Wisconsin Or Bust

When we moved into the house, there were utility locates all over.  Paint and flags and such.  They dug up a few places at either end of the street, did their work and then left, never digging up where they had marked on our property.  A week later, the "Road Closed" signs went up at both ends of our street.  This was like, June.  And nothing happened. We were wondering if we got away easy.     Until last week.   Suddenly we are a hive of activity.     The first day, they dug up all the sod along the street.  They put up temporary mail boxes at both ends of the street, and the post office left us a notice about where to go to get mail, and that packages would be held at the PO.   Now the pavement is completely gone.  As time has gone by this week, the construction zone has gotten more and more torn up.  Pipes laid out everywhere.  Giant concrete culverts are stacked along the way.  Man holes s...

First, the first installment in the story on how we came here.......  The Idea.  The very idea! There we were.  Sitting in our living room on Kinsey Ave. in Kremmling, Colorado.  Circa 2017...ish.  I'm not entirely sure on the date.   Bryan had been working for the grocery store for roughly five years.  I had been with the paving company for 2 years, and I was off for the season.  (As you know, I had four months out of each year off, Thanksgiving through the 3rd week of April, every winter.) Bryan was working too hard.  His arthritis had been in remission, but was starting to creep back in.  He was stressed and tired and sick and cold and discouraged.   I had done a little research about retirement and what we needed to do to get ready.  So of course my "feed" online had retirement stuff in it.  An article popped up about the 10 best states to retire to.  Hmm, I thought.   We had started to feel li...

 First an update: We are still fighting that John Deere.  It sucks that we paid so much money for the darn thing, and have had so many problems with it.  Reminds us of Gina's Neon.  It had one failed sensor after another.  This one has one failed safety switch after another.  We are putting some more switches in it this week, so we will see if we get anywhere.   Bryan is looking for substantial snow removal tools and methods.  It's a long sloping driveway, so we will need reliable and easy snow removal, or my car will never make it out of the garage in the winter.  Now that I know I have to work, it's a critical issue.   We got the raised beds delivered.  Some assembly required.  We are about half way through putting them together.  So stay tuned.   Bryan put up shelves pretty much everywhere!  He put me a set of shelves and a closet rod in the laundry room.  He put up that old set of coat hoo...

 An update: We are of course working.  No time for either of us to do anything extracurricular.  But Bryan is getting a few things worked on, since he doesn't leave home until 10am each morning.   I got a bunch of stuff unpacked.  Started on loading my bookcases in the living room.  Found one box of oil lamps and put them on the mantle.  Found my good storage shelf until.  It will go in the "green room".   I did end up getting July 5th off, which gave me a four day weekend.  So I'm taking this time to catch up.  I'm hoping to come up with a better plan to keep on top of things, because work is literally kicking my butt!  I will try to work on my office stuff and blogs at night after supper from my couch.  Hoping that works out better.   We are officially Wisconsin residents.  Well, only Bryan is, for real.  Last week, Bryan was able to get Wisconsin plates on all our vehicles.  He got his...

 Sorry, not much to add this week.  We have been working, dodging rain, and just maintaining the status quo until we feel like our schedules seem normal.  We got the grass mowed during a little window between downpours.  We have giant weeds...or they could be nice plants.  We don't know.  We have never seen some of these plants, so don't know what they are and if they should be pulled, weed-whacked, or just left to grow.   I have the 4th of July off (but not the 5th, like everyone else) so I'm going to weed my flower bed, and maybe try to get my deck washed off.  I will use the hose nozzle we bought.  Water pressure out there isn't great, but it can be done.    We don't have a pressure washer.  We were going to use our big rebate from the appliances at Menards to get it.  But our closest one does not have the model we want.  For some reason we can't use the rebate money to have one shipped.  Full price plus ...

