Cold, Rain and Blah...

Most of the last week was fairly decent. Not a ton of weather and temperatures remained fairly warm. Much cooler than we could have hoped for though. :P Along with this weekend came lots of changes. It has rained non-stop since yesterday afternoon. Temperatures made it into the low 60s yesterday and have no made it out of the high 50s so far today. We have received well over an inch of rain since yesterday afternoon and it does not look to stop until sometime tomorrow.

Looking out the window...you sure can tell we have had a lot of rain this summer. Everything on the ground is still extremely green. The trees are starting to show a bit of tint away from the green...but for the most part they are hanging onto the chlorophyll. Away from the house there are quite a few trees that are already losing their leaves...I am curious what that might mean for us weather-wise. I did see everyones favorite winter indicator the other day. A wooley worm was crawling on the sidewalk here at the house. It was black from head to toe! From what I read on the Farmer's Almanac website, a black wooley worm means a tough winter. That is a fairly different forecast than what all the long range meteorologists are saying. They say that El Nino is going to grip us through the winter causing a warmer than normal winter...possibly with less precipitation. I wanted to make sure I am not lying so I just went out and did some research. The Climate Prediction Center (CPC) has a few maps related to their winter forecast. Our area is going to be right on the edge of the above normal/normal temperatures. It also is in the equal chance area for above or below normal precipitation. They sure are not very clear...but guessing that far out is impossible. My research was done here. I did not spend much time on it...but I summed it up pretty good I think. :) So...it is looking like Winter 2009-10 might not shape up that bad for us. I REALLY hope it is warmer than last year! We had some incredibly long stretches of extremely cold if you remember. :P

I have been getting the bug lately. The snowmobiling bug. My wallpaper on my PC at work is a picture of my new sled sitting in a sunset...and all I have done this weekend is watch riding videos on YouTube. :P I have to say I really have not seen any that truly impress me. Everyone just wants to jump their sleds...show me some carving and scenery too please. ;) My goal this winter is to make some videos to place online. I just need a decent video camera before I can do that. ;)

It took me longer to write the last paragraph than it did for the rest of the post...so I am quickly losing focus. :P One note before I leave for tonight...I will try to get the OutdoorsMI webcam back up soon. I have a PC to run it now...I just need to put it somewhere that will not get in the way. ;)

Goodnight from Northern Michigan!

-Derek

100 Day Mark!!!!

I am getting really stoked for this snowmobile season! There are only 100 more days. That really is not much reason to be excited...but MAN my favorite time of year is finally approaching. Fall cools down (even though the whole summer has been cold, the leaves turn, Halloween shows up, then Thanksgiving and finally some snow (hopefully)! How can you not like this time of year? All the good holidays and weather are just on the horizon! Not to mention I will be married three whole years in December. Hard to believe it has already been three years!

The week was fairly slow outside of work. It was a busy week in the office for sure. A lot of projects are wrapping up and a lot of new projects are getting rolling full force. Some old projects are just finally getting moving quick too! I must admit my project management skills were seriously lacking...but I think I have a pretty good grip on what I need to do in order to get things done. I think in the past I had trouble getting a bit upset about things...and in turn I let all the projects step all over me. Not anymore baby! Enough about work.

Every day this week was HOT except for Friday. The humidity was killer too! Wednesday the rain started...and it kept falling through last night. We saw some breaks and occasional sun...but most of the week was cloudy and rainy. This did not help with getting outside! :P So instead we spent the evenings packing a lot of our "crap" that we do not use. It will go into the back room and not be touched until we buy a house. Things were just getting a bit cluttered.

Well, obviously I do not have much to write about since I am blabbing about packing up all of our old stuff. I will stop for now...hopefully I will have some interested posts or some pictures to post. Speaking of pictures...I was supposed to upload a bunch to Picasa the other day. Unfortunately, my SD card crapped out and I lost a ton of my pictures that I had taken over the last few months. Dang it! So I will start a collection again and get them uploaded ASAP.

