Relative Something

I found myself quoting and re-quoting from a favorite old song of ours, by the Roches, yesterday: “I am trying not to have a bad day.” And, “everybody knows what kind of day that is.”

As absolutely beautiful and enchanting as this place we are calling Wintervale is, it doesn’t come without a cost. I am aware of that, and aware that some aspects of the costs will eventually bother me, like the long commute to my current day-job. But yesterday, in addition to the long drive, little nitpicky things that I have been living with sans complaint thus far, and blissfully ignoring, began to nip at me with increasing annoyance.

I miss being able to take a regular morning walk, followed by exercising. I think my loss of exercise time is the first piece of a compounding problem. By the end of my very long days, especially as they drag on into time I am supposed to be sleeping in preparation for the VERY early start the following morning, my tolerance is thin, and I succumb to a lowly negative perspective about every little thing.

I’m short sleep, short exercise, short healthy regular diet, and short on patience. I’m tired, frustrated, …and as happy as can be to be living here in this amazing place.

My voting experience on Tuesday was a blast. I needed to register at the poll, and got to spend some extended time with the local election officials who are my new community. They were wonderfully friendly, and quaintly down home country in nature. I will be very comfortable here.

Now if I can just figure out a way to get back some of my health regimen that has escaped me since we moved, all will be good. Maybe I should look into a car with pedal-power assist.

The bird is nothing, if not persistent. His relentless pursuit of his own reflection in our windows is downright comical, and even a little annoying. We try not to be bugged by so much attention from a member of the wildlife that surrounds us here, but the repeated sound of him bonking into windows around our house triggers a signal in our minds that something is amiss. It creates a feeling that some sort of action is called for. We feel as if we should do something to help him get over his obsession.

The message that we received about him from the sellers, described the fact that nothing they had tried, proved to suppress his repeated acts of banging the glass. That has tended to diminish our level of effort toward devising drastic action to deter him.

Cyndie tried a couple different minor things, but they didn’t seem to make a difference. I have caught him smacking into at least 3 different windows, on opposite sides of the house. If she blocks his view in one window, he will just move on to the next one.

Her next plan is to see if she can simply talk some sense into him, and also give him an opportunity to send a message to her. I look forward to hearing how that plays out. After all that head banging, I wonder if he could have anything coherent to convey.

I was up and ready, well ahead of time, for the appointment with the tractor service person yesterday. As the time drew close, my phone rang with the message that he would be late. That was good for me, as I discovered I didn’t have any diesel fuel in the 5 gallon containers the seller left for us, and that allowed time to make a trip to town and get them filled.

The guy that arrived was wonderfully congenial, but moving at top speed. He barely got out of his flat-bed tow truck, and was already talking three steps ahead about how he was going to get the tractor loaded. It was hard to change his focus, but I asked if he couldn’t look at the starter right where the tractor was parked. His answer was, “No” as he walked around his truck another time.  Then, after he already had a chain connected, and the loader propped up off the ground, he asks me if I had tried to start it this morning. He went on to describe how it had happened on another call for him once, when the machine just started right up for him when he tried it for the customer.

Hoping this was my chance to get a word in edgewise, I explained that I hadn’t tried it yet that day, and that ‘not starting’ was my only problem, and since I had NEVER done it successfully, I was not the best one to test it. He hopped up and went through the steps and, …Vroooom! It started right up. I was shocked, but not surprised. Just as I suspected, there must have been some interlock that wasn’t being satisfied. Unfortunately, he didn’t know what it could have been.

I asked, “Could it be the position of the PTO?”

“No, no.” as he monkeyed with everything else. Oddly enough, he was still dead set on getting the tractor loaded up on the flat-bed. I felt we just needed to try a few different starts, to see if we could replicate my problem. He agreed, but explained that if it didn’t start again, he wanted it already loaded and ready to go, and since it was now running, this gave him the opportunity to easily drive it up on there.

I could see his point.

In the end, we confirmed that I was guessing right, it was the PTO that needed to be just right, to engage the interlock that allowed the starter to crank. It was possible to move it too far in the direction of “off.” I had no previous reference to judge from. Unfortunately, when the seller stopped by to check on it for me, he missed that the PTO lever was not in that sweet spot, and was too quick to focus on the starter as being the problem.

By the end of the day, both Cyndie and I had taken turns driving our new tractor, and we even got some real work done. I was moving firewood and discovered that there was a concrete slab under a mound of dirt and grass. My first inclination was to get a shovel. Then I realized I was standing next to the biggest shovel I have ever owned.

