Home again... holidays almost over.

We had a quiet Christmas.  Decided on a trip into Minneapolis and booked  the Raddison hotel for Xmas Eve and day. Although it was quiet, we managed to be busy for several days including visits with Annie and Greg, Cam and Cassie and the kids.  We visited a couple of museums, ate a wonderful meal at "Moscow on the Hill", and spend a day snowshoeing with Sarge, Annie + Greg, and their friends Molly and Mark.

On the way home.. well sort of on the way, we stopped into Julie's mom and dads to visit with them and Tom. We spent the night there visiting, playing cards, eating.. and just having a nice quiet time.

It was a good holiday..  curling has started again, and we have to decide if we're doing anything for New Years or just staying in as the house is very cozy and baby, it's cold outside!

Life is Good...

Christmas with Julie's gang..

This past weekend we celebrated xmas with Julie's kids... minus Jill and Josh..  and "the girl" and "the boy"... of course.. if we were to take bets on a date for the twins birth.. I'd say Christmas day might not be a bad choice... but we'll see.  It's getting closer and closer..

I took random photos of the gang this weekend...  I didn't get any pics of the Bentlyville excursion... because someone had to volunteer to stay home and look after the house and the dog and since I am a registered and somewhat capable "house carer".. well it had to be me that passed on a fun fun fun trip to take the responsibility...  SIGH...

A fun weekend.. I missed my kids.. my grandkids... but will see them soon I hope..

Life is Good.

Today's view....

A laker sliding into port... cutting through the fog/steam that has been floating over the lake for the past week or so...

Nice.... Life is Good.

Views from the back deck... (cont'd)

We continue to enjoy nature at its best, simply by looking out of our deck at the rear of the house...

The other morning, the steam was rising off the lake and as the sun cleared the steam clouds, it looked like the lake was on fire... sometimes you just have to stop what your doing and enjoy the scenery!

Our neighbor Terry told Jewels the other day that there was a young buck that seems to have taken up residence in our back yard.  I was looking out back as part of my scouting mission to watch for squirrels trying to invade my feeders when - yes - our friend strolled through the back yard.  About 20 minutes later, a young doe wandered through.  Hmmmmm... peut-etre nous avions le petite faon frolicing devant en printemps.

Now... whatever did I do with that wonderful venison stew recipe?

Life is Good!

This almost qualifies me as an artist...

I just finished my second stained glass piece today.  After doing the original beginners class last winter, I decided to re-do the beginners class (B Coz I forget stuff easily) and do a piece that I found that both Jewels and I liked... It is about 10" high and 14" wide...

Soooooo....

It turned out well.. the upper part of the raven is a translucent glass that changes shades depending on the background and angle that you are looking at it..

Me happy with it.. Life is Good!

it snowed, and it snowed, and it blowed, and it blowed....

A huge snow storm the past 2 days... about 25 inches of snow and with the wind howling, we drifted in big time here... today was a great day... shoveling and shoveling.. my truck is still stranded in the back lane with about 4 feet of snow behind it with no where to toss it...

My poor little birds were attacking the feeders today.. everything is covered with snow and no food to be had by my little friends.. tomorrow I gotta put lights on the tree on our deck.. after getting rid of the snow surrounding it... it looks Christmassy and that's real good...

in fact, Life is Good...

Thanksgiving weekend.

We just got back from a rather hectic Thanksgiving "tour".

Started out with a drive out to Bob and Judy's to spend Thanksgiving day with Julie's mom and dad, along with Scott, Tom, Tab and Annie and 2 of her boys, Dash and Chase (sounds like a track and field event!).  Of course, I didn't get around to taking my camera out so you-all will have to trust me that we ate a wonderful meal (Turducken) and had a great visit.

On Friday, we headed south.  There was a baby shower planned for Jill and Josh on Saturday so we decided to combine that lovely event with a visit to our great pals, Dan and Terri. Had a fun time and I even got to win at a game of OH HELL which is one of my favorite card games.

Saturday morning we headed over to Trimont to attend the shower.  Julie went with the gang to the church while a few of us boys hung out at Tim and Belva's farm watching college football and enjoying a lovely fall type day.

After the Shower, Julie and I headed to Fairmont and grabbed a room at the Holiday Inn which has a nice swimming pool.  Julie was soooo happy to host her kids and grand kids and we had a wonderful evening .. went out for a nice meal and Finley and Sienna had a great time in the pool.

After the swim(s), the kids all headed back to the farm.. Jewels and I flaked out fairly soon after and had a great sleep.  On Sunday, we headed back to Duluth (about a 5 hour drive), and are looking forward to a 15inch dump of snow in the next day or so.

All in all, a lovely weekend.. got to see a lot of good peeps, and....


Life is Good

Home again in Duluth... love our back deck...

I've been home in Duluth for about a week now.. not much happening to post here lately but..

In addition to Lake Superior and the many views of "salties" and "lakers" going by on a daily basis, there is a lot of other things that make the back deck a happy place.

Great sunrises this time of year...

Oh... and have I ever mentioned that I love my birds???

No wonder I can't get anything done around here...


Life is Good!

the day after...

We went out today to take a look at the damage from the surfacing yesterday.. surprise surprise .. it looked perfect.

We're very happy with the job.. everything looks great and it's amazing when vehicles roll over our asphalt.. it's so quiet compared to the road noise from the adjacent new hot mix lane.

Life is Good.

Missing my girls...

Been gone too long.... I'm so lucky to have these girls in my life...

Life is Grand...

Making History...

A very big day today for EZ Street Canada.  We installed about a half kilometer (2 lanes wide) of UVR asphalt.  This product is our patented cold asphalt that reflects off the sun's ultra violet rays which break down the asphalt cement that binds the whole product together.  The result is a surface that should not wear down, crack, or pothole - forever!  (Or at least a whole bunch of years)  A WHOLE BUNCH!

Anyways, the final product in it's natural color is a tan brown which will fade to more of a grey color and will also lighten up in color over a period of a few months.

As the day progressed, and the sun disappeared behind the cloud cover, the color of the roadway changed quite dramatically from tan brown (double double) to a grey shade.

Product went on smooth, no real problems, and open for traffic this evening.

Whoops.. Chris sent me a pic that he took the other day when we were checking out the site for the install.. intense... wet...  (behind the ears)

Life is Good!