Wisconsin Winter or Winter Near Winter, Wisconsin

Late last week, we drove up to our place in Wisconsin to enjoy some of the winter fun here. On the way, scenery along the Mississippi river south of Lacrosse was pretty this time of year.

Will, Sandy and Anders came to visit us for the weekend. The fun started with a required Friday night fish fry at one of our local restaurants.

Anders and his mom enjoyed the fireplace Saturday morning. Anders is holding a "snowman kit" that I bought. I suppose one could just use natural things, but the plastic carrot nose, pipe, buttons, and eyes, along with a scarf and cap will be good resources for snowman building for a long time. Besides, Anders thought it was a fun item and that is good enough for me.

I had gotten a new bread machine for Christmas to have at the lake. So, I thought Anders and I should make some raisin bread. He did a great job putting all of the ingredients into the baking pan. Then later, he and I enjoyed watching the machine mix everything up.

He is very careful with the "dumping", and having your mouth open and sometimes your tongue out helps too.

Anders has gotten to be quite the puzzler.

While mom and dad did some cross-country skiing, I took Anders for a long pull on a sled down our lane and back across the lake. After that, Grandma treated him to a nice warm dip in the tub. I'm not crazy about Macaulay Culkin, but I have to admit that this picture reminds me of him in Home Alone. Anders is definitely cuter and will grow to be a much nicer boy.

The next day, I showed Anders how we used to slide on scoop shovels when I was young. We didn't need saucer sleds! We just sat on the shovel, hung onto the handle, and pointed downhill. As long as you didn't spin sidewise or get backwards, it worked great! If that happened, you often enjoyed a bailout or tumble. With a little practice, you could learn to keep the edge from digging in and do a complete spin. Give it a try! I highly recommend it.

You may have seen the earlier pictures that Sandy posted of Anders' outing on the cool little snowshoes that his dad made for him. Here he is trying them out again on our lake.

It got warm enough on Sunday to make a snowman and try out the snowman kit. See! It does work well. Anders liked it!

While dad and mom loaded the car for the trip back home, Anders practiced driving. I don't think he actually drove home, though. Rather, I imagine he was asleep by the time they got to the end of our lane. What a fun and rewarding weekend it was for us for them to be here with us.

At the Feet of the Master

This is what happens at our house when a bowl of popcorn is present.

Maia Moves

Maia, with a little help from her dad, has already developed some moves. (You will also see why Maia's dad is still working to get his grin under control. It may be a losing battle. That's only right.)

Little Baby Sparkle Princess

While Liam awaited the arrival of his new first cousin, he decided to call Maia "Little Baby Sparkle Princess." Uncle Mike may have provide Liam with some help in coming up with that name. Yesterday, Little Baby Sparkle Princess and her parents left the hospital and went home.

The front of her traveling outfit said "Daddy's Angel." There are even two cute little wings embroidered on the back.

Aunt Betsy provided a cap. Maia was all snuggly warm in her car carrier.

Barney was quite fascinated with Maia. Ozzie was rather indifferent, but then Ozzie is a cat, after all. Barney often whimpered whenever he heard Maia crying.

After a nice dinner, Jess and Mike put on a movie, and so Maia watched (?) her first movie with her dad. For the record, her first movie was Prince of Persia. Kathie and I saw the whole movie. We suspect Dad, Mom, and Maia slept through most of it.

Meet Maia June

Maia June Stalbaum was born to Jessica and Michael Stalbaum on January 19, 2011 at 10:03PM. Vital statistics: 7 pounds 4 ounces, 20 inches, long fingers and toes, and a head of very cute, soft, black hair (which the hospital staff immediately adorned with a tiny pink bow). Mother and daughter are doing very well. The father is still working at getting his grin under control.

For starters, here is a three generation picture. Grandmother Kathie is very impressed with her new little granddaughter. Once we can get these three together with Great Grandmother Novy, we can do a four generation picture!

Here are the proud parents with Maia. What a great looking family.

Maia is busy learning about her hands and how good they feel in her mouth. She has taken to nursing very quickly and to the related task of using up diapers.

Everyone thinks she is quite the pretty little girl.

Let It Snow, Let It Snow

Our lake home has a camera that looks out over our deck towards the water. When it sees a sufficient level of motion, it sends us a 5 second video. Nearly always, this is a result of weather conditions: wind making the trees move or falling snow. Occasionally a bird flies by, and once in awhile our trusty neighbor can be seen clearing snow from the deck. In all cases, it is fun to receive a pleasant winter reminder of a place that is giving us so much happiness in our retirement years.

Here is a little taste for all of you faithful readers. We definitely need to get up there next month to do some cross-country skiing, to enjoy the beauty of the winter, to visit our neighbors, and maybe to enjoy a fish fry at one of the local eateries.

Christmas, 2010

I'm a little late getting this posted, but here are some miscellaneous shots from our holidays. First of all, our tree was smaller this year but especially pretty, I thought. It has been sucking up water like crazy and even sprouting new buds! I wouldn't be surprised to see that it has sent out roots!

Josey already knew how to open gifts. For Tighe, this was a new experience.

Here is Kathie's new cocktail shaker for use in Iowa. We already have one up in Wisconsin.

Kathie's mom and I are always joking about sporting events. She likes to tease me with silly questions about the games. I guess I do subject her to watching quite a few. Anyway, I thought two rule books would be fun surprises in her stocking. She seemed to really enjoy getting them and even asked me to autograph them for her.

