Catching up...

It's been way too long since I've thrown a post up on here.  Sorry about the neglect!  We have made a few trips up over the last couple months.  We managed to get some work done, and we also managed to have some fun.  :)

One project that needed doing was the addition of a door to one of the barns.  We need to begin hauling "stuff" up from Ohio, and the last thing we want to be doing is re-cluttering the de-cluttered house.  About a month ago I went up on a solo trip, and I built a door for the smaller barn from materials we had lying around.  With some hinges and hardware thrown in from trip to the ACE Hardware store in Rogers City, a day of work and about $30 has us a workable door.

Here's the completed project.  It's a little hard on the eyes right now, but when the weather warms up it'll be getting a good coat of paint.

Also on this trip I took down all of the wood valances over the windows.  They just made it way too dark looking, and what a difference after they were down!  Take a look.

Kitchen Window - Before

Living Room Window 1 - Before

Living Room Window 2 - Before

Here are the same windows, with the valances removed.

Here's what the valances looked like after removal...

That trip was in early February.  We made a second February trip, but this time we accomplished absolutely no work whatsoever on the house.  That was completely by design.  We were joined by our very good friends Bob  and Melanie, who we hadn't seen in quite some time.  Rather than putting them to work we decided to play all weekend.  We drove around and checked out the sights, went out to eat, stopped for a quick photo op by the Mackinac Bridge, and generally just goofed off and laughed a lot.  The coolest thing we did was go snowshoeing at Tahquamenon Falls State Park.  I've been wanting to drive up to see the falls in the winter time, and Shelly discovered that the park was offering free snowshoe rentals.  None of us had ever been snowshoeing, but we were all in for giving it a shot.  We had an absolute blast, shoeing around in 18 degree weather.  Shelly summed it up best when she simply said, "I think we'll be just fine up here."  I have to say, I think she's absolutely right.  Here are some pics from The Bridge and from the hike at The Falls.

Mackinac Bridge

Dave & Shelly

Melanie, Shelly, and Bob

Tahquamenon Falls

Tahquamenon Falls

So, that's it for this installment.  I'll try to be quicker posting on future trips.  It's a busy time for us right now, with trying to sell the house, getting Kyle finished with high school, my starting a new job at work, getting Kyle ready to go into college, planning for graduation parties in Ohio and in Michigan, working on Shangri La to get it ready for moving in, and ultimately the BIG MOVE.

Our oldest son Mike and I are planning a trip up in a few weeks.  We're hoping to get most of the basement cleared out, with the majority of the "stuff" going into the newly secured small barn.  Talk to you all soon!