Happy New Year!

This makes the 2nd New Years in a row that we have said good riddance to a year. First 2020, now 2021. Let's hope 2022 gets life back to some normalcy. Actually, we did not let the pandemic impact our travel plans too much this year. The main reason it was a hard year for us was losing Ms. Daisy. Almost a year later and pain still lingers. 

We traveled from coast to coast and even got into Canada later in the year! 

So, what do we have planned for this year? Much of the same except in reverse. We will head west in the next month or so to visit Forrest, Somer and Lily helping them with some projects around the house. Then we will be back here for a month or so before we start our big summer adventure! A trip we have had on the list for 3 years but keeps getting pushed back for various reasons. Well, this year we are going to do it!

We are heading north and east...and by that I do not mean to The Farm in Douglas North Dakota or another Undisclosed Location in Minnesota or even Pasha Lake Cabins in Ontario, all of which happen to be Northeast of us. Although we may stop by one, two or even all three of these locations, we are going much, much further north and east as we make our way to Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and maybe even Newfoundland! 

The official copilot and route planner has it all laid out, and if all goes well it is going to make for an adventurous summer! Our return route takes us down into Maine and eventually Pennsylvania to see our daughter Jessica and back west to South Dakota. To say we are excited would be an understatement! For those of you who have been in these areas we would be interested in your recommendations.

All this travel of course means that we need to continue with the progress on the house while we can! Cold temperatures kept us inside most of the week. Barndoors and trim was the theme of the week. Do you know how many lineal feet of trim are in a house? Even a small house? Me neither but it is hundreds and hundreds. To make matters even more fun, we are making our own trim out of 1x4's which means each board has to be ripped and planed before it is stained and varnished. 

But foot by foot we are getting there. The living room is done, the downstairs bathroom is done, and the hallway is done. 

Hallway trim....done!

Plus, Barb got the two closet barndoors in the bedroom done!

You can even see the barndoor in the hall leading to the laundry room. 

Now she is anxious to get started on the built-in dresser we are going to make for that space under the T.V. I don't see that happening anytime soon so in the meantime that old dresser will do. I did not have a "before" picture, but I did find this one in the archives to give you an idea of what the closets look like behind the doors. 

In our "downtime" we have gotten a little decorating done. I scored on a really cool book that I have added to our collection. The Legacy of Les C. Kouba.....Les is probably my favorite artist of all time with some old-time wildlife paintings that bring you back to another era. If you have any of his prints stored in your basement, feel free to send them my way!

We also picked up a sofa table the other day where I now have Les' book prominently displayed!

 We also go just the hooks we were looking for to mount the muzzleloader Dino gave me last time were at their Undisclosed Location. This thing is decades old and has never been out of the box. As soon as he gave it to me, I knew just the place for it!

Wednesday night, Dan and Bonnie along with our neighbors Jim and Carmen met us at The Pringle Bar to help celebrate my birthday! Kevin and Cheryl still were not feeling well and could not make it but we still managed to have a good time. Thursday was my actual birthday, we celebrated it at home with a feast of king crab legs, shrimp and a ribeye. We were both so stuffed afterwards that I think we rolled into bed about 9:00. So good!

New Year's night I cooked (that's right, I said "I"!) a very special dinner of Hungarian Partridge from our North Dakota adventures earlier in the year. 

3 Huns, you have to leave the wings on when transporting them

I don't get into the kitchen very often and I thought I was rocking it! As a matter of fact, this is how I pictured myself putting everything together. 

Barb was so impressed that she took a picture of me. That made me even more confident that I was rock'in the kitchen but when she showed me the picture, I just did not understand who that old guy in the picture was!

Maybe if I had my shirt off.....

Being so cold out, the girls have had a lot of indoor time. The lay together almost all the time but in this instance, Dakota was actually holding Zoey.

Dakota does not seem to mind the cold and runs around like crazy when she is outside. Zoe Belle on the other hand is a freeze baby and sometimes shivers even inside until we put a sweater on her. One time I took her out to do her thing..... and when she was done, she started walking back and froze up. Literally froze up! I stared at her a few seconds, called her but she did not move. I had to walk over and pick her up and carry her in. Note to self, put an extra sweater on Zoey when it is below 0!

Once or twice a day Zoey will be laying there and all of a sudden, she gets up and starts zooming around. She loves jumping from couch to couch to dog bed......Here is a 50 second example of her antics. 

From our house to yours, we wish 2022 brings you good health and many adventures!