Category Archives: Uncategorized

2025, Business, Fantasy, Gatherings, Nature, Uncategorized

Warm Floors

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At the sibling gathering (while I was visiting Nonny in St. Louis earlier this month), someone must have mentioned something about heated floors.  I made a note on my post-it note app, assuming (ha ha ha ha) that the words “heated floor” would trigger my memory for what I thought might be a blog piece.  Again, ha ha ha ha.

About 25 years ago, I had a site inspection scheduled to San Francisco and Napa.  The morning of the trip, the client called to cancel due to his wife’s illness but he told me to go ahead, see what I needed to see and take good notes and pictures.  No problem on my part.

The plan for the group was to do a day of wineries and a lovely lunch.  However the group was too big to be at any one winery at once (most of the Napa wineries are actually pretty small) so we needed to split up the group.  Group A and Group B went to different wineries in the morning, had lunch together at a place that could hold them all and then the groups would flip and do the wineries for the afternoon.  Easy peasy, right? 

In one long day, I visited 11 wineries to find the four that would work well for the group.  Each owner met me, toured me around and… offered me samples.  There didn’t feel like a gracious way to turn down the wine.  Even though I never finished an entire glass, by the end of the day, I was a bit tipsy.  Add to that the weather was chillier than had been forecasted and my coat was not up to the job.  By the time we got to the hotel, Meadowood Resort, all I wanted was to have a bit of room service and collapse in a warm bed.  

With all that liquid refreshment, I ended up having to visit the bathroom in the middle of the night.  It was chilly as I walked across the bedroom and then…. oh my stars… the bathroom floor was warm.  The first and last time I’ve personally ever come across heated floor tiles.  And of all the times I could truly appreciate them, there they were!  When I finally left and headed back to bed, I slept like a baby.

If this wasn’t what I was thinking about when somebody at the sibling gathering mentioned heated floors, then I’m completely in the dark.

If money weren’t an issue, what home improvement would you like to make?

2025, Business, gardening, Seasons, Uncategorized

Hunkered Down for Winter

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Bachmans is a fixture in my life.  In addition to the many times I stop by in the spring, summer and fall, it’s also located on my main conduit for when I am out and about.  I go by it five or six times a week.  Last week was the first time I’ve visited the shop in January.

Two things took me there.  I’ve written about the hot sauce bird seed cylinders that I discovered – it turns out they have them at Bachmans.  Also, if you go to visit your mother and forget that you need to mail your Bachmans bill before the trip, you can stop by the store and they will process the payment for you on the spot.  Saves a stamp as well!

I got there right at 10, when they were opening and the gal unlocking the door said she would let me in but that I would need to leave using the gift shop/Patrick’s Bakery door.  As soon as I stepped inside, I saw why.  What I consider the main part of the store was absolutely empty.  No bulbs, no seasonal anything, no shepherd’s hooks, no fertilizers, no merch on the endcaps, nothing.  And looking out the sliding doors towards the back were row after row of empty tables and shelves.  It was the eeriest feeling.

The gal at Customer Service told me they do this every winter; they start to ramp back up towards the end of February.  That’s when people start thinking about seeds and getting started indoors for the eventual return of warm weather. The gift shop is open through the winter – if you need something for Valentine’s (including cut flower bouquets), Bachmans is ready for you.

Luckily the bird seed section on the far wall towards the back is still available.  It’s nice to know I won’t have to drive to St. Paul if I need another hot sauce cylinder before spring!

Do you have any seasonal shops?

2025, animals, Business, Family, Farming Update, Seasons, Uncategorized, Weather

Free Hat!

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The weekend Farm Report comes to us from Ben.

I took a couple days off work at the end of the week with the warmer temperatures to finish a couple of outside things in the machine shed. Replaced a tire on one of the trailers and finished the last corner of the shop wall, with the exception of the last piece of steel that the electrician told me to hold off installing until they run conduit.

On Wednesday I went to Meyer’s Seed in Potsdam and ordered seed for this year.Trying a different variety of oats called Rushmore. Oat seed is $16 a bushel, and I got a bit of a discount for ordering early. I ordered 80 bags. Retail price on a bag of corn seed is $360. Again there was several discounts so I am not paying nearly that much, and thankfully I only needed 20 bags. Soybean seed, depending on whether it’s treated or not, is somewhere between $50 and $60 per bag. 

