We chose a new pattern and had it delivered, but the eight rolls ordered turned out to be only four. Our request for the missing four rolls resulted in a familiar message from the store: the pattern was now ‘out of stock’. It would be the end of June, at the earliest, before anymore was available.

This is supposed to be the most advanced and civilized nation on the face of the earth, but obviously not when it comes to maintaining a ready supply of wallcoverings.

On the brighter side, the weather continues to improve apace. Temperatures on most nights now remain above freezing and we’ve had days of 60, and even 70 degrees, with plenty of warm sunshine.

The snow melt has meant lots of moisture in the ground, enabling wild Marsh Marigolds to flourish. A walk in the woods reveals vast swathes of the plants wherever the ground is boggy.

Winter was an interesting time, but it’s nice to feel the warmth of the sun once more. It was even a pleasure to cut the grass for the first time this year. Though, I’m not sure how long that’ll last!

Birdlife around the property is prolific and colorful; mating plumage abounds. This Hairy Woodpecker, normally too shy to approach a feeder, has gained sufficient confidence to take advantage of the proffered suet, building strength ready for the hard slog of raising chicks.

Life has certainly got busier now the better weather has arrived. The job of tree-felling, logging, and storing, ready for next winter, resumes in earnest.

It’s probably a good thing. It helps keep our minds off the dearth of both wallpaper, and builders.

This week began with snow. It snowed Monday and into the night. We woke to about an inch on Tuesday morning. Most of it thawed by lunchtime and I was able to get out in the afternoon and cut down two more birches to keep the wood furnace supplied.

The latest truck is performing well (see last post) and, after an oil/filter change, is running as sweet as a candy bar. It pulled a fifty foot birch tree out of the forest with no effort at all.

Today, I’ve been tiling at either end of the work-surface that separates the old dining room from the kitchen. The work on the old dining room should have been finished by now, as all that’s left is the wallpapering, but choosing the paper proved a nightmare. We couldn’t find anything we liked that would go with the new wainscot, and eventually settled for one from Menards (for non-US readers, that’s a vast national D-I-Y chain).

Once home with it we still weren’t sure. Then I realized I hadn’t allowed for the pattern-drop when measuring up, and we needed at least one more roll.

Back to Menards the next week, only to find all their wallpaper stock had been cleared out ready for a ‘new line’ coming in. Yes, they could probably match the paper but it might take weeks to get another roll.

So, tomorrow, we take it all back to Menards for a refund, and start the great wallpaper hunt all over again. Meanwhile, the lining paper will have to suffice. Even that’s a vast improvement on what was there:

Somewhat transformed to:

And here’s the original room prior to the wood stove installation. The old barn wood on the walls had never even been planed, and shed vicious splinters at the slightest touch:

And how it looks today:

It will be so nice to finish this room and move in the piano and other furniture. But how soon it happens will depend on our success choosing a new wall covering tomorrow.

I’m not holding my breath.

The next big job is the bedroom. Nine feet by twelve is hardly a master bedroom and a wall has to come down to suitably enlarge it before we can consider redecoration.

A local builder was recommended to us by a neighbor, and I telephoned him two weeks ago. He agreed to come round last week and estimate the job.

We’re still waiting.

There’s a decidedly manana attitude in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and just as in Mexico, it rarely means ‘tomorrow’…just, ‘not today’.

Finally, the snow has cleared sufficient for me to cut more wood and fire up the outdoor furnace once more. We’ve used half a tank of heating oil since mid-January. It would have been much more had the wood stove in the old dining room not burned almost continuously through the winter.

It was good to get back in the forest with the chainsaw, and return with a full load of logs on the truck, ready for splitting. Spring is definitely in the air. The trees are all in bud, sap is once more rising, and the grass is beginning to poke fresh green shoots through its murky brown winter thatch.

I had anticipated replacing the engine in the lawn tractor this Spring. Last year it was using so much oil, and blowing out great plumes of blue smoke, I felt sure there must be a major problem with the piston rings.

After removing the cylinder head of the 17.5 HP Briggs & Stratton engine, I discovered the culprit was the head gasket, blown between the cylinder and the push rod chamber. A new gasket, and two new valves for good measure, sorted the problem. It now runs without the slightest whiff of smoke and is as precise as a sewing machine.

We acquired a new workhorse this week. The tedious job of snowblowing over winter heightened my resolve to find an old plough truck. We discovered this one thirty miles away at just the right price.

It’s a bit rusty, but I’ve been underneath and the chassis is still in good condition. The engine was rather noisy until a couple of old bean cans were utilized to repair the exhaust pipe. The previous owner told us the engine and gearbox (tranny) were rebuilt fifteen thousand miles ago, so while not exactly pretty, it should prove serviceable.

