Birthday Girl

Sunday we went to Brian & Jennifer's to celebrate Jennifer's birthday which is tomorrow the 26th. We had a great time, we all went to Don Pablo's for lunch then back to their house for the afternoon. The boys were excited and a real treat for grandma & grandpa. They keep us entertained with all of their activities. Cole was waiting at the door doing his happy hop when we arrived and Quinn came out to see what was going on. That makes us feel pretty special to have them greet us.

Alyssa also came up for the day so that made it even better. It is nice that she is close enough that she can join us. When she was so far away we did not get to see her very often. She is attending IU in Bloomington. It made a long day for us but it was a good one. Happy Birthday Jennifer.

Cold Cash

These pictures are from Christmas. Marcia told me she wanted a Kohl's Gift Card and I thought she said Cold Gift Card. So where do you go to get a Cold Gift Card? I thought for a while and came up with the above. That is solid ice with the "card" and the "gift" frozen inside. I think she liked it and it has no expiration date or limitation on where you can use it.

I also wanted to mention that in the last post yes that is a switch that Marcia is holding. Now before you get the wrong idea let me tell you that at certain times of the year along the Lake Superior shoreline there are these pesky little biting flies. They are not black flies but look like a regular fly and they will just cover you especially if you have bare legs or arms and they bite. Marcia was using the switch to brush away the flies and it helped a great deal. So yes I did in fact let her hit me with the switch.

Tomorrow we are going to Indy to Brian and Jennifers and of course to Cole and Quinns. Jennifer's birthday is coming right up and we are going down to celebrate it with her. Alyssa is also coming up from Bloomington so it should be a great day.

Retirement?

Possibly some very good news for the Powers Family. The school is going to offer a limited number of buyouts but only six system wide. Marcia is going to try to be one of the six. The buyout has to do with insurance which has been our big problem. If she is selected then she will be able to retire this year what great news. We have our fingers, legs, toes(well maybe not) and anything else crossed for luck hoping for the best. The bad part is we won't know for a month or more. She came home last night after the school board meeting and was trying not to get too excited because she knows she may not be one of the selected ones. The selection is by seniority so anyone with more time that requests it will be considered first. There are a lot of teachers with many years that are part of the baby boomer crowd so we are not sure how it will work out. Everyone keep good thoughts for Marcia.

The thought of retirement has made an otherwise dreary day not so bad. I did the grocery shopping this morning and it was raining the whole time but my truck needed a wash job. Just wish it would be enough to really clean it there was quite a bit of salt on it from my trip Monday. I ran into snow from about Elkhart to LaPorte and they were salting so the truck was pretty dirty.

I just wanted to share the info with everyone and we will let you know as soon as we know.

Weird weather

I know its been a whole week since I have posted but it has been a very busy week and I was just too tired at night to make the attempt. The above photos were interesting, the first one was on a night when the moon was very bright and the clouds over it gives an eerie look. The second one is a day when it rained all day and was really nasty but all of a sudden the sun came out even though it was still raining and put up a beautiful rainbow. I was working in the saw shed and went in to get my camera but by the time I got back out the picture was not as good as when the rainbow first appeared. They are just a couple of pictures that I wanted to share.

Things have been pretty hectic around here as I stated above. I have been trying to get my big sawing order completed which I did Thursday evening, yahoo. I had a Dr appointment Friday to initiate the proceedings for my knee surgery. They took new exrays and talked about recovery times in answer to my questions. We dropped some chili and raspberry cobbler off to a teacher friend of Marcia's(Ruth Wappes) this morning. She had one knee done about a week and a half ago and is recovering nicely. She was up and about with a walker so hopefully I will be able to do the same. Keep positive thoughts for me.

I have to take the load of timbers to Hammond, IN tomorrow so will be on the road most of the day. That is not something I really like to do but is necessary. Better go the Humble Hoosiers are on a local network today, the first time all year. Then NASCAR kicks off its season with the Daytona 500 later this afternoon. Hope everyone had a great Valantine.

What a difference a day makes!

Can you believe it, I took the top photo yesterday and the bottom one today. There were several deer browsing and then bedding down just west of the shop. I watched them off and on all morning as I was working in the shop. There was still several inches possibly a foot of snow on the ground but the morning temps were much warmer than the previous day. By this morning the snow is about all gone except in the piles and some places where it is more protected.

