November 29, 2010

I never have a problem sleeping – ever. As a matter of fact, before going to bed last night (at 1:00 am) I slept for several hours on the recliner. But the pain in my toe had me tossing and turning the entire time I laid in bed. (Carlo's story will be quite different...I fell hard asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow and snored for a long time...keeping him awake.) I finally got up at 6:00 to elevate it and of course have some coffee! Ouch! I wonder if caffeine will help ease this pain!

The frost was on the pumpkins and they were far from eaten. Either the floods washed out ALL the critters or they’re just too lazy to attack the gourds!!!

We cleaned, loaded up the truck and shut the cabin down. Next trip SHOULD be the installation of the holding tank…wonder what excuses will alter that plan!

November 28, 2010

We slept until 8:00 am which was incredible! Carlo slept with a new quilt last night and wasn’t happy about it – it was a home-made quilt that he described as too heavy…oh, Goldilocks! Another crackling fire took the chill off the living room as I snuggled up with my comfy throw and hot coffee looking out at the frost covered trees – I was hoping for some snow to cover all the dingy color of…brown!

The lights were on at the mountain all night – obviously the crew was busy making snow. We spent a bit over 4 hours working outside – the temps hit about 45° although it felt a little cooler. Layering several garments made it more tolerable! We worked on the new wood crib that we’ll need to finish in the Spring. I wasn’t much help because I’m not tall enough, not strong enough and because my ideas suck!

We tried to salvage some none frozen tree limbs but had trouble with the chain saw – they were more frozen than they looked! We organized some and hope they’ll still be there come Spring. I can't believe Carlo had me put the logs in the back of the Tahoe to transport them to the wood crib! I would have $hit with this mess! But I'm sure you knew that!!!

Carlo twisted his ankle pretty bad in yet another divot along the path we were working along.

*the log is now laying in the divot so no one has the same problem*

We loaded up the new wood crib and covered it and as I was attempting to move **one last log**…I dropped it on my big toe and was in excruciating pain. Elevation, three Aleve and an hour of feeling sorry for myself made my toe feel a little better – but do not touch it! The pain returns with as much as a light and gentle breeze.

**Log vs. Toe = Log Wins**

*My nails broke and the entire front of my foot is now black and blue :(

And the day WAS going SO well!

Around 4:00 I was able to get my boot on – yep, still in pain, but we went to visit with Betty for an hour. We went to the Dollar Store and then to LaTolteca for our usual tasty dinner. Dessert was yummy too – compliments of DQ, but it didn’t make my toe feel any better! We spent the remainder of the evening resting and nursing our injuries and aside from the pain, we are happy with the little bit we were able to accomplish.

November 27, 2010

I worked a 12-hour shift and was exhausted by the time I got home. Luckily the continual movement kept my mind off of sleep and surprisingly we were on the road by 6:30! (Carlo was on vacation). We drove through to DeForest where we stopped for gas – just in case we hit traffic. The trip went quickly for me since I slept during the first half of it! We arrived by 10:00 am and although the temps were frigid, by noon we were quite toasty. Just in time to leave for Wal-Mart. I attacked the shopping list there while Carlo went to Tractor Supply and shopped off his unwritten list. By 2:15 we were back, had a quick lunch, the groceries were put away, the birds were fed – and flying into the patio door, the fire was crackling and I was enjoying doing absolutely NOTHING!

Bud stopped by for dinner and my day was done. (FYI Bud’s = Take out pizza)

November 14, 2010

Since Wendy made me walk a dozen miles yesterday, I slept like a log and didn’t get up until 7:30. Looks like the 12” of snow that hit Minnesota changed its mind and went northeast and hit Canada. I am disappointed to have missed the dusting since every first snow of the season I have been at O’Wich for – but I wasn’t looking forward to driving home in it! Wendy and I enjoyed a very relaxing weekend. Outside of walking 23 miles, we had a great time. It was wonderful to catch up with each other and I look forward to visiting again!