It worked like a charm. Now we have a great place to put a picnic table by our fire pit out back.

Today, I have an appointment for a service call on the New Holland tractor we bought from the people who sold us this property.

The seller had drained the battery and felt like it wasn’t taking a charge properly, so he ordered a new battery. It arrived on the day we were unloading our belongings from the moving truck. We were so consumed by getting the house in order that it took me about a week and a half to get around to installing the new battery.

I positioned myself in the seat, and reviewed the operating instructions in the manual. Over and over I tried to get the thing started, but absolutely nothing was happening when I turned the key in the direction to engage the starter. It didn’t even offer up a click.

I figured it was possible I was still missing some interlock, or wasn’t actually getting control knobs in a neutral position, as required. The seller generously offered to stop over and check on it.

He couldn’t get anything to happen, either. We tried a few tricks, but nothing changed. He told me to make a call for service, and assured me he would cover any charges incurred as a result.

I see it as a blessing in disguise. It is a learning opportunity. It will give me insight on who to call for service, and what such a visit costs. It will teach me about the starter, and I will get to watch the troubleshooting process. I wouldn’t learn any of that if there hadn’t been a problem, right off the bat.

It already provided a gentle lesson from the visit the seller made to verify I wasn’t missing anything in the start-up routine. He asked me if I had seen whether he had left any heavy logging chain laying around. I pointed him to a pile of chain on a pallet in the barn. He decided to go get a web strap from his truck, instead. He wanted to pull the tractor enough to see if the starter was locked up while engaged.

After he finished that experiment, he said he wanted to review how to put the chains on the rear tires for added traction in the winter. He took me over to the pallet and picked up one of the tire chains which I had previously gestured as the possible location of his heavy logging chain.

I realized he was kindly choosing a way to communicate my error without overtly highlighting that I had just revealed that I didn’t have a clue.

Another lesson for me that wouldn’t have occurred if everything had worked just fine the first time I tried to start the tractor.

We entertained our first overnight guests last night! Our good friends, the Wilkus’, with son, Ryan, are here. And, we are expecting even more folks today, for brunch. Cyndie’s parents are going to make their first visit. This will serve as a bit of a test for our planned Thanksgiving holiday, as we’ve invited quite a few folks for that feastly event.

Last night, we built a fire outside and cooked steaks, in the dark. The temperatures were relatively mild for this time of year, and there was nothing more than a whisper of wind, so it was plenty comfortable to be out around the fire after dinner, melting marshmallows for s’mores. Wonderfully rustic.

The 5 of us easily fit around the old Hays family table for dinner, even though, for the table to work in the space available, we’ve removed all of the 5 center leaves. It will be expanded to full capacity for Thanksgiving, but doing so will block the doorway to our garage, so we will only go to that extreme on rare occasions.

Even though the time switched back to standard time last night, I feel like we stayed up a little too late, watching part of the movie, Koyaanisqatsi. It seemed like a good idea, at the time, but when I mentioned I was falling asleep on the flick, Cyndie and Ryan both echoed the same, and we called it a night. Barb and Mike had already retired to their new little camping trailer they brought to test. It is a pull-behind that is about the size of a 4-person tent, but with hook up for electricity like a full-size RV. Pretty cute.

Our guests are well-informed about many aspects of how things work. I got a lesson in changing the main water filter, Ryan tested an outdoor light fixture that isn’t working, and they showed me the house alarm system still works, even though we aren’t subscribed to a monitoring service.

It is really rewarding to host guests who provide valuable information! I plan to learn as much as possible from them during the remainder of this visit.

We are rapidly discovering all the wildlife that the previous owners wrote about in an email exchange in which they welcomed us to the property. They seem to have named many of the creatures: Stubby, the squirrel with no tail;  Sir Rodney, the cardinal, that, in the spring, returns to attack his reflection in the sunroom window for 4-5 months (or 6-7); Bucky, the 2012 deer, that camped out by the sunroom door and then hung out, in and around the yard all summer. Also listed was the sound of coyotes that gave the place a rugged feel; turkeys and their babies that would come right up to the house to check things out; and an owl that was heard, but not seen.

This morning, when I first peered out the window in the low morning light, I spotted our first turkey. He was up in the tree, right next to the house. Then I noticed another one in the next tree over, and another, and another. Counted about 7 of them. Cyndie said to get a picture, but in the low morning light, it would just turn out to be a dark dot in a tangle of branches.

