Well, Smarkle and I headed over to my daughter Jennifer's home, this morning to help her and Matias clean up some dead trees in their yard.

I got over there about 10:30 am, and Smarkle got out and played with Joya, their dog and then I started cutting up the trees and Jennifer and Matias, loaded the wood into my trailer. We spent a little over an hour cutting up 4 different trees and I had a nice full trailer load of pine and popple pieces.

Jennifer prepared a sandwich for some lunch, and we had a nice visit. In the meantime the dogs began to settle down some, and were getting tired out. Thanks for the wood and help, Jennifer and Matias!

I headed back home and then proceeded to unload the pile and do some wood stove maintenance. Which included cleaning out the ashes, checking the blower fan, and cleaning out the air tube that goes into the bottom of the firebox. I also cleaned out the flues in the top of the stove to allow the best transfer of the heat to the water around them.

The woodpile looks really good again, as I have more wood now than I did two weeks ago. It helps to keep working on the woodpile, while there is no snow on the ground here. It maybe a brown Christmas in Northern Minnesota as the forecast isn't calling for any snowstorms that I know of yet!

Night one was pretty cozy, it feels like you are sleeping on a sunny warm spot, but t always stays warm.

Crystalie, ended up turning hers down some, but it felt great getting in a nice warm bed. The joys of electricity,and warmth it can bring!

Yes, I have reached one milestone with posting on this blog, over 300 times I have typed out a message of what is going on in our busy lives.

I started on Dec 13th last year and I am closing in on the one year anniversary. I do enjoy being able to share with those who follow my blog or read it from time to time, about life on Coffee Lake Farm.

It is not that hard for me to find something to share, since we are two of the busiest people I know. In the winter things slow down some, but at the same time, we both have projects to work on and enjoy a few more live games of scrabble.

Of course the holiday season is here and it seems we will have many things going on over the next weeks, before years end!

Needless to say I think we all enjoy a warm bed on a cold December night.

We have always had an electric blanket on our bed to help keep the chill off the coolness of our bedroom, which does not have a lot of heated forced air getting to it. But last night Crystalie awoke to a flashing control box, and needless to say it no longer worked.

Well, I went to Kohls today and purchased an electric heated mattress pad for our bed. They have been around for a few years, but no need to buy one until now. The packaging on these even advertise you can save money at night by turning your furnace down and still keep toasty warm in your heated bed. Good Marketing there!

So this unit above is what ours looks like, and please note the two controllers, one for my side and one for Crystalie's side. Which I think I am going to love as Crystalie can not stand getting to warm, and occasionally she has a warm flash and then is throwing her covers off.

This is going to be the first night and I am sure there will be a little adjustment process, but the other thing is the  heat will be below our bodies not above it like the blanket was...meaning it should be toastier!

This last Sunday, we got up and drove to the cities, to see Livia and Addy perform in the ballet school they attend, to see their production of "The Nutcracker Suite' .

It was a real treat to see all their hardwork, and the performance, since I never really new the full story of the Nutcracker Suite. It was very well done and they had a lot of dancing and activity in the first half of the story, and just a little bit at the very end of the second act.

They did great and the performance was well attended and they had a second performance at 4 in the afternoon.

I am sorry but we were not allowed to shoot any video or photos of the production due to copyright issues.

Good Job Girls!

Yes another weekend, and I have a project list of certain things to do this weekend.

I have been busy the last couple of evenings posting Wooden Nichols items on Etsy.com, which is a vintage, collectible and handcrafted site for selling items on. Warning...it could be come an addictive site if you like looking at all kinds of items, because it seems they have pages and pages of it!

So when you get there look for Wooden Nichols Market to see all the new listings.

I plan to fix my trailer lights, hopefully and the new part will allow my driver side lights to work on the trailer.

I also plan to haul recyclables to the collection point, cleaning out some more of my shop. After that I am off to cut up some wood at Colette's house, as she has some oak trees that fell over this fall. I also have to install a new thermostat for her, in the newly refinished basement.

So as you can see it will be a busy day, but we have no snow and the temps will be around 30 degrees and there will be lots of days in the future when it won't be so nice outside to do anything!

Okay, we all know how when you are busy doing things, you tend to just set things where it is convenient.

Well I do that a lot sometimes, and after a busy summer of projects like salvaging wood off the old barn, a huge pool deck project, various other building projects. And let's not forget that we constantly have things showing up in our yard from Crystalie's Dad, and his salvaging business. Plus we manage to collect somethings ourselves at garage sales and other shopping excursions.

