These are all great shots; and it is really cool to see you at different stages in your life! Awesome! My favorite is the Tgerry, you look really happy and relaxed in that shot. Thank you for sharing these

Before (in March)

and after (today!)



Yay!

What a wonderful shed covering for you tractors! McB would be proud.

Is that the final form, or does it get siding to keep out the snowdrifts?

Nice work on the concrete pillars. It's a @#$% to get them level, but yours look perfect.

It�s nice, isn�t it?

-McB!! Get your donkey over here! We need you to inspect the work!


We do plan to get some walls up but that can wait until next year. About snowdrifts, you�d be surprised how little actually gets in. It can snow and be windy but it barely gets passed the threshold


Thanks, but our carpenter helped us by using his laser thingy... We did get the back ones up fine but had to redo them to get them lower into the ground. Using a string is very helpful

Is that a lake I saw in the first picture? Really pretty place!


Wow, you really remodeled that little barn/shed! Nice pole shed for your tractors, too! You have an amazing talent, wish you were in the States to help me with mine, lol.

It is. Or rather, a river


Whoa, whoa, whoa, I call for a time out!

I didn�t build the thing myself, although I helped. No, we had a professional who also happens to be a personal friend of ours. We figured we might need help with structural integrity and all that jazz... Dad and I can build a lot of things including smaller sheds, this however was a little bit out of our league. It�s actually as big as my apartment, give or take. We will put up walls next year so this is not its final look.


But thanks for believing in me!

*mALX books passage for Mirocu's personal friend pro builder...*

Some pixies, taken a few weeks ago

The tractor garage, now with walls!

The two trees down on the carport side

The lamp post

Taken from my room

Wow, lots of nice work's been done around CasaRocu!

Yeah, way too much for one year

Oh, I really like that tool shed, and how you organized it with handy hanging for the tools you use more often!

That old barn wood you used on the tractor shed goes for a fortune around here.

I love the lamp post and little statue thing! Great view from your window, what a nice big window!

Awesome shots!

Thanks, mALXie


And now I thought I�d re-post some from last winter when I could bother with the camera

Looks like someone sneezed at the feather factory
Dad in tractor
Backyard Babies

They have cars in Skyrim?

Beautiful shots, mirocu. And so appropriate for the season!

No snow yet this year?

Aw, Dad on the tractor! And there is your car! Can it haul that trailer behind it?

Your place is just beautiful!

Thanks for sharing these, Mirocu. I love to see nature at its finest, and you are surrounded by it!

Yup


Indeed


Yes, but not so much, and I haven�t been out with the camera. But today Dad and I went to the woods and I took it with me, so here are some new shots


Time to blow some snow, if you know what I mean
The garage
Hard to see, but the new tractor road will go here
Snow and trees
Homer is freezing!
A drive-by
The headlights still work
An insider pic

Aww, such beautiful pix of your Winter Wonderland! I love looking at other peoples' snow.

Yay, snow pictures! Thank you, mirocu! It's 75 degrees here and the AC is on.

I feel for you




Now: bonfire pics!! Actually this is the second time this year that we have one. If you remember, I posted pics from a much larger bonfire at the beginning of this year


Before

After

Somewhere in between

Looks like a wonderful winter wonderland day! Hopefully, the nice evergreen smoke will linger in your clothes for some time like perfume.

How surprised I was this morning when I found I had a visitor:

mALX was on my porch

Apparently, she likes bread

Thanks for the update on mALX, SubRosa. I haven't heard from her today, but an unannounced trip to Detroit explains that.

SubRosa, she is adorable! I don't think I've ever seen such a gorgeous dark coat.

Ooh, so you did get some snow finally!

Oh yeah, a natural trail through the woods for your new tractor driveway! I see it.

Looks like Homer is a peeper,


LOVE the driveby, that is my favorite thing about Xmas lights - seeing them welcoming from the driveway!

Nice headlights still working on your Dad's old tractor! That is Awesome! Wonder how many bulbs he has had to replace on it?

This insider pic is my favorite though; so warm and toasty looking ... and A CHEST !!!!!!!!!!!


*mALX waits till Mirocu is out on his tractor and sneaks in toward chest with lockpick in hand...*











Ooh, I wish you had taken pics of the bonfire in progress! I meant to say this on the last group of pics - the area you live looks so much like where I grew up! Awesome and gorgeous place you live in Mirocu; thank you so much for sharing these pics!








Whew! It sure looks like I was having a bad hair day, you should have said something so I could comb it for the pics,

Thanks for the bread!

I have more pics, mALX, but I reckoned it wouldn�t be too interesting

I love seeing them!

Went to the woods with Dad again, and today we got the road cleared! More job is needed to make it better but it�s fully usable now.