The eye perceives much more than my camera could replicate, in this instance.

I wandered off the get the camera, anyway, just to be ready, in case the dawn of morning light would produce a scene my equipment could adequately capture. I returned just in time to see the first turkey leave its perch, spreading wings to glide precariously back to earth. That seemed to be the signal to all the others, which included about 3 or 4 more that I hadn’t yet noticed, and they all dropped to the ground. No picture opportunity there. I moved to other windows in search of a vantage point that might work, but they just blended into the background, and wouldn’t stand out at all in an image.

Later, Cyndie spotted the whole flock out in the open, down the hill from our house. I wasn’t dressed yet, but slid into pants and slippers, preparing, shirtless, to step out on the deck in the frozen morning air in hopes of getting the shot. The flock seemed to notice the click of the door lock. Turning the latch was enough to get them all moving briskly down the trail, into the woods.

No picture this morning. But I expect to catch them, eventually. I believe they will give me many other opportunities.

There have been multiple sightings, and exclamations of, “There’s Stubby!” He is rather noticeable, with that missing squirrel tail.

That cardinal is a downright nuisance, banging, repeatedly, against the sunroom window. We did some research, and it says the behavior (not uncommon) is supposed to end in the spring when there is no drive to fend off other male suitors that may be competition for him. I described his behavior to the folks at the day-job and the comment arose that he may have banged his head one too many times, and doesn’t know what season it is any more.

We definitely heard the coyotes, as I shared in a previous post; have seen two young deer lolling about the place, multiple times; and even think we saw the owl flying in the trees one morning.

We have also repeatedly made sighting of a pileated woodpecker, many blue jays, and a fair number of common small birds.

I don’t think the mice we are dealing with can be classified as wildlife. They seem quite domesticated, and really at home in our dwelling. We will likely be adding a cat, to keep the mice company. I’m not sure how all the birds will feel about our addition of a cat, but I’m guessing it will be an indoor cat, if we are going to keep it safe from birds of prey and coyotes in the woods around us.

We are still keeping an eye out for barn cats, which would be welcome, but haven’t seen any signs, since our first visit to look at the property, when a little kitten appeared for a brief moment.

We are thoroughly enjoying our introduction to all the wildlife here at Wintervale. It is my hope to gain skills in the art of capturing them in photographs, in order to share a few glances for you here.

Otherwise, it’s all still-life and impressionist close-ups, for now!

I mounted Wisconsin license plates on my car yesterday. That happened after I registered for my Wisconsin driver’s license. It’s official. I am no longer a Minnesotan. I am originally from Minnesota, but I don’t live there any more.

I am recognizing a significant attachment to my old home state. In thinking about it, I have come to the realization that most of the things that seem to hold meaning for me about Minnesota, are contrivances intended to engender a certain loyalty. They are not good or bad, or right or wrong. They just are. But, as such, they don’t really hold as much value as my subconscious is guiding me to perceive.

I want to believe that it matters that I associate myself with the visuals of a certain license plate, or sports team, or place names. In reality, it doesn’t. Those are invented phenomena.

The land is real, and genuine, and just as valuable on either side of the St. Croix River. This property is remarkable, regardless the governmental body which oversees it.

A while back, in my online community, I created an item for discussion where members are invited to post lists of place names, local to them, which are thoroughly familiar, and paint a word portrait of a place. I will now have a new set of place names to get to know.

Here is the one I posted back when I lived in Minnesota:

Wayzata
Minnetonka
Glen Lake
Excelsior
Shorewood
Deephaven
Hopkins
Eden Prairie
Edina
St. Louis Park
Golden Valley
Bloomington
Shakopee
Savage
Chanhassen
Chaska
Jordan
Mound
Orono
Navarre
Victoria
Waconia

Here are the early few that have been picked up so far in the region of our new home:

Beldenville (obviously)
Ellsworth
El Paso
Martell
Menomonie
River Falls
Prescott
Pepin
Bay City
Hager City
Maiden Rock
Trimbelle
Baldwin

So, there is an “El Paso” in Wisconsin. That came as a bit of a surprise to me.

I look forward to growing familiar with all the place names that are common knowledge to folks who have lived here a long time. I suppose if I were to learn the names of the players on the NFL Green Bay Packers football team, then I could really claim ‘official’ residency in this state where our beautiful property is located.