35 Years Since...

Well, it hasn't been 35 years since I've seen Annabelle and Sophie, although it has been a little long.

And it hasn't been 35 years since I've seen Sue, or even since I heard her play a piano.

And it hasn't been 35 years since I've seen this Kathy. What are we doing?

Can you guess? I now have a piano again. (it was FREE- can you believe it? PTL) And it's been 35 years since that was true. You know I'm horribly out of practice, but I played a few pieces that were in the piano bench (badly). I have two cartons full of piano music, plus about 15 hymnals and uncounted chorus books. I'll need to get some of that out. Yeah! More mess.

It was a fairly major project to clear out a space where the piano could live and I need to find better homes for some of the stuff that was in that space. Sue and Kathy came to help move it. That was really a major project, but we did it! Took most of the afternoon.

We also had ice cream, but I didn't realize the SD card wasn't in my camera, so no picture of that.

The morning had the usual computer tasks. Another really hot one today. We are supposed to get some serious rain tonight. I hope that's real or I'll have to water the flowerbeds tomorrow.

See Got Out to One Place

Birthday Fun

 My usual birthday treat to myself is a hike. But this year I deferred that to another day. Maybe tomorrow, we'll see. I'm kind of on a roll with the book and want to work while I'm highly motivated.

But I was eating my lunch and someone called and asked me if I wanted to go out. Um... I was full. But there's always room for dessert, right? Especially pie.

Do you know who it was? It was Sue! With a friend of hers, Jan.

They had Jan's car, so I wasn't sure if I'd get to see my little buddies. But they had come too. Sophie and Annabelle are always good for smiles and licks.

And Omer got me some treat foods I'd been wanting. Some chips and pop.

And I've been inhaling broccoli. Just in the mood. Here it is with cottage cheese for breakfast. But last night for dinner I just ate a huge bowl of broccoli with butter. Yummers

Sue brought me another fun item. But I'm not going to share that until I decide where to put it. I thought I knew the answer to that when she gave it to me, but I need to rethink it. Stay tuned.

I did my editing, and then my 100 new miles of campsites, and some more formatting fixes. I may try to get more done this evening so that I'll feel good about going out to play tomorrow.

Oh yeah. What year is it? Most of you know. Finishing trip 76 around the blazing ball of gasses.

See Surprises and Blessings

Almost Food

  Sue came over this afternoon and we worked really hard. Here she is mixing trail shakes. The food is ALMOST done. I need to fill the dehydrator with apples overnight and do one more thing in the morning that requires an ingredient I will get across the street.

Here are tubs filled with bags of various items. I tried not to have too much just nutrition-poor candy, but I did get a few things. You've already heard that there are tootsie rolls in some of the meals. I got a big bag of Riesen candies because they travel well and they are SO good. I do have a weakness for chocolate. I am also trying some fruit chews called Hi-Chews. They look like they can also survive heat and they are nice and tart.

Other than that, it's mostly healthy. I rifled the discount bar tub and picked out the best ones. I bought some sausages at the dollar store. I don't eat a lot of meat snacks, but a few are fine. There are several different fruit and nut mixes, what I call "new age gorp" (walnuts, raisins and dark chocolate M&Ms), I bought a box of a seasonal Christmas Chex cereal-- it would be horrible for breakfast, but is pretty tasty for a snack, the salty mixes are already packed up so they aren't in this picture, the rest of the veggie snacks are here, and a mix with little crisp breads with almonds and yogurt-covered cranberries, and of course a LOT of trail shakes (I'll have one of those almost every day- a lot are already packed up and not pictured here).

I have no idea yet how much this all cost. I'll try to figure it out at some point. I managed to pick up a large number of things at the discount store, which made me feel better about a few more expensive things (like some dried cherries). I THINK I've managed to do this pretty economically.

I'm trying to clear out the food mess, so I can put boards in the kitchen to polyurethane. Maybe I can have them all done before the weather dries out enough to be getting out tools and running in and out of the trailer.

And quality control? Sophie and Anabelle approve! Sophie even curled up in my chair beside me for a few minutes when I took a break to check email and stuff.

In other news: I did not get to cross off a single thing, but three BIG ones are really close. I worked on a volunteer project that has to be done in the morning, and then the rest of the day was food and family, because, of course, Josh is having a crisis. Omer is mostly dealing with it (so thankful for that), but I am not completely off the hook. Had to run some errands this evening, one of which involved Cathy, who FED ME DINNER which I had not had time to have yet.

Still 25 BIG ITEMS to complete- (37 done). 38 small ones to do (32 done). 18 days to go.

See Backpacking Snacks

Mower and More

  Big day today! Sue and I drove to Shelby to pick up my "new" lawnmower. It's been really well taken care of. This is such a great deal for me!

Then we went out to eat at the Brown Bear in Shelby.

This was what we elected to take home. We'd already eaten half! Good food.

We were parked right beside the Hart-Montague Rail Trail. We were stuffed and needed some exercise, and the doggies wanted a walk. Perfect!

Two happy little sniffers. We walked a total of four miles.

Best event of the walk? Spotting a rufous-sided towhee!

On the way home, I saw a northern harrier hawk too, but no picture. And on the way down, we took a peek at the Pere Marquette river flats because there were reports of a flock of migrating white pelicans. Pretty sure we saw one straggler. Great birding day, especially since I'm not a very good birder.