I don’t need to get into all the different weights of the seed bags, and seeding rates, I’ve talked about that every year. When I left Meyers, I turned left on 70th Ave. and took that gravel road for 10 miles straight south until I came to County Road nine, took a right there which brought me right to the college. We had a commencement planning meeting. Couple of months the school year will be over and we’ll be dealing with commencement. Five miles down that 10 mile road, I parked in the middle of an intersection to take these photos. Probably could’ve parked there for an hour and not bothered anybody.

I got a free hat when I ordered seed! 

Although with these cold temperatures I think he’s gonna want the stocking cap back.

About 10 years ago we bought a new washer and dryer. It has an automatic soap dispenser, so every couple of months we fill the reservoir with soap and don’t have to think about it. A few years ago when my mom was still in independent living, we were doing laundry for her and at one point in time one of my siblings made some comment about the detergent and if the rest of us were using the liquid or the powder. Gee, I kind of forgot about detergent, I hadn’t been adding any. I remembered that story this week as I did two loads of laundry at our neighbors house while they’re on vacation and our laundry room is still torn up. Kelly came with me as I swapped the second load from the washer to the dryer and I showed her the detergent I was using. She pointed out it was fabric softener. Well, now that you mention it, it was blue. It sure did smell nice. What I noticed was a big jug on top of the washing machine with a little cup and spout just like the red detergent container has. Once again, the best of intentions tripped up by my lack of attention to details.
Remodeling update: On Friday, the guys started installing sheetrock. The electricians spent three days here, we got three new fans, code requires hardwired smoke detectors in all the bedrooms now, (not just in the hallway outside) so got four new ones to replace two battery ones we had. We also had them run two Cat 6 ethernet lines from the utility room to the TV and office. And a coax (antenna cable), to the TV. That way I can replace the line that’s been running over the roof, down the front of the house, and in our front window for 40 years. Kelly is almost as excited about getting rid of that wire as she is about the new bathtub. 
I’ve been watching some guys working on a cell phone tower along our driveway the last few days. 

I sure hope they finish before it gets any colder.  

IF YOU WERE GOING TO WORK OUTSIDE, IN THE WINTER, AT THIS HEIGHT, WHAT WOULD YOU NEED TO GET FOR FREE? 

2025, Family, Food, home, Uncategorized

New Toy

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Husband loves to grill and smoke meats. He has an enormous wood and charcoal smoker/grill in the back yard. It works pretty well, but it is often not possible for him to take a whole day to smoke something, and it isn’t possible to do it in the winter. In December he found on-line an electric indoor smoker that uses wood pellets as fuel. It is made by GE. We got it, and he used it for the first time last week.

I was somewhat skeptical that we could use a smoker indoors without smoking up the house, but it worked well, and there was only the smell of smoked meat, not smoke, in the house. It took 7 hours to completely cook a 4 pound chuck roast. The smoker is really quite small, and fits nicely on the kitchen counter. The smoke is filtered through water reservoirs and comes out of the smoker as warm air. It is a brilliant machine.

Have you acquired any new toys lately? What do you like to grill?

2024, 2025, Fantasy, Games, Kids, sports, Uncategorized

It’s a Hobby

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When YA was seven, she wanted to be a “horse girl” for Halloween.  Took me a bit by surprise because she hadn’t shown any particular horsey interest up to that point.  We had fun putting the costume together.  Nonny bought the cowboy boots, I got her a hat and a stick horse.  The jeans and shirt she already had.  I still have that stick horse in a corner of my bedroom.

Imagine my surprise last week (while I was wasting time on my phone while Nonny did her morning exercises) when I stumbled on a website for Hobby Horse Championships.

This is a real thing.  It’s called “hobby horsing” and if you look it up on Wikipedia there is a note at the top, in italics, that says “Not to be confused with Hobby Horse polo”.  That made me snort coffee up my nose.  HHing was apparently born in Finland and started to make waves in 2017.  Most participants are young girls, between the age of 12-18.  Classic horse-loving demographic.  These days there are quite a few national competitions (most in Europe) and the largest gathering of 2024 was at the end of August in Finland.  The United States’ games were the beginning of August.

I doubt YA will be interested in this; her infatuation with horses ended after a couple of summer horse camps when she was in Girl Scouts.  But you never know.

YA’s stick horse needs a name.  What do you think?

2025, Farming Update, home, Nature, pets, Uncategorized

Bathroom BRRR??

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The weekend Farm Report comes to us from Ben.

