Happy New Year

Okay Folks, I put 4 pictures in, then tried to add text and it wouldn't let me. Then I did something that deleted the pictures, so now I am going to write first and then try to add the pictures. Since I have spoken to both of you since Christmas, I don't have much to say. It got down to 22 last night and will be cold again tonight and then the temp will rise again. It should be in the low 70s for New Year's Day. Rick is going to the Gator Bowl, Mississippi plays Michigan. Since we are also going to a New Year's Eve party the night before, I hope he makes it. He has two tickets, but I don't really care to go.

This time it let me add text again after the pictures were loaded. Oh well. That is Ryan and Tracy leaving for S. Carolina. They have had snow there. Those are Kyla's gingerbread houses made from graham crackers. Love, Marilynn

Thanks Herb and Kathy for "including us in your Christmas celebration" with the pics. They were great. Looks like everyone is happy and healthy.
luv,
b

Christmas Day 2010

Morning All,
Well, the year is nearly over. Can you believe it? Looks like we are going out with a bang. There have been several earthquakes near here. The one this morning was near Anagada and was 3.6 on the scale. However, those who have been here for some time say it's nothing to worry about.
Evan arrived safe and sound a week ago Friday. He has worked several days with Bob on the floor in the restaurant in Cruz Bay. He was a big help and they, hopefully, will finish up this week. They are waiting for the owner to pick the stain color. Evan went to the beach with a friend today and went and did the Cinnamon Bay trail this past week. They were surfing out there. Really big surf. Have never seen it like that. Trunk Bay was completely closed.
Evan is dating a girl who facebooked him. she was his first date in H.S. She has two children and works in a bank. He isn't taking any of this real seriously, but at least he has someone to share some of his life with. I think it is good for him and we are happy about that.

Herb, sorry you are not feeling well. A good shot of mulled wine might make you feel a little more "jolly". Sounds like a great Christmas at the Baldwin household in the woods. Did you get snow for Christmas? I really miss the cold and snow at Christmas. Christmas in Paradise just isn't the same and the decorations are sort of lame, but it's warm. Lots of people go boating to other islands for the holiday. We have been invited on New Year's Day to Lamshur (we went there, guys) for a beach party - lots of food and fun.

Talked with Nathan yesterday. He is enjoying the holiday with Laura's family and some friends. They had a second showing on the house Tues night and the showing realtor told Nathan's realtor that they thought an offer would be in the cards, but nothing so far. Nathan has until March and then the house will go into foreclosure. He is due to leave MI about Jan 15 or so. I guess if something does happen with the house, he will have to get power of attorney for the realtor.

We finally got the UV system for the water and Bob is installing it as I write this. no more "schlepping" the cases of water. that is a relief!!

The garden is coming along nicely and I have tomatoes about the size of my fist. Hopefully we will get to pick them before the birds. We have had a lot of papaya this year. Delicious with a little lime on it.

Ron and Liz are coming for dinner tomorrow along with Bob Moseley, who has the place below us. He is renting it out and has asked us to "manage" if for him. This really only entails guiding the guest to the cottage and being available in case anything goes wrong in the house while the guest is here, then arranging for cleaning for the next guest. Evan did directions in publisher for Bob while he was here. Came out great and it gave him something to do.
Well, the sugar bird and the humming bird are again fighting for "territory" in the hibiscus as I sit here in the foyer. going to do a little cleaning for company coming tomorrow and Evan may bring his buddy back for lunch.
Love to all
Send pics and notes.
Betsy and Bob

http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/series/inside/4907/Overview11#tab-Videos/08100_00
o.k. Here's the link that didn't get posted. I'm trying it both ways. Copied from Nathan't email, above and then put it in the "link" box

