One Dang Autumn Olive Bites the Dust

Woo hoo! I finished cutting down that one big autumn olive I showed you the few remaining trunks of a few days ago. I raked the area where it had dropped all its leaves and killed any other vegetation.

I cut up the larger trunks for campfire wood. It's not the greatest. It's a soft wood like aspen. But I checked just to be sure it doesn't give off toxic smoke or anything. I wouldn't put it past this noxious plant. But it's ok to burn.

I treated all those cut stumps with the Tordon. Bright blue was just treated today. I put it on right while the cut is fresh. That blue-ish one on the left was treated a few days ago.

And what is my magical wand for getting at least this done? I bought a cordless pruner. Took me all summer to look at brands and decide what I wanted. This is Greenworks brand. It was purchased primarily because it's not too big for my hands. So far, I'm happy. The company makes over 100 tools that all take the same battery pack (so the inventory is expandable), and I got this on sale.

Now go back and look at the first picture again. See what's behind where this bush was? See what's beside where this bush was? More autumn olive.

In other news, I worked really hard today at necessary tasks- computer, editing, this yard stuff, kitchen cleanup. I hereby pat myself on the back.

See Before It Turns White

Beauty in the Details

We got another beautiful day! I had decided to use it to do my fall walk-through of the trail section I maintain. It was an easy amount of work. I had time to look for interesting details. This is the best.

I'm pretty sure this is a false chanterelle. Cute.

Still on the topic of mushrooms and fungus, this is some variety- I have no idea what- but see how it's growing in sort of a net pattern? The mycelium is under the bark and it puts up fruiting bodies in the softer cracks between the plates of the bark.

The bottomland hardwood swamp is completely dry. I've seldom seen it without any pools of water. This tree decided to become a terrarium. Probably Intermediate Wood Fern.

This just made me chuckle. It's an apartment building for some critters. I wonder who lives upstairs.

The trail work was easy. My section is in good shape. I only pulled a couple of small, downed trees off the path, clipped a little, and flipped away loose sticks.

Oh, a pic of my piece of trail? Sure.

And I did laundry and some editing.

Miles hiked in 2025: 440.5
NCT miles hiked in 2025: 244.8

North Country Trail, Lake and Mason Counties, Freesoil TH to Koenig Rd and back to Tyndall Rd. 3.5 miles.

See Work Day

The Indoor Plants

It's astonishing, but I can't think of anything interesting to blog about!

I edited, I did computer stuff, I shopped, I filled the veggie tray using my new chopper (it looks beautiful), but how many times would you readers find the same tray filled with the same vegetables interesting? I started to look up a little bit about the next generation in the genealogy, but as I suspected, there isn't much to find. I may have to get that DAR membership to learn much (which would be easy except for the dues because Granny and Mom were both members- so I don't have to start from scratch to prove anything). It was this generation's son-in-law who fought in the Revolution, and gives me the right to belong.

I played my game (but I MAY be able to be calmer about it.) They've added many layers of events because the really top-level players need things to do. So there's no way mid-level players, such as I, can explore all the lands. So I can just pick what I want to work on and try to meet my own goals.

It's fun. The current quest is to assemble a skeleton of the "Loch Dess" (not a typo) monster. You have to get some of the bones from an Inuit who was making oars of the ribs, a dog who wants to keep some of the bones, and a clown who is charging people to look at the skull. You have to go find the things these people and the dog want to trade for the bones. Along the way, there are rewards you can get, resources to collect, etc. And you have to keep your home station operating in order to have enough energy to do all this stuff.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure you really don't want to see a lot of screenshots of a game you aren't playing yourself.

How about the plants I'm nurturing in the house over the winter? Still not too exciting, but it's the best I can do today. I am attempting to keep a bunch of Coleus going. I brought in the 'Lemon Coral' sedum and the 'Sea Urchin' sedum. I have one sprig of 'Blue Elf' sedum, the wandering jew, a tiny aloe that manages to live but not thrive, and a whole bunch of the Aloe squarrosa which is a houseplant. I'm still trying to give several of those away if you are interested...

Remember the cleaning/sorting project I mentioned in September? Well, the point of that was to make space on a table where I can keep these plants for the winter. I think that space gets enough light to make them happy. And it doesn't matter if some water leaks onto the plastic cloth or the junky table underneath. In my dream world, I have one of those earth-sheltered greenhouses attached to my kitchen door by a breezeway, so I can keep plants and grow vegetables over the winter. Meanwhile, I have a rusty folding table and an old plastic tablecloth. It works.

