Fall 2014

The Fall this year was cool and rainy. Altho as always the beautiful UP offered up some glorious color at the end of September and early October. Our yard was a glorious yellow as if someone turned on the lights in our 20 acres surrounding our house. What suprised me the most was the gorgeous after color here..we had color all through October as the lovely Tamaraks give up a glowing yellow next. to the the green pine trees and the regular trees with leaves turn to gold and rust all around our town bay  by Lake Superior. The color seems to last a whole month instead of the usual few weeks. It all started mid of September and lasted till this last week in October when the leaves finally all fell down from the trees. It made cutting a trail in our back 20 really fun for  cutting dead trees for firewood and  snowshoeing( later this winter) as the color brightened up the usually dark woods. It was beautiful!! Most people complained of the cool weather this summer and Fall  but you will never hear me complain as I love the cool weather for outside sports. I just add on another layer of clothesand breath in that lovely fresh air!! I did feel badly for the school kids though who had little to no weather to swim in the Great Lakes this year as too cold. We were still getting water temps of 40  and 50 degrees  in July  and August (at 150 feet with our fishing depth finder), with surface temps barely reaching  into the 60 s all summer!! But al least the fish came around even if a bit late in the season.

Well our amazing  Honda "walk behind" leaf blower machine really helps with our long driveway and to push the fallen leaves beyond the back our our flower gardens in the yard. I have always hated raking as it hurts my back but I can push that leaf blower for 2 hrs with no back pain the following day!! Good job Dave for him buying this a few years ago as even our small yard in Illinois had mature oaks and offers up oodles of leaves to clear....
Dave had some real creative chain sawing down of dead trees on our property for chopping wood for our wood stove heat this coming winter. We have an interesting situation where our many trees are tall and skinny so when you cut one it may not fall as trees close together and canopy of tree line can catch a cut tree in mid fall. We actually had to tie a rope to one connecting the tree to our pick up truck on the edge of the woods and drive it down to the ground. I always ask dave to tell me when he is cutting down a full tree as want to be there as a second person for safety reasons in case that tree falls an unexpected way. He is getting to be an expert at tree cutting though..knows how to make those angle cuts to direct the fall. It is still a bit scary when you hear that crack as it begins to fall !!
Dave has cut almost 4 face cords so far as works at it a bit each week!!!!! Go dave!!! This helps as we usually burn b wood in our wood stove during the day to heat the house and just use propane furnace over night.  As propane prices soared last winter in Michigan it was nice to have our wood to burn each day. Ahhhh country life.

We did a ton of golfing this fall..everyday that was nice we walked our nine holes for exercise. My game is really consistent now..so fun after all these years..just have to work on my putting a bit. We both got new drivers and they are working well!! The course is just one house away from us and most days we simply walk on the course and play..no tee times or reservations needed!! I love this timeless golf ...we seldom have to wait to get on the course or to play a hole..just pure delight. Not like city golf!! It's a real treat and we love it!!
We took our boat on Lake Superior to see the fall colors around the bay from the water for the first time this year. It was beautiful and the water was like glass so flat(..not a wave around)...the perfect day to be boating on Lake Superior. We must have stayed out for 3 hrs enjoying the views of the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore formations and the lovely fall colors above them. It was a real treat for the eyes and the weather was a gorgeous 75!! Dave' s aunt and her husband came from Milwaukee for a weekend visit of golfing and boating. We also golfed at the well known Greywalls golf course in Marquette. It is an amazing golf course built on rock foundation  up in the hills overlooking Lake Superior..wow!!! It is a course you do not play for score (as very difficult with angled fairways and greens) but more for the beautiful views. It is like a mosaic of lovely holes sculpted out of the beautiful Michigan foothills near Lake Superior. The golf rates are super high because it is a  one of the top ten courses in the Midwest but they have a reduced rate in fall so worth it to play it once!!
Well they predict rain /snow and 30 degrees for Halloween this Friday so old man winter will be knocking on our door soon.  The fire wood is cut and piled in the garage and pole barn ready for the cold temps a comin.




 We love it and could never go back to living in the city. So very peaceful here and I love the fresh air activities everyday. It is a great blessing to us!! Thank you Jesus!!

Summer 2014

Well summer has come and went and never really warmed up. The whole Midwest had a cool summer and people were complaining but I loved it. Plenty warm for golf, biking and fishing, the only thing that suffered was our garden. Dave decided to build a permanent garden structure in Wisconsin of 8 raised beds and enclosed deer fence of 8 feet!! A lot of work with digging out beds , filling them with dirt and building the 2x4 bed frames plus putting in fence posts. We treked the supplies all the way from Michigan on our boat trailer when we opened the house for summer.
The veggie plants went in quite late but we were able to pick the ripe broccoli, cukes and corn before the end of the summer. We did have to leave the beans, cabbage and tomatoes for our friends and neighbors to pick after Labor Day.

The salmon fishing on Lake Michigan was pretty good this year. The fishing season started late due to the cool weather but we caught about  12-15 king salmon in our about 7 times fishing at sunset. It is such a lovely time to be on the lake. We pick days with low to no waves and the sunset skies are amazing with big freighters often coasting by in our view. It is gloriously peaceful fishing with down riggers. Dave reels them in and I love netting them by the boats edge...they put up a fight and it is all I can do to lift them off the back of the boat as they average bout 12-16 lbs!! Dave cleans, smokes
some and freezes and packages them all. We give them way to friends and family we see during the
summer and save the rest for yummy family meals. They last us all winter...yummmm. Lizzy girl really loves to enjoy some when visiting at Christmas .

