My Eleven Blog Volumes

In order to preserve the blogs I have written for my family, I have had them made into hard cover books. We decided to do this in 2013. I explained how this happened in a blog called Making a Book of this Blog.  https://www.thecabincountess.com/2013/10/making-book-of-this-blog.html?m=1 If the website can't be accessed in the future or technology changes, a hard copy will exist.

My husband did the books. He spent hours, days and weeks getting the pictures positioned and the text to match. He had a table of contents and all the pages numbered. Although we had to change companies over the years, it was still an arduous job. 

The first books were made through an online company called Blurb. Originally you could just upload the blog and position as necessary. At some point they quit doing that and changed the format. From that change, all the photos would be uploaded and the text was uploaded separately. It was really difficult to match them up so I had to find another company. I found two more companies. These required putting each blog post into a PDF file and then transfer and arrange into the book pages. It wasn't terribly difficult but very time consuming. 

Although Mike wrote all the instructions for making a book down, I found it difficult to remain interested. I like writing the blogs, but I did not like arranging it into a book. It didn't fit my personality. I either like doing something or I don't. I am too old to force myself to do anything. If I don't like a movie, I quit watching it. If I don't like a book after a hundred pages, I don't read it anymore. I either have a lot of patience or I have none depending on my interest in something. Because of this, I needed to find an easier way to make these books. I found a new company that makes books from blogs. It is called PixxiBook. You can control the cover color and text, the title page and the back cover. The rest is just uploaded from the blog as is. There is no rearranging photos or text, no table of contents or page numbers, but I didn't care. My main goal was getting the blogs into a hard copy. 

Mike would not be as happy with the final product. I admit some of the arrangements are confusing and out of order, but overall I think they turned out great. The paper is thick and the photos are crisp and clear. The book is high quality. 

I now have eleven volumes of my life from December 8, 2012 to December 22, 2024. Since I rarely blog anymore, it may take a while to get to #12. Hopefully this company will still be in business when I am ready.

Seamus Has Left The Building

It is always sad when an era comes to an end, but it is time. Many of you know we have celebrated our annual family St. Patrick's Day feast for many years. When Ewan my youngest grandchild was really little, he and grandpa would build leprechaun traps and try to catch the elusive little fella. I have probably written ten blogs about the meal and about Seamus our leprechaun. If you haven't read some of the stories, just type Leprechaun or St. Patrick's Day in the search box. 

Today we had our family feast. Every year I make more and more food because you just can't fill up these growing boys. Last year I make 12 pounds of corned beef, this year it was 17 pounds. Last year I made 3 racks of BBQ ribs, this year I made 4 racks. I did have too much meat but everyone was able to take a little home for leftovers. 

When the subject of Seamus came up, I had to make an announcement. This week in the mail I received a postcard to each of the grandchildren. I blocked out my address for obvious reasons but here are the messages. Seamus has flown the coop for greener pastures. He left his idyllic home in the woods to see the world. Ewan received the first postcard. It was from London.

The next card arrived for Jack. Jack was not feeling well today so he stayed home. For spring break they are going to North and South Carolina to do college visits. Jack has wanted to be a marine biologist ever since he was a small child and has been visiting a lot of interesting colleges that offer that curriculum. He wanted to rest and get healthy plus none of us wanted to get sick. His mom read his card on FaceTime and brought him home some food so he didn't miss out completely.

 

Sam received a special card from Giza. I was really happy to see Sam. He has been at college and came home for spring break. He will have an internship this summer and won't be living in the area. I'm proud of him but it will seem odd to not have him home.

 

 

Melissa is my only granddaughter. She is an adult with her own apartment and job. Throughout the years the older grandchildren played along with Ewan and his fascination with Seamus. Melissa is ten years older than Ewan but joined in the fun. She received a card as well.

 

 

And....the last postcard was for Dylan, Ewan's big brother. Dylan is also an adult and is finished with college. He has a good job and his own apartment. The fact he still wants to come and participate in this annual celebration makes me feel so happy. His card arrived from San Francisco, California.

