We're Back

I'm back! Horray! Anyone else still out there in blogland? We had a good trip, but caught some horrible bugs (sinus, cough, blah) that lingered for a couple weeks. Traveling with a sick toddler while sleep deprived through snowy airports with multiple flight delays was enough to scare me off family air travel for a LONG time. But before he got sick, Bean enjoyed meeting (and charming) some relatives he's never met (and their cat, a big hit)! He wasn't himself by the time we got to Boston for cousin fun, but they still managed to have a few good times together.

I shared vacation photos on facebook and it feels like very old news now, so I'll just update a few shots of Bean acting like a big kid (a common theme)...


He loves to help with chores, and is actually getting quite good at shaking out and hanging up diapers and wipes...


Bean asked to wear this baby on his back, just like his dada does for him.


Coloring is quite popular, and he now knows a few shapes as well as all the colors. we haven't been even trying to teach them, it just happens...amazing, eh?




And yet another crazy mama toy splurge; a vintage (but cleaned and safe) Fisher Price farm set from the 70's/80's, like I had growing up. They have one at ECFE and Bean plays with it every week, so much so that the teachers said "He just really seems like a farm boy!" (not knowing that we actually DO have chickens, etc). So, it was pretty cheap on Ebay (about my second purchase ever) and within a few days, we were reliving my childhood and learning about farms at the same time. Bean loves it, and I'm happy that it doesn't beep and light up and all sorts of questionable things the "modern" version does. He's already figured out that just one door goes "Mooo!"

Big Kid

We're getting ready for our first airplane trip in over a year, and we were testing out some new shoes and a backpack for Bean (all purchased from Savers, so just new to us). I had a flash of the "going to Kindergarten" picture... eeeep! But doesn't he look SO BIG? He's not even 2 yet. We're going to bring his birth certificate on the plane so we don't get questioned about our "free infant-in-lap". A bit nervous about all the flying, but we're packing lots of good stuff for eating and entertainment.


This picture also shows the current Bean-Schroeder relationship: He loves her, she doesn't let him near her unless she's safe behind a gate. (Can you see her by his head?)


Also, one belated picture of Bean's first snowman! We have been watching the snowman change shape and melt, with just a bit of concern. "Fix 'no-man? 'No-man uh-oh! 'No-man in window..."

Wish us luck... more soon!

Onward!

We topped off the weekend with a little beach ramble, and a ceremonial swim for me! Brrr...Zing! Washing off the past, and moving forward for new, good changes! I have officially given notice at my "day job" and am planning to focus more on our family, our place and our community. Brave and crazy all together, indeed!

A New Road

So. Our house is for sale on Craig's List. I have very mixed feelings, to say the least. Feeling quite overwhelmed, actually. We're far from ready to really "show" it off to best advantage. But let's hope this leads us down a good, positive new path. Who knows...

Ticked Off

So. We had an interesting day yesterday. Can't remember the last time I was in an emergency room (maybe it was when I was 3 and stuck that raisin up my nose? I've been lucky). Sure didn't think I'd end up there yesterday because of a simple tick bite!

I first found a little bump and perhaps rash on my leg on Sunday; never saw a tick. But it was just on the top of my sock line; a suspicious place. By Monday is was bigger, so I brought myself to Urgent Care to get it looked at; really seemed like a bit of a Lyme rash and if so I wanted to start treatment right away. I've know a couple people who have suffered terribly from Lyme. Dr. said hmmm, maybe, here's a prescription if you want to fill it later if it spreads, or after the not-so-accurate tests come back in a week or so. It spread and began to hurt, so I started the antibiotics on Tuesday on the way to the big Women's Gathering in WI with Bean. The normal Lyme antibiotic treatment is not compatible with nursing, so I ended up with a not-so-strong type, hoping for the best.

