Merry Christmas 2025

I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and an enjoyable holiday season! 

Winter Solstice Fire Pit 2025

The winter solstice was yesterday morning, and since I put in the fire pit in 2018 I've liked celebrating the occasion with a fire, when possible.  Temperatures never got above freezing yesterday, they stayed just a bit below, so it was definitely chilly but very manageable.

I shoveled some snow out of the fire pit and considered melting more with the garden torch but there were sticks in the pit already so I felt I had a good enough base to build the fire.  I didn't want to be out there long and it would get colder after the sun went down so I got started around 3:30 in the afternoon, about an hour before sunset.  I built the small fire up right away, then basically just let it burn down until I could go inside.  I think it's pretty safe to say this will be the last fire pit of the year, but, of course, now that I said that...

I made a couple discoveries while I was out there.  First, I realized that I left the gnome outside under the lilac.  I didn't take him into the garage for winter like I usually do when doing the fall cleanup, but I still may sometime.  We've had him for quite some time now and he's starting to look a bit faded and rough.  I always have my eye out for garden gnomes but haven't found one to replace him yet.  I have a smaller one that's been living on the porch all year that I may put out come spring.

The next discovery was bat guano under the bat house.  I don't know exactly how long it's been there, but it's a bit too cold for the bats to be out and about this month so I'm guessing since October, or maybe early November.  Hopefully they found a warmer place to hibernate, but not my attic!

Saturday started a run of 10 out of 16 days off for me.  We do have some holiday obligations, but I welcome the time off.  Next post will be holiday wishes, so I may get that written up and scheduled soon so I don't forget.  Happy solstice, everyone.

Mid-December Ramblings

We've had a few more snows since last post but nothing quite as significant.  Everything around us is holiday themed and we've had plenty of cold.  This weekend's highs are about 6ºF, or negative 14ºC.

The cats have been utilizing their warming pad often, and my wife had been using our heating pad on her back for several days this past week after hurting it shoveling snow on Tuesday.

I brought in the trail camera a week ago since everything was snow covered and not showing much activity.  The SD card just shows a bunch of squirrels nibbling away, or maybe the same one appearing over and over, not sure.  I was worried the batteries may have died, but it was still working when I brought it in despite every picture and video showing a red X on the icon, lower right, since I put it out about a month ago.

We've been making our holiday plans and gathering gifts.  I have a lot more shopping to do, but only for my wife.  And I have to keep in mind she has a birthday in January, too.

Kate noticed this hole along the side of the driveway yesterday.  It appears some critter needed to create a home for the night.  My guess is an opossum, but we may never know.

That's pretty much the highlights.  We're just making our way to the holidays and trying to stay warm.  Kate still has things to get in order for her dad's passing, but that takes time so she will be dealing with plenty well into the new year.  She has my full support to take all the time she needs as her life forward will be completely different than the last decade plus.  

I'll have Wednesday and Thursday off for the Christmas and New Year holidays but will have to work those Fridays before the weekends allow me two more days off.  I'll take it, of course.  And yes, I'm reading news every day but it's mostly so absurd to me that I have to disassociate from it.  That's about all I'm going to say about that right now.  I'll probably be back here before the holidays, but leading up to them I hope everyone is enjoying this holiday season as they see fit.  Cheers, everyone.

Snow Day!

As we got closer to Saturday the projected snow totals got higher, and now here we are.  We planned on staying in all day due to the weather anyway, and since it was a holiday weekend and still no responsibilities tomorrow, we had a bit of fun with it.

Homemade potato skins for the final Badger football game this afternoon.  And homemade-from-a mix chocolate chip cookies for dessert.  (Not to mention finishing off Thanksgiving's banana cream pie.)

And given a snow day's time to spare I decided to make a big and bubbly focaccia bread.  It was absolutely airy, crispy and delicious!  Don't worry, we froze half for warming up at a later time.  We're only two people, after all.

But it was oh, so delicious!

And as of right now, it's snowed at least 7 inches and probably even more more with the end several hours away.  It may still be snowing when I get up tomorrow.  

We've cleared the front and back steps about four times, plus knocking the snow weight off the front arborvitae, while doing a full snow removal twice so far.  By mid-morning we should be able to do a final cleanup, then hope for sunshine to help because the temperatures won't.  Welcome back, Winter, my old friend.

Thanksgiving 2025

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.  Today will be spent with my wife's family for a while, followed by sports on TV and banana cream pie.

My wife and I were going to go to my Mom's on Saturday, but now we have a snowstorm coming so I will be going down for a bit tomorrow and Kate will stay behind as she had other plans that day.  So, nothing too exciting around here, I'm just happy for four days off from work.

I've not checked the trail camera yet, but the critters have a ways to go on the pumpkin.  The innards and seeds were the first to go, but somehow I still may not be surprised if a pumpkin vine tries growing next year.  It will surely get weeded out early in favor of wildflowers, anyway.

Enjoy the day, everyone.

Yard Work Finished

This morning my wife and I finished all the yard work for the year.  It was a beautiful day, sunny and about 66ºF, and we probably won't see another day like this for several months so now was the time.