None of us know if Seamus will ever return. As the song goes, "how ya going to keep them back on the farm (after they've seen Paree)? Well he has seen Paris, London, Egypt, Hawaii and California. Who knows what adventures await him. It's hard to say, but if and when that happens I will let everyone know. I am happy for his new life. Life is too short to put things off and now I know how to spell his name. It's not Shamus as I originally thought. He didn't say what to do with his belongings. Maybe I should put them in storage until we know for sure. 

Here are all his worldly possessions. I guess he didn't need any winter clothes. I won't say goodbye.

 Just, SEE YOU LATER!

Otters Playing in the Slough

I have already posted these photos on Facebook and a nature group I belong to, but I want this documented in my blog book. 

On February 25, 2025 I was about to make some supper. I looked out the window and directly down from my dining room window were two River Otters. They were playing and fishing. The temperature had warmed up during the previous week and there were several open areas where the ice had melted. 

I see otters a few times a year but these put on a really fun show.  They stayed for about 1 1/2 hours or more until it got too dark to watch. 

Is Spring on it's way, I hope so? Two days later on Thursday February 27, I spotted my first Sandhill Crane of the season. It was alone, but it will be followed by a few more very soon. 

Sometimes winters in Wisconsin seem never ending, but then hope comes. We had very little snow this winter and the temperatures were not as cold as they can sometimes be, but winter still feels very long especially when it gets dark by 4:00 pm .  Spotting otters, some migrating ducks and birds and the cranes are a gift. I saw a Common Merganser and heard some bluebirds. I haven't seen them yet, but I will. 

Don't Put Things Off

Somehow today I feel the need to write something. I am not sure what or why. To be honest one reason is that I am less than 7,000 views short of a million views. Maybe one more blog will bring me closer to that number. I have never monetized this blog so I have never made any money from it. Getting to 1,000,000 is just a personal goal. It has always been just a chronicle of my life over the past twelve years. During that time my parents and my husband have died and my grandchildren are grown up. I had so many opportunities to write about them growing up. Now I rarely know what is going on, but that is how it should be. I will always be grateful to have documented some special times with all of them. 

I still feel good for age 77. My biggest problem is that I know I can't do what I used to but I still want to. I get so antsy just sitting around. Everyday I want to do something because I know there will be days in the future that I won't be able to. It is frustrating though to think of that hourglass of time. Young people won't understand any of this. I sure didn't when my mother said "you don't know what it's like to be my age." I would say "oh mom, you're fine". And then one day she was gone. 

I researched trips today. I found an awesome trip to Fairbanks, Alaska to see the Northern Lights. They see them 99% of the time and even come to wake you up in the middle of the night if a particularly good one appears. Then I read the details, which sound fantastic, but I think I missed my window of opportunity. Activities like walking with reindeer through a birch forest or snowshoeing might just be a little too ambitious. I just took a walk on my snowy trail. I did fine but I knew I was close to home if I fell or got too tired. 

I found a beautiful train trip through the Canadian Rockies, but I have been on train trips and always swore I would never do it again. My body didn't stop moving for days after getting off the train. I can't imagine what would happen to me now. 

I would love to just take a trip to Cave Point County park in Door County Wisconsin or see the blue ice near Gills Rock but those are activities that need to be planned. Planning to see those things has to be spontaneous or lucky because in one day the event could disappear. Driving alone at my age isn't really a good idea either. I take drives around the area just to have a change of scenery but never too far from home.

Right now people and events are beyond anything I can comprehend. All this has caused them to be suspicious and not trusting of anything or anyone. The social media sites and the internet hasn't helped that situation. I was always such a logical concrete sequential person, but that is all out the window. Hopefully we can return to a kinder society or maybe I was naive and it never was, but I liked living with blinders on. 

As I sit here enjoying my view, I am more fortunate than most, I really am grateful. 

I guess you always want more time and excitement but ignore what is right in front of your eyes. I didn't know what I was going to write about today, but now I do. The message is "Don't Put Things Off". No matter what it is, do it now. If you want to sit and read for 12 hours, do it. If you want to take a 30 day cruise, do it. Make time to Love and Live and Appreciate. You won't regret it.

