To The Rescue

For the past few days there has been a freighter just sitting out in the ice in the Straits of Mackinac. It appeared to be stuck...

Then, this morning, there was some activity.

According to our Assistant Fire Chief, Jason St. Onge, the mother of one of the crew members died and the Coast Guard was unable to retrieve him so he could attend her funeral. (My understanding is they only retrieve you in life and death situations.)

Somehow the man got a hold of the Island Fire Department to ask for help. The officers conferred and decided they would be able to assist the man to shore. So they rallied the troops, prepared the ice / water rescue equipment and walked out the the ship.

Once there, the man was lowered down and they all walked to shore. Then, he hopped on a snowmobile and was driven up to the airport so he could get home.

It may have been risky but I'm glad they did it. That's just how the people on Mackinac are - if you need help, they're right there ready to lend a hand. That mind set is another reason I'm proud to call Mackinac Island my home.

Here's the piece from our local news:

  

All photos in this post courtesy of Clark Bloswick.

No Chuck E. Cheese - No Problem

Who needs Chuck E. Cheese's when you can

celebrate your birthday by having a sledding

party at Turtle Park instead.

To help our friend, L, celebrate we spent

the afternoon sledding,

tugging,

and munching.

But the best part of the party, in my daughter's opinion, was desert. She loves dinosaurs almost as much as the birthday girl and her jaw literally dropped when she saw the gigantic box of homemade dinosaur cookies. Having a zillion cookies instead of a cake was genius - I'm going to have to file that little idea away. So much less mess with cookies than with a cake, and moving a cake on Mackinac Island can be tricky...

Fishy Fun

The kids and Papa have been spending time recently out on the Grand Hotel pond. It's the perfect place to get outside and have a little winter fun.

OK, maybe the fun wasn't quite so little after all. Given all the fertilizer we assume they use the course during the summer we don't eat any of the fish from the pond, but they're still fun to catch and release. Who says there's nothing fun to do on Mackinac Island in the winter time...

Only on Mackinac

I think Mackinac Island might be the only place you'll see a man on a snowmobile walking a horse.

Well, he's actually not a horse, he's a sweet little pony named Ricky - heading off the Island for the rest of the winter. (But not across the ice! They took him off on the last boat.)

I Wonder...

I took this picture after school one day last week while the kids and I watched an otter play out on the edge of the ice. Of course he disappeared under the ice as soon as I managed to get my camera out, but looking at the ice got me wondering. Some days it looks so blue.

But then, on other days, it doesn't look blue at all. (This picture is from several years ago.) I've tried to notice whether there is a relationship between the color and the sun, but as of yet, I haven't found a pattern. My current theory is that the color has something to do with the thickness of the ice.

Of all the photos of Straits ice I've taken over the years, this one is, by far, my favorite. I took it back in 2008 - The Quilted Turtle hadn't even had its first birthday yet. As I worked on this post I had fun looking back at my old ice photos;

I never really thought about how different the ice is from year to year...

Homemade Character Valentines

It's February, so I guess it's time to start thinking about Valentine's Day. Personally, I love homemade valentines. For the past couple of years, I've done things with the kids' faces on them, but this year the kids wanted cards with characters. I thought about just buying them at the store, but I knew there just had to be a better way. There had to be a way to create personalized cards that still had the kids'  favorite characters.

My first thought was to make them in Photoshop. So, I put this cute photo of Lego R2 D2 on a white background, added some cheesy text, and my son thought it would be perfect for the girls in his class.

Too girly? Really? How can Star Wars be too girly?  But, you know, it's important to portray the right image in second grade, so it was back to the drawing board. As I searched for images I could use, I came across this site. It was perfect! Large images - often with lots of space for text. I got to work and came up with card number two:

Of course, as a teacher, I needed valentines too! The Muppet fan in me fell in love with this picture of Oscar: 

My daughter is all about My Little Pony these days. So after viewing all the MLP backgrounds she settled  on the one below.  