Didn't feel better, felt worse and worse. The rash grew and grew, swelled up and stung like crazy. In hindsight, camping in a COLD tent with Bean (he was fine, I was cold) wasn't the greatest way to deal with this, but I really just thought it would be fine. Showed it to a doctor who was present at the gathering, and she said "Ooooh." And started mentioning MRSA, stronger antibiotics, etc. Most people agreed that it looked worse than Lyme, now. By the time my lips started to feel hot and I was limping, I decided to go back to Urgent Care.

At Urgent Care, the triage nurse took one look at it and also said "Oooooh!". And started mentioning the Emergency Room and intravenous antibiotics. So, me and my little tick bite were essentially admitted to the hospital, where we waited. Doctors finally came, said WOW and began conferring with each other. I had to correct one about an antiobiotic that's not safe for nursing, but to their credit they didn't give me trouble about nursing a young toddler, who is nowhere near ready to wean. We settled on a shot of a stronger antibiotic (which is considered safe with nursing, I told them where to look it up) and MORE amoxicillin. Just sitting with it up on bed for a couple hours made it feel better, and they pronounced it just a heck of a case of Lyme Disease, not MRSA or anything else ickier.

Not that Lyme isn't icky. I still feel sore, tired, a bit feverish. Took a 3 hour nap today with Bean. I guess the lesson is to LOOK FOR TICKS a bit more carefully after being in the woods. This one was likely very tiny, probably picked up on the South Shore near Spiral Earth (where we hope to live someday). I guess the one thing I'm grateful for is that Bean didn't get the tick. I had the same experience a couple weeks ago, when I got stung by a yellowjacket (OUCH!) in the grass where I was going to set Bean down. The thing that scared me the most was that he might have gotten the sting instead. I knew that Lyme was serious out East, but I didn't realize that Wisconsin is also an infection hot spot. Ug.



I've had requests for pictures of the exciting rash, so here it is, in all it's erythema migrans glory. The circle was from yesterday's doctor, so we could see if it was growing or shrinking. I don't think it's grown, but it hasn't shrunk yet, either. We're doing OK, just a few expected, ah, intestinal effects upon Bean, who is essentially taking the antibiotics along with me. We are pushing the probiotics. Rooting for the good microbes, not the bad! Onward...

Stylin'!

Dashing out the door, but wanted to post these! We're zooming around in style these days! Bean seems to enjoy himself in his little "pod", but it's extra fun when we bike to a berry patch! Yum!



And this picture gives you a realistic glimpse of our usual, rural life. Ratty garage, random chickens (behind me), friendly cat, and happy boy ready for outdoor adventures!

Garden Greens

It's about 44 degrees, windy and raining right now, so it's a good day to remember that it IS almost summer. We have a hearty greens bed that has weathered some good cold frosts in the month since I planted it. The peas were doing great until the darn ground squirrel came and mowed them down.That's despite 2 layers of fencing. Grrrrr.

The "weeds" this year are largely edible mustards that planted themselves last year when things went to seed; I wasn't really paying that much attention. But the edible weeds have been handy, because the ground squirrel avoids anything in the brassica family, and I'm trying to use them as cover for the surviving pea plants. We'll see.



But for now, we are almost to the buy-no-more-imported-greens stage, which is great. We'll get more things planted soon. Even Bean (shown here "helping" a few days ago when the weather didn't require winter jackets) is enjoying eating cooked greens. Mmm!

A Day in the North

Things not normally done on the same day:

Scraping frost off the windshield and wearing sandals.

Dressing your baby in a warm sweatshirt AND finding his sun hat for later.

Scraping frost off the windshield in the morning and eating greens grown in your front yard for lunch.

But wait... that's not terribly unusual around here. Gotta love the North! (It IS warming up now, but don't forget your ice scraper, even if it's June!)

Happy Earth Week

This is a bit late getting out, but our computer ended up with a virus... we think it's cleaned off now, whew.


But I hope your week was happy and full of opportunities to commune with the earth and get your hands (and face) dirty!

Still Snowy

Oops, I spoke too soon on the spring thing. Friday was indeed 72 degrees, but I spent most of it indoors. Then, Saturday and Sunday had predictions of SNOW, which did indeed come true. Ack!