updates Christmaas 2010

It's very early here on Saturday morning. Bob had to be in Cruz Bay again by 6:30. He started grinding the floor yesterday late aft. and I went with him just to fool around and watch the people in the park. He has to work on the floor when the workers aren't there, so he will work today and tomorrow. Evan comes next Fri. for 2 weeks and he can be of a great help to Bob since he went to take the classes for the grinding and polishing.
Had friends in for dinner on Thurs. They built a house here and come down now frequently. They had us all for dinner last month and so we returned the favor. We had a great time. They were here until 11 and about 8:30 is our bed time!!
I'm trying to enclose the link that Nathan sent us. It's a program from National Geo. about commercial diving. We coudn't watch most of it because we can't download that much info at one time. He will be a "tender" for about 1-2 years. He starts school in JAX on Jan 31. His best buddy is coming in from NJ in mid Jan and they will put what is left in the house into storage and drive back to NJ. Laura, girlfriend, will fly to NJ around the 24th and they will drive to FL and she will fly back to MI as he starts school.
Still has not sold the house. Price is down to 74,000. Realtor is dropping it minimally each week in order to keep it at the top of the viewing list, but is afraid that if they drop it too much, the bank won't accept any offer that comes in.
I have uploaded, just as a joke, the holes in the floor for the job Bob is working on. We have to take them for the portfolio and one of my garden from several weeks ago. It was too warm for the broccoli to fruit, but it was just an experiment. Tomaotes are doing well and i expec to have radishes soon. The lettuce is fantastic. Spinach, chives, basil, etc are all doing well. Tell Lisa I'm using donkey poo that is marinating in water for 5 days on the garden. She went "shopping" for me. David actually suggested it because he had the memory card for us and it only weight 2 oz.
I seem to be rambling here. Too much coffee.
Anyway, send some pics of the snow and the Christmas trees. It just isn't Christmas without the snow.
luv,
Betsy

Well, I'm sitting out here on the porch in the dark. bob is watching something on the History channel about airports. Went to Concordia with some friends for breakfast this morning. Concordia is an eco friendly "camp"site here near us. It cost about 150/night, but it's quite unique. Anyway, they sent lots of us 25% off coupon for breakfast, so off we went, all 5 of us. It was good and a nice change - it's near Salt Pond, if you guys remember - pic attached.
Nathan is getting closer to dive school. He's real excited. Plans on leaving MI around the 15 Jan. Ed, his NJ buddy, is coming to MI to help him put stuff in storage and then he and Ed will drive to NJ and Laura will fly out thetre and he and Laura will drive to FL.'s
Herb and Kathy, got a nice note from Sara. Took a long time, but worth the wait. I think she is very happy. Stu just seems to "go with the flow". I think she's lucky to have him.
Have to stop soon as my curser has a mind of it's own and keeps jumping around the page.
love you all,
Betsy
'

It's almost December

Hi You Guys,

Betsy asked what Steve's wife Tracy was going to do in Hawaii. She is a DO and will be one of two doctors in a new, small clinic for the underserved on the island of Maliki (sp?). Steve is going to be a house husband for the time being. She signed a 2 year contract. We had a nice visit with them. They left about 8:15 a.m. and were going to take the route through the mountains home.

Glad to hear Bob has a job. That will keep him busy for a little while anyway. And it sounds like the basket making job would be fun, no stress and not too often. How did the world's largest pot luck turn out? Did you break the record?

The Last Feed

A new experience in my old age. No grandkids yet, so I helped a friend take care of hers. She likes them older-never had any of her own. "After all, they can't talk to you" this guy was so cute, but heavy - 15 lbs at one month. Mom was supposed to return in 3 or so hours and we could go have a girl lunch. Mom showed at 2:30!! Anyway, it was fun.

Going with some friends (picture attached) and Ron, if we can talk him into it, to Thankspigging today. This is supposed to be the last one. They are trying to get into the Guinness Book of Records for the world's largest potluck. Have to top 479 people. Wouldn't be surprised if we make it.

The guy below us is renting out his home and asked me to make up a "welcome basket" for the guests. He is paying for it, but it will be a test case for me. Just thinking about doing this kind of thing here on East End. Bob got a polishing job at a downtown restaurant. They accepted the estimate and I am now his little office manager again. Hopefully, he will start that soon as I think he is getting bored.

Garden is coming along nicely - tomatoes, radishes, chives, lettuce and spinach. Looking forward to harvest. Have a great turkey day everyone. Miss you all. love,b

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to all. Uncle Bob is coming up around noon to watch a little football and eat with us about 2 p.m. Darin will come then. Kyla is spending the night on Wednesday and Thursday. She likes to help with the "feast meal" and then we plan to start to decorate for Christmas on Friday since we will not be home many weekends between now and then. Ashley has to work until 3:30 p.m. so she will eat when she gets here. Ryan has to work Wednesday and Thursday night, so he and Tracy will come around 4 a.m. on Thursday and will have to go back to St. Simons Island for work by 7 p.m. Then on Sunday, everyone is coming back and we'll do dinner all over again because Rick's nephew Steve and his new wife, married last August will be on their way home from the Naples area and the Keys. They are returning to Michigan and leave January 2nd for Hawaii where his wife just got a job while on their honeymoon there.

