Author: turndoozie

The deed is done. I turned in my keys and security badges. I
am now retired. Sort of. I committed to teaching a seminar class with a friend
this fall and also to adjunct teaching at Lansing Community College this fall too.
But, pretty low key, something to keep me busy.

On the job in retirement.

Except for some pretty short periods of time, I’ve been in
the workforce since I was 12 years old. Sometimes with multiple jobs simultaneously.
Paper boy, theatre usher, grocery store bagger, U.S. Navy for six years, while
in the Navy I helped at a friend’s deli, a production technician manufacturing intercoms,
worked 17 years as a Technical Representative for Grumman Aerospace, while in
grad school I worked in the SPEA GIS lab and as meteorological tower engineer, did
spatial modeling and grant writing for the Indiana Biodiversity Initiative, a
year of adjunct work at Northern Michigan University, 16 years with Michigan State
University in the Michigan Natural Features Inventory, and while at MSU did more
adjunct work at Northern Michigan University and at Lansing Community College.

Between the U.S. Navy and Grumman Aerospace I have time on
four aircraft carriers; the Ranger, the Enterprise, the Kennedy, and the
America. I have more at sea time as a Grumman Rep than as a sailor. My various jobs
have taken me to eight states, Japan, Philippines, Singapore, Hong Kong,
Brazil, Spain, Diego Garcia, and Israel. I went through the Suez Canal and the
Malaccan Straits and became a trusty shellback when I crossed the equator.  

At one time, while working full time, I helped start a
nonprofit land trust and served as Board President, served as Board President for
another nonprofit, was working on my Physics degree, and earned a brown belt in
Judo.  Now that I’m not working I should
be able to really accomplish something. So it’s on to new adventures!

Just for laughs, following is the Bio that will go in the
retiree newsletter. Not sure where the first few sections came from. My only
input was the last line.

Edward Schools received his A.A.S. from Skagit Valley
College, and his B.S. in physics and M.S. in applied ecology from Indiana
University. Prior to his time with Extension he served in the U. S. Navy and
worked as a defense contractor. He has been with MSU Extension as the
Geographic Information Systems/Information Technology supervisor for the
Michigan Natural Features Inventory (MNFI) since October 2000.

Throughout his time at MSU, Mr. Schools’ motivations
consistently focused on the good of MNFI and his work reflected favorably on
MFNI, MSU Extension, and MSU. Mr. Schools met and exceeded expectations time
and time again with his strong leadership skills and high rate of productivity.

Over the course of his career, Mr. Schools was a key component
in accomplishing many goals that led to development in the MNFI program
including testing the Biotics Software, developing the Rare Species Review
program, and completing a major study of bird migration patterns in the Great
Lakes. He played a significant role in securing funding and participated in
multiple projects that made great contributions to the program.

Ed was known to challenge thinking, offer fresh
perspectives, and bring a positive energy to the workplace. This, along with
his willingness to take on leadership and motivate personnel, made him an asset
that was valued immensely by MSU and the MNFI program.

In retirement Ed plans to focus on his photography, travel,
play outside, and produce a CD of Henry Mancini’s greatest hits on the bagpipe.

We are back from an absolutely excellent trip with Joanna to
Canada. As mentioned before, we were about 30 miles north of Thessalon, Canada
at a lodge called Linberlost.

This is in the Province of Ontario, which has a population
density of about 14 people per square kilometer. Ingham County, where we live,
has a population density of about 194 per square kilometer. Michigan as a whole
has a population density of about 68 people per kilometer, about five times
that of Ontario. Guess which one I like best.

With a lower population density comes a level of comfort and
trust. Except for maybe Trump. He scares them as much as he scares me. Our closest
source of gasoline was a trading post about six miles from the lodge. The owner
was a Canadian, and a Pittsburg Steelers fan, so you know he had to be a good
guy. You pulled up to the gas tank, pumped your gas, then went inside and told
them what the pump read. They didn’t bother going out to check the numbers,
just took you at your word. That’s not something you would see around here. They
also had live bait, camping supplies, booze, and great ice cream, but no
scrapple. We would hike to a lake to find that someone, probably local lodge
owners, had portaged a canoe to the lake. There would be a canoe with paddles and
PFDs just sitting there for anyone’s use.  

