Going, Going, Gone ICE-OUT!

The first photo is Monday afternoon. The 2nd photo is Tuesday afternoon! Ice-out was about 95% complete when I came home this morning. We only have a little bit of ice in our backyard. Ice fishing is Bill's favorite sport. No more ice fishing for him this year.

Love is in the air!

Here are some paired up visitor's from last weekend! My favorites, the Red-Headed Woopecker's, probably won't arrive until the end of April. Going up north today and plan on cleaning out my nest boxes. I always get Tree Swallows, but only get Bluebirds on occasion. Hoping for a year with the Blue's.

Red-bellied pair. Male on the left and has an unbroken orangy-red stripe down his neck. Unlike the female who appears to have a gray cap. Their name comes from a light reddish wash on their bellie's. Very difficult to see if you are not up close.


Pileated pair. Male on left with a red-mustache. Female has an all gray mustache.

Vacation - Swimming with Manatee's

Been a while (sorry!). Here are some pics from our vacation to Florida in February. We went down for my Grandma's 90th birthday!

Bill and I went swimming with the Manatee's in Crystal River, Florida. It is just down the road from my Mom and Gram's place in Florida. It's an experience that you don't want to miss. We can't wait to go again! Hope you enjoy!

Tip Up Town

A few weeks ago I took my sister in law Debbie, niece Michelle and nephew Jimmy up to the cabin for Tip Up Town. They wanted to go see the polar bear dip. Temperature wise it was not to bad in the low 30's and no wind.

Here are the first two folks to go in. As you can see the fire department, paramedics and rescue divers are standing by.

There are some crazy people that take part in this event. The next picture is OH so wrong in so many ways. We were not sure why this guy dressed like this but it was both disturbing and funny all at the same time. Prepare yourself and scroll down.

What we wanted to know what the bet was and did he win or lose it.

Here is Michelle going down the ice slide.


Here we are in front of the Tip Up Town ice sculpture. It was the
the 60th anniversary of the event.


Back on Trout Lake a pic of my shanty as dusk falls.

Michelle all bundled up. This is the first time she has gone ice fishing.

Michelle' s first ice fishing fish. Go Michelle!!!

Here is were I was sitting, going after the crappies. Everything you need, a bucket to sit on, a rod and rod holder, a scooper, Coleman lantern and the most important thing a beer.


After a full day outside in the cold it is good to come inside and warm up by the fire.

This Old Cabin - Plumbing #2

In this episode, I will replace the old plumbing with PEX. If you have not worked with PEX, let me tell you it is very easy to work with. The fact that you can do a single run from the manifold to the fixture is awesome. The connections are easy.

What was left over after all the pipes had been cut out. Off to the scrap yard. Got 64 bucks, don't tell Denise.

The cold water manifold for the PEX pipe.

Main water line is hooked up.

Cold water feed going to the hot water tank.

The bathroom cold water feed coming from one side of the attic to the other. I pitched the pipes to help avoid standing water in the pipes when we drain them.

Cold water feed to bathroom

Pic of me in the attic over the utility room. Not a lot of room and lots of nails sticking up and down. Good thing the tetanus shot is up to date.

Here I am stretched out running the hot water feed to the kitchen sink. This was the hardest part of the whole job.

Dee just had to take this pic as I crawled towards the attic hatch.

The hot water manifold.

I pulled down the crown molding far enough down to move the PEX through, but couldn't get it to go back up correctly. So, I ended up pulling the whole piece down, Much to Dee's dismay.

It made a very big mess as the blown insulation got in and on everything.


Got all of the molding back up. Here I am vacuuming the insulation up. Did I mention I hate blown in insulation?

The job is done except for a few connections that I will do later. We also left room for expansion of the water system. I also have some touch up work to do on the moldings. We are also going to build a new cabinet around the pump and manifold.

All in all I had fun doing this project and hopefully no more frozen or burst pipes.

This Old Cabin Plumbing #1

I have been busy at the cabin tearing out all the plumbing. I got tired of fixing leaking and busted pipes and crawling around in the attic with a torch soldering pipes. This is the first in a series of the adventures of de-plumbing and then re-plumbing the cabin with PEX pipe. So in this episode of This Old Cabin, we look at tearing out the plumbing.

The water pump, please excuse the sheet, we had torn out the cabinet.

The upper cabinet had to be removed for the PEX manifold to go in. We will replace both cabinets with a floor to ceiling cabinet.

The main galvinazied water line coming into the utility room attic.

The maze of pipes over the utility room.

Starting to cut the pipes and watching out for the wires.

This is where the pipes and electrical go through to the attic over the main cabin. There were wood plugs in some of these holes to help seal them off.

So when you are crawling on your belly through an attic always make sure the you watch out for hazards. This is a pic of the 220 line that goes to the stove with exposed wires. Thankfully I saw this before I crawled across it. Had to crawl out of the attic and shut the breaker off. I put electrical tape on it and will replace the wire when we put the new stove in.

Water lines cut to main cabin attic.

Had to remove the door moldings in order to get to the hot water line going to the kitchen sink.

Also had to pull the crown molding down to access the cold water line and old hot water pipes, much to Dee's dismay.

I pulled the molding down but not completely off the wall. There was the use of the reciprocating saw.

Had to cut an access hole in the kitchen cabinet to get to the the pipes.

Here are all the pipes ready to go the scrap yard.

Stayed tuned to the next episode when I install the PEX tubing and make a complete mess of Dee's kitchen.

1952 General Electric 'Speed Cooking' 40" range

***Edited to add that I believe that I have dated the range with the help of the GE website***

Bill and I were shopping in Houghton Lake. I always stop in the Habitat for Humanity Re-Store to hunt for antique light fixtures. For cabin lighting, the uglier, the better!


Well, on our way in... I spotted this beautiful 1950's General Electric range. We asked the man that runs the store if it worked. He said that he briefly tested it and all 4 burners and both ovens work! He is not sure if they work well, but they do work. This will be a great addition to our cabin, once we have it cleaned up in the spring. Bill does need to replace the old 220 plug with a newer one and he will check the rest of the wiring. It will have to sit in our garage downstate, until I can give it a good cleaning in the spring.


We don't know the exact year, I've googled it, but can't find any info on this model. If you know anyone who may be able to identify the year, let us know.


GE model #J466A1WH
Serial #HAK68228


Here are some of the feature's:
'Push-button' burners, one large burner, 3 regular burners
2 ovens, one is 1/3, the other is 2/3
both original broiler pans!
1 oven window
oven lights
flourescent cook-top light
clock
2 oven timers
individual oven controls

Here are some pics in our garage