I bathed Baxter today so he'll look pretty for his holiday company. It's been in the 70s and 80s and only goes into the 50s at night, so it's been quite nice. In fact, I just came back from a bike ride. Rick has been hunting 3 times this year, but no deer yet. Next weekend he goes to Tampa, then we'll be here for the Healey club Christmas party, then the next weekend he goes quail hunting with Ryan and another guy and his son. Then it will be Christmas! Kyla's getting legos, the big castle set. I hope they find somewhere to keep it on a table or something. Darin will help her with them. He likes that kind of stuff and always enjoys doing puzzles and stuff with her. We have only been up to Dover once since Labor Day. Take care, Happy Day love, Marilynn

Halloween and the zoo

Michigan/Ohio Trip

Hi All,

Back home and broke. It's too many choices. I bet we went to WalMart 10 times!! Oh, we need this that and the other thing, not to mention Lowe's and Meijer. Managed to stay out of the Mall, however.

It was so much fun seeing everybody in Ohio. I wish we could have spent a little more time with Maddie and Caleb. They look great, healthy and "growing up". So glad Evan was with us. I think he really enjoyed seeing all you guys and "kibbutzing". Thanks for taking us to the Amish store - nuts, nuts and more nuts!! I think we have enough popcorn to last a lifetime!! Evan said his salsa from Lisa was gone in about 2 days. He said it was the best he'd ever eaten. We ate about 1/2 the jar of pickled green beans and I gave the rest to Nathan because we had to leave. They were great!! She should sell that stuff!

Weather has cooled somewhat here and we only have minimal projects here. We sold Evan's car, finally and we put the long-term rental on the market. We have great tanants, but it's becoming a bother, expecially when hurricane season is in full force. We will see how it goes. Real estate market here is just as slow as anywhere else.

All for now. Thought you would enjoy the pics.

luv,

B & B

Michigan Trip

We're home. The weather was nice, two days of sunshine and the 50s and one day of rain. The leaves were about 40% changed, so I hope you and Bob get to see them in full bloom. We had lunch with Morgan (Gary's daughter) and Andy and their new 5 month old daughter Harper Shay. She was being baptized on Sunday, but we were heading back. We saw Gary Nearman. He was home from Cleveland Clinic (10 days) to gain weight, get rid of the infection and prepare for lung and heart surgery. He has another day of doctor visits on October 18th at the Clinic. He will see five doctors and be evaluated. In the 10 days he has been home, he has been back to the local hospital with congestive heart failure 3 times.He is on constant oxygen. He has a large flapped hole in his side that Debi has to clean out every 8 hours. She can see his lung and get her whole fist in there with the gauze. The idea is that the infection is draining out of the body instead of in. He looks pretty bad. They both are depressed. I hope with all that he has been through since January that he makes it. The reunion was fine. Rick enjoyed talking to his old schoolmates. This was the 45th high school reunion and there were about 25 grads there, 12 deceased and the rest not found or just didn't come. He had 67 in his graduating class. Thursday we leave for Orlando for the American Dental Association annual meeting. Last year it was in Hawaii. We'll be there until next Wednesday. Rick will be in meetings all day and then there will be receptions and dinners at night. There will be two nights when he'll wear his tux. I'm wearing the same dress too, so I won't need to send a picture. I don't know what I'll do all day. In Hawaii I went to the beach and walked around the shopping area. I'll take my suit, but it has finally started to feel like fall. The weather report says low 60s to low 80s for the next week. Hot dog! Baxter loves this weather. I leave the porch door open and he goes out whenever he wants. He'll be in the kennel when we are gone. Ryan left today for South Carolina with Tracy. Her brother is getting married this weekend. Kyla is getting As and Bs. She is tired of gymnastics and wants to try karate. I don't think she will like karate, too much standing still. We'll see. Got those pumpkins out yet? Take care, have a safe trip, love, Marilynn

