A list of rubbish, hogwash, crayola, poo…

• I froze my feet last night, because I was too lazy to get up and put on socks.
• Sir Husband was left with 2″ of the bed, trying to get away from my cold feet.
• Every single appliance in our kitchen, died over the summer.   We thought we were done with replacing things. But…
• I took out a  9×13 glass pan from the oven and placed it on the stove.  It exploded, sending shattered glass six inches into the air.   I bought the pan two months ago, because in the 27 years of our marriage, I never had a 9×13 inch pan.   Now I still don’t have one.
• 
• Pea #1 announced that Pea #2 will hurt us with the bombs that come out of her butt, if we don’t share M&Ms with her.
• The siblings of Pea #2 get mad when we serve corn for dinner.  They say Pea#2 is allergic to corn, because we will hear, smell, and see it later.
• After grounding Pea #2 from all fun activities for her bad attitude and tantrums about school and that didn’t work, I announced I’d send her to public school.  If she wasn’t going to learn from me, she can learn from someone else.  She quickly went into a Royal Tantrum, threw her backpack by the garbage can and announced she didn’t need them anymore, because I was sending her to boarding school.  This wasn’t the first time.  Click here.
• I could really use a total break from all humans below the age of 30, for a month or more.
• I created frog guts yesterday and will post lovely photos tomorrow.  So come back and have a look.

What is a phone booth?

Pea #1 asks, “Momma, what is a phone booth?”

It takes me a second to realize, she REALLY doesn’t know what a phone booth is.  Why would she?

Me, “It is a silver box, with windows, and a door. You can go in there to use the phone.”

Pea #1 says, “You go in there to use your cell phone?”

I am trying very hard not to laugh.  I simply tell her there is a phone already in there.  It is called a public phone for anyone to use.  They use to be every where, but now with cell phones, phone booths are rare.

A Garage Sale

At the beginning of the week, one of our good neighbors said she was having a garage sale this Saturday and wanted us to join her.  She sent out fliers to let all of us know, so about six familes on the street decided to join her in decluttering our homes.  She posted the times in Craig’s List and out on different streets.  Time is clearly marked.  We never had a garage sale before, so this was exciting.

At my normal time since we got the pups, I’m up at 5:00.  By 6:55 I am placing a table out on the driveway.  The sale begins at 8:00am.  At 7:10 people start showing up.  I have one table with just a few items on there.  One woman comes up and says, “Is this all you got?”.  I said, “The garage sale doesn’t start until 8:00, I don’t have it all out yet.” She says, “So, there is no more?”.  I said, “no”. 

All the neighbors got their junk treasures out to sell to all the people coming our way.  Our home is situated where I can talk to three neighbors in their driveways, at the same time.  So, we sit and chat.  About 8:00 or so, it starts to sprinkle.  Then it sprinkles more.  Then it pours.

It doesn’t stop. We place all the furniture on the porch and cover what was left out on the driveway.

It stops pouring and just sprinkles. Amazingly, people still came out to look. I had to meet everyone and tell them there was more on the porch. By 9:00 our neighbors have made 60 dollars. We have made nothing.

We did have a few offers on some things. One woman wanted to pay only $10.00 for our antique dresser. One woman wanted to pay only 50 cents for some toys that really could go for $2.00. One woman wanted to pay only $15.00 for our George Forman Grill. We were asking $30.00. It was a brand new never used, $100.00 George Forman Grill. We told her she could have it for $20.00. This was our conversation. Her $15.00? Me no, $20. $15.00? $20. $15.00? $20. $15.00 at this point I am laughing at her and said, “NO, $20.00!”. If she had asked again I would have said no sale. She ended up getting it for $20.00. It was a good deal for her.

So at the end of our garage sale, we made $29.00. I am declaring it here for all to see, read, and understand. We will never. have. another. garage. sale.  EVER!

Want to know what happened to the stuff that didn’t sell? Sir Husband packed it in the van and gave it to Betty Griffin House. The furniture and some of the toys are going on Craig’s List. 😀

Update:  Sir Husband has sold his plainer to a man who was interested in it from the garage sale.  I just sold my clarinet off of Craig’s List. 🙂   It’s starting to make us feel better about the garage sale, but we still will never have another one. 

Fall has arrived in Florida.

It arrived a few weeks ago, in the mail.  This is the only way Fall arrives in Florida. I am so grateful for this gift.  I have it on my kitchen wall to remind me that it is Fall.

When winter arrives, how am I to hang the snow to remind me it is Winter?

Today is the day!!

The Boathouse, picture heavy.

One of the first places we like to check out when get to the cabin, is the boathouse. It is built on the water. You can no longer build a boat house or a house anywhere near the lakes edge. Since the boathouse was there well before that law was inforced, it stays. If it ever falls down, we can not rebuild it.

The boathouse has two floors. The top/roof has several lounge chairs and a nifty screened in room. This room has served many picnics over the years. Food always taste better served there. This last time, we didn’t eat out there. Our trip was too short. One night I was out there by myself and I heard this low rumbling sound. It slowly got louder and I thought it was a motor. I turned to walk back to the house to ask if there was something running in the boathouse. I looked up and a solid black cloud was desending on me. It was mosquitoes! I ran to the house and told Sir Husband who didn’t believe me. The next night I took him out there. We came running back to tell everyone else. Sir Husband finally believed me. LOL

Every time we go there, we have to take a trip to Pin Cushion Island for a picnic and every year we take this same photo, below. It is just something we do.

