Welcome to our informal "blog", where we share miscellaneous happenings on and about the homestead and our lives. Check out the individual pages via the menu above for more info on the various topics. We enjoy hearing from our readers. You can email me (Sue, the main poster) by clicking on the Comment button below.

Enjoy!  &


chickadee in apple tree with budsJune 1, 2025 - Active Time!

Just a week ago this Chickadee was checking out the first buds in the orchard thinking of blooming. Now, a week later, this tree is lighting up the entire area with as many full blossoms as it can possible fit on the tree! Some trees are like that. Welcome to June!

Dudley apple in full bloom


May 28, 2025 - New Song / New Video

video thumbnail "Days are Getting Brighter"The homestead provides unending topics for musings and for songs, especially in the spring! Here is one I wrote late winter, called "Days are Getting Brighter", as we welcomed the longer days and more sun, and looked forward to spring. The tune is from a David Holt song 'Too Late to Pray' which we had learned long ago. While that song wasn’t in our repertoire Steve would often noodle the tune when warming up and I found it going through my head now and then. Before long words came, too, and this song was born, with kind permission from David Holt to use his tune.

Living in the north woods as we do with with the nearby wetlands, our thoughts of spring include, quite naturally, black flies and mosquitoes (which have just started enforce today!). A comment oft heard when challenging winter weather is afoot is “at least there are no mosquitoes!”, which puts it all in perspective. We live with them, and they with us, and spring and summer up here is truly wonderful, insects and all. And, as you can hear in the video, the birds think so, too! Click HERE or on the photo above to go to the video on YouTube.

P.S. The song, being posted on this date, is also a Happy Birthday to Steve's sister! With minimal black fly action this time compared to the infamous (to a very small circle) of that ill-fated birthday video of 2021 ("It's a Wonderful World"). It's all in the timing, and location!
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“Days are Getting Brighter” lyrics by Sue Robishaw
          (tune by David Holt)

The days are getting brighter; Hope is here to stay.
Spring flows in and seeds find kin; Spirits lift and sway.
Trees are popping budlets, Grass begins to grow.
Snakes move out and cranes fly in; Breezes melt the snow.

     Insect life is plenty, Black flies have their day.
     But when winter comes, we’re having fun, when
     Mosquitoes have gone away.

Summer time is heaven; Music fills the air.
Gardens grow and berries flow, There’s oh so much to share.
Busy bees on flowers; Each one has its way.
Sparrows sing and swallows wing; Chipmunks chip and play.
chorus

We can laugh to see them, Thankful for the show.
The sky gives way and Rain comes down, to wash our cares away.
Autumn leaves are pretty; Chickadee caps are gay,
Woodshed’s full and asters bloom; And the bluejays has his say.
chorus

Copyright 2025 by Susan J. Robishaw (lyrics), David Holt (tune)


spring greens in cold frame05-25-2025 - Transitions

It's that time of year when harvest starts transitioning from the greenhouse to the garden. Some hardy souls were planted in the garden in cold frames about a month ago and many were getting large enough to thin and add to our lunch salad. Meantime, the older plants in the greenhouse are thinning out as I start harvesting the last leaves. The spinach has been gone for awhile but there were several super lush plants in the garden that made it through the winter in fine shape, for a welcome spring treat. And there are always a few missed onions and maybe a carrot or two to discover. It's a lot like Easter, finding gems here and there. It's simply a wonderously fun, and delicious, time of year.


