The title is not about what some might think. This blessed little part of the world that we are so fortunate to live in is too special to bring all the ills of the outside world into. We are not completely out of touch with what is going on, the last entry I did talk about some of those ills, but one of the very special things about living where we do, is that it is easy to unplug and keep it all at a distance.
You will find out very soon what the title was used for, but first, I need to do something. In the last entry, I had pics of all the dogs but one. To me the most special one. All of them are special, for sure. However, Huck has been with us for 11 1/2 years. He has been with us through the joys and hardships and has personally gotten me through a lot of the struggles I have faced in those past 11+ years. He is my best buddy and is always at my side where ever I am. So I was really feeling bad about not having a picture of the old boy in last weeks entry. So, here you go…Gentleman Huck, in all of his nobility.
So the weeks weather was a winner for sure. Nice warm days in the upper 70’s to low 80’s and good sleeping weather at night, with lows in the low 50’s. Today is a different story. If it were not for all the green outside, I would think it was November. Our temp right now is 45 and we had some light rain this morning and there is a light rain that just started back up. Tomorrow, we are suppose to warm into the 90’s! Crazy.
The summer weather has brought a very summer look to the Keweenaw and Jacobsville. All the trees, except for the oak in our front yard, have completely filled out. The oak has finally burst it’s buds and is filling out. The blossoms on the cherry tree have given way to tiny green fruit that will transform into beautiful and sweet red fruit in a month or so. The lilac bushes are blooming and yesterday, Nora and Grace picked some to bring inside and sweeten up the air inside the house. The apple trees are also in full bloom and it looks like we will be having a good crop again this year. It is our plan to pick as many as we can and save them to feed to the deer when they come down here to yard up for the winter. The most beautiful flowers in the trees are the ones belonging to the crab apple trees. We have three of them on our property. The wild strawberries are in bloom and today Nora and Grace picked some wild asparagus to eat with supper.
The woods are also full of critters. This morning as I was doing my Sunday work in my office, I looked out to see 5 wild turkeys picking at the seed the other birds and squirrels had dropped from the feeder. The turkeys were around a lot during the winter and then disappeared for a while, but now are obviously back. It’s going to be fun to learn the behavior of all of these woodland creatures. Nora snapped a picture of this squirrel having a snack and while I did not get any pictures, I saw a bald eagle briefly land in our yard yesterday and then fly off through the woods, which is something I have never seen and we all have been spotting turtles- both on our property and around the neighborhood. There actually turtle crossing signs on the bottom end of the Jacobsville Rd to try and get folks to slow down and not run over them.
An entry or two back, I mentioned how we helped some friends with the superstructure of their high tunnel. This week we returned to help them put the plastic over the structure. They had built the end walls and bracing for the side walls. The plastic for the top and sides comes in one large sheet, so it was definitely a four person job at the minimum. Tim had the process well thought out and things went very smoothly. We did have the wind pick up just as we were doing it. Figures! but we got it done and all that was left was for them to trim the excess plastic.
Nora, Grace and I got our gardens up this past week as well. They are actually Nora and Graces garden. I am the fruity one in the family. These beds are for veggies. They are going small scale this year, but next year we plan to get back to the raised beds like we had at the old house outside Mohawk and at least double the bed space. I plan to have a raised bed or two for blueberries and strawberries. We already have a nice plot of raspberries.
Despite the cold weather today, we all took a short walk down to the Jacobsville lighthouse. I think that there are many folks that think this is the Jacobsville lighthouse, but it is actually the south entry light. Some call it the Jacobsville light. So there is your Jacobsville lesson for the week!
The weather not only made all the vegetation pop out in all it’s glory, it allowed the Dee’s to spend a lot of time outside in all of our glory. The mosquito’s are in full fashion and thus you need to either need to be in full sun when it is warm out, or need to have some kind of bug-dope on. Grace has been looking for her hammock since we moved and finally found it this past week. So I helped her hang it up and she has practically been living in it since. I tried to show her the proper way to lay in it, but ended up breaking the aluminum caribiner on one side, so I guess it will be up to her to figure it out.
I guess that about covers it for this one. I will leave you with one last shot. It is of the two luckiest people I know of.
Good Night from the Keweenaw..
