Eight Miles at Bowman

Got in a good hike with Cathy and here is the selfie to prove it!.

We had planned to hike in the warmer part of the day, but then I found out I had a meeting right after lunch, so we went earlier. Temperature was hovering right at 32° and it snowed on us for a while. But it did warm up a bit before we finished.

The red morning sky really didn't live up to its reputation. I don't think a few snow flurries counts for much in the way of storming. But it was very pretty.

My goal was to walk eight miles. We started at the north parking area and walked south for four miles on the NCT. I usually do the loop, half of which is not NCT, but I wanted miles that would count for Hike 100 today. This took us south of 56th St for an additional mile. Then we had a snack and turned back.

Bowman Lake is one of my favorite places on our trail. It's a glacial kettle lake. Looks a little hazy with the snow flurries.

This is a sight you don't really see in the summer. This is the ridge of hills on the northeast side of the Pere Marquette River, across the river from where we were.

Then we ran into a trail crew! Jack was out cutting downed trees, and Sue and Kathy were swamping for him. Dumb me, I didn't take a picture of them working. We had been thinking that the trail was pretty clear without too many things to step over, but now it's completely clear between 56th and 40th Streets!

We moved one of their vehicles for them so they wouldn't have to backtrack, and I made it to my meeting on time.

I'm trying to stretch my mileages. We did the full eight, and my hips and knees were a little stiff but OK. And I was tired, but I did manage to work on a few things in the afternoon. I wasn't totally done in. Elevation max and min were only 125 feet apart, but there were numerous ups and downs, so this was a good workout.

Miles walked in 2026: 129.0
Hike 100 Challenge 2026: 32.6

North Country Trail, Lake Co. Michigan, 40th St south four miles and back for 8 total.

See Bowman Lake 2024

Snow Mushrooms and Other Events of the Week

Today was nuts, but I got a whole list of uninteresting things done. I walked the property tax payment down to the town hall and found these snow mushrooms on the shoulder of the road.

They look huge, right? Nah- about 8" tall. This is the best one, and you can see other items for perspective.

I finished the jigsaw puzzle I'd been working on. It was an easy one; Churchyard Christmas by Charles Wysocki. 1000 pieces. (And started a new one that Om bought me last fall- it's 2000 pieces and pretty hard.)

His puzzles are always fun because they have so much going on with people and little details. There was a one-man band who had an accordion.

And speaking of accordions, there was even one in my game this week. Neither of these is a piano accordions (the kind I play).

Last Sunday had a beautiful sunrise. And the really deep cold is over for a while. I'm not sorry about that.

It took just about forever to get the things done that I had to accomplish today. I started the next page of Moose In Boots, but will have to finish it tomorrow.

Miles walked in 2026: 36.5
Road walk to township hall and back 3.0 miles.

See Accordion posts

More From Yesterday

There are more awesome things to share from yesterday, and today was quite ordinary, so I'll just go with the pretty things. Starting with the sunrise.

On the way home from the hike, Sue and I drove around Lake Gitchegumee, south of Buckley, and enjoyed the fall view.

But wait! What is out there? It's two adult trumpeter swans with three juveniles! There were four more as well, but they were hanging out with a bunch of Canada geese.

We managed to take some roads that were less traveled coming home and enjoyed an extended color tour. One stop for a quick picture at the overlook for Hodepyl Dam Pond. The reflection of the sky in the water was the best.

Today was a combination rest day and some puttering. I tried to make it more of a rest day, or at least tried to do things that weren't so much of the everyday pressing work. Mowed part of the yard. Last time before winter, I'm pretty sure. About half to go.

I did a little bit of work in my gardens- just moving a few things that I wanted to get fixed this fall.

See SPW at Highbanks Rollway

Best Books Read in 2024

 Read 83 books this year. Not bad. I was hoping for 100, but that didn't happen. Over 30,000 pages- not a very good way to track it because so much depends on the size of the book and the size of the type. But it probably averages out. This does not count the books I edited. That adds another 6 or 7 to the total. I probably should count those since I read them multiple times, eh?

Sunrise from December 14 for fun.

Here are the ten books I have selected as the best reads of 2024, in alphabetical order. I cheated and included one whole series because 5 of the books got my "excellent" notation.

