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| Hilde painting furnace room to start the year |
What a wildly varying month January has been, starting off
2019 with odd weather, late holiday visits and then becoming extremely
cold. It was not boring, for sure.
Mark and Hilde started the year by painting the furnace room
and then got to spend a long weekend with John, Evie and Hazel --- it was
delightful. Mark and John worked on
drywalling the sunroom together, while Hilde enjoyed watching Hazel toddle
along, and cuddling her. She is growing
fast and carefully examines things before accepting them. What a sweetie.
The first weeks of January were BROWN with snow melted and
lots of foggy, gloomy days, most unusual for Wisconsin winters, but then a
minor snow and a horrible blast of several days of below zero weather, when the
state and others around hunkered down and went nowhere. Schools were closed because of very dangerous
wind chills, birds disappeared and folks just stayed as warm as possible. Mark worked on electronic projects and began
clearing out some of the unnecessary stuff, while Hilde sewed and crafted up a
storm, doing another 8 table runners, many hot pads, embroidery and chicken
scratch projects. 
Despite the horrid weather, all classes of taekwondo went
on, although the numbers were sparse many nights. That was about all that Hilde and Mark went
out for during some weeks, and the exercise and cheerful faces sure helped with
the gloom. Hilde’s mother celebrated her
87th birthday at her new apartment although Hilde didn’t get down
for that, and both John’s family and Jim’s experienced infections and winter
sicknesses.
It was a good time to have friends and family visit, though,
and great to have Mark’s brother Phil, sister-in-law Connie and little
great-nephew Phil visit while Alana and Kayme practiced in Point. The neighbors came up for dinner and an
evening of visiting also. Hilde’s two
zoning meetings were not exactly social events, but they were certainly
interesting as the town has decisions to make going forward.
Mark “only” had to plow twice, late in the month, as the
cold weather brought in snow and a change in the patterns of storms. Before the return of snow and cold, Mark and
Hilde managed to cut and split another dead elm, so the wood is well piled for
future syrup cooking. By the end of January
it is so good to look forward to syrup making, starting seeds and planning
gardens! Those seed catalogs surely are
great to dream over.
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| Sunrise at minus 28 |
