We're back, after 10 days in Montana

Mary and I returned from a great trip to Montana to visit Chuck and Naida Kesner, friends who moved out there to follow their kids. They have a beautiful house with an even more beautiful view of Canyon Ferry Lake. We returned today after flying into Grand Rapids, Michigan early this morning, like 2:00 am and staying in a motel for part of the morning. We returned and found the dog and cat in great shape, happy to see us, and peas and tomatoes in the garden.

We took over 400 pictures, and few of them will appear soon in the blog and facebook. More on our trip in the next few days. For now, Sunday is tomorrow and I have a sermon to plan.

Summer Dreaming

Summer is here! Hooray! It has been a wet summer, for all practical reasons. The grass is still green, all kinds of new plants in the ground, and everything seems to be growing. Many of the trees we thought would not survive the previous spring cutting by the village have come back strong. The newly planted Stella Lilies are growing well, and we have a few new places where plants have never appeared in the past. The only downer are the bunnies. They love our newly planted green beans. Every time one comes up and sprouts leaves, the rabbits chew them off. I think we will just give up and plant peas. They seem to leave them alone.

We are in the middle of Vacation Bible School, a program sponsored by four local churches in Suttons Bay. We have the largest group of kids in a long time--101. We are missing Pastor Don, from Keswisk United Methodist Church. He has been sent down state. Sorry to see him go, but Pastor Robin and I are taking up the slack, and things will go well.

Mary and I have plans to visit the Kesner's in Montana. We will fly out of Grand Rapids in the middle of July and spend Paul's birthday with them. We hope to visit Yellowstone Park, a dream we have both had. A member of the church is doing her internship there, and we hope to see her as well.

The synod Global Mission Committee will return for the "second" annual Latin American Luncheon. It has become a favorite of the group, and we hope to do a great experience for all the members who come.

I really hope to get into the shop soon. I have Angela's table to finish, a new credence table for the church to build, a new television stand for the living room to build, and a new headboard for our bed, long overdue.

Discovered some new local beers that I am looking forward to share at the Ohio Kuhlman's October Fest. Mary and I traveled to Ohio in June to look at some property for retirement. Though we have agreed on a property, we are keeping our options open to see if something else pops up. Hope to buy something this year, build on it next year, and then take the year to finish it off inside. We would like to live in it in 2-3 years. More on this in the months to come.

I love summer. I spend little time in the office and more in my shop; baseball is everywhere; football is in the making; everything is green and growing; and life is everywhere. Summer is a time for dreaming and making plans.

Bart Stupak is gone

I have been a part of the Tea Party Movement since it began. I contributed to the Contract From America, the platform they have been developing the past 6 months, and I wrote the part about eliminating the death tax, which is now part of the general platform for tax cuts. I got a lot of comments from this proposal. This Saturday, April 10th, the Tea Party Express came through Traverse City on their way to the April 15th Blowout in Washington. I could not go because of a funeral I had to do, but they were expecting all kinds of people.

The whole purpose of the trip through Michigan was to put pressure on Stupak because of his selling out of the Right to Life movement in the Health Care debacle. The pressure has been strong and constant. As of yesterday, Bart Stupak has decided to NOT run for reelection. That is huge. Even though he claims it was not due to the pressure from the Tea Party Movement, I think, like most Democrats in public office, he is not telling all of the truth. No matter, he is out, and we can now concentrate on getting rid of Senator Stabenow. That should not be too hard, but it will require some work.

This is the year I go back to politics and help with the election of a few Republicans in the county and state. Stupak is gone! what a joy.

Winter wonderless land

Ugly is the only word that describes this winter month. Ever since the Christmas vacations, the winter look has deteriorated here in Suttons Bay. I am not a big fan of snow or cold, but I am even a lesser fan of ugly brown ice that seems to plague this month. We had a wonderful warming trend here, commonly called a "winter thaw," but it has also rained. The snow has thusly melted, lowering the depth of the snow, and all the walkways have turned to a hard and very slippery ice. Yesterday, Sunday, was just horrible, since the rain turned our parking lot into a very ugly ice skating rink. I spent an hour in the afternoon chopping a channel through the ice so that the lake that was backing up toward the church door could drain into the runoff ditch. Today, Monday, is warm, though we have been told that it will freeze tonight, turning everything to ice. Oh my! What a mess we are in for. I only hope that we get 8-12 inches of snow to cover this mess up.

The good thing is that we are nearly at the end of January. That means that February is just around the corner (duh) and the beginning of Spring Training for the Cincinnati Reds. I love the sound of that, "Spring" Training. Sp;ring is my favorite season of the year. I love the warming of spring, watching all the trees and bushes come to life, and watching winter pass into history. Won't be so long now.

Meanwhile, there are still some winter things to do. Most of those things have to do with indoors activities. Nonetheless, there will still be plenty of snow yet to dig out, but the digging gets easier as the days go on.