The above picture was taken while we are on our way to Pin Cushion Island. This island was once owned by the woman who built the cabin and roads. She actually owned much of the land around the lake. Most was given to the government in her Will. The island below, is part of it and you can only camp there for one night only. I have never camped there, but we always go for picnics there.

Down below inside the boathouse are two places for boats and lots of storage space. All the canoes, fishing equipment, whatever had to do with water was there. Including my kids. They lived here.

The kids loved to fish. Never caught anything much off the dock, but that didn’t stop them.

If you look to the lower left of the above photo, you’ll see the outside dock is sinking.  The lake freezes solid up there and it does a lot of damage to the boathouse.  The family is trying everything to keep it floating.

We do get lots of visitors in the boathouse.  Visitors that like to stay warm.  I found this little big guy, a water spider, inside one of the boats.  I took some photos, but can’t quite get the upclose clear ones, that I like to get.  However; you can see the eyes on this one.  😀

I think it is a blessing to find these in your boathouse or home. 😀

Come on in!

Welcome to the cabin.  This cabin was built many years ago by a woman.  She was a wealthy woman, who never married.  I’ll have to get the details, but this cabin was built after a huge storm went through the area.  The wood used was from trees that fell during the storm.  All things were made by hand.  All the shingles were cut with an ax, all handles were hand carved, etc. 

Please come in through the side door.  This is the most used door of the house.  It enters through the porch, where extra food is stored.  From there it goes into the kitchen.

 

In this kitchen I have found antique cookware, still usable, cookbooks from the 20, 30, and 40’s, and items I have no idea what they are for. Inside the cabinets, are lists of items to take on a camping trip. They take everything including the kitchen sink. LOL If I ever go back, I’ll type up the list and share it.  There is very little food storage area in the kitchen, that is why everything is on the counter. 

Below you can see the handles of the cabinets. They were made from tree branches. Yep, carved by hand.

Next we enter the dining area. It is very small, but the view is breath taking. It over looks Mamie Lake. When no one is up talking, you can hear a pin drop out on the lake. One morning I was up alone and I heard someone talking. I jumped and turned around to find that it was just a boy and his father fishing out on the lake. Totally awesome.

Next comes the living room. This is where all the action happens at night. Family games or reading every night. There is T.V., but with only one or two slightly viewable stations, we don’t use it much. No computer either and only one dial phone. 🙂 Soooo nice.  The coffee table was built by my FIL with one of the local trees.  I can’t remember the kind it was.

 In the livingroom is our collection of fungus journals. Every year we hunt these things down and write about our summer. They never get bugs, because everything freezes during the winter. After our honeymoon, I took two home with us and within two days they were invested with bugs. I threw them out.

Here is an upclose photo, though not a good one, of our first fungus journal. It annouces our wedding 25 years ago. It is still there, as you can see.

That is all the photos I have right now. I have more from previous years that I need to find. I hope you have enjoyed the little trip through the cabin. Next I’ll try to post pictures of the plants outside. Yep, I’d love to live here.

Our place in Wisconsin

I know it is taking me months to talk about our trip way back in July.  Oh well…  Anyhoo this post is about our final destination.  This is the place we honeymooned at. 🙂  We try to go back every couple of years.  It is soooo beautiful up there and I wish we could stay, but I know when the snows come, we would wish we could leave.  LOL

The house was built by my husband’s grandfather’s half-sister. When she passed, he got most of the property, the rest was given to the government for preservation. The roads were built, literally, by this half-sister. She bought a road machine to build this roads. That machine is still in the garage. Everything was made from trees in that area, all by hand, no electrical equipment. I’ll have to find out the year it was finished.

The photo below gets us all excited when it reach it. It is the little creek than annouces we have arrived. The property on the right, belongs to my husbands family. Every year, we get in a canoe and paddle down this creek. We can even paddle through the tunnel under the road to get to the other side. We usually can find a beaver dam somewhere.

We will visit the outside of the cabin area first. 🙂

This is the side entrance. It goes into a small porch that houses extra kitchen supplies, freezer, garbage cans, etc. It goes into the kitchen.

The is the back entrance. On the left is a large screened in porch and we eat there almost everyday for lunch and dinner.

This is the driveway to the house. As you drive down you can see on the right a large garage, then the care takers home, then the house.

Along the drive way and out at the street, Forget-me-nots line both sides. All the flowers were planted by the half-sister and they still come out every year. 🙂

Here is one of the boats on the dock at the boathouse.

One view from the boathouse…

And my favorite view from the boathouse…

The Black River

The Black River runs about 30 miles from its origin in Wisconsin to where it flows into Lake Superior.

As the river flows over rock it wears away the bed rock at a slow continuous pace. This has caused many beautiful rapids and waterfall.

On the way to the river, there are lots of available rocks for collecting. The only problem is, where are they going to be stored?

While hiking around the river, we noticed there are several low places. Low enough for us to climb on the bedrock and toss rocks into the river.

There is even places for little girls to torment tadpoles. This place has been named “Pole Pond” by the girls. I have a feeling the tadpoles have learned their lesson and will never ever return to that place. I am sure they are thankful that we did not have a jar to put them in. I am thankful my youngest didn’t suggest using her pocket.

I think Wisconcin/Michigan area is one of the most beautiful places God created. 🙂

 

Wisconsin

As soon as I can I’ll be posting more pictures about our trip to Wisconsin, back in July.  For now just take a look at this beautiful picture.  It’s better than the mummy chicken. 🙂