How Time Flies

Here we are in the final hours of March! Wow! Where did the past 4 weeks go? I guess they passed unnoticed into history. I've been putting up with the miserable climate of cool nights and not much better days. If we get to 40 I rush out for a walk! I like to see the sun pushing back the snow banks at least on the north side of the streets. Some sidewalks for what they are worth are appearing too. Strange what the melting snows uncover! Yesterday I saw a lost bike, a few hubcaps, and other odds and ends! Come on lets get on with spring with some nice sun and nice temps and a few crocus and daffodils!

The House is in Good Order

Well after waiting a few months and then moving for a week I have things in pretty good order in the new high rise suite! I'm actually having fun "decorating" if that is the proper term! I found a place for most everything to start and then made more space when necessary! I enjoy the separate rooms and the kitchen! I don't have to stare at the unmade bed all day now. The kitchen is not stainless steel and tile but it allows me to use a stove for the first time in a dozen years! I can actually cook in pots on burners now! I need to get accustomed to the highway noise which I didn't get much of in the old house since it was in the back! All things considered I have decided I like the new house! Tonight I had a steak to celebrate!

Where is Sun?

Here in Holland when approching the shortest days of the year the sun has barely reached into the sky at 1 o'clock. In the picture you can see it peeking thought the shrubs! I'm guessing its shining from about 30 degrees and therefore doing very little to warm anything! This area is at about the same lattitude as Edmonton, Canada. These are the days of total darkness for those way up north! That must be a hard life!

Oh, Halloween is Soon Gone and Oh, Christmas Will Be Next in Line!

Over the last few months my Christmas tree has grown rather top heavy! I need suggestions on types of decorations. (Cheap ones because I might not even trim it since I won't be around!) We'll let the Norfolk Island Pine grow for an other year and see where its at a year from now. I might have to call an arborist to keep it somewhat shaped. Or as I said before maybe I'll take her to Cost Cutters!

More Problems for Downstate Hunters in Ontonagon County!

He was killed by a what! Here's the story as I found in the Marquette Mining Journal! Can we blame this on wild life?

By JOHN PEPIN
Journal Munising BureauWAKEFIELD — A downstate New Baltimore man was killed in Ontonagon County when a tree apparently fell on his tent, according to Michigan State Police troopers from the Wakefield post.Lawrence Moore, 44, had traveled to the area to bow hunt a week ago. His family reported him missing Monday night, after not hearing from him for several days.Troopers said they were given global position satellite coordinates that Moore had kept, showing the area where he often hunted.A state police K-9 unit from the Wakefield post and a conservation officer from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources found Moore’s body at about 8 p.m. Tuesday.Moore’s body was found within Porcupine Mountains State Park, near South Boundary Road in Carp Lake Township.Troopers said the past few days have seen high winds in the area, which may have brought down the tree that killed Moore.Agencies assisting the state police included Michigan Department of Natural Resources personnel from Porcupine Mountains State Park and Beacon Ambulance.

Amazing Temperatures

Its all of 83 degrees in the northland today! That's hot for here! Looks like the top of a real hot area is just reaching the Michigan-Wisconsin border! I wonder if it has to do with global warming!

Looking for a Cool Place

It would be nice to find a short drive travel destination for next week where the forecast is moderately cool! Guess there isn't such a place. Lake Superior's coastline looks about as hot as inland. Obviously Lake Michigan locations are equally warm or warmer! So I guess I'll camp right here in air conditioned comfort and venture out onto the streets only for my daily walks and shopping trips!

Camping and Fly Killing

This excursion into the hills of the wilderness of the Porkies gets a "D". Not so much for the campground but for the flies and the heat and the beach! Seldom have I seen the Lake Superior shoreline as hot as it was on Monday evening, Tuesday, and this morning! It was hot! And I suppose the heat brought out the flies who chewed on me temptingly! And then of course my enjoyment of the beach or should we say the rocks wasn't all that great given the heat and the flies!
It is very easy to find a rock to sit on at the beach. Actually it looks like one or two big rocks! Darn near should have rock walking boots, knee pads, and padded gloves and maybe even a helmet to walk this beach!
Then there is the view of Lake of the Clouds and its surrounding hills. This sight sort of makes up for the beach and the heat and the flies!

But can you believe I tended the campfire for a few hours. I guess I was trying for an outdoor sauna! It wasn't the only campfire either! I think the smoke helped chase the flies to wherever they went....like into car!

These folks woke up real early in the morning to claim their personal island! I don't know if the guy was banished from the island or what but he was standing out there in the water as if he was begging to be allowed back on rock! The Porcupine Mountains are home to the largest Hemlock forest in the United States and possibly the world. Huge Hemlock forests once dominated much of the Lake Superior region of the Western Upper Peninsula.

Camping and Boat Riding

Well, I went camping! Haven't been camping in years and years! I think its been about 30 some years since I slept in a campground. I now have the feel for it and I think I'll go again. I camped at the Munising City Campgrounds among the big boys and the smaller boys and the even smaller boys and even close to some tents! My Grand Caravan is a bit tight but I lived in a Volvo cab for 10 years so I can make it in the minivan parked next to a picnic table and a fire pit. Parked is the word I like! I watched the kids playing, cooked over an open fire, read some of the current selection; yes, you read right, I read! Hadn't done that for a long time either!

