Cherrys

The cherries in Leelanau county are starting to turn and soon the orchards will be full of the sounds of cherry shakers and fork lifts.Just a month ago when we arrived here the orchards looked like this.
Teddy's brother, John Schlueter, is hard at work getting ready to start shaking his orchards in the next couple of weeks. Last year John shook over one million pounds of cherries and in a good year may harvest a million and a half pounds. However a late frost damaged approximately 50% of this year's crop so this is not going to be a banner year. In farming, just as in casino gambling, sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. The hope is, that the winnings will cover the losses with something left over for profit.

Mr. Ruby-throat

Finally got a picture of the male hummer that has been frequenting our feeders.

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Ruby-throated Hummingbirds

When we arrived here last month Teddy hung this hummingbird feeder outside a window. It wasn't long before a pair of Ruby-throated Hummers became regular visitors, feeding several times a day from the feeder. The Ruby-throated Hummingbird is the only kind of hummingbird that summers in Michigan so it was fairly easy to identify them.
They would dart around, coming and going so quickly that it was difficult to get a good photo of them but I finally managed to get this picture of the female.

Freddy's Party

Our nephew Freddy Lawrence (Teddy's sister Debby's son) had a party yesterday (Sunday June 18) to celebrate his High School graduation from Roscommon High School. Freddy graduated with honors and will be attending Central Michigan University in Mount Pleasant this fall.

Egg Poems

Several years ago I wrote a poem about how disappointed I was to read that eating eggs was bad for you. However, four years later I read that eating eggs wasn't as bad as was thought. So, I wrote another poem in celebration. Here are the two poems in their original form.

On Eggs
(on reading an article in the newspaper
about cholesterol in eggs)

I find myself in a sticky wicket
for eggs to me are just the ticket.
I like them boiled,
I like them fried.
I like the yoke that’s hid inside.
On Easter I like to see them dyed.
I like them mixed up in a custard,
or in the den with Colonel Mustard.
I like the large ones in a stew;
I like the bite size small ones too.
I love them when they’re Benedict
and make quite sure my plate is licked.
In every way they can’t be beat.
For me an egg is the ultimate treat.LEP 1995


On Eggs (Again)
(on reading an article in the newspaper
that says eggs aren’t bad after all)

Well...now they say that eggs are good
Deep down inside, I knew they would.
It makes me sick, it makes me mad
to think of the eggs I could have had
Instead of stuff made from soybean shoots
and other tasteless substitutes.
Instead of slimy oatmeal cakes.
Instead of diet breakfast shakes.
Instead of sliced fried cream of wheat,
Mixed with some strange mystery meat
Flakey corn and puffed up rice,
that look like droppings left by mice.
I ate all these things, you see
Cause they were sposed to be good for me
and now they say that all along
They weren’t right; they got it wrong.
Well I’m just glad I lived to see
That eating eggs is good for me.
And I will eat an egg a day
until the day I pass away.Larry Page 1999

My new egg decapper

My favorite breakfast always involves eggs in one form or another. One of the ways that I like them is soft-boiled and I long ago discovered that the most convenient way to have a soft –boiled egg is to hold it in an egg cup while you spoon out the delicious inside with a small “egg spoon”. However the frustrating problem is in opening the top without burning your fingers. I would gently tap the top with the back of my spoon to crack it and then quickly flick off pieces of the shell by hand.
So…last week I decided to invest in an egg decapper (also sometimes known as a topper). There are several types of decappers, perhaps the best known is the scissors type, but I discovered this little baby on e-bay that pierces the shell and then neatly cuts off the top from the inside. I used it this morning for the first time and am real pleased. I hope that it holds up to longtime use.

Here are remains of this mornings breakfast.

Teddy, of course, thinks that all of this is silly. Hmmmm...perhaps she's right.

Johanna's Party

Our niece Johanna Schlueter (Teddy's brother John's daughter) had a party today to celebrate her High School graduation from Leeland High School. Johanna graduated with honors and will be attending Grand Valley State University in Grand Rapids, Michigan this fall.
I snapped this pict at the party of Johanna in the center with her two aunts, Teddy & Teddy's sister, Deb.

Our new shed

We have been renting a storage locker to keep those things that we can't take with us in our travels. We decided that it made better long term economical sense to purchase a small "Garden Shed" and erect it here on the family farm. So...for the past couple of days Teddy & I have been erecting a shed and here is the finished product. It is 8' x 12.5' and was delivered on a pallet in two large boxes totaling 615 lbs by a flat-bed truck.
Amazingly enough Teddy & I worked well togather and acomplished the build without ever yelling at each other...well...hardly ever.

Turkey Vultures

Last week, on a grocery trip to town (Traverse City), Teddy noticed a pair of Turkey Vultures nesting on the chimney of an old abandoned house.





The young were quite large and appeared to be about ready to fledge.
So I returned with camera in hand and got these shots.





Sure enough the next day they were gone.