Just in case you happen to have a little girl at home who loves My Little Pony, here is the same card without my daughter's name. You can download the font for free here. (You can find the fonts I used in the R2D2 card here and the Darth Vader card here - both also free.) Then just use your favorite graphics editing software and add in your child's name. (Or skip that step and have her sign with a silver sharpie.)  I cropped the image to be 4 by 6 - just perfect to upload to Snapfish  to get printed for nine cents each. I suppose you could do it at home, but I always seem to run out of ink at the most inopportune moments, so for me, Snapfish was easier.

Please feel free to download these cards and use them. Just be aware that you can't sell them - the characters are all trademarked, or is it copyrighted? I'm not sure, but either way selling them is a big no no.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Attempted

Today was the day. It was cold, still and beautiful, and the ice had been freezing all weekend. All weekend...

72 hours...

Less than that really, but it was there...

Calling to them...

"Cross me."

It scares me just thinking about it. I think it scared them too, at least a little bit, because they left their snowmobiles behind and crossed on foot. I heard, through Mackinac's active rumor mill, they flew back to the island. Apparently when the Coast Guard Cutter came through to break up the channel between the Island and Mackinaw City, it caused the ice to pull away from shore and made a return trip impossible.

I'm glad they made it home safely. And extra extra glad my husband doesn't even think about doing things like that. If he did, I'd be so worried I couldn't think straight.

Just Kidding

Apparently that last boat wasn't really the last boat. It was supposed to be, but then they started running again. Now we're just all wondering how long they'll keep running.

It's been cold and the Straits of Mackinac are getting icy. Hopefully that means we'll get an ice bridge this year...

The End

Today was the day; the last day.

The last day of boats.

It's s good thing that many, many island residents (myself included) used today to stock up on groceries. It will most likely be a month before I leave the island for supplies again. It's a good thing my pantry is now very well stocked...

The Dinner Fairy

I don't know about you, but when I get home from work, I'm done; exhausted.  I want to sit down put my feet up and have the Dinner Fairy make dinner magically appear, which, of course, never seems to happen. So today I decided to try my hand at being the Dinner Fairy...

In just under three and a half hours I managed to make six casseroles to freeze and then pop into the oven when I get home from work next week. Two lasagnas, this, this, this and this are now safely tucked away in the basement freezer, just waiting for their turn at the dinner table. 

The only down side is,

now I have this to clean up...

Halloween 2012: Doom Kitty

This year my daughter wanted to be Doom Kitty  from Ruby Gloom. (I love it when the kids pick simple costumes! It's so much easier when I can start out with a sweat suit.) All I had to do was add the ears, the tail and the red around the neck and I was done. I offered to paint her face so she could have Doom Kitty's big eyes, but my daughter said no. And even though Doom Kitty's ears are all black, K decided she liked them better with the red inside.

You might have noticed how my daughter is swimming in her costume in the photo above. I always make them big enough for the kids to wear a coat underneath - this far north it's usually pretty darn cold on Halloween night. Plus, with them on the big side, the kids can use them for dress up for a while. It's been almost two years and my son still regularly plays with this one.

My daughter tells me that next year she wants to be a flying unicorn for Halloween. I'm hoping she changes her mind on that one because I have absolutely no idea how I'll whip that up!

Break

Our Christmas break this year was absolutely delightful. (Well, except for the part when everyone got sick.) It was so nice to visit family, do a little shopping, and read. Despite the wonderful times I have off the island, I'm always ready to come home. I guess I am just a home body at heart. I am quite content to be puttering around the house in my jammies all day long. How about you - would you rather be in or out?

Saturday I did take some time to go out and get some pictures of the fort. I just love how she looks all covered in snow. Right now, as I sit and listen to the wind howling outside, I can't even imagine what it must have been like for the soldiers stationed there in the late 1700s. I might have very different feelings about living on Mackinac Island if I had to deal with that!

Winter Tourists

We love them, but they make us giggle. Only tourists have coats and snow pants that match their snowmobiles. (Sometimes they even have matching helmets.) Usually we only get snowmobile tourists after we have an ice bridge, but this year we've has a few bring their machines over on the boat.

This gentleman, Hank, was very gracious. He let me take his picture even though when he asked why I wanted to take his picture I giggled and told him I didn't want to tell him until after I took it. He smiled, posed, and then chuckled as I pointed out how not one of the islanders driving down the street matched their snowmobile. My husband is now trying to figure out how hard it would be to get his snowmobile painted Carhartt brown... 