November 13, 2010

We woke-up relatively early and after a quick snack, we headed to the Dells (at 7:30) to shop at Menards. By 10:00 we had shopped at not only Menards, but Dollar Tree, Wal-Mart and another trip back to Menards. By the time we made our way through the rain, the trunk was loaded with the potential of my having an elegantly decorated Christmas tree. “Deck the halls!” We drove to Cracker Barrel for a late breakfast and a short rest before hitting the Tanger Outlet Mall. We walked every inch of this place and ended up with some great deals.

We bought ourselves purses which were the hit of the day!

When we got back in the car we were done…or so we thought! We stopped at Starbucks and on the way back visited a resale shop where our luck with great deals continued. After checking out, we hit up one last resale shop before heading back to O’Wich for our second short rest of the day.

The car was screaming "enough!" as was I!!!

We went to dinner at the Cove and I was once again delighted with my meal. We finished our evening up with a jaunt through Wal-Mart. I’m sure we didn’t walk more than 3 miles but it felt like it was at least 10 miles. Our day consisted of almost 15 hours of shopping which is more than I have “casually” shopped in a very long time! I think Wendy was trying to kill me!

At 9:30 we put in a movie and I tried to rest my weary legs! I didn’t make the movie, but I stayed in the living room until it ended. I wonder if I snored while Wendy watched the flick…if I did snore, hopefully she had seen the movie before!

November 12, 2010

After work and a nap, I left at 9:00 to pick up Wendy (my niece) for our weekend away. The trip went well and as we exited the highway, I needed a few minutes outside of the car to overcome a horrible, unexpected feeling – most likely due to not having food for over 12-hours and drinking coffee. Once better and back in the car, we went to Tamarack for their yummy burgers – hold the onions! We headed to the cabin after a quick stop for Cremora, ice, milk and bread. After settling in, killing the flies that awakened from their dormant state once the heat kick in and chatting the afternoon away, I needed to bail on our visit and get to bed. By 6:00 pm, my night had come to an end and I left Wendy with her reading, the remotes and peace and quiet. Good night!

October 30, 2010

At 5:00 am, I found another incredible sight of a sky filled with stars and a brilliant moon. Also shining was the light at Cascade Mountain. They must be getting ready to 'make the snow'!

I got up early - not because of the birds chirping or the sun shining - but because my phone was ringing! It was still dark at 7:00 while I chatted with Carlo and started in on the coffee. Lots of coffee...not seventeen cups - but a few cups. I would have had more, but I ran out of cream! Good thing I am leaving after I clean; the easement is filling with water. What's going on??? It's not the 24th of any month.

There were 'goobles' of turkeys all through the backyard. They were flying (more like hovering) and were too much in abundance to even count. This was the most I have ever seen at one time. (Goobles equals more than 25). Not much else is happening at O'Wich except it is a blah sort of day and the only sounds echoing through the morning air is the sound of gunshots, again. These sound pretty close, like the ones from yesterday. I thought it was Deer Bow season. Those are the loudest arrows I've ever heard! Duck, duck - Deer!

October 29, 2010

It was still dark and gloomy when I got up at 7:00. The night sky had been home to a brightly lit moon and a sparkling sea of stars. May it have been a 'Harvest Moon'? Once I got my coffee, I noticed the gloom was merely a lack of color - everything is sort of a sepia hue with a few (very few) scattered gold colored leaves.

The only sounds adding to the ticking of the kitchen clock were that of the shotguns, which in my opinion, didn't sound very distant. Is it STILL duck season? If so, and the duck is hit - there wouldn't be much of anything left to it!

Dave showed up at 8:15 with the new pump and hot water tank. Hopefully I'll have water in a few hours...but at least I have heat!

I got things ready for the trip to the shed, but there was front everywhere. I waited for the sun to dry things up and by 10:30, some of my chores were done, I picked up some branches and twigs, took a couple of pictures and the pump was in. I heard water running!

After Dave was gone, around 11:30, I cleaned under the cabin, put stuff away, changed a bulb, visited with Pete and cleared the firewood from the steps of the outhouse.