Cross your fingers that the clouds move soon!

-Derek

A Quiet Weekend...

Not a heck of a lot was going on in Northern Michigan over the weekend...at least that I was interested in. There was the Kid Rock concert...I would not pay to see that if it were the last entertainment on earth...there was the Festival by the Bay in Petoskey as well. We drove through town but it was too busy for our liking. I am sure there were a number of other events going on...but I only had one thing on my mind. I wanted to fly my new stunt kite! :P

The kite strings that came with the kite worked their way into a tangled mess when I first tried to fly it, so we got in the car on Sunday and shot up to Mackinaw. On the way there we ran into a bit of excitement. Just North of Pellston a bunch of emergency vehicles were making their way through traffic and pulling into the airport. Naturally, I pulled off to the side of the road to let them by me. Once they passed I drove a bit further and there were probably 30 or so cars lined up along side the road. My first thought, since people were watching, was maybe it was some kind of drill...or maybe even the end of some kind of parade. I pulled into the township hall and asked a bystander what was going on. She replied "I think this airplane is going to crash in a minute." So I looked around...and everybody was standing outside of their cars with cameras and cell phones pointed to the sky. All I kept thinking to myself is "How can all of these people...when someones life is in danger...stand here and gawk and stare like they are watching a movie on television? How is it that no one seems concerned for those in the plane?" So we turned the car around and started out the driveway. Another thought came to mind. "What if the plane hits us?" Hehe. That scared me a bit...but as we were about to leave the plane gently glided onto the grass next to the runway. As we watched it come down I realized there was no landing gear. So apparently the plane had some issues and the guy flying it was pretty darn talented and new how to land his plane without wheels. :P I congratulate him for that! There was no fire, smoke or explosions...so I am sure all the people who were ready with video cameras were a bit disappointed. I am very happy for all who were aboard the plane though. I read the article in the paper today and everyone was just fine. The plane had apparently taken off from Harbor Springs shortly before experiencing electrical issues and having to land without gear in Pellston. I am just glad to know that everyone was okay...including a 79 year old man.

Anyway...to the kite strings. We went to Mackinaw to the Mackinaw Kite Co. and found some strings with some help from one of the women working. She was very nice and even showed me how to properly tie the strings to the kite. It all made sense once I saw it done... :P I felt a bit stupid for trying to get them tied the way I did the other day...but I was not discouraged. We made our way to Sturgeon Bay by way of Carp Lake. We wound our way to the state park and found HUNDREDS of people...and cars...lined up along both sides of the road by the beach. That was a bit disappointing because we could not even find a place on the beach to sit for a few minutes. We crossed over onto the dunes side of the road and got the kite ready to rock and roll. Within a few minutes it was in the sky...and then *THUD*. Not bad for a first try. Next try...up in the air...*THUD*. Dang it. Third time is a charm...up in the air...maybe for a minute and then *THUD* again. It was kind of a never ending process until we both got frustrated...and on the last flight it stayed in the sky for a couple minutes. Of course then...*THUD*. So we packed it up...feeling extremely accomplished...and hit the road to Cross Village. We took M-119 all the way back to Harbor Springs and went home.

So the weekend was not a complete loss...it was relaxing and gave us a chance to just hang out.

Goodnight from Northern Michigan!

-Derek

Emmet County ORV Ordinance Passes!

Well, everyone did it! Unfortunately I was not able to make it to the meeting...but everyone that did voiced enough opinion to get the ordinance passed. There is a 60 day waiting period before the ordinance goes into affect. That part is kind of hokey since we will be into the middle of October before anyone can ride. BUT it will be here in time for everyone to get hunting gear setup. There are more details to follow from the county...and a map of ORV trails/roads. I just wanted to drop in and let everyone know that it DID pass. More this weekend.

-Derek

Countdown To The Ride!

