Vegetable scrap smiley for our company

Company arrives in about four hours. Our friend, Dave, said he’d be here by noon but messaged to say he’s running late. He’s coming from the eastern Upper Peninsula in his camper van. He’s been snowshoeing and skiing near the Tahquamenon Falls this past week and wondered how the ice fishing might be in the Keweenaw Bay?

Barry said come. Their usual first-ice spot off Jentoft Road will probably be safe by early this week. The next better fishin’ hole by Whirl-i-gig might even freeze. It’s too early to fish for lake trout near Pequaming, but you can see ice fisherfolk with their tents creeping steadily further offshore every day.

Barry fishes with his buddies, Nancy and Don. They’re game to meet Dave and try their luck this week, too. All looks promising.

Snowplowing in preparation for company

We have been trying to get together with Nancy and Don for a couple of weeks now ever since they gave us a nice boxful of venison. We wanted to pay them back for their generosity, just a little. We tried to take ’em to dinner at Carla’s last weekend but those plans went *poof* and it’s too complicated to explain why. So we invited them to come for dinner with Dave tonight.

They shall arrive at 5, give or take. Usually I would be in a wild house cleaning frenzy, but something has been relaxing on the house cleaning front as I get older. Plus, it’s mid-winter. The sun usually refuses to shine (except, hey, right now it’s shining, hmmmm) so who cares about dirty winter windows? If your visitors come at 5 p.m. who’s going to notice corner cobwebs? (Please don’t point out that Dave will notice ’em because he’ll be here during daylight hours. It’s simply okay. Life is too short to worry over-much about cleaning. I am learning this lesson at age 64.)

We’re having a summer-themed dinner to celebrate the official start of ice fishin’ season. I found a fun turkey meatloaf recipe last month. Tonight will mix ground turkey with ground venison and–wa-la!–let’s hope it tastes good. If not, have a beer or two. Or a sip of red wine from that bottle chillin’ in the basement. (Not everyone drinks, so I have no antidote for the non-drinkers if they don’t like it.) Add potato salad, baked beans, coleslaw. And Nancy will bring dessert, thank you kindly, my dear friend!

It’s good with the turkey. We’ll see how it goes with venison added in.

Dave is one of Barry’s buddies from way back. Barry’s family moved to Rochester, MI, from Royal Oak somewhere around sixth grade. Dave lived on the end of their street and they soon became fast friends. Building forts, designing things. Behaving and misbehaving, like all junior high schoolers. In high school they lived in the metal shop building snowmobiles, dune buggies, trailers, guy stuff.

They kinda lost track of each other after their college days, but last summer he called unexpectedly to say he’d just visited Isle Royale and might he stop by with his camper van? Yes, we said, and the visit stretched into a week. He and Barry made up for lost time and hiked, drove and meandered across our beautiful county. They also worked on projects in our garage. It was just like the old days, right? Except they got to know the adult versions of each other.

I liked that they did their own thing–just like they’re going to this week. Besides making dinner in the evenings I’m suddenly freed of winter chores. No needing to haul kindling, rake the roof, fill the wood room. How cool is that?

Our firewood logs covered with snow

That’s the news from Lake Wobegon, any of you Prairie Home Companion fans. That’s the news from our little house in the woods of Aura on a sunny morning in mid-February.

Want the backstory about the first photo? We save kitchen scraps for the deer and usually throw them willy-nilly under the oak tree. Because we’re having company I begged my husband to toss the vegetables somewhere anywhere where the visitors wouldn’t see them.

That was his answer. He drew a smiley face with potato and carrot peels, cabbage pieces and radishes. What a wise guy! Finches, pine grosbeaks and chickadees added to the artwork with their tracks in the snow.

Wishing you all a Happy Valentine’s Day in your neck of the woods. ❤ Hoping there’s a smiley face somewhere in your world today.