Happy Easter!

Today started early for me - up at 6:20 to be at church by 7:40.  We had a sunrise service at 8:00, breakfast at 8:45 and second service at 10:00.  I was a Greeter at both services.  We had three baptisms today!

Joan, our pastor's wife - and helpers, planned and cooked a wonderful meal as usual:  scrambled eggs with green and red peppers and onions, hash browns, biscuits & gravy, French toast sticks, sausages, fresh fruit salad, little cinnamon rolls (from Sam's Club), and little cupcakes.

 

Bill, Peggy and I had reservations at Halderwood Farms for Easter Brunch.  I really didn't need to eat after having this good breakfast at church!   I love old barns though so had always wanted to go to Halderwood.  They had salad bar, ham, turkey, roast beef, mashed potatoes & gravy, dressing, green beans, macaroni & cheese, creamed corn, rolls, and pie.  The barn is really neat - wish I'd taken a camera with me!  Here's a picture of the outside from their web site.  They're mostly open by reservation only on holidays and for bus tours and other business events.
 
Bill and I got busy after we got home and cleared everything out of our garage and hosed and swept it out.  With living on a gravel road and driving on them all the time, we track in lots of gravel and dirt especially in the winter.  It looks so nice again! 

I hope everyone has had a nice Easter.  By the way, we received a very pretty Easter lily by delivery this week - with no card!  Do any of you know anything about this so that I can send a thank you?  I hope the delivery people didn't lose the card!

Busy

Not sure what all we've been doing lately, but we have been busy!  But I haven't forgotten about the blog!  We had the little girls overnight last weekend.  Bill is at a planter school today and also watched a webinar this morning about fuel regulations.  I've been to a couple of dental appointments and have the last one tomorrow (had to get another crown).  Took our Enclave in for an oil change and they found another problem so it has to go back this week.  

We found out this morning that a man here in town passed away.  He was a character who everybody liked.  He had cancer.  He was the type that during these last months would go ahead and eat whatever even though he had some trouble with his blood sugar because he said he was going to die anyway which had to make us smile (they had only given him a few months to live).  There have just been way too many deaths here this past year and it continues.   

I went to Humboldt today to use a Kodak machine to get some pictures printed.  For the last week, we have had "Flat Lacey" with us for a 2nd grade project and have been taking pictures of her doing things with us.  After my P.E.O. meeting tonight I need to write up all that we did with "Flat Lacey" along with the pictures and get that mailed back to the school tomorrow.  I'll do a blog post about that soon for those that don't know about Flat Stanley, a childrens' book that this comes from.  

Sat. night we went to Vinny's BBQ in Dakota City to use a gift certificate we had.  It's a very popular place and always busy.  Look at the rack of ribs Bill had!  (he did bring some home!)  Vinny's has a dry rub type of BBQ - not what we're used to.  Bill loves ribs and always compares them to his favorite ones at Charleston's in Carmel.  

 

Todd's Memorial Service

 

My friend's husband's memorial service was Tues. evening and it was a very nice, personal service at our church.  One of the ministers was a long time friend of Terri & Todd's so he was able to talk a lot about Todd's life.  The Dahl family from here did the special music including Carolyn playing the piano, brother John played the guitar and sisters and a niece sang.  Terri had chosen some of their favorite soft music on CD's to be played during the visitation.   

Practice Burn

Our fire department got together today with four other area fire departments to practice burn this house that is out in the country - a really pretty setting for a house.  The other departments were Gilmore City, Bode, Bradgate and Pocahontas - about 20-25 firefighters including three women.

They do air pack practice, water transfer practice, smoke ventillation, and search and rescue.  (I told him I could've been the victim)  Our Chief was the head of the operation today.  His wife asked me to make some "bars" for their lunch.  They had pizza.  I took these pictures when I delivered my chocolate chip bars.  They practiced in the morning and then burned the house after lunch.  Bill said everything went very well.   

I met the wife of the couple that hope to build a new house here when they retire.  This was her uncle's house. 

 

Almost Spring?

We had a blizzard here on Sunday and got about 8" of blowing snow.  I followed Bill to town yesterday.  He was taking the planter tractor to the tire store.  I saw this tractor with planter in town surrounded by big piles of snow so had to take a picture.  Bill says the farmers are ready - Mother Nature not so much.

Very sad news is that my friend's husband passed away Sun. evening during the blizzard.  She said that he would've loved the storm.  You can read about him HERE.  Todd will be missed by many. 

Wisconsin/Winter Fun Part 3

John & Mary Jeanne live near the Bay Shipbuilding Co.  In the 2nd picture you can see one of the several big ships that were there.

This picture shows a big pile of snow at their church.  Saw lots of these around.  They had just gotten about 5" of new snow right before we got there.

As we were leaving the area, we had to stop at a cheese shop.  John & Mary Jeanne said this was a good one - Renard's.  They had many, many kinds of cheese, local wines, cherry butter, etc.  Fun stop.  We picked up some gifts and a couple things for us including cheese curds.  They had just been made and were still warm in fact.  John gave us a tip about cheese curds. If they don't squeak and you want them to, microwave them for about 10 seconds.  We tried it - mmmmm!

