Falling into a Routine

Fall is here, full in teeth and mouth.  The leaves are changing, the air is crisp and the sweaters and fleeces are no longer a stylish statement but a requirement to chase away the chill in the air.  We spent some time early in the week refinishing a curb-picked desk.  Power tools and eager child labor is no match for sixty year old varnish.  We finished restaining and varnishing the desk on Saturday and had it all moved into place by Sunday morning.  Saturday afternoon was a good time for us to get out for some squirrel hunting.  Merrick had his BB gun and Sophia carried my 20 gauge for most of the trip.  We hunted the oaks given the large amount of acorns on the forest floor and spent several fifteen minute increments just sitting quietly and still with our back against big trees hoping for a chance at a gray squirrel.  Alas, we saw none, but still took a couple of shots at some stray cans near where we parked the car.  Sophia was able to shoot the 20 gauge, but it gave her a small raspberry on her arm.  We returned for a brief nap before heading to some friends house for a meal and play time.  Sunday was spent working on fly tying and the domestic chores of grocery shopping, although the latter also required some breakfast pastries.  All of these activities wore Merrick out enough to ask to take a nap in the hammock.  Beautiful day to curl in under the warmth of a blanket and let the cool fall breezes rock you to sleep.  Sophia headed to a friends house for a while, and Merrick and I hit the orchard to pick some apples.  The apple crop took a beating this year, but we still found enough to fill our bag.  Having a "Merrick Monkey" to get the hard to reach apples is a benefit.  Most will get eaten, but we will peel up some to freeze for a Thanksgiving pie.  We did put the apples on the counter and pushed them aside to make room to make a fresh batch of chocolate chip cookies for this week's lunches and snacks.  As the weekend comes to an end we start getting ready for the new routines of fall that now include Monday evening dance classes for Sophia.  We are all always on our toes now.

Catchin' critters and Catchin' up

 

Today was the first day in the new season, the season of routines.  Merrick and Sophia are both back at school full time, and loving it.  Merrick is very happy about going to his new school and Sophia is settling in nicely and proudly tells me about her new friends.  According to her it only took her one day to part of the popular group.  Group survival starts early in life.  Merrick was proud that he was invited to a birthday party although he seemed a little unclear about the persons name, date or location of the party.  Hot lunch has been a big hit for both of them.  Last weekend was the first weekend after the start of school, albeit Merrick had a  much altered week.  Friday night we crashed and just tried to recharge after all the scheduling changes that back to school brings, although we were able to sneak out to the compost site and watch some of the quasi-tame and massively antlered white-tails munch on the produce of gardens past. We also hit a thrift sale on the way home in which we came very close to buying a stainless steel and brass viking helmet complete with real bull horns attached.  It was pretty cool, but not enough for use to part with twenty-five dollars.  Saturday morning we were back in the "steel-tent" and cruising for new deals and treasures.  Sophia scooped up a porceilin doll and Merrick grabbed an etch-a-sketch and we were back home in time for some domestic cleaning.  With our work done we headed down to the river with a bucket of worms and spent a couple hours catching fish.  The kids were catching gobies (a great lakes invasive) as well as stripped and small mouthed bass.  I was mostly catching stickfish.  There is a new bridge that is now open near our fishing hole so we were able to walk across that and watch the boats come through the locks.  Future plans for the bridge include a large pier to extend into the river channel for walleye fishing, so we are looking forward to the completion of that phase of the project.  As is so typical for this area there are always the sound of live music near by and Saturday afternoon was no different, we found a large stage with a cover band playing and stomped our feet for a couple of songs in the diminishing summer sun.  Sunday found us entertaining a friend of sophia's while Merrick and I putz around the backyard.  We caught one of the foundation digging chipmunks and spent a great deal of time playing frisbee golf, driveway hockey and tomato ball.  Tomato ball is pretty much the latest craze around here and completely a benefit of the summer drought.  The tomatoes, and most of the rest of the garden vegetables, are too small and green to pick--however they are perfect for batting practice.  Merrick cracks the heck out of him and given that some of the spray lands in his mouth I can count it as part of his vegetable intake.

Going, Going, Gone....

 

 
We fought the good fight to keep summer alive in these waning days before the academics begin again.  We burned up the last of our tickets at Bay Beach on Monday and I suspect it will be one of our last trips there as the kids are either getting too big or their expectations are for the rides.  We still hit a couple of the larger rides but after a couple of laps we head home, unlike the "old days" when we could spend three or four hours there with my fingers blistering from tearing off 25 cent tickets and them giggling on yet another variation of a circle ride.  But alas, Bay Beach gives way to new venues of entertainment.  We spent some time in Two Rivers at the Kite over Lake Michigan event.  It was way cool with massive kites some of which had to be greater than thirty feet across and multitudes of others that could have easily lifted me into the air and both kids.  There was also groups of performance kiters which sounds like an SNL skit until you see it and which point it is very impressive what these people can do given the unpredictability of the wind.  Amidst amateur kites costing several hundreds of dollars and exhibition kites of Jellyfish,  Koi and Dragons that had to be in excess of thousands of dollars, we flew our dollar kites and had a blast doing it.  Merrick's kite did break loose one time, but either fortunately or unfortunately there where so many other kites in the air that his string quickly entangled in the string of another kite and we were able to cut it free and get it airborne again.  Some time during the week, we stuffed cornish game hens with wild rice and Merrick buried his face wolf style into the grill fresh fowl.  He keeps telling me it is his new favorite meal--time will tell. At some point during the week it was decided that we need a formal dinner (I suspect Sophia was the impetus of this decidsion) so we all dressed up before dinner time and ate with out pinkies out--although Merrick and I did go with the Angus Young approach of ties and shorts.  We did hit the thrift sale circuit on Saturday morning, and while Sophia didn't find any treasures, Merrick had some coin burning a hole in his pocket.  At our first stop bought a 25 cent shelf and then a couple of stuffed animals at the next. As we went to get out of the car at the third stop he proclaimed that he wasn't going to spend any more money and that "actually I am going to pay off my debts and start saving my money."  With a balance sheet in order we headed out of another barefoot hike near the wildlife sanctuary.  The area is a great place for cross-country skiing in the winter which in reality makes it an even better place to hike during the summer.  We spent some time looking at habitat and pictures of garter snakes before we went out and were then able to find two of them with a woodchuck bonus.  Sunday afternoon was spent with Sophia learning how to make 5 gallons of red/beans and rice and rounded out the night with campfire and smores.  I seemed like a nice bookend for a great summer, ending much the same way that it had started.  I packaged the red/beans and rice up Monday morning and now have about 25 pounds of red/beans and rice to last all winter.  The garden was a bust, due to the drought, and after digging just a few potato mounds we decided we would leave the little ones for next years seed crop.  Sophia had a friend over for most of the afternoon and Merrick and I played baseball using the small green grape tomatoes from the garden as balls--it was a riot and now he smells vaguely like salsa verde!