Tomorrow is going to be nice again. I have a plan to do something more exciting than grocery shopping.

See Last Hurrah, Rock Garden 2025

Cornelius White Sr. 1682-1755

Born: March 28, 1682 Marshfield, MA

Second child of Daniel and Hannah (Helen?) White.

Married: Hannah Randall on May 22, 1706

Children: Lemuel, Cornelius Jr., Paul, Joanna, Daniel, Gideon, Benjamin.

Died: January 21, 1755 in Marshfield, MA

Buried in Centre Marshfield Cemetery, Marshfield, Plymouth County, Massachusetts

He is listed as a shipbuilder in The Mayflower Descendant magazine.

Cornelius bought a pasture and orchard from his brother John, and also a valley pasture and uplands. All the property was in Marshfield. He left all this plus 14 pounds to Cornelius, Jr. His estate was valued at 1375 pounds, and included a fishing boat, a ferry boat, and outdoor tools.

Since Cornelius is listed as a shipbuilder, and that he lived in Scituate, I am making the assumption that is where he worked on the ships. Scituate is located on the Atlantic coast between Boston and Cape Cod. It was a major shipyard from possibly as early as 1646 (records vary) to 1872.

Not sure of the date of this photo, but it's certainly from the 1800s, long after Cornelius died. But it possibly looks similar to the 1700s.

But the only other related graphic I can find is a hand-drawn map of the harbor from the 1700s. The attached key to 58 numbered locations reads like a list of places in a fantasy game: Light House, Cedar Point, Old Dr. Jeffer's House, Gun House, Tin Shop, Stables, etc.

Cornelius was Daniel's second son. As such, I guess he did not inherit the family farmland and orchards, but chose a trade as shipbuilder.

From here on down for two generations, I don't think I'm going to be able to find a lot of detailed info about the people. But we shall see.

I think discipline as relates to getting back into the Klondike game isn't even on the table. Hopefully, I was just spending lots of time today as I tried to get back into remembering how to play. But I'm afraid I can't ration my playing time very well. I really like it.

Nevertheless, I managed to get some editing and computer work done. The snow is all gone and the sun was shining this afternoon.

See his father Daniel White

First Snow, Plus...

Today was first snow. Most everyone got the worst of it yesterday, but it was very patchy as to where it fell. We did have bell choir practice, and amounts at people's houses ranged from 0- 12 inches, all in the same county. We got about 5 inches here overnight. It's almost all gone already.

Just for comparison, remember I said I cleared almost a whole line of autumn olive this year and you can't even tell? This is the same shot from last year's first snow. The work I did was on the bushes (all autumn olive) on the right side of the picture. I ask you... can you even tell I did ANYTHING out there? Botheration.



Anyway, Om and I went out to eat at Applebees since they still serve free meals to veterans.

The other piece of big news-- (not sure if it's good or bad), a friend got me into my old game account that I mentioned yesterday. I was at level 74 when I quit before the big hike, and the "world" is very complex. If I'm going to play again, I'll need to spend time figuring out how to do stuff all over again. Wowzer. It will be fun (good). Maybe I shouldn't spend that much time on it (bad).

Here is one little piece of my game world. Just for your enjoyment. I like this game a lot. It's not too silly, and you make and produce all kinds of things- very interwoven like real life. It's sometimes billed as a farming game, but it's much more than that. It's Klondike, the Lost Expedition if you care. (I see I showed you a picture from this game once before when I was at a much lower level)

I also managed to do a fair amount of work. I spent over an hour on the phone with one client, and edited for another, on top of going out with Om and then bell practice.

See First Snow 2024

Chocolate Now... Stress Later

It has been kind of a running joke on here that there are a number of the sayings on the back of Dove Chocolate wrappers that really fit the day. The newest round of "fortunes" is mostly lame. They recruited suggestions from consumers, and I'm mostly underwhelmed with this round of sayings.

However, one of them stood out, but I've been hanging onto it because it doesn't fit very often anymore. I'm really quite stress-free in this season of my life. I'm mostly doing things I've chosen to do with little hassle, maybe a deadline or two, sometimes extra energy required. But not much actual stress.

But today was a little stressful. I fixed one of the computer programming issues I was frustrated about yesterday, but I can not seem to find the other one. It's something easy that I'm just not seeing. Troubleshooting identifies the problem as being not in the code, but in the file structure. I keep looking at it and it looks OK. Maybe tomorrow I'll see the problem instantly.

