Ottertail Country

Ottertail Country
Ottertail South

November 25, 2010

Happy Thanksgiving!!

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A little tour of the inside of our new home:

Here is about half of the kitchen area. I'll have to learn to avoid hitting those beams with my head! I think the charm outweighs the potential bumps.... by the way, these photos are from the realty website, they are .gif images so they do not expand like regular photos. I don't know how to edit them to brighten up the views, so you're stuck with what I have for now.



Here is the east half of the living room. A rock planter on the left, decorative rock veneer on the far side, large windows on the south. Love the beams and boards!!





The bathroom does not have a shower, so I'm checking online to find one of those suspended shower curtain affairs with the tall riser for the shower head. They are used on the old claw foot bathtubs and similar retro-looking applications.
By the way, I'm building this post in between cooking tasks. Peg and I were planning on not doing anything this weekend. It's been a stressful fall, and we have had Hailee at our house for the last three weekends. She's 5, we're not.......




Here's a view of the fireplace and the south and west side of the living room. Russell built the fireplace as an open fire platform with a suspended hood and chimney above that could be moved up and down depending on the draft needs of the fire. I'm guessing that may have been more trouble than it was worth, and the 4 glass sides were installed with the hood connecting directly to the top of the glass enclosure. At the upper left corner you can see part of the bridge that connects the two upstairs rooms, one at each end of the house.




Standing next to the fireplace and looking north, the quarter turn iron stairway is the focal point. Russell built this stairway and it is sturdy and good looking. Above to the right is the aforementioned bridge.

Back to the cooking.... I thought that as long as we would have to eat something today, why not have a roasted chicken? One would need mashed potatoes with that, I guess. Well, it turned out that I came home Tuesday evening with a 13# turkey, a butternut squash, some sweet potatoes and a banana cream pie from the famous "Bonnie's Diner" in Phillips.



From the north, the kitchen, stairs, fireplace and living room.

The squash is now cooked, shelled and in the fridge, waiting for the rest of the meal to finish. When I got home with the turkey, I put it directly into the fridge in hopes that it would start thawing and it would be ready to go today. It's now in cold water, making progress but I'm not sure how long it will take. How many times has this scenario played itself out?? No reason for it except my planning. Remember the five P's (prior planning prevents poor performance)!!!!

The cute little ice thingie above is most appropriate right now. We had rain, snow, big winds and more snow in the last few days. I guess winter is here......








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9 comments:

Carlo said...

Happy Thanksgiving.......

Anonymous said...

Happy Thanksgiving to you. Jan and I are in Watertown to spend the day with Jan's Mom. Some slippery driving last night.

CB

Anonymous said...

Happy Thanksgiving.
Sounds like a good feast.
Boo

Anonymous said...

I like this. My mouth is watering SO MUCH from thinking about squash:) Happy Thanksgiving!!

Bryn

Anonymous said...

Thanksgiving cheer to you too ... glad you posted the interior photos .. the house is just as cozy and charming as I remember and to have the history/presence of Russ, Bernice and their family behind you must make it all the more special!
Mary A

Anonymous said...

It was a lovely thanksgiving ... both the meal and the company. It was nice to hear the familiar toe tapping,accordian/squeezebox and guitar duo again. It was wonderful to have music to "do the dishes by". :)
Liz and Dennis, and the rest of you Milwaukee people, thank you for the invitation. We're hoping that you all had a wonderful day together also.
I spent a portion of the day today packing... since we are now down to "less than a week" til it's ours. For me it will be nice to just wander the house for a bit, to get the feel of it before we start "making it ours".
Yes I can remember Russel telling stories about walking through the woods to visit his sweetheart... I guess we will have to try to find that trail... another adventure I guess. :)
hugs to all. ps

Anonymous said...

Good pics, I think the house will end up being quite homey which is a good thing! :) I WISH I could have been there for the meal, all of us that worked yesterday brought some food in for our "Thanksgiving" but it wasn't even close to a proper meal. :) I bet the weekends have been busy with Hailee!! :) Thanks for the pics. Much love, Rosie

yram said...

Hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving day. We had good food and company at Liz and Dennis's on Thursday and a second wonderful feast in Madison at Jane's house with good folks. Was nice to see everyone and always a fun time to drive the state and really see land formations. and lots of geese flying overhead!
Be sure and let us know if you need moving assistance. I am booked the next two weekends but not much after that. Love to all...M

Anonymous said...

Happy Thanksgiving!! Sounds like you guys had a feast to celebrate!! Enjoy the luxury of taking your time to pack and slowly unpack in your new place!! Just today Adam and I found another unopened "misc" box from our move over a year ago!

Kristi