Coming Home to Paynesville

I took the road less traveled.

I did.

It seems I continue to do so.

And I wonder if this is a common theme in everyone's life, not just mine. If we could see down that road, the road that is our life, the one with so many twists and turns and branches...if we could truly see down that road, I think we might just be terrified.  Because there are so MANY twists and turns, obstacles, ruts, sinkholes, and just plain scary stuff, would we ever have the courage to go that way?

I think it's fortunate that we can't see what's down the road.  Because taking it one step at a time is what makes it manageable.

Did I know three months ago that the road was leading me to Paynesville?  No way.  The only thing I knew about Paynesville is that it has an old school building that looks like this:

A little scary, and a little sad.  I wish someone would have been able to save it.

I can't find much info on the unincorporated town of Paynesville.  It used to have a post office.  It was named after the Payne family, who were homesteaders in the area. It was a railroad stop, so the dairy farmers could get their milk to market.  It sits in this beautiful meadow "bowl" surrounded by forests. It was populated by Finns, hence the sauna in everyone's backyard. The sauna was such an integral part of a Finn's homestead, very often it was the first building to be built, and the family lived in it until the house could be built later, which was certain to be after the livestock had their barns and stables and coops.

What is left of Paynesville are some closely situated houses and homesteads, a blacksmith road

(but no blacksmith), meadows of hay,

TWO Lutheran churches,

Our Savior ELCA

First Apostolic

and an ORV trail.

We own 2 acres of Paynesville, a house from 1956, a huge garage (bigger than our house) a shed and of course, a sauna--say SOW(like the pig)-NUH.

It looks MUCH better on the inside!

I think it must have been a pretty big metropolis at one time.  Because people decided that it was important for people to know how close they were to getting to Paynesville.  Go one mile north, and the road is One Mile Road.

Go two miles, and it is (bet you can guess) Two Mile Road.  Easy to know how far you are from Paynesville.

Some of the roads coming into Paynesville are straight, but others wind a little.  Like my life, lately. Tonight I am sitting in my newly (green) painted kitchen, looking out the sliding door to the beautiful view of the mountains (very OLD mountains) surrounding Paynesville, thinking that this was a good twist in the road/plot of my life.  Every day, this is my view,

until the deer start showing up, at which point it looks more like this,

or if I get bored, I can drive a little up the road (maybe as far as Two Mile Road), and see the beautiful colors that are just starting to light up the Upper Peninsula autumn.

Sugar Maple

Might be edible...I dunno!

aspens and maples

Might be a Whomping Willow!

Red and Sugar Maples

Pretty, and pretty cool, right?  After seeing the beginning of Autumn here in the little non-town of Paynesville, I am even looking forward to the beauties of Winter.  And as usual, I know that whichever direction this road leads me, I am blessed!

P.S.  Thank you, dear readers of my ramblings.  We hit 1000 views today!

His Eye Is on the Sparrow

In the New Testament, both Matthew and Luke tell of Jesus preaching about sparrows, those common, nondescript, sometimes pesky little birds we see all over the place.  Apparently God knows when even one of his sparrows falls, and has every hair on your head counted. You know the story.  I believe it with all my heart.  Because I have seen sparrows.  And they are incredible.  Just like everything else that God created.

I talked in my last post about being childish.  I think my faith is somewhat of a child-like nature, as well.  See, I believe that I am God's favorite.  

Please don't be shocked.  Because I believe that YOU are God's favorite as well.  When God created everything, he saw that it was good.  He was pleased.  And in his infinite infinity, he liked everything that he made. The hairs on your head, the sparrows, and you.  

If you ask a mother of 12 kids which one is her favorite, she can't (or won't) tell you.  Maybe one of those kids is really being naughty that day, so maybe she is big-time disappointed in him or her, but that kid is still a favorite, just like the other 11. Even only being the mom of two, I still get that.  God gets it, as well.  