But my frustration level is high. In response, I cleaned the dining room table. I promised the guys I'd cook for Thanksgiving. The autumn tablecloth that I couldn't find last year turned up this summer. (See, you just have to be patient!). I decided to go with the turkey candy dish for this year's decor. The nice candle I bought last year still looks good. I added some of those shaped candles that were so popular in the 1950s- 1960s. These are from Omer's mother. So we have a mix of family treasures on display.

I like having a really clean area. But, the project part of me just looks at that nice open flat surface and thinks it's being wasted as work space!

So, yes, there has been a tiny bit more chocolate involved in today than usual.

And also, in frustration, I started playing one of my favorite computer games again today. I quit it before the big hike because it takes too much time. And I couldn't get my old account back, so I had to start over at level 1. Bummer. But I'm tired of match-three games. Maybe I can do a better job of controlling my time-wasting now. Or not.

Hopefully, tomorrow I'll see the error in the web file structure.

The heavy snow has totally missed our hill. However, it was starting to snow harder as it got dark. We will see what morning brings!

See Tempt Your Sense of Exploration

Before it Turns White

As far as I can tell from looking at posts on Facebook, everyone else in West Michigan got snow. It hasn't showed up here yet. Maybe tonight. Actually, they've upped the snowfall total for us for tomorrow. Whatever.

But I want to show you the last of the color around my yard. I trimmed the forsythia. It needs to be done at least every other year or it turns into a monster. It's not hugely colorful, but I like the yellow and maroonish layers.

Are you wondering if that renegade marigold ever bloomed? It tried SO hard, but it didn't quite make it. I covered it diligently every night for about two weeks, but this is the best it could do. A little yellow in the bud.

I want to show you the rock garden one more time because I am loving how deep red the elecombeanum sedum got this year. Some patches of light-colored foliage are also hanging on, so it looks quite nice for mid November.

And my maple tree? After doing practically nothing about getting autumnesque for weeks and weeks, it suddenly turned orange! I decided to verify what kind of maple it is. Back when I replanted this tiny sapling, really just a two-leaf cotyledon, I didn't know enough to really choose wisely as to the species. Now, I was afraid to learn that I've carefully nurtured a Norway maple for 35 years, and that is considered alien and invasive. I know there are some Norway maples in the cemetery in addition to the sugar maples, so... yikes!

But I checked it out. It can be difficult to tell the two apart, but there are a few "tricks." I'm pretty confident that this is a sugar maple.

Finally, and this has nothing to do with color, here's an autumn olive. On its way out! I've been working on this one large specimen with my new power pruner. Just have these remaining large trunks, and I should be able to get them cut to ground level this week. I'm treating the stumps with Tordon (a salt of 2,4-D which makes it legal- this is serious stuff), and every one that I cut and treated with this last year has not come back.

I'd like to say I made real progress on this menace in my kingdom this year, but I'll have to settle for moderate success. I cut back nearly a whole row of it by hand in the back yard, and you Can't Even Tell. But I'll keep after it. I'ts immensely easier with power tools.

There are ones by the driveway and the kitchen door that we cut every single cotton-pickin' year. Omer usually does these. We used to treat the stumps with Roundup, but that only slowed the stuff down. This Tordon seems to really work.

Almost everything I worked on today seems to have something that isn't going quite right. Just need to keep after them, and they'll get sorted out.

See The Color is Yellow

Benzonia and Betsie Valley

The bulk of the day was spent at the Benzonia Holiday Gift Market. They had a lot of vendors stuffed into a smallish room, but it did boost the impression of a busy event. And I did pretty well, so I have no real complaints.

This quilt is being raffled in December. I think by the Grow Benzie group. Yes, it's gorgeous, but it's 100% machine made and so perfect I wonder if it was a kit, so I have mixed feelings.

After the event was over, I went to hike a bit of the multi-use Betsie Valley Trail. Finding one of the parking areas turned out to be a challenge. My map wasn't detailed enough. Google couldn't seem to tell me. The local gas station folks... well, the guy couldn't even read a map. The lady directed me to a parking area that wasn't the closest one (there should have been one in town), but anyway. I did find the trail and a parking area.

It's a wide graveled trail. My goal was really just to get in some fast walking exercise, so that was fine.