Help me count down to the first ride! You can keep an eye, down to the minute, on the clock to the right of your screen. I am looking to gather comments to start getting excited about the upcoming snowmobiling season. Trails open December 1st and I am pumped! My first full year driving the 09 Ski-Doo MXZ Renegade! This year it had better work as intended! As you remember I had it in the shop for nearly a month last year to get part of the engine rebuilt due to a factory defect.

If anyone wants to put together a Northern Michigan ride for the better days of the season...email me at outdoorsmi@gmail.com. Maybe we can even beat the Moose Jaw numbers? Possibly we can take donations for a non-profit or something. I know John Dee does something very similar in the U.P. and he does very well with it. It would be nice to show support through something we all love to do. Shoot me an email if you would be interested in helping to put something together.

-Derek

I Said I Would Be Busy...

Note: 120 days until trails open! (Dec. 1st)

Note: Aug. 13th ORV Meeting @ Emmet County Fairgrounds.

It turns out I was right. :P My last post was July 17th! Here it is...August 2nd. Getting things back in line after vacation took a bit longer than I expected...and it has actually been fairly nice out so I have been spending much of my time outdoors. Since most of my pictures are now dated...I will just throw them up to my picasa site for everyone to view. They will be categorized by date...and I will try to put in a brief description of what was happening when I took them. That really kind of defeats the purpose of having the blog...but I do not have time to go through and right all the posts it would take to explain everything. My picasa site is http://picasaweb.google.com/dallerding.

This weekend was fairly uneventful. My parents were up to help me cut trees down around the house so that we can get upgraded DirecTV equipment (and for fire wood of course!). Good times! So yesterday morning we woke up fairly early and started hacking them down. Everything went very well! When we were done I decided that one more tree should come down...but on my way back over to my saw I was stung somewhere in the range of 7-9 times by bees. There was a ground nest where my saw was. So my leg was a little bit sore yesterday...and even when I woke up today. I am just glad I am not allergic to the little demons. I sprayed today to either kill them or get them to move. I feel bad doing that...but I just cannot have them where I need to be. It had been many many years since I had been stung by a bee until last Sunday when I was disc golfing at Boyne Mountain. I was walking in some taller grass and got nailed on my left shin. Then yesterday I got one on the calf of my left leg...and roughly 7-8 on my right leg. We decided that was enough wood cutting...it was starting to rain by that point anyway.

So I mentioned disc golf...last Sunday was my second time out for the year. We shot over to Petoskey's course the weekend before. Boyne Mountain is a great place to play. As far as difficulty goes...it is not too easy. The course is very well kept so the chances of losing a disc are minimal. Usually you get to right the chair lift to the top...(as I probably mentioned last Fall) but this time we were shuttled by van because the lift was closed for the day. It was the first time I had seen others playing that course the same time that we were. There were two other groups that went ahead of us. I hope to get some more disc AND ball golfing in before the summer is over...Fall is quickly approaching.

I believe I am going to start my winter hobby up soon...I have never done it but I am goinig to try to make some beer. If I get good at it...my beer cost basically goes right out the window. It is also a decent skill to have so when they ban alcohol again...my basement will be ready. *laugh* In my retirement years I would absolutely love to start a small brewery. By then who knows what will be legal and what will not. Only three more years until we start deciding who our next president will be. Anyway, if anyone has any good beer making tips...post them to the comments section. :) I am sure I, along with others, would love to hear them.

That about sums things up for now...I really will try to post more frequently so I do not just give up like I did with this post. ;) My ambition level today is low due to my wife being fairly sick. She has some kind of swelling behind her ear...and it sounds very painful. She has been dealing with it for two days now...and started meds yesterday. I am really hoping that by tomorrow things start looking up so we can get back out and enjoy some August activities. Last year this weekend we were in Paradise, MI camping. I would love to try and get out to do some camping.

Thats it from me for now...watch for new pictures being uploaded.

Goodnight from Northern Michigan!

-Derek