Someone New

This little person joined our family on August 31, 2012.  Isn't she just a little dolly?

Little Miss "M" has been home for about a week, now.  We are getting lots of nice pics sent by her Mommy and her Mommy's Mommy. 8-)   So there will definitely be more pics here.

We went fishing over at Seney today and only one small pike was caught.  We did see these:

We believe these are otter tracks.  They were along the banks of C-3 Pool.

We saw evidence of Bear, but it wasn't tracks so there is no pic. 8-)

Big Fish and Wolf Tracks

The old Dude and J.B. spent the afternoon at Seney National Wildlife Reserve.
They had a good afternoon of fishing and brought home dinner. 

 

They even released several of these monsters!

 

They also found this:

 

 

Last fall the boys saw a large wolf cross the road not far from this area.

 

Tomorrow the guys will be off-roading all day.  They are having

great fun and the old Dude is really going to miss J.B.  when he goes home.

 

HAIN Summer Games Challenge

On the Heavenly Angels in Need site we are having our own 'Games'  this summer to keep

 our hooks and needles going.  No Ralph Lauren uniforms required....LOL

The first event is the 'Hat Hurdles"

My entry in this event  is 6 baby girl hats and 7 baby boy hats. Wish I had used a different

'background' for my pics.......next time. 8-)



The next 'event' is the Baby Bootie Relay.

I have some other projects to work on before I can start that event.

This event was fun and didn't take long....most of the hats were

made in the car.

The Bluebeary Hunters!

We had fun hunting the elusive wild blueberry, today.  This was the first indication that we were on the right track.

Oh, yes!  That is a real bear track.

He must have eaten breakfast nearby.

There actually were edible wild blueberries for our picking  pleasure.

Not a lot, but some.

Even ttho th' pickin's was slim.....we

'catch'd these:

Not many, certainly not enough for a pie.  But, they will be delicious on our oatmeal for several days.

We discovered another place where they are more plentiful on our way home. 8-)

So, you know what we will be doing on Saturday morning if the old dude doesn't have to work.

We found that the St. Johns Wort is in bloom.

We thought these might be wild bachelor's buttons, but they

are called Ragged Robin.

We did see deer on this trip, but not one of them would stand still long enough for a portrait.

Hrrrmmmppphhhh!

Elk Pictures

We went by to pay a visit to these gorgeous creatures this afternoon:

Other tidbits:
we have lots of tomato blossoms and some squash blossoms in the garden.  We have had quite a few salads with the mesclun, arugala and spinach from the garden.
The wood for next year is nearly all stacked neatly in rows in the backyard.   We have 3 more
cords coming for next year and then we need to finish getting the wood for 2012's winter.   This unseasoned wood was available now and at a very good price....so we made hay....er, wood while the sun shined(or is it shone?).  Whatever, we'll be warm either way. 8-)

Lots of crocheting going on right now, for a change.  pics later.

Bit of this and that

I've been sewing on a couple quilts.

I actually have a couple rows sewn together on that one, since I took the pic.  All those triangles are fun to put together and keep them lined up and not stretch them out of shape.  This was a mystery quilt on the quilt talk yahoo group and if I had known what it was like in advance I wouldn't have used  the fish fabric since it is only one direction and doesn't really work well with the blocks on point.  Lesson learned....don't use directional prints on mystery quilts.  Oh well, it will be warm anyway.

I'm doing another mystery quilt, but not using directional prints, that's for sure.  I had quite a bit of brown prints in my stash, so that is what I am using for this one.  One of my prints has sort of a burgandy in it and it isn't really playing nice with the other prints, so that block might be replaced with something else.

I don't have individual pics of two of these blocks:

The brown background on that block on the left gets lost and overpowered by the print. Bummer.

This was the block for week 4 of the mystery quilt.  I'm looking forward to block 5 which will be released tomorrow.

The moon was gorgeous on Monday July 2.



Fish...we have fish.

The Old Dude and Terry went fishing and got a bunch of pike.

3 of them were keepers.

Terry tried all week and didn't catch a fish, until The old dude took him over to Seney National Wildlife Refuge and shared his favorite fishin' holes. 8-)

Like the rest of the state and country we are having really hot weather...93 degrees today.

The lettuce and spinach are going crazy and want to bolt and go to seed.  tomato  plants and squash are really growing in this heat, too.

Iced tea, anyone?!

Even more natural beauty

These gorgeous Lady's Slippers are growing wild very near our house....just a short walk away..

 

I don't remember ever seeing Lady's Slippers in person before.  The are so unusual and just beautiful in person.  There is a very nice  little patch of them.  I hope nobody finds them and starts digging them up.  We are hoping that if they spread enough, then we may be able to get a plant for our yard.