I chose to hike back toward town. I knew this section crossed a developed area where the trail has an easement, so there were quite a few houses. But it is also the section that goes along Crystal Lake, which was what I wanted to be able to see.

Found a few things of interest. I always love the tamarack (larch). They turn bright yellow in the fall and lose their needles every winter.

Do you recognize this one? It's a closeup shot of the seed pods for wild clematis (aka old man's beard, aka virgin's bower).

Since it took extra time to find a trailhead, I wasn't sure how long the light would last. I walked 30 minutes along the lake, then turned around. That gave me 3.6 miles when I got back to the car. There was still plenty of light, I went the other direction to M-115 and back which got me to 4 miles. In 1 hr 15 minutes. Nice brisk pace to match the nice brisk air.

There is a Nature Area named Railroad Point right there as well. That trail is less than a mile long, but it's supposed to have a good view of the lake. Maybe another time.

Got home a bit after dark, ate dinner. Not sure how much else I'll accomplish today.

Miles hiked in 2025: 437

Betsie Valley Trail, M-115 to Country Farm Road and back (parking at Molineax Rd). 4 miles

See Lake County Museum Quilts

An Excellent Day with the Original Adventure Buddy

Over the years... and it has been quite a few years... I've done a lot of adventuring with friend Ellen. I don't think we coined the term, but we called ourselves Adventure Buddies. We managed to get outside and do something together (hike, bicycle, ski, kayak) about once a month for a number of years. Then she got a granddaughter. Well. That threw in a major monkeywrench since the girl lives several hours away.

Anyway, she doesn't let me take her picture very often, so I'll just share this one that is one of my favorites from 15 (yes fifteen!) years ago. And you can see that Maggie was still alive. This was taken at Gales Pond. The last hike we did together was a year ago in the spring. We really need to get back into some kind of rhythm.



Today we explored the Pentwater Wagon Road. Ellen introduced me to this pathway, again, 15 years ago. It is the (very) old road into Pentwater. In fact, it's not really a road any more. But it's still supposed to be a public right-of-way.

But Ellen had discovered that someone has placed a fence across it. She called the township, and they said "public." So we thought we'd see what the status is.

It starts out looking just fine. Would this condition remain?

The morning was sunny and cool. I can never decide, but this might be my favorite picture from this fall. Wagon Road still fine.

Lots of blueberries along the pathway. They turn a nice red in the fall.

Oops. Yup, about a mile in, there is not only fence, but a serious barrier. We took pictures and the location. Ellen will contact the township once again. It's kind of annoying, because you used to be able to walk all the way into town on this.

On the way back, we found one little blob of yellow Witches' Butter fungus.

Since that hike was shorter than we had hoped, she took me to two small, newish nature preserves that I had not yet been to. I'll share those in the days ahead. All together, we managed to hike 3.6 miles. Then we headed back to her house.

Ellen has a long history of treating me with wonderful meals. Today was no exception. She made us sandwiches of some yummy brown bread (toasted), turkey, apple, goat cheese, strawberry jam, and greens. Wowzer!

Needless to say, not a lot of serious work happened today. But that's OK. I'm gloriously happy at the wonderful adventures.

Miles hiked in 2025 (I've added all 3.6 on here) 433

Pentwater Wagon Road, out and back 2.2. Pine Forest Loop 0.4. Dumaw Woodland 1.0 miles

See my first hike on the Wagon Road

A Few More Fall Color Shots

These have been taken at various times over the past week, but there wasn't room to add them to that day's blog post.

I'll lead off with a row of trees along the Methodist Church parking lot.

I've been hunting for red this year. Here's one splash.

This was a few days ago, right on US 31 at Wolf Lake!

I had sort of forgotten how beautiful rural Oceana County is. There are a lot of rolling hills, and I loved my drive coming home yesterday. These fields were just stunning! Vinyard on the left.

But maybe this one is even nicer with asparagus in front, then an orchard, and the woods.

And you know that quote- not sure who said it- "Of all the roads you take, make sure a few of them are dirt." Totally agree. 96th Avenue in Oceana County was up for the challenge. I took pictures at two different places, but decided this was the best. Can you feel the peace?

I had a chance to go for a hike this morning, but I decided I really nneded to stay home and get some things done. Worked pretty steadily at all my projects. More time on the autumn olive and a little more putting the gardens to bed in the afternoon.

But, tomorrow, the discipline ends. I have a little adventure with a friend planned!

See More Fall Finery