09/15/2025 to 09/21/2025, Trees, HVAC, Kubb, Ron Oleheiser *, budget

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09/15/2025 to 09/21/2025

Monday, Lake County Power came by and cut two birch trees down by our power lines. Unfortunately, they were dying from the top down.

Wednesday morning was an absolutely beautiful late summer day. The lake was still, leaves falling, sun getting lower but still peeking through the trees into the back yard. Coffee was extra caffeinated. If only I could have every morning like this. It’s hard to believe the end of summer is next week already. I worked throughout the day on cutting up, stacking, and cleaning up the mess from the trees. Unfortunately, I ran out of energy and it will be a two-day project.

Thursday, we finished the tree cleanup, I removed the dehumidifier for inspection/replacement, removed the lift pumps, and put a treble light next to the furnace for the repair technicians from Northern Air that are scheduled to arrive Friday morning. Actually, looking forward to returning to work for a break after the last couple of days off.

After the tree removal/cleanup, we now have a proper flat/level space in the south-yard for a Kubb Pitch, 5 meters by 8 meters. On Sunday we played our first couple of matches. We didn’t have a Kubb set handy so I cut a set out of the fallen birch tree with my chainsaw. Andrew and Tiff played a game and then Tiffany and I played two games, Tiffany winning the first and I the second. We are not real sure about the rules/scoring yet.

Going back to Friday, Northern Air arrived in the morning and the tech took a look at our garage furnace and main furnace for the house. No clear answers as to what needs to be done to repair them yet, more to come.

Saturday while working, I had the opportunity to talk with Ron Oleheiser by phone. Ron was the Circulation Manager for the Grand Rapids Herald Review. I worked for him delivering newspapers for two routes, one by Murphy School, including Murphy Hill, and another one that went from Ice Lake up to Grand Rapids State Bank. I used to use the Banks’s vestibule to warm up during the winter. He remembered my name and said he gets a lot of people that remember him for that role.

On Sunday, Tiffany and I sat down and devised a new method to follow our monthly budget. We are going to use Apple’s Numbers Application to keep a shared “running balance” tracker of our set monthly disposable income with the requirement to end the month at zero or above. We are needing the guardrails that a check register used to provide. Over the years we have stopped tracking spending because of switch from checking to credit card for spending. In the past, we have always had the luxury of having more than enough money in our checking to pay the monthly credit bill, that is no longer the case.

End of blog. Thank you for reading!