If not, we will just enjoy them where they are.

Shortcake, anyone?

It will need to be a very short shortcake for these:

Tiny berries, big on taste.  Loaded with flavor even if they are smaller than a dime.

Want to see more size?  How about these?

and these tasted yummy, too:

Rainbow Morning

I just looked out the dining room window and the sun was still shining brightly......and it was raining!
I went to the other side of the house and the sun was shining and again it was raining....but there was
  this:

We have rainbows nearly every time it rains....the rains have just been too infrequent this spring.

Speaking of spring:

These guys are loving neighbor Brad's chives.  We missed an opportunity to get a shot of at least a dozen on this plant.

More Spring beauty:

What an orderly little family.  Makes me smile.
More later

More Natural Beauty

Here are some more pics from our drive thru Seney National Wildlife Refuge on Tuesday.
The wild roses were so pretty all along the banks of the pools on the Fishing Loop.

I loved these roses with the water iris in the background, at the waters' edge.

Well, he took them at their word, What can I say?

Natural Majesty

Yesterday was a beautiful day in the U.P.  We spent most of the afternoon at Seney National Wildlife Refuge.  This majestic eagle posed very nicely for me to get his pic many times.  Even my cheapy camera was able to capture him from about 40 yards away.  It was such a sight to see when he finally glided away toward his nest, presumably.

We say swans, geese with goslings, muskrat, loons, king fishers, and gorgeous wild flowers.

I have more pics, but blogger is being stubborn this afternoon, so thye will be posted later.

We are going back to Seney this week for a guided evening tour of the refuge, hoping to see more wildlife and get more pics.

more later.

Knitting

Pic of the socks that I made for the Motherless Child Foundation to be taken to the

orphanages in Kazakhstan in late fall.  The two smaller pairs are 8 inch and the larger
pair is 9 inches.  30 warm toesies comin' right up.

More later.

Thursday Work in Progress Day

Radio Eagle Newberry (cllick link) has a new update of the wildfire this morning.  Still burning and at the mercy of the winds, I'd say.
We had a pretty heavy frost and freeze last night.  We think our tomatoes are o.k.  We covered the little babies with old moving blankets and then put a tarp over the entire tomato bed.  There really is a little garden under there. 8-)

I went to knitting on Tues. and got to pet all of Pam's new yarn.  Oooh, nice. 8-)  I have missed her, she was gone for over a month.  Back to our weekly knitting group, now.  I worked on a pair of socks and took 3 pair for show and tell.
I am now finishing a pair of wool baby tights/longjohns for the Motherless Child Foundation to take to the baby orphanage in Kazakhstan next winter.
Quilt shop visit to cut out some quilt blocks later today.  Today is work in progress day and we bring whatever we want to work on and visit and have lunch with other ladies who love to quilt.  It's always a good time.  I learn lots and enjoy seeing what everyone else is doing.
Cap'n Bob is out trying to catch dinner.  We had fresh walleye for dinner last night. Yummm.
Great-grand child alert!

I just love this Lil' Miss Mudpie.  Taken earlier this year on a warm spring day.

Just one more:  Lil' Miss Independent.

More later.....and some pics of knitting.

"As we grow older, we notice we have two hands; one hand for helping ourselves and one for
helping others".....author unknown.

Storms and Rainbows

At about 5:30 est today we had a series of storms blew thru our area.  They dumped buckets of rain.
They appeared to be headed toward the forest fires north of Newberry.  At about 7:30 the wind shifted and the storms began moving away from the wildfires   Radio Eagle Newberry  last updated the fire info at 5:15 est today and continues to do a great job of reporting on the fire.
Luce Cty is still under severe thunderstorm warnings at this time.

On the home front:
We planted 20 tomato plants today.  So glad to get that done.  We planted cucumbers, lettuce, zucchini, yellow squash and golden nugget squash, too.

Here are a couple pics of the beautiful rainbows that came out after the storms went thru the area.





I have been knitting today and will have some pics later.  I am weaving in the last of the yarn ends, then I can post some pics.

More later.

Rain! glorious rain!

It rained this morning.  Not a terrific amount, but enough to help a little with the wildfires.
The National Guard is here with four helicopters and some dozers and just overnight the picture is
brighter.  The brave tanker plane pilots from Minnesota are still here and we are so grateful for them all.
Radio Eagle Newberry has an update on the fire, too.


On the home front,  I am trying to find something in my fabric stash to use for the Spring Mystery Quilt Challenge on the Quilt Talk yahoo group.

