Happy Belated Memorial Day...

I have been slacking a little bit since my last post. Last week was fairly rough...and thus far this week is even worse! However, I will spare you the details and just write a quick bit.

Over the weekend we celebrated my moms birthday along with Memorial Day. I avoided most other contact with people since I wanted a nice quiet weekend to enjoy. We started the weekend at a local bar called The Side Door Saloon. I had an olive burger! You must get one if you go there. They are one of the cheapest items on the menu...but they are pretty darn good. Had a few beverages and took off for home.

On Saturday we did nothing but work on the pool. The sand filter water valve cracked in MANY different places over the years. I spent last week sealing it shut so we could get it up and running. So Saturday we got the pump and filter going and start clearing out all the algea and other sludge (dead frogs) from the pool. It was pretty gross. A bunch of pool shock and a day later it was looking pretty good. There is still a bit of sludge in the bottom...but it will be crystal clear in a few days.

On Sunday I...I have to take a quick second to make note of something Andrew Zimmern just said. "It tastes like a rabbit that mated with a chicken and had a baby." Yup...take a second and picture it. :)

On Sunday I played golf for the first time of the season. I would like to think that my game improved over the winter...magically. It was pretty bad...but it was fun. I played with my dad at Maple Ridge in Brutus. A somewhat challenging and nice course. It has certainly improved over the last few years. It may help that it is spring too! That night we had a camp fire and celebrated my moms birthday with burgers cooked on the charcoal grill. They turned out pretty good!

On Monday I played another round of golf...this time with a couple of my friends. The wife tagged along too. We played in Vanderbilt at Black Bear. That was a nice course. We played all 19 holes...my arms were noodles by the end of the day. The first 9 holes went well...but after that I let my mind get the best of me and I could not hit anything. We went home from there...and I was asleep by 8:30 PM. :P

Well, that is pretty much the update for the week. I will possibly write a bit tomorrow since it is supposed to rain and be miserable. Stay tuned!

Goodnight from Northern Michigan!

-Derek

NWTF

I had never heard of the NWTF, when Friday afternoon my buddy called and asked if I would like to go to a dinner for them.  I asked, "What does NWTF stand for?"  He replied, "National Wild Turkey Federation."  Ahhh that made sense.  I did not know Northern Michigan had a NWTF chapter.  They are the Little Traverse Bay Gobblers.  It was some free food so I snagged the wife Saturday afternoon and we met my friend and went to the dinner.  It was not that bad!  We were very over dressed for the occasion.  We had been to a Roffed Grouse Society dinner a few years ago...there is a big difference in the crowd that each group brings in.  However, there were still many upstanding people at the banquet...and none of them were afraid to show their passion for the NWTF.  Most of the auction items went for between $200 and $300.  The dinner tickets were $60 for single and $90 for double.  There were other little sales/auctions in between the major items and they went well as well.  Overall, I imagine they did very well.  Even I won something!  Nothing big, but a door prize of $10 for the new Parks Place Cafe in Conway.  In one of the blog postings I wrote about our North Country Trail trip...and we passed a place called Beach's Log Cabin.  They sold and now the place belongs to Charles Parks.  (Sorry if I am missing an E in Parks.)  He owns the funeral home a couple miles south from the restaurant.  I imagine we will be checking it out soon...I will give a full review once I have been there!

It has turned out to be a beautiful day.  For a few minutes last night I thought I was going to regret putting my snowmobile away!  We had a few flakes of snow falling around 9:30 PM last night.  It was in the mid 30s and trying to rain...but a little bit of the moisture fell in frozen form.  I did have to get the wood furnace fired up again today...I was hesitant because of how windy it is but I let it rip anyway.  I do not want to use any more gas than I have to this year.  We have lasted the entire winter on one tank of propane.  That includes a few days of laziness, all the times we were not here for a couple days, and all of the mornings when the fire had just used itself up overnight.  I personally think one tank is not that bad!  They came and filled it I believe in September or October last year.  So 8-9 months on one tank...not too shabby.  We did put a note on the tank not to fill it during the winter...it was a constant reminder to me that I needed to use wood and not burn the gas furnace.  I would say it worked!  On a normal winter we would probably have gone through 2-3 tanks.  I am proud of us because this was one of the longest and coldest winters in quite some time.  It was a darn good thing that I cut and extra row of wood though! ;)

