Me, pretending to be the captain of the Coast Guard ice breaker Mackinaw

And a busy summer it was…  As you can see, I even tried my hand at captaining the ice breaker Mackinaw for the Coast Guard!  Just kidding.  Ice breakers are BIG, and I certainly wouldn’t want to try to drive one.  But it was fun to sit in the captain’s chair and pretend.  Here’s the view from the top:

The view from the captain's seat -- 65 feet up! You get a good view from up there!

My kitchen remodel STILL didn’t get done.  Sigh.  But we did manage to transform a double window into a set of French doors.  We absolutely love them.  It made it so easy to eat outside all summer long.  I still may get some painting done yet, but I’m running out of summer.  Next year?  I can only hope!

The tall ships the Pride of Baltimore II and the Lynx came to Marquette, too.  We got to tour both of them.  Here’s a shot of the Pride of Baltimore shooting her cannons in the Lower Harbor, with the Lynx in the background:

The Pride of Baltimore II with the Lynx in the background in the Lower Harbor in Marquette, MI

My biggest news, though, is that my daughter Sarah, and her husband Jared, along with my four grandsons, moved to California this month!  A great job opened up out there, and Jared couldn’t turn it down.  They had planned to move out of their tiny house in MN since it was pretty crowded with four boys in there.  But nobody expected their new home to be in California!

They’re in the Bay area, south of San Francisco.  I’ve never been to CA, but now I guess I’ll be going one of these days.  They’re in a little town that’s pretty close to the ocean, so maybe it’ll be a little like Marquette (riiiiight!).

Yesterday was really hot, but today is in the 60′s, and they’re calling for frost Thursday night.  Tomorrow I need to get out and pick what I want from our little garden, and decide what I want to cover up on Thursday night.

Fall is nearly upon us, and winter’s not far off.  Maybe then I’ll have some time to do some quilting and get my Union loom, warped up!

What’s been going on with you all this summer?  Leave a comment, and let’s all get caught up.

Andrew at the Eben Ice Cave

Yesterday was a beautiful, sunny day.  And it was somewhat warm, with temperatures in the mid-20′s.  This felt like a heat wave after several days earlier in the week when the temperature barely struggled to five degrees!

Of course, any time it warms up during the winter, any red-blooded Yooper will find something to do outdoors.  Since the last adventure Andrew and me had was in October (when we climbed Hogback Mountain and visited the Lily Pond), we decided to take advantage of the nice weather and go to visit the Eben Ice Cave.

This is a little waterfall in the summer, but it freezes into spectacular walls of ice in the winter months.  We’d been hearing about it since we moved here two years ago, so off we went!

Footbridge over creek - Eben Ice Cave

It’s a bit of a trek to get there; you have to drive down to Eben, a little town about 30 miles southwest of Marquette.  Then you hike in.  The walk itself is gorgeous, through the winter woods.  This little footbridge is part of the trail.

View of small waterfall from footbridge

The last part of the trail was up and down.  We both had our ice grippers on our boots, and it was a good thing we did.  It was SLICK!  I slid down a couple of spots on my bottom.

Just before you get to the ice cave, the trail is VERY steep and slippery.  Add at least 75 people into the mix, and a half dozen dogs, and it was pretty exciting, with dogs and kids running and sliding everywhere.

Click on the pictures to make them bigger.  If you click twice, they get much larger, so you can see the details.

A frozen waterfall is a spectacular sight.  If you ever make it up the UP during the winter, don’t miss it!

Andrew in front of the ice cave.

Me standing by the entrance to the ice cave

Andrew inside the ice cave. You can walk completely behind the ice and come out on the other side. I chickened out, as there was a sheet of ice on the floor. (Ha, he looks like an alien with those glowing eyes!)

Giant icicles by the entrance to the ice cave. You can see where the water froze as it ran down.

Waterlily leaves floating in the water

This is the time of winter when you think it’s NEVER going to get warm again.  Summer’s warmth seems like a distant memory as the wind howls, the temperature sinks to single digits, and the snow flies past the window… This picture I took last fall is a reminder that warmer days will return, and sooner than I think.

Just got off the phone with my mom.  Yesterday was her 90th birthday.  She lives in Florida with my sister, Sue, and my brother-in-law, Chip.  Chip is getting rid of their land line, so my mom now has her own cell phone, and her very own phone number.  She was so cute, describing how Chip had put my phone number into her phone, and all she had to do was push a  button, and it would scroll to my number, and she could call me just like that!

