Mixers, Magnets and More Fun!

Glenn and I rang in the New Year without the hoots and whistles of party favors. We were sleeping. Even if we had been able to stay awake (the real challenge of the 55+ crowd!) until midnight, a quiet celebration was called for. Our sleepover guest, Miles, could not be disturbed . . . primarily because Grandpa and I were pooped!

Meghan and Josh celebrated as previously reported, the New Year, while we gave bed and board to wee Miles. On New Year's Day, the Jurgens slept in but joined us for brunch about 10:30 a.m. Miles helped me make whole wheat/pineapple coffee cake to serve as part of the meal. He is fascinated by any tool that has a motor and makes noise. For some reason, he is particularly interested in both of my mixers, the hand-held one as well as the Kitchen Aid. Above, he provides assistance in cleaning the beater.

Having received a good share of gifts from both Santa and Grandma Marsha and Grandpa Curt on Christmas Day, and given that we'd spent nearly eight hours in the truck driving, we decided to wait a bit before giving Miles gifts from us. So, on New Year's Day, Grandpa helped Miles unpack his new art easel complete with white/metallic board and magnet letters and numbers. There's chalkboard on the other side. We also gave Miles a reminder of his roots -- a Michigan Wolverine outfit!

Saturday, January 2, we stopped by the Jurgen household after a trip to Inkom for our mail. As in Reese, we keep a postal box rather than have mail delivered directly to the house. Miles was outdoors with his folks building a snowman at the time of our arrival. He's wearing the snow suit I found online for him last spring; an incredible deal in the JC Penney clearance room! The snow boots were a 'find' from Grandma Marsha.

As do nearly all the houses up this way, the Jurgen yard has a hill in it. Grandpa pulled Miles around in his sled (Miles liked it much more than this photo would suggest). Then we all saucered down the front hill.

At this writing, we still have not received enough snow for the ski hill above us to open all lifts, and no further precipitation is in the forecast for well over a week. However, at our elevation we did get a few inches of snow at the New Year time. Earlier this week, we received more plus a light coating of freezing rain. . . which caused us a few days of near-panic.

We'd had a local farmer clear our driveway last winter and had indicated we'd like to hire him again. When he didn't appear on New Year's Day, Glenn phoned his house and again left a message about hiring him to clear our drive. Late that night, the guy's son-in-law called back to inform us. . . our farmer had had DOUBLE knee replacement surgery and was out for the season! Yipes!!

Do recall that our driveway is about 1/10 mile long (the trip-tick on the Explorer measures this before I can get to the end of the drive!) and slopes UPHILL to our house. The combination of heavy, wet snow, freezing rain, slope and no plow meant Meghan was wearing snow boots for a couple of mornings when she and Josh dropped off Miles . . . a precaution in the event she had to hike him to our house! Wednesday morning they drove the 'big rig' -- their Ford F250 diesel -- to be certain they'd make it. Finally, we found someone to take care of our driveway.

Glenn made a couple of visits to places in Inkom and made many phone calls. Yesterday morning, our 'new driveway guy' brought his bobcat about 9:30. Because we hadn't been plowed out in a timely fashion and the snow got packed, it took him an hour and a half to really do a good job. We felt his charge of $100 was reasonable and he is willing to take us on as customers for the rest of the winter. He also suggested that now that he's got the driveway 'under control' it shouldn't take nearly as long any other time he comes unless there's a tremendous storm of some kind.

My method of kitchen chemistry is to always have a well-stocked pantry on hand. We probably could've survived a few weeks on my little stockpile, but the prospect of being snowed in until March was a wee-bit disconcerting! An added bonus -- the propane delivery truck arrived about two hours after the driveway cleared. Snowed in is one thing. Snowed in with no heat quite another!

Now, Glenn is off playing racquetball and I'm using my few quiet moments as Miles snoozes to catch up on office-related things -- bill-paying, and blogging. This day is sunny with blue skies and visibility for many miles -- but also cold. The Jurgens reported their on-board thermometer registered -2 degrees this a.m. when bringing Miles for the day. Next week, our temps are predicted to be in the low to mid-30's; weather that may allow us to get our Miley-Guy outdoors a bit. For now, much too cold for the little guy. . . I guess we'll just have to keep cooking!