My Unexpected Adventures

Yesterday, January 25, 2025, turned out to be a very nice day. I love it when things just happen and work out. Long range plans are not for me. I think about it too often because I don't want to forget. I have to plan when to leave and should I eat first? What should I wear in case I get too warm or too cold. That's what happens when you are an over thinker like me. Some people love to have a planned schedule, but I like to wing it within reason. That doesn't mean I like chaotic situations or disorganization, I just like plans not too far in advance. I might get a better offer and then I am stuck with something I agreed to six months ago. 

Last Thursday my grandson Jack had a swim meet more than an hour away. His parents were both going, and I hadn't planned on it. A few minutes before they were going to leave, my son-in-law had an emergency to tend to. My daughter decided to drive alone. She called to tell me and I said I could go, all I needed was twenty minutes to get to a meeting spot 12 miles away. I went to the bathroom, brushed my teeth and put on my coat. In twenty minutes we had met and were on our way. I think I forgot to comb my hair, but I didn't care. I did overdress because pools are HOT and I didn't have time to consider that, but I stripped off a few layers and all was great. My daughter didn't have to drive home in the cold and dark alone which made me happy.

Since winters are quite long for me, I was also happy when two days later, my other daughter called. She wondered if I wanted to go to Green Bay. My youngest grandson had one of his paintings being displayed at the Neville Public Museum. It is Youth Art Month which is sponsored by the Council for Art Education. It features creative works from students in grades K through 12. Sixteen school districts in Northeast Wisconsin were represented at this location. It shows the value of art education for all kids and supports programs in Wisconsin schools. 

After having coffee and a sweet treat at a little coffee shop, we headed to the museum. First we went in to see Ewan's picture displayed and some other very good art presented there. It's is amazing the talent all children have. It just needs to be nudged out at times and nurtured. Of course Ewan lives and breaths fishing so a painting of a trout was the logical subject matter. For those of you who followed his Youtube channel called Old Time Skills when he was much younger, you can now see him tie flies for fly fishing. His Youtube channel is now called Old Time Skills Outdoors. You won't recognize him or his voice. He's 14 now and really good at it.

They have a lot of fun displays at the Neville Museum in Green Bay Wisconsin. We saw a replica of Lambeau Field constructed out of Legos, and we saw how chocolates were made. Ewan practiced being a weather man on a green screen and discovered it is much harder than it looks. Upstairs they had some of the old displays from the local Prange stores. Those stores were part of both my daughters' childhood. There were a lot of animal displays and old time vehicles. There was a cross section of a beaver lodge. It reminded me of the times I have watched beaver in my marsh. This is a blog I wrote about it in 2013. https://www.thecabincountess.com/2013/07/the-beaver-are-back.html As we were looking at the displays, we saw a bunch of people gathering at a big window. We laughed thinking these people were at a museum and all they were doing was looking out the window at the river. Then we discovered why. Apparently a man was trying to cross the ice on the river either to get to the other side or to run from something. A moving river isn't the safest right now and he slipped, slided and fell down several times. We joined the gawkers and were sure he was going to go through the ice. He made it and on the other side he was greeted by police and firefighters. They brought a ladder for him to crawl out and took him away. We haven't seen any details of this event, but you never know what you will see.

From the museum we went to a few stores my family needed to go to. I was fine walking around clutching my purse and looking like I was lost. I didn't buy anything, but it was exercise.

Our next stop was the Verizon store. I had needed a new phone but had avoided getting one. It is always such a pain to set it up and learn all the new features. I always put it off as long as I can. Since my grandson and son-in-law also needed new phones, we did it together. I got an iphone 16 and added a new iwatch as long as we were there. Hopefully these two pieces of technology will last me for as long as I need them. The phone is actually awesome and it has a longer zoom than my "good" camera. Many of you have seen so many pictures of the church across the river from my deck. I took this from the window. It looks much much closer than it is and pretty clear too. The iwatch has a crash feature besides getting messages, phone calls and Facetime. If I fall and can't call for help, the watch will call 911 for me and give coordinates. Living by myself, it seemed like a good idea. It takes EKG's which I was afraid to do, but I had a normal rhythm. It tracks sleep as far as awake time, REM, core and deep sleep. You can listen to music and a multitude of other things. I would never have thought growing up a million years ago that any of this is possible. Necessary, maybe not but pretty amazing.