I got wind of some potential golfing today...I have not heard anything yet but I will see how it pans out.  I have been trying to get something together for a few weeks now...I have not practiced at all yet. :P  Why ruin what might be a few good hits by confusing myself with how to hold the club all over again?  I was going to spend this summer having fun...golfing (both ball and disc), hiking, camping, etc.  If I end up buying a house...probably disc golfing and hiking will be my only spots to partake in.  They are free! :P

Anyway, enough out of me for now.  I am going to try to get the OutdoorsMI Cam back up at some point...my computer that runs it has been out of commission for a while.  I will hurry that process along if I can.  I might try to do something wireless so that I can put a cam in the woods.  That would be fun.  

Good morning from Northern Michigan!

-Derek

New Site...

I have still to work on the new site...it will happen though.  Once I get settled on something and move forward with it I will have it up and running.  My primary computer is not hooked up due to some fan issues...and I would much rather work on that PC than this one.  In fact, I think my web software is installed on that computer.  If so, this will be a quick build. :P

-Derek

Conficker...

I did forget to mention that I received the Conficker virus.  All is taken care of now...but it was a nuisance not being able to make it to any security sites to get rid of it!  Luckily everybody puts their tools on CNET for us to download! ;)  I only had it for a couple days...it came from North Central Michigan College.  The wife uses her flash drive to bring files back and forth...and the girl sitting next to her at NCMC said that she got a virus from the college.  Well, wife brought it home and infected us.  How grand!  BUT atleast it appears to be gone and all is good again in the world.  

I did use Norton Security Scan and AVG Free AV to get rid of it.  I assume this will surely help me decide to get a paid subscription to an AV service.  I believe in free...but I do not believe in how well it works. ;)  When it is free there is nothing to lose if you suck! 

-Derek

Rain, Cold and Not Much To Do...

Another week has gone by without much excitement in Northern Michigan.  Maybe I am just not looking hard enough for things to do...but with work and all the extra curricular stuff I have going...there is just not enough time in the day.  However, things are looking up around here.

The leaves are really starting to poke their heads out now.  When the wind blows it actually sounds like summer as the leaves rustle.  The ferns have lost their curly shape and are standing at full attention.  The woods is carpeted with green foliage and beautiful wild flowers.  We will soon be entering the full blown "pretty period" of spring.  That is where absolutely everything is flowering, the leaves are full, and the temperatures are warm enough to walk around without a coat on.  (Those that know me would say the middle of January is warm enough for me...but you get what I am saying.)

I did not make time for much outdoors this week.  I spent a couple extra minutes at work each day and by the time I got home I was ready for dinner and a nice quiet evening.  I look forward to a quiet weekend too. :P  If the rain stops I may go out mushroom hunting...but it just seems a bit to chilly for that right now.  In fact, I fired up the wood furnace this morning!  After nearly a month of being out of commission because of the dry weather and no green on the trees it gets used once more.  I usually do not use it this time of year because of the dry leaves on the ground.  I do not want to be responsible for a forest fire.  BUT it is raining nicely today so I figured it will not hurt much to get a small one going.  The chimney is over nearly 30 feet tall anyway...so most everything should be blown out by the time it would reach the top.  I suppose anyway...that is just my guess. ;)

Anyway...I think that about covers it for this morning.  If anyone out there rides ATVs in Cheboygan county shoot me an email.  outdoorsmi@gmail.com.  I would love to head out for a couple hours on the beast to see what it can do!

Good morning from Northern Michigan...

-Derek

Morel Mushrooms And Wild Leeks...

I went hunting today!  What I was hunting could not run away from me...and it did not take a gun, trap, or bow to kill it.  I was hunting for morel mushrooms and wild leeks.  I had success...sort of.  In all today I found 78 "caps" in around an hour.  They are also known as false morels...but from my research it turns out they are just an earlier species of morel.  Everyone has their own stories about false morels I guess...how they can be poisonous.  Well, all morels are poisonous if not prepared properly.  I have been told by a number of people that as long as they are cooked properly they will not pose a problem.  I did go out the other day and found 30 others...so my total for the weekend is 108.  There were only four "black" morels in the entire batch.  I am thinking that within the next week or so we will start seeing a number of black morels popping up.  I have discovered a couple new spots this year.  Others had been through as well...but missed a LOT of mushrooms.  I doubt some of the spots we went had been touched by foot in many years.  It was pretty cool.

