Sunday Reflections

All is well in the Keweenaw.

Sneak Peek Friday - Guest Room 1

I have always thought of this room as Guest Room 2, because it's the furthest from the stairs. However, it happens to be the first room finished enough for guests, so it's currently considered Guest Room 1.

The bedside dresser on the left is a piece of furniture that was always in my mother's room when she was a little girl. The table on the right also came from my grandmother's house.

Even the headboard came from Grandma. It has a matching footboard and springs, but it's a full size, so I'm only using the headboard right now with a queen mattress and boxspring. When the other bedroom is finished, I'll probably move the complete bed into that room and use it with a full size mattress.

After those first photos were taken, I found the box containing our antler lamp, so we're using that instead. It gives a lot more light.

Steven and Beth (and Max) are using this room right now. We're having lots of fun with all of them. Max is a joy!

All is well in the Keweenaw.

Wild Wildlife

After our "bear" adventure on Saturday evening, we weren't really expecting anything more exciting for a while. However, Monday morning brought more wild wildlife to our backyard. Steve and his son were talking in the great room when they saw something move in the woods in back of the house. Can you spot something in the following photo? Was it another bear?

No. It was a wolf!

He came skulking into the yard.

Steven grabbed his IPad and quickly snapped these photos for us, but the wolf saw the movement in the house and turned to leave again.

That was some real excitement. He's apparently the lone wolf that is often seen on this road. I won't mind if we don't see him again for a while, though!

All is well in the Keweenaw.

Memorial Day 2015

All is well in the Keweenaw.

Saturday Shots

Steven, Beth and Max arrived yesterday afternoon. We had some fun before the sun went down. Here's a shot of the Hamilton boys on the golf cart.

Max made his first trip to the beach at Eagle River and seemed fascinated by Lake Superior.

The photos didn't stop after Max went to bed. We had another visitor.

A young one in search of food. He had some success around the rocks under the bird feeder.

Thankfully, the bird feeder was still there this morning. We won't fill it for a few weeks. By then, there should be more to eat in the woods. 

All is well in the Keweenaw.

Sunday Reflections

All is well in the Keweenaw.

Sneak Peek Friday - New Cedar House

Once again - I'm sorry for not writing much. I seem to be having a lot of migraine episodes again recently. No specific reason to pinpoint - just part of life. I'll also warn you in advance that you may not hear much from me for the next week or so either. Steve's son, daughter-in-law and 1-year-old grandson are arriving tomorrow afternoon and will stay with us for about a week. (#BabyProofingTheHouse!)They'll be our first overnight visitors in the new house, and we're really looking forward to their visit!

On to today's sneak peek. We Steve erected a new cedar house this week. Can you see it?

That's right. It's a new cedar house for our mail (aka mailbox).

Steve's daughter, Carrie, gave us that mailbox as a gift quite a few years ago with the intention that we use it for the new house. After moving up here, we were seriously concerned that we wouldn't be able to use it. Many of the homes in Keweenaw County don't have mail delivery. We thought we may have to pick up our mail at the Mohawk Post Office - a round trip of 22 miles. You can imagine how delighted we were when they called to tell us we could have a box across the road from our driveway. We consider it another blessing!

All is well in the Keweenaw.

May in the Keweenaw

Here's what's happening outside today.

Snow falling and sticking!

All is well in the Keweenaw.

Sunday Reflections

All is well in the Keweenaw.

Sneak Peek Friday - Dining Light

Long time, no write! Sorry about that. We spent Mother's Day with my mom (between church services) - eating and doing some things for her at the Calumet house. Steve and I both had early dentist appointments on Monday. (Note to self: Now that we're living further away from our dentist, make the November appointments for 9:00 a.m. instead of 7:30 a.m. Getting up at 4:45 a.m. is not fun.) Since we were already in the Houghton/Hancock area, it seemed like a necessity to dirty our clean teeth with breakfast out. That was delicious. After running a few more errands, we stopped at Mom's again and did more packing and unpacking. I was in the land of the lost on Tuesday and Wednesday - down with a bad migraine. Yesterday was spent catching up on things around here and unpacking more boxes Steve found for me. So, it's hard to believe it's Friday already, but it is. Time for your weekly sneak peek.

Steve spent most of the past week doing lots of small jobs - like replacing some of our bare bulbs with actual light fixtures. I gave you a sneak peek at the box containing the dining light fixture quite some time ago. Here's a reminder:

That light fixture is now attached to the ceiling.

The box said 60-watt bulbs were acceptable. We used 40-watt bulbs instead, and it still feels like we're being interrogated when we're eating.

Our next shopping list will include chandelier bulbs with fewer watts!

All is well in the Keweenaw.

