By Uncle Hans

We stopped in to visit Grandma Jean at her new digs at Parkside Village in Green Bay.............





.....the place is brand new and a couple of blocks from Neil's and where her condo is.  Her room is nice, here she is talking to Hannah about a painting Hannah did for her.  Unfortunately, the camerman failed to get a picture of the painting..........





.....The bathroom is large and safe............





........There is a kitchenette, but meals are offered in the dining room if you don't want to cook...........





......The common areas are all decorated with knick-knacks from bygone years.  This is a display of handheld mirrors, all painted on the back.  Another spot had spats and buttonhooks...........





........Mom worked with a craft group a few days ago to make this blanket, which they are donating to the Green Bay homeless shelter.............

 



........this is the family room, where families can come and have parties for birthdays, etc.  Mom was telling me about the the deer which were playing out in the back which is open land back to a river.  She pointed out the deer preferred the cultivated and mown grass near the building, not the weeds which were further away from the building.........

 


.....Hannah found this gorgeous painting in the lobby.  It is downtown Paris and down with a oil paint and a spatula, not brush.   Very cool...........





.....every room has a shadow box, just outside her room in the common area, which is to display momentos.  Hers needs work so we are sending out a plea for little momentos.  This box can be easily changed and whenever she likes...............





.....all in all, we felt great that Grandma Jean has a nice place in Room 110 at Parkside Village.  



By Uncle Hans

Grandma Jean's Room

By Uncle Hans

It took us a while, but we have finally settled Grandma into her new quarters.  Neil and Kathy helped by bringing some pictures and mementos from her condo to make it more homey..........





..........her church at home helped out by sending a cassette tape of the service each week.  Try to find a cassette player to buy, however.  Like looking for a record player..........





 .........We pulled in the TV from the guest house.  But moving a TV is simple compared to moving a TV signal.  That took some bad language, stringing wire, and replacing the ceiling tiles in the basement..........





...........to watch TV, you need a comfy chair.  While at the second hand store looking for a cassette player, we found this beauty for $20.............





....we also found some puzzles, which Grandmas has conquered, one by one............





..........a couple of her mementos are noteworthy.  These are actual family crests that she crocheted from an ancient catalogue of Swiss family crests that Grandma Rechsteiner had years ago.  On the bottom are the family name, the Swiss crest, and the Canton crest for each family..........






.....We had to buy lots of groceries for Grandma.  Here Annie helps us at the store.  Grandma has enjoyed her time were with us.  Still, she wants to go home to her condo.  She has recovered from her fracture and a bout of nasty flu requiring hospitalization in  late Oct.  Neil and I have successfully wrestled with her ling term insurance company (we think), so she is nearly ready to move back into her condo to see how well that works.  The trial starts on January 8th.  Stay tuned.............




By Uncle Hans

Coyotes

By Uncle Hans

You never know what will appear out the big windows overlooking Cable Lake.  This early morning it was a pair of coyotes.  I think they were looking for the roadrunner.  The pictures were bad, out the window in poor light with a poor camera.........

 

 

 





.....after a while, we let Sam out to investigate.  There was a lot of curiosity, some playing, then Sam ran them off.


By Uncle Hans

Mermaids

By Uncle Hans

I found these two mermaids in my hot tub one recent morning...............






I asked them to do something that mermaids never do..............a snow angel.........





.......I wanted them to do it together as that would make a better blog picture.  but the little one would not do it until the big one did...........





.............I can't believe it, but she laid down in the snow and made a snow angel...........





.........She ran back to the warm water and started talking the little one into trying it.........





.......pretty soon, you know............





...................Monkey see.................





..........Monkey do!


      
 But then my alarm went off, so I got up and went to work......................

By Uncle Hans

Chainsaw

By Uncle Hans

Renee talked me into buying a chainsaw this fall, and the Swiss always buy used.  In this case, antique..........





.............She liked the new (antique) saw but complained it was a little heavy.  So we bought a little brother for it.........





..........here is our friend Don and Renee working on a tree the wind knocked down a few nights ago.........





.....she looks pretty serious, and I would not like to mess with her............





....   Don looks, well, like a professional.............





.......these two looks suspiciously like inspectors from OSHA looking for safety violations.  Where was OSHA when the good Lord blew down the tree?  Someone could have been killed!!.........





.........in typical fashion, Neil showed up after the work was done but before the chili and beer was served.



By Uncle Hans

Thanksgiving Spooner Style

By Uncle Hans


There is a long history in the Rechsteiner family of not celebrating a holiday on the actual day and Thanksgiving was no exception.  This is Nov 28 as we missed by only a few days.  Here is the KP section and Carol looks on.  Actual, Carol was a driving force in bringing the whole meal together for halftime of the game, which is a very narrow window for a turkey.

.....Jake got elected "carver guy" and got to use Renee's new electric knife.........

.....as usual, the dinner was buffet..........

.....Carver Guy was hopeful that the Packers would beat Atlanta, but they did not..........

The fare was vintage with turkey, sausage stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, corn, fresh-baked buns, cranberry sauce (Grandma made it!), pumpkin and cherry pie with real whipped cream.  Never have so many enjoyed a halftime so much!.......

.....these are the "Buns Girls"  Nice Buns!........

...........Rex called just as we were headed for the table, giving the cooks an extra five minutes to get the thing together.......

.....I was thankful that Rex called and sad that they could not be there.  But no Rechsteiner is complete without some bizarre project or entertainment.  To actually see chainsawing, champagne indoor fireworks, or the cat neuter in the garage...........
 
You have to stay tuned to the blog for the next few days.

Uncle Hans

PANAMA CITY BEACH, FLORIDA