Happy Holidays

We had a really nice Christmas celebration in Escanaba. The Sinterklaas exchange was a lot of fun! We did that on Christmas Eve. Even though we told the girls they wouldn't be getting much for Christmas this year, they got more than expected. We had an amazing dinner of steaks and twice baked potatoes. Even helped to get the big willow chunks off the lawn, took some nice walks, and played games. 

On Tuesday we met with our friends who are starting up a little farm and fiber mill outside of Rapid River. Right on our way back to Marquette. Fun to see what they are working on, and Naomi and the girls even got a lesson in how to spin wool into yarn. 

Made some progress with the workshop and met a new neighbor, Harry, and immigration lawyer who is a bit younger than we are. I talked with him briefly at Thanksgiving and invited him over for a game of darts. His wife wasn't feeling well, so she didn't come, but he brought gifts for the girls. A fun game, a clay ornament making kit, and a puzzle box. The girls got straight to work on the puzzle box. He thought it would take them months to figure out how to open it, but it was only about 10 minutes. Inside it they found a 100 dollar bill, which they thought must be fake, but he said he put it in there and we talked about what to do with it and decided it would be a business investment for the girls - honey or eggs. A couple days later he invited us to a hockey game next weekend which should be a lot of fun. 

Yesterday we had Pish, the retired NMU professor over for dinner. I wanted to show her the workshop where I would make her bench, and a few examples so she knows what to expect. We had a great evening together. I also spent a few hours sharpening, filling in holes, and waxing up the snowboards the day before. Good to develop another new skill!

Sinterklaas!

Abigail made me a computer for Sinterklaas.

Christmas presents!

Christmas dinner.

Made a surround for the dart board.

Deer crossing the river...where is the snow!?

Making clay ornaments.

Waffle time!

Playing the new trails game.

Rough shape.

Amélie loves her slime!

Winter....not!

We got a nice snowfall earlier this week, but it has all melted away. So much for a white Christmas! Very strange in Marquette. I guess we brought our depressing, Dutch winters with us. The girls had some fun in it while it lasted, though. 

I made some progress on the workshop and finished getting the wood from our neighbor who died. Brought the wood rack itself over as well, and set it up as a shelf in the garage until we have space to use it properly. Now the garage is slightly more organized. Still not a priority. 

Set up a dart board in the basement and the girls love it! Need to put a board around it though to protect the wall. On Thursday my parents came up to get the girls and we all enjoyed a bit dinner at Rick's house. Afterwards we walked back over to the Christmas Village. Much nicer with snow! It has been amazing to be with just the two of us for the past couple days. Hopefully we can do this more often! 

On Friday we met some new friends in town for a great dinner at Iron Bay. They are friends of my friend, Andrew, who runs a coffee company. They run a tea company. He has an Indian background and she is from Iran. Yesterday, Naomi got to make another new friend - a French professor at NMU. She is originally from Russia and her husband is Belgian. Great to be making so many connections. 

Picture of the solstice from one of our teachers in Indonesia. 

Fun with Grandma and Grandpa!

A bit of snow.

Power company came to check on our flickering lights. No improvement.

New dart board.

Fun dinner!

Another walk through the Christmas Village.

Volvo Connection

I made a new friend this week. A couple who sends their daughter to the same school we do, even though they live almost an hour away in Rapid River, has the same car we do. He has all the computers and tools to fix it himself, so when our check engine light came on, I invited him over as he had to bring his daughter to school anyway. We ended up spending the whole day together. Interesting guy. He is trying to set up a fiber mill - machines that will turn wool and other fur, like the rabbits they have, into yarn and even clothing. There is excess supply in the area, and enough demand for the finished product to make for a good business model. 

This couple lives off the grid, they get their water from an artesian well four miles away, and heat their 1500 mobile home entirely with firewood collected from the local area. Their latest upgrade is a small solar system that can power a tiny fridge. That's one way to learn appreciation for modern conveniences! Maybe we can collaborate on more projects down the road, but for now, he has a way to make a bit of money while his daughter is in school and we have a mechanic willing to come to our house! 