Title	Author	Genre
Brief Review
Butch Karp series	Robert Tannenbaum	thrillers
I discovered the Butch Karp books this year, although they are about 20 years old. You will either like these or not. They are semi-believable and semi-outrageous, but it's a mix that I find wonderful. The series progresses from Butch meeting Marlene while they are young and both work for the DA through to their retirement years. They books are set in New York City with a few trips to other locations.     We watch their children grow up. Marlene discovers that she prefers confronting evil in a personal, armed manner, while Butch respects the courtroom. Their adventures take them through horrendous confrontations with criminals. An almost mythical man who lives in the world of the underground street people becomes part of the story, and also a Vietnamese criminal who becomes their daughter's protector. Of course there is a nemesis who continually confronts them.     My favorites in the series are: Resolved, Absolute Rage, Justice Denied, Reckless Endangerment, Act of Revenge. But it's best to read the books in order. You can find my reviews at Butch Karp series
Clear Thinking in a Messy World	Ken Samples and Mark Perez	non-fiction
This is an easy-to-read overview of how to use logic to clarify not only your own thinking, but to help you sort out the mixed signals you get from the "world:" social media, friends, family, organizations, advertising, etc.     The book is written from a Christian perspective, but the authors are very careful not to show bias. For every example they give that would support a Christian worldview, they give an example from a materialistic view. This is one of the many books published by Reasons to Believe.     Highly recommended. One of the top reads of the year.
Contagion	Robin Cook	medical thriller
Robin Cook's writing is inconsistent. He's either right on or really bad. This one is right on. I did stay up all night reading.     A woman in hospital dies from a strange infection. Of course, the medical team is trying to track down the source. Then another person also dies from the same virus.     Sounds like your typical medical investigation right? Nope. Soon, they have a couple more deaths from something very rare, but not the same as the first deaths. This pattern continues. There is no reasonable way these people could have contacted such rare infections. What is going on?
Iron House	John Hart	thriller
Michael and Julian are brothers who grew up in a horrific orphanage. Michael becomes the strong and aggressive one, while Julian is fearful and artistic.     The book follows the unfolding of their lives. Julian is adopted by a Senator's family and continues to need constant protection, but Michael becomes an enforcer for the mob. Their lives once again intersect after Michael tries to leave organized crime.
The Lincoln Highway	Amor Towles	literary fiction
This book is definitely one of the best three of the year. I expected it to end badly since it is literary fiction, but the ending is quite satisfactory.     Emmett has just been released from a detention home and returns to his own house to find his father dead and younger brother Billy in need of care. He had been sent away because he had accidentally killed a man. Soon a couple of neer-do-wells that Emmett knows from the reform school show up.     It is never said so in so many words, but Billy may have Aspergers. He is precocious and unusually focused. He is fascinated by a book he is reading throughout the novel. The book Billy reads is a book I wish I had written. I absolutely love it: Abacus Abernathe’s Compendium of Heroes, Adventurers, and Other Intrepid Travelers.. It contains adventurers whose names begins with each letter of the alphabet. These are everything from classical to contemporary, and there is a world map on the endpapers showing where they were from. The letter Y is left blank. It stands for YOU, and the reader is invited to write his or her own adventure. Billy is unsure where to start his story.     Anyway, they set off from Nebraska to drive the Lincoln Highway to California, but Emmett's "buddies" turn that into a trip that causes them to double back to New York and is fraught with adventure after adventure. There is never a dull moment.
Lost on a Mountain in Maine	Donn Felton	true adventure
I discovered this short book at least a month before learning that Angel Studios has turned it into a movie.     In the 1950s, several young boys with a couple of adults set out to hike up Mount Katahdin in Maine. Twelve-year-old Donn gets separated from the group in the fog. He has only rudimentary woods skills. Soon, his wet jeans have rubbed his legs raw and his feet are too swollen to keep his shoes on. He tries to hold on to his clothes while continuing to attempt to move downhill, but before a couple of days have passed, he has nothing except his underwear. Against amazing odds, he finds an occupied cabin after a week of attempting to follow a waterway downstream and is rescued.     I had never heard of this story, but apparently he gave talks throughout the east about his experiences. I really want to see the movie.
The Ryer Avenue Story	Dorothy Uhnak	literary fiction
This is one of those epic novels that spans four decades as it spins out the story of consequences arising from a childhood tragedy.     Six friends raised in a tough neighborhood of the Bronx manage to kill a bully who continually torments them. The father of one of the children takes the blame and is sent to prison.     As the book progresses, we learn how the children grow to adulthood and how they deal with knowing the truth.
The Silent Patient	Alex Michaelides	psychological thriller
A psychiatric patient refuses to speak, but one therapist believes he can get through to her. I don't want to give any more of the story away.
T is for Trespass	Sue Grafton	mystery
This is one of the Kinsey Millhone books. Kinsey is a rather sassy and independent private detective. I like them all, but this one is outstanding.     The elderly, cranky neighbor of Kinsey and Henry, Gus, takes a fall and is badly injured. When he is able to return home, he needs the care of a home nurse since his only relative, a neice, lives in across the country in New York. Kinsey does a background check and hires Rosie to care for Gus. However, Gus fails to improve and Rosie moves in to help full-time.     Kinsey becomes suspicious, but Rosie continues to get good recommendations wherever Kinsey checks. The situation goes from bad to worse.
Whip Hand	Dick Francis	mystery
I had kind of forgotten how good a writer Dick Francis is.     Like almost all of his books, this one is set in the world of English horse-racing and the jockey world. It is part of the Sid Hally series (there are four books by Dick Francis and two more by his son). Sid is a jockey who has lost a hand from a bad fall where the horse landed on him. He tries to find a new place for himself in the world, and ends up investigating the unexplained deaths of highly promising race horses who did well as two-year-olds but suddenly died or were incapacitated the next year. Regular testing has turned up nothing.     This book is the one of only two to ever win both the Gold Dagger and the Edgar Award. The other is The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John LeCarre.

