Off the Roof!

We managed to connect the sledding hill to the top of our roof! Amélie helped me build the bridge. It was a lot of fun! Great excuse to shovel part of the roof. Going off of the hill is a bit scary, but that's part of what makes it fun.

The sun came out again on Friday and warmed up the greenhouse in a hurry. Lots of bees. They found the food Abigail and I made for them and we could see their preferences, so now we can put together a better recipe. Also pruned up the fruit trees, stepping right over the 5 foot garden fence. No need for a step ladder!

I made some progress downstairs. Put together some butcher block, did some wiring, and created some pass throughs. Even managed to connect the plumbing. Now it's onto getting the sink cabinet built. Naomi was working on the guest room and we got the new rug in there too. 

Not much of a stretch.

Screwed these boards into a couple pallets facing the front door.

Built the bridge on top of that foundation.

Not much room left to get in!

Got a lot of weight off the garage.

It's steep!

Looking up from the living room. So much snow.

Whoohoo!

What a place to live.

Tied in the plumbing.

Pruned the fruit trees on snowshoes! 

So Long, Spring!

Definitely back to winter. The sun sure was nice for a while there! Two snow days this week. So much snow. Nowhere left to put it! I was clearing off the greenhouse roof and discovered an ice waterfall about half an inch thick that connected the roof to the snowpack in a few spots in a curving sheet. Unfortunately, it broke before I could get a picture, but I do have a picture of it hidden under a layer of snow. 

The greenhouse itself disappeared beneath the snow when viewed from our house, save the upper windows. When I was snow blowing the driveway (one of several times this week) the snowbank started to form an avalanche. I haven't experienced that before, and it surprised me! Glad it didn't get far as this wet, sticky snow that was tough to clear. 

Made it three times to the ski hill this week. Today it's time for some backyard snowboarding. Finally going to try and connect the roof to the sledding hill. It's a good excuse to take a bit of weight off the trusses too. So much snow up there. Need to dig out some materials first. 

Naomi and the girls had a couple great snow days. Amélie baked an amazing apple rhubarb pie, and Abigail helped me set up an experiment for the bees. They keep wanting to fly to the same window in the greenhouse, so we thought we would mix up some different food recipes for them to see which one they like. So far they don't seem too interested in any of them! 

Sure am grateful for this machine.

The frozen wave.

It's really a sunken greenhouse now!

Time for some pie.

Having a quick snack.

Lots of choices, but the windows are more interesting.

Starting an avalanche. 

The Sun

It sure feels like spring out there! The sun is finally above the white pine, so our greenhouse is back in action. With a fire, it got up to 82 this week when it was only 30 outside! Without a fire, when it was around 43 outside, it was 68 inside. Amazing how powerful the sun is in February. Even got the solar panels working again. Just in time to help charge the snowblower batteries for the blizzard that is supposed to come in a few days. 

Amélie had a really special week. She got to spend the night at French Claire's, learning to make puff pastry among other things, and spent the day with her on Tuesday instead of going to school. She brought home some delicious treats! Then on Friday she had a baking day with Naomi and they made a Valentine's treat from the town where Naomi's mom grew up. 

On Saturday we went down to Escanaba and had a great Valentine's lunch. The girls will stay there until Monday. They have a long weekend. Snow club was fun on Thursday as well. Abigail is getting better on the snowboard, but she had one or two good wipeouts. Amélie seems to develop a preference for cross country skiing, so maybe we will give that a try next year instead of downhill. Lift tickets are expensive!

I managed to finish the ceiling and got started on the walls. Should be able to wrap those up this week, although the lighting will be tricky. Then it's onto the sawdust toilet.

Some of Amélie's French Treats.

So warm out there!

Finished ceiling. 

A new tradition?

The Ceiling

We have had a pile of wood sitting in the middle of our floor downstairs for a couple years now. I milled it up from some free slabs that I got. Finally, I get to turn it into a ceiling! Got the lighting all wired up, the spacers and trim put in, and now the boards start to go up. The pattern is a bit tricky so I will need to do lots of careful measuring today, but it will be a bold, different kind of look. Keeping everything up there easy to access too!

Hard to believe it was only a week ago, but we managed to head out to lower harbor to skate on the ice and explore the ore dock and the island. Super cool. Plenty of others out there too, but later in the day someone found a soft spot and fell through, so they don't want people out there anymore. 

Had a lot of fun with snow club on Thursday. A few extra teachers from the girl's school joined in. Abigail even tried out the snowboard! She made some good progress and managed to detach herself from the bunny hill. She also made a special dinner last night - pot stickers - that took a few hours to put together. 

Skates on!

Sunny and cold.

Looks a bit like wood.

Fireworks get launched from right around this spot.

A bit of snow in the way.

Ice crystals.

View from the island.

Nature taking over.

Bubbles.

Strange surface tension.

A new kind of corner.

Pegs, not plugs.

Walnut and aspen.

All done!

More Cold

So happy it finally warmed up again! It's been a chilly week. Burned a lot of wood. Finished up a project for Kile in the workshop, and got re-started with the downstairs renovations. 

Took the girls to their first ski club session on Thursday after school. It was a lot of fun! This was the first full week of 2026, but they did have a couple club cancellations. Last night Amélie made us sushi with smoked salmon from the Rabe's and then apple crisp for dessert! What a treat. 

There is a bit of ice out on the big lake now, so this morning we will go check it out. Naomi and the girls want to try some ice skating.

Turning pegs on the drill press.

Ski club.