My 30 by 36 shop, needless to say was basically a pathway between shelf units and shop tools and piles of wood and extra tables (Wooden Nichols stuff) along with a lawn tractor and mower deck.

So I got home a little early and went out to the shop and started moving things around and also sweeping the floor as I went. I reorganized my shelf units and cleared a few shelves facing my
radial arm saw and then proceeded to re-stack all my barn wood and left over deck wood all on the shelves and also the floor right in front of it. After doing that I moved the tables....6 of them and stacked a few of them on top of one another.

Then I proceeded to move the 9 ft flat bottom boat in storage in my shop( another Wooden Nichols item) to the far end and created another row in the shop.

This allowed me to create a space of clear floor about 9' by 20' which means if I had to I could get a car in the shop this winter. But for me I just need a roomy spot to park my lawn tractor with the snowplow on it and also a place to do some wood working when the weather permits.

Next step is to haul the recyclables and the trash to town, which will clean out the corner by the door! And to clean off my work bench and re-organize my tools.

Crystalie was even impressed!

Well the pile of logs I have on the landing area across the creek is nothing more than a pile of chunks of wood now. I spent yesterday (Saturday) cutting the smaller stuff up and hauling it up to the wood pile by the wood stove.

It started snowing after I had started and snowed off an on, making it kind of slippery and a necessity to pick the pieces up I cut yesterday, in fear that they may get buried by the snow. I went through 3 chainsaws of gas, meaning I cut up about 2 plus cord of wood.

Today (Sunday) I spent cutting all the bigger logs in to those chunks of wood. Today I burned through 5 tanks of gas. needless to say the shoulders are a little sore from all the cutting. I used my tractor with the snow plow on it to move the logs around some to make it easier to cut the logs and move the cut pieces out of the way.

Next step is to split what I have left and haul it up, and it sounds like next weekend after Thanksgiving, I will have temps in the 40's to work in. Still a lot of trips up and down the path to the landing area, but I hope to finish with 3 days to work, as I have Friday off.

Yes tonight Coffee Lake will freeze over, it is finally still and the temps are already below freezing. ice was already forming in the middle of the lake when I got home tonight.

It is rare to see it actually begin the process, but there were areas that were growing in the center of the lake, it looked like something floating on the water, but the area's kept expanding in size. I look out the window and see the reflection of the light from the neighbors yard light and there are dull spots appearing in the reflection on the water.

This weekend's forecast is for snow on Saturday, maybe up to 5 inches. So things will look different by this coming Sunday!

This weekend I am fortunate to have the skidsteer loader sitting in the yard to help with the firewood making process.

This is the short list for Saturday and Sunday...

Well I tried to finish my trailer light project but it seems I have a wire on the drivers side, wiring that is damaged some where.

I have to look between the drivers side tail light and the wiring harness for the lights for the trailer...

But alas I ran out of daylight and it will have to be completed tomorrow hopefully...everything else looks good...at least on the passenger side!

Yes, that is what I am up to this weekend. I spent most of the day cutting, splitting and hauling firewood.

It is the time of year for me to get our winter's supply of firewood put up. The leaves are gone and it is easy to see what I am doing and when I have to move branches, they are lighter.

There are a few things I do enjoy when I am out cutting wood. Watching Smarkle run back and forth while I use the tractor and trailer going to and from my wood cutting spot. I have had a headset to help keep the noise to a minimum, which also has a radio in it and I get to enjoy some music, or a Gopher Football game or the Viking game if I am not in  the house watching it.

Needless to say I also develop a few aches and pains, but I try to minimize those with some Ibuprofen and wearing a back support and also some tennis elbow bands.

Okay in the last 4 days I have had to deal with 2 flat tires...this is not mine but just a stock image.

The first, Monday morning, I just pumped the tire up before leaving for work and drove right to the tire shop in Brainerd and had it repaired, turns out it had two smaller punctures in it.

Then yesterday, I was coming home and I hit something on hwy 18 just before my turn off on to County 10 and I stopped on County 10 as something didn't feel right and sure enough it had already gone flat.

So I dig out my jack and tire wrench, which I knew where it was...and then proceeded to get my spare out from under the back of the truck which was the most difficult part. After that I I loosened the lug nuts and jacked it up and switched the tire out. Pretty uneventful and needless to say I have had my share of practice over the years. Got it fixed today, one bigger hole but still repairable, and put the tire back on and put the spare back where it belongs.

Probably the coolest thing was 5 different people stopped to make sure I was okay and could handle changing it out. That is a good thing...but I also was wondering, do I look that old now???