We finally ended the adventure with a meal at a new place I had never heard of. I don't eat out much. It was called Freddies. It is a hamburger and ice cream joint with tiny little fries. It was good. 

Next we headed home. The next few hours weren't the best but we got through it. The person at Verizon said it was easy to transfer all our information from the old phones to the new phones. That was not the case. Because the phones were older or some other reason I am not capable to understand, the numbers didn't transfer. My daughter handled all of it so I can't give any details but eventually she spoke to a real person and got it figured out. It was such a relief.

I left my house at 10:00am and got home at 10:00pm. It was a great diversion. I try to be really independent but sometimes you just need your family.

Making Butter (again)

It is going to be a cold weekend. Bitter cold temperatures will start tomorrow, January 19, 2025 and continue until Wednesday. A lot of other things will happen in this time period too, but I will not mention or focus on that. If you read this in 2035, then Google (or whatever means of researching is happening in ten years) about a situation we are having now. You will probably just be able to think it, and the Wikipedia chip in your brain will know the answer but I digress.

Today I thought I would clean out the refrigerator and start fresh. I had soup that was past its prime and other things to sort through. I came across an unopened container of heavy cream. During the holidays I was going to make whipped cream for something and didn't. The container was not past the expiration date, but I sure didn't need a bunch of whipped cream. I could have eaten it from a bowl but knew it wasn't a smart idea. I decided to make it into butter rather than toss it in the trash.

I had blogged about making butter several years ago. Here is the link. https://www.thecabincountess.com/2016/11/make-your-own-butter.html I had purchased a little butter churn at the time. A lot of you know my youngest grandchild Ewan. He likes to experiment with making random things just like me, so I gave the churn to him a few years ago. Today I used my Kitchen Aid mixer. Not the authentic way to make butter, but today was about getting the job done and not acting like a pioneer. 

All it takes is pouring the cream into the mixing bowl, turning it on and letting it mix until you get butter. You drain off the buttermilk to use in something else. I think I will make bread. Next rinse the butter under cool water until it runs clear and add some salt which makes it taste better and preserves it some.

 I have a Butter Bell crock. It is a small crock where the butter is put in the top section and a small amount of water is put in the bottom. The top part with the butter packed inside is the lid. This keeps the butter fresh and makes it easy to spread. I put half of this batch into the bell and refrigerated the other half. I mentioned in the previous blog that 1 pint of cream makes one stick of butter (4 ounces). I got a little more this time. I got almost seven ounces. It still isn't very economical, but in this case I would have thrown it away. Now I have almost one half pound of butter to use up. I am a bit of a cheap skate so it works for me.

Now I have a clean refrigerator and I am ready to hunker down and ride out this weather. I have a lot of firewood so I might even make a fire in the fireplace. Right now it looks beautiful outside. I know it's only temporary, but the way time flies at my age the cold snap will be over before I even notice.

