Well $hit

Lovely. I've felt poor all day and now I know why. Guess I'm not going to school this week; time to get started on some sub plans...

The Jury is Still Out

My daughter and I were at BC Pizza in St. Ignace recently, and we had the opportunity to try their dill pickle pizza. I would have never, ever ordered a whole one to try, but since we were enjoying the buffet lunch, I decided to give it a try. And while it definitely wasn't a new favorite, it wasn't awful either. 

Perfect

There's just something about fall on Mackinac Island. It could be our warm fall days, or the smell of autumn in the air, but it could also just be the the view.

Fall days on Mackinac don't come any better than today...

Love

I love you, too, Moose Tracks.

We are  perfect for one another;

you have a creamy vanilla base

filled with chunky chocolaty bits,

and I'm hungry.

Banner Year

After three years of virtually no blueberries, Mother Nature made up for it this summer. We discovered a new picking spot that was just loaded with berries. There were so, so, so many berries! Three of us picked for about two and a half hours and brought home 28 pounds (12.7 kg) of blueberries. (That was the weight after cleaning.) I'm not going to have time this week to make jam, so they all got frozen. We debated going back again to pick more, but our freezer is packed full!

Allen is hoping I can make blueberry cream cheese galette for him, but if you've got any other blueberry recipes you love, send them my way!

New Friends

My youngest has managed to "tame" some of our new chickens.  Every day she spends thirty minutes or so with "The Girls" out in the chicken run. They quickly learned if they jumped up on her lap, they would be rewarded with treats. Now when she heads out there, they all come running to see what goodies she might have for them. It's adorable. We're looking for names for the two black and white ones on her lap. Extra points for Princess names (though Princess Leia, Princess Pink, Princess Buttercup and Princess Poopy-pants have been used already.)

Spoiled

I have spent my entire life living within walking distance of one of Michigan's Great Lakes. During my 53 years I have visited countries / territories, and as amazing as they all were, I can't imagine not living near Michigan's coastline. Iceland is the only place I've been that has even slightly tempted me. Michigan has spoiled me. If you've never visited Michigan, specifically a coastal area, you are missing out on one of the most beautiful places in the world.

MackinaW?

I was in Petoskey shopping the other day, and I noticed this sign.  Was the sign shop out of lower case Ws? Did the sign maker really want folks to focus in on the correct spelling of Mackinaw City? Or, is it just a typo? The world may never know...

Poetic Visions, 2023

Earlier this month the Mackinac Arts Council held the annual Poetic Vision of Mackinac art show. Adults and Mackinac Island students enter art and poetry to be shown and judged. This year I took my students on an imaginary "Haiku Hike" around Mackinac, then they wrote poems about things they might have seen. Next, each student carved a block print to go along with their poem. One of my students (pictured above with parental permission) won the Best in Show Award in the sixth through eighth grade category. She worked so hard on her block print, and she wrote four Haiku; one print and one poem for each season. She is such a great kid - the kind who puts her all into everything she does. The best in Show award is awarded for the best set of art and poetry. For the students, awards are also given for Best Poetry and Best Art. 

My daughter won the Best Poetry Award  in the High School category) for her poem On Mackinac Island.

My son entered a photograph and poem set, 

as well as a stand-alone poem. He didn't wain an award, but after winning Best in Show (High School) last year, it was a tough act to follow. 

I just love going to the show and seeing the kids' faces when they win. In September, when the art exhibit comes down, the beautifully framed artwork is sent home to parents. Thank you Mackinac Arts Council!

Noticed

As I was out walking this afternoon I noticed this tree next to the road. I've walked past this tree hundreds of times, but I'd never noticed the sawdust at the base of the tree. Of course, I had to investigate.

As I watched, ant after ant walked up to the edge of the hole, dropped a piece of sawdust, turned around, and disappeared back into the hole. A quick Google search told me they were carpenter ants; interesting to see in the wild but not so much to find in your home.

Watching them reminded me of the time we had ants in my childhood home. My dad had put out ant traps, he'd sprayed, he'd put out ant bait, but they just wouldn't go away. I remember him walking around the house with a stethoscope listening to the walls and the doors. I thought he was really weird until he had me listen to one of the front hall closet doors. As I put the stethoscope ear pieces into my ears I heard what sounded like whispering.

My dad removed the door from the track and took it outside. For a few days he sprayed some kind of bug killer into the hole in the bottom of the door. Then, he'd wait and listen again to see if there were still live ants inside. He did this three or four times until he finally got a small saw to cut around the edges of the door. When he pealed the top off it was as if the door was a sandwich and the front and back pieces were the slices of bread. It was a gigantic ant sandwich - they were nesting inside the door. Inside of that hollow-core door were thousands of ants - my childhood self was completely disgusted. 

Needless to say, we got new closet doors after that. They were still hollow-core doors, but my dad cut pieces of wood to fill the openings at the bottom. We never had carpenter ants again.