Sausage Day

This should have been taken care of a couple of weeks ago, but who would have guessed we'd get two feet of snow so early.

It was more work to get Sunny ready to cover this year because I had to get all the snow and then water off the top. But today was almost 40° and sunny, so the top was dry. The ground, however, was really wet. So I got pretty much soaked getting the straps underneath and tieing it up like a little gray sausage.

But, I got 'er done. I had high hopes for taking the trailer out at least for a couple of days this fall, but it didn't happen. Sigh. This is not the latest I've gotten it covered, but it's the first year it had that much snow on top that I had to clear!

It was a busy day. Edited, etc. Did errands, took something to Cathy's. Josh stopped by. Put Sunny to bed to hibernate. I'm rejoicing in the extra minute of daylight!

Today's LOL moment. I saw a meme with Morgan Freeman looking stern and saying "I don't know who needs to hear this, but throw away the box your phone came in."

This made me actually laugh because while hunting for my camping-themed ornaments this month, I found a box full of empty phone boxes that Om has saved, possibly from as long as we've had cell phones. I think he's actually going to recycle them now.

See Sausage Time for Sunny

Sausage Time for Sunny

 Snow is pretty much gone for now, and the temperature was quite moderate today. Sunny is turned into the winter sausage.

Last year, tinfoil crammed in the door crack kept mice from getting inside. Hopefully that will work again. I brought in the mats and anything that shouldn't freeze. I took a few things out there that can freeze. This year, I remembered to bring the small shop vac in the house for the winter.

I tie the extra ropes around it because it can get so windy up here, and I don't want the cover to shred.

I also put away the rest of the garden stuff and a few other little outside jobs.

This evening, the bell choir gave an extra concert at Cornerstone Church. We played all four of our Christmas songs. I'll get them recorded for you, but not tonight. Because this was an odd time for us, we had to have several substitute players, and even a sub director. But, we did all right.

Just in case this wasn't enough, I edited a lot in the morning, and got groceries on the way home from the concert. I think that's enough for one day!

See My Little Sausage

Two Towers, Two Trailers

Three months and three days later, I'm back on the north side of the two towers. When you are in Michigan instead of Middle Earth, this means you have crossed The Bridge. If you have to ask, you aren't from Michigan. Haha. (The Mackinac Bridge).

So I'm back in the U.P.

Does this look familiar? Two little trailers side by side. They are good friends, Sunny and the Lyme Lounge.

The weather today was gorgeous. The drive was uneventful- the best kind of drive. Tomorrow, however, it seems that we're going to be back in the grip of winter. But I'm ready to face it. We are going to do a relatively easy day and see how that goes.

I'm snug in the trailer, my lunch is packed, my water bottles are filled. I don't feel epic at all. I'm tired, but at least I don't ache everywhere now. I'm hopeful I can finish, or almost finish (if I can't do the western U.P. yet) on this outing. And, I'll probably save the miles near home until I have completed everything else. I can't bear to hike home and be celebrated if I haven't really hiked it all.

You know who is here with me, right? If you haven't figured it out, stay tuned.

See Goodbye Snowy Trail

Sunny Gets a Fast Bath

  Today was amazingly warm. In the 50s! Beautiful day.

I had a "last warm day list" and got through it. One of the items was to give Sunny a bath. He was really dirty, and I hated to take off on this big trip without at least making that a little better. See the dirty water dripping?

This was not anything like a good job, but I got the worst of the road grime off. I'm very pleased with how well the paint is holding up. Here's another section with the dirt coming up with the soapy water.

In other news: I was working on the trailer by 10 am again. I got a lot done. Still don't get to cross off the big one I keep working on. Shaking head... But the paint needs to dry for 24 hours before I glue stuff to it. Tomorrow should be for sure. However, washing the trailer was on the big list. I really hustled and managed to do it in under 2 hours. But I can cross that off, and also 2 of the small items.

