BLIZZARD!

SNO-M-G! We got a record breaking amount of snow! It was fun for the first few minutes and then we realized that we had nowhere to actually put the snow. We literally have run out of places to shovel it!

Here is what we were doing the night before the blizzard. Notice the lack of knee-deep snow.And this is us half-way through the blizzard, optimistically hoping that if we start shoveling right away we won't have to shovel as much later on. It was a valiant effort but the snow was no match for us trying to be practical.

Oh, winter.

Neighborhood

I just discovered today that we have a community center in our neighborhood! I can't believe that we have been here a year and a half and are now just discovering this! I am super excited because I had been wanting to join the YMCA again but it is so expensive and we only use it once a week if we are lucky. Now me and Nick can go to open swim and I can take free Zumba classes again! They also have a Spanish conversation circle for beginners and people who want to learn Spanish. I think I like our neighborhood even more now!

It is so nice to find things to do in the winter. We spend so much of our summer outside and taking walks in the park, so it is great to find a balance now that we can't be outside all the time! If only I had a greenhouse so I could do some winter gardening... hint hint, Nick, hint hint! At least now we can take classes to fill our time as we wait for Spring!

Moving on UP!

It has been an exciting few months! Nick just got a new job where he can actually use the degree he worked five long years on! Nick got a job as a Tech Writer at LSS Data Systems. I will make him blog about what he does in his job since he hasn't updated our blog in a while! He loves his new job and I am so proud of him! He gets to wear a suit sometimes and not get all dirty and dusty like in his old job!

We also have speech starting up so we are going to be busy, busy, busy for the rest of the winter. Hopefully the winter will go by fast because come spring we will be nearing the final countdown of our big day!

The Westside

After a year of living at Winifred Manor we have started to venture outside our weekend projects and constant yard work and into the neighborhood! We attended a block club party at our neighbor's house earlier in the month and attended one of our first neighborhood meetings! Going to the block meeting really affirmed our decision to move to the west side. Our neighbors are all so great! They really love the neighborhood and want it to be a great place to live. Some of our neighbors have had families living here for over one hundred years so it is really neat to hear the history of the neighborhood and try to imagine what it was like a century ago! Apparently there used a be a street car that came up from the Mississippi River into our neighborhood a long time ago, and the intersection closest to us was where they had to turn it around to help it up the hill. I really want to find old pictures now! I am such a geek. I love history!

We couldn't have picked a better neighborhood or moved here at a better time! Now that we aren't always working on the house it is nice to go for walks around the neighborhood and say hi to the neighbors!

Our Kittens! Meow!

We are officially a four-cat household... our cat to people ratio has dramatically shifted!

We would like to introduce you to Shyla and Professor Catsby!

We wanted to adopt one of the kittens we had found and decided on the runt and little girl of the litter, Shyla. After moving Professor from the shed to the bathroom, and then after his brother, Charcoal aka Harry, was adopted, he seemed so lonely. We couldn't keep him quarantined in the bathroom, so we decided that although we had a household of female cats, that he could survive their domain!

He had always been the shy one, but really all he wanted was love. Shyla really missed her brother and they are such great buddies now!

Purrky and Smudgee have done so much better with the new kittens than I thought! They hiss every once in a while but are overall tolerant of the kittens and their mischief!

Pets for Adoption!

We still have Professor Catsby waiting to be adopted. He's very shy at the moment, but also very very fuzzy. I'm positive he will make an excellent cat in a good home.

If anyone wants him, please contact us.

In other news, we visited the Flugtag down on Harriet Island and witnessed the record setting flight by Major Trouble and the Dirty Dixies! The event was free and a lot of fun, save for the sun burn many of our friends received.

In other news, by this Thursday the topper will be chopped up and hauled away by the garbage man. I'm excited to have a good portion of our lawn back.

Winifred Manor's Many, Many Pets!

From birds enjoying our feeders, to mice that used to inhabit the house, to caterpillars we have raised and released back into the wild as butterflies, Winifred Manor has a lot of critters! The other day we even found a baby raccoon skittering through our yard. Our indoor pet, Purrky and Smudgee did not appreciate that very much. We even have had a skunk or two! For the city we sure do have a lot of wild life! I like to think of them as my own outdoor pets- well, maybe not the skunk!

I was outside gardening instead of working, which happens from time to time, and I see a little orange head with perked up ears dart behind the shed. I got really excited and thought we might have a baby fox! I am not sure why this excited me, but I was obviously going to go look. Instead of a fox, I found a litter of kittens!

After a few failed attempts at capturing the kittens, and learning that Mama Kitten is very friendly and loveable, we managed to get the kittens moved into the shed with the clever ploy of one of the kittens in a carrier to help Mama move everyone toward her trapped kitten. Mama Cat found a home at my mom's house and one of the orange kittens was adopted out.