water pumping windmill

May 20, 2025 - Big Change on the Homestead

For almost 50 years we've had a close relationship to our beautiful windmill, and the wind that has allowed it to pump our water from way down underground up into our above ground water-tank. pulling deep well pipeWe know the wind patterns here very well! As it is definitely a hands-on management affair. The windmill has done its job well but for a number of reasons we decided late winter to switch to an electric deep-well (100 feet) pump. This was also a very hands-on affair! What a project. For a little more than a week our days were completely full of the pump project, starting with removing the original pump-rod and pipe (did I mention 100 feet?!), and ending with putting down the new (and beautiful in its own stainless steel way) electric pump, run by the sun via our nearby PV panel array. So few words for so big a project, including a few bumps along the way. But it is now done. Pumping water now is fast, it is simple, the management easy. (Should I admit that it is also a bit boring?) And somewhat bittersweet as I truly loved (and still do) the water pumping windmill. But the windmill is still there! On that sturdy reliable tower. Now it is for looks, no longer for pumping, but still an important, appreciated, and loved part of the homestead.

For more details and many photos of the whole project click HERE to go to our Windmill and Water page, where there is also the story of the original windmill installation and a few other happenings along those lines between then and now. 


May 5, 2025 - New Video!

video thumbnail "Delight of the Land"We did take quite a break from making videos but were inspired by a beautiful, sunny day, warm enough for fingers and instruments to play outside. So here is one of my songs from this winter's writing spell called "The Delight of the Land" (informally called 'Critters'). It seemed appropriate for the wakening world of spring. Hope you enjoy it. Click HERE or on the photo to go to the video on YouTube. (For a list of our previous videos you can go to our music video page HERE).

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"The Delight of the Land" by Sue Robishaw

The world is a magic; There's no need to hide.
We're surrounded by critters, Below and be-hind.
Look skyward, look closer; They're ev-ry where grand.
Be feathered or furried, The delight of the land.

I look out my window; I go out my door.
They are looking right at me; From their own grassy shore.
No reason to pa-nic; I've seen them be-fore.
They're letting us live here, Just out-ide their front door.

Be kind to those neigh-bors, So happy and free.
Coexisting with others, Doing just what they please.
They know what they're doing; We'll learn it from them.
To play and be merry; And to all be a friend.

     Copyright 2025 by Susan J. Robishaw


May 4, 2025 - We're Back!

Well, we haven't really gone anywhere particular meantime but I realized it had been a year and half since I last posted anything! Life focus naturally changes and we simply hadn't been spending much time at the computers. But we're still here, still enjoying life and all that we do. And I decided to step back in to sharing some of that news and happenings on the homestead as we go along, and connecting with friends and family near and far. It may be sporadic  but it will be sincere!

A few highlights of this past winter:

carved cherry bowl #92 by Steve SchmeckCARVING - Steve was inspired to get back into the bowl carving mode this winter and came out with three beautiful cherry bowls. The wood came from a large wild black cherry tree growing just NE of the house where that section of the woods start. That tree was fine but there is a very large dying white birch that needs to be taken down before it decides to come down on the house, and that black cherry was, unfortunately, between it and where it needed to be dropped. So that beautiful cherry gets to continue its life as beautiful bowls (and maybe some spoons). Such is the life of the forest tree. Click HERE to go to the bowl carving page.

MUSIC - While Steve was carving I decided to dive into song writing. I have, in the past, often added verses or changed lyrics or wrote new ones to already established songs or tunes that we do, but I had never started from scratch, writing not only the lyrics but the music and chords. I had a folder and notebook full of bits and pieces of word fun, some long, most short, little poems or lyrics that run around in my head now and then. Sometimes I write them down. I felt it was time to see if I could give some of them an extended life as a song. It was quite an adventure, challenging but enjoyable. I found I could write songs or tunes that I couldn't sing or Steve couldn't play, but I ended up with some songs that I liked, and Steve liked, and we could both do. A big surprise was how difficult it was to learn a song neither of us had ever heard before, realizing how much we learn by ear. We'll be sharing videos of a few of these songs off and on (including in a few days!). Actually, we started the year with one that I wrote a few years ago, "Wild Hair Don't Care". Although I wrote the lyrics and the chorus the main body of the tune is from the old Irish jig Lilliburlero. HERE is a link to that video on YouTube. 




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