22 BIG ITEMS to complete- (40 done). 40 small ones to do but of course I need to add more. (36 done). 13 days to go.

See Final Paint

Gifts for the Trailer Kitchen

  I've been buying some items to replace pieces of trailer kitchen gear that were definitely sub-standard. It's one thing to use them for a couple of weeks and another thing to use them for an entire year.

Earlier this summer, I was tempted too strongly by a new pattern of Corelle dishes- yellow and blue! The truth is that I don't like eating off plastic, and doing it for a whole year, coupled with the lovely blue and yellow... so two of each came home with me.

Here's the array of recent purchases.

For one thing, I got an electric hotplate (top left). We'll be cooking inside a fair amount, and we'll almost always have electricity. I'll still take the propane camp stove, but this will be safer for inside.

Bottom- second from the left, and also under the pans, is a set of silicone hot pads. I needed more of these, and one definitely needs to be used under the hot plate.

Bottom right is two storage tubs. I guess these aren't technically kitchen. But Marie and I have found that it's nice to each have a bucket on the table to store small personal items. We have a tub that goes in the middle of the table, towards the wall, that holds trivets, condiments, napkins. Now there will be an official bin for each person.

Top right is two cheap salad bowls. When I want a dinner salad, or if we need to mix something, I didn't have any bowls large enough in the trailer. Dollar store to the rescue.

Now for the last items, which are all one item. The pans we'd been cooking on in the trailer were very cheap, thin and frankly, crappy ones. I do most of the cooking when Marie and I are together. I've gotten used to being really careful using the pans. But now, I'm going to ask someone else to do most of the cooking for the whole upcoming year. The pan situation seriously needed to be improved. But... it's a tiny trailer, right? I didn't want to take up too much space. If you count everything, there are three pans, three lids which can double as frying pans, and an interchangeable handle.

Look how they fit together. Nice, huh!

Now, I THINK there is just one more item to buy, and that is a can opener that works well. The one we've been using is a piece of junk. The problem is that many brand new ones are equally as poor. I'd like to get a winner on the first try.

In other news: I edited almost all day. It rained too much to work on the trailer, except that I'll do a bit of painting inside the house tonight. I worked on trail food a little bit. And I did more errands. I crossed off one BIG ITEM. However, I must have miscounted somewhere, because I still have 34 BIG ITEMS (27 done) and 23 small ones (11 done) to do. Sigh. 40 days to go.

See New Hiking Gear

My Trailer Redo - Day 146 - New Tires

  This required nothing except money and the time to take the trailer to the tire place, but I am happy to report that Sunny has new tires, and the wheel bearings were checked and are in good shape.

The previous tires were 14 years old. They weren't awful, but they weren't great. I don't want to embark on a year-long trip with questionable rubber.

In other news: I felt a little under the weather today, but managed to do some editing, clear one more sink full of compostable stuff from the freezer, go to bell choir practice, and get these tires.

See Interior Tour 2021 See Index to Trailer Refurbish

Back to Midland to Mackinac- Day 1

  I've teased you about where I planned to go... now for the true story. I am on the other side of the state, rehiking parts of the Midland to Mackinac Trail. The plan is to hike the pieces that have been fixed and update the guidebook. Today, I did one short piece that I never did connect in 2018, even though I tried it from both directions. Today, I succeeded in connecting.

Let me remind you that the M2M is a trail that the DNR (which owns most of the land it traverses) does not want tools put on the treadway. This recreates a Native American route, and they want it kept primitive. What that mean is that you pretty much have to walk from blaze to blaze, stumbling most of the way. You can NOT just hike along. This short section is actually on an old road, so it was pretty smooth under the ferns. That didn't last long.

I was hiking in from the north end this time, and made it to right where I lost the trail in 2018 and spent 20 minutes looking for another blaze with no luck. But this time, I found a small piece of flagging tape. That confirmed you are supposed to push your way through a shrubby strip of wetland, and once past there I did find another and another blaze, until I came to my goal- this clearing.

This was the 2018 real problem. I was hiking from the south and came to this large opening, and could not find where the trail exited at all. I went straight across, and eventually got out to a road, but it was not correct. So today, I very carefully paid attention to where I entered the clearing from the north. Because there are still no blazes.