Renard's Cheese Shop, Sturgeon Bay, WI

On the way home, we stopped in Blue Earth, MN at the DQ for some ice cream.  We're not usually up there when the Jolly Green Giant is standing in snow so I had to take a picture of him.  Between there and home we saw two different places where there were TONS of deer!  Like maybe 50 in the first field.  Looks like at least 25 in this one.  

Jolly Green Giant

Lots of deer

Winter Fun Part 2

Just more pictures of our fun two days snowmobiling in Door County, Wisconsin.  It was fun going fast through fields, but we also liked the winding trails through woods.  Part of the time we were on an old railroad bed.  I was sure wishing I had a helmet cam!  It's too much trouble to stop for many pictures so we'll just be remembering all the pretty scenery. 

Both days John knew what time to leave home so that we would be to a good place to stop for lunch at the right time.  We had cups of soup both days which was perfect.  The first day we went south which was a little better route for beginners and the second day we went north so we got to see different country.  

The night we got there, Mary Jeanne had a meal ready in the oven when we arrived.  It was an 8 hour drive from our house and snow was coming down the last half which made for some slick driving.  The next night after snowmobiling, we went to a steak place where the special was prime rib that night.  The second night after snowmobiling we went to a fish fry at their church.  Both days Mary Jeanne got out cookies and heated water for hot choc. or hot apple cider when we got in from snowmobiling.  

These two pictures were taken before we went down a hill and past a cherry orchard.

cherry orchard up ahead

The only thing that kept this from being a perfect trip was that at the end of the first day, we were riding across a part of the bay (fun - smooth ice and can go fast) and looking at The Bay Shore Inn where we're going to stay this summer when we go back for John & Mary Jeanne's 50th anniversary party, and John with Mary Jeanne riding with him ahead of me had stopped and I was still looking at The Bay Shore Inn so I rear ended them damaging the back of their new machine and the bumper of mine - about $200 to fix.  Ugh.  Just like how they say most accidents in a car happen 2 miles from home - we were almost home after a great first day!

Bill, John, Mary Jeanne

Bill doing business (on the phone)

   

New Steel Roof

Our house house is not quite four years old and we've had a problem with our shingles the whole time.  Bill was having to get up on the roof and glue shingles down every time the wind blew.  He ended up taking pictures and sending in a claim and we got money back toward a new roof.  We decided to do steel shingles this time.  They shouldn't blow off!  These guys got started on Fri. and so far this week have worked in some nasty conditions:  ice on the roof, strong wind and a little snow.  They have most of the east side done already.

 

WINTER FUN!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

We had been invited to go to Sturgeon Bay in Door County, Wisconsin ever since we've been married.  Long time friends of Bill's parents live there and have always snowmobiled so said for us to come up and ride with them any time.  This is the guy that Bill has always gone with to South Dakota every summer to prairie dog hunt.

The past two years there really hasn't been much snow anywhere.  I guess it was about a week ago I replied to an e mail of John's and said "do you have snow"?  There was snow coming for both of us so he called and said "come now before the storm!"  But Glenn was coming through here on his way back to Indiana from Texas so we couldn't go for a few days which worked out good for them too.  

We left last Wed. night and got to snowmobile for two days and 100 miles.  It's hard to describe how much fun it was, but what I loved was just being outside and flying through the snow through BEAUTIFUL winter scenery which you can see some of here in my pictures.  John & Mary Jeanne have five snowmobiles so we all could ride one alone if we wanted to which is more fun than being a passenger.  They also had plenty of warm snow pants, jackets, gloves, helmets, etc. for us to wear.  The snowmobiles have hand warmers and your feet go in spots that keeps them warm too.  I was never cold one bit and even rode with my helmet shield part way up part of the time.  

The snowmobile I rode.

I could've stayed in this area all day!

John, Mary Jeanne and Bill

John says there are 23,000 miles of marked and groomed snowmobile trails in Wisconsin.  John & Mary Jeanne belong to a snowmobile club and they have fundraisers and things to raise money to pay for the grooming machine, markers, etc.  You can get on the trails right at their house, but they have a trailer if they want to take their machines to Michigan or other places to ride.   

We flew through the ends of fields, wound through woods, past lots of really neat, big red barns/farms and cherry and apple orchards, and even went across the frozen bay for a bit.  There were lots of ice shacks and vehicles farther out on the ice including a big motor home!  (yikes - I didn't like being on the ice very well) 

A cherry orchard.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Door County is famous for its cherries and is surrounded by water so there are about 11 lighthouses.  Click HERE to see pictures of them and read about Door County.  We didn't see any lighthouses this trip, but will be going back in July for John & Mary Jeanne's 50th anniversary party - and now we're really looking forward to it!  We'll drive north along the lake side and back down on the bay side and check out the lighthouses.   

Will have another post or two about this long weekend getaway.

In the meantime here at home, it's very windy tonight and snow is on the way.  This morning they said we're supposed to get 4" tonight and tomorrow and then another 7" into Tues.  I'll be watching it snow and daydreaming about snowmobiling.