesday?  Yikes!  But, I have a good excuse - the last few days have been go-go-go.  In short:

Last Wednesday:  I was In-Office working in town.  (I think - can't remember that far back!)

Thursday:  Same.  On one of the days, Bundle of Joy and her mama came to visit.  Here they are in one of the seating areas of the coffee shop / community gathering space, playing with Maisy.

Friday:  Nannied for both The Peanut and a little 21-month old boy.  Before the 2nd pumpkin joined us for the day, The Peanut and I ran errands . . . including a trip to the dairy farm for "chalky moat" (chocolate milk).  Evening with the parents of both kiddlies plus friends (family to The Peanut) who were up to their cabin from St. Paul.

Also on Friday, The Peanut being smack in the middle of potty training (diapers are only for bedtime!), we made a few extra stops during our town running (to prevent the need for an outfit change, if you get my drift).  The prettiest stop was this one, just outside a horse pasture (one of the very few in the county).

 

Maisy wanted to get out and play with the horses.

 

Saturday:  Essential clean-up of house, then packing and driving over 200 miles southwest to attend "My Girl's" high school graduation.  Arrived about 11:30 PM (yikes).  Tom stayed here both Saturday & Sunday nights, doing chores and taking care of the dogs.  It was GREAT to not worry about things while I was gone!  Also, he WORKED while he was here!  More on that later, but the logging road is FIXED, the upstairs of the garage is SORTED, and the lawn is MOWED!  Whoo-hoo!!!!  It was beginning to (no, it DID) look like an abandoned house in the height of summer around here.  It seemed to take forever for the grass to be high enough to warrant cutting . . . but now . . . oi vey!  It was embarrassing.

  

Sunday:  Graduation . . . MIS-ER-ABLY hot and humid.  Hellish.  (Pictures to follow in another post.)  Not so bad as My Girl's sister-in-law's experience, tho, who was in Iowa attending her sister's college graduation . . . where people were PASSING OUT the heat was so bad!

Monday:  Packing up and leaving, errands on the way home capped off by a really nice visit with an old friend who is in the hospital (lucky to be alive and/or not paralyzed after falling backwards into the deep end of an empty pool during its spring cleaning while she worked around it).  Returned home after midnight.

Tuesday / Yesterday:  Nannied oldest / dearest friend's little guy (also 21 months old) while his mom & dad worked on their cabin 9 miles away.  Miserably hot & humid day again.  85.8° in the shade on the north side of the house here.  FORTUNATELY, a big storm came through in the late afternoon and dropped the temperature to 71° in about 10 minutes!  I can't WAIT to get into the cold fog that the big lake is spreading over those living on its shoreline (which includes town when I'm at work)!

More tonight, I hope . . . or tomorrow.

Cloudy, Grey Wednesday

So.  What's been shakin' the past couple o' days?  

Well, as I mentioned in one of the Comments sections, the fire danger is HIGH due to the early spring & snow melt.  The search plane has been going over Swamp River Ridge twice a day for a week or so now.  If the humidity is high and the clouds are heavy, they might miss a day here and there, but it's a sure bet that I'll hear the droning buzz as they approach on a sunny, windy day.  

As you can imagine, the worst conditions are when we have thunder and lightning with no precip, but, knock on wood, we haven't had any lightning strikes lately.  

The dad of Baby Girl (above & a little grumpy during our walk last weekend) is a highly trained USFS hotshot (you can Google that) who gets sent all over the country . . . at least he did before he was married and had a family, and he was the one who did the hand-off to me last Saturday when I nannied.  He'd gotten a call right before I arrived of a fire at the end of the Trail, but it sounded small . . . and, since I haven't heard anything more about it, it must have been.

Photo Courtesy of MN DNR 

As you can see from this map, most of Minnesota is in a state of fire awareness.  The circle represents the area I'm in.

Here's a link to another good map that shows what & where fires are currently burning.  Let's hope that this particular county in Minnesota isn't displayed there anytime soon!

* * * * * * *

I am a horrible (cat) mother.  Geez.  I can't believe I did that.  Last night, Tom came out to pick up the kayak that he's trying to sell and a few other things.  (I can't remember if I've posted that here or not - anyone interested?  It's a beautiful, custom-made sea kayak used fewer than 10 times.)  He bought some supplies that I needed for this weekend's "Chickens 101" class from the lumber yard, too, and I made us dinner.  (Yummy, yummy saute of fresh garlic, marinated mock duck, and fresh veggies over basmati rice!)  Anyway, Annie Blue . . . .


Her hair is so long and fine (we thought we were picking out a SHORT-haired cat, ah-hem!) that she gets dreadlocks around her neck and along her belly, and they rat themselves right up to her skin.  I asked Tom to bring the hair trimmer that he uses to keep his hair short so that we could try to shave her up a bit.  Well, her hair is SO fine that it just kept moving thru the clipper blades and wasn't really getting removed.  So, I figure I would trim it up short with scissors, first.  (Are you cringing yet?)

While Tom held the oh-so-happy cat (not!) by the armpits so that I could access her soft underbelly (cringe again!), I started cutting (aaaghh!).  She gave a good yowl once, but it wasn't that bad.  Not enough for either of us to think to stop.  Later, after we'd removed a huge pile of the finest fur imaginable and Annie Blue definitely looked the worse for wear (even tho we didn't really make much progress on the knots of hair), Tom was loving on her when I saw something . . . raw . . . on her belly.  Oh.  My.  God.  That yelp that she'd given was for a reason.  

