Windy

 If you are local you know it's pretty windy here this evening. Probably a little over 20 miles an hour. Without a video, it may be hard to tell that these branches are dancing.

I think in this picture you can almost tell that the needles are being pushed against the branches.

Today was a really good day! I managed 90 minutes of work screen time (not all at once), and maybe an hour of other light work in 15-minute stretches. I'm a little tired, but It seems like I earned that right, since I did accomplish some things.

I walked around the inside of the house for 15 minutes, too. I haven't been able to do that for over a week.

See Mailbox Semi-Success

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

Glimpses of My Kingdom

 Today, I needed to walk over to the Co-op to get a herbicide product they sell that is actually supposed to kill the Dreaded Autumn Olive. We shall see!

Walked home through the fields. For those of you who have been following this blog for years, most of this will look familiar although "my kindgom" is much smaller now.

We never actually owned much of what I loosely called mine. We have 5 acres. There are 20 between me and the cemetery. There are 10 on the other side, then the Lutheran Church property, and the Co-op propety beside that.

I was free to walk on all 6 of those properties, and I mowed a path on 4 of them (not the cemetery or the Co-op)

The Co-op is what I jokingly refer to as the "space station."

I used to be able to walk all the way over there without intruding on their operations. But they bought the back half of the church property and bulldozed a "wall" around it (probably for noise containment), and so I don't walk there any more.

But the grain elevator is very active. This is still an agricultural area.

Coming back across my own property, some of you may remember the "nature alphabets." Here is the letter B- turn it to the right to make it stand up. The trees are very much larger, but you can still "get" the shape of it. As a reminder, I personally planted those trees about 35 years ago.

Now, looking west toward the hill that is a little higher than our house, we do NOT own this. It's for sale again, and I'm concerned. This is the acreage that I was not allowed to even walk on for the past 10 years, but I don't want a business that close. I THINK we are safe because there is a big contaminated area in the back from an oil tank. No one wants to clean it up. But if someone does buy it and cuts down those pines I'll be very sad. We also don't own that little copse in the foreground. Sigh.

Well, there is lots more Big Bluestem grass than there used to be. I guess I'd rather see the field revert to native grasses than more autumn olive, but it makes such dense clumps I really can't walk through it either!

If I could keep a trail mowed again, it would be great. But the current mower is pretty wimpy. And it's not fixed yet, and may be expensive. I think I'll have to get one that is heavier duty.

Of course, I also can't help but think about how many more years we can keep up with this house and property. Well, we've never actually been able to "keep up" with it by many people's standards. But I may be slipping even behind my own lax expectations.

Maybe tomorrow I can talk myself into weed-whacking some bits of trail out there. Meanwhile, I edited, I did a little autumn olive detail, had a zoom meeting, worked on pictures, and wrote Chapter 31 in Vacation from DMS, 1062 words. Yeah, me!

See My Trail Out Back

My Trail Out Back- Update

"My" trail has been seriously affected in the past few years. This is not a quality topic, but there are still some good parts, and one thing may be better again. Here's a general view of the property next door. This is twenty acres, and I'll get the unpleasant part out of the way first. This property has changed hands a few times in the 52 years we've lived here. However, none of the owners has ever done a thing with it, and I've always been able to walk there. Until about about eight years ago. The owner at that time threw me off the property. I was really miffed because, what the heck, right? I won't give you the entire saga, but anyway... it really curtailed my walking opportunities out my back door. It's not like I was hurting the property... sheesh.

But there is a new owner now. I guess I need to contact him to ask if I can walk there. I used to mow a path along the edge of the field, but the mower we have now is probably too wimpy for that. Nevertheless, if it's OK, I can at least clear brush and fallen limbs out of the way.

This was my access to get onto city property (the cemetery). I can still get there via the road, so I did that today and then walked the far side of the cemetery creek back to the railroad. The creek is down in the gully. The only places to cross the creek are at the road and back at the railroad tracks (unless the water is REALLY low). There used to be a little foot bridge, but it burned about 40 years ago!

I love this little creek. It's nothing much, but it has topography, and it feels like mine, because it's very rare to find anyone on the cemetery property in this area behind the gravesites.

When I got back onto my own property, I checked on the white pines I planted around 1990. They are big enough they've formed a needle-carpeted clearing. One could even camp in that grove.

There are still lots of apples and wild grapes. I could make juice and applesauce if I'd get my act together. But I probably have too many other things to do.

I have to show you the gazania one more time. One of the blossoms fully opened. It's interesting to me that the inner ring on this one is considerably darker than the previous blooms on this same plant.

I spent most of my time today doing overdue paperwork related to book sales. But I did manage to write over 1000 words. Total for Vacation from DMS is up to 10,612.

See My Kingdom

So This is Sun?

  For one day out of about 18 in the past and upcoming weather forecasts there was/is an icon of sunshine. Today was that day. This is the best the sky could deliver. And people wonder why West Michiganders get depressed in the winter.

I walked out back and enjoyed some of my familiar haunts. This is the white pine woods that doesn't belong to us. (As opposed to the small one I showed you the other day that is on our property.) I like it a lot and often walk through the middle of it.

