October 18 through October 21, 2014

Saturday:

We got on the road by 9:30 am and traffic was good, the sky was cloudy and it was misting. A quick stop in DeKalb for soda and we were back on our way.,,although we should have also gotten gas...good thing there were no traffic delays! We stopped for lunch at Iron Skillet and GAS! Carlo pointed out it took 24 gallons to fill up a 26 gallon tank - that's a bit too close on my comfort level gauge! Needless to say, the last 10 miles were a bit stressful - especially once the gauge advised LOW FUEL rather than the number of miles left to the tank!!!
When we pulled up to the drive, it was covered in leaves and there was still water at the easement. Unloading went quick, since I was able to get everything I needed into two tote bags. Surprisingly, there was only one dead mouse and I was excited to not have mouse dropping all over! After a quick inventory, I hit the grocery store to get stuff for our already planned meals while Carlo stayed behind to rest.
Once back, rather than food prepping, I napped for a few hours, got up for dinner and then went back to bed.


Sunday:

I was up by 7:00 am after getting lots of sleep to a yard full of feasting feathered friends!

By 10:30 am I had already finished breakfast, prepped all the food for our dinner guests, got ready, and even had a quick snack while Carlo blew the leaves from the driveway.

Carlo hung up some wind chimes that Jackie and Alex had given me for my birthday and a deer I gave my dear for Sweetest Day! <3 p="">

Stella and Bernie arrived at 1:00 pm - they brought us some Moose Sausage and corn. We had a great visit. We snacked, had a fabulous BBQ and the craziest time over dessert! "Give it to Bernie, he'll eat it"! The ice cream topping was the strangest thing ever and had no color - until you follow the directions and shake it vigorously!!! They left a little after 6:00 pm. We are hoping to see them again before the end of the year.

We were tired and watched TV after cleaning up the kitchen. Another night we missed dinner - which seems to be an O'Wich norm!


Monday:

I was up around 7:00 am and it was about 45 degrees. I thought it would be colder, but maybe the sun helped bring the temps up. We spent the majority of the morning doing nothing, followed by lunch and then we had a labor filled afternoon. Carlo started raking the leaves up with the tractor and sweeper and after over a dozen loads, he gave up and dropped the mower deck to mulch the rest. During the hours he spent doing that, I moved two yard carts of fire wood from the shed crib to the deck crib. We put the cedar furniture and rockers away for the winter. We fired up a couple of logs, waiting for Betty to visit, but she never made it down. It was starting to get colder and the wet wood was a little too smokey to enjoy.
Carlo ran to the store for mouse bait and I took some pictures before I started packing for our 5:00 am departure!

Tuesday:

Not sure on our upcoming schedules, Carlo fully drained the system and put anti-freeze in the pipes. Everything drained so much better than last winter...when most of the pipes were frozen!!! We were on the road just before 5:00 am and hoping to beat the Chicago traffic!

Until next time :)

September 6 to September 7, 2014

Saturday:

We really changed it up this trip. I went shopping after work for a few things we needed to go in between all our planned meals out. I also got in a short nap and surprisingly, we were still on the road by 9:00. We drove to Beloit and stopped for a quick lunch at McD. It's connected to a Road Ranger and sadly, I had to back up out of my parking space...but it beat the thought of going through the drive-thru!

We were at O'Wich by 1:00 to uncut grass...probably because we have water all over the property - I didn't think the weather had been that bad for all this water. At least the flooding has yet to foil our plans for later and is not at fire pit!

 

We got the truck unloaded pretty quickly - even though it seemed like we had a lot of bags!
After opening up the cabin, I baked a cake for O'Wich's 8th anniversary and Carlo fixed the outlet under the cabin. Of course, the screws were missing! He also washed all the dead bugs off the bug zapper. Finally it was time to kick back since we needed to leave at 4:30 to meet the Spelunker's of Riverside at Suzy's. We are excited for them to come back after dinner since they haven't been to O'Wich in 5 years!

