Earth Day Event in Ludington

For years, the AFFEW group (A Few Friends for the Environment of the World) has been hosting an Earth Day event in Ludington. Various groups with outdoor/environmental themes have booths, there are a few vendors, and there are environmental programs all day. I've manned a booth about the North Country Trail there quite a few times, but not recently. I see that I've never blogged about doing so, although it doesn't seem like THAT long ago since I attended.

Anyway, our Spirit of the Woods Chapter of the NCTA had a booth today which I staffed. Not too interesting without me or someone standing there, but this is proof of a presence. I talked to quite a lot of people and we had 5 that signed up to receive notices about hikes. Handed out a pile of maps.

I was delighted to discover that I was next to Jim McGrath. He's has built a well-known reptile and amphibian educational program in Michigan. In fact, our chapter had him come to a couple of National Trails Day events quite a few years ago.

His animals are always healthy, clean and alert. Look at this attentive bullfrog!

He says one reason his animals are so active and interesting is because he always feeds them at these events, and they have come to associate times when the air is full of the scent of humans with being fed, so they keep their eyes open. Literally.

And speaking of that...as well as giving the frogs worms, he fed the hognose snake at the end of the day. The kids sure paid attention as the snake ate a toad!

He also had a spotted turtle. This is cool. I've never seen one in the wild. They are a little south from me.

There were also crafts for kids, and that was busy all day.

The Petunia Parade (the group that plants and maintains all the petunias I've showed you in Ludington) had a booth, and these fun flowers to pose with.

This took all day, and then I got groceries and came home. And that's enough for one day!

See Memory of a Special Earth Day

Seven and Eight

I've never done an Enneagram, but it looks like I've finally hit the year that fits how mine would probably turn out. Sevens and Eights are highly self-assertive, independent, and strong willed. Both types also resist being controlled or limited by authorities. Ha!

The day began by enjoying the soft air coming in through the open deck door, now that I have the screen fixed. The turkeys were gobbbling!

And a number of other birds were calling too. I got the Merlin app to work and it said Field Sparrow, Catbird, Cowbird, and... Brown Thrasher! I haven't seen one yet this year, but I almost always have them around the house. Here is a picture of one from 2010.

I will get to do fun things another day, but I didn't work too hard today. One order of items came for Confidence Camp, so I checked those items in and started the next order.

I worked on some of the never-ending projects, and did some more prep for Confidence Camp. Both the custom patches and bandanas are now ordered. Maybe I'll show you another day.

I'm glad I showed you the white grape hyacinths because something ate them last night :/ But here is the rock garden on my birthday which looks about the same as last year. But that's fine. There are several more things starting to bloom.

I fixed the fence on the front garden yesterday. Guess I should have gotten the rock garden done too! Here is the front garden looking so much cleaner than any of the recent springs. Here is the west end.

Then I sort of goofed off. It wasn't a personal requirement for me to watch this movie before Confidence Camp. I sure hope no one will be faced with this kind of decision, but I watched "127 Hours," about the young man who got his arm caught under a rock in a slot canyon and finally cut it off to save his life. Recommended if you want some heavy drama, but it's pretty realistic. I also own the book, but haven't talked myself into reading it yet. Somehow the movie seemed less gruesome. Won't know if that's valid until I do read the book.

It rained on and off. The world is fresh and green. Thanks to so many for all the birthday wishes on Facebook. Here I go into the next year...

See Lucky Sevens

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

What an absolutely glorious day! Temps in the 70s with a light breeze. And I have flowers blooming to prove it.

The Corydalis 'Blackberry Wine' is pretty much in full bloom, and I now have at least 3 clumps. Maybe a couple of other spots of it. I'll be happy to have this spread because the leaves die back in summer so there is plenty of space for other things to fill in.

Just to complete the report, this is as good as that one lonely regular hyacinth is going to get. However, I see that there are a couple of other clumps of leaves. Maybe they will do something. I keep hoping for that, but in all honesty, they never do. They probably don't like sand. I also moved the three crocus that were in the yard to this flower bed.

The rock garden is starting to come alive! There are blue grape hyacinth all over the place. Also an OK thing because those leaves also die back.

A few violets are starting to open. I pretty much let them bloom and fill in wherever. They self seed all over, but they are easily ripped out if they get too aggressive.