Snow!

I know virtually everyone was unhappy about the gigantic storm that hit the mid-west yesterday. But, I've got to tell you, many of us on Mackinac Island are thrilled! We had a few days of snow back in late November and early December, but by the end of the Christmas Bazaar we were back on our bicycles. You can imagine how happy we were to hear that a "huge storm" was heading our way carrying with it 10 glorious inches of snow (about 25 cm.) Remember, most of us don't have to drive in it.

So I walked to school on Friday morning, watched it rain during most of the morning, and by the end of the day my husband was able to pick me up on the snowmobile. We went from mud and grass to a beautiful winter wonderland in less than 12 hours. 

Though they did end up canceling the last boat of the day on Thursday due to the storm and a few folks did get stranded on the Mainland, and then on top of that, the power in St. Ignace went out for three hours. And because of all the heavy wet snow lots of tree branches broke, so the fire department was out half the night  cutting trees and clearing the roads. (Thanks guys!) I suppose if I had to deal with all that, this post would have ended up being quite different. Thankfully, I was happily snuggled on my couch, reading under a warm fleece blanket. It was always one of my biggest fears that I would get stranded on the mainland, in the middle of winter, with a toddler and no clean clothes or diapers. Luckily it only happened once and then it was only for four or five hours and not overnight.

Now I just hope it stays cold enough for the snow to stick around...

Halloween 2012: Little Brown Bat

He was so happy with how his costume turned out. My husband found the original idea here. I actually liked their more anatomically correct wing better, but I couldn't imagine my son being able to carry the 10+ pounds (about4.5 kg) of candy he would get that night with the wings sticking out past his hands. He made my day when he first looked over the costume and noticed the lines of stitching on the ears. He looked at me and said, "Nice detail mom. Good job." Such a sweetheart...

If you decide to follow the first tutorial above, measure the length of your child's arm first and shorten the umbrella appropriately. I didn't and just went ahead and used the full length of the spines of the umbrella. Even thought it was a small folding umbrella it was still much too big for my eight year-old's arms. I had to shorten the spines considerably. After cutting the spines and serging the raw edges of the umbrella fabric (it really started to fray,) it worked perfectly, and he had a ton of fun flying through the neighborhood on Halloween night.

Yes, we weighed the candy and he had every bit of ten pounds, as did his sister. Friends of ours, who have five children at home, came home with a total of 58 pounds (about 26 kg.)  It wouldn't surprise me at all if they were still getting Halloween treats in their lunch boxes!

Oh Happy Day!

As you know, I'm an early bird. My husband is a night owl, so you can imagine my surprise when I awoke to this amazing breakfast on our anniversary. Fresh fruit, crepes, coffee and candlelight - such a nice way to begin our 17th year together. Thanks honey, I love you...

Christmas Bazaar 2012

This past weekend was a busy one - the kids, my mom and I spent lots of time down at the Island's annual Christmas Bazaar. So much to do, so little time...

The weather didn't really cooperate with us over the weekend and we lost all of our snow, but everyone had a good attitude and rode bikes to and from Community Hall.

 

As usual, the Bazaar had something for everyone: food, friends, treasures for sale, baked goods, auctions... 

the rummage sale (held in the fire hall,) 

and of course, Santa! By the time he reaches Mackinac Island, the reindeer need a rest. They kick back at the stables with their horse friends while the fire department makes sure Santa arrives at the Bazaar on time.

The kids love going outside, listening to the sirens and watching him climb down from the truck.

This year, for the first time, my daughter wanted to take a list with her. She wanted to be sure she didn't forget anything.  So, of course, the older brother had to take a list, too. Hopefully they won't be too disappointed when they don't find ipods in the bottom of their stockings. (My daughter won't find the $100 bill that was on her list either.)

You may remember a few years ago when HGTV came to the island to film the Christmas Bazaar.  This year Under the Radar Michigan was here. (The episode should air on PBS on April 6, 2013.) We didn't see them filming, so I doubt either the kids or I will be in it. Now, I need to crash - it's Tuesday and I'm still beat. Christmas Bazaar weekend is usually so crazy busy, that I feel like I need an additional weekend to recuperate!

How about you, what did you do this weekend?