Northern Michigan Spring

                                                                March 18, 2017

So when we walked into our house, after being gone for 3 months, this is what we saw. The mudroom had a new ceiling, and new walls. Originally the walls were paneled, and to save money, we were going to just paint them. Because they were warped, we decided to go ahead and have them dry walled and painted. The walls had the first coat of paint and ready for the second coat.

The man cave had the TV installed but no cable. Joe was not a happy camper! He was ready to relax in his new space.

After a week we got at least his chairs uncovered and the room organized enough that he could hang out in his new get away from wifee room. (Or when wifee' needs her own space to send her husband to)!

The bathroom had been enlarged, new ceiling, and floor, and painted, but the vanity and toilet were not installed. What the heck did these guys do while we were gone?

Mudroom view from the dining room. So much brighter and it fits the rest of the house now.

March 20- the lake is still frozen over.

March 31- Warmer weather creates some areas with standing water on the frozen lake.

                                                        April 1, 2017

Joe and I went to the Farmers Market in town and saw Mr or Mrs Fox sitting by a culvert. In the culvert baby foxes were sticking out their heads. Mr. or Mrs. looked away as we drove by slowly and I got some pictures.

Later that day we went for a walk. The fox was not by the culvert when we walked by.

On the way going back home, we saw Mr or Mrs Fox again. As we got closer, the fox ran up to the big ever green and waited there until we had gone past, and down the street.

Our Weeping Willow needed to be trimmed up again. Why would anyone plant a weeping willow down by a lake?

I know it doesn't look like the Weeping Willow needed to be trimmed up, but trust me it does. You are just seeing the branches. Weeping Willow's leaves reach like half way to the ground. Last summer, we couldn't see half the lake because the leaves were half way to the ground.

         On April 4, we were eating lunch and the lake was still frozen. After lunch we looked up and it was half thawed, so we went down to the lake to see the ice go out. Unfortunately it was pretty much uneventful. In years past, when the ice went out, ice crystals formed along the shore which was pretty cool. I guess every year is different depending how fast the weather warms up. Within a couple hours the lake went from frozen to a lake.

Almost daily, if not twice a day we would see one of the two foxes go up and down our street or alley behind our house. Several times they would jump our fence from our neighbors, run across the yard in a few seconds and jump our fence toward our other neighbors. I have been thinking about getting another dog, but now I am  a bit nervous about it.

On April 8, the last bit of snow next to our garage melted. Joe fell last winter while shoveling  before we went south. His ribs hurt for almost 6 months, so he didn't shovel this spring. One neighbor teased him, saying he needed to just shovel the snow in front of his garage.

Here was Joe in for his colonoscopy at the Munson Healthcare Charlevoix Hospital, with Lake Michigan views out his window.

I am waking up early as usual, so at least I get to see sunrises still.

No the lake is not froze over again. It is just fogged over this day.

Last fall, we were having a lot of trouble with our soft water system. It was on it's last legs at age 23 years, with a life span of 25, so we  decided to get a new system. Everyone on this side of the lake has off the charts high iron. Even with the soft water system the water test came back with extremely high iron. Last winter before we left, my white laundry turned out orange. Our new system not only has a water softener, but an iron remover.

Because we added a iron remover to the new softener system, we have 4 tanks instead of 2. Our old system was in the closet of the laundry room. We were told, one of the tanks was going to have to sit outside the closet. We didn't like it, but we needed the iron remover more. Joe told me I needed to paint the wall that it was going to be placed in front of, before it was put in, or I would never be able to paint there once it was in.

Before the tanks were to be put in the closet next to the furnace, we had the new kitchen and laundry room floor put in the closet by our contractors, once the old system was removed. Joe asked the water system installer if the existing pipe needed to be removed. He told Joe he felt it didn't. I was thinking, "just remove it before the new floor is installed". It was going to be another 30 minute job, and Joe felt why do it, if it didn't need to be done.

Well the system was not going to fit because of that pipe. The water system installer didn't make the right decision, so he made the decision to crawl under our crawl space, and dig about 20 buckets full of dirt to get under the pipes to be able to remove the pipe from down below. (He failed to close the hole the pipe came out of, in the new floor. When I found out later, I insisted that someone crawl back under there to cover it before the job was paid for. The salesmen ended up doing it, and was not a happy guy!

Surprisingly the water system installer somehow managed to install all 4 tanks into our closet, and it has been the best spent money we have put into this house. When I take showers, no more iron smell, no more surprise yellow or orange laundry, our dishwasher which had yellow to orange stains,is getting whiter, and no more orange shower curtains and toilet tanks.

I have been wanting to give Mallery's supplements to someone who could use them. They helped her so much during her last year and a half of life. It was too difficult to deal with last year, so I knew I needed to do it this spring. This is just half of the stuff I had to give away. While Mallery was sick, I followed a website that had other owners with dog with cancer. The pet owners helped and supported one another with information and ideas to help their sick dogs. I posted on the website what I had with pictures of the products and how they benefit different illnesses. I had 4 owners who request them, so I divided them up between the 4, and mailed them out.

A week later I received 2 cards from 2 of the owners.

Both these cards still sits in my window. But this one touched my heart the most.

 Unfortunately Eva died shortly after this cards was sent out.

          On another drive to town, we saw the young kit's playing outside their culvert with mom and dad no where in sight. I grabbed my phone and took this video.

They had gotten so much bigger in a month.

The first time we saw them in the culvert, they were grey. Joe thought they were some other kind of animal, like a muskrat.

Joe and I have had dentist, doctor, and hair appointment keeping us busy. Here Joe had 1/2 his mouth numb for some deep cleaning! Our hygienist really got him numbed up!

During the end of April, we went mushroom hunting in the woods behind our home.

I took this view of Lake Charlevoix from behind our house while Joe looked for mushrooms.

 I took pictures of wild flowers, because Joe is so much better at finding mushrooms than I am, though he didn't find any. It was too early in the season on this day.

The end of April, the Weeping Willow started to leaf out while the other trees were just budding out. The sun popped out behind our house, during a storm, and lite up some of the lake and willow tree.

May 6 
   This day produced more white caps on the lake than I had ever seen. Joe started taking the water temperature and it was at this point 46 degrees. Our spring seemed a little cooler this year with   more rain then years before. We did have a few days that jumped up to 80 degrees and then back down again. My daughter said we have bipolar weather, and yes we have!