Our other truck has been hauling wood for us since we moved in, but it’s really too good a vehicle to be dragging through the branches and brambles of the forest. This latest acquisition (its plough now removed for the summer) will take over those chores.

Hopefully, with a touch of rust killer and a bit of paint, it may look a little more respectable before too long.

“Is this the last storm of the winter?” was the title of the last post. Long term residents (Yoopers) shake their heads. Apparently, the U.P. can lull one into a false sense of security.

If so, it’s certainly lulling the trees, for they’re rapidly producing buds; the chipmunks have left their winter lairs and chase one another around the lawn, and today the mercury touched seventy-eight degrees.

Even nighttime temperatures are well above freezing, into the fifties on two nights of late. Spring is certainly in the air, and the huge banks of snow that lay to a depth in excess of five feet in places, within a week have all but dwindled to nothing.

It is going to get cooler. The forecast predicts a daytime high of only forty-nine by Friday, though lows will stay above freezing.

The wood stove remains unkindled for three days now. Even early mornings are sufficiently warm to only require a ten minute burst from the oil heating. Nevertheless, it’s laid ready and only requires a match.

Yoopers don’t believe in an early Spring.

The snowstorm of yesterday was definitely the heaviest of the winter so far. It lightened up overnight, but has continued spasmodically throughout the day, interspersed with short periods of sunshine. Around another four inches fell through the night, making a total, as well as can be judged, of eighteen inches.

Despite the spasmodic sunshine, today has been bitterly cold with the mercury down around nineteen degrees (minus 7C). I did manage to get out for half an hour and take a few photographs before my fingers became too painful to operate the camera.

Leaving by the breezeway door meant traversing a snow trench:

The driveway was soft underfoot, despite having been cleared only yesterday. I began to wonder if the fence round the front lawn would ever reappear again:

Here’s how it was before the snow came:

And, yes, the old wagon wheel is still there – somewhere!

Meanwhile, the trees look magnificent in their cloaks of white:

This icicle was all of…

…fifty-four inches long.

The old poultry house has stood since 1936…

…so hopefully the roof will withstand the weight of its rather large, white, bonnet.

The incinerator, a fifty-gallon oil drum, has totally disappeared under the snow at the entrance to the East Trail…

…and snow has finally reached the roof of the garage…

But the good news is, the weather forecast says it may rain on Wednesday. And we haven’t seen a drop of rain for four months.

Today is March 3rd, and it is being marked by the heaviest snowfall of the winter, so far. This week has seen two major storms. The first began on Tuesday night and lasted through Wednesday, dropping around a further eight to ten inches on top of the winter’s accumulation.

Last night we were warned to expect another ten to twelve inches. They were wrong. So far, it’s managed around fourteen inches and, as yet, there’s no sign of it abating.

The landscape has changed dramatically from the green, verdant, forest we vaguely remember from last summer. Apart from the obvious color change, the ground has risen overall by between two and four feet. The trees sit in large depressions, snow piled up above their lowest branches. This one, outside the garage, is a prime example:

Much of my time is spent snowblowing in an effort to, at least, keep the driveway open. On Thursday, after the last storm, it took three hours to clear the drive and access to the woodshed. Today (Saturday) the whole process will need to repeated, when the snow eventually abates.

It’s not unpleasant working outside provided the proper gear is worn. I rather enjoy snowblowing, if I don’t have to do it too often! Next year, though, we’ll be better prepared for the Upper Peninsula winter and will ensure we have ourselves a snowplough.

It’s important to keep the access to the old poultry house clear in case the snow brings down power lines and we’re plunged into darkness. The generator needs to be wheeled out to its position next to the wood furnace, before it can be connected to the transfer box in the basement. Its small wheels need a well-cleared path.

Yes, we really need a snowplough!

Less urgent now is the need to stoke the wood furnace. Another miscalculation, this time in wood requirement, has meant we ran short of wood for the furnace in the middle of January and had to revert to our standby heating source: oil.

It’s very frustrating to be surrounded by forty acres of wood, and not have the means to harvest it when required. The depth of snow makes it much too dangerous for tree felling.

We knew our first year at the house would be a learning curve, and it’s certainly proved to be that. Next year, we’ll be better prepared. The wood stove in the old dining room is a boon, and while our wood supply for that is running low, we’ll be able to keep it burning until well into Spring.

Assuming, of course, that Spring ever arrives.

The old dining room (music/reading room) is progressing well. Most of the wainscot is now in place and the next job is to fill all the nail holes and prepare it for staining.