The black in the middle is the Grand Caravan at our campsite! The Munising City Campgrounds comes highly recommended by me. It has lots of room, and its clean, and quiet and Munising Bay and a nice beach is only a few steps from any of the campsites.
First I played in the sand for awhile! It was fun! Actually that is not me! Fooled you though didn't I! I forgot my sand pail and shovel so I just watched the young man having fun with his!
Then I decided to take a boat ride to the Pictured Rocks. The east coast of Munising Bay and further north the coast of Lake Superior proper is a national park. It's the Pictured Rocks National Lake Shore and extends about 42 miles from Munising to Grand Marais. If you would like to hike there is a trail running the entire 42 miles for you to enjoy! Here is an example of the "pictured" rocks. The colors are caused by ground water seeping out of the cliffs which are about 200 or more feet high. Reds are caused by iron, greens by copper, white by limestone and black by manganese. The basic formations here are sandstone.

See the two eyes peering at you? Actually, if you look hard you should see two sets of eyes, one large set and one small set! Some folks have even seen Elvis! Julia would have a great time checking this out!

A couple of arches are major attractions. Here the story goes that an Indian maiden (poor Indians are in all the stories) jumped to her death from the arch after her hunter didn't return from a hunt! The boat captain narrating the tour wondered why any woman would do that for just a couple bucks!


Below is one of natures oddities and demonstrates the true grit of survival. You see the tree perched on top of the rock formation and wonder how it survives up there with little or no nourishment from the stone on which it lives. Look closely and you can see a series of roots extending from the rock the tree sits atop to the mainland! Many years ago the roots were actually in the ground but time has washed away that ground to leave the roots exposed.
Eventually the sun set over the water and the west shore of Munising Bay. As with any adventure it signaled that it was time to return home to toil again!

Time for Some Dutch Color! Contributions from Beth's Camera too.

White bells on a tall stalk.
Roses in full bloom in the center of a round about

Roses is a front yard garden

Lavender display

Bells

Closeup by Beth

It is Grocery Shopping Time but What Is Missing In Holland?

The Expats, Rebecca, and I did an unplanned grocery store stop the other day. Planned grocery stops always include the two wheeled pull behind grocery container (for a better word) or large reusable cloth or leather bags into which the groceries are packed and hauled home! Since this stop was unplanned we had brought no bags so the groceries were checked and put back into the cart to be wheeled out to the car! At the car the groceries were neatly stacked in the back for the ride home!

An observer often sees "lose" groceries being stashed into saddle bags or baskets on bikes, into pack sacks, or into the bottom bin of a kid's stroller. Stores do sell shopping type bags for a hefty bunch of change so I would say only a few are sold. Can you imagine shopping here in the United States without the convenience of "would you like paper or plastic"! So now you know what's missing at the grocery store in Holland! And so too at many other kinds stores for that matter! It makes me wonder how many trees and what amount of oil are saved with this European BYO sack concept! (Please note that this writer has no allegiance of any nature to Paper Nor Plastic, LLC and refers to the website only for interesting facts and information.)

"Only In Chicago!", I would say to myself.

When Volvo and I went into Chicago I would listen to the the radio reporting things going on there and I would say to myself "Only in Chicago". Well here's one that was in the news yesterday. In case you missed it it it was about wily whiling away time at a downtown sandwich shop. One report says maybe he was attracted to the shop by the smell not of the sandwiches but of rodents his favorite fast food! Sort of a cute little beast isn't he?

Finnish Wildlife vs Yooper Wildlife

The article sounds almost like the scary movie about the crows. Helsinki's pigeons are being naughty! There was a pigeon ( pictured above ) which hung out at the truck stop in St Ignace for a number of years (with his thousand buddies) and would land on the hood of a stopping truck and peer through the windshield at the driver as if to say "Hand over your food or I'll do it on your hood"!

U.P. Population Becoming Manageable

The Upper Peninsula's population is dropping slightly causing the overpopulation of the last century to diminish somewhat! Late figures claim 312,153 diehards make their homes here in the 300 mile east west and 150 mile north south diamond shaped stretch of woods and wolves, snow and stones, and poverty and pot holes! This figure of 312,153 is down just a bit from previous years as old folks are buried and young folks flee to the prosperity and the excitement of life anywhere but here! Our Upper Peninsula's population is close to equalling the population of the Ann Arbor metro area which is Washtenaw County downstate. That area is made up of 458 square miles or only 1/36th of the 16452 square miles of the beautiful Upper Peninsula! People down there by Ann Arbor must have to be careful not to step on one another! Here in the U.P there are times when we have to look hard to just find another person! If you happen to check the map I linked notice that the U.P. has only one city worth mentioning on the initial view.

Are Retired People Next?

Article of interest from the Iron Mountain Daily News. Yes they are everywhere, cute little pests!

IM approves contract to cull city deer

By JIM ANDERSON,News Editor

IRON MOUNTAIN — A Wisconsin company will again be called upon to cull the deer herd in the city of Iron Mountain.

The city council on Tuesday approved a contract with Wildlife Management Services Inc. of Hales Corners, Wis., to harvest up to 90 deer.

The contractor will receive $110 per deer culled, the same as a year ago. The total cost to the city will be up to $9,900.

City Manager John Marquart noted that the local Buckmasters chapter will again handle the processing of the venison. The 91 animals harvested last year provided approximately 2,400 pounds of ground venison to area shelters and food pantries.

The harvest by sharpshooters is expected to begin in middle to late January. The deer culled last year were mostly does and fawns, according to Marquart.

Last fall, the council received a petition from 18 residents in the Pine Court neighborhood urging a reduction in the number of deer.

Deer will be harvested this year from various locations in the city