Now we have three kittens to find home for- the fourth, a little torti is going to join our home in a week!

Anyone want a kitten? We have a black/gray guy named Charcoal, a shy, fuzzy fuzzy fuzzy orange guy named Professor Catsby and a very playful, roly poly guy who is orange and white named Little Rascal.

A Vacation from Winifred Manor

Me and Nick just got back from a fantastic vacation to Southern California to see our friends, Sigrid and Dan get married in Long Beach! We had such a great time! We flew in on Thursday morning and arrived on the Queen Mary. The Queen Mary is an old ship that they docked and turned into a hotel. It is 1 1/2 Titanic's long! We explored the boat including going on a ghost tour. We headed to San Marino to attend the Groom's Dinner and drove through Pasadena. The next day we went to Malibu and drove the Pacific Coast Highway. Our friend Julie was also with us and took some fabulous pictures! We had so much fun playing in the waves!

We attended the beautiful wedding and enjoyed dancing the night away on the boat. We went to Disneyland the next day and then made our way to Beverly Hills! We ate lunch at the Ivy where all the stars eat, shopped Rodeo Drive and went to Hollywood to Grauman's Chinese Theater and the Hollywood Walk of Fame!

We had such a great trip but it is good to be back! My garden was out of control with weeds so since I took the entire week off for vacation I spent the last few days doing nothing but weeding! Hopefully we can then enjoy the beautiful yard over the beautiful weekend before heading back to work!

Fourth of July!

The fourth of July was another successful celebration at Winifred Manor! We enjoyed the amazing fireworks from the High Bridge with the Mississippi River and skyline as a backdrop!



Happy Birthday to Nick! What another great year!

Tying the Knot!

On June 11th, 2010 in Duluth, MN, Nick finally popped the question! And of course my answer was yes! After eight years together we are finally getting married! Now begins the crazy adventure of planning a wedding!

Check out More Pictures HERE!

Check out our page on The Knot to hear the whole story! We might start a blog there as well!

Our baby chickadees!

As we were putting up our retaining wall we noticed a black capped chickadee flying in and out of a bird house we had sitting next to our back steps, waiting to be put up when we had more time. Nick went over and found baby chickadees who had just hatched!

It was so much fun to watch the mommy and daddy chickadee fly back and forth between the yard and the bird house with warms and other treats for their babies.

When they left the nest one of the babies got stuck behind some discarded fencing. Me and Nick spent the evening trying to help him learn to fly! We succeeded though and he finally made it to the bushes where the rest of his family was!

Garden: 2010

Here is a list of all of the plants we have in our garden this year! I tried to start my seeds early by hot housing them in a mini greenhouse. Some of them worked out great! The kohlrabi, corn, peas and beans worked great! After three tries I got the cucumber seedlings ready (I burnt the first two). None of my flowers worked either. The seedlings I did grow and trasnplant did great. I also bought all my tomatoes and peppers from my neighbors plant sale!

Here is the list:

Tomatos (apprx. eight different varieties)
Peppers (apprx. five different varieties)
Kohlrabi
Onions
Sweet Corn
Strawberries
Zucchini
Cucumbers
Peas
Beans
Pumpkins
Basil
Cilantro
Carrots
Raspberries
Rhubarb
Blackberries
Chives
Spearmint
Rosemary
Sage
Oregano



Mmmmmm, mmmmm, mmmmmm! I cannot wait until everything starts to produce!

Retaining Wall

I took vacation Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of this week and erected a retaining wall.

Although I'm not finished yet, one wall is standing, and hopefully by Sunday the other half of the project will be as well.

I'd just like to thank everyone that helped on the project. I could not have been done without you.

Our First House-iversary!

One year ago today we bought our house!

Happy House-iversary to us! Our Realtor even sent us an anniversary card!

I am not sure what we will do to celebrate, but I am sure we will come up with something!

I bought manure today! And it made me happy.

Thank you Mother Nature for the most gorgeous, early Spring! Before the snow even melted I already had tulips sprouting from the bulbs I planted in the Fall. Everything is twice as big as it was last year at this time when we bought our house! I remember uncovering the beginnings of Lily's of the Valley and hostas, and as of right now they are at least 3-5 inches tall!

I began two, mini, indoor greenhouses to start my seedlings. Wow, did that thing work fast! I planted everything last Sunday and by this Sunday some of the plants were too tall for the clear plastic top. I have planted corn, cucumbers, beans, peas, sunflowers, kohlrabi and a mixture of flowers. I can't wait to get them in the garden! I also have carrots and onion bulbs to plant.

