Tom & Brenda's Family Journal

Here are some pictures of our flowers at the cabin right now. Some of these flowers, such as the lilies below, were planted by my grandmother and continue to bloom summer after summer with just a little care from me. Other, like these daylilies, were planted by me with help from my girls. These lilies came from a friend of Jennifer's. We went to his home and dug them up. They probably wondered what happened to them to be transplanted into the cold UP winters but they seem to thrive in spite of the cold and love the warm sunshine. These flower beds are on the sea wall in the front yard and they offer a special challenge. The sea wall is actually metal barrels in the ground so planting can be difficult digging around the barrels. Weeds like to grow up the sides of the barrels which makes them hard to remove. Also not many perennials can survive the winter in this spot. I believe the ground gets colder in the sea wall than surrounding flower beds. I've gotten hosta from Pa...

If you have visited us here at the Cabin, you know that Tom has an ongoing battle with the Canada geese. Every year, we watch the geese go through the same cycle of raising their young. The geese like to bring their young up onto our beach area for feeding. We could probably live with that but if we don't chase them off, they come right up into our yard and all around the cabin. We would be willing to share our lawn with them but they leave disgusting 'calling cards' all over which we don't want to step in. So Tom has found it best to keep them completely away. Now that the babies are almost full-grown, the geese are also much more bold. They don't leave at the first sight of a human but have to be chased to the water's edge. I will tell you that no geese are harmed in this battle. And the geese seem to have learned several things. First, come very early in the morning when no one is awake. They come floating down the river and slowly make their way on s...

Our life has been a whirlwind through June and July. But we hope it is quieting down now. In that time, we hosted visits from our grandchildren, moved from the condo to the farm, had a family wedding and did many renovations at the farm. It wasn't in that order but there was lots of overlapping of events. I also took a UP trip with Bonnie in the middle of it all. I even missed moving day by 5 hours. When I arrived home, the furniture was at the farm, set up nicely and even my bed was made thanks to Jen and Tom and Big Brothers Moving. We returned to the cabin last Wednesday and we've been blessed with wonderful weather. Eric and Jess left yesterday after a 5 day visit. This past week Tom and I hosted a ladies tea party to honor Nancy Lont. She lived in the Soo from 1976-1986 when her husband served as pastor of Calvary Baptist Church. They were back to visit their daughter, grandsons and great-grandson. We invited ladies who were at the church 20 years ago and some ne...

We started our day by driving from Munising to Marquette. Bonnie had to call on the bookstore at Northern Michigan University and then we went downtown. Marquette has wonderful shops and restaurants. We had lunch at Babycakes Muffin Company . Everything was tasty with a very interesting clientèle. We also returned to Snowbound Books because we enjoyed it so much last year. On our way from Marquette to Houghton, we stopped at Canyon Falls. It was a great 10 minute hike from the park to the fall but it took us much longer because we kept stopping to enjoy the beauty. Bonnie and I are going to rename our tour to the Bookstore, Coffee Shop and Waterfall Tour. We are finding the most beautiful waterfalls that are located very close to the highway. The Sturgeon River flows rapidly through the woods and ends in a canyon. There are flat slate stones on the edges so you could get very close to the water and still feel very safe. Further up the road was the Bishop Baraga Shrine in L'A...

My friend, Bonnie, and I left today for our second annual trip across the Upper Peninsula. Bonnie is combining this with a trip for her work where she calls on college bookstores. There is so much to do in the UP that although we are going to the same colleges, we are seeing different sights from last year. We left Caledonia around 7 am but made our first stop at Essential Bean, the best spot in Caledonia or West Michigan for coffee. Our next stop was Darrows Restaurant in Mackinaw City for whitefish sandwiches. The coffee shop in the picture above is in Bay Mills where I waited while Bonnie called on clients but it wasn't long before we were back on the road. There were a couple of new scenic outlooks over Lake Superior and the beauty is breathtaking. The water was warm and we saw lots of kids in swimming. We then went to Whitefish Point and the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum. There was a 1,000 foot frieghter out front which we haven't been able to identify yet. The we...