5.20.09
Due to space limitations I am using another journaling site temporarily:
Click HERE to read the latest journal entries! Sorry for the inconvenience!
5.17.09
A gorgeous Sunday and I'm all alone for it. Jeff is downstate visiting his family, Abbey is at a friend's house, Emily is visiting a friend and I'm just hangin' at camp.
Yesterday Abbey spotted a rose-breasted grosbeak! What a beautiful bird...we got to watch him for about twenty seconds before he decided to move on. Of course I had to look up what they like to eat, then run outside to make sure each of our feeding sites was appropriately stocked.
Abbey needs some cookies for school, so I'm going to make some snickerdoodles and while I'm in the kitchen I'm going to put together a loaf of bread for dinner. We're having venison chili and there's nothing better than homemade bread to go along with it.
I'd also like to share the fact that I have radish babies sprouting up in the garden! Their little tiny green heads are popping up everywhere!
5.16.09
Jeff is downstate visiting his folks and attending his kiddo's dance recital. We're holding down the fort and seeing so many critters this week!
Abbey saw rufous-sided towhees at a friends house
Emily and I are seeing hummingbirds at a little feeder Jeff's daughter bought him as a gift
We watched a wolf trot across the road at sunset the other night; he was so beautiful and wanted nothing to do with us.
I have a cup of hot coffee calling my name in the house--I'll write more in a bit.
5.13.09
Abbey had a poetry reading today at Falling Rock Cafe, so Jeff and I made the trip into town and got to hear Mrs. Nayback's entire poetry class. We had some coffee, checked out the books and enjoyed the town vibe for awhile. It's nice to get out of the woods once in awhile---but equally nice to come back to our peaceful, beautiful home.
I finally, FINALLY, have some spring flowers!
These little guys opened up yesterday while it was warm and sunny. For three hours yesterday I wore shorts and a tank top! It felt SO GOOD to peel off a few layers of clothing for awhile. Unfortunately my extremities were pale and sickly-looking and I was glad no one was around to get an eyeful of that.
Jeff is doing an awesome job making benches and tables for outside use; he's using old wood and firewood we having laying around. I love that he's recycling stuff around the camp!
Here's something I forgot to mention: Jeff and I were featured in the local paper! Kim Strom from Munising News wrote an article about Kemosabe and we were on the front page.
5.9.09
Jeff took some time off from fishing to build some fire-side benches yesterday. They turned out great--I was impressed by his woodworking skills (I think he gets it from his dad Mike---who can make anything).
The weather turned colder overnight and it will only be 40F today.....bbbbrrrrrrrrrrr. Ironically enough, while cleaning out the garage yesterday, I found a big box of warmies---long underwear, hooded sweatshirts and turtlenecks---just in time for spring! The folks downstate may be wearing shorts and opening windows, but I'm still in layers!
By the end of this month we're going to be renting kayaks and canoes and for next winter (which seems oh-so-close already) snowshoes and cross country skis. We're excited to move into this phase of this business!
5.6.09
It's a rainy day and seems like the perfect day to bake something. Of course if you ask my family, every day is a perfect day to bake! Today I'm making a very tall dutch apple pie in a cast iron skillet. For some reason, everything just tastes better when it comes out of a cast iron pan.
Jeff--God love 'im---is a hard worker, a one-man work crew. I asked him if we could have a veggie garden here at camp and he was gung-ho to make it happen. He found some timbers to outline a big area behind the barn, and we began the hunt for dirt. Kemosabe is built on sand...the forest grows in sand....sand sand sand everywhere, so finding good soil admendments was no mean feat...it took most of a day. We shoveled many, many wheelbarrows of composted leaves and decayed trees out of the forest and into the "garden" and eventually it was ready to plant. Since the growing season is just beginning here I nestled some radish and spinach seeds into the soil. It's too soon to put out anything else due to frost. Yes, still. We still have snow piled in places!
I asked my friend Shelly if she knew anyone who had rhubarb up here and she has promised to hook me up. We love rhubarb and can't wait for it to come in season. Now I just have to find someone who has crab apples and I'm all set. For anyone wwho hasn't tried it---crab apple jelly is HEAVEN---hard and tedious work---but lovely to eat. Jeff's mom taught me to make jelly a couple of years ago, and ever since--I'm a jelly making fool. In the fridge--as I type---there is home made apple butter, mixed fruit jelly and strawberry jam. I have some cherries from my friend Julie's house tucked in the freezer for the next jelly or jam batch.
At the feeder this week:
yellow rumped warblers, brown-headed cowbirds, pine warblers and all the usual visitors. In the woods near camp we were priviledged to hear a great horned owl calling repeatedly and Abbey was so excited.
5.1.09
Jeff's mom, Marilyn, is one of the finest women I've ever met. She's sweet, kind and gracious and any gift from her is something to cherish because she gives everything out of love. She sent me something that is a real treasure---a spiral bound notebook full of handwritten recipes from Jeff's Grandma.