Then I walked all around the edge of the clearing to try to find where the trail comes in from the south- in other words, where I lost it the other time. And I did find that. This composite picture is taken from the point where you enter the clearing from the south. What I did in 2018 was folllow the yellow line as a guess. As it turns out, what you need to do is follow the blue line.

That was definitely the best find of the day. Second best, and certainly more interesting to you folks was a baby bird. Maybe a brown thrasher. I'm not sure. Not really scared of me- we just watched each other for a bit.

Made it back to the log church where I started, 2 hours and 10 minutes later. Only 3 miles of hiking. I had sort of forgotten how hard it is to hike with no treadway. Plus hunting for blazes. But I'll be able to fix this section of the guidebook. That will be my goal each day this week- not speed.

And where am I? I'm parked in the yard of some friends for a few days. Sunny is happy. I am happy.

I had a cozy little dinner. Interesting that it's 52 degrees, and yesterday it was almost 90. I do like this better, but it's been a few weeks since I needed a sweatshirt!

The only other news is that I had a terrible time waking up this morning and left home way later than I had hoped, but it was fine. I hiked the piece of trail I had planned, and succeeded at my goal.

Midland to Mackinac Trail, Cedar Lake Road to past Rose Lane and back. 3 miles

See Rest and Replanning Again

Mixed Bag

  Although I'm not sure we are going to get any rain, the sky this evening was beautiful as clouds gathered.

Maybe the best thing I did was make a pickle macaroni salad. It's really good. I think the only change I might make is to add some red onion.

I contninued to work on the trailer. Almost done patching the big hole- maybe that will be tomorrow's news. Meanwhile, I need to have Sunny ready to go on Monday. Where? Stay tuned.

The news is all over the map: errands, trailer work, bookwork, making the salad, organizing things for the weekend and next week. And another book event in the evening.

See Cauliflower Salad

Sunny Under a Cloud

  Nighty-night, Sunny, until spring. Om helped me get the cover on for the winter. We may get some real snow tomorrow.

Meanwhile, yesterday, I saw this inflatable yard decoration. Cute. Of course, tiny trailers seem to have soared in popularity recently, and so there are lots of matching decor items. Still fun.

In other news: I wrote Chapter 19 in Dead Mule Swamp Singer. I did a few other small outside jobs to get ready for snow. I walked 4 miles, and worked on my editing jobs. Not too shabby.

See Trail(er) Dreamin' See Trailer-ing

Dining Room and Trailer Tetris

  I've learned there is a better name for what my house is like. I've described it as one of those flat puzzles with 16 squares and 15 pieces that slide around, so you can only move one piece at a time, one square at a time. You are supposed to rearrange the pieces to form a picture or put numbers in order. But a friend, I don't know if she made this up or heard it somewhere else, described playing garage Tetris. Aha! The only video game I was ever really, really good at was Tetris! And that name explains perfectly what I have to do every time I want to clean some space.

I forgot to take a truly "before" picture, but here's the dining room a bit after I started today. As you can deduce, no dining has occurred in this room in recent memory.

Well, what can I say? I've been rebuilding my little trailer and have no storage space to keep things. I have not been cooking or serving meals. Priorites, right?

So, today's goal was to get the things out of the trailer that can't spend the winter out there. Last year, fabric items didn't do well even though the trailer was covered. Mold occurred. However, I think I put things away already damp because I didn't know how bad the leaks were and there was still water inside from my trip home from Minnesota. But I don't want to take any chances this year. I left the curtains that can be easily washed, just as a test. But I had to do a lot of shuffling to take things to the trailer that can freeze and won't mold.

It's really very annoying to me to have to take things out of the trailer that have a perfectly good home for 4 or 5 months. But I don't want them ruined, so...

I could put a lot more things inside, but I haven't thought of anything else yet that can freeze, and that I don't need to access till spring. I'll be putting the cover over the trailer soon. Maybe tomorrow.