In other news: I had a meeting tonight. I didn't get any mowing done, because it was starting to sprinkle as soon as we made it back to my place, and then it actually started raining.

See First Bike Ride 2017 See Half an Accomplishment

Friends and Footsteps

  Life gets somewhat non-stop when Marie and I are together.

First we went to Baldwin to have lunch with Sue. Then we went to historic Idlewild and walked around the lake. And Sophie and Anabelle joined us, of course. This is just small-town streets, but there are some interpretive signs about Idlewild, a former African-American resort community. Lots of history there. The lake is the center of town. It was a cold and rainy morning, which gave way to a cold and gray afternoon. Fine for walking but not for spectactular pictures. Still pleasant.

The Wilson House is a beautiful fieldstone Craftsman bunglalow. The family was instrumental in the creation of the town.

I almost always see a red-headed woodpecker in Idlewild, and today was no exception.

Did we have a good time? I think our faces tell the story.

Pup-dogs were not interested in posing, but they each got a nose in the camera. Sophie

and Anabelle. Most definitely not their cutest poses, but hey...

Then Marie and I drove to meet someone to pick up some trail supplies, got home in time to catch our breath before heading to a meeting I had this evening.

Yesterday, we hiked at Bowman Lake. I've taken you there many times before, so you know it's a beautiful place. But I didn't want to neglect mentioning that we did hike 6 miles.

North Country Trail miles hiked in 2021 is at 203

Lake County Michigan, Bowman Lake Trail and North Country Trail loop- 6 miles, and walking around Idlewild Lake- 5 miles

See Caught the Red Head

Back to Ludington State Park

  Because of the pictures I posted the last time I did this loop, some friends from Baldwin wanted to come do it with me. We made that happen today. I guess my brain was more focused on interesting details than the trail itself. You'll have to go to the link below to see that. We took the Ridge Trail out and returned via the Island Trail.

This is a picture looking south down Hamlin Lake. That band of orange-pink at the horizon is very strange. It looks like late afternoon and west, but this was closer to noon and south. We couldn't figure it out. But it's certainly a wintery landscape!

We heard a lot of noise while we were still up on the ridge above Hamlin Lake. It sounded like maybe geese, or small dogs barking. It was a whole flock of trumpeter swans! They were pretty far out on the water, but I got one fairly good picture.

I just liked this interesting pattern that had frozen into the ice of one of the little backwater ponds. The spikiness of the tree and the curves of the ice pattern are a nice contrast.

I thought this was a great joke. This little tree had such blemishes and blobs on its trunk it was a perfect pattern for camouflage wear. I thought, "We need someone with gray camo on to compare." I turned around, and... Reva was wearing just such a coat. A little more snow, and she'd would disappear.

For a different kind of camouflage, this is white birch bark. But look at all the gray, brown, orange, peach colors!

I HAD to stop along the road for a picture of big blue- Lake Michigan.

Our hiking crew? Sue, Kathy, Reva, and me. Of course, Sophie and Anabelle the pups were there too.

Sophie does seem to really like me. It's mutual!

We hiked about 6.5 miles.

In other news: Not much else happened. I got groceries on the way home, and did a couple other errands.

Ludington State Park: Ridge and Island Trails, and the bike path to complete the loop to the cars. About 6.5 miles

See My Favorite LSP Loop

Hiking is Back on My Radar

  An impromptu hike on the North Country Trail was organized via Facebook. (And I did not have to stay home and work on projects!) Eight of us met to hike a new re-routed section near White Cloud, Michigan. The new piece includes some great boardwalk through a marsh and it took a couple of miles of trail off road. Always a goal!

The boardwalk goes through a beautiful unnamed marsh. Not the most beautiful time of year, but still some subtle colors.

Just slightly beyond where the re-route joins the old route is the bridge over the White River. I haven't been back to this particular location since I first hiked it, and when it counted toward my End-to-End hike in May of 1997. It was pouring rain that day!

The bridge is the same, and the river is the same.

We returned to the cars via the old trail and road. Not quite 4.5 miles. Pretty short, but it was good to see some old friends, and meet two new ones.

Speaking of friends! Before the hike, I had lunch with Sue (who served us some yummy chili, cornbread, and salad)...

...and snuggles with Sophie. (Sue had things to do, so she couldn't go on the hike.)

In other news: Isn't that enough news?! But there is a little more. Since I was doing all this via Baldwin to Whitc Cloud I accomplished another errand in Baldwin. And I wrote 289 words. I know... lame... but it's better than nothing.

Total North Country Trail Miles in 2020: 237

North Country Trail near White Cloud Michigan, Centerline Road to White River

See Finishing Calhoun County

Kisses from Sophie

  I was thinking of titling this Sales, Sue, and Sophie. But we forgot to take a picture of Sue, and who cares about seeing another vendor picture.

Sue stopped by the vendor event so we got to chat a little bit. When I told her to be sure to pet Sophie for me, Sue said, "She's in the car." Well, I couldn't pass that up, and the event wasn't all that busy right then. And Sopie's sister, Anabelle, was there too. Usually Anabelle can take me or leave me, but today I got quite a few kisses from her as well. But Sophie, for reasons only a doggie brain can fathom, really loves me (I probably smell good to her). I'm still smiling from all the Sophie kisses today.

The vendor event went really well. It was a small one, so I didn't have huge expectations, but I was pleasantly surprised. This is a good thing! I'm vegetating this evening. Handbells tomorrow!

See A Hike with Sophie