Labor Day and Avocado deprivation

I don't know who said you are not supposed to work on Labor Day weekend... that never really seems to apply very much around here. Not to worry though, we did get some brats going on the grill along with some home made ice cream with handfuls of wild blueberries poured on top! You are probably not feeling so sorry for us now!

David and Doug finished the ceiling and got the fans on.

They look fantastic! This photo is at a strange angle because I am standing in the living room looking towards the loft window. The larger fan is centered over the living room and that smaller one with the light will be over the bed in the bedroom loft. The trim around the fans and seams of the wood between living room and loft will come later. That will define the space between loft and living room a little bit. They discussed the stairs awhile, we made some changes, and then the guys moved on to trimming out the windows and the doors.

There is even a door on the bathroom now!

Wowee what a great idea! A door on the bathroom! That is kinda handy!

Here is the missing picture of the toilet. :)

Also below is the tile in the guest shower downstairs...
waiting for grout and shower head.

There was a little excitement though... for David anyway. He was working on the house (as usual) and so were the new neighbors over at the log cabin a couple lots away. The family owned the old cabin that stood there and are now putting up a new vacation home.

Old:

New:

They came up from Chicago (they being the husband, wife, college age son, and younger daughter) to do a little work on the house and probably just check it out as they have not seen it since the construction started. Anyway, while applying some stain to the logs the owner fell off his ladder! David was working away and here comes the little girl running up the hill yelling that her Daddy fell off the ladder. David ran down to help the man. Turns out the man broke two ribs... in two places! He has been in the hospital for two nights now. He fell off the ladder onto deck joists (there is no decking down yet). He was very lucky, he could have broken his back just as easily. The family has been carrying on with the staining but how awful for them!

This weekend was the annual Fly In here in Sidnaw. I suppose the best way to explain it is that it is like a poker run... sort of... for private planes along a string of small airports with Sidnaw as one of the stops. That is my understanding anyway. So, several private planes land at our airport along with their camping gear and the party begins! There are craft booths, and people can pay between $30-$50 to ride in a helicopter, an ultra light, or some parasail scooter kinda ultralight thing.

Kids who were at least 8 got to ride in the ultralight for free! There is also a fund raising Soup and Sandwich feed and rummage sale at the church to benefit the Historical Society. This is the second year we have been to the Soup and Sandwich feed. For $4 you get a choice of 5 home made soups, a choice of 5 types of sandwiches, a choice of home made desert, and a drink. I picked Jane Wyatt's (nee: Kennedy) Corn Chowder again... it is absolutely the best I have had. No kidding. I wish they would do it more often! Its a great fundraiser and is very popular.

After the doings in town, we had a barbecue dinner at Jerry's.

I am wearing that darn knee brace so I did not get to prep in my normal hostess type fashion. Joy had to do most of it. Much thanks to her! The party goers were the normal crowd... David, Me, Jerry, Joy, Dick, Richard, and then you toss in Terry and the new neighbors (Lori and Lon and their family) who are re-doing the old hotel in town and plan to retire there as full time residents.

Here is Terry fishing a golf ball out of the creek with Lon's help.

Here is the hotel again. You may remember it from my tour of Sidnaw.
The hotel will take a lot of work but it has great character and a very pretty setting.

They (Lori and Lon) were originally friends of Joy, Dick, and Richard and are VERY nice folks. Seems like a lot of people end up moving here after visiting friends who live here.

There was actually a lot of Hershey's around this weekend...
and I think Keith and Heidi are coming next week...

It has actually been very nice getting to meet the family members.
Hmm... notice any familial similarities?
Terry is the oldest of the five kids... David is the youngest.

As mentioned above at the party we enjoyed grilled brats etc. AND... as I have already mentioned I usually try to make some kind of veggie dish but was unable to this time. Fortunately for my palate the new neighbors, Lori and Lon came through with a broccoli dish.

I must say one thing about veggies though... I miss avocados.

I know I know... according to some scientist somewhere they are not a veggie but a fruit.

What-ev-er.

I don't really care... I just know I miss them. I mean... just LOOK at this:

Oooo man.

I can actually remember the first time I ever tasted one. We lived on South Grant Street and I must have been pretty young. I remember biting it and then leaning over onto the chair seat and spitting it back out... bright green foam... right onto the seat. Yuck. I also remember the distance between my mouth and that chair seat was not very far so I was still a little kid... anyway.... I hated them.

Oh how I have changed.

I had not realized how much David and I enjoyed them, until we did not really have access to them anymore. When I would go to the co-op in Ukiah I would always get one or two... Even in the middle of the stark Northern California winter (cough cough) I could usually find one that was delicious. If they actually made it to the dinner table we were lucky.