Everybody was just friendly. We had people in a neighboring
cabin bring us freshly caught lake trout they fried up. Still hot, and
delicious. Buddy, the resident yellow Labrador, adopted us. He would wander up
to the door and bark through the screen door so we would come out to pet him.
The owner gave us some dog biscuits and Buddy figured out quickly there was
always two biscuits involved when I came out to play. One palmed in my hand and
the other in my pocket. He would get the one from my hand before it hit the
deck and then start sniffing the pocket while looking up expectantly. When you
stopped petting him he would nudge your hand. I’m betting he’s in seventh
heaven when the place fills up with kids in a few weeks.

My buddy Buddy. (Joanna Mitchell)

It’s a rugged country with great scenery, open spaces, and
lots of rivers and lakes. No waiting until 8:00 for a county park to open. I’m
not quite sure of property ownership patterns. Maybe a lot of this was Crown
lands. Nowhere did we see a No Trespassing sign. All told, this was pretty close
to heaven. Hiking, boating, botanizing, birding and odonating, photography, and
just hanging out with friends. No election news for ten days. Life can’t get
much better than that.

Owner. Don’t know what he owns, but there is an owner.

Ed kayaking near some cliffs.
(Joanna Mitchell)

Lise on a lake we had all to ourselves.
(Joanna Mitchell) 

Mississagi River

Mississagi River

monochrome.

Another Mississagi River

monochrome

The trail to Aubrey Falls.

Rapid River.

Ed doing his thing.

(Joanna Mitchell)

Lise checking out the view.
(Joanna Mitchell)

Chalk-fronted corporal – immature.

American emerald.

Aurora damselfly.

Frosted whiteface.

Forestland trail at Limberlost Lodge.

Wildflowers on the Forestland Trail.

Opening ferns on the Forestland Trail.

Last light at Limberlost Lodge.

Eastern forktail.

Dusky clubtail.

Unknown bluet. Need to kill it to ID it under a microscope.

Unknown plant.

One downside of the lower population density is that the
insects had fewer victims to choose from. Anything with a pulse became a
target. We got used to seeing everything through a black mesh. What was
embarrassing was forgetting you were wearing a bug net when you tried to take a
drink or eat a snack. It says something when the store in Thessalon had a whole
section dedicated to various bug net outfits. I think bug nets serve as
lingerie in Ontario.

The long black veil.

This says it all. The problem is, if you had a heartbeat you fed the blackflies.

The smudges are bugs on my lens.

 We did have some fun, at Canada’s expense, trying to figure
out the logic for their signage. Or lack of signage in some cases. There is
definitely a different view of liability in Canada. Cliffs and drop offs that
would be completely fenced off in the U.S. are totally open in Canada. I guess
the logic is something like, if you’re dumb enough to fall off this cliff we
don’t really want you around breeding anyway. Some of the road signs in
particular gave us no end of merriment.

This rope with a little piece of flagging served as a guard rail.

The drop off if the rope didn’t stop you.

The no canoeing sign and the trail the no canoeing sign was located on. Whatever you do, do not go canoeing down this
trail.

Proud of their food. In all fairness they were near the Aubrey Dam.

The B2 stealth bomber ahead ahead sign.

The beware of polka dots sign.

The truck hitting something sign.

The slow down for bowlers sign.

Isn’t seasonal heaving when you throw up at the Christmas
party?

Getting into the Canada at Sault St. Marie was pretty easy. The
guard was literally nodding off when we pulled up to his post. He asked a
couple questions and sent us on our merry way. Getting into the U.S. was a different
story. Traffic was backed up on the bridge. There were four gates to go through
and the line I picked moved the slowest. We could see the guard checking
people’s papers, checking things on a computer, examining the cars…. He took
about five minutes per vehicle. When we finally got up to him we handed him our
passports and the conversation went like this;

Guard: Nationality?

Ed: U.S.

Guard: Where do you live?

Ed: Down by East Lansing, place called Okemos.

Guard: Go green!

Ed (surprised): Go White!

Guard: You’re good to go. I went to MSU before transferring
up here.