Moms have a big handicap. They are stuck on a timeline, in the same dimension, located in only one place at a time.  Still, even though a kid messes up at that particular time, she can see the possibility of that kid being infinitely loveable at least at some point!   God, who exists in all time, in all places in every possible dimension at once can see the greatness in everyone and everything.  That's why I can be God's favorite, and you can be God's favorite, and so can everyone else.  He sees your potential, and He is pleased.  

I think if everyone could realize this, they'd run out of things to fight about and just smile...a lot. They'd also have a much better sense of their own worth, which would lead to even more smiling and general all around happiness.  

Anyway, what brought this all up in my mind was SPARROWS...literally.  

When I lived in Iowa, every May we would have a migration of interesting types of sparrows through our area.  Mostly, I would wait for (and listen for) the White-crowned and White-throated Sparrows to show up in our yard.

White-throated

White-crowned

They would stay around for a week or two, and be gone.  The rest of the time, we might get a Chipping Sparrow or two, but the rest of the time, the yard would be overrun by House Sparrows, who are an invasive, non-native species.

Chipping Sparrows look way more cool sitting in the alders than anywhere in Iowa.

I have a hard time liking House Sparrows, but when you start looking at them, they are really beautiful birds.

I think this House Sparrow knows he is way more cool than the littler House Finch!

Every morning, I drink coffee and feed birds.  Sometimes, it's hard to go to work because I am busy looking at sparrows. I have been amazed that everything I see in the UP is NOT a House Sparrow, but various other interesting sparrows.  And just in case I get cocky and assume I can identify them all, each bird has three different looks.  There is the juvenile look, the breeding look, and the non-breeding look.  Explains a lot about why God has his eye on them.  I know which one is God's favorite, don't you?  Here are a few types I have enjoyed watching:

Clay-colored 

Fox

Harris's

Field 

Grasshopper 

Lark 

Lincoln's 

Savannah 

Song 

Vesper

There are actually many more kinds.  These are the only ones I've been able to get a picture of.

Civilla Martin wrote a poem in 1905, after visiting a friend who had been crippled for over 20 years of his life. This friend explained his secret for living a happy, positive life.  "His eye is on the sparrow," he explained, "and I know He watches me."

I sing because I'm happy.

I sing because I'm free. 

His eye is on the sparrow,

And I know he watches me.

That's the refrain of the song that Civilla and Charles H. Gabriel put together.  Maybe you've heard it. Whitney Houston did her thing with it.  I personally like the original hymn-like version a little better.

So, what's my point? Sparrows (among other things) make me happy. I figure if I have so much fun watching sparrows, God must have even more fun watching ME. After all, I AM his favorite :)

My Day So Far--Happy Birthday to ME

I've always liked having a birthday.  Not for presents or birthday wishes, although those are nice :) I just feel special...it's MY day.  I think I could be a hermit and still like my birthday.

I'm 56 today. I've never been one to be reluctant to tell my age.  It is what it is.  Kids in school used to tell me I don't seem my age...that's because I am CHILDISH!  I know it.  I am a big baby about so many things.  But in a lot of ways, I think that's a good thing.  Even though I am quick to get emotional, throw a tantrum (small, mostly self-contained), cry about little things.  I am also quick to laugh, and love, and find enjoyment in so many things in my life every day.  

So I want to tell you what makes me happy today.  

I woke up when Jordan's alarm went off this morning at 5:30.  He gets on the school bus at 6:20, so...wow...that's early.  I don't usually get up, and Bob is the morning guy to see Jordan off and drive him to the bus stop.  

One huge source of happiness here.  Jordan, my beautiful emotional handful of a boy is getting up happily to go to his new school.  At midnight last night, he was in my bedroom telling me how happy he is that everyone has been so nice to him at his new school.  In his last school, I think people saw him in his early anxiety-ridden-extreme-ADHD days, and just never were able to either see the loving person underneath, or the monumental strides he made in conquering those early issues.  Suddenly, he is in a new situation where no one is judging him based on anything but how he is right now, and how he is right now is GREAT.

Cute, or what?

