Uncle John's Cider Mill

Last Sunday David and I visited Uncle John's Cider Mill, an attraction a few miles north of home.  The drawing factor was their corn maze. I had never done one before and had been excited to try it.

This is an aerial view of the maze:

We entered the "maze" and soon figured out we were just going around and around the ghost-figure at the top left. Haha. Ah, yes. We're bright. (They trick you with an "Enter Here" sign!) After finding the real maze entrance, we soon got lost and finally decided to retrace our steps back to the beginning, which we successfully accomplished, and used a print-out they gave us at the entrance to navigate our way through. That was much more fun.

Also while at Uncle John's, we enjoyed a ride through their apple orchard on a horse-drawn wagon. And, of course, we had to try out their homemade donuts and apple cider. We also took a walk down their nature trail, then finished the afternoon sling-shooting apples.

A great afternoon of fun.

The Crane Fest

Last Sunday David and I traveled a few miles south to Bellevue, MI to witness part of the Sandhill Crane migration.

On our drive there, all we really knew was that we were headed to a "Big Marsh Lake" that Sandhill Cranes visit in droves during their migration south. A church member had told us about it. What we didn't realize is there is a Crane & Art Festival centering on this migration that hundreds of people attend.

So, though completely unexpected, we took advantage of the many attractions: a guided nature walk, art exhibits, birds of prey exhibit, and hillside nature chats. Of course, the main attraction was the Sandhill Cranes, which were flying back to the marsh for the evening from grazing in the nearby fields. Here are some shots we took from our hillside vantage point, while sitting on a picnic blanket, munching on festival caramel corn.

Cider Pressing

Last Sunday, David and I had the opportunity to visit church members who own a cider press. Apparently, this time of year, they spend Sunday after Sunday pressing apples from their yard to make wonderful tasting, fresh cider.  Various people come over to help and leave with a jug of cider or a basket of apples.

Cutting the apples in half to look for bad cores.

David turning the press.

 The apple halves go into that big box on the top which runs down into a blender and the apple pieces are dropped in the bucket to the right. From there, the bucket is switched out for the left one and then is pressed down, with the liquid pouring out into the bucket at David's feet.

Straining the freshly pressed cider.

And there it is! MmmMmm good.

Color Cruise Island Festival

A neighboring town, Grand Ledge, had a "Color Cruise Island Festival" this weekend. It sounded fun, so I promptly talked David into going with me for our weekly Sunday "Couple Time." 

The event was on a very skinny but long island in the middle of the river where there were a number of exhibits including basket weaving, rope making, kettle corn popping, fur trading, wool spinning, pumpkin painting and more.  Some exhibits and exhibitors showed us glimpses of how life was back in the "old days."  There was also a stage for musical shows and a cruise down the river displaying the colorful fall trees, complete with an eccentric pianist. 

An old Fire Truck

Blacksmith Exhibit

Living the American Dream

Grand Ledge receives its name from the tall rock ledges that line the river. David and I went trail hiking down this river path.

Of course, the festival couldn't be complete without Country Gospel Clogging!

June-July Recap

June and July have been busy months and though July is not over yet, and I have nothing exciting planned for the remainder of it, I feel safe re-capping on the months now.

June began with a not-so-fun dentist appointment and ended with a much needed "office closed" to recuperate from a hectic campmeeting.  In between were three massages (I get 30 free massages a year with the conference insurance!), two birthdays, an anniversary, a wedding, two holidays and mom's knee surgery. Oh, and did I mention campmeeting?  The wedding, as blogged about below, was a highlight.  Seeing my great friend and cousin, Zach, marry his bride in a beautiful ceremony was touching. Standing up for him was a joy.  Hanging out with the groomsmen... well... :) 

The moment we flew back to MI, David was off to Camp Pitch, a week of preparing the site for campmeeting, and I started back at work on my preparations for the campmeeting seminars, the role my department manages during that week.  I joined him on Friday and then started the busy week of handling overcrowded seminar rooms, changing seminar signs every 2 hours (more time-consuming then one would imagine), unloading more chairs for the overcrowded seminars, riding around on my conference appointed golf-cart and talking on my conference appointed radio.  On the first Sunday of campmeeting, by bosses wife had a TIA and they left for the week for doctor visits and tests. She has recuperated well and there are no lasting effects. Praise God.  In the meantime, that left me "baptized by fire" as one pastor put it, into the seminar coordinator role.