Poor Mom, she wanted to give me her new phone number, but I told her I had caller ID, and I’d get her new number off my phone.  She wasn’t too sure about that, but I finally convinced her it would work just fine (and it did).

It’s funny, I spend so much time online goofing around with my blogs, and writing articles, that sometimes I forget  how much I’ve managed to learn in the past few years.  But I guess I’m still a bit technologically challenged, too.  My cell phone is a TracPhone, which I’m perfectly happy with.  I don’t text, or do instant messages, or have a data plan on my cell phone, so I guess I’m still living in the stone age as far as that goes!

I’m taking a freelance writing course online, so I spent the morning working on setting up my website for my writing business.  (You can check it out at DarleneNorris.com, if you want, although there’s not much on it yet, other than my resume.)  I was checking my links to make sure they all worked, and discovered that one of my blogs was down.  Sigh.  I deleted a bunch of old stuff the other day, and apparently deleted a little too much!

Oh well, I wanted to update it anyway.  So I had to get busy and get it back up, since that particular site is a pretty good money-maker for me.  It’s up and running again now, although it still needs a little tweaking.  But since my brain is pretty much mush right now, I think that’s a chore for either tonight or tomorrow.

Haven’t done a lot of weaving lately.  I finally finished up the burgundy shawl, and it’s off the loom.  The fringe is twisted on one end, but I still have to do the other end.  It’ll get done in the next few days, hopefully.  It’s flung over the back of the rocking chair in the living room, so it can remind me that it’s still not done.  Soon, soon.

Andrew and me at the top of Hogback Mountain last fall

It’s been a pretty low-key week.  Nothing major to report, just life going along as it usually does, which is nothing to complain about!

Andrew’s birthday was Wednesday.  He hit the big 50.  Of course, I had to tease him about entering “coothood”, as in “old coot”!

I read an interesting blog post from Seth Godin the other day that got me thinking.  It’s entitled Obedience and the GPS:

Waves crashing into the rocks at Picnic Rocks

It’s been snowing on and off all day, but I decided to go for a quick walk this afternoon.  I tend to hibernate indoors during the winter months, so I have to force myself outside sometimes.

I’m checking my neighbor’s house every day while she’s out of town just to make sure her furnace is still working.  (It went out on her a couple years back, and her pipes nearly froze before she got home.)  While I was out there, I did some strategic shoveling so Andrew would have a path to the garage if he needed something out there.  It was quite pleasant outdoors, so I grabbed my camera, and off I went.

The wind always blows harder by the lake, and it was blowing pretty hard out there today.  It certainly was NOT pleasant over there!

Wind blowing snow across the bike path

I wandered down the bike path, with the wind howling at my back.  This almost looks like a black and white picture, except for the red poles they put up so they’d know where to plow when the snow gets deep.  The round things are tires, part of some playground equipment.  If you click on the picture, you can enlarge it so you can see the waves on Lake Superior in the background.

My hands were freezing, but I wanted to get the last picture of the Marquette Lighthouse off in the distance.  It was snowing pretty hard by then.  I snapped it quick and got my gloves back on.  Just in that short amount of time, my hands were numb.  It took quite a bit of moving them around inside my gloves to get them warmed up again.

Marquette lighthouse with waves in foreground

The wind dropped off as I moved away from the shore, so I wandered down the bike path a little ways.  It was tempting to take my usual walk, but I was worried about walking into the wind on the way home, so I cut it short.  Good choice, as I was ready to go into my nice warm house when I got home.  But I enjoyed my adventure out in the snowstorm.

Newest weaving project using recycled yarn

It’s pretty quiet on the homefront today.  Andrew is off to his men’s group this morning, so I have the house to myself for a couple of hours.

Got a new project on my rigid heddle loom this week.  I really do like this loom.  It does have its limitations, but as long as I’m willing to work within them, we get along very well.  Of course, I’m always trying to push the envelope a little, so there are times when we don’t see eye to eye!

If I stick to warps that are 2-1/2 to 3 yards long, I run into a lot fewer problems.  I know people put longer warps on their rigid heddle looms, but this seems to work best for me.  This loom is so easy to warp that warping often isn’t really a chore.

