Artwork: White Rock School Mug

Huron County's oldest schoolhouse, White Rock School, was built in 1909, 28 years after the Fire of 1881 swept across Michigan's Thumb. Ed and I collect mugs and this White Rock School mug is from the centennial year of the schoolhouse.

Now I must be clear about the mugs that we collect. Some are tucked away, mostly because we ended up not liking the way that the mug delivers our morning coffee. Either the handle is too high or too low, or the lip is awkwardly curved, or there is some design flaw.

We like the White Rock mugs and so they get used a lot, to the point that when I hauled them to the annual school picnic in August, my neighbor, Sheila Eddy, fine alumnus of the school, reminded me that my mugs were getting faded from the dishwasher.

"Girl, those mugs are collector's items," she told me. I took Sheila's reminder seriously and promptly did this pen and ink and water color sketch of a mug for my art journal.

Now I can use the mugs and still have them close to my heart, which is where White Rock School, now restored and used as a museum, will always be for Sheila and so many of her schoolmates who attended this historic school.

Copyright 2013
Wanda Hayes Eichler

Sparky and The Ump

Ben Donaghy, Saginaw area wood carver, made these remarkable two inch high renditions of Sparky Anderson and a major league umpire. Our friends, Dave and Jill Harmon of Beaverton, both carvers, have taken classes from Ben who is an instructor for the Tri-City Carvers and a former Saginaw teacher.

Jill had tucked the tiny wood carvings, wrapped in tissue, into a zip top bag and handed them to me when we attended a Great Lakes Loons game this summer. Sparky and The Ump now reside on my kitchen window ledge where they remind me of the joy of baseball, those 162 games every season that entertain us, thrill us, and sometimes disappoint us.

As a good Detroit Tiger fan, I am hoping for a run straight through to the World Series this fall. I'm holding my breath that there will be no disappointments this year, please.

Sparky and The Ump won't have that and neither will we!

Copyright 2013
Wanda Hayes Eichler

Some Years Ago

We had such a good time, some years ago, at Pigeon River Mercantile & Wool Co., the quilt shop that I owned on Main Street in Pigeon, Michigan for almost ten years.

With my mother-in-law Pauline Eichler's death this week, our family has a renewed interest in the photos that are tucked in closets. Here's one from a box that includes lots of quilt pictures from the 1990's.

That's Pauline in the center background. Millie Schuette is on the left and so is Jill Harmon. Pat Smith is the center of attention. She is demonstrating the art of Norwegian hardanger, a form of embroidery that uses pearl cotton and cutwork.


Pat is a master at needlework and hardanger is one of her specialties.

Here's closer look at a complete piece that allows you to see the cutwork and the delicacy of the stitching.

We had a good time at The Mercantile, learning various forms of needlework, even though the focus of the business was on quilting and sewing.

Copyright 2013
Wanda Hayes Eichler

Pumpkin Wagon Near Verona

The pumpkin wagons in Huron County are getting better and better every year. I drive across Huron County several times a week and enjoy the sight of pumpkin vending wagons, piles, and shelves along the roadsides. The pumpkin growers have innovative ways of marketing these big orange orbs every fall.

Here's the pumpkin wagon that is located along M-142 in the Verona Hills, east of the M-19 corner. The wagon is on the north side of the road along a driveway. Wide shoulders on the highway make it an easy pull off stopping place for buying fall goodies. My guess is that this wagon is about a seven mile drive east of Bad Axe.

The wagon has gourds as well as several sizes of pumpkins. Corn stalks are for sale, too. My five bucks bought two medium pumpkins and two bumpy gourds. The gourds will be used for sketching and decorating. The pumpkins are nestled in with the mum plants in our front flower gardens.

Very nice, very fall.

Copyright 2013
Wanda Hayes Eichler

Fall Golds

"Nothing gold can stay," wrote the poet Robert Frost.

This year, as the trees turn gold and yellow, I have been wondering how much longer these rich colors will brighten the autumn scenery. The emerald ash borer has effectively destroyed thousands of ash trees in Michigan. Already one can see woodlots and fencelines full of dead ash trees.

I look at these trees along M-25 south of Harbor Beach and wonder how many more autumns we will see golds like this.

Copyright 2013
Wanda Hayes Eichler

Pauline and the Vegetable Tarts

There are so many stories that you can tell when you lose a loved one. The death of my mother-in-law, Pauline Geiger Eichler, brought stories from her siblings, her kids, her grandkids, great grands, friends and colleagues. Some of the stories are little gems. Others are wry observations. Still more are moments captured in a sentence or two, almost like little haiku memories.

I'm remembering lunches at Main Street Cafe and Bakery on Main Street in Pigeon with Mom Eichler. She and I would often sneak in a dessert, sort of a no-no when you are supposed to be back at work for the afternoon, and we would often order a "vegetable" tart.

"We have pecan tarts, not vegetable tarts," the waitress would tell us.

We would wink and smile and say, "Oh, that's the same thing. Bring us one with a knife. We'll split it."

Mom and I had a rating system. A Five was gooey and runny and lusciously sinful. A One had been baked too long. When you cut through a One, it sat in its crust and looked at you.

I ordered a take out Main Street Lunch several Wednesdays ago and had the waitress add a pecan tart to the order. As you can see from the photo, it was barely a Two.

Today was Pauline's funeral and it was a Ten, all runny and gooey with family and friends hugging each other and holding her memory close to our hearts.

Maybe next week I'll have another tart and hope for a Five, a High Five in memory of good times and good stories and good people, like my mom-in-law, Pauline. 

Copyright 2013

Wanda Hayes Eichler

We Saw the Euro Maus 3 Today

Sugar beet harvest is vastly different from what it used to be. My grandsons and I stopped along Helena Road today to watch the Maus in action. The Euro Maus 3 is a self propelled cleaning and loading machine that is being used to move sugar beets once they have been lifted and piled along the edge of a field.

The machine moves fairly slowly, picking up the beets and moving them through a roller cleaning system and then up on to a conveyor that loads a nearby truck.

The beets are then ready to be taken directly to the plant and are ready for processing. During early harvest, the goal is direct delivery of as many beets as possible, thus avoiding costs of piling and moving the beets.

Max and Finn and I were quite impressed by the robotic nature of this machine. It is a picker upper, a cleaner, and a stacker. Plus, the operator of the machine waved to us when he saw us watching and taking photos.

Copyright 2013
Wanda Hayes Eichler