Icepocalypse 2023

Usually when I just up and disappear, it’s my fault. This recent vanishing was thanks to Mother Nature.

Wednesday, February 22, we had just finished eating and the power went out. We didn’t really expect it to be out long because it never is. But oh, the things that were in store for us. We spent the night listening to ice and tree branches fall on our house. It continued into the next morning. There is a decent amount of damage and Ridley almost got taken out trying to pee the next morning. Our power was off for 4.5 days.

The real heroes of the hour were Mr. and Mrs. Moth. They took us and the dogs in for 3.5 days. Kept us warm, fed and entertained while we had to pay a clean-up crew $2500 in work. There will never be enough thank yous for that. ❤

Now, it’s a waiting game to get insurance to make good on their end of the contract. So, if I’m distracted for awhile, I’m sorry. I will be back soon.

Winter Has Come

It’s been a weird winter here in Michigan. We’ve received hardly any snow, mostly cold rain and gray, gray days. This past Wednesday we were hit with a pretty good storm, and it finally feels like a real Michigan winter. At the very least, the snow is pretty, and it makes the house feel cozier.

I’ve been hunkered down with lots of schoolwork as of late. I do have a book haul on the horizon, a book review and a possible comic review as well. Until then, I try to check in every couple of days when I have extra time. So, for now, I leave you with cute dogs in winter pictures.

Visions of Autumn

This is hands down my favorite time of year and I’m thankful to live in a state that produces such wonders.

A Move a Quarter of a Century in the Making

Whew! What a whirlwind the past few weeks have been. School started on top of having two long weekends planned. I’ve spent this past week just catching up on my home /school life and surviving work picking up again with the new vaccines. We just hired two new technicians starting this week. The last two couldn’t hang for one reason or another. Pharmacy (healthcare in general) is not for the weak.

Anywho, you might be wondering about that title. Labor Day weekend we ventured north to help my dad clean out and pack up his house. He’s lived there for 25 years. I spent a large portion of my childhood there. Went to high school in that town. He only moved 20 minutes east from where he was residing but it’s a big upgrade. He moved from a house in a large field, into a house in the woods and on a lake. Our old house had a lot of work that needed to be done and now he won’t have to worry about it. The new place needs no work. My dad’s house had 12 showings in 12 hours the first day and sold in 24 hours for $10,000 over asking. It couldn’t have been a better time for him to sell.

Moving is stressful and we did a LOT in one weekend including having a moving sale. The goal was to actually move as little as possible, and we helped take a lot off my dad’s plate. He was able to close on the house and be completely moved out in 15 days. That has to be some kind of record.

I cannot wait to spend more time at the new place. There is state land to play on just down the road. In fact, we took a little ride on the trails in his friend’s side-by-side while we were up. Unfortunately, the weekend turned cold, and we were not able to play on the lake.

Some pics of our adventures!

Now I’m off to attempt to catch up on comments and your blogs! (I just spent TOO much time clearing out my email I haven’t checked in weeks. D: )

The Hunting Wind (Alex McKnight #3) – Book Review

Published Date: January 1, 2001

Publishing Co.: St. Martin’s

Pages: 352

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

I’m pretty sure the two reasons I keep going with this series are as follows; my grandfather recommended it to me before he passed, and it’s set in Michigan. I’m largely familiar with the cities/towns that the stories tend to take place in and that adds a bit of the nostalgia factor I guess I would call it.

If it weren’t for those two things, I would probably drop this like a hot pasty.

The main character, Alex McKnight, isn’t all that likable. I’m not entirely sure how he manages to have any friends and I like cranky old man characters. His conversations with people are bland and sometimes he comes across as rather dumb. But, no worries, by the end of the book he will have solved whatever mystery as he is so smart and brave. Although, in reality, it’s like he stumbles his way across it and manages to not die.

Now, my reading of the series has several year gaps in between, but it also seems like he’s always falling in lust with every woman (even if it’s a client, how professional) he comes across. So, ladies, he’ll investigate your undies too if you so much as look at him a certain way.

I’m sure you’re wondering, even with nostalgia factors, “why do you keep reading this? It sounds lame.” The first part of the books always seem to take awhile to get into the meat of the story, but once the drama starts, I can binge 100 pages without trying. It is 100% a 3-star read, which means overall I tend to enjoy myself even with its imperfections. Don’t be surprised when you see me pick up the next book in a few years.

Happy Place

Welcome to my new happy place folks. Mr. C&M and I were wandering around, checking out state parks and happened across this secluded fellow.

Spiderworts

It’s a state park and waterfowl preserve. Certain times of the year, endangered bird species come here to reproduce. No boats allowed and you can only fish during certain months of the year (the ones opposite of breeding season). So, Mr. C&M took up his reel and caught a decent number of perch and sunfish while I wandered around taking pictures of everything under the sun with my fancy camera. (These are phone photos.)

A small herd of deer came down and walked through the water, not caring very much that I was there. A great blue heron flew back and forth across the lake catching his breakfast. Massive bullfrogs called to one another and there were red-winged blackbirds everywhere. The air randomly smelled of wild roses. It was perfect and it’s only 20 minutes from our house. With gas prices being so high, this is probably where you will find us for most of the summer.