I also went on a bike ride through the snow with a neighbor. He has a fat tire bike, and my mountain bike wasn't quite up to the challenge, but it was still fun. Tuesday night we had dinner with some other neighbors. Naomi was home sick on Wednesday and Thursday and my dad came up to help out with some electrical work in the shop. Looks like we need a professional to install a subpanel and can't do it all ourselves. Definitely more work than I expected to get the shop up and running. No surprise there. Also got the white pine mostly cleaned up yesterday. Time to clean up the chainsaw!

Dust collector didn't quite go as it was supposed to, but it works!

Enjoying a cooking lesson at school.

Amélie's artistic skill still outstrips her spelling abilities, but she has come a long way already this year! Tough to spell in English especially when coming from a language where just about everything is phonetic.

Trail Building

On Tuesday I had a meeting with Pish, this retired professor from NMU that I met while hiking. She wanted a new storage bench for her hall, so I went out to her place. She has an amazing spot right on Lake Superior. We ended up talking for most of the afternoon, and I invited her over for dinner during the holidays. I got the job to build the bench - so it's great to have client number one lined up and a new friend in the area. Now I really need to finish the workshop! 

Miss CJ, the girls teacher, has been sick this week, so the girls didn't have as much fun at school. We were going to have her over for dinner tonight, but that has been postponed to next weekend. Probably okay as things have been so busy! Yesterday we got Naomi's ski situation squared away. Ended up costing more than we were hoping to pay, but I think she will be really happy with this setup and therefore enjoy skiing and the Marquette winters a lot more. 

On Wednesday I got to go out to our land with my dad and put in a new trail. It was a lot of fun. Almost have it finished. It's on the east side of the property, and I expected it to be kind of boring, but its really nice. Good to get to know the land a bit better. 

On Friday my parents came up for lunch and dinner. Nice that the girls had something to look forward too instead of missing mommy. My dad and I got the leaning aspen off of the neighbor's shed with the help of neighbor Rick and his tractor. We also got the apple milled and luckily discovered an embedded nail before it hit the saw. Managed to finish up the driveway and sledding hill yesterday, so now I finally feel ready for snow. It will be a while before we get anything significant though. Still haven't been able to test out the snowblower. Last night we walked over to the Christmas Village just a few houses down. The guy spends months setting it all up. People from all over come to walk through his front yard. 

The neighbor's front yard.

Our own Christmas Tree.

A bit of snow on our land.

What color we found inside those apple logs!

Storage bench design.

Pause at TNT

I was able to finish the job of putting tongue and groove cedar inside the sauna at TNT this week. Felt good to finally get it done. I thought they would need my help with some other things as well, but they found out that there are some big structural issues with the remodel, so the budget is a little uncertain at the moment. Hopefully I can go back at some point down the road. It is a relief to get a pause to work more on the workshop and to have more time to get the house in order. 

This was Naomi's first full week at work. It went pretty well! The girls had a good time at school too. We got a bit of snow and that made things interesting, but it is pretty much gone now. We are adjusting to the new routine and overall it is good. 

In the workshop I started putting the dust collector together. That is one intimidating machine! It will probably take 7-8 hours just to assemble it. I got the air compressor and the jointer up and running. Slowly it begins to take shape. Also put in an order for the lumber to build a few walls down there. 

On Saturday we went to Escanaba for a gingerbread house workshop. The girls had a lot of fun there. We found a Christmas tree in the afternoon and enjoyed some great food. Even got to have the long awaited pumpkin pie. This morning I picked up some lumber from Kile that he didn't want. He will bring up my order along with a bit more he has in a couple weeks. Just need to figure out where to put everything! 

Finished the job at TNT.

Grandpa's giant pile of willow.

Picking out a Christmas tree.

Sunset during the tree hunt.

Happy at school.