 We have  decided to split our time between Michigan and Wisconsin in the summers ,as the golf is so very great near our year round home in Michigan. We simply don't want to miss this summer golf too. Dave had the crazy idea to buy a second used trailer for our boat and leave it in Michigan at a great state launch with our snowplow truck( 2005 with 180,000 miles on it!) so we can boat back and
forth on lovely summer days..staying in Michigan for a week or so before returning to Washington island. It is only a 1 hr boat straight across Green Bay then a 1.15 hr drive to our Michigan house vs a ferry ride and. A 6 hr drive up the coast!!! Plus it is a lovely ride across on a nice day. Polly bulldog however begs to differ as she does not like the ride. We got her a doggy life preserver and she cuddle with me or in the mid cabin of our 24 ft bait to settle down for the 60 min snooze for her..hehe. We did limit our trips this summer knowing she did not like it and I drove a few times as dave boated as this will be our last summer with pollygirl as liz and Andy return to the USA at the end of this year. Next year we will surely do this more as free of our responsibilities of caring for polly. Altho she will surely be missed too!!

We got to start our summer fun in early May with a USAFP trip to theBahamas . Dave was invited back by his work to enjoy this conference trip at which his boss of 40 yrs was to receive a lifetime achievement award. We enjoyed some great golf ,pool time, conference poolside meals and a lovely
company dinner that Dave's boss planned to say thank you to all the employees and friends that came to celebrate his many years in the business. It was such unexpected fun to spend time with so many industry friends and the weather was beautiful in the low 80s. The company paid for our airfare and hotel too!! What a great gift for us!! Thanks Usafp!!

I  also took an unexpected trip in Late June to visit liz and Andy in England. Liz really wanted me to come even tho I initially resisted due to the expense of England. But with the use of our visa earned miles I got free flights so just had the expense of car rental, meals and a few days of lodging (as I stayed mostly in  their cute little flat in cheltenham).It was a whirlwind trip.....as in two weeks we drove and camped out at Cornwall on the coast, then drove to northern England to enjoy the sites with  two lovely bed and breakfast stops ,then on to Scotland to connect with katie . Katie was working with her church at a  homeless   ministry in Glasgow for the whole month of June so I

planned my visit to connect with her also at the end of my time in the UK. We so enjoyed a few
lovely days together enjoying Glasgow overnight and with a stop in Edinburgh on the way back to Cheltenham to connect with a

university friend ofAndy's . Then we spent a few days in cheltenham before katie had to return to Glasgow by bus to catch her flight back to the USA. Then liz ,Andy and I went to London for the day and to enjoy  a quick stop at Harrods dept store,a nice meal at a French bistro and some musical theatre with the production of Once. That was a great last day of my trip. Then I flew home again JIGGITY jog.  Fun fun family fun!! Dave was such a trooper as had to stay home to take care of polly bulldog for liz and Andy (as we are the guardians of the cute beast until there return from andy's phd study in. England.)

Well the summer went so fast and we decided to close up ourWisconsin summer house right after Labor Day weekend. We have had a lot of trips back to Milwaukee to visit with family( ESP Dave's mom who is quite fragile now at 87 and my uncle who turned 97 in feb!! We also combined trips back to see family to check on our Illinois house that was for sale over the summer. So a lot of trips back and forth made for a very busy summer for us. We will be happy when we sell our Illinois house and we do not need that extra trek to check on it.!! Ahhh but that's retirement ...now the rubber band back and forth is just reversed!! Haha it's all good and we are blessed so no real complaints here.we had a lovely summer of friends, family, and fresh air !! Our health is good and we know everything is in Gods timing and that gives us great peace and joy!! Bye for now...

Winter and Spring of 2014

Well it's been a busy year. Dave retired in January after 40 yrs of working in the same business and same boss and we moved to Upper Michigan!! It was a year  of  sorting, giving away and packing up what we wanted  to keep. Funny how material THINGS mean so little as you grow older..it is the people in our lives that really become precious. I have told my girls they could have anything they want of ours as material things are that precious to us. It is family, friends and faith that really endure in life.  If we put our time ,energy, and resources into people...others .....that is what is important  in life and the older we get the more that is crystal clear.

We had a crazy and wonderful Winter in the U P... 187 inches of snow and a few very cold temperature weeks .  Dave had part time work with splitting wood for our wood stove( day heat) and removing snow with our snowplow truck and giant snowblower.  We cross country skied every day we could which were many miles in one winter and great exercise for us. Such pure joy in that!!! It was a record winter here and since Lake Superior froze over in 95% ice cover we had spectacular snowmobiling out on the lake along the shoreline to. Jew the spectacular iced water falls over the rocky cliffs. Amazingly beautiful!!!

 It was a longer than most winter for the whole Midwest and a cold late Spring. The woods didn't green up till the middle  of May with temps in the 40' s ,50's, and 60's. We worked to clear leftover Fall leaves out of the gardens to help the wildflowers starting to grow. The Trillium in both white and pink filled the woods..so pretty and welcomed!! And best of all gold started. It is right down the street..a beautiful 18 hole public course with amazing tree lined fairways. With the season change now we golf everyday we can!! Ahhh love the four seasons in the Midwest. Here are some pics from this past winter and now Spring. Happy spring to all and being that it is June now well summer is just round the corner..that is if the Mosquitos don't carry it away..hehe. We will be splitting our time between Michigan and Wisconsin as we wait to sell our house in Illinois. It is a journey and we must be patient with change  in life and thankful for the many blessing we have. Thank you Jesus for helping us with all these changes in our lives.