Deer Eat Tender Bean Plants

My previous post shows such a sweet sleeping fawn. Well, the baby's mom must be hungry. Just take a look at this once thriving row of green beans.

The Fawn

It was a day early in June. Steve Stonecipher, irrigation specialist with Esch Landscaping, was checking the sprinkling system at our lakehouse when he spotted this fawn on the north side of Cedar Bluff.



"Did you see this?" he asked me as I walked the property with him. "The mother must have told this little one to stay put." I dashed into the house to grab a camera, fully expecting that the fawn would be gone by the time I returned. It stayed and here is the result -- snuggled in the grasses and wild strawberries, a spring baby.

Finny and the Zero Turn Mower

Griffin Henry had a new experience on Thursday evening when his Grandpa Ed was out mowing the front lawns at Cedar Bluff. Finn had eaten his supper and was out for a stroller ride with Grandma WJ pushing. We walked north along the bicycle lanes on M-25 and then, when we came back to Cedar Bluff, we pulled into the driveway to watch Zero Turn Lawn Mowin' Grandpa.

Wow! Was Finny interested! In this video he chats a little and watches intently. The video is 1:23 minutes long. The voice talking to Finny is Wanda who also ran the camera.

Here's a wide eyed little boy at his nine month old best -- learning about the big, puzzling world with wonder in his eyes.

June 11th Storm Update

We continue to have thunderstorms come across the Thumb. One hit Bad Axe around 7 pm last night with fury. Lots of wind and pelting rain.

The Sunday storms took out the power at our farm and we're still without electricity there. Ed has called Detroit Edison several times a day and has been told to expect service some time on Friday. Meantime, I'm functioning out of the lakehouse south of Harbor Beach where I can see another storm gathering in the west again this morning.

Most food in the frig and freezer is lost. That's about all. We're lucky to have a second home to use. I had intended to work at my Pigeon office this week, but have nine month old grandson Griffin Henry Clark here with me at the lake. Finny's mom and dad are on vacation. Finn's brother Max is in Bad Axe with Grandpa Don and Grandma joni. So, all the Huron County grandparents are "on duty" this week.

Finny was going to stay at the farmhouse with Ed and me. Not so! We'll have to be lake people this week.

June 6th Evening Storm

Storms came thru theThumb tonite. We were lucky. There was no significant damage. This storm was a part of a long, sweeping front that spread out across the Midwest.

Looking west northwest along the driveway to Cedar Bluff, here's the front as it approached the east side of the Thumb and was about to pull out across Lake Huron. This storm carried dust in front of it and you can see the thick dustiness along the horizon line in this photo.

Stadium Checkers

Here's one for the nostalgia buffs. I found this game at the Port Austin Farmers' Market last Saturday. One of the vendors across from our Graywood Designs booth had lots of old goodies out for sale. We had one of these games as kids and I do remember playing with it quite a few times.

Ed and I tried it out on Sunday and found that we need more marbles to make it challenging. We started with four marbles each (you are supposed to have five) and he got one move ahead of me and beat me. What fun!

The game is by Schaper of Cootie fame and has a 1952 copyright. Made in Minneapolis, it is a series of concentric rings with slots that allow marbles to drop down the "stadium" to the center where they slide out to the feet of the game board. The object is to get all of your marbles into your kitty (in the feet). Fun!

Oh yes. I paid $3 for this little trip back in time.

Governor Granholm visits the Thumb of Michigan

How privileged this area of the Thumb was this week to have the sitting governor of the State of Michigan visit our community? Governor Jennifer Granholm was here on Monday, April 21 for a tour of the Harvest Wind Windfarm, roundtable at Laker Elementary, combined assembly for both Laker Junior and Senior High Schools, and then on to Pigeon for a fundraiser for State Representative Terry Brown of Pigeon.

It was a big day for the Thumb, especially for Pigeon and Elkton, the two towns that saw the most of the Governor's entourage. Our daughter, Liesl Clark, works at the Michigan Deparment of Agriculture and she wrangled a seat on the press bus that accompanied the Governor. My husband Ed and I hung around the hallways at Laker Elementary along with Liesl's good friend, Danielle. We got to meet many of her work colleagues and some of the reporters whom we see on shows like "Off The Record."

I got to meet and chat with Rick Pluhta. Cool! We met Liz Boyd, the guv's press secretary. Also cool! I told Liz that I read the emails from the Governor's office regularly. I signed up on the state website and appreciate keeping up with the happenings (well, maybe not the really insider stuff!) through these regular emails. The Governor's office sends out an email every time the flags are lowered in the state to honor a fallen Michgan soldier. Those emails I read carefully and take time to pause and remember.

So anyway, here is a photo of the Governor walking from Laker Elementary over to the High School. You can see the Laker windmills in the background. The woman on the right is Liz. I've also included a photo of some of the acrostics that Laker students made for the event. The one I've included was written by Emily Hoepner, one of our little second cousins.