I watched my soaps, loaded the tub with the firewood and visited Paul and Betty. By 4:15 I was on my way to Culver's when I ran into Carla and her friend Liza who were walking up to the highway. After a quick visit, I was on my way to pick up my cod dinner that I brought back to the cabin and enjoyed!

I did a little more work stuff and watched TV to round out my evening. After spending the day in the fresh cool air, I was tired and my muscles were sore - I was happy to get to bed.

October 28, 2010

Good traffic with only two construction areas and the forethought of getting gas yesterday helped me make the trip in less than three hours...including a stop for Cremora. It obviously rained up the O'Wich way - the tell tale sign being the over sized pools of water on the road. My car was "smoking" when I finally made it over and through the downed branches and into the driveway!

Even with the huge accumulation of leaves - everywhere - the driveway still looks good from over a week ago when Carlo cleaned it off. Other than all the branches AND leaves, everything looks in tact...ohhhhh, hold it - someone (I'm sure the neighborhood thief) took the electric radiator and box fan that were under the back deck and awaiting transport to a garbage can at home. Carlo DID tell him that he could have the welder and he also mentioned the missing items WERE trash. Maybe he thought he was being sneaky by taking them, but he actually did us a favor. I'm sure Carlo wasn't even to the highway when he helped himself. This guy is really something!

Our tank of propane was filled - the driver "kindly" left the bill in the door..."awwww, thanks, you really shouldn't have!" The temps were 56° in / 52° under / 40° out and I was able to crank up the furnace. The air is cool, there are dark clouds, the river looks pretty high, the breeze is waving through the trees, the pretty tree appears leaf-less but still leaning and between the birds singing and my melodic wind chimes the sounds around me are relaxing and beautiful to my ears. The peacefulness around me is always worth the drive and by 9:15 I was enjoying every musical note!

I'd like to say I had a productive afternoon, but I'd be lying. I napped, watched TV, napped and just like the statement on a bottle of shampoo - I repeated. I got a burst of energy around 6:00 when I reset the porch light timer and washed the patio door windows. There was lots of fly gut residue on the glass after the war was over - I can only hope that the casualties that were lying on the floor (waiting for the vacuum) were the last of them. I was like the Ninja Fly Warrior; in between naps, of course. I hope to get more done tomorrow since I have things to do outside and now it's too dark.

The evening was quiet and I got some work stuff done and looked forward to a good night of slumber!

October 16, 17, 18, 2010

I do believe my Roving Reporter was at O'Wich with Goldilocks this weekend. Let me explain...The Roving Reporter was cold (well of course he was cold...we had no heat), so he started a fire. Then the fire was too hot. Then he was tired but the bedroom was too cold. Then he laid on the couch but it was 6" too narrow and 6" too short. And the expectation of visitors to arrive kept the Roving Reporter from roving - get the picture???

He decided to do a little archeology work by unearthing (removing the leaves from) the driveway. What a nice difference a little sprucing up can make!

Then he decided to begin the building of Rome (or a wood crib - use your imagination) - he only has two arms/hands...and since there was a lack of civilization and no workers around, the city wasn't finished. I think this chore will need to be an import job...all aboard!

Carlo worked on replacing some more parts on the tractor, but it still didn't start the way it was suppose to. The flood water really did a lot of damage to the engine and the wiring...what was in that water?!

The neighborhood thief stopped by and admitted he had our lawn decorations but wanted to return them to us rather than leaving them when we're not there - really??? And he's worried someone might take them and didn't want us to think it was him - seriously??? Who else would do this except for him??? What fantasy world does these cretin come from???

On Monday the gas company showed up and set the tank in place and fixed the lines. The Roving Reporter ought to be nice and toasty now - oh wait, he's leaving for home in the late afternoon - disregard!

The guy doing the insulation showed up with a helper; didn't have enough materials but made a quick trip to Do-it-Best and added a few hours and everything was done...or so I'm told. Not sure why it's in blue AND pink and obviously it was not done to my expectations...oui! At least the blue is on the other wall! Or so I'm told!!!

Some minor set backs: the wood was never picked up - I'm sure someone will help themselves to it while we're not there...the wood crib didn't get finished - staffing shortage...and saving wood for ourselves didn't happen - it's wet, it's heavy and moving it is also a two-man job.