Thirty One Days in January Seems Like a Hundred Days

My last post was a little serious and an attempt at being a positive person with a good attitude. I really am most of the time, but I have failed miserably this past week. Even the smallest decisions seem daunting. I play four New York Times games in the morning as part of my routine. I play Wordle, Connections, Strands and Mini Crossword and Nerdle at night. I normally dislike games but somehow this is just a challenge against myself, and it's so good for my brain. Even that has been a little hard to focus on. January has never been my friend and extra vitamin D or a mood light isn't going to help that. It's cold and even though it's getting better, it's still dark at 5pm. I have tons of television channels but nothing to watch. Who wants to see murders and mayhem all night long? Living alone and making all the decisions gets overwhelming at times. After almost four years, I am still not completely used to it. At first I would wake up in the night and rush out of bed because I was sure I forgot to do something important. That doesn't happen anymore, but I still am afraid I am missing something. I never had to worry about home and car maintenance or snow removal or where the shut off valve is for the water. Tax season is coming up again and all that it entails. Tax preparers can only work with the information they are given. What if I forget an important deduction or don't even know about it in the first place? I can't get out and walk like I want to because of the weather. People say take your phone in the woods with you in case you fall or need help. If I am knocked out, my phone won't help much. So now I have to look into upgrading my smart watch to be even smarter. It has to know when I am knocked out and then tell my phone to send help. I had to replace my dishwasher and microwave the day after Christmas. Thanks to my son in law, that was easy. People in general are stressed about the state of the world, their health and healthcare and relationships making them just plain rude and self absorbed. They pay no attention to an old lady until you are parked at the side of the road looking for a special bird or animal to photograph. Then someone will pull up to make sure everything is alright. Nice, but scary at the same time. I don't park and watch anymore. I keep moving. Not everyone is rude, but a fair number would rather run you over than stop. I'm sorry this sounds terrible and pathetic. Good grief just writing all this down, it's no wonder my attitude stinks. That has to stop.

So what do I do when I get in a funk. I write ridiculous blogs, I knit or crochet unwanted items and cook food. Today I made a kettle of chicken soup. I bought a big pack of chicken legs because five pounds cost only $2 more than a little two pound package. With the extra chicken legs, I made this recipe. I am not sure I ever made chicken legs like this before. I always buy chicken breasts for meals and thighs or legs for soup but I guess you can teach an old dog a new trick or two. They were really good. I made rice to eat with them, and I will freeze most of them to eat later.

Sticky Chicken Drumsticks

Mix the marinade:

1/4 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup honey

2 T. ketchup

1 T. apple cider or rice vinegar

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 t. fresh ginger or 1/8 t. of dried ginger

1 T. sesame or vegetable oil

Pour this mixture over two pounds of chicken legs (about 8-10). I put the chicken in a ziplock bag and poured in the marinade. Then refrigerate for at least 30 minutes or up to 4 hours.

When ready remove the drumsticks and put on a foil lined baking sheet. Bake at 375 degrees for 25 minutes. 

After 25 minutes, turn the drumsticks over and put a little marinade on each one.

Bake another 20 minutes until they are golden brown.

The third thing I made was a Mug cake. It was really large and I tried to save half of it for later. It didn't work. I kept at it until the whole thing was gone. If I keep that up, I will really need to double up my walks into the woods. I did flip it out of the mug so it is easier to cut in half. No guarantees that will make a difference on how it is consumed.

 Chocolate Mug Cake

1/4 cup self rising flour*

*I make my own with 1 cup of all-purpose flour, 1 1/2 t. baking powder and 1/2 t. I keep it in a jar for when I need some.

1/4 cup sugar (or Splenda will work)

1/4 baking powder

1/8 t. salt 

4 1/2 T. milk (I used Oat milk)

1 T. oil

3 T. water

1/4 t. vanilla 

2 t. mini chocolate chips

Mix all the dry ingredients in a microwave safe mug.

Add the wet ingredients and stir to combine. Put a teaspoon of chocolate chips on top and microwave on High for 2 minutes. Take out and let it rest for a minute. Top with the rest of the chocolate chips. It is a little like Lava Cake with the melted chocolate chips.

Seriously writing down the reasons for my bad mood did help. That and a good night sleep usually does the trick. Mama said there would be days like this. It's kind of like living in Wisconsin. We can't appreciate all the good days if we didn't have a few bad ones. Many would say I don't know what trouble is, and I really don't. Imagine losing everything in a fire or tornado or being abused on a daily basis. Everyone has their trials and tribulations. It doesn't matter where we have been. What matters is where we are going. I just have to get out of my head and house once in a while and eating chocolate cake doesn't hurt.

My next blog will be more fun, I promise.