P.S. It snowed most of the day on Tuesday, but it didn't stick.

Special Sunday Reflections

All is well in the Keweenaw.

Sneak Peek Friday - The Tall Stand

Remember this woman?

That's my great-great grandmother, Ellen Esther Devoll. She married a Civil War veteran named James Eugene Hoyt.

They had a son named, Clifford James Hoyt (my great grandfather). Clifford married Cleo May Dykes and had a daughter named Thelma Esther Hoyt (my grandmother). Thelma Esther married Charles Robert Hall and had a daughter named Thelma Mae Hall (my mother). Since it's almost Mother's Day, I thought I would give you a peek at the most important piece of furniture in our family - a piece that was made for my great-great grandmother.

James & Ellen had a nephew named Charles P. Wilcox. Charles made 2 pieces of furniture for their home in Brooklyn, Wisconsin in the late 1800's. When Ellen died in 1940, my grandmother inherited her furniture including those 2 pieces. One of them was always called "the tall stand." When my grandmother passed away back in 2012, I became the current caretaker of the tall stand, and it will be passed on to my brother's children when I die. 

Here's your sneak peek at the tall stand.

The detail on this piece is pretty incredible for something that was made completely by hand. Notice all the oak leaves.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All is well in the Keweenaw.

Fisher

Back to the subject of recent visitors:  I made a trip into Calumet on the afternoon of April 14 to do some things at Mom's place. While I was away, Steve saw an animal come out of the woods at the back of the house. He thought it was a pine marten (American marten), a member of the weasel family. Unfortunately, he couldn't find the camera to snap a photo.

Later the same day - just as we were finishing dinner - we both saw it come out of the woods again. I left the table to retrieve the camera. The animal didn't move much. It seemed like he/she was sensing/smelling the dog (just out of sight in the garage at that time). The sun was creating quite a glare on all the windows at the back of the house and I had to zoom in quite a bit, but I did snap 3 photos before it ran back into the woods. The quality isn't good, but here's what we saw.

 

After studying up on the pine marten (and talking to a few locals), we realized this animal wasn't a pine marten; it was a fisher - also a member of the weasel family - but larger than the marten. It was about the size of the fox we saw 10 days later. One interesting fact we learned is that the fisher is one of the few natural predators of the porcupine. If you would like to read more about the fisher, click on the following link:

Fisher (animal)

All is well in the Keweenaw.

Fox

I've been able to use my camera to capture some images of recent visitors to our property. When I say "recent visitors," I'm not talking about Marty & Donna (although they've been here, too). I'm talking about wildlife. (Marty & Donna aren't wild at all.) 

I have 2 photos to share today of a fox that visited us on the morning of April 24th. I was in the kitchen when Steve said he spotted a fox, so I quickly went for the camera in the great room. I think the fox may have noticed my movement inside the house, but I was able to get these before it retreated back into the woods.

That was fun. Look for more photos of recent visitors in the coming days.

All is well in the Keweenaw.

Sunday Reflections

All is well in the Keweenaw.

A Perfect Morning

It was one of those perfect mornings - the kind we dreamed about. 

Me + Him. . .

on the front porch in our pajamas. . .

sipping our coffee. . .

while sitting on these. . .

with the dog at our feet. . .

gazing at some of the last bits of snow in the woods.

All is well in the Keweenaw.

4 in 1

AT&T sent out the repair tech on Thursday. Miracle of miracles. He fixed the loud buzzing noise on our line, but we're still not 100% satisfied with our reception. He basically said that was all we could expect being this far north. Really?

So. . . we got 4 calls yesterday.

Yep, 4 in 1 day. . . on our new line.

All 4 calls were from the same number.

You guessed it.

A

T

&

T.

We let the machine pick up all 4 calls! So there!

They didn't leave a message.

All is well in the Keweenaw.

Sneak Peek Friday - Grandma's Table

Some of you may remember that my Grandmother passed away back in 2012, and I was able to get some of her furniture. It has been in storage ever since we cleaned out her house right after the funeral. My grandmother wasn't the type of grandmother who cooked, baked and invited you over for meals. In all my life, I never had a meal at her dining table. . . until now. I cleaned it up and we're using it. I think that would make her happy.

I chose not to use the matching dining chairs and opted to use our striped upholstered chairs instead. All I had to do to those is add some sliders to the bottom of the feet.

Cleaning the table legs was the worst job. It went like this: (1) soap and water (2) furniture cleaner (3) scratch cover (4) furniture oil. This series of photos shows the progress.

 

It was much easier to do the legs before they were reattached to the table top. Next, the after photos.

I'm still not totally happy with the condition of the table top. I may have to use a buffer on it. And, those little cardboard pieces under the feet are just temporary.

All is well in the Keweenaw.