We gathered on a beach near our friend’s Spiral Earth intentional community for a lovely little ceremony despite the weather. We’re tough northerners, but this was ridiculous! I suppose it lent a more intimate air to the whole event, a nice day to remember. Here’s to a good communal future!

Diaper Day

A sunny interlude in the rainy week; a lovely warm Tuesday today, my new "day off". How best to use this day? I've discussed this solar-powered home phenomenon before; some people might think of the beach- I think of laundry!

To be honest, I did think of the beach, but in the end just couldn't swing it. I did make to town for a Mothersong gathering, which was nice. I did some other errands, but got back in time to dry a load of sheets and take down the diapers I put out earlier in the day. There might not be many more days this warm left this year! And our daycare provider has recently stopped offering the commercial account with the diaper service, so we bring back dirty diapers from Bean's days there; ugh. It's getting harder to keep up.

So, today, we visited the Diaper Beach! A rare moment of lawn time in the sun. The chickens usually have the run of the yard and that makes for it's own complications, but they seemed to be off somewhere else. So, this is how we enjoyed the sun!


Bean has a great new trick; turning over! Yes, indeed; from the tummy to the back, with only a little grunting and great concentration. That darn arm gets in the way, but he's on his way to becoming mobile! Yikes! But it's great fun... growing up!

Hard to Fathom

Things I do not understand:

Why a daycare provider would spend 10 minutes describing her facility in glowing terms to a random caller on the phone (me) and then finally get around to the point that she doesn’t have any openings for months and months, if ever.

Why curtains only come in absurdly long floor lengths, in boring plain colors, while shower curtains come in lovely new cloth and patterns; ????

Why a gigantic “baby superstore” would not carry even ONE type of “modern” cloth diaper. I’m not terribly surprised, but it’s weird.

Why a “motivated seller” would not bother to remove long-dead chickens from the coop and dirty disposable diapers (shredded by some animal) from the yard before the prospective buyers came for a look-see. (We went with friends to look at a different rural property. They are still in love with it, despite that…)

How taking 4 days off work does NOT allow one to entirely catch up on all outstanding projects and other to-do list things. Hmmm...

(Yes, still here, still fine, still pregnant, just busybusybusy as usual! Above list gives an idea of where my brain is at lately. We’ve finished some more good house projects, and there are still some chicken pictures/stories waiting for posting soon if I can find the oomph.)

Snowshoe Cedars

We're big fans of showshoeing (haha).

We made it to the sacred Cedar grove and year-round running spring just across our property line. It was stunning, as usual. An ancient cathedral, within shoeshoeing distance!




Baby-to-be enjoyed the ride, and I did better than my current level of fitness might indicate. Thankful for the sun and a day off to enjoy!

Status: Cold

It’s STILL cold this morning (and yes, freezing other blog topics out of my brain). 11 F Below. Subaru status: rowrrowrrow…rowr…rowr…(ie slowly turning over, not starting). Urgh! Still no thermometer shot possible! We drove the rusty, trusty old Toyota. Sigh...

In other temperature news (thrilled yet?) we came home yesterday to a WARM house...like 70 degrees warm. I seriously thought something was wrong. It felt great, but how bizarre..? Apparently the boiler repair person was there, and after he fixed the zone problem, figured that we only had the house in the 50’s because of the problem. HA.

We keep the house in the 50’s during the day because we are FRUGAL. And possibly insane. Gluttons for punishment? Anyway, it was weird to actually feel warm in the house. WF made sure he remedied that wild use of resources right away, back to the 50’s this morning. Sigh… We really need to figure out some scientific way to really know how much more propane it costs to keep the house that warm (we run off a big tank in the yard, so no monthly bills or easy calculations arrive). I can only imagine a small person will need the house a bit warmer next winter...

Twenty below has us beat

Ok, shouldn't have been so confident yesterday about that car-starting thing. Twenty below zero this morning, two cars sitting outside (why did we do that?!). One is the "new" Subaru, other other an elderly Toyota ('91) that hasn't been driven in a couple days. Guess which one started this morning? Grrr.

