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Happy Leap Day!

Steve's in Calumet for a doctor's appt. today. I'm nursing another headache - doing my best to stay vertical - but I wanted to show you my view. After a very blustery morning, we had a brief hue hiccup before returning to monochrome.

Less than an hour apart. Beautiful either way. See ya in March!

All is well in the Keweenaw.

Sunday Reflections

All is well in the Keweenaw.

Gettin' There

Our Keweenaw weather has been pretty nice this week, so you're probably wondering how we're doing now that the spray foam crew has pulled out.

Well, Steve had quite a few errands this week. In fact, yesterday was almost completely devoted to errands. Plus, I had another 2-day migraine episode this week that prevented him from making noise in the house. Still, he has managed to get this far on Guest Room 1.

As you can see, it's almost completely closed in now! 

Can you see what else Steve did in the next photo?

Yep, he put Mr. Buck back in place.

My head and lower back issues prevented me from completing everything on my "putting-my-house-back-together" list, but I'm gettin' there.

I have the great room and everything else on the main floor finished.

I still have a few more things to do upstairs, but I should have those things crossed off the list by the end of the day today. 

All is well in the Keweenaw.

Makin' Tracks

That morning when your dog discovers the fluffy lake effect snow has finally compacted enough to enable her to walk on top of it:

#MakingAfternoonRounds

#MissingALeg

#BackOnAllFour

#WatchingMeWatchingHer

#FinishingTheTrip

#BackDownIntoTheTrenches

All is well in the Keweenaw.

Sunday Reflections

All is well in the Keweenaw.

Love Day

Three weeks ago today was the beginning of our big drip. (No, that was definitely NOT Love Day. I'll get to that in a minute.) We were talking about drip day yesterday and agreed that it seemed like so much longer - more like several months ago. Time just dragged on some of those days. When I walked out of the bedroom into the great room yesterday morning, I actually said, "Aaaahhhhh." If felt so refreshing to enter a room not tented in plastic, and I had nothing to "dodge" on the path to the kitchen. I could actually sit in my chair - with my feet on the ottoman - and gaze out the sliding doors at our trees - while cradling my pink mug with both hands - and sipping my morning coffee. What a great, relaxing feeling!

We did manage to run all our errands yesterday, but I had a headache that was getting worse as the day went on. It was so bad by the time we got home that I had to go straight to bed. My darling Steve unpacked all the groceries for me. Thus, I didn't get the rest of the house put back together, so no photos of that today. I did have a post ready about Valentine's Day (Love Day), however, so I'll share that instead.

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Valentine's Day was a LOVE-ly day made complete with a LOVE-ly afternoon surprise. 

The day began with a LOVE-ly sunrise in the Keweenaw. It's not uncommon to see snow falling from the sky every day during January and February, and we get used to looking at the cool tones of a black & white landscape. So, when you're having your morning coffee and you suddenly notice a warm golden color through the trees, you sit up and take note.

The sun actually rises on the front side of the house, but we notice the first rays as they hit the tops of some of the trees in the woods at the back of the house. 

The golden glow filtered down through the trees. . .

and the sky got bluer and bluer.

Winter perfection.

Time to leave for church. I'll take you along most of the way - down our driveway first.

Then, turning onto our road. . .

and onto Hwy 41 for the rest of the trip to Calumet.

It was such a LOVE-ly drive.

Looking up at the cliffs along the road. . .

and approaching the curve at Cliff Drive.

Closing in on Mohawk. . .

and rounding the curve in Mohawk. 

We saw lots of snowmobilers at the local motels and along the trails on the way to church that day. I'm sure the local businesses were happy about that. 

After church, we got a quick car wash and noticed that their deer lawn statues are getting buried.

Next, we ran to the store for a few items for us and for my mom, and we stopped at her place to visit for about an hour. 

Steve always takes me out to eat on Valentine's Day. Since it fell on a Sunday this year, we thought we would eat in the mid-afternoon - hoping to avoid the large restaurant crowd after Sunday a.m. church services and before the evening holiday crowd. The timing turned out to be perfect for our meal at The Hut - as you can tell by their parking lot.


I brought the camera into the restaurant with us - fully intending to photograph our meal. However, we were once again overtaken by "Hut Hypnosis." We get inside and are so mesmerized by the food that we forget to take pictures! I guess you'll just have to trust me when I say that the portions were generous and the food was excellent. Steve had fish; I had chicken - couldn't eat it all. I finally remembered to break out the camera when we got the take-home box.

That's when we got the LOVE-ly surprise. After we informed the waiter that we did not have room for dessert, he thanked us for our patronage and said that someone had picked up the tab for our meal! What? Someone else paid for our meal? Yes, but he wouldn't tell us who it was. Talk about an unexpected blessing! What do you do when someone does that? Well, you first look around the restaurant to look for someone you know - someone who may have done this for you. No luck. So, you give the waiter an especially fat tip and go on your way rejoicing! It was a LOVE-ly end to a LOVE-ly meal on a LOVE-ly day that's all about LOVE!

All is well in the LOVE-ly Keweenaw.

What a Drip! (Part 10)

WE.  HAVE.  OUR.  HOUSE.  BACK!

Let's start at the beginning of the day yesterday. I got up early to get dinner started in the crockpot. I began thawing a turkey breast in the refrigerator a few days ago with a plan to make it yesterday. Little did I know that the timing would turn out to be perfect for a Thanksgiving type meal. 

Our crew showed up exactly on time and got right to work with Steve. They finished the T&G boards and repaired those few spots on the great room ceiling where the insulation had leaked through - all before lunch. After lunch, they reinstalled the remaining trim and wiped down the ceiling fans for us. Before we knew it, the scaffolding was coming DOWN and the clean up had started. 

Have you ever noticed how foam packing peanuts tend to cling to everything due to static electricity? The same is true for foam insulation. Little shreds tend to cling to everything including furniture, floors and feet. Even though most things were covered in plastic sheeting, we still had foam pieces everywhere. Steve quickly vacuumed the great room with our old vacuum cleaner while the guys packed up their truck. Then, they moved the large furniture pieces back into place for us and were leaving our driveway by 2:30 p.m.

I got out the new vacuum cleaner (with better suction) and went around the edges of the room with the crevice tool. Then, I thoroughly vacuumed all the upholstered furniture and started vacuuming the floor a second time. That's when I remembered something. I had been so excited to start nesting again that I forgot to take any photographs. So, I stopped in my tracks and grabbed the camera. Here's what they finished yesterday.

Not too bad, huh? Plus, clean ceiling fans!

Beginning to get things back together:

I stopped snapping photos and went back to work. You can't imagine how many little foam pieces we vacuumed up. I concentrated on cleaning the main level and Steve was giving the stairs, the upstairs and the basement their first going over. (Like I said, foam was everywhere!) I finished the floors, dusted and got the lamps and a few other items back into place before I had to stop and finish dinner.

When dinner was ready, Steve gave thanks, and we enjoyed our "thanksgiving" meal of turkey breast, mashed potatoes & gravy and a nice salad. 

We have errands to run this afternoon and more work to do to get things back to where they were when the big drip started, but we're so, so thankful to have all this behind us. The chaos and stress has been exhausting for both of us, but the outcome was better than we had dared hope. The Lord is so good!

All is well (and almost back to normal) in the Keweenaw.