For anyone interested, there is a wonderful app called iNaturalist, where you can take pictures of plants and search their database in order to learn what you’re looking at. That is how I learned that this lovely purple flower is called Spiderworts. Not sure what it did to deserve that name but there you have it.

I hope you’re finding peace in your day-to-day. ❤

Pulled

Potted, Planted, Pulled. We have a theme going with titles here. Everything is plant related recently. I hope you’re enjoying it because it’s what I have going on right now.

I’m still plucking away at Assassin’s Quest by Robin Hobb. It’s 700+ pages and I’m only sitting down to read it once or twice a week.

This past weekend was the last Saturday to go harvest invasive species at the local fen. I went the week before that however a thunderstorm rolled in. It was the day after a tornado hit the town where I grew up, so I wasn’t so trusting that Mother Nature would be gentle even though another volunteer claimed that, “We’re here to help Mother Nature, she will take care of us.” I bailed.

Pretty field, yes? This is the plant we were pulling. Beautiful, but invasive, Dame’s Rocket.

After that, we spent the entire Memorial Day weekend with Mr. and Mrs. Moth at their place. We bowled, we partied, we ate fantastic food, and we had a drunken night in the hot tub. It was exactly what we needed.

When was your last forest adventure and what was your favorite thing that you saw?

Attacking the Invasion

I have a LOT of plans for the summer. Sometimes, it’s hard to decide which thing to tackle first. I recently came across a volunteer opportunity near my home and decided, yes, I will be doing that. (I would really love to volunteer at an animal shelter but I’m not ready for that yet. It also requires more of a commitment.)

Yesterday, I met up with other volunteers at a local nature preserve. It’s a fen, so it’s partly covered with water. (Which means I had to go out and buy new muck boots.) We got to go to the less traveled part of the preserve and pull-out garlic mustard and dame’s rocket, both of which are invasive species in Michigan. They choke out our natural flora, so it was time for battle. Turns out your girl is a weed whacking warrior. I thought I was slacking but when we all returned to our vehicles, I noticed I had the second fullest bag of the bunch. The only person that beat me was a guy who worked for the conservancy. People kept offering to carry my bag for me since it was so large, but I needed the workout, so I held onto it. Here is the beast:

One of my big missions this summer is to get out in nature more and with this volunteering effort, I will be out there every Saturday until the end of the month. (Aside from next Saturday because I work.) Then, in the fall, we return to harvest honeysuckle.

So, expect lots of nature pictures over the summer friends.

Spring Beauties

American Redbuds

Currently Reading:

Have you began attacking your summer plans yet??

Coffee & a Chat – Prepping for Chaos

You have been welcomed with a BLEP.

My dad came to visit for a few days. He was going to watch the dogs while we were in California after all, so why not get away from home for a bit since he already had the time off? We worked on a small bathroom project (NO MELANIE IT’S STILL NOT DONE), and then mostly we hung out and watched movies and some TV. Where my dad lives, he doesn’t get cable or internet so he’s been through his movie collection multiple times. It’s funny watching someone’s mind being blown by all the options presented by streaming.

This has mostly been a lazy vacation. Lots of rest and relaxation. A bit of gutting and organizing parts of the house. Plenty of time to get schoolwork done before its due. It’s been great.

AND NOW

They are calling for 12-18 inches of snow to hit us.

To be honest, I am totally okay with this. I welcome the snow chaos. As long as I don’t lose power.

So that means, we’re spending today prepping for the incoming storm. Unfun activities like grocery shopping and hitting the pet store for food for the animals as well. Gotta bust out all the winter gear because there is going to be a lot of shoveling in our future.

It’s funny because a few months ago Mr. C&M and I agreed that we would like to be snowed in for a week. We’re not getting a full week but I will take the couple of days before returning to work.

Hot cocoa, coffee, soup, books, puzzles, video games, locked and loaded.

Are you getting hit with the storm? If so, what do you plan to do during it?

Halloween Hell

Well that was a HELL of a good Halloween folks! We had an absolutely fangtastic Halloween with our BFFs for the entire weekend.

Saturday we hit the cider mills and dropped by a random cidery that we found along the way. The first place we stopped was definitely the best. They made their own hard cider and beer along with donuts and other baked goodies. Honestly, we probably could have just hung out there the whole day but we had exploring to do!

We followed that up with a home cooked meal and jack-o-lantern carving:

Sunday, we hit the road down to Hell. The drive was amazing thanks to the autumn colors and we met up with a couple more friends. We all played putt putt while a gentleman sang Halloween-themed songs in the background. Dracula rap anyone? Lunch was at the infamous Hell Saloon which did not disappoint for a second time in a row despite being super busy.

After that, we kind of just wandered around Hell, checking things out. There’s a chapel where you can get married and several people were. Here Mr. C&M and I are thinking we’re really cool for getting married on Halloween but these folks one upped us. They were married in Hell on Halloween.

We rounded out the night by deciding to NOT give away the candy that Ignited Moth and her husband bought to kids but to instead, avoid the germs and eat all the candy ourselves while watching John Carpenter’s The Thing. (Which I had somehow never seen and am now fully in love with.)

Super big shout out thanks to Ignited Moth and her husband for making this one our most memorable Halloweens yet! ❤

Now, onto Science Fiction November! Do you plan to participate and how?