I am so happy about this, that my eyes are leaking :)

Another BIG happiness point is my morning-loving husband.  I can't go into all the reasons that he makes me happy, or I will cry all over my computer.  This morning's happy things include how he is in a good mood and happy to see me EVERY morning when I get up (later than him), and how he took the time to finish decorating this cake for me :)

The candles were actually pretty cool, because when lit, they virtually self-destructed...I thought it was cool, anyway!

There are so many things I love about him, but I don't want to sit here and cry today, so I will just tell you that when spouses were handed out, I got the best one. I'm sorry about that, for you, but that's just the way it worked out.

My third source of huge happiness sent me a beauteous clarinet rendition of a well-known song today. And if I could figure out how to play it here, I would.  Let me just say it was high the first time he played it...it was an octave higher than high the second time...lovely. He later called to sing to me this same song with similar expertise...really.  I think he needs to save these recordings for his application to grad school. If that doesn't work...he can just show them his beautiful, sensitive, make me laugh, green-eyed face, and he's a shoe-in. Or a Schu-in? What does that expression mean, anyway???

I'm right about this.

After I had my coffee and bird-watching time this morning,

Not a bird.

I drove to Paynesville, where Bob and Nathan were already working on our continuing issue.  While I was driving, I got a call from Bob, and he put Nathan on the phone to wish me happy birthday, and tell me about THIS:

After the week we have had with trying to get the well on our property operational, I don't think I will EVER take water for granted again!  Anyway, I was driving along this morning, just finished talking to Bob and Nathan and thanking him for the birthday present of figuring out the water situation, and GOD, in his infinite humor, noticed I was just about to enter the beautiful Ontonagon valley, on a cloudy day, and just in that instant he made the sun come out and light up the whole valley all at once. TAH-DAHHH!!! Like that.  Never doubt that God can be a showman when he wants to....it was so OBVIOUS that it made me laughed, and I yelled out in my car, "Oh, SHUT UP, God!!!" He knows I didn't mean it in a mean or disrespectful way...it was just such a big, blatant, instant reminder of just who I should be thanking for all this stuff....like water.  It was funny. You should have been there. 

We stopped work at Paynesville early today because we both have a cold, and because of lack of interest in working on Friday afternoon :)  Bob and I drove to Ontonagon to do some errands. (Happiness is riding in the car with the man you love), then went home for naps, and cake and ice cream, and BLTs.  In that order. We watched a good movie. And that was that.  

I was too hungry to pose my food properly.  It was delicious. 

As I was going up to bed (and to finish this post), Bob explained to me that he has some ideas for birthday presents, but since we are trying to not spend money until we are MAKING some again, a present would come later.  I proceeded to tell him about all my presents today:  Birds to watch, RUNNING WATER, cake and ice cream, cupcakes and streamers (he surprised me with these in Paynesville this morning), BLTs.  I didn't even mention the message from God or the three wonderful men in my life.  But wow...my special day was as happy as I could ever want. My cup runneth over...really.

A Few Bumps in the Road to Mayberry

I had a little meltdown a couple of days ago.

And then another one yesterday.

I am being pulled two directions, literally, these days.

If I drive North(ish), I end up at our shop in Ontonogan.  Where there is nothing going on, yet.  I need to start hitting the streets there to drum up some business for my piano studio.  I have tried subtle: word of mouth, signs in my window, signs on community bulletin boards, but no one has taken me up on my offer of piano lessons.

In spite of a pretty piano and setting (purple and green!)

I do know that word of mouth is effective here in Yooperland.

Because EVERY town here is Mayberry.

I hope you have watched the show sometime in your lifetime.  Andy Taylor (Griffith) goes about his everyday tasks, among a really interesting and slightly quirky cast of co-workers, neighbors and family. It's a place where you can find help if you need it, but don't expect to have any secrets about it.

I think what I need to do is look like I'm more serious and to be more outgoing.  I know I can advertise in the local papers, but even that seems like it's not the personal, in-your-face type communication people appreciate here.  I think I would have more luck hitting all the restaurants and bars and maybe talking to people in grocery stores more.