LinkedIn

Mackinaw Island

Well, we made it home safely. We had a good time. The weather was great for the guys. The women arrived on Monday and we had excellent, cool weather for the Traverse City area. Went to the Sleeping Bear Dunes, Leland, Charlevoix. There were 8 of us in 2 cars. Then on to Mackinaw Island. It was beautiful when we arrived on Wednesday. Thursday when we were going to bike and see the fort, it was blowing like crazy and raining. There were now 16 of us, so we shopped and drank. Friday we headed out after buying fudge for the staff. I called Bert and he helped us find mom and dad's gravesite. Excellent directions, we stopped there, took a look and Charlie and Bernice's old place (now painted gray), Jim and Norma's old place and the schoolhouse lot. The original merry-go-round was still there, but the house (trailer) was a disappointment. I would have liked to find a cool house there. We flew home on Saturday, left out of Traverse City, spent 4 hours in Detroit airport and finally got in the house at 11:30 p.m. The leaves were just beginning to turn, but you could see the difference when we returned to the Traverse City area. A lot had changed in just a few days. The group we were with (Woehler Study Group), mostly from Florida, Texas and South Carolina couldn't believe how beautiful it was in Michigan and how clean and all the lakes. They all think of Detroit when they think of Michigan.

We are going to Bay City on Thursday for Rick's 45 year high school class reunion. We'll be back on Sunday. Gary Nearman is supposed to be home from Cleveland Clinic so I hope we will be able to see him too. Denny Poirier is running for Michigan State House Representative, so we'll see his signs around town. The election is in November, he was unopposed in the primaries.

Ryan and Tracy took Baxter up to Brunswick with them while we were gone. They brought him back last night and went with us to the Jaguar game this afternoon. We lost and they played terrible.

That's all for now. love, Marilynn

Happenings on STJ

Good day, today. We were talking on the porch. I mentioned to Bob that I thought we should think about selling the rental house. Funny, he says, I was just thinking the same. Met with a realtor yesterday. now we will meet with the tenants on Sunday and let them know our intentions. Hopefully, they will stay in the house. Could be a year or more before it sells. Stopped by to see a friend at her little shop in Coral Bay about getting my hair cut and to give her a piece of driftwood from the beach for her art work. She had 3 pair of shoes, her old ones, that she said she would give to the first person who came up to the shop. luckily, they were my size. I took two pair. Bob got a call today from someone here on the East End about concrete polishing the deck. Went to look and talk on the way in to town, but looks like he will have to use some other method. It's just not viable for polishing and the concrete and house are very old. Hope he gets the job. He'll put down a topping which will make the old concrete look great. These people have been here since the '70's and they own 4 rental houses here on St. John. Very nice people.

Marilynn, hope the MI trip was great. Looks like on the national weather that the leaves are changing in the UP. Send some pics.

Herb, I think the computer is fine now. Bob installed an anti spyware program the other day and now it quarantines all the emails and lets us look and decide who we "let in". Strange, we got an email from Nathan saying he had been taking the ACAI slim pill for the last 2 weeks and had lost 21 pounds. You can imagine the email I sent him as to caution. He wrote back and told us he didn't send it, that it was SPAM. How did that get in if we had the spyware on there?

Have to go. Dinner is calling the chef.

Ron is coming back on island today. He hasn't been here since Feb. Says he is going to put the roof on the pool house.

Looking forward to the MI and OH visits.

love,

b

LinkedIn

stranger than fiction

6:40 a.m. Taking a walk this morning and on the way back, our "neighbor", the guy renting the house below us, stops us on the road (he's driving) in the Privateer Development, and wants to know how we are and we say where are you going? Did you get a new car? He says, "no, it's Jeannie's", like we are supposed to know who Jeannie is. We look, curiously. He responds that he has company for the week. "Good for you", we say. This is a 47 yr old batchelor looking to find himself. He's been here since May. Then he asks if we have seen Jeannie perhaps walking on the road. He awoke this a.m. only to find her gone. NO. He drove up and down the roads a couple of times after that. Wonder if he ever found her......

How ludicrous is that, asking your neighbors if they have seen your girlfriend!!!

I'll keep you posted.

Attached is a pic of "our neighbor" with Marie, the boat captain when we went snorkeling at Flanagan several weeks ago.