Not much happening on the farm this week, it’s been pretty cold.

The chickens are appreciating the fact there is / was no snow- or very little snow, so they’re still able to go out and move around. They get up against the south side of a building and stay in the sunshine and I try to spread their corn out in those areas. I did get nine eggs the other day, so production is slowly coming up.

Luna is still trying to find another rooster to play with her, but they are not interested in this activity.

Our bathroom and laundry room remodeling is progressing. Rough in plumbing has been completed, the fans, ductwork, and dryer vent have been installed. A little more demolition happened with the downstairs bathroom ceiling and the closet of an adjoining room being removed to allow access for pipes, which of course means the bathroom downstairs is gonna end up with a fresh paint job as well. “It all started with a new bathroom fan.” And that’s probably OK since it hasn’t been touched since the house was built in 1968.

At least the sink and toilet are not pink.

Striped wallpaper on the hot pink walls. Pretty much it’s just been me and daughter using that bathroom and I always kinda liked it. We’ve always joked about my mom painting it that way and she says it wasn’t her idea. I would expect she got a couple gallons of pink paint from somebody. We laugh that upstairs it’s 2020 but when you open the basement door it’s 1968 again. Our little time portal. That bathroom even has a wooden toilet paper roller! Speaking of which, we’ve started using bamboo TP. It’s OK!

It’s also unfortunate the cold weather coincided with tearing out the ceiling sheet rock and removing all the insulation in this area. They have plastic up on the ceiling, and zipper plastic walls, so it’s only cold in this area.

It also strikes me as a bit of a paradox that when it’s the coldest is when the electric company turns off the heat. Part of the dual fuel program, and I know it’s for the greater good, I know it’s all part of conserving energy and keeping the rates low, but that’s a big picture thing and it’s hard to keep in mind. For a lot of people.  

Luna is getting frustrated because it’s been too cold for her to stay out and get the exercise that she would like. Daughter has decided it’s too cold for her long walks, too. I do play fetch with Luna and whatever stick I find while doing chores, and Luna loves running with that, but then she gets distracted by something else and leaves it lay somewhere until we find it again the next day. Course there’s always another stick in our yard.

I have been talking the dogs for walks. Through the woods or down the creek or across the pastures.

And that’s been nice. It reminds me of how often I had to walk out and get the cows for milking and I wonder if that chore made me so grumpy about walking? As a kid, it was one of my chores to go get the cows. As I got older, it was just part of the job. Often, they’d come home by themselves, they knew it was milking time. Cows love routine. We share that.

DID YOU SQUEEZE THE CHARMIN?   GOT ANY GROCERY STORE MIS-ADVENTURES?

2024, Art, Travel, Uncategorized

Train Art

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Most days on my drive to work I travel on Villard Street, which is the main east-west route through our downtown area. It is also known as Old Highway 10, the route that ran from Detroit to Seattle before the interstate highways were built.

Villard runs parallel to the BNSF railroad tracks through town, and the street and the tracks are no more than 20 yards apart. There are always trains, either chugging through town or parked, waiting for who knows what.

I get a good glimpse of the train cars on my way to work, and I am always amazed at the intricate graffiti on them. Last week there were very nice Boris and Natasha portraits on one. I never observe people painting on the cars in our town. They would be seen, given that the cars are parked in the middle of town. It makes me wonder where on the train route the cars can be parked long enough for people to paint them without getting caught.

It seems that the graffiti is inevitable. I think it would be terribly fun for the railroad to have train car decorating contests, and legitimize what is going to happen anyway. Think of the fun!

What would you like to paint, or see painted, on train cars? Any memories on Old Highway 10?

2025, Business, education, Uncategorized

Out With the Old

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Most of my adult life, the new year has come with the headache (mild) of having to remember to write the correct year on forms and checks, mostly checks.  I can’t even guess how many times into a new year I have still been writing the old year in the date.

As I changed out all my calendars this morning, I thought was thinking about this problem and realized that it’s not much of a problem anymore.  I write almost no checks anymore.  I still write a check to Bachmans most months since they do not have any kind of online billing yet.  And the place where I pick strawberries in the spring and raspberries in the fall still needs a check.  Even the apple picking place accepts cards now.  Since I write so few checks, writing the date isn’t as automatic as it used to be either.  Of course, I haven’t had to order checks for a couple of years now.

When I got my first checking account, my mother spent a couple of hours teaching me how to balance my checkbook, which I did religiously for decades.  These days I check my bank stuff online every few days so even balancing the checkbook has gone by the wayside. 