They don't have avocados in Michigan.

Well, they have them but no one seems to know what they are because they sit on their styrofoam tray wrapped in plastic on the grocery shelves until they spoil. I am not quite sure yet why grocery stores up here tray some of their veggies like that. I probably don't really want to know. However, even the avocados not imprisoned in plastic by the time I get to them they are wrinkled, black, and squishy. Rotten. The tragedy of it all!

As I was looking around the internet for photos of the lovely avocado to post here, I found a few other people who love them even more than I do. I have included a haiku and a poem celebrating love for the creamy green treat.

People are interesting.

I suppose I could have taken the safety screening off of my search engine and found even more disturbing things about avocados but I decided against that. What I might have found could have scarred me for life...



Here are the odes to the avocado I found. The haiku first and then the poem:

Well, geez... I dunno about all that.
I just know I could use a good guacamole once in awhile.

Or as my niece used to say when she was little bitty... Rocknrollee.
You could tell she was an Elvis fan from the beginning.
I think it's in the genes.

Fireplaces, Fishers, Fishermen, Ferociousness, Fire-King, and Finds

Ok... lets get it started... today is sponsored by the letter "F". First... the Fireplace. The fireplace is completed! Jerry and David finished it and it looks great... or should I say it looks Fabulous, and Fantastic!

The woodstove will sit in front of the chimney on a slate tile looking hearth. Here is a picture of the stove.. in fact if you look closely at it this is just about what we are going to have.

The brick wall background, with a tile floor hearth that is flush with the wood floor. We like it. The bricks that make up that wall came from the old Watton School, and from a neighboring hunting camp chimney that was built in the 20's I think. We really like the look of the older brick!

Once they finished up they decided to.... guess what... go Fishing. I managed to get this picture of these two die hard Fisherman from our yard up near the house. Thats why it is so blurry it is zoomed as much as my little camera can zoom.

I almost forgot to share... while fishing the other day they saw a Fisher on the bank. A Fisher is a marten type creature. They can weigh up to 15 lbs and be about 3 feet long. He just one of the Ferocious creatures I will mention in the post today. They kill lots of stuff but interestingly along with mountain lions, they are one of the porcupines few predators. Fishers kill porcupines by jumping over the top of them back and forth... again and again making the porcupine dizzy. Meanwhile they scratch the crap out of the porcupines face so that eventually the porcupine is confused, exhausted, dizzy, and bleeds to death... then the fisher flips him over and feasts starting on the belly.
Looks kinda cute huh?

The other Ferocious creatures being discussed today are my watch Frog, who I moved to a more permanent place in the garden against the fence. Look! The grass is filling in between the rows... must have a blend with fescue in it...

**smirk**
(Having a bit too much frivolous fun with this theme today...)

Anyway.. the other is my guard dog Cosmo the Magnificent. Delta had gone fishing with all the guys while I was working in the garden. When Cosmo the Magnificent saw them going out in the boat he ran down to the launch and then out on one of the grass islets... oh man.. poor little guy!!! He will get to go next time. Anyway... the bears are around supposedly and it does not hurt to have one of the dogs hanging out with me while I am in the yard. Bears don't like dogs...

HAH!

Ya right.. like one would not make a snack out of Cosmo.. anyway.. the dogs can not come in the garden because they walk in the beds and the veggies are too small right now. Banned once again he had to sit outside the gate. He found a sunny spot and took up his post, and tried to strike a most ferocious pose. Well.. it was just so sunny ... and it felt so good... and **yawn** he thought he would lay down for just a second. Hmmm... I was able to sneak right up on my watchbeast. Good thing I was not a bear.

After I shook him awake we walked up to go look at an old window at a neighboring camp. The owners are going to tear it down so that opened it up for salvage. I am collecting windows for a greenhouse one day. I envision walls or at least one wall made of old windows and the rest a kind of small garden shed. Smaller but kind of like this:

I am very excited about it to I might add. That is a later project though, we need somewhere to live first!!! Anyway.. as I was walking along the forest path... one I had walked many times... I noticed a metal box all rusted out between a couple trees. I almost ignored it, but then curiousity got the best of me so I thought I would check it out. I went over, tipped it, and voila' !

What a find! Inside the metal box was a perfect vintage Fire-King Jadeite coffee cup. Score! Now how do you suppose it ended up in there... in that spot... with that metal box bent around it?

And then when I saw the window leaning on the old camp for my inspection... well, lets just say it is now leaning against our shed with the other finds.