See Best Books- second half of 2023

I'm Out!

 My big accomplishment for the day is that I got the driveway clear enough to get out and in. I may be getting a little old for that much shoveling, but I got 'er done. Not much contrast, but I hope you can see the open lane.

There is a Scout song. "God had created a new day. Silver,

and green,

and gold. (this morning's sunrise)

Live that the sunset may find us worthy His gifts to hold."

Don't worry... this song isn't saying that we become acceptable to God because of what we can do. It's not in opposition to GRACE.

However, it's almost a direct quote from several places in the New Testament, like Colossians 1:10- "live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God." We do have a responsibility, once we've accepted God's grace to "walk worthy."

In other news: I edited, I formatted, as mentioned... I shoveled. Then I was tired. Snowblower should be picked up tomorrow for repair.

See Driveway 2014

Wildfire

 The sunrise was like a wildfire. This looks more like a sunset at my house, framed on the left with the pines. But I assure you, I woke up early, and there was this outside! (besides, the sun hasn't gone down yet today, so it couldn't be today's sunset anyway)

And I can't resist showing you the 'Wildfire' sedum again. This is definitely in the running for my favorite plant purchase of the year. I need to get more of the geranium pulled away from nearby because the height of the geranium is preventing it from showing off as nicely. I cropped the photo so you can't see how it is being overshadowed.

I've formatted for 6 hours today, plus shopping and an hour of volunteer stuff. I'd really like to do one more hour if my eyes will stand it. That way, I'm pretty sure I can finish this round of formatting tomorrow.

See SunSparkler Sedums

Orange I Traditional?

 Lovely orange and blue sunrise.

And first clothes on the line this year. This usually doesn't happen until April. It would have been better yesterday, but I couldn't talk myself into hanging up wet clothes before the hike at 31 degrees. Today wasn't quite as warm, but things got almost dry. I know this must be boring, but I seem to picture it almost every year. Probably because I love clothes dried outside so much. Anyway, I'm calling it a tradition.

You get a modest post because I worked really hard today on editing and writing.

See Last Outside Laundry Day

Trailer Repairs - 1D, 2B, 3A - Several Things

The upper kitchen cupboard should now stay where it belongs, and have adequate support. The trim strip that is above the window is now doubled up so that the back edge of the cupboard rests on it. The only issues with this fix were finding the same kind of molding (not stored with all the others at the store, and it took me two trips to find it), and buying some additional screws because the extra layer then added 1/4 inch to the distance to reach wood.