 Yay! Finally after 2 months of being here, I got a paying job!  I will be working as an office assistant at a landscaping business, Custom Caretaking and Landscaping, in Arbor Vitae, Wisconsin.  (Don't ask me how to pronounce it.  The lady there said is just like the arbor vitae plant....which I've never heard of either! hahaha.  I guess it's are burr vite ee. ) .  Anyway, it's about a 1 hour commute each way, but that was the only downfall.  It was the best-paying job I applied for, and it's just office work, no huge responsibilities, no working on my feet, just putting my head down and working until I can retire.  Relatively easy but a little challenging.  The people are super nice.  I'm pretty happy about it.  Oh, and it's Mon-Fri 8am-5pm.   Bry is settling into Pick-n-Save.  He likes the people, and the work isn't too hard on him.  He's working a split shift, so he doesn't have to get up too early, and ...

 Between issues with the John Deere and all the rain we've been having, it was super tough to get in and get that giant lawn mowed.  But we did it!  It is all mowed up, at least for now.   Bryan has come to the conclusion that we have to use John Deere belts, and not an aftermarket one.  But he's still having issues.  It's all the safety switches.  There are bunches of them!  To get the tractor to work (AND WE DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS) Bryan hardwired past the safety switch on the seat.  Unfortunately there are several more and it's hard to tell which one is failing.  So, we are back to tractor not starting again.   So, news in general:  I forgot to report on the GIANT snapping turtle in the Wildlife Report!  We saw that sucker on the 3rd day we were here!  Coming back from our first house showing, which was east of Park Falls, it was in our lane of the county road.  It was about the size of a large pizza,...

 First of all, general updates: Dishwasher and disposal are installed and operational!  All plumbing and electrical working smoothly.  I have run the dishwasher twice, and all seems to be working just great!   Now Bryan has to rebuild the cupboard and drawer.  Then I can do more unpacking! Speaking of unpacking, another load of spent cardboard went to the recycle place this week.   Parts are here to fix the John Deere.  But SOMEBODY has been at work the past couple days, so he won't get it fixed until HIS weekends (Monday/Tuesday for now).  It's so nice that he's working!  Takes the edge off our worries! No rototilling yet.  Too wet.  On Tuesday night 5/21, there was the crazy continuous thunderstorm, and it rained buckets...and buckets.....and buckets.  It didn't let up for maybe 3 hours or so.   I went to the first Farmer's Market of the season on Wednesday 5/22.  It's like 3 blocks from our house....

 Lots of things happening at the Homestead Act. That's what we have been calling it lately.  We are kind of acting like we are homesteading, with .75 of an acre, which is probably all we can handle at our age.  We wanted to homestead, but it wasn't really in the cards.  However, we are doing it to a certain extent, and we wanted a name that nods to it being a homestead, but not a real homestead.  So....Homestead Act.  Catchy?  Not sure.  Comment your opinions.  On Monday, 5/6, Bryan took a load of broken-down boxes to the transfer station. (once again, we don't have a county landfill or a dump.  It all gets trucked somewhere.)  He loaded it in the car because they charge less, and he didn't want to have to cover the load.  Seen below.  You can see we have unpacked a lot! On Tuesday 5/7, we went to Hill City, Minnesota, almost 4 hours away from Park Falls, to pick up a rototiller,   We bought it on Facebook for ab...

 Since I last wrote, here's an update: We got the "credenza" for the TV, assembled it, and put the TV on it.  We think it looks good.   To me, it looks a little "fat guy in a little boat" because the TV wider than the table.  But we liked this one.  It's actually a coffee table.  We wanted a longer one, but the price of tables went up considerably as they got longer.  So, this is what we ended up with.  I like it.  It goes with our mismatched farmhouse chic!  We decided to place the TV there because that's where the cable ended up for the internet.  So...that's where it goes for now.   And now for the BIG NEWS! We are done with Tomah!  We got the storage unit emptied out and swept on Saturday.  Ya, we know, we should have gotten it done before May 1, so we didn't have to pay rental for May.  But we just didn't have it in us.  Remember, we are old, and at times have been sickly.  And because we...