We had dinner at Suzy's Place. The company is always great and the food was delicious - too much, but delicious! It's hard to take JT anywhere since he can't keep a knife on the table to save his life!!! Even Jo the waitress was concerned over the knife losses!
After dinner we stopped for gas and ice and caravaned to O'Wich. They were in awe with all our changes and it looked like a new place to them. We were more than proud to show O'Wich off to them on the eve of O'Wich's 8th anniversary!
We gifted "Ewe" to them in the form of an adoption. We have held on to Ewe for almost 10 years. Carlo got her in a claw game when the four of us went on a weekend getaway. They were honored to have
Ewe in their family! They in turn gave us "Hugs" the bear for O'Wich. I guess Ewe and Hugs are sort of like cuzzins!

 

 

 We sat around the fire pit drinking and visiting until almost 10 pm. None of us were hungry after our hearty dinner and all our planned camp fire treats got placed on hold. Even O'Wich's anniversary cake was waiting until the actual anniversary date to be cut!

After they left we were beyond exhausted. Actually, Carlo was beyond and I was just exhausted!

Sunday:

Happy 8th Anniversary to O'Wich!!! So many changes have occurred in the last 8 years. What an awesome transformation, inside and out. Here is a before and after of the outside.

2006

2014

We were up by 7:30 and a lot had happened in the previous 8 hours. Once we looked out the window, we knew our plans had changed - drastically! The river had come up another 4 inches, which meant the fire pit was surrounded by water and the front year was starting to cover with river water as well. 

  

So after our many uh-oh's, Carlo drove to the road to check on the condition and low and behold, the water was deep. He called and told me to pack it up because JT and Val's car was not gonna make it down the road. It was actually looking pretty iffy for us to get out. I called Val and postponed meeting for breakfast by a 1/2 hour and told her we were going to have to cancel our plans of spending the day at O'Wich. We packed up the truck and evacuated! We are becoming quite the evacuation pros and have our routine down to leave in record time! The road was pretty scary on the way out and the picture doesn't even begin to show the depth of the water...but it was deep and you can't stop since the road is made of sand. 

We met the Spelunker's of Riverside at Paul Bunyan's at 9:45 for our rare-semi-bi-annual-every-three-to-five-year-visit breakfast. We certainly enjoyed the meal...Thank you Spelunker's for the treat!

Not wanting to cut our visit short, we decided to go to Mirror Lake. We celebrated O'Wich's anniversary there with cake and visited a bit longer. And of course, we captured our outing with pictures!

Happy 8th Anniversary - I forgot the candle :(

Until next time!

August 23 through August 26, 2014

Saturday:

Surprisingly, we were in the truck and on our way before 9:00 - not much before, but before! Carlo was coming off of a 12-hour shift and me an 8 so I was the one the got to drive while he tried to rest along the way, There were no stops until we got to Tamarack, which was just after noon. We had breaded mushrooms, burgers and fries. It was delish! After lunch, Carlo dropped me off at the grocery store. We decided to skip the Taste of Portage this year due to the heat, humidity and the fact that we were exhausted. We got to O'Wich with our groceries and other crap we brought from home. We were happy our rockers were still there and that everything looked normal. Once unloaded and inside, Carlo killed off a very populated wasp nest and I started cooking.

 

First on my chore list was potato salad.



I actually remembered my camera this trip with all intent of using it - but so far, things are off to a slow photo start. By the time the salad was done, it was 4:00 and well past my bedtime. I ended up calling it a day. Zzz!


Sunday:

I was up at 1:00 am and having missed dinner, I had some pasta that I brought from home.



Then it was time to get back to my cooking chore list. I got the sloppy joe's started in the crock pot and made a banana cream pie - having forgotten the mixer and or the whisk, I had to shake the pudding pie filling in the red bowl. What a workout! Now this is seriously roughing it!!! The crust is full of bananas and the cream is banana and vanilla pudding pie fill mixed together - with  milk, of course. Right before we eat it, I will add the whipped cream and some slivered almonds. Move over Pioneer Woman - the O'Wich Chef is in the house! (pronounced howwwwse).