On Christmas Day, Kathie's whole family was able to come and spend a couple days with us.

A few days later, Will, Rob and Betsy's families arrived for a Christmas gathering. Henry, being into dinosaurs these days, had gotten a paleontologist's kit from his Uncle Van. He brought that along and worked on it in my shop.

Eleanor and the rest of the grandkids were eager to begin opening gifts.

Clara consulted with her dad about the appropriate gift-opening protocols.

Meanwhile, I managed the extrication of gifts from beneath the tree.

Betsy received a book containing a record of her blog postings from 2005 to 2006. Similar gifts were given to Carrie and Sandy.

Anders was especially into gift-opening this year.

And there was lots of chair-lift riding. Dad would have found this hilarious.

Farm Visit

Recently, my cousin Ed told me about something that he had found on his farm that he thought I might like to see. Yesterday, Will, Rob and Eleanor joined me for the visit. On the way and for old-times' sake, we stopped for breakfast at Ditto's. For many years, Dad ate breakfast here almost every morning with his various friends.

While we waited for our corned beef hash, pancakes, eggs, and other goodies, Eleanor did some coloring with her Pop. Ditto's provided quite the extensive crayon collection.

When we arrived at the farm, Ed was out working.

He showed us how his machine shed had been framed with the timbers from one of the two old barns on the farm. Eleanor was fascinated by all of the machinery and posed for us on one of the tractors (a Farmall MTA, for those of you who may be interested). She also liked seeing all the cats and kittens and their Beagle, Daisy. Later, Karilyn showed Eleanor her Beanie Baby and thimble collections too.

This is the remaining barn on the farm. You may recall from prior postings that Will is quite interested in timber framing. So, he and I were interested in seeing how this barn had been built in that style.

But the big attraction was finding these carvings in the barn. This one reads H. F. - 1915. These may be the initials of the owner of the farm four generations back. The farm has been in the family for at least five generations now.

The more interesting carving for us was this one. We were not quite sure how to read the first initial in the second pair of initials. If it was an H, then this could be my father expressing feelings for my mother when he was a young man growing up on the farm. However, it definitely appears to be an E or an R or some combination, maybe an H with an E somehow superimposed. Too bad there wasn't a date to help figure this out (or a father still around to ask). Either way, this was fascinating to see, and maybe some day we will come up with a best explanation. Any suggestions or ideas would be most welcome.

Early Holiday in Nashville

A couple of weeks ago, we drove to Nashville for an early holiday celebration with Jessica, Mike, Travis and Nicole. On Saturday, there was a baby shower for Jessica, but I'll let Kathie or someone else do a posting on that. We have pictures, but I wasn't there, so I can't describe the action. However, prior to the baby shower that Saturday, we all went to a downtown pub named Bailey's, which hosts Iowa fans for all Iowa football games. Iowa played Indiana that day. The girls were able to stay until it was time to head for the baby shower. We guys stayed through the entire nail-biting experience. (Iowa won 18-13).

Mike and his sister, Amanda, were there.

Nicole and Travis were there.

And, of course, Jessica, Kathie, and I were there. It was fun. The food was good, and there were lots of other Iowa fans there too.

Kathie and I had been busy for weeks before the trip making things for the baby, who is expected in January. Among other things, here is a chenille blanket that Kathie made for the baby.

Shortly after Jessica and Mike told us about the pregnancy, I offered to make a crib and/or changing table for the baby. They picked a plan from among several I had, and I bought a bunch of cherry and started working. The "crib" is unusual in that it has two drawers below and a small cabinet for storage. I made the front rail so that it could be removed and replaced with an open side frame when the baby is older. In other words, it converts to a toddler bed at some point. If they wanted, they could remove the entire top part and have a smaller-than-twin-size mattress made for use for another few years.

The changing table is actually a chest with drawers and shelves behind a couple of doors. The changing table part sits atop the chest and can be eventually removed.

Here are the proud, expectant parents with the crib/bed. Some of the shower gifts are adorning the crib.

We took a set of mandatory departure pictures before we headed back in the direction of home. (Actually, we visited my sister on the way home.)

Unfortunately, Mike was at work.

Jess looks great. She is her same self, just with a baby bump. So far, the pregnancy has been pretty easy for her. We are all eager to see the beautiful little girl that will arrive in January.

Henry Makes A Car

A few weeks ago, Betsy and her family were here to spend a few days with us. Henry had previously said that he wanted to build something in my shop when he came--maybe a car. I told him that would be fun and that he should start by drawing a plan for the car he wanted to build. Here is the plan he created. His drawings are the ones on the right. The two on the left are ones I drew to discuss with him how the pieces were to be assembled. Note the several locations in his drawings where he shows a drill is to be used to create the holes for the axles for the wheels. I was impressed with this detailed work.

We started by making some wheels using a hole cutter on my drill press. There is a little movie below that shows Henry at work. Betsy admired her skillful son's work.

Clara just thought it was too noisy.

Here is my grandson making the wheels. I thought it was a little funny that he liked to really crank down on the drill, making some smoke in the process. I should have taught him to pull the hole cutter through the wood a little more slowly, but that can be a lesson for another day, I guess. We failed to get a picture of the finished product. Suffice it to say that Henry made a very nice little car and that he did most of the work himself. I look forward to building other things with him in the future.