Not the fancy Subaru with the entertaining thermometer; I was going to try to document it for you today. Nope, today we got to work just a bit late in the creaky old car, grateful for tough old technology.

It's supposed to warm up SOON (today?) and hopefully this new Subaru will take us through the rest of the winter. Or we need to get smarter and actually clear out the old garage to use it in cold weather. Sheesh.

Sentiments at 17 Below

BRRRRR! Cold. Very cold. Wow, it’s cold. Hmm, my fingers are numb. BRRRRR! Cold! Will the car start? Yes! Thank goodness for small miracles. Brrrrrrr...

Yes, we’re back, sorry for the delay. Been suffering in silence with these cold temperatures. Our “new” car has an outside thermometer, and it’s fascinating to watch it during these cold days. Today started out at 17 below F, then went up to 11 below F by the time we got close to the Lake, which is not frozen over yet. We went out to a friend’s house (at night!) over the weekend, and watched that car thermometer dip to -20 F in the low spots. It’s not been TOO bad, but we did wake up to a 55 F (instead of our usual balmy 58-62 F) house this morning; one of the heating zones is not working. Blah. More repair guys needed.

But these cold temps are partly a product of CLEAR days and nights, which means lots of passive and active solar power for the house. This weekend I managed to wash AND dry some new heavy flannel sheets in one day; quite impressive. They were literally steaming in the sunlight coming through the window onto the drying racks, adding some nice humidity to the dry house.



Sun is also good for chicken egg production! Tough old birds, we’ve gotten up to as many as 3 eggs a day in these cold temps. Recall these are “natural” chickens, with no supplemental heat or light, just a big south facing window. They haven’t taken WF up on his offer of outside time on weekends, but seem to enjoy the sun indoors. We’re all tough northerners, and I do appreciate the sun even if it comes with sub zero complications. At least we have enough snow cover to keep the septic system from freezing, etc. Whoo, the things we get to think about this time of year!

More on the short NE trip in a bit…

Happy Holidays

We managed a small, "historic" artificial tree (I purchased it years ago before realizing real trees are the best environmental choice) in the midst of our chaos this year. The stove is still not installed after the flooring projects, so we are thankful for the woodstove. More projects today, but it was a lovely holiday with some family time and safe travels amidst the snow.


It was a cozy evening; Schroeder enjoyed my lap. The belly makes a good cat pillow, for now!

Blessings to all and wishes for a wonderful new year!

Car Curmudgeons

First, an update: Young Rooster (oops, there I go again with the naming thing) has been found and is OK. Apparently he and his sister headed for the weeds during the hawk incident and were too scared to show themselves for a while. WF left the chicken tractor door open and they found their way “home” sometime in the evening while we were gone. Smart chickens!

Second update: We are the proud owners of a “new” car! The ’91 Toyota is still running, but the rust issue is getting serious. A few, ah, structural problems have developed. But WF and I are both car curmudgeons, and didn’t to get anything too extravagant. I would have bought another small, efficient, sometimes-4WD wagon in a minute, but companies just don’t make them anymore. The car salesmen would just laugh at me; sales levels were too low on those models, apparently, so car companies stopped making them. Are they telling me I’m not a target demographic for the car companies? Harrumph.

So, after long discussions, dedicated online shopping by WF and a gas mileage compromise (WF still considers this as rather extravagant, but it apparently gets nearly 30 on the hwy), we have settled on this ’99 Subaru Forester. It has only 44K miles, and really was owned by a little old lady. The mechanic who inspected it kept telling me what a great car it is (I think he wanted it for himself). Ta da!


(Salty already; tsk!)

It possesses such extravagant features as:

*An overhead dome light that works
*One cup holder
*A back tailgate that locks and opens on request
*Airbags
*Intact wheelwells and still-attached mudflaps

Wow. We’ve been living without all that for years now; The Toyota is “pre-cupholder” and has crank windows. (It’s amazing what you just get used to. An overhead light that turns on when you open the door? Bah, that’s unnecessary!)