He handed us back our passports and raised the gate. The
whole process took about 40 seconds. I felt I knew a secret code like the Mason
handshake or something. Thank god I didn’t do something stupid like give the University
of Michigan “go blue” cheer.  Probably
would have ended up with a body cavity search.

Sunset at Limberlost.

Greetings from Thessalon, Ontario. Somewhere in Canada. The
place everyone wants to move to should Trunp win the presidency.

And no, we are not looking at real estate. We came up here with
Joanna for a week or so of paddling, hiking, birding and just playing around.
To be more precise we are at Limberlost Lodge, which is about 30 miles north of
the town of Thessalon. Thessalon has no gas station but does have a 100 year
old curling club. The curling rink is the largest building in town, which tells
you something about the social life in Thessalon. You either wear ice skates
and sweep in front of a big stone sliding on ice, or you watch the people wearing
ice skates and sweeping in front of a big stone sliding on ice. Could be worse.
Could be golf.

Thessalon curling club.

So we’ve been paddling, hiking, birding, hanging out at the
lake and just playing around. A practice run for retirement. I brought my
bagpipe practice chanter but have been strongly discouraged from using it.
Apparently some concern about the moose rutting season and stampedes. We’ve
gotten some good birds, and I got my first Odenate pictures of the year.
Internet connectivity is sketchy so I may not be able to do another post until
I get back.

Joanna paddling.

I hate to start every post with we’ve been busy but, hey,
we’ve been busy.

Looks like the cave I was monitoring in the UP was not a
hibernaculum. Either that or the associated bats are dead. There’s a disease
called white-nosed syndrome that is ripping through cave hibernating bats in
the northeast and it has hit Michigan. Some species are seeing 90% die offs in
other U.P. hibernacula. I had some bats flying around the area but none using
the cave while I was monitoring. The numbers were down from two years ago but I
don’t know if that is a function f white-nose syndrome or it’s still too early
in the season. Given what we have heard from other areas I’m voting for the
more pessimistic option.

Despite some disappointment from the bat results, the UP is
always fun, even when the weather doesn’t cooperate. I couldn’t monitor a couple
days because the temperatures were too cold for the bats to come out. Says
something when it’s warmer in a cave than outside on a spring evening. Spring
was a solid week to ten days behind what it was down here in Lansing. But Lise
came anyway up for a couple days to keep me company and we got out for some
fun. Got some birding in and visited some places we did bird surveys for my
work about 12 years ago.

Mackinac Bridge fogged in.

Sunny everywhere but in the actual Mackinac Straits. The fog is exactly where the big freighter and tankers pass under the bridge.

Birds nesting, a sign of spring.

As a sure sign that tourist season is right around the
corner, Java Joe’s finally opened for the season. The proprietor is quite the
character and a full blown liberal. Among other things, restaurants are his
retirement business/hobby. He owns three of them in St. Ignace. In January he
and his wife make a run to Florida in a crazy van to buy “the crap we sell in
here,” meaning souvenir tea pots and cookie jars. When I asked if anyone
really buys that stuff he said he sells about 6,000 a season and makes more
selling that stuff than liquor in the other restaurants. Which scares me a
little. If people are willing to buy that stuff, they’re willing to buy a Trump
presidency.

Java Joe’s van. They travel all over the country in this thing. Joe was a Chippewa County Commissioner for 25 years. 

And moving on to retirement, it looks like there’s no going
back. MSU just sent me the official MSU retirement rocking chair, complete with an
engraving of Beaumont Tower. And I just received word that the following will
be my official retirement bio. Not sure where this came from. I really only had
input on the last line;

Edward Schools received his A.A.S.
from Skagit Valley College, and his B.S. in physics and M.S. in applied ecology
from Indiana University. Prior to his time with Extension he served in the U.
S. Navy and worked as a defense contractor. He has been with MSU Extension as
the Geographic Information Systems/Information Technology supervisor for the
Michigan Natural Features Inventory (MNFI) since October 2000.

Throughout his time at MSU, Mr.
Schools’ motivations consistently focused on the good of MNFI and his work
reflected favorably on MFNI, MSU Extension, and MSU. Mr. Schools met and
exceeded expectations time and time again with his strong leadership skills and
high rate of productivity.