Herb and Kathy, think we might be able to see Sara and Stu when we come for a visit?

tales from the Far Side

hi Guys,

This is kind of a funny story. I went to Connections (mail center) the other day, early to drop off important mail, one doc. to the IRS. We had lunch at Skinny's and waited for the mail to come in. After lunch, I checked in with Vicky and noticed that the two plastic boxes containing our "out mail" were still full. so, Vicky, what about the mail going out? Oh, yea, I was kind of spacy and so was the mail lady when she came in, so we both forgot and she didn't pick up the outgoing mail. Vicky assured me that the mail would go sometime that day as so and so was going in to Cruz Bay and would drop it off at the PO. That's how things happen here. So, when I mark a bill "pd", I usually date it 2 days hence.

We are missing Igor and Julia, thank goodness.

Going to MI Oct. 12 to 26th. Seems like that is very soon. Maybe we can play some golf. going to see Herb and Kathy, David and family. that should be fun.

the pool pump broke, but my genius husband ordered a new part and it came in today and he fixed it!!

Marilynn, have a great trip to Traverse and Mackinaw Island. Don't eat too much fudge. I'm sure Bob is soooo jealous!! Take lots of pics. I'm sure the colors will be beautiful!!

Herb and Kathy, didn't tell you, Nathan is short selling his house and is going to a commercial diving school in Jax, FL beginning Jan 31. He's very excited. He's driving down with his girlfriend and she will fly back. Hope they make it thru the 5 mo. separation. Looking forward to visiting you soon.

I can't seem to put more than one image on the post at a time. Problem?

How much work is it to install a new hard drive on our laptop?

love

b

. .

Labor Day

Wow, was I ever glad to hear from Betsy. We have been up at Dover Bluff for the weekend. We left Friday and just returned. I was hoping I would hear from you. From our weather reports, it looked like you were going to see the brunt of Fionia and the one that followed. I was going to try calling your house phone when I returned if I didn't get and e-mail (no service at Dover). Anyway, I'm glad to hear that you have a phone that works even if the electricity is out. Did you take your satellite dish down too? Quite an experience living in the hurricane zone! Your house is built like a fort, I don't think even a direct hit would move it. We were supposed to get big 8-10 foot waves last Thursday, but they never got that big. I went to the beach last Tuesday and it was real nice, good waves and nice wind, but not storm winds.

Pictures of Quincy and Bubba are sweet. You should put that picture of Bubba with the one of you Bert and the John Deere's.

We've had a busy weekend. We went to the Jacksonville Suns baseball game on Wednesday night, the Jaguars on Thursday night and then up to Dover Bluff on Friday. Rick fished in a tournament on Saturday with Butch and his brother Cleve. They caught 28 trout, so we ate trout last night with them and brought 4 or 5 meals home for the freezer. Saturday night we went to the clubhouse for a covered dish dinner and BBQ. Ryan and Tracy came over for a little while on Saturday, but they didn't stay long as they both had to work at 8 p.m. I think they were expecting a meal with us, but we were going to the BBQ at the clubhouse at 7 p.m. Yesterday Ryan came over by himself, Tracy was working. He took some freezer food with him and stayed for the trout dinner. I'm doing lots of laundry now, getting Rick's shirts ready for the work week. He leaves for Tampa Thursday evening and will be home Saturday evening.

Our freezer in the basement at Dover Bluff quit working sometime since we had been up there last. What a stinking mess. Mostly we just had a little bait shrimp in there, but boy did they stink. It's all cleaned up now, we left it empty and open to see if we can rid it of the smell. Some got on the cement floor too. We used bleach, simple green, spray, everything we had up there.

I painted the trim around the windows yesterday. The sun had faded the darker brown pretty bad, so they look so much better. We finally found the original paint and it was rusted around the can and top, but the paint inside was still good. We just transferred the paint to a clean container.

I'm going quilting tomorrow. I have a class for wall hangings. One for Halloween and one for the winter season (snowmen!) I can't believe Bert is talking about putting the stove on and cutting firewood. It sure doesn't feel like fall around here, we were at 89 today. Two weeks from today, we'll be in Traverse City, MI. I can hardly wait, now then we really will have cool weather. Rick has a meeting there and we will also go up the Mackinaw Island and spend two nights at the Grand Hotel, never been inside the hotel before.

OK, I've rambled on enough. How's Kathy enjoying her retirement? It always feels like the real thing after the rest of them have gone back to work in the fall.

