Well, well.

It was another day when the weather was nice enough for a bike ride, but things at home required my attention.    Today was trenching day, when the new well was connected to the house.  With only one exception, it went smoothly.

The trench needed to be deep enough to get below the frost line.  It was all done by hand but went quickly.

The old well was at the end of the parking pad along side of the garage.  A spot that has concerned me, though our snow plow guy has always been very careful not to hit it.  The new well connects up to the same spot and enters the house there.

This old coke bottle was buried about four feet down, and was unearthed during trenching.  I have no idea how old it is.

The old well is now gone, and all we are left with is a landscaping issue.  Which can wait for spring.

The last step is testing the water, which the county health department will do on their schedule.  And so endeth the tale of the well. And that also ends November blogging.  Officially known at NaBloPoMo, National blog posting month, but also referred to amongst some of us as BEDFAMM.  Blog every day for a month, month.  It is a tradition that we all shared with Jim, which is, perhaps obviously, why I did it again.  It's a good tradition to honor, for that reason.

Thank you to all of you who commented during the course of the month.  I would have done it anyway, but it makes it a good bit easier to feel like there are other people in the room.  BDE, Gino, Emily, NCW, PM, OSLO.... I thinks that covers the faithful reader group.  There will likely be some new material here over the course of the next month or so, as we go through the holiday season and into the new year.  Not every day, but I haven't given up yet.  I started this blog back on April 7, 2007 -- so nearly ten years ago.  It seems like a streak of 10 years is close enough to give it a try.  Stay tuned.

Well...

It takes seven hours of loud noises to drill a new well. It's not what we wanted to do, but it is what we decided we had to do.

It was after sunset before they finished.  It's 60 feet deep, so the water should be pure, or so we're told.  Formal testing is yet to be done, but the field tests look good.

Because of the tight spaces involved, they had to call in the driller with the "small" rig.

Opal

I don't have much to say.  Words are hard to find at times like these.  Someone that I called a friend left us today.  We were different generations, but we spent some time together over the years, and enjoyed each other's company.

This was taken in February of 2007 on Gasparilla island.  I'm glad I got a chance to know her.  She was a classy lady.  And she made us laugh.  God speed, Opal.

Artifacts

Included in the email exchanges with my cousin Charlotte were photos of these things that she had saved, handed down to her as the oldest daughter, by her mother, my Aunt Louise --

I think that this petticoat is the one that Aunt Minda later used as an afghan.  It seems to be in quite good shape.

That would make the petticoat below the one worn my my Grandmother, Hansine --

Charlotte wondered what had been used as dye in Hansine's petticoat, since it has such vibrant colors.  All very neat stuff.

The holiday weekend is winding down.

There's an app on my phone that draws a map of any route I walk, as long as I remember to turn on the "location" on my phone and hit the "start" on the app.  Today, according to that app, I walked on water.  I think the map could use a little fine tuning.  Here are some of the photos I took whilst walking on water, or thereabouts.  (Warning, this is a photo heavy post.)

I'm a natural pessimist, but I do like light at the end of the tunnel photos.  The sky really is/has been/will continue to be this gray.  Which may explain why I'm a pessimist.

The much photographed "Parthenon" and the recently rebuilt stairs. The people at the top probably got there via the stairs from the park.  I didn't see anyone else on the beach while I was there.

Some stretches of the beach are still quite narrow.  We've had some big winds and big waves this month.

This stretch apparently picked up some sand with the small seasonal drop in lake levels and the waves reshaping the shoreline every week or so.

The foredune has eroded unevenly.  Some places have a fairly small drop off to the beach.

In some other places it's more of a challenge to get to the water's edge.

The grands arrived to spend some time here this afternoon.  The college girl wanted to re-shoot some of the photos that she'd taken earlier.  Something about layering and backgrounds.  The books are to keep the sheet flat.  The wind wasn't strong, but it was pesky.

It was chilly on the deck, but she got it done.  She says it's her last photo shoot of the semester.  It's been fun for me to watch her work.

Getting Dark

The day after turkey day was quiet here.  The platters and roasting pan have been returned to shelves too high to reach without a chair.  I needed some outdoor exercise, so I talked my neighbor into a 2 mile walk around the neighborhoods at the base of the dune.  It wasn't much exercise, but it's cold and dank, and neither of wanted to go any further.  It's that time of year, the transition from "okay" to "too cold/windy/rainy" that makes me sometimes wonder why we live on the cloudy side of that big old lake.

Even the weeping beech is beginning to see the error of its ways, and is letting go of its leaves.  Slowly though, it's no quitter.

Thanksgiving in Michigan.

It's that day again -- the fourth Thursday in November.  It was a pretty quiet one here, with our Michigan family gathered around us.  Oslo and her family joined us for a mid afternoon feast featuring most of the foods that we've come to view as traditional, plus a few new things, just for fun.  Here are a few photos.

We watched the Detroit-Minnesota football game, just for fun, and then the four of them packed up their things and some of the leftovers and moved on.  They all have other family members to spend time with today.  It was a good way to spend this day.

Not much to blog about.

Yesterday I said that there were no photos taken while I was out and about yesterday.  I was wrong -- when I checked my camera later, there was one photo on it from the bike ride I mentioned.