Do you still write many checks?  How do you remember the new year’s date?

2024, Family, Gatherings, holidays, Mysteries, Uncategorized

Ends/Beginnings

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We typically spends New Year’s Eve staying home, drinking in moderation, and going to bed before 9:00. Tonight will be no different. The New Year has never meant much of a change for us, but this January forward will be much different than in the past.

I retire from full-time work January 31. I will be out of the office for the month of February, and then start part time in March. I hope to put in no more than 20 hours a week, doing two evaluations a week and writing the reports. I am a little concerned my agency wants me to do more than I have imagined, as I have been asked to supervise two counseling interns and to continue behavioral consulting at Head Start. They also want me to continue as a consultant to the Youth and Family team and to train staff in diagnosis and treatment planning.

All the while this will be going on, Husband and I will be downsizing and preparing ourselves to move to Minnesota. I think the move will be no later than the spring of 2026. It is very strange to have so much uncertainty in our future after 36 years of much the same activity, people, and tasks.

What does the New Year hold for you? What have been your most uncertain times? How do you celebrate New Year’s Eve?

2024, Farming Update, Theatre, Uncategorized

Wrapping Up

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Today’s Farming Update comes from Ben.

The chickens might be coming around, slowly, to laying eggs again. Friday we got five eggs. Three on Saturday, and that’s normal to have more every other day.

Still have three guineas. They sure seem like bullies; they’ll chase roosters away from food. And they don’t even necessarily eat it, just stopping someone else from eating.

No sign of ducks lately. I’m really bummed about that. I’ve been wondering if next year I got mallards, would that help? Would being able to fly help them escape whatever it is that’s been taking ours? Don’t know. But I sure miss having ducks around. I noticed today my pond has sprung another leak and there’s not much water in it. No need to fix it at the moment.

We had a nice quiet Christmas Day. I made cinnamon rolls from scratch the night before. Never made anything with yeast that had to rise before, so that was fun. I’d like to try biscuits, too. Then Kelly made lasagna for supper and it was really good. When we were first dating, lasagna was the first meal she made for me, showing me that she knew how to cook. Well, readily admitting lasagna was the only fancy meal she knew how to cook. What did we eat when younger? A lot of potato chips and dip, I remember that. I don’t remember what else. Maybe we ate out a lot.

I was working on the shop the other day and pounding in some trim nails and caught myself with my tongue out.

I must have been concentrating, but I hate the tongue thing.

The shop is really coming along.

This past week I installed a trim piece along the top to protect the insulation and keep the birds out of it. And with all the rain and warm temps the last few days, I cleaned up some stuff, got the trailer for the scissor lift in the shed, and the four wheeler inside so I can try and get that running again. (I think it needs new fuel. Take off the carburetor, again, and dump out the old fuel, and clean the tank, and try this for a 3rd time).

My friend Doug sent me a photo had had found. He titled it ‘mentors’. The two guys left and middle were his mentors and all three were/are mentors to me.

That’s Donald on the left. He was such a cool guy with a great laugh. And such a craftsman. Besides theater he would fix furniture and make vases out of old fence posts. And he was an actor. One of his roles, he played the butler, ‘Firs’, in Chekov’s play, ‘The Cherry Orchard’ and he had a great death scene. He also told me, “If you think about it long enough, you’ll find an easier way to do something.”

In the middle is Gary. He was at the Civic Theater when I first started to volunteer there in 1983, but then he became the technical director and speech instructor at the Community College. We discovered we were distantly related: his Grandfather and my Grandfather were brothers. He retired from the theater technical director position, but continued to teach speech, and that’s when I got hired as the college TD. We shared an office for a couple years. He was a fantastic designer. And did his best to impress that upon me. Some of it stuck. He passed away the same day as Prince, which is why you didn’t hear about his passing.

On the right is Doug, the man who sent the photo. He is also so creative and such a great designer! I talk with Gary or Doug sometimes when I need inspiration. In the way back days, Doug and his wife Joan created trophies to give out at a theater award banquet. I received ‘Best Director’ for sitting in the booth trying to get actors to stay in their light. (Talking to myself: “Don’t go there! Come over this way! No, not up there! C’mon, one more step!”) I was young. I didn’t know that wasn’t a thing.

WHAT ARE YOU GONNA WRAP UP IN THE LAST TWO DAYS OF 2024?