Love,

Bubby at the Fair

Here's the pix of Bubby at the fair. Every day he went with his Mom & Dad he wanted to climb on the tractors, ... what a surprise! It's a beautiful fall day here, woke up to about 50 degrees and fired up the furnace, anxious to get the wood burning stove hooked up and working. Off to church here in a bit.

Catch you all later,

Good weekend in Ohio

Betsy,
Glad to know all is ok there in StJ, just too bad you have to go through all that. Consider buying a generator, less than $1000 and just run some lights and fridge and cistern pump.

Weather has broken here and we are in the 70's during the day and 50's at night, very comfortable. Kathy and I helped Chuck & Delores cut up 5 big trees this past week, we've got lots of firewood for winter warming, feel like a squirrel.

Here's a short video I took of Quincey laying in the Lilly of the Valley. Here's a picture of Bubby having a great time sitting on the tractor at the Morrow County Fair. Kathy and I worked at the Dairy Producers (Milk Shake) booth Tuesday, I worked at the Helpline booth Thursday and "the gang" all went back there last night for dinner.

Guess that's it for now, (it won't let me upload the Bubby picture). One more day in the weekend, maybe we'll cut or split some firewood, Amish are coming soon to take out some timber (lots of oak and walnut) and we are going to buy new kitchen cabinets with part of the proceeds.

Hurricane Earl

Morning All, Well, we made it thru this one just fine and now he is headed up the East Coast. It's very dark in here when all the shutters are up. No elec. for 4 days. Just so you guys know, we have a phone that doesn't require elec and that worked fine.The food thing was quite a hassle, coolers and ice and all. Cooked everything that was in the freezer except the wahoo. We should go shopping, but I hesitate because the containers for the stores were due to come in on the day of the storm. Makes me wonder how long stuff has been on the shelves by today. We were very lucky here in STJ. there was minimal damage to anyone's house. Some boats up on shore near Cruz Bay, but this end of the island experienced nothing except a lot of debris in the roads and having to replant, etc.

In the midst of all this, Nathan called Wed morning and said they had taken Julie to the hospital. she was complaining of stomach pains. At midnight, they called the Dr. and he had her sent to U of M in an ambulance. Long story short, there was nothing wrong with her. They kept her for observation and Evan went to get her the next day. We spoke to her on his phone as they were on their way back to Gilbert Res and she really had no idea what had happened. She has a boyfriend at Gilbert who waited in the foyer there for 4 hours for her to return.

Going to MI after Oct. 15. Herb and Kathy, would love to come see your new house.

Hope the fair is going well for David and Lisa. Sounds like an aweful lot of work!!

Marilynn, did Earl sweep by you guys? What about the house in Dover Bluff. Looked like you guys might get some winds from Earl.

Well, yogurt and fruit are calling. I'm trying to post more pics, but am having trouble.

love you guys,

b

August News

Hello all,

Yesterday was Ashley's 33rd birthday. That makes me feel old! We had Darin, Kyla and Ashley over for dinner on Friday for the birthday as yesterday was the 1st home Jaguar game. We left here at 5 p.m., went to the tailgate where it rained and rained and lightning and thunder. They delayed the game, but it continued to rain, so at 9 p.m. we left. The game started at 9:30 and didn't get over until I don't know when. We lost by 1 point.

Our trip to Michigan was okay. The wedding was hot as was the reception, inside, no AC. Sunday was a nicer day, weather wise. We saw our Bay City friends. Came home Monday.

We are staying home next weekend and then up to Dover Bluff for Labor Day weekend.

I took Kyla to meet her teacher Friday. She will be in 2nd grade and has an older teacher, 18 in the class. School starts Monday. Darin will take her Monday and I will take her Tuesday as the before-school day care doesn't deliver until Wednesday.

The retirement party looks like you had a great day and everyone was enjoying themselves, including Quincy.

Betsy, tell Bob that the people up the road fixed their post lantern last week. Everytime I pass it I think of Bob because he wanted to know why it was still laying on its side.

Looks like Betsy and Bob had a nice time sailing. It's a cool house from the other side too.

Looking forward to cooler weather. love, Marilynn

A Day at Sea

Here is Marie, our captain. Bob and i took sailing lessons in the ANTS program (Adults and the Sea) about a year ago. We became friendly. She just turned 70 and gave herself one ear piercing and a small diamond for her birthday. We went to her birthday party at her beautiful home here on East End. She sailed down here by herself about 15 years ago. She captians this boat for the owner and takes people on short cruises. She had to get the boat moving, so invited us to go to Flanigan and go snorkeling with our neighbor who is renting the house just below us. Got to see our house from Flanigan instead of always looking at Flanigan from our house. It's been many beautiful days together. Hope you enjoy the pics.