I NEVER would have guessed that an animal's (like that) skin would be so thin.  She had a clean little, 1/4" long (coulda been 2", I felt so bad) V-cut in her belly.  Geez, geez, geez, I am a HORRIBLE mother!  I ran to grab some ointment and liberally dabbed.  I haven't dared look at it today (I don't want the reminder), but she's just fine . . . as she was last night, too.  But, gawd, I feel awful.


Well, I have written long enough that the sun is starting to peek through, and the clouds are moving out!  Yayyy!  The two-day class I'm teaching this weekend needs a good deal of prep, so guess what I'll be doing today?


Make it a good day, wherever you are!

Snow, Snow, Going Away . . . .

March is the snowiest month in northeastern Minnesota.

Ask me how much snow we've gotten so far this month?

None.  I did, however, wake up in the early morning hours today to the sounds of RAIN pitter-pattering on the roof!  Compare that to the winter of 2001-'02 when we didn't get the first SNOW of the winter until March 7th!!!

I snagged a new, temporary nannying gig yesterday for the sweetest little boy.  I'll post some pictures if his parents approve.  MANY thanks to M for thinking of me when the parents were searching for daycare!  I think I'm really going to have fun with him.  :)

Tom and I spent the day in Duluth yesterday, meeting with yet another lawyer.  It was a successful meeting as far as meetings go, but I just felt SO depressed during it.  Depressed that our life has come to this.  It just stinks.  I know it will be for the best for both of us once all is said & done, but if I don't ever have to hire another attorney anytime in my lifetime, I'll be MORE than happy!  


We were talking about pets at one point during the meeting (who Maisy & Tucker & Annie Blue would be living with, etc.), and the lawyer shared her fairly hilarious story, if you can handle black humor:  her goldfish died in a car accident!  She had just picked them up from a friend who was fish-sitting while she was gone.  She didn't think to belt the fish bowl in (who would?!), and, while taking a corner just a tad too fast, the bowl went flying.  She said one of the little guys was all bent up, his backbone having been broken in the fall.  Ohhh, poor little guys!  (But, how funny is that?  "My fish died in a car accident.")

Insert another bad joke:  A guy walks into a bar.  What does he say?

"Ouch."  ;)


Okay, must get on with my day.  The grey, grey, grey day that it is.  With this weather, the chicken yard is diss-guss-ting!!!  Any of you farmers know what outside pens look like in the springtime before things have dried up.  And, I don't want to spread fresh wood shavings 'cause that will just prevent the snow underneath from melting.  So, we (I and the critters) deal with it for a few more weeks.  

Oh, and speaking of weather-related messes:  road restrictions went on this morning at 12:01 AM.  That means that loggers, contractors, etc. (anyone with an axle weight of over . . . something) can't drive on any of the secondary roads until restrictions are lifted:  a mimimum of 8 weeks, and, in most years, not until June ('til the frost has completely left the ground)!  (Of course, restrictions generally go into effect much later than mid-March, too.)  Anyway, point being, yesterday would have been the last day for the boys to bring me my 8-10 cords of birch!  Was it neatly stacked up in the yard last night when I returned home?  Nope.  Dang . . . .  I think I have enough wood left for the Central Boiler to get me well into April.  I'll probably have to shut it down for the season earlier than normal, BUT I have been stock-piling a nice amount of wood small enough for the 3 inside wood stoves, so I can definitely keep the house comfortably warm with those.  Even though we say it every year (and are soundly proven wrong!), methinks it's gonna be an early spring this year!

Friday Morning

Good morning!  It's a beautiful, sunny day at Swamp River Ridge.  There's a light coating of hoarfrost on the trees, and I'm listening to the Blue Jays screech outside as I sit here in the library writing.  Annnnd, here's Maisy, yawning, squinting her eyes against the sun, and pawing my leg asking, "Mo-ooom!  I.  Want.  Breakfast!"  Let's see how long I can put her off . . . .

I fell asleep on the couch while watching a movie night-before-last (fully clothed), so, when the phone woke me at 8:00 yesterday morning, I kinda felt like I'd never gone to bed.  

That call started a go-go-go morning of telephone conversations, e-mails, facts, and figures.  For a while there, I was feeling like it was the most stressful day I'd had in a while (and THAT'S sayin' something!), but then, magically, everything kind of fell into place!  Tom and I made some real progress on this whole "thing", and now we just need to convince the lawyer that we've already made a binding agreement between the two of us and all she needs to do is make it legal.  That's my NEXT project this morning.  But, if things can be finalized as they stand now, we will have remained friends and both be feeling good (relatively speaking, of course) about the outcome.  Think positive thoughts for us, will you?

(It's still amazing to me, though, that just a mere 2 months ago, I thought Tom and I would be growing old together . . . as had always been the plan!  Weird.  Life sure does throw some curve balls from time to time, doesn't it?)

As I wrote about in an earlier post, I got to hang out with Baby Girl last Saturday.  I hadn't seen her since her 1st birthday party on December 16th, and she'd begun walking since then!  It was an opportunity for me to give her the raspberry cloche hat I'd made her for Christmas, too . . . .

She liked it.  :)

The day before, I'd been with The Peanut, and, when I did chores on my way out that morning, I'd grabbed a fresh goose egg to bring to her.  I figured she'd have fun playing with the huge, hard-shelled egg (not easily broken like a chicken egg).  

She did.  :)

That evening was the night when The Peanut's nana and papa were coming over to share dinner with Mommy & Daddy & Boppee (yours truly), and so we figured we should make something to contribute to the meal.  We chose Peach Cobbler, or, as The Peanut says via her 2 year and 3 month old vocabulary, "Peach Clobber".

The Peanut said that we needed to wear aprons . . . so we did.   

And, with those images of sweet innocence & perfection, I'll leave you for the day.

Make it a good one!