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...