The 'Kaydee' daffodils are in full bloom. Yes, the trumpets are sort of a salmon color. These are medium size- not miniature, but not full size, either.

And finally, the first photo shot of trying to show off mixed colors. The white grape hyacinth, violets in the middle and the 'Gold Nugget' Sempervivum behind that.

I worked on most projects, did errands, fixed the nylon screen door for the deck (ahh- a nice breeze), put out the bird bath

The front garden bed is pretty much cleaned up for the spring. It was amazingly easier than other years because I got it in good shape last year. I also started through the rock garden. I'm starting later than last year, but everything seems to be about a week later.

Of course, I see that some plants lived and some didn't. I'll post the body count as it becomes certain.

See Festival in Yellow

Railroads at Tustin

Glen and I have put our heads together, and here are our conclusions- he knew most of this already.

This is the station sign for Tustin station on the Grand Rapids & Indiana railroad. This north-south line was the first through the area, reaching Tustin about 1872. At it's height, it extended from Indianapolis to Mackinaw City and was the longest north-south rail line in the country.

In 1889, a group of Ludington and Manistee businessmen, in the lumber and salt industries, set out to create an east-west line from Manistee to Grand Rapids, and that is what the railroad was named (later becoming the Michigan East & West). In 1893 the track ended at Tustin, meeting the GR&I. Here's where it gets speculative.

I found this map which shows a wye at Tustin, which makes some sense because where a railroad stops, it has to have a way to turn the train around. However, neither Glen nor I can find any other record of this wye. Anyway, the M&GR is the gray dotted line, with the WYE (which may not have existed, I suppose). The strong blue dotted line is the GR&I which is now the multi-use White Pine Trail.

See the purple dotted line that I added? Glen is pretty sure that is the location of the spur that was added to bring cars from the main M&GR up to the station. The spur needs to be about that long, or there is too much of a grade.

Eventually, the M&GR was extended a little farther east to Marion where it connected with the Ann Arbor Railroad

Here's where it gets interesting.

In order for the train to continue east, the M&GR had to pass under the GR&I because the grades were not at the same elevation. Glen showed me where that overpass was. They had to raise the GR&I some, so there was room to do this. In this picture, we are standing on the berm of the GR&I where the White Pine Trail now passes. The edge is marked with the orange line. The higher berm was built so there was enough clearance for the overpass. And it was built beside the old berm, not on top of it.

The yellow line is the old GR&I berm which was lower. When the M&GR was extended the lower berm was cut out to allow passage.

You can also see a large stone at the left of the picture.

That is one of the stones that formed the walls of the overpass.

The passage is all filled in now, but part of the header can be seen on the west side.

But more of the massive stones are obvious on the east side.

In 1913, the Michigan and Grand Rapids Railroad was insolvent, and was sold, becoming the Michigan East & West Railway. By 1919, that track was all gone. One of the surprising things is that it was standard gauge track, which was not always the case with these old railroads. You've seen some other pictures of this grade on my blog before (link below). It was a well-built track, but it eventually could not compete with the Pere Marquette and Flint, which is now Marquette Rail that runs in back of my house.

Gosh, I love figuring this stuff out!

I worked some on almost all my projects today. Pat me on the back!

See Michigan East and West Railroad

An Ethical Dilemma

Yesterday, one of the yellow plants in my garden that I showed you is "Fig Buttercup," more correctly known as Lesser Celandine, Ficaria verna.

I've had this in my garden for over 25 years. It has never spread anywhere else, and it is reliable yellow color in the spring between the daffodils. Then the foliage dies back.

But now Michigan has listed it as an invasive species and wants instances of it reported to them. So far there is no penalty for having it, but...

I am thinking about digging up that whole bed and putting the daffodils back, with allium for summer blooms and autumn crocus (Colchicum) for later in the year. These are all bulbs. I could still put in marigolds and or Coleus for in between.

My Drumstick Alliums in August:

Colchicum seen in Ludington- it does come in other colors too:

I could also put Naked Lilies in for fall- I have quite a few bulbs, but those don't reliably bloom for me and they are very tall.

Then I'd get rid of the Celandine. But, dang. I hate to destroy them because they've done so well for me and haven't escaped.

In other news: I did laundry, errands, bell choir, editing, and took a walk.

Miles walked in 2026: 144.7

Methodist Church Trails: 1.8 miles

See An Allium Solution