We did our usual this morning and went in to Timbers for breakfast and a little shopping for a few items we needed. We were even able to wash the grime off of the car although there is still a lot of dirt, from the sand they used during the snow, on the roads so it will be difficult to keep it clean. Even the birds are responding to the better weather. We had been going through a lot of bird feed with the ground covered with all of the snow covering up all of the birds normal food. We had been filling the feeders(several) once a day. Today there are not nearly the number of birds at the feeders. The downy woodpeckers, tufted titmouses and nuthatches have still been coming because they feed more on the suet cakes. We love to watch the birds but the feed bill was becoming a bit too much oh there is a red bellied woodpecker out there now.

We have a busy week coming up, I have my doctors appointment on Friday the 13th. I hope that is not an omen for my surgery. This is just a preliminary appointment to schedule things and find out a little more about what to expect and probably get new X-rays. So Mom if you are reading this I will not be stopping Friday morning so don't fill the bowl with the milk balls or there won't be any left by the time I get there next week.

Since I don't have email addresses for everyone feel free to share this Blog with others that might be interested all they have to do is go directly to this link http://powersdandm.blogspot.com/ . Better go I have a few things to get done this afternoon.

Logs and more logs

I posted earlier about a shortage of logs for a job I have. I contacted all of my usual sources and was not finding anything so I looked to some new sources. I have a customer that is a log buyer for a large mill in southern Indiana so I called him, yep he had some logs. The price was a little higher than in the past but go figure a shortage of pallet logs and the price goes up. I ordered a semi load of logs to be delivered as soon as possible and he said that would be this week. Well guess what: Monday morning a different logger (Lee Deller for those who know him) called and said he heard I was looking for some logs. I said yes I was so he brought a straight truck load of smallish but straight and sound logs, good deal I started on my order. Yesterday the first guy calls and says he can deliver a load yesterday afternoon, good deal they come and I get him unloaded. They are big logs pretty decent and I can probably get some grade lumber off the outside of some of them. Boy we are all set now lots of work to do. Today one of my original suppliers who I had called first gets ahold of me to tell me he has some logs for me he just cut them out of their own woodlot. What can I say besides thats great bring them over. He has been a good supplier and always tries to help so I thought I should take his logs. So now I have lots of logs way more than I need for this order but maybe there was a reason to get all of those logs maybe I will need them. Maybe the economic recovery has come to Powers Hardwoods and this is just the beginning of a great year. Oh yeah I just remembered I need to take a little time off in May for my knees. Maybe the logs all came from the tree in the picture, I wonder what they are trying to tell me.

Winters Last Hurrah?

The temperature never got out of the teens today and it is 3F right now. I hope this is our last really cold spell although I prefer frozen to mud and slop which comes next.

Yesterday I saw what I think was one of the osprey's that nested here this summer. It was flying overhead and landed in a tree just behind the truck as I was driving near home. I stopped and got my binoculars and got a good look and it certainly looked like an osprey and when it flew off it looked even more like an osprey. I thought they wintered in the south but they might stay here like some of the eagles do. I have seen it a couple of times recently always near the lake next door to us. The lake is pretty much frozen over but there is some open water near the house maybe enough for the ospreys to fish. I hope they stay in this area they are fun to watch. I am thinking about building a platform on a utility pole that I have and putting it up on the hill behind the barn. I don't know if they would nest there or not but we saw one nesting like that in Seney National Wildlife Refuge this summer when we were in the UP.

I wanted to mention a couple of blog related items. For those of you receiving this as an email there is a link at the bottom of the email which you can click on to take you to the whole blog. Also if anyone does not wish to receive the email updates just let me know and I will remove your name from the list of names receiving the email notices. Thanks for looking.

Cold Jan morning

Thought I would post this picture taken on one of our cold mornings just as day was breaking. We have had quite a few of these this winter. Time has been flying by, here we are in February already that means warmer days are getting closer.

We went to Fort Wayne yesterday to attend the RV Show at the Memorial Coliseum. We had a nice time just walking around looking at all of the campers and related equipment and campgrounds. There seemed to be a lot more pop-up type campers this year and fewer of the really high end units. We found one we liked some things about it but not others. It did have some very nice rocker recliners which we would like to upgrade to something similar. After walking about as long as my knees could handle we went to a nice Mexican restaurant called Mi Casita which I think means my house but maybe Alyssa can let us know for sure. It is a nice place with good food, decent prices, clean and pleasant people. I meant the restaurant was clean and the people were pleasant probably clean also but I did not inspect that closely. We would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for Mexican in Fort Wayne.

I got a nice order Friday from the railyard repair place in Hammond. They have been a good customer my only problem is logs are hard to find right now. Grade lumber is not moving at all so loggers are not cutting trees for grade as a result there are not many low grade logs being cut either and the pallet mills are running out of logs. Long story made shorter I found some but they cost more than I have been paying in the past. Well I better go take care of things outside so I can watch the Super Bowl.