I started with cleaning the gutters, then moved on to strimming dead plants in flowerbeds to mulch them up.  My wife cleaned up the flowers we had left out front and raked all the leaves on the front lawn into piles for me to vacuum/mulch and put in the flowerbeds.  I mowed just a bit to mulch what was left but quickly ran the mower out of gas for the season, then made sure the snow blower was ready to go and started up easily.  Gardening supplies were put away and snow shovels, sand and salt are now at the ready.  It feels good to have it all done, but boy am I sore.  Tomorrow might be worse.

I never got around to carving the pumpkin for Halloween and the squirrels were starting to munch on it so it was moved to the stump.  I used my axe to chop a hole in it for them to get inside more easily and set up the trail camera at the base of the bird bath.  We'll see if I get anything entertaining enough to share. 

This has been a pretty rough week for us, especially my wife.  She had been taking care of her dad for well over a decade, and he became more and more dependent on her each year.  It was very stressful for her, but she gave him a very good quality of life.  Since she was laid off in March, she was going over there or doing something for him almost every day.  Not to mention the phone calls, so many calls every single day whether she had just been over there or not.  This was her life, and now, suddenly, that all stops.  It will take quite some time to get everything wrapped up, and even longer to fully move on.

Now, happier thoughts.  Homemade pan pizza dough with homemade pizza sauce.  This one was pepperoni and Italian sausage.  Yum!

First Snow Of The Season

It's been a very cold weekend, barely getting above freezing today and now tomorrow.  Late last night we got our first snow of the season.  I stepped outside about midnight and got this picture.

Most of the snow melted or evaporated today, but not all and we even had some more flurries this afternoon.  But we are in for the night and in our warmest comfy clothes with the thermostat bumped up a tad.  I'm still cold.  It's going to be a long winter.

RIP FIL

My wife's father passed away on Thursday evening. As most of you know, she had been his primary caretaker for over a decade now.  She has made countless personal and professional life sacrifices to care for him and improve his quality of life for so very long.  Her heart is broken and mine breaks for her.

Leaf-Free Streets II

Click the pic to read it much more easily!

Before Halloween I put out the sign we requested and received from Clean Lakes Alliance promoting leaf-free streets to help prevent phosphorus from fallen leaves entering our lakes, which contributes to massive algae blooms in the summer.  My thought was that hopefully parents would see and read it when trick or treating with their kids, and maybe even neighbors would join in.  I know we can only do so much, but at least we're doing something.

We'd been pretty windy the last couple weeks so there wasn't a need for the sign or any action to take before this, but we knew it was coming.  Now, there is a chance of rain later tonight and we finally did have some leaves on the street in front, so this evening was the first time I went out and raked the leaves on the street curb up onto our terrace.  If I'm advertising it then I better do it, right?  

I did buy an smaller, inexpensive metal tine rake to keep around the corner of the front door for this purpose.  We already have a broom stashed there, and they stay relatively hidden behind the bushes and drain pipe.  I thought the metal tines would be more flexible than plastic because I want to get the leaves up but leave any rocks in the street and not pull them onto the terrace.  

There weren't many leaves today, but we'll continue to do our share to keep less leaf-tea from running into the gutter at the end of the street, which empties right there into Starkweather creek, which then flows directly into Lake Monona.  I like how they used our address to give us the correct sign, rather than a generic one, and we may use it every fall now.  If everyone did just a little bit, either this cause or another, change would happen more quickly and easily.

I also took a quick picture of the back yard, and you can see how the plants have started melting just since our first frost, and easily another hard frost last night/this morning.  I may try to strim much of the plants into mulch this weekend, but it's forecast to be some of our coldest days yet so I might wait.  I mowed last week to mulch the black walnut leaves in the back yard, and that needs to be done again, too.  Any leaves in front will eventually be raked into piles, vacuumed up and mulched for the flowerbeds once they are done falling and much drier.

We even have a chance of getting our first snow late Saturday night, but I think the forecast may have changed to earlier precipitation so might just be rain earlier in the afternoon.  But the inevitable is coming, no doubt about it.

Happy Halloween 2025

We had a little different look for Halloween this year with some new decorations.  

Same skeleton as last year hanging on the door but some new little lights I got for free after last Halloween, ghosts in the kitchen window and 2 strings of pumpkins on the right railing.  The rest is from a dollar store; pumpkinhead on the left of the door and skully on the right, the sign at the bottom of the steps and the window covering.  I did forget to use the flickering flame light bulb, but no matter.  I also never got around to carving the pumpkin, but I have ideas for a trail cam video with the critters in back again.  We also moved the flowers to the porch for the little kids to make it up our stairs more easily.

Originally I ordered a different window covering online then found this one at a dollar store.  What I received from my order was not what I ordered so I was very glad to have this as a backup.  And I like it well enough, but even though I only used black masking (painter's) tape to hold it on, the plastic was so thin it ripped when taking it down so the search will continue next year.

There were very few houses in the neighborhood with any Halloween decorations other than pumpkins and mums, and fewer with lights on to welcome the kids.  We got about 25 trick-or-treaters this year so got rid of a lot of candy, but not all of it.  That sure seems like a lot of walking for only a few giving houses in an area.  I feel a bit sorry for kids these days.

The picture above makes it seem so much brighter than it actually was.  We do have street lights, including one directly across the street, and I can see shadows from a neighbor's front light, across the street and 3 houses down. After the break I altered a picture to more resemble what human eyes saw, and a wider view that also amplifies the light.

I hope everyone had a great Halloween!