Friday, March 31, 2006
The horses are eager to find some spring greens, too! I drove down to Rapid City yesterday and EVERYONE was out enjoying the spring weather! Kids got out their bicycles, Dads and their sons were picking up fallen branches, babies were out in strollers with thankful Mommas happy to get out, and even at the apartment building, where no one has a yard of their own, I saw several lawn chairs out on the pavement, with people just eager to enjoy the sunshine. The temperature got up to about 64 degrees, and it was beautiful! March 30, 2006
The multi-generational quilt: This quilt was made by my grandma Allen for me as a baby, and I took it everywhere with me until several pieces were ragged. It went with me to college even, and there my roommate Saundra took it home to Her grandma who carefully took it apart, piece by piece, replaced the ragged pieces with material from Saundra's childhood dresses and replaced the batting, quilted it back together and sent it back to me. Now this very special quilt is ready for My daughter! March 26, 2006
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
Saturday, March 18, 2006
This is one of the neat features of this house: In the closet in the laundry room is the door to the crawlspace. It was custom-made by Colby's dad, who laid the tile on the door to match the tile on the floor. You can hardly tell where the door is except for the front seam and the handle. March 15, 2006
Monday, March 13, 2006
Saturday, March 11, 2006
An excerpt from the Elk Rapids News
Weather Signs and Facts
by Ron S.
This winter has been one for the record books. Here we are at the beginning of March and all five of the Great Lakes remain open. Normally by this time all of the lakes except Superior are locked tight in ice but due to the abnormally warm January, the lakes never froze. In one of my previous articles, I mentioned the lake effect snow that occurred in November would continue until the lakes froze thus shutting down the snowmaking machine. So during the month of February, the snowmaking machine was still working and produced heavy snow for the month. The fifteenth of February, which was a Wednesday, started out with a winter storm watch that quickly changed to a winter storm warning and then finally to a blizzard warning. The warnings were in effect until the seventeenth of February. During the blizzard, we had a phenomenon known as thunder snow. Just before the snow started to fall, there were several lightening strikes, which were close to where I was located for the thunder was deafening. When the strikes were occurring the falling snow turned a brilliant blue. What is unnerving about lightening strikes during snowstorms is that one never sees it approaching. The total snow accumulations from the storm were around twenty inches, depending on the location. Thursday morning I awoke at 3:00 am to start my day of digging out. My first stop was the Alden Village Market to clear the parking lot and on my way I found the roads to be nearly impassable even with a four-wheel-drive vehicle. The roads were buried under two feet of snow with some drifts up to the side mirrors on my truck. It took about an hour to arrive at my destination that under normal circumstances takes about ten minutes. They were announcing on the radio at that time that all Antrim County roads were closed and that M72 was closed between Kalkaska and Acme. We had wind gusts up to sixty miles per hour, which created whiteout conditions. The near zero visibility lasted all day. I did not start clearing the last driveway until about 8:00 pm The driveway was a sharp S-curve that was down a forty-five degree hillside. Halfway down the drive there was a ninety-degree turn. Everything was going smoothly until I got to the second turn and that's when things went awry. I had pushed snow up to the rock wall on the left side of the drive when the rear of the truck slid around against the right side. I was hopelessly stuck. After assessing the situation, I decided that there was no way I was getting out without help. In the meantime, the temperature had dropped to nine above zero that's when I decided to call Ken's Towing. Rich arrived on the scene within about twenty minutes. He thought that the best way to proceed was to drive down to the first turn and winch the rear of the truck sideways away from the south wall so that I would be able to back out of the driveway. Well, the plan worked and I was able to back the rest of the way up the hill under my own power. Ken's Towing saved the day. I was back at home safe and sound just a few minutes before midnight. Thanks again, Rich.
(Excerpt from the Elk Rapids News March 9, 2006)
by Ron S.
This winter has been one for the record books. Here we are at the beginning of March and all five of the Great Lakes remain open. Normally by this time all of the lakes except Superior are locked tight in ice but due to the abnormally warm January, the lakes never froze. In one of my previous articles, I mentioned the lake effect snow that occurred in November would continue until the lakes froze thus shutting down the snowmaking machine. So during the month of February, the snowmaking machine was still working and produced heavy snow for the month. The fifteenth of February, which was a Wednesday, started out with a winter storm watch that quickly changed to a winter storm warning and then finally to a blizzard warning. The warnings were in effect until the seventeenth of February. During the blizzard, we had a phenomenon known as thunder snow. Just before the snow started to fall, there were several lightening strikes, which were close to where I was located for the thunder was deafening. When the strikes were occurring the falling snow turned a brilliant blue. What is unnerving about lightening strikes during snowstorms is that one never sees it approaching. The total snow accumulations from the storm were around twenty inches, depending on the location. Thursday morning I awoke at 3:00 am to start my day of digging out. My first stop was the Alden Village Market to clear the parking lot and on my way I found the roads to be nearly impassable even with a four-wheel-drive vehicle. The roads were buried under two feet of snow with some drifts up to the side mirrors on my truck. It took about an hour to arrive at my destination that under normal circumstances takes about ten minutes. They were announcing on the radio at that time that all Antrim County roads were closed and that M72 was closed between Kalkaska and Acme. We had wind gusts up to sixty miles per hour, which created whiteout conditions. The near zero visibility lasted all day. I did not start clearing the last driveway until about 8:00 pm The driveway was a sharp S-curve that was down a forty-five degree hillside. Halfway down the drive there was a ninety-degree turn. Everything was going smoothly until I got to the second turn and that's when things went awry. I had pushed snow up to the rock wall on the left side of the drive when the rear of the truck slid around against the right side. I was hopelessly stuck. After assessing the situation, I decided that there was no way I was getting out without help. In the meantime, the temperature had dropped to nine above zero that's when I decided to call Ken's Towing. Rich arrived on the scene within about twenty minutes. He thought that the best way to proceed was to drive down to the first turn and winch the rear of the truck sideways away from the south wall so that I would be able to back out of the driveway. Well, the plan worked and I was able to back the rest of the way up the hill under my own power. Ken's Towing saved the day. I was back at home safe and sound just a few minutes before midnight. Thanks again, Rich.
(Excerpt from the Elk Rapids News March 9, 2006)
This is what happens when you send your two-year-old over to someone's house to babysit while you go shopping...and forget to leave the diaper bag... It may look like he's got a diaper on, but that is actually the resourcefulness of a young woman with 6 younger siblings! She got out an old rag, pinned it on him like a diaper, then cut the bottom corners out of a freezer bag and slipped it on him like plastic pants and rolled the top down. Good to go... March 9, 2006
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