The remote interview for this entry was difficult, hopefully it wasn't too boring. There were quite a few photos for these three days, which were a pleasant surprise. But still, some people just aren't "wordy" or "blog-wise" enough during a conversation - but a big thanks for what was contributed by our Roving Reporter...Thanks!!!

October 14, 2010

Got up to the pitch black morning at 6:00. I had coffee and talked to Carlo and for a half an hour. By 7:15, Chad the pressure washer guy was at the door.

He said no problems other than the crawl space not having a floor drain. Hope he figures this one out! By 10:15 Chad was gone and the cleaning - by his standards - was done...I am, however, anal!

the door looks good!

By 2:00 there were no returned calls or carpenter arrival. WTF? I spent most of the day at the laptop; doing work stuff and blogging. At 3:15 I found out the carpenter was not coming and no one was coming back to finish cleaning up the crawl space until Monday...so I cleaned up some things Chad and his power washer must have missed. I wiped down the inside of the shed walls and dried the floor. I was kept company by an unwanted visitor that was the size of my big toe - but that mouse could have been the size of an elephant for how "eeked" out I was. I got everything back in the shed and hosed off my boots for the umpteenth time. Steve stopped by and visited for a couple of hours. I packed up my stuff so I can hit the road when the sun rises in the morning. Friday will be a short day at home with lots to do since I am leaving for Springfield on Saturday. Carlo will be O'Wiching his weekend away - hopefully everyone will show up like they're suppose to!

October 13, 2010

I left work at 6:00, got coffee and didn’t stop again until I reached the oasis. I got gas and kept going straight to Schultz’s for the tractor part, which wasn’t in – but Steve will be dropping it off on his way home from work. Since Todd called and said they had to come after lunch...I stopped at the Hair Lair for a quick cut from Stephanie. I picked up some stuff from Wal-Mart and got to the cabin around 11:30. Serv Pro showed up about an hour later – Claudia worked on cleaning the contents of the shed and Jake pulled out all the insulation.

I am so glad I didn’t have to do all of that. They were wrapping things up at 3:00 and then I took a quick trip down by Betty and Paul. It was a gorgeous day.

Paul was sleeping from his procedure recovery and I was back within an hour. I started a fire, napped and got up to go to bed and by 7:30 or so, the dream fairies were sprinkling their dream dust!

October 10, 2010

Sunday started with not only a conversation about ‘distilled water’ but coffee with ‘distilled water’, a fire for the chill and the brightly colored leaves waving to the rise of the morning sun. The trees are mostly golden in color, but very fall-like, none the less.

We quickly got back to our unfinished lengthy chore list of bagging garbage, pressure washing and another burning. When we opened a bag from last week, Carlo said the stink was “like gutting a deer.”

this pile once was...

on this pile - over 100 feet away!

There is no way we are even going to get to cleaning up the brush and logs. We are sore, exhausted, totally stressed and disgusted of all our losses; not to mention the miles of red tape we’ve been through since the flooding started. While Carlo sealed the swing, I took more pictures – What’s the point of this blog without pictures??? I don’t even want to think about losing the pretty tree. By 3:30 all our flood soaked losses were logged on paper and bagged. Now the claim process for personal losses can begin. These few days have caused me to sustain many mosquito bites, many sore muscles, many broken nails not to mention cuts and bruises…but it could have been worse! We could have been like this little critter who was obviously reaching for a safer space!

***

By the standards of a 5'7" woman - me - here are the measurements of flood water headaches:

My calf - 17.66 feet - GET YOUR BOOTS LEVEL

My knee - 18.66 feet - EVACUATE LEVEL

My hip - 19.66 feet - YOU'LL NEED A BOAT LEVEL

My boobs - 20.66 feet - OCTOBER IS BREAST CANCER AWARENESS MONTH LEVEL

My cheek - 21.66 feet - PANIC LEVEL

Top of my head - 22.00 feet - WE ARE SCREWED LEVEL / GOOD-BYE O'WICH LEVEL

***

We walked the road looking for some of our stuff. We found fire wood – everywhere! We found our water can, milk crate, five buckets that were too deep in the woods to retrieve and we found our flower box! Obviously those same techniques in building the Ark were implemented in building this flower box. This flower box has now survived the 2008 Lake Delton flood and the September 24, 2010 flood. And the funny thing about finding it (both times) is that the dirt and flowers were still inside!