Winter shows no signs of abating. We have snow three or four days a week of late, though it’s very dry and powdery, tending to form drifts rather than lie on the level ground. Consequently, general height is only about two feet, though it’s up to window sill level round much of the house.

We haven’t seen the grass since November 9th.

Most of the wildlife has migrated deep into the forest for the winter, though some finches and tits (chickadees) still make regular calls at the deck feeder.

This little guy’s well fluffed up against the cold.

As winter progresses the red squirrels have overcome their shyness and now regularly venture onto the deck to scoop up the seeds left behind by the feeding birds.

They’ve adjusted to our presence so quickly that we can watch them from quite close by – provided we don’t open the sliding door.

Christmas is behind us. The festivities have long ago faded into the snowy winter landscape; it’s only reminder – a slight bulging around the belly area and the bare, ten foot, Christmas tree still in its bucket on the deck, left as a haven for the finches who feed regularly from feeders hanging from its branches.

This Red-Breasted Nuthatch is a regular, and wasn’t the least bit bothered by the tree lights, but it was rather camera-shy and preferred to be photographed through a closed window, making for rather poor definition when the image is enlarged.

The snow keeps on coming. Local folks tell us they’ve ‘…never known it so mild…’, even though the mercury has hit minus fifteen Fahrenheit on the odd occasion. This last week has seen a definite thaw. The icicles have been dripping continuously, but there’s still a few feet of snow in areas around the house.

It’s time to press on with the work at the house. We’d hoped to finish the renovation of the old dining room before Christmas, but other matters took precedence and I’ve still not begun installing the new wainscot. Hopefully, it’ll be completed in the next couple of weeks.

At least, the wood stove surround was finished in time for the festive season…

…and I managed to paint the ceiling and fit its new Crown molding. As the room is to become a place for music and reading, we moved in Trish’s piano and two fireside chairs, to make Christmas a jolly time indeed, despite having no drapes, or covering on the walls.

Tomorrow it’ll all be moved out again and the dustsheets will take over once more.

I can’t believe it’s been six weeks since I last wrote on this blog. Time just flies by at the 100-Acre Wood House .

The snowstorm of November 9th did not prove a precursor to even heavier falls. There have been lots of light showers, interspersed with days when the temperatures were so mild it seemed the green grass might yet reappear before Christmas.

It was not to be. Every slight thaw was followed by a further few inches of the white stuff, sufficient to guarantee a white Christmas.

We’d hoped to finish the conversion of the old dining room, into our ‘snug’, before the festive season began, but problems with materials, coupled with a host of other tasks that arose to stymie progress, meant there’s still no wainscot on the walls, and it looks very much like a building site – which, in fact, it is.

Undaunted, we determined to use the room for its prime purpose over the holiday, so moved in our easy chairs, the piano, and sufficient other furniture to provide necessary creature comforts. It may not be finished, but at least it will be cosy, with the wood stove blazing away in one corner.

A ten foot spruce from our forest, dutifully bedecked with lights, now occupies a corner of the deck (see header image). The bird feeders hang from its branches and a host of nuthatches, bearded tits (chickadees, to our American readers), and house finches feed there each day, totally unfazed by the lights.

We have a four and half foot artificial tree in the living room, fronted by Trish’s model village.

The last week has been spent shopping and cooking. Although we live in America, our Christmases will always be traditional British ones, so the mince pies and scones are baked; the cheesecake is cooling, awaiting placement in the fridge; the turkey is almost thawed, and the port and sherry are absolutely demanding to be opened. As neither of us like traditional Christmas pudding, my own specialty – Apple Rum Raisin Bread Pudding – will serve wonderfully in its place after Christmas dinner.

All that remains is to wish everyone a Very Merry Christmas.

Winter comes early on the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. This year, ‘early’ meant November 9th! The snow started on Wednesday morning and continued all day. In the space of three hours nature transformed the landscape.

By early evening the blizzard had abated somewhat, and at 5.30pm precisely the power went out. I donned cold-weather gear and trudged through 12″ – 14″ of snow to the old poultry house, wherein was kept our one generator that still functioned. Within twenty minutes I’d cleared a path, trundled it outside, and under the makeshift canopy I’d devised next to the wood furnace.

The electric start worked flawlessly and the machine fired up immediately. A quick trip down the basement to the transfer switch and we were once more bathed in light and warmth. Before divesting myself of the winter woolies, I took the opportunity to spend some time outside with the camera:

The power was finally restored about 11.30pm that night. Next morning, it was still snowing. The view from the bathroom window was spectacular…

…and an avalanche was developing on the garage roof.

But, by midday, the sun broke through and the storm clouds dispersed…

…and now, just four days later, it’s almost all gone.

But, if there’s one fact that’s guaranteed up here – it’s that it will be back.