This car does have some crazy other luxuries like automatic windows and locks, keyless entry, and even an altimeter, thermometer and barometer (?!?!).

Our curmudgeon status is somewhat intact, however: it came with a lovely radio and tape deck (no CD player). And we’re not going to get it changed. Still stuck in the ‘90s, but I don’t care! (I’ll admit that it accepts Ipod broadcasts just as well as the ’91, our little nod to modernity.)

One more thing checked off the before-baby list, and I’m happy!

Project Progress

Hope everyone had a good holiday... we enjoyed the time off work, traveled to see relatives a bit, and actually got a bit done at the house! It feels great to finally start checking things off the list, small though they are (and long is the list).

Behold, the first use of the splendid laundry line:


I've actually lived for 3 years in this house with no dryer and no laundry line; sheer madness, I tell you. I've been using stand-up wooden racks and the deck railing. I'm excited to have a function line now, even if the only poles we could find at the "dump" were these smaller modern models, not the big old sturdy welded variety. But I'm definitely to the point of saying "good enough" about a few long-delayed projects, and I think these are wonderful. Of course, it was about 30 degrees yesterday, and stuff didn't dry until I brought it into the house in front of the woodstove. Ah, well, the main reason I needed them before ground freeze/next spring is diaper duty in the spring. Eeeep!

We are also close to selecting our final flooring material, tile for the living room. The Marmoleum is actually arriving sooner than expected; a quick process of clearing out rooms will soon commence. But very good motivation.


Lutsen thinks this color choice goes best with her fur; what do you think?


We even got to see some sun yesterday and had a visitor on the deck (off limits to chickens, but they sneak up the steps). This is the young rooster, who went missing today after a visit by a hawk. We are not sure of his fate yet; keep your fingers crossed!

Up next; some good car and knitting news...

Update numbers

So, just to catch up on a few things, I present a list:

1. We shared the first young rooster (as dinner) with friends the other night, and it was quite amazing. Like a mini-turkey, WF said. Up till now, we've only eaten old roosters or old laying hens, which are OK in a pressure cooker. But this younger bird was really good. Makes me understand why people raise meat birds. I'm still not sure if I want to butcher more chickens, but I did certainly enjoy eating this one!

2. I am finally starting to pull out some knitting needles again, with ideas of baby knitting (!). Anyone got any favorite quick and easy patterns? I'm somewhat confounded on how to make my stashed odds and ends of yarn match up with gauges and certain yarns called for in patterns. I like to say that I showed great promise as a new knitter, but have not following it through with action. Now is the window for some good practice, if I can keep it up.

3. I do believe I am feeling the baby kick these days. Just little taps, almost feeling like an eyelid twitch kind of "bump". I always thought feeling the first movement would be a big, momentous event, but I realize now that it sneaks up on you before you really realize what it is... "Was that really it, or just bubbles?" But I think i can confidently say there's movement now! Wow! Because it's snuck up on me a bit, it doesn't feel as weird as I expected. I know in a few months I will be feeling quite enough of the kicking, thank you, but it IS comforting and exciting now. I feel really quite good, no more losing my meals and even a bit more energy this trimester. Now to put that energy to good use...

4. House projects are moving slowly, but we finally put a deposit down on some Marmoleum (real, true linoleum made of linseed oil and non-toxic stuff) for the kitch and bedrooms. We debated this purchase for YEARS, but it's really time to get the icky OSB floor covered. Marmoleum isn't cheap, but it is the best choice for us. We're looking at stone tile for the living room and dining room. We need non-toxic, durable, non-allergy/cat-absorbing kind of stuff. I will feel SO MUCH BETTER about this place once we have a "real" floor that I can properly clean. But I'm overwhelmed by the idea of moving EVERYTHING in our main level for this project; expect some whining here, perhaps!

OK, that's it for now. My paper journal languishes a bit; brain dump had to happen somewhere, I guess. More creativity next time, perhaps!