I also went down to the Cemetery Creek. The problem is that with very little snow and the dead of winter, the landscape just isn't particularly pretty. And I'm not interested yet in taking longer walks to find something to catch the eye. Maybe in a few more days.

In other news: I spent a significant part of the day working on financial records. However, I did also manage to get a couple more square feet of floor cleared, and I did some errands.

See A Tale of Trees

A Tale of Trees

  I took my longest walk yet since I came home for this break. At the most it was a half mile, probably less. But it was out back on natural surface. I can't say it felt good, but it didn't feel too bad.

The first thing to note is the larger tree, a white pine, in this picture. (With rain spots on the lens) The first link below shows it in 2011 and points out that I ran over it with the lawnmower in 1992, so I can guarantee it was 4 inches high that year. Now it's pretty big, and it has a Scots pine friend. I don't remember how old this one is. Maybe 4 or 5 years. A lot of those come up in the back field, and a lot of them die soon after they reach this height. We'll see what this one does.

The other notable change in "my" trees is the grove that I planted around 1990. These trees are now mature enough to create a needle carpet beneath them and a haven of sorts. You can see a picture of them in 2009 at the second link below. Deer and turkeys take refuge there.

This blog is supposed to be all about quality, but I have to be honest with you and tell you that "my kingdom" (the open space I was free to walk on) has shrunk considerably in the past few years, and we've heard rumors of another coming intrusion.

In other news: I'm using that table top I cleaned yesterday to do a big sorting project. It's not quite done, but there is hope.

P.S. Wow! My grandmother would have been 140 today.

See Report on the White Pines See The trees are growing

The Tree Lecturer

  I brought in a guest lecturer to tell you about some of the trees/woody finds from Wednesday. Trust me, he's experienced.

First, he'd like to assure you that it's always impressive to find a giant white pine still standing. It took two pictures to capture it all.

This much smaller tree is unique in that the hole into its hollow center is almost perfectly round!

In the middle of one of those fancy wetlands was this dead, bleached snag. Very interesting shape.

And another cut log with a star. Now that we know this is caused by cutting through a node where branches grew out from the trunk it seems less magical, but it's still interesting. This one almost looks like a star with a hand print in the upper left.

In other news: The human edited, and edited and edited.

See 15 Miles! See a better star pattern in a cut log

Croton to Coolbough and a Squirt

  I totally played hookey today. I wasn't letting the fantastic weather go to waste. You may recall that I'm working on a data book project for the North Country Trail in the Lower Peninsula. Today, I started Newaygo County. The southernmot part is still on roads. So all I had to do for those is drive them and make notes of any particular features (like check creeks for water access), convenience stores, etc.

There was one tiny piece about a quarter mile long that eliminates a half mile of road, so I walked that. Nice hardwood forest over a little ridge. Very pretty.

Then I continued driving the roads to Croton Dam. I've featured it before, and will show you some more later this week. Today, I only stopped to take some pictures and eat my lunch. Then I drove to the next road crossing because I had already made notes on the first three miles of trail (south end of the Manistee National Forest, from the Dam to Croton Rd). So, I entered the woods at the Croton Road/Pear Rd corner. The section I hiked today alternated between mixed forest and open areas like this one. Although the forecast said it was going to be cloudy, you can see that was not true part of the day. 70+ degrees!

The young white pine are, of course, lovely, but there were some venerable grandfather pines along the way. The trail goes along this row of them.

I think this one is the size winner for today!

I loved the colors of moss and lichen and bark at the base of it.

This is a group of red pines still standing at the edge of an area that had previously been clearcut. They are vulnerable to winds, but haven't toppled yet. Somehow, I found this arrangement appealing.

I walked 5.3 miles to a trail junction in the Coolbough Natural Area, had a snack and returned. With the other little piece, that's a total of 11.1 miles.

Both Sunday and today I saw mourning cloak butterflies, and some smaller orange one today too. Spring is coming!

North Country Trail miles for 2021 is at 138.

North Country Trail, Newaygo County, Pear Rd to Locust and back, 0.5 miles. Croton Road to Coolbough Natural Area Prairie Trail and back, 10.6 miles

In other news: There is no other news. I'm beat, but it was a great day!

See A Little Hike, a Little History

NCTA Celebration - Sunday Extras

 
The Celebration officially ended last night but there were a couple of hikes today. Since it wasn't very far for us to come back to my house, we went on a 6 mile hike.



This was an out-and-back hike to reach an area with a number of large old trees.



And the oak that inspired it.


Then we entered the Valley of the Giants.



There are a number of white pine in this area that are at least 150 years old, somehow spared by the loggers.



After that, we walked along 22 Creek, a lovely stream



In some places along it the beavers have been busy. Here's their largest pond.




And a good-sized area they have cut all the trees for food and building.



The annual Celebration is one of the highlights of my year. So many friends who care about the North Country Trail as much as I do. Good stuff.

Hike 100 Challenge= 34 miles

North Country Trail south of Scheck's Place, Wexford County, Michigan. 3 miles each way

	See Celebration- Saturday
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