My other hunt was for the wild leeks.  We have some growing back behind the house...but the supply is limited.  I wanted to find more.  I took to the woods after mushroom hunting and found a HUGE patch of them.  I need to find out about the property they are on though...if they belong to someone I do not want to touch them.  I may hit the state land around the house and check for them too.  I do not want to sell them or make money on anything from the woods....I just want to cook with them! :)  Nothing better than walking into the woods and coming out with a meal.  It is just too bad I feel weird killing squirrels. ;)

My spots will remain a secret...but certainly not undiscovered by others.  In fact, I saw some others on Friday night foraging through the woods near where we were hunting.  Weird for being so late...but I wished them luck and they went on their way.

Anyway, that is what I have been up to.  Nothing much more.  The leaves are just barely popping out but the ground is really starting to turn green.  Many of the early flowers are already nearing their peak.  Crazy!  We will see more popping up as the temperatures warm up.  We have been stuck in the cool region for a few days...in fact we are under a freeze warning for the next two days...then some rain and thunderstorms look to move into the area.  Certainly no snow though! :D  However, I was thinking about the snowmobile yesterday...I am kind of looking forward to getting back on it!!! :P  I will be summerizing all of the sleds today or tomorrow. 

Enough for now!  Pictures of my mushrooms can be seen http://picasaweb.google.com/dallerding.  They are not in the wild in the pictures...but it was my first days haul. (30 of them.)

-Derek

Signs Of Life...

After a couple weeks a extremely "blah" weather and scenery, things are really starting to look up.  The sun is shining today, the flowers are starting to pop out, and even the trees are start to bud!  So just in a short period of time this area has gone from the dullest and lease entertaining spot to a life creation "mall".  I use the word mall because there is a variety of different spots, just in our yard, that you can see different things.  In the back yard we have flowers.  They are either budding our have already popped.  You walk a bit further around the house and you will see a number of trees starting to pop their leaves out.  You will then run into the area that ditched the snow fastest and you see green grass that will be needing a good mowing soon.  Then finally you arrive in the front yard and there is a Robin nest right outside of our front door.  Literally ten feet.  They were a bit smarter this year and built it lower on our pine tree.  Unfortunately, we have had a number of cats around, but I think they have moved along.  So as long as the birds stay vigilant and do not get into to much trouble we should see some eggs soon.  Then of course we will hear the ungodly cry of baby birds 24 hours a day...but atleast they are not crows or ravens.  :P  Those are by far the worst.  

My projects lately have been fairly limited.  I cleaned up the yard just a little bit...I am extremely proud of my accomplishments from last fall.  98% of the leaves were picked up this year...so all I had to do was wake the grass up and pick up some leaves and stones that got thrown with the snow blower.  The snowmobiles are locked away in the garage, waiting to be summerized this weekend, and the four wheeler is in excellent riding condition.  I cannot wait to get that thing over to Cheboygan county to ride a bit.  

Anyway, no big updates for now.  We are still looking at houses and may have found one that will work out for us if they seller is willing to work with us.  We shall see!  It would put us a bit closer to town...and certainly take away my woods...but the convenience factor of it would make up the difference I believe.  There would be very little maintenance of the property and I could ride my bike to work in the summer...maybe even snowmobile in the winter.  That would be a good time.

There is a Gun and Knife show in Cheboygan today.  If anyone is over there...check it out.  Oh!  Speaking of that I did think of one big thing to talk about.  If you visit any of the local sporting goods stores...check out the ammo area.  There is absolutely NOTHING on their shelves.  I have very popular guns too...not anything obscure that would sell out fast.  9mm and 45.  It is pretty scary...I wish I could have stocked up when I started to buy last summer.  You have all heard of the ammo shortage...but I cannot even buy bullets for my guns!  Yay for Obama! 

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-03-29-ammo-shortage_N.htm

Let us see how scared everyone can get in the second 100 days. :)

Good morning from Northern Michigan!

-Derek