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| Wow - that was a fast four weeks! Ok, to recap the last month: Our camping trip (see our previous post) was cut short by 24 straight hours of rain. It started raining after breakfast the day after we arrived. We knew we'd have rain, but not that much. By Saturday morning we were sick of being damp, and that overode our feelings of not wanting to "give up". We were mighty glad we left when we did as a few hours later tornado clouds came through along with driving rain. Here are some pictures taken while we were packing up. (We didn't want to waste our firewood and the rain wasn't too bad while we were packing up. We made the best of leaving early by making s'mores in the rain. ) 
This past weekend we went to Cabelas ("World's Largest Outfitter") on Thurday night/Friday, and antiquing in Allen, Michigan, ("Michingan's Antique Capital") just south of Battle Creek, on Friday - Sunday. Unlike in September, we had fantastic weather. We had such a good time discovering a new part of the state! We did lots of driving and exploring, we bought fresh apple cider and drank it right from the jug, we saw Amish people, Phil had a great piece of prime rib, we tasted wine...it was all wonderful. Phil has hunted once this season and he will start hunting in earnest this Friday, when the weather cools off. He bought some new arrows, boots, and gloves at Cabelas so he is hankering to get out there. (I bought a package of jerky seasoning at Cabelas, and "we" bought new marshmallow sticks!) We bought a quarter cow. We've had burgers and they are great, but Phil won't let us try the steaks until we finish our "old" meat. I've made venison twice (and I loved it! This was the first time I cooked with non-ground venison so I'm pretty proud of myself.) and flank steak twice. I think I'm to the point where I can talk Phil into trying some of our new steak...yeah!! | | |
| We're leaving for camping today (Thursday) until Sunday! (That is, unless we have too much rain and need to come home early.) We tried to get into Turkey Run, but there were no decent sites until the end of October, so we'll be camping at Fort Custer SP just west of Battle Creek. It sounds like a really nice campground, and we're just excited to get away and spend a few days together. Unfortunately there is a 50% chance of rain tomorrow and 70% chance on Saturday. We'll see. We are working to get things done around the house before we leave around noon. (My list includes making party mix, buying meat for Saturday, doing laundry, and packing the cooler.) | | |
| Today I came home to find THREE more dead chipmunks in our trap! (I wanted to insert a "smiley" here but there aren't any dead ones.) We knew something was still eating our tomatoes, and we'd both seem something little and black in the garden, but we hadn't caught anything. And we weren't baiting very consistently. So this morning I baited like crazy - seeds at the bottom of the stick, a bunch at the top, a thick little path all the way up. I didn't know we had this many...well, and now we don't. Tonight we're having one of our LAST steaks from our Amish-quarter-cow. The burger has been ok (though it smells a little like our Amish farmer smelled....) but the steaks have been at best "edible". They are just very very tough (and they smell too....) I've found that marinating them raises their level to "not bad" so I'm trying a new marinade for "Applebees bourbon street steak". We're also having grits, beans, and maybe zucchini too. I'd like to buy another quarter cow this year, but we need to find a good one. (Any suggestions?) | | |
| Last night we went to the Hudsonville fair to see the off-road derby. It was fun, though I lost almost every race to Phil. I still remember when we took Orsi to the demolition derby the first week (first night?) she was in the US. We made reservations online today for Devils Lake, for next July 20-25. I tried to reserve the site we used to have - 55 - and someone must have beat me by seconds. Grrrr. So we reserved the one two over from that site, which might be better because I think it has more shade. At least it did 26 (!!) years ago. We'd like to make reservations for Turkey Run for this September too, but there isn't much left the (long) weekend we want to go. I think we'll have to settle for a site with neighbors. | | |
| Something has been eating our tomatos - big bites out of anything even starting to turn red. So we rigged this up this afternoon. There are sunflower seeds going up that stick. 
Within an hour we found this Michael Phelps wannabe! 
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