Over the
course of his career, Mr. Schools was a key component in accomplishing many
goals that led to development in the MNFI program including testing the Biotics
Software, developing the Rare Species Review program, and completing a major
study of bird migration patterns in the Great Lakes. He played a significant
role in securing funding and participated in multiple projects that made great
contributions to the program.

Ed was known
to challenge thinking, offer fresh perspectives, and bring a positive energy to
the workplace. This, along with his willingness to take on leadership and
motivate personnel, made him an asset that was valued immensely by MSU and the
MNFI program.

In
retirement Ed plans to focus on his photography, travel, play outside, and
produce a CD of Henry Mancini’s greatest hits on the bagpipe.

The official MSU retirement rocking chair holding a soon to be official MSU retiree.

Greeting from the Upper Peninsula – again. My last trip up
here to monitor bats was cut short because of low temperatures. One day last
week they had snow and ice. Now it looks like I will have a week of 50 degree temperatures.

The Mighty Mac, looking back toward the Lower Peninsula.

 My job is filming a hole in the ground, hoping to find bats.
Haven’t had much in the bat line but some other interesting fauna have been around.
Last night a porcupine ambled up to within about 10 feet of me. He would have
walked right into me if I hadn’t turned on my headlamp. Got my barred owl for
the year last night too.

Filming a hole in the ground.

So I’m now in the St. Ignace Quality Inn for possibly a
week. St. Ignace is on the north side of the Mackinac Straits, connecting Lake
Michigan and Lake Huron. It’s a strategic location and has always had a strong
Native American presence. A couple tribes are headquartered here and something
on the order of a third of the population are Native Americans. In 1671 Father
Marquette established a Mission here to convert the natives to Christianity. Not so sure things went very well for the natives from there.

Except for maybe the automobile and the Mackinac Bridge,
things don’t seem to have changed much here since Father Marquette’s time. As
with most northern climates it can be a hard place to live. Fishing is still a trade
here, and not an easy one. There’s a monument on the waterfront dedicated to
local fishermen who have died plying their trade. Two are obviously father-son
combinations, and two brothers. That has to be tough on a family.

Fishing memorial.

Being a waterfront place, St. Ignace depends heavily on
tourism. Summer tourism. Lots of motels and restaurants, most still closed for
the winter. I’m sure they have some snowmobile business, but we are past the big
snow season. Sooooo, things are pretty slow right now. Nightlife isn’t too bad,
as long as you don’t mind being in bed by about 10:00. There are rumors that a
coffee place called Java Joe’s has opened for the season so there is some
glimmer of hope.

Empty docks, likely full in the summer

Down in Okemos we’ve been keeping busy. I’m trying to finish
up some work things before I gracefully exit. Lise’s business is keeping her
busy. Molly will be moving back with us for the last two years of school, so we
are in the middle of re-arranging the house. Spring is happening, with lots of
new bird species being reported around the area. We haven’t been able to break
free too much but have gotten a couple new species.

In the wonderfully weird and funky department, Saturday we
made a run over to Horrock’s farm market. Horrock’s is a Lansing institution, started
in the1950s over on the west side of Lansing. They have just about anything you
could want, including free coffee bar and a not free wine and beer bar. You can
imbibe in your favorite beverage while perusing the 1,000 beer brands or shopping
for delicacies such as blood and tongue sausage or chicken gizzards. Where else
will you find 10 kinds of dried mushrooms, in bulk, with live piano music? No scrapple though. We
met people that come from Detroit to shop at Horrock’s. Molly and Mitchell go
there for a date.

A small portion of Horrock’s.

This is how to do grocery shopping.

Wow.

Gizzards. Not wow.

Dried mushrooms.

Piano player.

Greetings from a Quality Inn in St. Ignace, Michigan, just
over the Mighty Mac bridge to the Upper Peninsula. Where there’s no place with
decent coffee open or scrapple open. I am up here on a quest to find bats
coming out of hibernation. More on that later.

It’s been a busy time for us. We continue to live
vicariously through our daughter. Molly had water polo tournaments the past two
weekends. The weekend of April 9 we were down in Columbus Ohio for an invitational
tournament. The tournament went well and Columbus is always a fun place to
visit. The area around the OSU campus is fun and there’s a Graeters Ice Cream
store close by.