This warp is a combination of recycled yarn from two different sweaters.  One is the cotton/ramie yarn that I overdyed a few weeks back.  The other is a slubby cotton/ramie/nylon blend that’s just a little lighter in color.  I’m using two strands of the fine cotton/ramie yarn, and one strand of the slubby yarn for both warp and weft.  Using the yarns together is giving the piece a lot more texture and interest than just using one, so I’m very happy with how this handwoven shawl is coming out.

It’s snowy and blustery today.  The Weather Service started out calling for at least a foot of snow, but they’ve backed off that somewhat, with maybe six inches forecast.  A minor flurry for up here!  The City of Marquette does a great job of keeping the streets plowed, although the roads are probably a little slick.

This is great weather for staying in and weaving, taking apart sweaters, and winding yarn into balls.  It’s also great for making bean or split pea soup and baking muffins.  Somehow I just don’t get into making bread much anymore, but muffins are so quick and easy to do.  And they bake quickly, too.  I’ve been experimenting with using different herbs and spices, and adding stuff like cranberries, blueberries, raisins, or black olives.  It’s a lot of fun, and even the ones don’t quite work are still good.  I haven’t had to throw anything out in the back yard for the birds to eat yet.  Of course, Andrew loves it!

I’ve been experimenting with focaccia bread, too.  Got a recipe off the internet that I’ve only made once, but it was a great success.  I think I’ll made it for lunch today, with some pizza toppings on it this time.  It’s a yeast bread, but it’s very easy and only takes about an hour to do.

Well, I’m off to the kitchen to get my focaccia bread going!

Andrew reassembling one of the harnesses

I am so blessed to be married to this wonderful man.  He’s been happily working away on repairing my Union loom, even taking time away from the important task of getting ready to go fishing!

In this picture, he’s reassembling one of the harnesses.  He had already repaired the many holes in the bottom caused by the eyehooks repeatedly breaking off.  He even got the old broken pieces out so they won’t be in the way when he puts the brackets on the bottom.

He used dowel pieces to fill in the holes, glued them in, sawed them off, and then sanded it smooth.  I need to get a picture of the bottom of the harness.  He did a beautiful job.  I’m not a carpenter, so I’m just in awe of all this stuff.

While he was working on the harnesses, he noticed how rusty the metal frames were.  They were bent out of shape, and the screws holding them in were rusty.  Plus they were loose, and weren’t holding the wood well anymore.  So he took the harnesses apart, and repaired and reinforced the wood.  Then he straightened, sanded, and repainted the metal frames.  Finally he put it together again, with new screws.  This loom will be better than new when he gets done.

I ordered a new reed, and it came last week.  We’re getting closer to putting my baby together now.  Andrew still wants to repair the warp beam.  Where the crank handle goes in, the wood is breaking apart.  He wants to fix that too, as he says it will only get worse if he doesn’t.  Plus a few of the dowels on the sectional beam have broken off over the years, and he wants to replace them.  He’s genuinely enjoying this project, and is looking forward to seeing me weaving on the old Union.  I suspect he’ll probably try his hand at it, too.

Andrew was a structural aircraft mechanic in the Marine Corps, so he’s very good at this kind of thing.  He used to take jet aircraft apart, repair them, and put them back together, so this is a piece of cake for him.  He thinks he may have found his calling as a loom fixer-upper!  Seriously, he said he’d like to try building a loom next winter.  Hee, hee, I think I can find some plans for him!

Boye Electric Yarn Winder--don't bother getting one

I have to say that this could be a very useful piece of equipment, but unfortunately, it’s not!  In fact, I would go so far as to say not to waste your money on it.

It’s completely underpowered.  The motor on it must be tiny.  It howls and whines, even at low speeds, and doesn’t even have enough oomph to pull skeined yarn off the swift.

I would return the thing, but I made the mistake of throwing away the box and packing material, since I had the quaint notion that it would actually work.  Andrew said he’d take a look at it and see what he can do.  He said it just might need a little oil someplace.

If not, I’m going to look for a used sewing machine motor with a foot control.  I really dislike the rheostat speed control.  For one thing, you have to let go of what you’re doing to turn it off if you get a tangle.  Plus, it seems like the rheostat turns the wrong way to me.  This could just be a left-handed thing, but instead of turning it down or off, I manage to speed it up instead, which REALLY makes it howl!

If anyone can make this thing work properly, my wonderful husband Andrew can.  He can do amazing things.  However, if you don’t have a handy husband around, don’t waste your money on this yarn winder.