Four hours later, here is the newly Tetrised dining room. Still no room for dining, but it looks better. The aisle is wider. If the aisle is wider, that means I'm not a hoarder, right? (Say yes)

In other news: I wrote Chapter 18 in Dead Mule Swamp Singer and worked on editing jobs. Well, there is that other project. Don't hold your breath. I'm working at least 30 minutes a day at it, but... (hint- if you can tell in this small of a picture, and know where to look, you might be able to guess. It's like "where's Waldo?")

See a previous attempt to clean the dining room

It Was a Round Trip

  I spent the last few days enjoying the hospitality of good friends Chuck and Sylvia. We met through blogging, but have become real life buddies. They are pictured in front of their bountiful vegetable garden. I've base-camped there in their driveway while I've been hiking the rest of Calhoun County on the North Country Trail But now I am home- the circle to NY and back is complete. Sunny is parked in his spot. My backing-up skills have improved on this trip, and I got him in his appointed slot on the first try. You might notice that the back rack is gone. I had Dick remove it. No regrets, and it tows a little better for not having 100 pounds of useless metal on the back. The leak fixes all held- no water inside. I probably don't have time to do any more work on it this fall. Big home projects to get cracking on. However, I won't cover it just yet. Maybe I could sneak in a weekend trip somewhere. I got to have my favorite dinner, a big salad (with tomato from Chuck and Sylvia's garden). I'm airing out the house and working on unpacking. I haven't started going through the mail yet. Tonight I'm pretty motivated to work on the things I should be doing. We'll see what happens tomorrow. I've been gone almost 5 weeks. "They" say it feels good to come home, but I think I could have happily stayed on the road. Sunny is truly homey, and he's not even finished yet. Life is much simpler when there are only a couple hundred items in your entire space to deal with. Each one has a place, and if it's not in its place it's in the way. When I'm home the mess just explodes.

See Finishing Calhoun County See On the Road

On the Road Again

  Sunny plays with the big boys and girls! Most of today was spent in the car. I think it's a hoot having to park with the big rigs. Driving with the trailer is a little more tiring than the car alone, so eight hours was plenty enough for one day. I left New York, and crossed Pennsylvania. Into Ohio. The mottoes on the signs oddly match up. There were a few glimpses of Lake Erie. This is from a rest stop. The lake is hazy out there, but it's a little different color than the sky. And where did I end up? With a trail person I hadn't previously met. We haven't stopped talking since I arrived! Tomorrow I'll have pictures and will tell all. OK, not ALL. But I'll tell you where I am.

See Catching Up

Ontario County Park

  We discovered that the park where we are staying has an extensive trail system. I also realized that I haven't really shown you Sunny enjoying site 19 while we've been here. We set out after breakfast to take on the Black Trail, the most difficult in the park. It was 3.5 miles, but we also walked to the beginning and back, so that total walk was about 4.5 miles. Overall, the trail drops 500 feet down the side of Gannett Hill where the park is, and then climbs back up. All of their trails are nicely designed for mountain bikes, so despite the big drop it was not really too difficult to walk. Someone, probably the local mountain bike club, has done extensive stone work across muddy places in the trail. We've seen dozens of chipmunks, but this one agreed to sit still and have his picture taken. After lunch we went to town to get ice. We had to go to Lynnie Lou's for ice cream one more time! Today, I had lime sorbet and Marie had chocolate almond. We've tried new flavors every time. Haven't had a bad one yet, and it's hard to pick a favorite, but I'm chosing Maple Walnut at Shark's Ice Cream, and Marie choses White Mountain Raspberry at Lynnie Lou's. We played some games, and then decided to take another walk before eating again. This time we chose the easiest trail in the park. In one place it went through this shadowy grove of Norway Spruce. We saw this interesting white mushroom. I don't have that field guide with me, so I don't know what it is. The most interesting part was the gills. There was a second one, already broken, so I took pictures of it. I love how creamy it looks. Total hiking today, about 7 miles. I am sorry to say that Marie has to go home tomorrow, but we are going to do one more walk in the morning.

See Ganondagan Again