August, 2009

Another Trip

Last time, we went south; this time we went north, to the U.P. (That's "Upper Peninsula" in Michiganese.)

We moseyed over to Chicago (actually around it) and up to Wisconsin. Had supper at Rose's Cafe in Romeoville, IL, then headed up the Interstate into Wisconsin. Had a merry time just finding a motel when we got tired. Finally found a Holiday Inn near the lake shore (Lake Michigan).

Then on up to Marquette, MI on the U.P. Found out that Google (or was it Microsoft?) showed the motel on both sides of Marquette, so we checked out both. Had to figure out that it was west of town, but we got settled in. If you're going by computer maps and directions, be skeptical.

Next day we explored a bit. Taking pictures of the lake shore, we were shooed away by a coast guard lady. I guess we now have illegal pictures of a beach. They have a couple of giant docks for coal. One of them is using the railroad unloading facility to feed a power plant. Neither one is functional to load the huge ships on Lake Superior. Interesting thing about the railroad cars parked atop the dock: they are built to the exact length between chutes. One would expect that the chutes might be built to fit a standard railroad car; not so.

We went to a little restaurant and had pasties (rhymes with "nasty" not "tasty" -- but they are tasty, with ketchup) for lunch. They are a U.P. thing, can't get them much south of "The Bridge". The guy was boxing them up by the dozen for take-out orders. They involve rutabagas (roota-beggies) and Yoopers love them.

Went to the Hiawatha Music Festival that afternoon and a bit into the evening. We bought cheap ponchos at Wal-Mart because rain was predicted. Instead, we used them as windbreakers as it was very, um, "cool" and breezy. The "Yoopers" (U.P.-ers) were wandering around in T-shirts and flip-flops, sometimes barefoot. The music was good, but the people were hilarious. Pretending they used to be hippies or something. The one gal probably weighed in at 240+, with (plastic) flowers in her hair, some of the kids sporting hippie garb and peace symbols, many people dressed as they thought hippies dressed. We finally got cold enough to go get some supper.

Would-be hippies dancing. Sort of.

Took a short side trip off the Interstate to go to Bronner's Christmas store. Bought some LED light strings to make some new decorations for our Christmas display. Stay tuned for more on that. You can watch people coming in the door; almost every one of them breaks into a smile as they hear the music and see the Christmas lights.

Made it home at a reasonable time. Cats were glad to see us.

Best laid plans...

Bright idea: haul some of the limbs over closer to the garden where we use the chips for mulch around the berries. While unloading about the third pickup load, a twig somehow flipped my glasses into the garden. Now the squash looks like a jungle as does the zucchini; I imagine we'll find the glasses when we pull up the vines. So I scheduled a visit with the "optimist" as we call him. I can get along minimally well with my "computer" glasses so that's what I did.

Well, to tell the truth, I did get some work done on the shed while the crew was cutting down the tree. And then we rented a chipper for the limbs. Kathy thought two hours would be adequate(?). So I went down and rented a chipper, towed it home behind the pickup. So far so good. Big 2-cylinder engine, electric start. Then about 3 limbs into the job, it clogged. Simple procedure -- remove this bolt and clear the chute. Torqued off the head of the bolt, which was actually a piece of threaded rod from the hardware store. Cleared the chute, electric start wouldn't work. No way could I use the pull rope. And then I discovered a broken belt. OK, OK, haul it back to the rental place. Mechanic was in the emergency room; a shard of metal got by the safety glasses into his eye. Turns out no major damage as we found out later, but meanwhile it's getting on toward lunch time. So I trade the machine with the spout (to shoot chips into the pickup) for a machine that dumps the chips on the ground. So I brought it home and we used a tarp to catch most of the chips.

Between trimming and lifting the limbs and dragging the tarp to the flower beds, we were both pretty worn out. Slept well as I recall, but had to be up for my eye appointment. While I was there, Kathy trimmed off a whole pile of leaves and twigs; and when I returned, we chipped the pile next to the garden. When we finished that, we were done. I took the chipper back and we both slept for a couple of hours. By now it's Friday already. Time flies when you're having fun!

A young couple came by with a stump grinder, would we like the stumps removed? Well, yes, plus a couple of them west of the house, one of which partially blocks the view of our Christmas display. (In fact, there might be a couple of online photos with a black square in the bottom of the tree.) So he used this huge machine hitched to his truck and reduced the stumps to little shreds. Now we had even more stuff to dispose of!

Tired of dragging around that tarp, I rigged up a couple of 2x4s and a tow rope to haul it behind the garden tractor. Works well if you don't overload the tarp. So on Saturday I brought out the John Deere and the Troy-Bilt and went to work in earnest. Tilled up a couple of mounds where the stumps were, including some fairly big roots that were left. Hauled off the part that was mostly chips, filled in the holes with the part that was mostly dirt.

General procedure was to shove a pile of chips and dirt onto the tarp with the tiller, then drag it away to the compost heap behind the shed. To unload, run the tractor around to the other side of the tarp, hitch it up and pull the tarp backwards over the pile. Not very neat, but the Troy-Bilt dozer blade worked well for pushing all the piles into one.

Also used the tarp for hauling brush, same procedure, but with brush the Troy-Bilt can push a pile as big as yours truly. After corn harvest we'll have a bonfire visible for miles. Moved all the rest of the brush and most of the excess dirt in one day, nearly collapsed afterward -- but Kathy fed me and then I was fine.

Hitching up the tarp was one of those necessity-is-the-mother-of-invention things. We have always dragged tarps by hand, but now we have the tractor, duh! There are advantages and disadvantages to tarp vs. trailer.

• Cost: Tarp, $20.00; trailer, $400.00
• Loading: Tarp, push stuff on with the dozer blade; trailer, lift stuff with shovel or pitchfork.
• Unloading: Tarp, run around and pull tarp backwards; trailer, dump capability is extra cost.
• Replacement: Tarp, wears out in about 4 hours; trailer, lasts almost forever. Unless you back over it with the pickup, in which case the tarp would still be intact....