First Camping Trip 2017

Hard to believe that it was almost a month ago that Hubby and I took our first camping trip of the season. Also hard to believe that it got down to 33 degrees outside both nights (probably hovered in the 40s in the camper!). The rains have continued since then. Hubby wanted to go in the early spring to see waterfalls when the water was high. Ha! At the rate the weather is going, his wish would still be granted.

We stayed at Bewabic State Park, just west of Crystal Falls Michigan. My sister Pat and I had camped there a few times in the early 1980s. At that time, we mostly wanted a site which was private and level for our tent. Now, with the popup camper, we need a larger site which is easy to get in to. Can’t get much easier than a site you can drive through. I think I could even park here by myself, but Hubby has serious doubts about that. 

 My side of the camper. 

 Hubby’s side. Ok, this was after spending a night and a day here, but my side was still as neat as when I set it up. 

 Bewabic sits on Fortune Lake. A little cold that weekend for anyone to go swimming except for the geese. 

  A few miles up the road is a roadside park with a well-marked trail to Canyon Falls on the Sturgeon River. 

 I want to post more pictures sometime, when I have scanned the pictures from those earlier trips. 

 Canyon Falls. Some day I’ll have to share a comical story about this spot from one of those earlier trips.  

  

 Powerhouse Falls on the Falls River just outside of L’Anse. I don’t clearly remember having been here before, but it was a little like Deja Vu.

 One of our other goals, besides seeing waterfalls at full power, was checking on our favorite campground, McLain State Park. There had been more erosion over the winter. Incredible the power of Lake Superior, huh? 

We’ll return to camp there again some time, but not this year. 

Look for the Rainbow

12 And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: 13 I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14 Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, 15 I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. 16 Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.” Genesis 9 (New International Version)

I was having a hard time last night coming up with something to write about here this morning. I wasted time, as usual, scrolling through Facebook posts. Someone had shared a picture of a rainbow, and I thought – ah-ha – that’s it.

Why are we so fascinated by rainbows? Why do we drop what we are doing when we see one? Or if it is late in the day and it’s been raining when the sun suddenly comes out, why do we start looking for the rainbow in the eastern sky? (Or am I the only one who does that?)

A lot of people have read the passage above or at least know the story of God sending the rainbow after the flood. But I think that without even knowing this story, we want to look for something beautiful after the storm. We have an innate desire for there to be something better on the other side. God knew this about us when he created us and so He sent the rainbow to Noah and Jesus to the rest of us.

Thank You, Lord God, for all that you send us, for granting us something good at the end of every trial. But mostly thank You for sending Your Son to save us. Amen. 

 While in Kenya in April, we witnessed not one, but two rainbows. The first one was as we were going into the Rift Valley one morning after a rain shower

 The second one was late in the day right in town while we were waiting for one of the girls to get her hair braided. 

Baby Elephants!

I once again frittered away much of this week and woke up this morning realizing that I haven’t posted here since Tuesday. There are so many adventures (misadventures, more like it) that I have left to share, but my laziness leaves me with only time to post pictures.

While in Kenya, two months ago today, we spent the day touring various animal parks in and around Nairobi. I feel I bonded with the baby crocodile the most, but that is a story for another time, since today I wanted to just share the baby elephant pictures instead.

All these pictures were taken at the David Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage. How can you not fall in love with an orphaned baby elephant?

For more information on these elephants and the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, click here. 

He ain't heavy, he's my brother.

I don’t write much about my brother, perhaps because I never thought there was much to say.  He’s sixteen years older than I am, so he wasn’t much of a part of my childhood. When I was in middle school and high school, he lived at home in a room above the garage for a while, but I only ever saw him at supper-time.

For many years now, I’ve only seen him a few times a year and talked to him on the phone only a few times more. Since Mom passed away in February, our contact has been much more frequent. This past Sunday, we spent the day together at a niece’s family picnic. He shared some stories from his youth that I have never heard. I’m sure he has a lot more to say, and maybe I need to make the effort to hear them.

In honor of his birthday today, I’m sharing some of the old pictures of him that I found in Mom’s stuff. Lucky for me, he doesn’t have internet, so if you know him and run into him this week, don’t tell him I posted this. But you can wish him a happy birthday.  

Happy birthday, you dashing older man.

Graduation Day 2017

Today is high school graduation here in my hometown. I haven’t been to graduation since my second-born graduated in 2008. I’d be proud to call the girl graduating today my daughter, but instead I just got to borrow her a few times a month over the last seven years. I wish her the very best and I hope she knows that I will always be there for her. 

2011 July - my backyard 

 2011 September - at Timm's Hill

2012 August - my backyard 

 2012 September - at Kelly Arms Castle  

 2013 May - Colton Dixon concert in Milwaukee

 2013 October - Bowling

 2014 August - Chism Ranch for our yearly horseback ride

 

 2014 December - Christmas!

2015 December - Another Christmas

 2016 February - modeling her new outfit in Petsmart 

 2016 April - going to Prom

 2017 May - with her art at the Senior Art Show

Ciaara, I'm so proud of you. Remember, you can do anything you put your mind to.

(It only takes an hour a week or four hours a month to change the life of a child and change your own life as well. Get involved. No matter where you live. http://kinshipinc.org/affiliate-network/ or http://www.mentoring.org/ )

This Time of Year

When I was growing up, every year in May, Mom went on a rhubarb cake frenzy. Her sister, her boss, several friends and even herself all had birthdays in May. A friend of hers, who raised corn and gladiolas (probably other stuff, but those are the things I remember), also grew rhubarb plants. So every May, she would fork over paper grocery bags full of rhubarb, which Mom baked into nontraditional birthday cakes for everyone she knew.

At the time, I didn’t like rhubarb cake. I didn’t like raisins, walnuts, or oatmeal either. I still can’t tolerate a bowl of cooked oatmeal – it’s like eating phlegm – but at least I’ll eat me some oatmeal cookies now. I’ve expanded my tastes and textures (except when it comes to phlegm), so have grown fond of rhubarb cake.

Here’s Ma’s recipe, as I copied it from her hand-written index card.

Rhubarb Cake

1/3 cup shortening

1 cup sugar

1 egg

¾ cup milk

1 2/3 cup flour

Salt

1 tsp soda

2 cups raw rhubarb

Mix as for cake. Put in 9 x 12 pan

Topping

½ cup white sugar

½ cup brown sugar

Cinnamon

½ cup chopped nuts

Pat on topping. Bake 350 for 40 minutes

 

 For those of you who want exact measures, I use ½ teaspoon salt. Mom had an old yellow coffee cup with a broken handle that she kept on her stove filled with salt. Whenever she was cooking or baking, she’d dip a kitchen spoon in the salt and add a random amount to whatever she was making. It always worked. And the cinnamon? At least a teaspoon, coz you can’t have too much cinnamon. Also, the pan needs to be greased. I also cut back on the brown and white sugar in the topping to a third cup. It’s good with more, but messy coz it’s too thick to bake into the cake.

 

One last thought on rhubarb cake. When we were camping one time, Mom took a rhubarb cake along to eat. She stored it in the camper’s oven when we were traveling, but forgot it when we got home. A couple weeks later, looking for that metal cake pan, she remembered where she’d left it. I don’t remember what was left of the cake as being a moldy, dried up mess. What I do remember though, after we scraped it out, was that the acid from the rhubarb had eaten holes in the metal pan. Just a word to the wise.