We had a short visit with Betty and Paul now that they’re back at home since the flood. They endured a lot of personal loss and are handling it remarkably well. As sad as it is about what they’ve lost, I am still so excited to have found our flower box – small in their spectrum, but large in mine! We went to LaTolteca and DQ – no mistake this time…just got a twist! We were back by 9:00 and by 10:00, Brothers and Sister was over and so was our day!

October 11, 2010

What a busy bunch of days we had. Today is tetanus shot day and time to head home for work; tow for me and back on Wednesday and five for Carlo and back on Saturday. It worked out great that we were both able to get up here…me to take care of all the P.R. work and legality issues – Carlo to fix the tractor and both of us to start tackling the clean up. If we could clone ourselves or had a couple of extras, we most likely would have gotten everything done. Now it will have to wait until we can get here together sometime at the end of November and just hope there’s no snow! All of what needs to be done is two-person lifting and moving chores. We are happy to have the cleaning crew coming on Wednesday and the insulation crew on Thursday. Big jobs off our list that we needed done and weren’t looking forward to doing (again!)

October 9, 2010

Saturday was a C-R-A-Z-Y day that started with breakfast, a trip to Wal-Mart and then back to the cabin for lots and lots of cleaning. We cleaned out the flower beds, power washed the swing, the sidewalk, the patio furniture, the outside steps, the concrete slab and we removed all the damaged items from the shed.

before

after

our important cleaning tools

We were getting ready to take a trip into town to pick up some more parts and supplies, when we locked ourselves out of the cabin. We knew there was nothing we could do at the moment, so we ran our errands and decided to deal with the locked up cabin when we returned. Luckily, Carlo had an extra ignition key in the unlocked truck.

***

The conversation went something like this:

Her: “Are you ready to go?”

Him: “Yes, do you have your wallet?

Her: “Yes.” (door shutting)

Him: “Keys?”

Her: “Funny.”

Him: “I’m not kidding.”

Her: “Not funny.”

Him: “No, I really don’t have them.”

Her: (agitated) “Stop effin’ kidding around."

Him: “I’m not, I’m serious."

Her: (laughing)

Him: (yelling) “Just get in the truck; we’ll deal with it later!”

***
We stopped at the florist where I picked up a piece of art I had seen earlier in the morning when we went to breakfast. We stopped and bought more parts for the tractor – that took two stops. We even stopped for DQ. I wanted the Peanut Butter Parfait and got the Peanut Buster Parfait. Not happy about the “T” being an “S”. Very disappointing! When we got back to the cabin we found that the place was pretty secure and difficult to break in to! It took quite a bit of time for Carlo to get us in and we were surprised that of all things to be correctly installed in this cabin – it would be the doors! Of course, I cannot tell you how Carlo managed to gain entry – because if I did, I’d have to kill you!

We finished sprucing up, setting out pumpkins, gourds and bird seed.

hoping to lure some critters back

through all the craziness...it was a beautiful day!

Carlo got back to the tractor and got it running, although the key doesn’t work due to the damage caused by the flood and the water rotting all the wires. He ordered the part and of course replaced many of the other parts. So, it runs, although we don’t know if it actually works!

We met another neighbor couple, Pete and Monica, who stopped by to say ‘hi’ as they drove by. After visiting with them for a bit, we showered and left dinner. We ate a great meal at The Cove. We were hungry since we worked off our breakfast! Since my cute little iphone isn’t a GPS, we had a lot of trouble locating the restaurant but found it after calling since we turned back and forth so many times. By 8:15, we were beyond exhausted. Some Tylenol and our pillows and our 15 hour busy, productive, stress filled day had come to an end!