Settling in.

Well, the memories of the trip to Florida are fading a bit with each passing day and we are all back into the daily routine of life in the Keweenaw. Nora and Grace are busy each weekday heading up to Calumet for school and work. Bleau goes with some days and stays home on others. I have been busy finishing up the cabinets for the office and organizing ideas for the kitchen cabinets I am going to make for the new home.

The weather does not seem to be able to make up it’s mind. About ten days ago, we had summer-like weather occur, with plenty of sunshine and temps in the 70’s. We even hit 82 degrees on the 12th! Then two days later, it was raining and snowing, with temps in the low 30’s. I got into my truck after a few days of not going anywhere and had to turn off the AC and turn on the heat! Ever since that cool down, we have been stuck in more of a winter pattern than spring, with highs in the low 30’s and wintery precip falling. Most of the locals are handling it pretty good. April is likely the most despised month up here and no one expects nice weather, but rather just enjoys it when we can, as we know it will not last long!

As we work into May, its a different story, we really expect to not see much winter weather at all and usually are starting to get into the yards to clean up the mess left behind from winter and to get ready to start cutting grass by the middle of the month. I’m not going to worry too much about cutting the grass for a while, as we don’t have much at all. The landscape around the house is just a big quagmire of mud. Our water table is high in Jake and the soil has a lot of clay. Plus, they scraped off all of the topsoil to build the new house, so all that is exposed is that layer of clay that sat around a foot below the surface. I’m REALLY hoping we can afford to do sod rather than seed in about a month, as going the seed route is just going to create a number of issues. From having to try and keep the dogs from getting too muddy while the seed is taking root to the watering that will be involved to cause the seed to grow. Maybe I should start a go-fund-me page!

So the ground is bare right now, but that was not the case this morning, as we had enough snow overnight to dust everything. Earlier in the week we had a solid snow pack, with around 3 inches falling Sunday night and then another 3-4″ falling Monday night. Here is a shot taken from the apartment Monday morning

The guys working on the new house are nearly done with the exterior work. Basically the only thing left for them to do is about 65% of the facia trim. Ever since the weather turned nasty, they have been inside painting and this past Tuesday, the flooring was delivered, so they have been working on laying that since Wednesday. They have one of the bedrooms completely done, a couple of the bathrooms done and about a third of the living room/kitchen done. As hard as I try not to think about the new home and keep myself from getting too excited to move in, I have to admit that I am getting pretty excited! The apartment life has been fine, but there are just so many great things the new home will provide, that it’s just too hard not to be getting excited. Unless something unseen and really big happens, we should be moved in come two months from now.

I made a trip to Marquette to pick up the fireplace, the fridge/freezer and a bathroom vanity this past Wednesday and will be going there again to pick up three more vanities, a mirror and a tool to help me make the kitchen cabinets. We have the other appliances picked out and just need to order them and the interior door order was placed on Friday. We also picked out about 80 percent of the lighting fixtures while in Rhinelander before the FL trip and brought them home with us when we returned from the trip. All of the faucets were brought home with us from Rhinelander. Speaking of Rhinelander, I forgot to give a thanks to the wife of a site visitor for the hospitality we received at the Rhinelander airport. It was a treat to meet you and thanks for all you did!

So the warm temps that we had around the 11th to the 14th caused a lot of melting and that led to some issues with flooding. We did not have any issues here in Jake. Lake Linden experienced a flash flood when  a plugged up culvert above the village caused another washout. There were other areas in the western UP that had some issues with flooding. On my way to and from Marquette, I noticed a section of railroad that was underwater. It will be interesting to see the status of that railroad grade on my travels this week.

Speaking of traveling. Nora and Grace returned home from a couple day trip to Rhinelander. It was not to fly off to some warmer place, in fact they spent the majority of the trip in a cold ice rink. There was a figure skating camp being held there and the two of them went down so Grace to partake in the camp and also get tested in two performances. Here is a shot of Grace practicing with one of the instructors and here she is with a friend, the both of them holding the certificates showing that they both passed their performance tests. She came back all excited for her accomplishments and is really climbing the ranks through the different stages of the US Figure Skating program. I sure do love that smile!

So I think that covers it for this one. I finished painting the cabinets and drawer fronts today and just need to assemble the drawers and install and then I can show you all what has been taking up a good portion of my free time the last month or more. I suspect the contractor will finish up the flooring this week, so will be sure to show you that. Plus anything else exciting that happens, which may or may not happen!

Until next time…

Good Night from the Keweenaw..
JD