Molly pumps.

She shoots.

She scores! 

Graeters. Black raspberry chocolate chip to die for. Almost as good as
scrapple.

 Then this past weekend was the Big 10 conference
championship in Ann Arbor. In a cliff hanger game they came in second, losing the
championship by one goal to perennial champions University of Michigan. And we
got to hit the Washtenaw Dairy Store, an ice cream tradition in Ann Arbor.
Being the first really warm weekend we have had there was a line coiled through
the store and out the door.

Washtenaw Dairy Store.Try the Black Cherry.

But the season is now over so we have to make our own
entertainment. With the temperatures turning nice we packed some sandwiches for
dinner and went up to Maple River Game Area Friday afternoon. We got some new
birds for the year including greater yellowleg, pintail, shoveler, green-winged
teal, blue-winged teal, wood duck, widgeon, and rough-winged swallow. You can
tell it’s courtin’ time. Everyone is in their spring breeding plumage and
looking quite sharp. Even the birds with the same plumage all year round, like
the song sparrows, look just a little sharper in the spring.

Other things are popping out too. We found a painted turtle
that looked like it just crawled out of a long slumber in the mud. Maybe not
too pretty but a welcome sight none the less.

When we got back from Ann Arbor on Saturday night I managed
to sneak in a little frog time at Barb and Ellen’s wetland. Some wood frogs
still calling but mostly spring peepers. These little guys are tough to
photograph. They are only about the size of your thumbnail and are quite
skittish. Which makes sense when you’re the size of a thumbnail. Even in the
daytime they are difficult to see. At night you have to track them by their
call. It takes some patience, sitting in the water and slowly inching up on
them. You move a little, they stop calling. Then you wait another five or ten
minutes and they start calling again. You move a little closer and they quiet
down again. You wait another five or ten minutes and they call again….. You
repeat the process until you can get close to try a picture. And then they flip
away with a little splash while you’re trying to focus. While they may be small,
they are very loud. When you do get close to them while they’re calling, the decibel
level starts hitting the threshold for pain.

Spring peepers making their “Hey Baby” noise.

So yesterday I was reminded of the volatility of weather
patterns around big water. Especially in more northern latitudes.  For the past couple weeks I’ve been tracking
the weather in St. Ignace, looking for a warming trend that would bring bats
out of hibernation. Because the bats may leave the area after hibernation, it’s
critical to be monitoring when they first come out of hibernation to
demonstrate if the cave is a hibernacula or not.

Last Friday the pattern looked like temperatures would be
above 50 degrees Fahrenheit  Thursday or Friday
of this week. Plenty of time to do the Big 10 tournament and get everything
ready for my monitoring. Then while we were at the tournament on Sunday, a
pleasant 80 degrees in Ann Arbor, the St. Ignace temperatures shot up to 65
degrees. And the trend showed it well above 50 degrees all week. So I quickly
packed, ran to campus to get the gear, finished some work Monday morning, and
headed north about noon Monday.

Well, I was lied to. It was in the 70s down in the Lansing
area. When I got up here the temperature was in the high 40s, and it was cloudy
and windy. Last night the trend showed it above 50 degrees Tuesday and
Wednesday, then dropping to the 40s for a week. But hey, that was 12 hours ago.
Now the temperature trend shows it hitting the 60s for at least a week. If this
is to be believed I should have enough time here to sample both the restaurants
that are open until the tourist season starts. Neither of which has scrapple.

Not too much happening here on the home front. Right now our
lives revolve around dismal weather and water polo tournaments. Molly and company
played a Big 10 tournament at Purdue. Where they beat University of Michigan for
the first time in at least four years. The Big Ten, which has 14 teams in it. Go
figure. Is this the state of college math now? I do remember the Big Ten being
called the Big Two (University of Michigan and Ohio State) and the Little Eight.
At least that added up to ten. Didn’t even need my slide rule for that one.

Michigan State 6, University of Michigan 5.

Pressure defense.

On the cage.

She drives.

She fakes.

She scores.

Purdue is of course in West Lafayette, Lise’s home town. So
we stayed with Sue and got to see a couple other generations of the clan. Always
fun to do. And we took Lindsay too, getting her out of town for a spell.

