Friends Passing Through And May Happenings

                                                             May 20016

May was a month of mixed weather. Hot days in the 80's, cool days in the 40's, rain and just beautiful days.

Mallery enjoys the sunny days, when it doesn't rain. She always likes to look out the sliding door, even if it is only because it is light she sees.

On this particular morning, a fog developed on the lake.

Each and every day the lake gives us different views.

The fog grew higher and higher...

As it moved east on the lake.

Soon our mountains across the lake were almost gone. (We like to call them mountains, even though they are really only hills, since we don't have mountains in the Mid-west).

As the fog lifted, the lake was the calmest that I had ever seen.

Not even a ripple!

The second week of May was the start of the Boyne City Moral Mushroom Festival. A carnival in the city park, was the first evidence of the start of the festival.

We had had beautiful sunny and warm weather before the festival, but it turned to cold weather the first evening of the first event of the beer tent. I had seen on FaceBook, fellow full time RVer friends mention that they were coming to this festival. I mentioned they were coming to our new home town, so we met them at the beer tent. We tried many samples of local craft beers and tastings of morel mushrooms foods.

A few days later, our friends came over and we walked in the woods behind our home to find these morels.

After our hunt Dawn and Jeff  stayed for dinner and drinks. As you can see by the wall behind them, the painting color had still not been chosen.

We were Blessed with a gift of a flower plant and a crafted moral they had picked up for us that day.

Joe either looks like a giant or I look like a midget in this picture.

The next morning Joe fried up some scrambled eggs with the  mushrooms and ramps we found behind our house. Dawn and Jeff showed us what ramps looked like and how to dig them up so to keep them sustainable. The eggs were good, but the mushroom flavor was hidden in the eggs.

On one of my many walks with Mallery, in our alley behind the house I saw something. Do you see what I see?

The Six Spotted Tiger Beetle. I saw him for a few days last spring and then they were gone.

OK what is chewing our fence like this in 5 different areas? I told Joe it looked like a rabbit's doing. Two days later, I just happened to see a rabbit run out in front of our neighbors house and get hit by a car from the living room window. I took gloves and went down to see if I could help. The poor rabbit was nearly cut in half with his guts all over the road. It was still breathing. I turned around and prayed to God to take him/her quickly. I turn back around and watched it take its last breath. Even if the rabbit did this to our fence, I would never wish his/her end in this way. I put my glove on and drug the rabbit off the road.
I spent an hour or so looking for maybe a rabbits den with babies. I didn't want any babies to be left helpless, but couldn't find any.

Joe and I took another hike up to the woods behind our home to look for more Morels on another day.

I walked down to the clearing to show you what is behind our house.

Almost there!

We are located below behind all the evergreens. If I had the money I might buy this land and have my goats live here. What a view!

While looking for morels I found this Jack in Pulpit. Such a cool flower.

With the new mushrooms Joe found he cooked them in crackers and egg wash. They were OK, but still not great. The next time he cooked them in just butter and that is how we thought they were the best. The easy ways is the best. The mushroom hunt was not so good this year as we had been pretty dry. Maybe better next year.

Our RV friends decided to stay a little longer after the festival was over and moved from Young State Park in Boyne City to our favorite Magnus City Park in Petoskey. This is the view you get of the Little Traverse Bay, if you are lucky to get a front row RV site.The fellow is out looking for Petoskey stones during a beautiful sun set. Dawn and Jeff were kind enough to have us over for dinner while at this park. We stayed here for 4 months while looking for our home up in Northern Michigan. 2 summers ago.

The weather turned hot again with fire alert due to our dryness.

The hot weather gave us the first opportunity to open all our windows and enjoy some fresh air. Very few houses in Northern Michigan have air conditioning. We open up to the lake breezes for cool air!

Our Spring chores continue, with moving the grill from the garage to the deck.

Last year the delivery men put it on the deck. Joe decided to put up ramps so we could pull it up the hill. On the first try, Joe slipped and fell and that was the end to that plan.

Next thought was to carry it up the stairs. I was past my 6 week post surgery, so I was OKed to lift again.

With a lot of work we got it back in place. Joe said he thought we would just cover it and leave it here for the winter.

Next we carried the deck cushion box from the garage to the deck and all the chairs and table. Joe said we were getting too old for this carrying stuff.

We have decided to put permanent siding on our house.The siding contractor that we are having do the job, got us on the Harbor Springs Bay Point to show us the differences between different sidings. Joe and I always wanted to go on the point, but it is private. He drove us around so we could see the homes. This is one of the most expensive areas in Northern Michigan. After mid June no cars are allowed even for the residence. They are brought in by horse and buggy or they can ride bikes in. All of these homes are summer residence who are only here for a few weeks a year.

After a long rain, we found what looked like a tinsel string, but what ended up being a wet slime line in the sun at the end of this dead thing, Look at the size of this thing.

I didn't know slugs got this big. While weeding in my hosta bed I found another one of these. Looked on the internet, but couldn't figure out the name of this slug.

The heat continued.

Near the end of May, we had to drive to Grand Rapids 3 hours south, so I could see a doctor who prescribes the hormone replacement protocol that I prefer. Joe really didn't like the idea of the long drive, but he knows I really need them to sleep. Mallery was a real pill, we had to stop every 1/2 hour because she had to pee. She won't pee in her diaper on my lap. This made the drive much, much, much longer! On the way home we saw Michigan's Smoky Mountains after a rain!

Our guy's finally called and said we were next on the list to put the boat in and boat hoist cover on. They like to put the the boat lift cover on when the boat goes in, and we didn't want the boat put in earlier when the dock was put in, because we were still having close to freezing nights.

Even though we have had some really warm weather the water is still cold. This was a boat pulling a tuber without wet suits. Yikes you got to be kidding me! I had just heard on the news that there had been 6 death of people in Lake Michigan this year. The report said that when you fall in the water you have 6 minutes to get out before hypothermia sets in. Once hypothermia sets in, you can not use your arms or legs and you drown.

The next few pictures are of a storm coming in, giving the lake a beautiful green look.

I had never quite seen the lake look this color.

Like I said, our view is constantly changing

On another day, as I did the evening dishes, Joe enjoyed sitting on the deck, which is his favorite after dinner evening happy hour spot.

This is our neighbor pulling his grandchildren in a tube in his new $60,000.00 Tri-Tune on Memorial Weekend. Again no wet suits. It was only in the low 70's, and cloudy, and the water still really cold.