 

Once Carlo was up, mainly because I made too much noise, we had egg sandwiches for breakfast. We certainly have different opinions of an egg sandwich...mine with onions and his with mayo :/

 


I dusted up the floors while Carlo ran to the store for gas, iced tea and bird seed.

Our guests arrived at 12:45 and we enjoyed a nice bottle of Peach Moscato while we visited on the porch - until lunch was ready.

 

We enjoyed my Famous 8th grade Home-Ec Sloppy Joe's - which Carlo says "are not famous but they are delightful." He is such a pain in the ass! We had the homemade potato salad - no celery - and store bought coleslaw. Dessert followed and I served up my famous...yes famous banana cream pie. I used real whipped cream and added almonds. Next time, I'll stick to the original famous recipe and use cool whip! It was good but the whipped cream deflated in the humidity.



Bernie and Stella stayed until about 5:15 and after cleaning up the kitchen I was pretty tired. I fell asleep in the recliner while Carlo watched TV until 11:00 and then I was wide awake and he was tired!

I found, we actually saw...I didn't go out on to the porch, a bat playing possum...or dead. I think dead. He may have been struck by the ceiling fan and may have been rendered unconscious...but I am still going with dead. The porch was full of moths and I think the moths may have been laughing at the bat. All I know it that I will wait until morning to see if the bat moved...if not...DEAD!

Monday:

We were up about 6:00 due to a power outage. This was on the early side since I didn't go to bed until 2:00. The weather warning were arriving and just as I finished reading one that came to my phone the storms hit us hard! The trees were swaying from side to side and crackling with each gust. The rain came down in buckets and the thunder was pretty close. 

Two hours later it was still raining, although more soothing. The thunder and lightning continued in the distance and it still was pretty dark. 

Unable to cook breakfast due to the stove not working - it's electric too - I opted for a pretty tasty morning snack as I enjoyed sitting on the back porch watching and listening to the storm. 

And by the way - the bat was DEAD. I swept him out of the porch onto the deck. 

It's suppose to be 91 degrees, hot and humid so we are crossing our fingers that this outage is short lived.

I was able to get the after photos of the under addition job that was done last week. We had the insulation replaced and wood placed over it so the critters stay out. 

Here's the before and after:

 

 

                                                                                  

GRID DOWN - GRID DOWN - GRID DOWN!!!

We are now over 4 hours without power. The generator is now running, after evicting the mouse house from all the nooks and crannies of the engine, for a fan and the fridge and for the pump, when the need arises! This has been quite the weekend of roughing it for sure! Ha ha!

  

At least when I called the power company, the third time, I was able to actually speak to someone - who basically said, yes - she knows the power is out and no - she doesn't know when it will come back on! Tick-tock. 

Looks like scrambled eggs are off the menu and our wood moving chore is off the list. About 11:30 a power company drove by. Hopefully they will check on  us before they drive by again...tick-tock.

At 12:30 we aren't sure where the truck went to but we are still roughing it.

Third gas refill to the generator and now it's GIRL DOWN! I pulled something in my right shoulder and heard a snap and the pain is up to my ear. That damn generator also has MAN DOWN...as Carlo hurt himself! Still no power!

At 2:15 the power was back on...yea!!!! Too bad we now are hurting from our injuries. The rest of the day was pretty lazy and we ended up with hot dogs for dinner and watched TV until midnight. I guess we depend more on electricity that one would think!

Tuesday:

It was another early morning awake for me due to the shoulder pain and not being able to get comfortable, let alone sleep. I started getting things ready for the ride home. We decided to leave at 5:30 in the morning to see if we could get home earlier since Carlo had to start work at 6:00 in the evening. We hit some drizzle along the way and a lot of clouds. The ride felt long since Carlo was not feeling well and he tried to sleep and couldn't find a way to rest comfortably. But we made it and are looking forward to our next trip!!!