Darn it....that little notebook made me miss Marilyn so much! Whenever we're together we chat and laugh and she teaches me all her little cooking tips. She's a wonderful cook! And I spoil Marilyn by making any yummy little thing I can think of for her. Marilyn has a long term illness and I'm always making things to tempt her to eat more--calories are never an issue! She and Mike (Jeff's dad) are coming up in a few weeks and I can't wait! I've been practicing on my snowmobilers all winter so that I can whip up some fantastic food while they're here. I have missed them both so much! Mike's devotion to Marilyn shines in his eyes and they have almost 50 years of marriage to prove it.
4.30.09
Back in the saddle folks. The web host was experiencing problems for about ten days--hopefully it's back to normal now.
I made cinnamon rolls for Steve Mann's group of ATV-er's last weekend, and I shocked myself! They turned out to be the hugest ones yet--some were way bigger than a grapefruit. Here's a pic:
The other yummy item last week was a new dark fudge brownie with a peanut butter cream frosting that was pretty darn good:
Jeff and I have done some exploring the last few days and found some nice fishing spots. Trout season just opened, so we've been itching to get our feet wet around here. There are some beautiful areas to fish and you can go for hours without seeing another human being---
4.23.09
Our website is down for repair...stay tuned.
4.22.09
Just when you think you've seen it all, this shows up on the bulletin board in the local grocery:
Yes, folks, it's true---we've been hiding Bigfoot up here in the woods for far too long. It's time to share him/her/them with the whole world. I think this will behoove tourism in our area too. My plan is to take Jeff up there and try to pass him off as "Son of Bigfoot". As long as no one knows his real folks are in Indiana...I think I have a chance at the big prize.
4.18.09
As you can see, spring is still...well...springing here. It was almost seventy yesterday; that was a treat.
Jeff is down state visiting and in true klutz fashion---I cracked a couple ribs the day before he left. I skipped on a snow drift and fell....ouch. So I'm doing everything very, very carefully right now. I can rake outside---not fast--not hard--but rake nonetheless! Making beds is another story :o)
Raking is quite the discovery process---there are so many things that were buried all winter: fireworks wrappers, leaves from last fall, a trillion pine needles, a million sticks, some dead things (we won't talk about those) and all the flotsam and jetsam that appears when the snow recedes. The most interesting thing I've found so far was a dead thing (guess we are going to talk about it briefly) so far gone that I have absolutely no clue what it is. The interesting part was that it's up in a tree....and it's not a bird. My theory is that it was scampering through the woods---doing whatever it is that small weasel-like creatures do (it bears some resemblance to a weasel, only smaller)---and it caught the eye of an owl or eagle or hawk. For whatever reason, the bird never finished his meal and left it in the tree...eeewww. I knocked it out of the tree with a rake and gave it a proper funeral (flung it far into the forest and yelled "gah! gross!").
Rich and Mike, the up-the-road neighbors stopped in this evening...bearing gifts of venison....mmmm-mmmm. They never seem to catch Jeff in residence, usually just me. I am always extremely grateful for any venison-thing and Rich makes many fine venison edibles. So we chatted and Rich left two packages of yummy things for us and went on his way. I promised to make them cinnamon rolls tomorrow, so I had better get to gettin'.
Happy weekend!
4.16.09
The sky at three a.m. is as clear as I've ever seen it. It's clarity amazed me and I sat on the porch steps for almost an hour wrapped in a blanket and staring in wonder at the stars. What a beautiful night! We've had so many overcast, snowy days in the last six months, it's a real treat to bask in the sun during the day and the moonlight at night.
Jeff made a nice bird feeding pole as a surprise for me yesterday; it's at the back of the drive and he hung a feeder our friend Matt made and gave to us last year. Matt is an awesome woodworker and he can make just about anything.
Jeff is heading downstate to go home for the weekend and I plan to work hard on our website and bake for our weekend guests. This weekend I think I will make giant brown sugar strusel muffins!
4.14.09
The evening grosbeak grows brave; he has screwed his courage to the sticking place and will visit the Ball jar feeder on the porch for sunflower seeds now.
4.13.09
Easter was a quiet one here at camp; we colored eggs, went to church, had a huge dinner and relaxed. Lazy day. We know why Yoopers color their eggs....if they didn't you wouldn't be able to find them!
Even though it was almost fifty degrees yesterday, we still had snow to spare and it looks as if we will for another couple of weeks. The driveways have finally emerged and we continue to find treasures in the snow: rock borders, small trees, bushes, the occasional garden bench...who knew so many things were there? For those of you who don't know, we bought the camp and moved here in November, we barely remember what the place looked like without four feet of snow covering everything.
I think the dogs smell spring in the air--they're willing to spend more than three minutes in the yard for the first time in months. Rather than just squat and run for the door they sniff around all the uncovered bushes and trees as if God just dropped them out of thin air.
There was a nice email in my inbox over the weekend from a reader in the United Kingdom that ended with "May the birds continue to grace your antlers". A sweet sentiment!