Something I find funny in grocery stores here is that you are expected to say hi.  To everyone. Everyone, in every aisle, looks at you expecting it.   It's the neighborly, Mayberry thing to do.  And if you get into one of those patterns of meeting in every aisle going opposite directions, you'd better have an anecdote handy.  It's expected.

Yesterday, at Settler's Co-op in Bruce Crossing (pronounced "Bruce's" by all the locals who couldn't possibly remember the real guy, who in the mining days started the town by building a store/hotel/saloon/post office there) we were getting some lunch and drinks and paying for gas in the convenience store side, where it clearly says you MAY NOT have more than 5 items to check out, otherwise you are expected to walk over to the grocery side of the building and check out.  Our checker, Ben, insisted that our 7 items would be okay, but a man behind us in line was nice enough to count and inform us of our mistake. I turned around to notice that he had a twinkle in his eye, so he wasn't REALLY worried about it.  I think his observant comment had to do with the fact that I had spurned him in the aisle earlier, and NOT responded to his anecdote (something about the weather, I think it was). I will not make that mistake again, nice man in the hiking hat.

Anyway, my meltdown had something to do with the fact that until I can get this business up and running, we are running through our cash reserves, which is extremely scary.  It also had to do with the other direction I am being pulled these days...South(ish) towards Paynesville and our house there.

The plan is to be moved in by Oct. 1.  The problem is, the place is a mess and as of this morning at 7:21, there is still no water there.

The house was a bank foreclosure, so it was a good deal.  The house was a bank foreclosure, so it is pretty messy inside, and also the condition of various systems contained therein is virtually unknown. Well, it is becoming more known as the days go by.  There are some minor bumps, like a faulty gauge on the propane tank, THIS outside our patio door,

Yes, it is ALIVE, and no, I don't know what to do about it, yet. 

and major bumps, that look something like this:

The well pump will not work, so it involves digging up the pipes into the house from the well, and the well area itself, to see what's up.  

Fortunately, that picture is the worst of it.  The guy digging is our friend John's son, Nathan.  We are so lucky to have found people like John and his family, who have a lot of skills, especially when it comes to moving dirt around, and the understanding of just about anything that involves construction or mechanical systems.  What makes it better is the gentle neighborly kindness they show our family, in trying to understand what we need to do to get things up and running.  In addition, our actual Paynesville neighbor has been hanging out in the trenches (literally) with Nathan and Bob, offering advice and help, and the use of his hydrant if we need it. Mayberry at its finest. 

While all that is going on outside, I have been working on the inside.  The house has been empty awhile, and it looks like the people who left it did so in a hurry.  Over the 60 years the house has been around, it has been remodeled pretty well, but then it looks like the last owners or so didn't understand some basics of cleaning....sooo....

I have spent two days (and subsequent meltdowns) "un-yicking" the kitchen.  I am happy to say that yesterday, late in the afternoon, while the boys were deep in the trenches (literally), I declared things suitably "un-yicked" for now, and I started painting the kitchen.  You know how in an earlier post, I talked about my un-like of the color blue?  I am banishing it from the kitchen with a color called "Leapfrog."  It is such a warm replacement for the icy light blue that is there. And yes, it is green. 

So far it looks like this.  I hope you like it  as much as I do.  If you don't, don't tell me.  

I wonder if anyone EVER can see very far down the road to where their lives might lead them. Back on July 1, I wasn't thinking wells, or interim houses, or BIG hornets nests, or even living for a time in the charming little town of Rockland (pronounced Mayberry).  I thought I was going to be a homesteader in the middle of my forest on Duba (pronounced "Splude" or "Klein's," depending on how long you've lived in the area) Road.  I guess in a way, this is homesteading, carving a path through the wilderness (and our yard, with an excavator).  

The meltdowns happen, because it's still hard for me to be patient and realize, as I'm sure all homesteaders since the beginning of time have had to realize, that the list of chores and jobs and projects never end, most of them are always gonna be works in progress, and ONLY GOD knows where all the bumps in the road are gonna happen.  And what does he do about it?  He sends me great, kindly people who are patient and willing to help, or just to be friendly in a strange land (pronounced "grocery store"), as well as moments of great clarity, when I realize that it truly is all good and ALL in His hands.  