We got back Sunday evening and then Monday morning I headed
north to the Upper Peninsula to install some acoustic bat monitors. The idea is
to put the monitors in place before the bats come out of hibernation. I thought
I would get in a little play time too. I figured a four hour drive up there, a
few hours to install the monitors, spend the next morning playing, then four
hours back in time to meet with our financial planner. Boy was I wrong.

It’s interesting how lack of preparation, 25 degree
temperatures, frozen ground, and six inches of snow can make things more
difficult to do. When I have everything prepared, it takes me 20 minutes to set
up a monitor in my yard. This time it took over an hour for each monitor. For
starters I had to haul all the equipment anywhere from 50 to 150 meters through
the snow covered woods. In the yard I can put three stakes in the ground within
arm’s reach, hold the 15 foot microphone pole upright with one hand, and use
the other hand to loop guy lines around the stakes and tie some quick knots. When
the ground is too frozen to drive stakes in, trees and logs are further away than
arm’s reach, and it’s too cold to tie knots with one hand, things get real interesting.
I had to set the pole up, then run to a tie point, try to loop a guy line around
it, run back to catch and balance the pole, then run back to either finish
looping or tie a knot. Then repeat the procedure for two more guy lines. Then
repeat the whole procedure for five monitors. The Keystone Cops do bat
monitors. Needless to say, I didn’t get any play time. On the up side, our
financial planner didn’t laugh too hard when I said I was retiring.

A bat monitoring station.

Alea
iacta est

The die is cast. I have submitted my request to retire
from MSU. June 10 should be my last day. Not quite as historic or glorious as
crossing the Rubicon, but hey, you gotta take what you can. I had planned on
working another couple years, until Molly was done with college. But, my group is
having some funding issues and I went to 80% time. I would not have minded
easing out with a slow reduction in time but it turns out that I am no longer
eligible for some benefits at 80%. Like Molly’s half price tuition. Which I can
get if I retire. And my health care costs go up at 80% but the costs will drop
or go to zero if I retire. I’m not a math wizard but even I can figure out that
it’s time to go. I assume I have to get some Bermuda shorts and a metal
detector to join the other bored retirees looking for loose change at the
beach. I may take up the bagpipes. I’m tone deaf and have zero musical talent,
but those minor details don’t matter with the bagpipes.

For now I am still working though, and this April I’ll be
doing some more bat work in the Upper Peninsula. We are going back to a cave
that my prior work indicated may be a hibernacula. I’ll be filming the cave
entrance with an infrared (IR) video camera during the time when the bats
should be emerging from hibernation. This is the same equipment all the nut
cases into paranormal activity use to look for ghosts and other apparitions. The
sales people thought I was the odd one. “You’re not doing paranormal? You want
to film bats at night? What, are you some kind of weirdo?”

My pool table in a completely dark room using infrared.

Other than that, we continue to live vicariously through our
daughter and her water polo.

Molly gets the ball under pressure.

The thugs are on her.

She finds an opening.

And gets the pass off.

We are quite proud of her latest academic achievement.
She applied for, and was accepted into, a summer internship program at Oklahoma
State University. This internship is funded by the National Science Foundation to
train undergraduates in graduate research work. It was advertised nationally
but only ten students were selected. The internship is free, she lives on
campus, they pay travel costs, and she gets a $500/week stipend. Not a bad gig.

Things are getting nicer around here weather wise. We had a Carolina wren calling in the yard for the past two days. Still plenty of time to get blasted by cold weather and snow, but at least there’s a glimmer of better weather ahead. Dragonflies can’t be far behind.

Sunday we went chasing a couple birds down in Jackson County. One was the harlequin duck in Jackson Center we went for in January but forgot to take the scope. This time the little guy cooperated and was close enough we could easily see him with binos. Along with a bunch on inbreeding mallards and geese. It’s not pretty when cousins marry too often. Probably Trump supporters. Or Indiana legislators. Or both.

Harlequin duck among mallards.

An example of mallard cousins marrying too often. The heads should be green, the bodies grayish.

The other bird we chased was a golden eagle that had been spotted along a particular stretch of road. We didn’t get the eagle but we could tell by the ruts in the snow where people have been pulling off to see it. We did a Northern shrike as a rather nice consolation prize.