The work crews are still putting the driveways back together that got torn up during the path's construction.  I have yet to ride that two mile stretch on Greenly without having to detour out into the road for at least a short bit.  You can also see that the big winds that blew through here last weekend stripped the leaves off of most of the trees, and it is finally looking like late November.  It's a quiet evening here -- we're expecting OSLO and her family to arrive tomorrow afternoon, and with luck there will be some fodder for the blog.  Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

Thanksgiving 1992

It was 34 degrees when I took a short walk this morning and 35 when I took a short bike ride this afternoon.  I took my camera with me both times, but have no photos to prove it.  No matter, I have some more old photos to share.  It's been something of a theme here of late, and over the years.

In 1992 there was a gathering of our clan here for Thanksgiving.  I know that because as I was looking through old papers, letters and such that I've gotten from Jim, trying to locate something for GZ, I ran across a photo booklet that Jim sent me that year after he'd returned home.  The photos all say November '92 on the back, printed there by the processor.  He also sent along about eight old, old family photos of the Miller side of the family.  G.L., G.E., Charles, Mayme and others.  There must have been some discussion about family genealogy during that visit.  I'll save those in case I need more fodder for the blog later this week.

This one kinda broke my heart a little bit.  I love it -- just the three of us. And we're so young!  It was only almost a quarter century ago.

Here's another one that caught me off guard -- Andy also looks so young plus quite handsome here.

And here's one of GZ and his family. Look at Emmy -- such a beauty, even at that age.

Without a functioning Tardis (a Dr. Who reference), photos are the closest thing I know of to a time machine.  Great fun.

Monday, Monday.

Today I heard about a recall on something I had in my refrigerator -- I don't think that's ever happened before.

Today was too cold to do much outside.  Yesterday OSLO and I went over the menu for Thanksgiving dinner here at our house, and divided up the food duties.  Just the six of us will be at the table, but that's typical for us.  I found a 16 pound fresh hen turkey today, and got most of the fixings for the things on my list.  Later I took a walk around the neighborhood then back up the beach.

The wind on Saturday produced 10 foot waves according to our news broadcasts, and the beach survived mostly intact, though the foredune suffered some erosion, as you'd expect.

 The dune grass does what it can to hold on to the sand, without it we'd probably be back to the sea wall by now.

It's looking a lot like November out there these days.

Old Photos

I have been looking through old photos off and on all day.  First it was related to some old memorabilia that my cousin Charlotte had sent me, that involved email and a phone call with GZ to clarify some relationships.  Then it was with OSLO, who was looking for some photos of TJ with his Dad, most of which were taken before I had a digital camera.  In the process I ran across a few others that I hadn't seen for a while.

Here's another --

More -- family portraits this time.

I am nearly done.... I need a little bicycle content.

How about some food content, too....

And of course the Grands, and a little bit of beach.

And a sunset over the lake.

Follow Up

What is the opposite of OOTNDITHOD?  Today would be in the running for that -- one of the nastiest days in the history of days?  The acronym would be the same, so probably not.  At least the power came back on around 6:00 this morning for the neighborhood, and the generator turned itself off.  I took my camera down the street once it was fully light out.  Mailbox for scale. (If you look closely there's a splotch of blue paint on the tree, indicating it was due to be trimmed by the power company because its branches interfered with the power lines.  Too late now.)

The tree broke off about 10 to 15 feet from its base. (Looking north towards the park.)

The top of the tree is across the street in the Smith's yard.  It was a tall tree, but not especially large in diameter.  It looked huge in the dark, blocking the road last night.

This gives an idea of where it was in relation to our house -- our garage is hidden behind the tree with yellow leaves, center left in the photo.  No accumulating snow here today, either -- but lots of wind.  Our wind gauge says there was a peak gust of 42 on our deck, and I've seen a lot of upper 30's on the display.  The Grands arrived early this afternoon and there were no additional trees down that they saw, so we were an isolated incident, apparently.

Some Excitement

Most of you already know that today was our Grandson's 18th birthday.  We are lucky to have lived close enough to have watched him and his sister grow up, and to share most of their birthday celebrations with them.  I drove up to Grand Haven this evening to share in the party and wish him a happy birthday from me and his Grandfather.

Here's a photo from a couple of weeks ago that I really like of both of "The Grands."

And here's one from about 9 years ago that foreshadows the young man that he would become.

When I left their house this evening to return home, I was told to "shoot them a text" when I got home and to watch out for deer.  It's a dark, rainy and very (very) windy night.  I saw no deer, but just after passing Kirk Park I arrived at the scene of a downed tree across Lakeshore Drive.  I was the fourth car there, and there were men already engaged in dragging it off of the road, so I continued on.  I gave a sigh of relief when I turned up the Idlewood Hill -- too soon.  As I came around the corner at the west end of the park I was greeted by a view of tangled wires hanging across the road, and my headlights caught the view of a large tree down across our street -- between me and home.  About 3 or 4 houses from ours.  I backed out carefully and came around the other way, arriving at a darkened street without power.  Our lights were all blazing, as JB had turned on our outside lights to help guide me home.  The generator worked this time without having to be reset -- the third time this year we've had it kick on.  Money well spent.  And electrocution avoided.  And not a single deer in the headlights.