Cathy came over and we got the last piece of foam insulation in place. That was definitely a two-person job just because of the size of the flappy thing.

Then I was able to replace the vent trim.

And I worked on getting the new, dimmable light installed. The wiring diagram that came with it was wonky, so I had an electrician friend tell me what I should actually do. Of course the wires on the fixture were too short, so I had to extend all of those by a few inches to have enough to work with. It took forever to find several of the items I needed to make this happen. OK, not forever, but it seems like I spend more time walking back and forth to the house than it takes to actually fix the item.

You can see that it is lit up, and the dimmer switch does work properly. However, by then it was nearly 5 pm, and my neck was stiff from working at the funky angle. The wires were being a pill to get stuffed back up out of the way, so I decided to finish this another day.

And, I had clothes on the line. It was warm and windy, so I got one more outside drying day, and I had to get those taken in.

The other trailer project that is now finished was to replace the electric port on the back. I don't know why I didn't do this as part of the initial project. The plastic was old and brittle, and the door broke off sometime during this last year. Here's the hole with the old port removed.

The new one fits the hole just fine, but the flange is larger, so I had to drill new holes. Actually, I'm glad it's larger because that way you can't tell that I didn't remove this before I painted. Funny story about putting in the pop rivets. A number of years ago, I bought a nice pop rivet tool because our old one was a piece of crap. However, the new one seems to be made for someone with monster hands. I was unable to get my hand to span the two handles and squeeze them to install the new rivets. Cathy and I did it together and were able to squeeze them enough until the rivets popped. I had exactly three rivets of the size I needed. So I dodged yet another trip to the store, for now.

It was a glorious day! The morning started with the "red sky, sailor take warning." The forecast says we may get some rain tonight, but it's hard to believe how lovely it was for mid-November.

I didn't get all the stuff on the porch put away because I spent so much time on the trailer, but I did do the most annoying one- had to take everything out of the car to put the jumper cables away.

Every time I am able to work on projects long into November, I am reminded of the year when I took out the entire wall of our enclosed porch on the old house and rebuilt it in November- some year- maybe around 1980? Maybe earlier. We might not have had the boys yet. Doesn't matter.

I also did work for a client in the morning and the load of laundry. No writing happened, but I needed to take advantage of the nice day to do these jobs.

See Insulation

Rock Garden Report 8

This will probably be the last report for this fall.

I did get most of the rock garden weeded one more time this month. There are a few spaces on the far edge that I didn't get cleared. Maybe I'll get those done, but it's not too critical.

The top picture is this afternoon, and the one just below it is the end of August. Of course, August was more colorful, but I think this looks quite good for one year of reclaimation.





Here's the view from out in the yard. I can't wait for this to look really colorful and full.



I worked on the trailer this afternoon too. Prepping the ceiling kills my back, but I got a fair amount done. All of the kitchen area and a bit less than a quarter of the table/bed area is ready for the final layer. I ordered more of the Helmistik glue and a new light fixture. They will both probably be here Friday. Today was probably the last nice weather day for a while anyway.

This was the sunrise. The color was very strange. Not only was the eastern sky orange, but the light everywhere was orange. The camera saw this as pink, but I changed it to be more what my eyes saw.



I also did a load of laundry when I realized the rain was over, and it was turning out to be a really nice day. Edited too.

See Rock Garden Report 7

Sunrise from the Train

  Marianne from the Toledo area was a total trooper, agreeing to take me to the train station at 2 in the morning. I caught a quick nap on her sofa before we headed out. Our friendship began because of the trail, but discovered we have many more things than that in common, including trains.

The train was full, which is sort of interesting in its own right. This is the Lakeshore Limited from Chicago to New York and Boston, with a split at Albany. I got on in Toledo and got off in Albany. The first time I took this train was in 1975, the same year Amtrak established the line. I took toddler Steve and went to NY to see my mother. We had an entire train car to ourselves. That sure wasn't the case today.