Jackson County likes to say it’s where the Republican Party started. Technically the first meeting where the name Republican Party was suggested was in Ripon, Wisconsin, but the first convention organized under the Republican Party name was in Jackson County. Their platform was the abolition of slavery. Ironic how they descended into a party of petty obstructionists, whose sole purpose is opposing and blocking the first black president of the United States. Pretty pathetic. They deserve the Donald as their candidate. You reap what you sow.

This evening was cloudy and misty but pleasantly warm. Not wanting to pass up a pleasant early spring evening we took a little jaunt to some local spots. First we hit Park Lake where we got our first ring-necked duck, red-headed duck, and lesser scaup for the year. Then we popped over to Lake Lansing which was a bust. On the way home we hit the Foster-Davis Natural Area and got woodcocks peenting and doing their aerial display. Just a lovely night to be out, even with occasional sprinkles.

Park Lake

Can’t believe how long it’s been since I’ve written anything. Kind of sad since it’s a reflection of our lives right now. We need some excitement and adventure. Maybe time to call Barb and go get locked in a landfill.

It’s not like we haven’t been doing anything. Last weekend we went to Notre Dame, that hallowed land of Knute Rockne and the touchdown Jesus. We weren’t there for the terrestrial mayhem of football though; we were there to watch some aquatic mayhem. AKA water polo.

Touchdown Jesus

Molly on offense

Molly on defense

General mayhem.

Tearing her throat out. Sorry, I thought your head was the ball. No foul called.

We stayed with our friends Evie and Craig in Edwardsville, MI. about a half hour from Notre Dame. They have a lovely view of a creek right out their back window. We both got common grackle and sandhill crane for the year and I got a red-wing blackbird. That’s south of here so we will see those species around here shortly. Common species, but they are nice harbingers of better weather to come.

While we haven’t been doing much in the way of outdoor activities, I have been busy. I’ve been setting up a digital photo archive for my family. With some of the deaths in our family the past couple years, I realized my siblings and I were losing our ties to the past. I’m now the oldest person in my immediately family. Never thought that would happen. With the passing of our grandparents and parents we have no direct ties to our family history anymore.

We seem to have a trove of pictures, mostly sitting uncared for in boxes and envelopes. Some are quite old. A box from our great aunt Viola had one photo dated at July 4, 1917. That one enabled me to date a whole series of pictures. What’s bad is that a lot of these will go undocumented because there’s nobody around that knows who these people were. They could be distant relatives. They could be from Viola’s husband Henry’s people. We just don’t know. Henry had ties to the carnival world and Vaudeville so these could be old carnie people. Henry knew the Three Stooges and when he died the last surviving stooge, I believe it was Moe, sent a wreath. Apparently my grandmother and aunt Viola traveled the carnies with Henry for a time. Yes, Grannie was a carnie, traveling with one of the Cetlin and Wilson shows. As a kid I can remember our family going to the Reading Fair. My mother ran into some relative working the carnie rides. I distinctly remember him saying, “You guys ride for free. Just tell them Sonny said to let you ride.” Words every kid wants to hear.

Ed Haulman, My great-grandfather.

Unknown people I would love to identify.

At Niagara Falls I believe. Not sure who.

All I know is July 4, 1917.

Cetlin and Wilson Shows come through Lebanon.

Most of the more current pictures are poor quality, taken with Kodak Instamatics or the like at family events. Horrible compositions, bad lighting, people shoving food in their mouths, nothing flattering in the least. But they do represent a moment in time for our family. The good, the bad, and the ugly. Most importantly, there are people alive now that can identify everyone in the photos. I wanted a way to preserve and archive some of our family history, and importantly, share it with the extended family. So I started scanning pictures and putting them up on a photo sharing site called Flickr. I’ve scanned several hundred photos so far. The idea is that my family members can start documenting the photos as to who it is, where is it, when did it take place, etc.…. So a couple generations from now there won’t be someone looking at a picture of a guy cross-country skiing and say, who’s that?

Aunt Chezzy. She had a bird that could talk. It swore so bad that the Amish workers remodeling her kitchen asked her to remove it.

OK, so maybe some pictures are better left to history.

Who’s that?