66

I had another birthday last week, this one to mark the end of my 66th year here.  Like most people, that number doesn't make sense in my brain, but my body is aware of the mounting years of use.

I had a nice day of phone calls, cards, Facebook greetings, text messages and then a chorus of Happy Birthday sung by the Bridge group.  I ended the evening with basketball at Chetek, the Luck boys played Baldwin-Woodville in a holiday game.  BW is a much bigger school than Luck, so it was exciting to see them get the win.  Gage had 24 points and a good game.

The morning of my birthday I had the Sears appliance repairman here to work on the washer.  When he left I was pretty sure it was not repairable.  Sure enough, the next morning I got an email from the Sears Home Warranty folks telling me that they were going to replace the washer.  So, I had the option to take a check and I did that.  I got right over to our Sears Homestore and bought a nice new Kenmore which will be delivered and set up on the 10th of January.  I'll probably have to visit the laundromat one time to get me through, but that's okay, it's not a big deal.  It will be nice to have a new washer.  I'm glad that I have kept the home warranty with Sears, it gives me one phone number to call for any appliance problems, and all the premiums were paid for with this failure.

Friday night was another ballgame.  The Luck boys won again.  Gage did not have as good of a showing but others stepped up.  After the game, Kyle, Heather, Lois, Harry, Stella, Jude and I went out for a bite to eat at Adventures.  It was a very nice evening with the family.

Great niece Emily was at the game.

Great nephew Jude sporting his Christmas Eve battle scar.
He's a resilient little guy.

I feel like I had a really nice birthday this year, thanks to the attention of all my friends and family.

Life is very good.

Silent Night

Merry Christmas all.

This photo is Luck,  Wisconsin on Christmas Eve night. 

Losing is hard

Last Friday night I watched Great Niece Alyxis play basketball in Spring Valley.  It was a tough loss for the girls, but I was impressed that they continued to hustle and play hard the whole game.

It's early in the season, I am pretty sure we will see good improvement in the play execution and teamwork by this group of young women.

Nice shot Lex!

Win or lose, I still love to watch her play.

And she always has a post game hug and smile for me.

Alyxis and her Great kAunt Wanda

Woody the Woodpecker was here

I used to love that cartoon, Woody the Woodpecker.

Woody first aired in 1957 and wrapped up his TV run in 1958, but I must have watched syndicated reruns for years after.  Woody was always involved in some kind of escapade and often times the script included nuggets that only the adults would recognize for more than just cartoon humor.

Flash forward 60 years, and a real life Woody the Woodpecker comes to my bird feeders quite often.

Today it was the female.  The distinguishing mark is a red stripe along the beak, clearly missing here, but very obvious in the male of the species.

These huge birds can really plow through a suet block.

Often, these large birds do a trapeze act to hang on to the suet log and still manage to peck away.

But today, she perched on the platform seed feeder right outside the living room window.

More than once, but never caught on film, I saw her long stringy tongue dart out to snag a sunflower seed.  It would happen in a split second.

She was also stretching her neck up and back, in some kind of display that I did not understand.

Maybe she saw a reflection in the window?

I'll never know.

Anyway, I enjoyed seeing her up close.

Her feathers are beautiful.

Under her chin, a little lacy effect of white, perhaps a nod to Ruth Bader Ginsburg?

Just the tip of her ~2 inch tongue.

Posturing for some reason known only to her.

 I enjoyed her visit today, and the fact that it was a sunny, winter day, made it all the better.

Peaceful

Not a creature is stirring. 

I had hoped to go watch girl's basketball in Luck tonight,  but snow flurries off and on during the day took me out of the mood. So,  I'll stay home and watch with 🤞fingers crossed that our local contestant on The Voice makes it through to the next round. Chris Kroeze has done well so far, I've been voting and streaming his song to help move him along. 

Outside,  I got my big candles lit up on the front steps.  This is the view from my Wyze camera that is mounted on the garage.  I think it looks quite peaceful.

+++
Update: I have relocated the security camera to the front porch. I learned that another company was making enclosure for the little Wyze camera. I ordered one from Amazon and attached it to the pergola over the front door. Now I should not get any more false alarms as the camera can no longer see the street so it will not alert me to all traffic in the neighborhood, only if that traffic is in my driveway. I'm quite pleased with my inexpensive security system. The wise camera was twenty bucks and the enclosure was another 12 dollars. Here's the new view. The bright spots of light are the tops of the Christmas candles, so they are only temporary.