I can't decide whether to use the fabrics as they are in the top pic, or to use them as they are in the bottom pic.  The fabric on the right in the bottom pic is actually the 'wrong' side of the fabric on the right in the top pic.  My monitor makes all the fabrics look kind of washed out.  I like the way the colors look in the top arrangement..IRL, but I wonder if the right-hand fabric is too busy with the 'right' side.   I really should do the pre-cutting soon, since the Mystery challenge is June 2nd.
Any opinions welcomed.
I need to go put my sewing room back together now that I've decided on these fabrics, just not how to use that right hand fabric.
 BTW, for quilt talk folks...the center print is my #1, the left-hand fabric is #3 and the right-hand fabric is #2.  I only have enough of the right hand fabric for it to be #2. 

More later

Local News of Wildfire

The Newberry radio station has an article about the fire at Seney National Wildlife Refuge on their website:
RadioEagleNewberry

also info about the fire at Duck Lake and PikeLake here:
Pike Lake fire info

Thank you Eagle radio for your coverage.
More later

Smoky wake-up

We woke up to smoke hanging over the lake today.  The fire that is closest to our home is partially contained and the firefighters are really doing a great job at beating it back.  The fire near Duck Lake and Pike Lake about 30 miles from here is now over 21,000 acres and has crossed another road. The Tacquamanon Falls visitors center and campgrounds have been evacuated and are closed due to smoke.   Folks have been evacuated from the area and the Red Cross is asking for help with pain meds and personal care items for the firefighters.  They are also asking for snacks for the fighters.
Prayers needed for all these hard working heroes and the ones who are fighting the fires in New Mexico.
They are getting prepared to do a back-burn on the west side of the Duck Lake Fire. 
There are crews from Wisconsin and Minnesota here helping to fight our fires, as well as 11 local fire departments.
No pictures at this time.
More later.

U.P. Wildfires continue

The tanker plane has been scooping water out of our lake for 3 days now.  It is daylight now, so I'm expecting them to begin again if the storms don't hit the area first.  As I look out the living room window toward the lake, there are big dark clouds racing across the sky.  We are hoping for lots of rain and no more lightning, but the last weather report that I saw was predicting some pretty serious storms.

The Mining Journal had some interesing info about the fires that we didn't get from our tv station.  Our tv comes from the Traverse City area and lacks the local coverage that we would like.  

More later.

Knitting for Motherless Child Foundation

I recently sent a pkg. to dear friend Nanci in OH for the Motherless Child Foundation).  She is now in Kazahkstan delivering my knits along with hundreds of pounds of hand knits supplied by my good friends on the Mittens for Akkol yahoo group.  Here is part of my contribution:

I forgot to take pics of the sweater and 2 more pair of socks that went with these to Kaz.

I also forgot to take pics of the 10 dozen moonpads that I sent along with the knits.   In my haste to get them shipped I forgot to get pics of most of it.  8-(

More later.

New blog and Upper Peninsula News

I needed a new blog to better reflect where I am and what I'm doing.  My old blog was more Knitting than anything and that was great, but I really do so much more than knit.  So, I put the "K" in the name to pay homage to my old blog and the knitting that I am constantly doing.  My hope is that this blog will be updated more often than the old one, too.
So..... here goes.

Yesterday, we drove a short distance to see the forest fire that was eating up some of our northern beauty.  About 700 acres were reported to be on fire.  I can only think of all the oxygen makers that have been destroyed, and all the precious young wildlife that perished.  This fire and another about 25 miles away from this one were apparently started by lightening.  It is very early in the summer season for it to be dry enough for forest fires.  We are praying for rain...without lightening, please.

We were late getting these pics, they had extinquished most of the fire already.

That is not clouds at the top of the trees, it's white smoke and that haze behind it is more smoke.  This pic was taken from about 10 miles from the fire....on the end of the road we where we live.

I have a cheapy camera, so this is the best I could do from the distance this was taken.  All the roads and trails into the forest refuge were closed for good reason and this is as close as we could get.  And we wouldn't have wanted to get closer and be in the way of the courageous people who fight these fires.  This is the Seney National Wildlife Refuge in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.  It is a wonderful place and we visit frequently.

This brave fellow spent the afternoon and evening scooping water out of the lake where we live.  It is a sight to see.  It must take nerves of steel to do this:

It was an engaging  sight, to say the least.  Thankfully, every pass that he made was successful.

I'm including a view from our front yard toward the lake.  It was taken just last week when all our  apple trees were in full bloom.  The plane was dipping water right out in the middle of our end of the lake....right in front of us.

More later