Storm's a comin!! will wait another 24 hours and see what develops.

Hope all is well with you guys. Enjoyed the video, Herb and Kathy, of Quincy and the retirement party.

luv,

b

Retirement Party

We had a good time with about 25-30 people at the party.

It rained early on, (real hard) but it stopped after about an hour. We cooked brats and dogs and then did SMORES out at the bonfire later after dinner.


That's Chuck, our next door neighbor with a 43" White Amir that washed up on shore yesterday. He put this fish in the pond back in 1966. It's a algae eater.

We had fun with Quincy today taking him for a "run" by driving the golf cart and holding his leash. He did "super"

Quincey Runs Off Leash!!

Check out this link for the YouTube video of Quincey's first time "off-leash". Immediately after running home to the door, (but before we got there to let him in), his nose got the better of him and he took off running into the woods.

I had to leave for a meeting at church and it took Kathy about an hour to find him (remember he can't hear)

Quincey Goes For A Walk

Here's a video of Quincey going for a walk with Kathy.

Getting Ready For The Party

We're getting ready for a party this weekend, invited about 30 folks to come on out for a BBQ. Pix shows just burning some brush after tidying up around the property.

Also took Quincey for a ride on the golf cart. He got right up there and is very comfortable, must be used to riding in a car.

Trip to Michigan

Here's a link to the Taq Falls State Park site where we went when we were in Michigan. The video I made is too large to upload to this blog.

Here's a pix of "Quincey" our new dog that we saved from the pound. He's deaf and blind in one eye and now the pound had him neutered! He's 10-12 years old and he's real sweet.

When we bought the house we knew it needed chimney work and the guy finally came and started this past week. Here's a pix. He took it down to the roof and is rebuilding it back up with all new flashing. This pix shows it not done. At this point he's taken down the outside brick and much of the inside brick and will start to lay all new.

Great Trip To Michigan

Kathy and I returned from our trip to Michigan this afternoon. We were gone from last Wed to today (Tuesday). We spent Wed nite in Westland with Kathy's sister and Mike. Then Thursday morning we headed up to St. Helen (Roscommon County) near Houghton Lake and spent the rest of the time with Pam and Mike at their old mobile home in the woods. Each day we took small "day trips" and cooked at home and went out to eat only once. I shot a short video of our day trip to the Upper Peninsula where we drove all the way up to Paradise and the Whitefish Point Bay lighthouse. We stopped at Taquaniman Falls on the way back and had a great day.

Before we left for up north we went to the dog shelter and made the committment to adopt a dog. He's (Quincy) is 10-12 years old and deaf and blind in one eye. He's a coon hound. I'll try to get a decent pix of him and upload it. Right now he's out on the screened porch because we just brought him home from the vet where he was neutered and he's a little nervous so we thought he should be left to rest out there. We've had to put an "E" collar on him so he won't lick the incision and dissolve the stiches.

Well, I guess the video was probably too long and didn't load up, I'll post some still shots later. Bye for now

Cinderella

I took Ashley and Kyla to the dinner theatre on Saturday to see Cinderella. Lots of pretty princesses. Kyla got her face painted and during the play the King's men walked through the audience to try on the glass slipper and they stopped at Kyla. That was a big thrill, of course, it didn't fit. During intermission the children were invited to get up on the stage and get their picture taken.

The red shouldered hawk was in our backyard while I was getting ready on Saturday morning. He was picking up and dropping that stuffed duck of Baxter's. Finally, he took off with it, flew about 50 feet and dropped it. I did the retrieving. I told Baxter the day before to bring his duck inside that it would get all wet if it rained, but he doesn't listen any better than the rest of my children. Rick and I have finally finished the whole right hand side of our backyard fence. It was 24/8' sections. New posts, stringers and 5/8" slats. That fence should last another 20 years or more. We'll do the other side and the back when it cools down a bit.

I'm going to lunch with Ruth Ann Jackson, she used to live across the street from us on Watson. Her husband passed away a couple of months ago and we went to the funeral. We hadn't seen her or Andy in sometime, but she's excited to catch up.

Take care, love, Marilynn