A Good Day For a Duck Event

Weather-wise, it was a good day for ducks. It was foggy, boggy, misty, moist, dark, dreary and cold with an occasional downpour. For me, it was a no-brainer to just stay home and forget about the geocaching event. So off we went anyway, at 8 a.m., and headed for the geocaching poker run. Stopped in at Tim and Susie's to see all of the great things that they have accomplished at their cabin on the Manistee.

From 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. we were finding cards on two-tracks way back in the woods. The trails were either really, really sandy or really, really muddy, or had multiple deep potholes filled with water and more water coming down. We were lucky in that most of the times that we got out of the car to go searching, it was merely misting. Tim and Susie know their way around the Grayling area because of snowmobiling and biking there all of the time, so it was good that we were searching together. More than once, I was jealous of their jeep.

Around 3 o'clock we were finished, so we went back to the cabin to dry off and warm up and rehash our adventures.

Then it was time to go to the Duckers' for meet and greet, dinner, raffle, and poker hand reveal. (We had a pair of jacks.) Rain, rain and then some more rain - and then it got chilly too - it was close to 50 when we left for home.

We had very much fun with the DinoDuo and we came home tired and happy.

Project Complete

One of the important projects we planned for this summer is installing a roof over the North door of the gray barn and replacing the railings on a couple of porches with composite plastic railings. We hired Curtis from Suttons Bay to do the work - as it turned out, we also hired his dog Lucy! Anyway, after several delays and waiting for parts, the job is finished! We are very happy with the results!

My favorite new look is the railing on the upper deck - it is such a big improvement!



The front porch railing is also a definite improvement, and best of all, none of these railings will ever need painting!


This new roof over the barn door will save Dick a lot of hassle in the Spring thaw when the snow comes sliding off the barn roof! In the past he has had to wrestle with four foot deep piles of snow and ice in front of that door.


Yaaay!

Hummer Summer

Dick put out three hummingbird feeders this summer, and they have been very popular. One day I saw five hummingbirds vying for position at the feeders. They are very interesting to watch, and they have inspired research on their habits, size, and migration.



It seems that in addition to the sugar water at the feeders, they live on tiny insects that they find on blossoms - that's where they get their protein.



From Michigan, they fly to the Belize/Honduras area in the Fall - it's hard to believe that these tiny birds can get that far away. In fact, the majority of the newly hatched ones don't make it - only about 25% of them arrive at their destination. The older birds have better luck.



Dick learned that if there's a wind of 25 mph, they can't make any headway! Their life expectancy is only 3 to 5 years.

Bambi and Faline

Beautiful day for some caching in Benzie County. The main attraction was the Frankfort 33rd annual Art Fair. When we got to Frankfort it was swarming with crowds of people and cars. It looked as though every available parking spot in town had been taken! It seems in addition to the Art Fair there was also an antique car show, and something else (which I don't remember) going on.

We were almost afraid to try Dinghy's for lunch, expecting it to be super crowded - but our timing was perfect and it didn't get crowded until we were almost finished.

The Art Fair was fun - it occupied the entire city park - lots of interesting booths. I actually bought a couple of prints for my bedroom.

The caching was successful as well. Nine caches were found today - one of them gave us this terrific view of a young buck and doe on a hillside. They watched us for a long time - it's always so satisfying to get a good picture like this.



Whenever you go caching, be sure to take along an intrepid cacher:

Aunt Ruth

Got a call today from Mary E. Geib to tell me that her Mom died this afternoon. It's only been a little while since Uncle Fritz died - Ruth didn't want to go on without him.

She died at the assisted living facility, Traverse Manor - Fritz died there too. Mary said the staff at Traverse Manor has been marvelous in every way.

Rick called also to let me know of Ruth's death, It feels like the end of an era. The only member of my Mother's immediate family who is still living is her sister Aunt Eleanor, who has lived in California for years and years.

The death notice lists her as Ruth Caroline Geib - her maiden name is Hintz. I think that's important, too.

Geib, Ruth Caroline

RUTH CAROLINE GEIB, 91, of Traverse City, died Thursday afternoon, Aug. 13, 2009, in Traverse City.

Cremation has taken place.

The family has entrusted the Oak Grove Funeral Home & Cremation Center with funeral arrangements.

They're Off

The return trip to Palm City was effectively launched around 10 a.m. The guinea pigs were cleaned out and loaded, Dylan had his book and his game thingy, and all was right with the world. We are left here Home Alone with bunches of memories. We'll most likely see them again at Christmas.

While she was here, Laurie cleaned out some of her boxes in the gray barn. She threw away a lot of "stuff", but she actually took her Dancerina doll home with her!

She found lots of ballet shoes, costumes and programs - all very nostalgic. I love this picture that she took before she packed everything away again:

Nostalgic Last Day of L, C & D

Most of their packing is done, and so the kids are almost ready to leave tomorrow morning. We all wanted to spend one last day in town together. Horizon Bookstore is a great base of operations. I grabbed an open table outside (not an easy task) and we were set for the next hour or so. The Gillespies went on one last tour of the downtown shops - the weather was perfect for ambling and people watching.




They have some weird animls here at the bookstore!


After spending the afternoon in the city, we headed out to Gallagher's Farm Market to get sweet corn for dinner. Laurie and Dylan enjoyed watching the chickens, sheep and goats.




They have some weird animals down on the farm!

GenFest 2009 Big Star Lake

A PICTURE IS WORTH 10,000 WORDS !!!!!