Me and Nick spent this evening tilling the vegetable garden and raking in manure. I never in my life thought that I would have to buy manure or be excited about it. Oh, the life of a gardener! We have a super busy weekend ahead of us, so hopefully by the middle of next week some of my seedlings that are getting too big for their containers will get put in the ground- especially the corn.

I am trying so hard to take it slow and wait, but I don't want to! My garden is at least six times bigger this year than last years already and I have never started so many things from seed before! At least this year I won't have 22 tomato plants. I hope that these seedling live, because if they do I will have so much variety in my garden.

Nick also started his yard project: the grass. We have a lot of new places to grass now that the pea-gravel pit is gone. Nick is really excited to start using his push mower again!

We have also started the process of finding a contractor for our driveway. Ugh. I already know this project will make me very cranky. I hate trying to get bids because I feel like I never know what I am talking about and I know that concrete is insanely expensive. But it needs to be done and once it is done we can put in the retaining wall which means a space for lovely flowers!

Winifred Manor's gone to the birds!

Springtime sure has brought a lot of birds! We have been refilling out feeders almost everyday! The gold finches are always coming and the woodpeckers are also being seen more frequently (even thought they are here all winter).

Today we saw this guy, a red-bellied woodpecker (not my picture as my camera battery and card have mysteriously vanished, thanks to me putting it somewhere "safe")! Isn't he gorgeous! We always see downy woodpeckers and hairy woodpeckers but this was our first sighting of this guy in a long time!

We have had a lot of Dark-eyed Juncos, Robins, Black-capped Chickadees and European Starlings. We are trying to add a variety of seed to attract other birds as well!


I love Spring and I love my yard and my birds!


Photo credit: http://hillsteadblog.wordpress.com

Spring at Winifred Manor!

The official first day of spring doesn't start until March 21st. However, yesterday was what I would like to call the first day of spring at Winifred Manor. I hope that by calling it spring preemptively that Mother Nature will be happy and decide not to send a cold snap, April Showers will come earlier than expect and March will leave like a the lamb it started out as instead of as a lion.

I know I shouldn't be getting the garden ready yet, but I did survey the yard, which is surprisingly without snow. In the process of gathering pots that were left in strange places and were then buried by the snow, and filling the bird feeders, I noticed something happy! During the fall I planted tulip bulbs in the front garden and I saw that they are beginning to sprout! This made me look even closer at the garden to see that the Lily's of the Valley and some of my other perennials are starting to wake up too! So to celebrate that it is time to garden soon, I bought a new bird feeder!

We also went on a hike at Battle Creek Regional park. It was a little muddy but got me excited to start going hiking with Nick over the weekends.

I am going to keep my fingers crossed that it stays above freezing. I am also going to finally order my vegetable seeds from my mail order catalog. I want to start them inside and transplant them outside starting mid-May.

Oh, Gardening season! I am so excited to see you again!

A laundry room you can actually WALK IN! Well, almost

Our laundry room upstairs is the greatest thing because we never have to haul laundry up and down the stairs and I never have to go into the basement like we did at Bay Street. Of course this doesn't mean that I do my laundry any more frequently (because I hate folding and hanging up clothes). We also can't really get into the laundry room. Our washer and dryer unit is placed smack-dab in the middle of the laundry room which leaves no room for cleaning products, baskets or a utility tub (which will be our next project... that and the dishwasher... which will be a HUGE project).

So we finally decided to do something about it. Well, I decided. Nick and his dad did the rest. I did pay for it though, so I think that is an adequate enough contribution. After two trips to Menards (man, did I miss that place!) and a few hours we realized WHY the old owners never moved the laundry machine where it should have been... and that reason was that it was a pain in the butt. We managed to re-vent everything and move it from the middle of the room, but it didn't quite get to go against the wall and is now at a 45 degree angle. The duct work needed to be longer so for now we can at least WALK into the room and use the shelves that were hidden behind the washer/dryer when it was in the middle of the room. The vent out the window is also a lot cleaner looking. We will finish the project later after speech is done.
More will come. Maybe even from Nick since he technically did the project. As well as pictures... soon. Maybe. If I can get my camera to work. Or find the battery. I promise. Really.

Busy, busy, busy

Me and Nick apologize for not updating our blog for the past few months!

We have both been super busy coaching Speech at Eastview High School. Nick has been coaching four kids in the category of Creative Expression (the category we were both in when we were speechies oh-so-long-ago) and I have been coaching seven kids, six of them in the category of Original Oratory and one in Poetry. We have had a lot of fun coaching but it has eaten up a lot of our weekday nights and every Saturday since the end of January. I started the season even earlier and began coaching some of the traveling team starting in the fall. This is my second year and Nick's first year coaching.

We put a lot of our household projects on hold, but are starting up again and will start posting pictures (if I can get my camera to work after an incident involving my camera, a can of pop and the explosion of said can of pop in a vinyl purse).