David was the early morning speaker, so that meant 5:30am mornings to wake-up, prepare, and pray before his message at 7.  Although it was a struggle to wake-up, they proved to be blessings to me.  These were the only meetings I was able to attend throughout the week due to my job.  The weekend ended with Mark Finley giving powerful messages on the Holy Spirit, and camp strike, the Sunday where we all pitch in to take down the camp. 

The remainder of June and the rest of July held the following highlights:

--A day off from work means a party at our house. We had the Ramoses, old friends of David's and a pastoral family in the Upper Peninsula (UP) of MI,

 stay with us for a night after campmeeting. With other friends joining us for our conference appointed day-off  we filled our home with fun and games from morning until evening.

--4th of July.  Thursday night we joined Stephanie, a friend from work, at the Lansing church for fireworks and ice cream.  Although I typically love both, the ice cream is really the only thing worth mentioning.

George didn't like the fireworks too much.

--Due to the holiday, we had Monday off as well, and you know what that means... party time of course.  The Ramoses came down again from the UP on Sunday and that evening with three additional friends from the previous weekend, we again enjoyed the followship, laughter, games, and food. Monday in particular held an eventful situation.  Determined to go canoeing whether or not we had the consent of the weather, we headed out on a 45min. trek down the river in rented canoes. With us were two dogs, a toddler, and a baby.  

It wasn't long after we began our trek that the rain started, complete with thunder and lightening. Disembarking on the shore wasn't much better with the pirana-like mosquitoes, so we set sail again to brave the rain.  That didn't last long. We soon found ourselves huddling in our canoes under the trees, and finally decided to visit the nearby homes in hopes of a friendly stranger.  We were successful. 

Before too long, the canoes were picked up and we were back home, drier and hungrier. Grilling our boca burgers outside was out, so instead we fired up our gridle and made a picnic feast indoors.  

The party continued on until the Ramoses left that Wednesday, but was easily picked back up a few hours later when:

--Meghan and Carissa came to visit! I was privileged to have both Meghan and Carissa come to visit that following weekend and what a delight.  

It had been two years since the three of us had been in the same place at the same time and Carissa hadn't even met David! So a fun time was had and Sunday came too quickly when I had to see them both off. 

--Twice over the past couple weeks I was able to visit the Historic Adventist Village in Battle Creek.  Pictures from both visits are below, with thanks to Stephanie and Carissa. :)

Photo-op with the nurses at the Kellog Sanitarium.

Trying out Kellog's inventions for increasing blood circulation.  This one in particular is a foot vibrator.

A vibrating chair to "loosen the bowels"

First home owned by the White's and where Ellen wrote Spiritual Gifts Vol. 1

The gravesite of the Whites.

We love Kellog's cereal.

--The very next week was VBS.  Every day after work David and I were off to the church for our respective roles.  He the devotional speaker and I the food preparer.  Hmm, maybe I am growing into the pastor's wife role.  But snacks like bugs-on-a-log, lady-bug-special, earthworm delight, and bird-nests, weren't difficult. Especially when they're prepared ahead of time and there are two other people in charge. :)

So that leaves me with last week, a fairly standard work week with nothing super special about it, and that may be a good thing.  It left me with time to try out old family recipes like Gr-ma Iris' sweet & sour loaf and Gr-ma Dolores' zucchini bread.  It gave me time to organize the house just a little bit more, an inexhaustible task for me.  And it gave me time to do more simplifying--another garage sale box in the making.  So I am happy.  God is good.  Very very good.