Wish you could have really seen the sunset on these trees last night.  And the stormy looking clouds over Lake Superior. The bad picture (through the bugs) was the result of me not wanting to be a distracted driver.  Sorry, but God sometimes has to be VERY distracting to get my attention. So much for the small whispering voice, God! 

Anyway, I'm determined to keep the faith, and forge ahead, either North(ish) or South(ish) today. Lots of miles to cover, and maybe a few little bumps as well.  I'm ready!

Two months Into It

I can hardly believe it's only been two months since we made our life-changing decision to move to the UP.  Looking back at everything we have had to do in the last two months, well, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

UNLESS.

The rewards are as great and immediate as they seem to be throughout our experience. 

Because, frankly, moving 600 miles really sucks.  Sorry, no better word for it.  Just DRIVING 600 miles is not a fun thing.  Then you multiply it by the number of trips you have to make to accomplish and wrap up everything back in Iowa (3), and the number of miles...well, you can do the math.  

Trying to get a house sold, also not fun.  It's an emotional thing, so I've sort of turned it over to Bob, who is less attached.  

I always said that whenever I decided to quit my job, I would want to do it quietly.  That part is good. The part that's not is how a Catholic institution can make sure to zap you financially in the end. Thanks for your 32 years of service, Mrs. Peterson.  Now we will sock it to you, because the contract you signed says we can.  I wonder how much money I contributed over the years to balls and projects and drives and fund-raisers.  Was it MANY times the amount they felt they needed to subtract from my last paycheck?  I know so.  You know, I could have done it differently, less considerately, and come out much better.  But I didn't.  Did I do the right thing?  Of course.  Still, it rankles just a little.

I'm almost to the point where I can put it behind me...600 miles behind me.  

OKAY.

Now that I've said all that, what you need to know is this.  Everything else. IS. GREAT! 

Big Things We Have Accomplished in Only Two Months:

We rented a house in Rockland from a some nice people, Darrell and Cindy.  

We rented a place for a business in Ontonagon.

It used to be a Subway/A&W, then a video store. 

We visited schools and chose (yay, Michigan Choice) Ewen-Trout Creek as Jordan's new high school.  Go Panthers!  

We made a business plan, and we are taking steps daily to get things up and running.

Added an extra room for Bob to have an office.

We bought a house in Paynesville for when our rental is no longer available (snowmobile season is coming!).

Yes, the garage is larger than the house!

We started renovating our shop in Ontonagon with the plan of inviting people in for a first look on LABOR DAY.....ahrrrgghhh!!!!!

This color is called "Composed."  I want to be a color-namer at Sherwin Williams!

All this might seem to be sorta impressive, but what I think is the best is all the little things we've managed to accomplish besides:

We found time to hit the beach.

I love love love Lake Superior!

And the mountains.

Porcupine Mountains State Park

And spend nights at our camp.

Um, yes, that is a satellite dish for internet on top of our outhouse...long story!

We've taken time to feed and photograph

The hummingbirds,

Hummingbirds puff up when it's 55 degrees outside. 

The Red Squirrels,

I love his toes.

The chipmunks.

He doesn't, however, care for raisins. 

We've spent time creating new stuff,

Winter is coming!

Watched numerous birds in numerous settings.

Cedar Waxwing Invasion Day.  There used to be chokecherries in this picture!

Red-winged Blackbird

Mister Hummingbird

Ruffed Grouse

And even discovered an oddity in the birding world.

One of three leucistic crows we found. 

We have seen some extremely beautiful examples of God's creative juice.

Lake of the Clouds in the Porkies

Entering the Ontonagon River valley.  My drive to work. 

And stopped to notice the Eden-like wonders surrounding us every day.

We've sat at sunset and listened to the small Voice in the whispering pines (and heard the wolves howl, too).

You know Bob's hands are big, right?

Bliss.  Amen.

And we know that God has brought us here to do some good things in service to others.