Saying Goodbye to the Crosley Custom

 
Today was steps 1,2,4,5,6,8 and 9 of the Freezer Project. Did you notice it now has capital letters? This has been a major accomplishment. Actually, it turned out that step 3 wasn't quite done because we also had to remove all the stuff from my camping equipment shelves, and the shelf unit itself.

First, let's say hello to the Crosley Custom. We inherited this freezer when we bought our former house in 1971. The previous owners had no interest in hefting this baby out of the basement. Here's how it looked then. How it looked to us was wonderful, despite already being about 20 years old with a tricky semi-broken latch. That means it has served for about 60 years. I know old people always say this, but "they don't build 'em like that any more."

Next, there are going to be too many pictures today. Get over it. This was one heck of a project and you are going to appreciate it with us.

When we moved up here on the hill in 1992 several men wrestled the freezer into a front end loader and drove it up here, then managed to get it in the spot we now want it to vacate. Friend Doug came to do the heaviest of the lifting and Om is poised to help push.



The first goal is about 20 feet away, the bed of Doug's truck.



Don't think that I wasn't involved. It's just that when we were all hauling on the thing no one could take pictures, so here I am proving to you that we took breaks between each "1,2,3,lift." You can see we've made progress.



We are tough enough! In the truck it went. Doug and I took it to the recycle place while Om cleaned the floor where it had been.



The recycle weight ticket said it weighed 400 pounds! By contrast, Doug and I just picked the new one up and carried it into the space. Not even difficult. And here's the new one all loaded up. A new inventory sheet is made and we now have some projects to eat up aging food items.



And even with the charge for disposal of the freon we got enough for the scrap metal value that we went out for dinner (nothing fancy). But it was worth a small celebration.

Now we have step 7 left to do. Om says he will work on that tomorrow while I am at work.

	See Not a Thing of Beauty See Starting the Freezer Project with Step 3
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Ruff? Half-Ruff

 
I've shown you grouse several times. They are actually called ruffed grouse because they can lift the ruff of feathers around their neck. They can also spread their tails like a turkey. Usually it's the males doing this during mating season. But I surprised several grouse today, and one of them was thinking about showing off. He got partway there. It would be totally awesome if I could get a picture of one really displaying sometime.


This one shows up a little better because of the pine needles behind it, and the focus is better too.

	See Are You Missing a Pet Grouse?
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Lousy Photo, Lovely Experience

 
One of my very favorite things to see from my office window is when the red fox trots across the back yard. I rarely can get to the deck with the camera fast enough, and doubt that I'll ever get a better picture than at Who is Sylvia?

Nevertheless, this morning I watched a lovely red Vulpes vulpes seem to float against the snow in the flat light of a cloudy morning. She (he?) was beyond the first row of apple trees by the time I made it outside.



About all you can see are the perky ears and the red fur. Maybe a hint of black stockings. This fox is colored much more normally than Sylvia was.



Remembering the encounter made me smile all day long whenever I thought of it. Do you have things that just make you smile all day that way?

	See Gray Fox Seen in Mason County
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The Inside Story

 
I made a more formal post about today's experience at Shark Bytes and Tales. But you are my friends. You get the personal story.

This location was my driving goal for the day, about an hour and a half away. You might guess from the tower that the building has a special purpose.

It's the Interlochen Public Radio station. The Cultural Arts Center at Interlochen, Michigan, is internationally known for it's educational opportunities for young people in all types of performing arts, writing, and other visual arts. They also have summer seminars for adults, and concert series. Basically, if you are interested in arts you've probably heard of Interlochen.

As a result of making friends at the Blood and Tea mystery writers' conference last fall, I was invited to be interviewed by Aaron Stander, host of "Michigan Writers on the Air."

Aaron is a writer himself, having six police procedural mysteries set in a fictional town in northern Michigan. He's also an avid kayaker, and we sort of connected.

He mostly interviewed me concerning my book about hiking the North Country Trail, called North Country Cache. We took pictures, but this was radio, and I sure wasn't dressed or groomed for anything professional.




I read a portion of the chapter from the Adirondack hike, a piece about Chips the hiker pup. It was a fun interview.

The engineer did his job well too.



The program will air on IPR at 1 pm, Feb 20 and 24th, and after that it will be available on their web site. I'll add a link when that appears.

It rained and slushed most all day, so spending a bunch of it in the car was fine with me.

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Saturday's Frosty Morning

 
Today was a big come-down from yesterday. Now it's raining and icky. Sigh. But, to cheer us all I have pictures from yesterday morning, which was spectacular! Just enjoy.

The beauty began when the sun peeked over the horizon,

turning my back yard pink.



On the way to the ski outing, I stopped several places to take photos.





My last stop was at the Little Manistee River.



These kinds of scenes will bring me joy for days to come.

	See Trail Work Day
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