Basketball is Back

My first basketball game of the 2018-19 Luck Cardinal season.

Gage driving to the hoop.

The first of many fun nights on the bleachers for me. 

Village People

The village people are creeping out. Now they want electricity,  that's the next step and the least enjoyable.

The lights are on,  the village is all set.

 A couple of bulbs were bad, so temporary blue bulbs in their place. Today I found the spare white bulbs.

Barley is already perching amongst the little villagers.

 
Finished up making merry and got the tree up.

Hunting Shack Visit

On Saturday I took a drive to Mason, Wisconsin to see Rick and Mary for a cup of coffee and a piece of pie & also to pick up a battery powered shower that we think we can use at our Sandcastle cabin. It was kind of a gloomy day but warm, 40s, the roads were dry so it was a pleasant drive. Mary and I talked over some sewing projects and I brought her some wool sweaters for her mittens project. She's been sewing the wool mittens out of old sweaters and donating them to the Ashland Humane Society. The mittens are then sold in the Humane Society thrift store and the money ultimately benefits the dogs and cats.

From Mason I headed to the Sandcastle to check in with our deer hunters and also to bring the new shower set up to the hunt. It was about dusk when I got to the cabin so the hunters had returned from the woods. The men had a project in mind that they wanted to complete before settling down to a few hands of cards end settling in for the night. They got busy putting new vinyl down in the bathroom which meant pulling everything out of the bathroom first and some cleaning. I didn't get involve so I sat down with Jackson and Jake for a hand or two of Cribbage. Jake and never played before so he needed a coach. He caught on quickly to the 15-2 idea. We played a whole game with Jake skunking Jackson. Beginner's luck is a sweet feeling. 

I wanted to get going on my drive back home so I left as the guys were finishing up the reload of the bathroom but it was nice to have a quick visit and a few hands of crib. My drive home was uneventful, a lot of rain but thankfully no animals on the road.

I'm pretty sure shower will work great,  but the hunters are not interested in getting cleaned up,  so I guess we won't test the new gizmo this hunting season. 

Day of Thanksgiving

I remember the first Thanksgiving that we lived in Colorado, which would have been 1968. My dad cooked the turkey on the charcoal grill rotisserie and he was wearing shorts and a t-shirt. It was like we were living on a different planet than Wisconsin. It only got to about 30 degrees today and no sunshine. 

I'm cooking a Turkey breast and the fixings & doing a little craft work while I watch football.  I picked the winner of the dog show as soon as I saw the Whippet.  I don't think Hops enjoyed the dog show. 

Happy day of Thanksgiving to all my readers. 🦃

Hunting Weekend

It's the opening weekend of hunting.  A sacred event for most of the Johansen family.  The only successful hunter that I've heard is Jordyn. She gets the bragging rights. 

This is the first year of hunting for Jake, so here's a photo of Jake, Dana & Jackson.  The first time they've been able to hunt together.  Fun times.

Operation Mittens

Ever since Dad died in 2014, I've had his wool Army blanket here in the closet.

About 3 years ago, at quilt camp, friend Mary showed me how to make wool mittens out of an old wool sweater.  Wool sweaters are washed in hot water to 'felt' the fabric and then mittens are sewn using fleece for a soft, snuggly lining.  

It's a tricky little project but makes a really warm pair of mittens.

I started thinking that the wool blanket might make nice mittens, as much as I hated to cut it into pieces.  After some time went by, I pulled the blanket out and washed it in hot water.

It was already a tight weave but now it was ideal for mittens.

I started bringing the blanket to quilt camp each Spring and Fall.  Thinking I would make mittens for Dad's grandsons from that blanket.  I would talk about making mittens, but always had another project to do, or the wrong patterns, or some other excuse.

I was undecided about what to do about the size.  I knew they had to be large enough for big hands.  Mary was mostly making the size that would just fit my hands, too small for big men.

About a year ago, friend Sharon sent me all sizes of mitten patterns from little little to XXL.

That took care of another excuse.

I had really given up on this idea after hauling that blanket back and forth for 3 or 4 camps.

But Mary suggested I bring it again this Fall and I did.