Just a nice shot
Driving close to the frozen river
We cleared this area in the beginning of 2013, back when I still didn�t think I�d lose my job
Prepping up
Dad testing the road with the ATV
Time for me!
And here we are, connecting to the old road

I�m so glad we managed to find this passage


Bonus pic: All gone!

More great shots of your winter wonderland. I love OPS (other people's snow). Nice that you found a natural path you could clear and improve into a road.

Here are some Winter Wonderland pics from my father's place in northern Michigan.

The garage in the back, the house on the left, and my brother's van on the right

My brother walking back to the garage with my father's dog

My car

Wow, SubRosa - Your father's place looks as wonderfully winter wonderlandish as mirocu's Swedish version!

Ooooh, proper awesome pixies, SubRosa! And I like the garage

If I ever have to move out of here, northern Michigan it is!

I have converted my excavator into a snowcavator

See?

It works!

We could have put that snowcavator to work over here!

I just got back from another trip "Up North".

The 45th Parallel

Michigan fields

Sunrise

More farmland

Cows

Black Lake does not live up to its name in the winter

More lake

Even more lake

Brrrr!

Mirocu with his Snowcavator!

And SubRosa in search of Snowdrift Manor! I'm glad that a pair of dragons did not come bursting up out of White Lake!

Such nice pictures from the road! I honestly couldn�t tell that it was in America, looks just like home. Only the sign, the barn and the silo gave it away.

Beautiful snow pictures!!

We are having the perfect snowstorm right now. Flakes falling think and fast and then melting on the ground, with the promise of rain in the next hour.

Great pics of Winter Wonderlands from all over the world. I almost expected to see Applewatch either in North Michigan or in North Scandinavia. We don't have any snow here this year, thus no wonderland. Not that I complain.

mirocu, is that your Audi?

SubRosa, what brand is your car? I'm not familiar with it, I assume it's not available in Europe.

If there�s an Audi in one of the pics it�s almost certainly mine. But what pic had it?

It's on the previous page, I only caught up with pics today.

Oooh, pretty day! If I have to see snow, I prefer to see sunshine gleaming off it,


Uh oh, don't get too close - your tractor looks too heavy for any ice! We lost about one car per year in our neighborhood growing up = at least one person per year thought they could go out on the ice and do donuts in their cars. Luckily we never lost a person in all that.

Ooh, I see a big job coming up, is this going to be the making of that road for tractors?

Your Dad is Awesome, so glad he pulled out of that health issue last year!

Oh yeah, that tractor is heavy as heck! If you come help me with my driveway, just bring your little yellow 'Cavator!


Well the exhaust pipe is blocking my view of the connecting road, urk!


Er...what is all gone? Did something fall through the ice here?

Oh SubRosa, this is beautiful! I love how they built that upper deck over the main floor! Did you drive up to here in the snow? You live in Michigan, but in the big "D City," right? Is this anywhere near "Hand" Michigan; (the bachelor capital of the world) ?


WOO HOO! Now I know your modelesque height runs in the family; your Brother is tall too! Looks very mountainman-ish in the woodcutter jacket and ball cap, too! (Not to mention the loyal Father's dog at his side). I love this picture, it is gallery worthy!



OMG, you DID drive up to this area of Michigan in the winter! In that little front wheel drive car, too! I am glad you've got a strong brother to pull you out of the snow drifts, looks like it is stuck here! Gorgeous scenery, though. Did you freeze your head off?


I love these shots! A lot different than where you live in the city, so I'm dying to ask - did you grow up in this gorgeous place? This is Awesome, gorgeous, but ... brrrrrr!










Ah, there she is in all her yellow glory! I do need to see her in my Son's back yard, I really do!


Does it not have a cabin heater? Your door is open! I'd have the doors closed/heater on/radio on,


Aw, I thought you were going to use it like a snow shovel, lol.


What are you doing, making another path? Don't you get my little yellow girl too close to that waterway!


Great shots, I love seeing the 'Cavator at work!

Too many question from mALX, I can�t answer them all...


I�ll answer two; what�s gone is the roaring bonfire and no, the �cavator�s cabin heat doesn�t work. The fan does but even though I have the crank on heat nothing happens. Could be the thermostat, could be glogged up heat element. Dunno.


And yeah, sorry bout the exhaust pipe being in the way

OMG, did you win all those stuffed animals at one of those machines on your trip? You are as much a ball of fun on a trip as you are at home! I dare you to try and eat that Subway sandwich while driving and not get a bunch of it in your lap,

Looks like you are def lower down here, the snow is diminished a lot from where you were!

Gaaaah, I just realized - who took care of your kitty cats while you were gone? I didn't see a kitty sniffing around that Subway sandwich in the car, lol.


