if you were a nice leather wallet lost for a week, where would you be hiding?

merry post-christmas

paul and i had a relaxing christmas at home in madison together. sitting by the fire. knitting, talking to relatives on the phone, preparing and eating great food, and opening a few presents. it was melty outside (and sunny! beautiful actually), so we didn't get to go skiing as we would have liked.

today had two highlights. 1) buying a vacuum (finally, after two weeks of searching and testing and talking and reading consumer reports), i'm happy i can start cleaning again and 2) reuniting with HEB at lakeside fibers. i learned what a yarn-over is and how to do it, and i started a new knitting project. i also go to catch up and talk in a fun environment with great people, which was very enjoyable.

goals for tomorrow are to:
-head to the century house (again). i am now in love with this store.
-enjoy the 3-5 inches of new snow falling, while paul and i hopefully go cross-country skiing for the second time this season--the first was last sunday in 15 degree weather and 30-40 mph gusts with snow falling, not optimal, but still fun.
-find my wallet. it has gone missing. it has my whole life inside it including important receipts. it's been missing for a few days now. ouch.
-clean the house, using the new vacuum.
-pack for chicago!

all relatives christmas presents bought and wrapped within one day. whew.
i hope the line at the post office isn't too long tomorrow.

i've had such a busy two weeks. i am tired.

Opossum Update & More Chicken News

Thanks to Sapna's comment I just realized that I never told the end to the opossum saga. Animal control called back the next morning and said that they do not pick up opossums, but the guy was super nice and gave me a lot of helpful hings and suggestions. Namely, that opossums, unlike raccoons, only stray about 1/2 mile or so, so I wouldn't need to take him/her far to get rid of it. Also, it is legal to drop of a possum onto public land, or on private property with the owner's consent. He suggested the Arboretum, which was also my first choice since it's close by and also a large space. The night of the opossum intrusion I posted a help email to the Mad City chicken chat email line. I got one phone call and a handful of emails back with advice. Most people (not surprisingly) told me to relocate the possum instead of killing it, although one person expressed concern about relocating the possum when it could just go and bother other city chickens.

Paul and I decided to relocate the opossum to the Arboretum the next morning, and I took the caller's advice and used a bucket to transport the little bugger. First we wanted to experiment with how the opossum got into the coop. I was almost positive that it could wriggle through the 2" welded wire, but Paul was not so sure. We enticed it to leave the cage by opening the door and putting it up against the wire with the bucket on the other side. Eventually it did wriggle through, confirming my suspicions. Unfortunately this means that our coop is not completely predator-proof, but only little opossums can fit through. Hopefully they will only want to eat the feed and do not attempt to hurt the chickens.

We drove to the Arboretum. We parked at the vistor's center, which is about 1/2 mile from the nearest houses, and felt good about releasing him/her near there. Paul and I walked down a trail, admiring the flock of wild turkeys along the way, and then released the opossum. Done.

Unfortunately a few days later, going out in the dark and snow to check on the chickens as I returned home from work I spotted another baby opossum sitting by the coop. This time I flashed light it it's eyes until it ran off and hoped it would never come back. That was a week ago and I haven't seen it since....let's hope it stays that way.

winter is upon us.
snow snow snow and ice
and it's here to stay since the weather forecast calls for way below freezing.
the chickens are alive. surviving with their own body heat in their plywood coop with no door. they're troopers so far.

i really want to find a church to go to and be involved in
maybe join a hand bell choir?
i used to go to blackhawk evangelical free church here in madison
but it recently moved to a new HUGE farer away location
and i want to find a local close church if possible

i've been looking online some and am interested in elca lutheran churches
the good shepherd lutheran church looks neat
maybe i should check it out
but it is not walkable, something i desire
a 15 minute drive
it might be bikeable though in the summer

i also want to go caroling at christmastime, but i am not a singer.
i need to find some song-leaders and possibly instrument players to lead the songs
and then get a big group of people to drowned out my voice
but i really want to do this
i have a feeling it will be hard to plan and actually find others who would like to participate

also, i need to start xcountry skiing again!
this smashing amount of snow (although there is ice underneath it all) is nice and fluffy for skiing
if i wasn't trying to make up hours at work i would be skiing at the arboretum every morning
but instead i am standing as the busstop at 7:30am

i am unsatisfied at work
and believe that everyone deserves vacation and time off when they need it
no matter the workload, no matter the schedule

i am taking a three day weekend, although technically i have already made up my hours from working overtime this week. i need a break.

julie is here from portland! and we are moseying around madison and then heading down to chicago to see the sights. staying with ruthie. admiring her new furniture. it's gonna be a good weekend.

currently 22 degrees and snowing a ton. realfeel of 7. paul went out to check on the chickens this morning and when i went out two hours later i couldn't even see his footsteps.

the boys are playing video games while i try to weatherize our house a bit more. 1926 windows do not hold the heat in well, so this year i'm attempting to put brown putty strip stuff around the seals...hope it helps keep us warmer as well as lower the heat bill!

portland is also having a storm of their own. light snow, 35 degrees with realfeel of 21. winds currently at 14 mph but my mom said their forecasted 90 mph at the beach and 60 mph in portland....for the next 30 hours. my dad drove down to the beach to pick up my grama so she wouldn't be potentially stranded without power like she was last year for a while.

by the way, the town my grama has lived in for 35+ years made the nytimes yesterday. it was kinda crazy to see that. a short article, and the photos didn't really show much, but it was cool to see nonetheless. check it out, this is my favorite beach in the world. my grama lives at the base of neah-kah-nie mountain, and it's such a special place to me.