The Palace Car

My Vet enjoying his morning Coffee

When I married My Vet, I had just graduated from College and still didn't have a job, and My Vet (student) was a full-time student. As you could guess $$ was tight, so instead of a traditional honeymoon, we used our money to buy a car.




So this year we decided to do something special for our Crystal Anniversary. Friends recommended The Whistle Stop, and even offered to watch the kids!

The 1890's Pullman, transformed into our Palace Car.

Situated between Fargo and St. Paul on Hwy 10, it was a short drive on a very scenic route. We even stopped and enjoyed a few points of interest along the way. New York Mills, where the Whistle Stop is located, has an emerging art scene that was fun to check out. We also did some reconnaissance work checking out what businesses were thriving/existing in some of the newly revived down towns.

The view from our front porch!

The best part though, was just the serenity we encountered. (If you intended to travel here, please note I used the word serene, not quiet. The train theme extends to the nearby railroad tracks that are busy.)

After so many years, I am glad that we were still able to chat, uninterrupted, almost non-stop the entire trip.


Thank you God for blessing our marriage, and I pray that you experience that blessing as well.

The Rabbit Hole

The Dog

Shortly before My Vet came home from work, I stepped outside to check the mail. I had already let the dog out, so when I looked to the right and saw a giant hole in the front yard, I immediately knew the culprit. Annoyed, doesn't begin to describe my initial reaction. On Saturday I spent a good bit of $$ and a fair amount of time, spreading lime, fertilizer, and grass seed in various areas of the yard. Including a small area right where this new hole is, grrrrrrr. When I stopped to look closer at the hole to assess the repairs I would need to make, a movement caught my eye. Oh Oh what did he do now?

Upon closer inspection I found 5 baby rabbits, huddled and shivering in the cool evening air. Not sure what the right thing to do was, I took the dog in for a bath, and sent a text to My Vet.

Newly 'insulated' rabbit hole

Like most men, I would not use the words warm and fuzzy to describe My Vet. Yet, there he was digging through the closet, garage, and yard to find bedding material to keep them warm for the night in a way that hopefully their mom would find them and take over. This morning after checking that they were still there and alive, he left for work. Vowing to pick up some straw while at a horse appointment this morning. These are the types of little things that make all wives love their husbands just a lit bit more. Right?

Makeshift fence

The babies' alive, I now need to solve the problem of an imminent predator, The Dog! A couple of weeks ago this would have proved more challenging. Luckily on Saturday, while I was busy trying to grow grass instead of weeds, My Vet was busy replacing the fencing by the garden. This left me with some items I could use to create a makeshift fence. Now the dog has the run of the back yard, and the babies are in the front.

Please ignore the huge patches of dirt in the photo. That is one of the many areas I seeded on Saturday. I now know why I had a repair patch in the location of the new hole though.Yeah!! (sarcasm is really hard to do in print.)

***UPDATE***  The straw kept them warm and alive for another night. And it looked like mom had bedded down with them for the night. Then after work the next day, the bunnies were gone. We are believing that mom moved them, not that they were victims of another predator.

It's the Little Things...

Wouldn't you see this
every time you walked into a room?

My Vet and I have lived in 5 homes (4 houses, and 1 apartment) in the past 15 years. Each and every one of those houses had previous owners who did things that confounded me. The previous owners of our current home were truly diabolical though. We have been slowly remediating the quirks, though. When I tackled a project in the living room it was a small thing that has relieved the most mental stress. I flipped the outlets in the living room right side up. Huh?!?! I know that is what you are thinking. Let me elaborate. Every outlet in the entire house was installed upside down. For almost 6 years, every time I enter a room my eyes have been immediately been drawn to the outlets, every time I plug in a vacuum, I am reminded that I needed to get to that. Those of you who have known me for a while are probably not surprised at this display of OCD.

This is the outlet I use the most
often when vacuuming. Pretty
huh?

So with a handful outlets, outlet covers, screwdrivers, and a lamp, we got to work. We turned on every light in the house, and plugged lamps, fans, radios etc. into every outlet we could. Then systematically flipped switches in the breaker box (Labeling as we went, check one more quirk off the list!). As the power was shut off to an outlet. the outlet was unscrewed and flipped right side up. Those that were cracked or broken were replaced. There were a few brown ones that were replaced with cream colored ones. I prefer straight white, but the majority of existing outlets were almond/cream, and this was suppose to be a cheap and easy project. Since the few brown ones were exclusively in one room, you may be wondering why I decided to change them out? So the entire house would match, of course! Did I mention OCD yet?

After screwing the outlet back into the wall, broken or discolored wall plates were replaced. It took a few hours to work our way through the entire house, and to give me mental relief. My OCD is now back in check and I will now longer be distracted from counting my steps as I walk through the house!