summer garden 2009

Well, I need to try and find some more bean seeds, since every last bean seedling has been devoured by bunnies. Man, they are so cute but so hungry! They drive Nike wild, as do the chipmunks. One chipmunk in particular seems to like to taunt Nike, sitting on the back step chattering or eating a seed. Nikes tail swishes non stop, tensed body bristling. The raspberries are in flower and have some immature berries, they are thick and will need thinning after just one year. The shallots look great, tomatoes are flowering but no fruit yet. I really should have taken better note which squash was planted where, this will be interesting as they seem to be doing pretty well. Pepper plants died :( I have had trouble the last couple years with them. Still removing hundreds of maple seedlings, grrrrrr. I do love summer like this though, temps are comfortable. I just need more time to garden!

4th of July, fireworks, Mud Run, Mud Queen

We spent 4th of July in Upper Michigan and had a blast! We went to the parade that morning in Hermansville Michigan where the kids got tons of candy, everyone was tossing handfuls. Lots of trucks, firetrucks, ambulances, bicycles, even big military vehicles.
Then we went over to the mud run area, so Jason could sign up. He asked me if I wanted to run his truck, an F350, in the stock division. I never did that before, so of course I said YES! Its a 5 speed and its been oh about 20 years since I drove a stick shift, and never purposefully through a big pit of deep, wet, slimy, gooey clay mud. Cool!! We asked if there was a powderpuff division, with just females, they said no, just run with the boys. OKAY! Then standing in the pits we got the idea, maybe Jeff would like to as well, and he said YES! So three of the 6 in stock were us, woo hoo!! There were 3 different divisions, stock which meant tires up to 35 inches, no nitrous, no overbuilt engines, basic stock trucks. There were a total of 6 drivers in the stock division, Jeff, Jason, me, and three other guys. The next division is semi modified and the last division is super modified. These guys scream through the mud, not sinking in but kind of floating on top, use nitrous for speed and power and have huge lift and tires. Whew! Crazzzzzzzzzzzzzzzy stuff, they fly!!! Not so much measuring for length like stock and semi modified, they are timed and fastest wins! So, we get our numbers and go through the lineup, first forward then reverse order, everyone gets two tries. First try, Jason with 61 feet 5 inches, Jeff 61 feet 11 inches, and I had 57 feet 3 inches (according to Jason, since I was bouncing so high off the seat my foot came off the gas). The other 3 guys ranged from 59 feet to 57 feet. Second try, Jeff got 65 feet even, Jason got 65 feet 3 inches and I got 61 feet 3 inches. The others ended up with lesser yardage, so Jason took 1st, Jeff took 2nd and I took 3rd. We each got beautiful trophies and prize money and had a blast!! Check out the photos I will be posting as well. Jeff said some younger guys in the stands were watching me get into the truck and they were not impressed I was wearing flipflops "Dude, that woman is wearing flipflops! You can't drive a mud truck in flipflops! Flipflops!!! Man, that is just not right!"
After all of the trucks went - including one that very nearly went end over end! - it was time for the mud queen run. This year stakes were running high, $212.00 and bragging rights for all year. You just needed to be 16 or over and run, climb, get stuck, run, climb, get stuck, keep repeating and then make it to the other end of the mud pit. Hard to do, that mud sucks you right down. Afterwards, the grandkids needed to do some trial runs, they and Amber and Jenessa cannot wait till they are 16 and able to run! After they tried to clean up a bit in the Hermansville Pond we went to the The Shop in Nadeau and had a few beers and grilled sweet corn, on the way back to Jason and Amys house we saw a bear. Luckily Gary who was on his Harley slowed way down and we got a good look before it lumbered into the woods. Gary is a friend of Jasons who is camping there and taking a trip into Canada on his Harley today. We also saw turkeys, lots of deer, and fox kits during the weekend.
We got back to Jason's and started getting ready to go to Pauls house in Norway to watch the fireworks. Paul Raiche is Jeff's cousin and a heck of a nice guy. They hunt deer together at the deer camp, 40 acres that Paul owns. Originally it was part of the farm that Jeffs dad grew up on, so its a very special very meaningful place. Noy those small Michigan towns know how to put on a display! Fireworks everywhere and the grand finale went on and on.
The next morning Amber got up and went outside and saw a small bear cub about the size of a black lab. She ran back in which was a smart thing to do, those mama black bear sows can get very ornery if you accidently get near their babies. We goofed around for a bit then Jeff and Jason worked on installing a new toilet, Amy and I worked on planting strawberries. We went to a park nearby and the kids and Amy swam, for us it was too damn cold. This 4th was a blast!!