My First GeoArt

This is going to be the topic of one of my columns this month- not sure which paper yet, but I'll give you a sneak peek.

Did you know there are some geocaches that are "multi-caches." They can be arranged to draw out a picture. Maybe. More on that in a minute.

So, who do I know that knows how to geocache, and is willing to drive terrible back roads, and would think it's all great fun? Sue! That's who!

Notice that she is holding a little tube that was hung in a tree. A geocache container can be pretty much anything that is waterproof. Quite a few of these were this size, but a few were bigger. There is a little log paper inside where you sign your Geochache Name and the date.

You also record on the official Geocache app map if you found it or not. We eventually did find all of the sites, although we had to go back to 4 of them a second time. I'll talk more about this in the article, but what I didn't know is that the actual locations of the geocaches do not make a picture. It's just that there is a cache associated with each dot. Yellow means we found it, and you can see they are all yellow.

The ones we could not find had the hint "PMD." Even though Sue is experienced with over 4000 cache finds, she did not know until we were able to look it up that meant "Pull Me Down." The cache is high in a young tree that had to be pulled over. See the painted bottle up there?

The last one of the day was way up high. I'm holding the tree down. Sue signed the log and we let it snap back up.

The name of this GeoArt is "Cider Apples" and it's in northeast Mason County. Each of the 33 locations is named for a different kind of apple. We started at 8 am and finished around 3 pm. It was 92° when we got done, but we were determined to find the four that we missed the first time.

Most interesting coincidence? 15 years ago Ellen and I went exploring and found Black Lake, a tiny puddle. We ate a picnic lunch in the freezing cold. Today, Sue and I came in from the other side- I didn't realize it was Black Lake until we were almost there. Today was totally the opposite of freezing. (Link below)

Nothing else happened today, but I am all set to write my columns for this month.

P.S. Doing 33 geocaches in one day is a lot.

See Brrr- Lunch at Black Lake

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

Half an Accomplishment

  I did half of what I hoped to accomplish today, but it was the difficult half. Sue came with her truck and trailer. Can you see what's loaded (picture is confusing with my fiberglass trailer behind it).

Here's the answer- say goodbye to the old lawnmower. It's truly dead and it needed to leave. It didn't owe us anything. We bought it new in 1990.

As we were pulling out of the driveway, something made a very strange noise. Sue hopped out to see what it was, and this is what she found.

It's VERY new. My guess is it was born this morning. The noise or vibration of the truck must have scared it. It bleated repeatedly, then walked a little ways and then settled back down in the long grass. I'm sure mama will find it.

Got my fill of Sophie and Anabelle kisses, and they got to sniff lots of new places.

The other half was supposed to be buying a new lawnmower. So, we went to the store with the trailer... and they are sold out. So I got a raincheck and came home, with no mower.

A HUGE THANK YOU to Sue for helping me move that old mower!

Now here's the amazing part of this story. I've been looking, with no success, for a used lawn tractor for nearly a year. I found nothing that was quite right, and wasn't sure if I did buy one, if the sellers were trustworthy. But, it just doesn't seem too sensible to spend the money on a new one. I can't imagine we are going to be taking care of this house and lawn for another 20 years.

Got home again and immediately, a friend posted on Facebook that they were selling their lawn tractor. I was #2 in line to possibly want it... Just got the word that it's mine!

Some of you will just say "coincidence." I say that this is God taking care of me yet again. PTL!!!

In other news: I did a load of laundry, and am getting ready for my 20-mile walk for World Vision tomorrow. Cut my toenails (no small task- they are so damaged it's a major chore, but Om got me some really good clippers for my birthday and these do allow me to actually cut them instead of just ripping pieces off- thanks Om!), packed up all my stuff- making sure I have things like enough water, enough food, cough drops (for dry throat), and all the other little stuff that just lives in my pack. However, I wanted to make sure I really have everything. If I don't have something for a 5-mile hike, it hardly matters. However, it's much more annoying to be without something for the time it takes to walk 20 miles.

So, tomorrow night, I should be quite tired but happy. See you then! As of right now, people have contributed $1275 toward clean water. I'm pretty much in awe - this is so much more than I could ever have given on my own. You can still give yet tonight or Saturday (tomorrow). See World Vision 6K

See Kisses from Sophie See Wildlife Sanctuary

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