I've taken this route four times, that 1975 trip, then once in the 1980s, and once in 2002, and today. This is the first time it's ever been full when I rode, and it's also the first time that it was pretty much on time. The worst was in the 1980's when I had to sleep on the floor in the station in Rochester and wait for 12 hours because there were mechanical problems.

Anyway, I managed to get a couple more hours of sleep on the train. My seat mate went to get breakfast at about sunrise, which was great for me, because I was able to scoot over to look out the window. The sunrise was spectacular with mammatus clouds lit from below. Even through the crummy train windows the pictures aren't bad. This color is accurate.

Sunrises and sunsets have to be just about the most ephemeral sources of beauty in our lives. It was still looking nice about 5 minutes later, but then the sun actually rose, and all the glory faded.

It's a long way across New York State, by train or car. Train was a great option for this trip. I didn't have to drive. The price was less than I would have spent on gas, and it didn't take much longer. I can't really do that 17-hour drive in one day any more, although I used to. And we were just going to park my car at Marie's house and only take one vehicle to Philadelphia, so there was no reason I had to take the car.

I packed enough food. There was a cafe car in the train, but I opted to not have to spend any extra money. I took my pillow and a blanket. I didn't need the blanket, but I think I'll get a neck pillow before the return trip.

Finally, we crossed the Hudson River to arrive at the Albany-Rensaleer train station.

Marie picked me up and we crossed back to the west side of the Hudson and headed south to her place. The Thruway runs between the Hudson and the Catskills. We think this is Timmerman Hill ahead.

We arrived just in time to fix dinner, and then go do some prep work on a project she is involved in. Now we are crashed. We'll take a picture of us tomorrow. For now, you know I'm here safely. Really tired, but all is well.

See Working My Way East

Sunrise Spectrum

  I just liked the smooth gradient of colors in the clear sunrise this morning.

I worked on most of the projects today. I had hoped to finish the entries for the yearly "Excellence in Craft" contest with Michigan Outdoor Writers Association. I'm never sure if it is worth the effort because it is SO tedious to get the entries into the format required for the contest, and include all the right stuff with each one. If you have something wrong, they do not give you a chance to correct things, you are just out of that contest for the year. I haven't won something every year, but more often than not.

Well, I am planning on having 4 entries in 3 categories. I got 2 of them done, but I am still missing one little piece of info for the other 2 entries. Once I get those, it won't take much longer to submit them.

And I spent a lot of time on the photo database. I'm having to do a lot of review. I've forgotten an awful lot about how to set up many-to-many queries. I'm trying to find the answers without having to pay money. It's annoying, because I used to know how to do this.

Nevertheless, I got a lot done. I can always just continue to add photo data even if I don't have the queries running correctly yet.

See Sunrise and Beans

Sunrise and Beans

  There was a sunrise worth seeing this morning, and this picture was taken at 7:35, not 8:something. More light in each day is nice.

But when I decided to go to the grocery store, I discovered that we were having enough snow to make the driving a bit unpleasant. Nevertheless, I got everything I needed and empty boxes.

Then I proceeded to make some beans. I can't call them baked beans, because they are made on a stovetop. But they turned out great! I like dark, full-flavored beans, not runny, and these are. I used to have a wonderful recipe, but I can't find it any more. This one looked promising, so I tried it. As you can see, I also made cornbread because, well, beans and cornbread.

Even more fun, I got this one from a Nero Wolfe book. No, not the Nero Wolfe cookbook, athough I do own that. If you are a Wolfe fan, you know he is a gourmand. But the recipe is not in the text of the book. This particular set of reprints has introductions by various authors. Some Buried Caesar's intro is by Diane Mott Davidson who writes a culinary mystery series. That particular Wolfe book has Wolfe and Archie eating at a county fair where the orchids have been entered in a competition. They are delighted to discover that the Methodist ladies' food tent serves supurb chicken fricasee.

Davidson is celebrating American farm meals and offers this recipe for Rue Morgue Beans with Bacon at the end of her intro. I used dark molasses instead of the corn syrup.

P.S. I have a really yummy recipe for chicken fricasee that I haven't made in years. That book makes me want to give it a whirl again. Maybe next week or something.

In other news: I spent the morning previewing cassette tapes to figure out which ones we want to digitize.

See In My Natural Habitat