She was cranking out mittens like crazy out of old sweaters.  Mary donates the mittens she makes to the thrift store in Ashland that is run by the Humane Society.  They make a nice profit for the animals.  So, of course, the blanket was once again a topic of discussion.

Finally, late Saturday night, after some prodding, I pulled out the blanket and decided I had a large enough pattern and would cut out some mittens.  I cut out one pair and sewed it up with Mary's coaching.  I had forgotten the steps, so sewing the first one reminded me of the process.  I had red fleece to use as liner, and I have to say I was pleased with the final result of the prototype.

Prototype.

Once I had sewn one, I decided I would cut out the other 4 pair, and then sew them later on at home.

So, I started cutting.

One nice thing about that blanket, it was not directional at all, so I could use every inch of blanket.

I quickly had pieces for six 2XL mittens cut and plenty of blanket left. 

So, I picked a smaller size pattern and continued to cut and soon I had 5 pair of smaller mittens cut, ready to piece together.

 It's starting to look like a bunch of sewing to do.

 Pieces and pieces.

I decided to sew mittens on 11.2.2018

4 years since Dad left us, so I would remember him by sewing.

 Pinning is the key, it's important to be sure you end up with 1 right hand mitten and 1 left hand mitten.  So, laying out the pieces and pinning helped keep me organized.

 Then, production sewing.

Sewing the same step over and over made it easier and allowed for some improvement of technique.

Starting to look like something now.

 I decided keep things straight by putting a little name tape in each mitten.

I sewed up all the boys mittens first.

 I had to buy 2 more boxes of pins for this project.

 This step is the last before turning the mitten.

Once the lining is attached to the outer wool,

there is a final seam to stitch, and then the big reveal.

Ta Da!

 The 2XL mittens are done.

Dad had 5 grandsons, so each will have a pair, and one extra will go to Glenn.

Now for the smaller mittens.

 Dad had 3 granddaughters, but there were 5 smaller sized pair of mittens.

So, Laila and Wanda get mittens too.

 Thinking about how I would present the mittens to the kids, I decided to sew up some little cinch bags for the mittens to live in.

I had enough camo fabric for 6 bags and made the rest out of some green material out of my stash.

 Operation Mittens is done.

So, the only thing left was to dish out the mittens.

I was hoping to personally hand the mittens to the kids so I could explain the Army blanket history.

But I also wrote up a little note to put in each of the mitten bags.

When is an Army Blanket no longer a blanket?

Did you know?

Army Blankets were issued to our military during WWII.  Many were made by the woolen mills in Faribault, Minnesota.  These blankets were part of the gear that servicemen hauled with them.

Valdemar P. Johansen hauled his Army blanket from Navy Seabee basic training in Davisville, RI to Iwo Jima, Maui and all stops in between.  After his discharge in 1945, this blanket traveled back to Wisconsin with him, and eventually ended up in Iowa on a shelf in the closet.  That’s where I rescued it from when we cleaned out the Iowa apartment.

Did you know?

When is a blanket no longer a blanket?  Well, when it is mittens of course.

This is your pair of chopper mittens out of that 70+ year old mustard green colored Army blanket.  I cut around the moth holes and made 11 pair of mittens out of that well-traveled blanket.   Each of Valdemar’s grandkids and Glenn, Laila and Wanda will all have Valdemar’s Army Blanket mittens to wear this winter.

So, whether you wear these mittens driving, hunting, fishing or other outdoor activities, Valdemar will be with you in spirit and will be helping to keep your hands toasty and comfy.

With Love,

Wanda

I drove a big loop from Rice Lake, to Baldwin, to Spring Valley to Menomonie, WI to see each of Glenn's kids (and Glenn) on 11.11 to hand them their mittens 

I caught up with 2 of Gus's kids at the Veteran's Day program at Luck on 11.12, left Ryan's in his work shop and had to mail Kris and Laila's to them.

Kris and Laila will get theirs last, but that should happen by Thursday of this week.

It is good to reuse, recycle and re-purpose.

Re-purposing that old blanket into toasty warm mittens is one of the best projects I have ever done.

I know everyone loves the mittens and I am sure that Dad would be tickled to see that blanket getting so much use again.  I'm keeping mine in the car for those chilling days before the inside of the car warms up, my hands are toasty.

So, what's next?

Not to worry, I have a couple of other projects up my sleeve.

Life is Good.