Dupont:

Thoughts of Michelle, Pete and J: Hope you have a good Thanksgiving!

Nice four days away at Beaver. But without running water! Seems a problem with the septic pump may have blown a fuse and turned off the water pump and freezer. Stuff in the freezer was still refreezable. R go buckets of water from the wee stream to flush toilet and I had rainwater and distilled water for dishes and drinking/cooking, respectively. Kept cooking to a minimum and washed dishes before leaving but left a couple pans. Bit of a clutter!

Electric blanket warmed the bed very nicely as wood stove warmed the house. Beautiful weekend with two sunny days.

De-cluttering the studio - helped Magda get a bisque firing going and she wrote down detailed instructions to complete that and a glaze firing or two. R put the boxes of clay on a dolly and brought them into bathroom. Goal: to turn off cube heater for the winter- Magda will do it when she is finished.

R assured the bathroom will stay warm. He did not dig up the septic although Larry visited and, in consulting, said the ground is not very frozen (only a couple inches) and this would be a good time to do it. Robin know what it takes ( did it a couple years ago) and did not have the energy.

Clutter and de-clutter: The amount of stuff I wanted to bring here filled the car - with R's magic packing skills. On Monday, I worked with Magda and we went to see "my" new, never met before, very young doctor. We negotiated: no CT scan of gut, just blood tests.

Went to Service Ontario to replace car registration, stolen from car Friday am. Oh yeah, 5:30 am - knocking on door, police telling R that kids had been breaking into cars, had caught them outside our house, was anything missing? Only on our way did I find the papers gone, along with the very small New Testament I bought in 1977 after we all survived my truck overturning on the prairie.

Then R went to get new fuses to leave - just in case. I went to insurance office and begged a copy of insurance card. And, R not back yet, to a thrift shop where I fancied a set of dishes with a blueberry theme - 39 pieces for $10 and very nice. The volunteers quickly boxed them and we found space in the car for them!

That car load of clutter from Beaver is now finding homes here. with some fiddling but it will work. Love the new dishes! One large bin is Christmas stuff.

Chimney swept tonight - chimney and wallet de-cluttered! Ready for installation of wood stove - which will greatly de-clutter wallet but ease mind - we will have a source of heat in case of outage.

Today, I finally figured out that my student can read English - does not always know what it means but she can read/pronounce the words. (I can read French that way!) But she does understand a lot of words and can respond when she understands what I say. She needs to listen/hear English. So, the daughter and grands, with whom she lives, all speak good Eng BUT at home they only speak Russian because the daughter want her kids to hold their heritage. It is tiring trying to help her but she is very appreciative.

Snow is gone for now and it was like a spring day!