I can just barely catch a glimpse of you in the "Fields" picture's reflection! Woo Hoo!

"Sunrise" is gorgeous; did you drive all night?


I have friends from Michigan, never realized how pleasantly rural it is!


OMG, don't you dare drive out on that icy lake, even if your car is so light weight! Just kidding. Gorgeous shot, I've seen Irondequoit Bay in New York looking just like this! (Off Lake Ontario). I've been to Lake Erie, but the extreme east end of it (Buffalo).

Do you stop here on all your trips from your Father's house? Does it have a special significance in your life or is it like a (touresty-style) looking at the sights while you are on a trip? (I do both when on trips, want to see all the states special sites that are near my route; but also will always stop at any place where I had personal special memories).


GAAAAAH, did you drive along that lonely abandoned lake road in the winter? What if you got stuck, no one would be along at that time of year, urk! Glad you made it back safe from your trip!!!



** And PS: I looked up Hand MI, it is close to "D City," lol. Now I'm tempted to Google Satelite it and see what all those bachelors up there look like out in their fields and barns,


These are great shots, thank you so much for sharing your trip with us!









Oh, okay! That is the bonfire site! Geez, how strange the heat doesn't work, I thought she was brand new. But as long as the rest of her works as well as it does, she is still Awesome.

Oh no, it�s not new. It�s a 2006

My car is a Chevrolet Cobalt. One of the cheapest cars you can buy here in America. But it has always been reliable for the six years I have owned it.



I did drive up there. My father's house is up near Mackinac Bridge, and I do live in The D. So it is a five hour drive. And it always snows or rains whenever I make it. Otherwise there would be no point in my going, right?

I have never heard of Hand, but I do know Hell!





The stuffed animals are my dad's. We were driving in his Jeep on that second trip yesterday. My brother and I went together, and he was driving, so I was able to give my egg and cheese sandwich my full attention. We left at 5am. We have to leave early because it is a 5 hour drive, and we had to get there in time to pay all my dad's bills at the bank, credit union, and other places before they closed.

Most of Michigan is rural like these pics, either open farmland or dense woods. Detroit is a massive urban sprawl, but is just down in the south east corner. Hunting is really big here in the fall, and now that the snow is here, snowmobiling and skiing. Some people are dumb enough to go out on the frozen lakes and rivers and ice fish. We actually saw someone in an ice shanty on Black Lake in the morning. Morons. They usually end up stuck out there when the ice breaks loose, their trucks sink to the bottom, and they have to rescued by search and rescue helicopters.

I just took some pictures with my phone as we were driving. None of it is special or anything. Just ordinary Michigan.

Well she sure looked pretty enough to have been new when you bought her. I love the yellow color, around here they only have white and black Bobcats that I've seen.

Then I was right, we don't have Cobalt here. There are a lot of other Chevrolets available for sale like Cruze, Orlando, Aveo and others, but not Cobalt.

I got a kick out of you driving on Interstate 75 up there and I'm driving on it down here, lol. You must be due north of me, lol.

Oh, I love the history of Hell! I have to figure Michigan has a great collective sense of humor by the names of the towns!

Hand - (I am pretty sure it was Michigan, but I could be remembering it wrong and it may have been Minnesota) - Johnny Carson brought it to the attention of the world because the population of single men there was the highest in the world (in their report), even beating out rural places in Alaska (which the highest of these came in second places to Hand). So he was calling it the "Bachelor Capital of the World," (and with the name "Hand," get it? )

Anyway, after Johnny Carson brought it to everyone's attention, Hand experienced a huge influx of marriage hunting women; they came up there in droves. So the news media latched onto it, and went up there to follow the "success" of several of these women in their "hunt."

The Hand Bachelors were like scared deer caught in the headlights; trying to continue running their farms and ignoring the herds of women picking through the cow manure in high heels to wave seductively at them; their (the women's) goose-pimpled legs sticking out like blue popsicles underneath short skirts. None of them capable of offering those strapping men a "hand," but hoping the men would stop working long enough to lend a "hand" to get them through the cow patty fields.

One woman bought an old store building and set up shop; and after two years was still single. Well, it seems the bachelors in Hand won that battle, I believe they were relieved when the following year they drifted back into their beloved obscurity and the hungry women moved on to Alaska, where the pickings were easier, lol.

Cobalt was made only from 2006 until 2010 model years. It was actually replaced by the Cruze. I was peeking at its wiki article and was mildy surprised to learn that it was plagued with safety issues and had a major recall on the ignition switch. But other cars made by GM companies in the same period that used the same parts also had the same recall.

Cobalts were very popular around here because of their low price. Cruzes are the same way, but whether they're plagued by the same mechanical and safety issues I really can't say.

But if SubRosa's particular Cobalt is serving its purpose well, no need to worry . . .