Baby Fox Squirrel

4/29/11 - Friday:  Yesterday Wiley found this baby fox squirrel lying at the base of a tree in our site.  The poor thing had no fur, it's eyes were still closed, and it was really cold.  We cleaned off some of the mud, put it on the heating pad, covered it over and got online to find a place that might take it in.  When it finally warmed up, it made this little squeaking sound and did some squirming around, but the web pages all said not to try to feed it.  After a couple of hours the Friends of Animals, Squirrel Division (really!) came and got him.  They said he had a good chance of making it and were going to take him to a rescuer who already had one baby fox squirrel to care for.

Fox Squirrel

Our bird proof feeder has been very busy.  Maybe this was our baby's Mama?  We don't begrudge the squirrels a little food, but we wish they wouldn't break off the perches!

Purple Finch

We've had so many birds!  The first to arrive were the nuthatches and black capped chickadees.  Then we got the purple finches (in picture).

Rose Breasted Grosbeak

Yesterday the gold finches arrived and today the rose breasted grosbeaks.  A couple different kinds of woodpeckers, tufted titmouse, nuthatches and bluejays and cardinals round out the busy outdoor dining spot.

There are also lots of lovely gardens coming into bloom.  It's been a very cold, wet spring so far, but that just makes the sunny days all the more welcome.  This is Tom in front of his house with the daffodils and a gloriously scented magnolia tree.

Wiley goes for his first neurology appointment next Tuesday.  Thanks to everyone for your support.

Buffalo

4/26/11 (Tuesday):  It's still cold and rainy here, so we've been spending a lot of time inside reading and visiting with Tom's family.  Finally, feeling stir crazy and tired of watching the birds and squirrels from our tiny camper, we took a drive in the rain.  We headed out U.S. 12, the old "Chicago Road."  What is now US 12 was originally Chicago Road, which ran from Detroit to Chicago.  It follows the route of the old Sauk Trail, an important Native American trail.  Purportedly, the explorer LaSalle was the first European to travel along it. It now travels through pretty farm land and little villages. There was a whole herd of buffalo at one of the farms.

Manchester Mill

Many of the villages were industrial centers in the mid-1800's.  Manchester used the power of the Raisin River to run this flour mill, built in 1832.  The mill burned down several times, the bridge washed away several times, and there were assorted other disasters, but the mill is still here.  The site now hosts community events.  We had an ice cream at the Dairy Queen on the other side of the river.

Several local Irish Catholic families funded construction of this church, which was designed by the priest and built of stones collected from local farmer's fields.  It's an amazing piece of work--all the stones fit together so beautifully.

Hopefully the weather will clear soon and I'll do some Spring blogs!  We've already noticed trillium and mayapples in the campground and the forsythia in bloom in the nearby houses.

Jiffy Plant - Chelsea, Michigan

4/22/11 (Friday):  Since we got here, we've had only one day that it hasn't rained.  And it's COLD! 

We took a little day trip yesterday (the one dry day) to Chelsea.  We'd gone there last year and just missed the tour of the Jiffy Factory.  We called for a reservation this time.  Great tour!

Prepared for the Tour

While we milled around in the lobby waiting for the tour guide, an elderly woman was talking about how she'd worked at the plant as a teenager.  She earned 45 cents and hour, and said she was happy to get it!  Everyone was talking to her about her experience when the tour guide arrived, and the tour guide was very interested, too.  We had a cup of coffee and an apple cinnamon muffin and then saw a very good video about the history of the plant and its operation.  This is the only Jiffy plant in existence.  It produces 1-1/2 million packages of Jiffy mix per day in its winter busy season.  They mill their own flours, make the mixes and even make their own packages right here in Chelsea, MI.  In the video, the CEO of the company, Howdy Holmes (!), interacted with an animated box of Jiffy Mix to give us a virtual tour of the plant.  When the lights came up after the video, who should appear in the audience but Howdy himself!  He'd been informed about the special member of our tour group and came to introduce himself.  He was a nice guy--answered a few questions and really made us feel special!  The tour guide said he often comes down and sits among the tour members and waits to see if anyone recognizes him!  After the video, we had a tour through the plant (very clean) and were given some boxes of apple cinnamon mix.  Nice!

Chelsea is a nice little town.  The train station still appears to be operational.

There are a number of old factories, many of which have been converted to other uses.  They sure are more appealing than today's factories, aren't they?!  The tower in the background is the clock tower, the focal point of the old town square.  There's now a nice courtyard park and some shops and restaurants there.

This is the Welfare Building, constructed in 1906 as a recreation facility for the workers of the Glazier Stove Company.  It had a swimming pool, billiard hall, basketball court and theater.  Eat your heart out, modern drones!

The old livery stables still had the sign on the back:   "Livery Feed and Barn"--those were the days!

On Wednesday, I had the pleasure of going with Claire and Kristin to the botanic gardens, where we met a couple of her preschool friends.  We enjoyed a bag lunch and then wandered around the conservatory, where it was nice and warm and all kinds of great plants were in bloom.

We're still on hold regarding Wiley's surgery.  We're waiting for the neurologist's office to give us an appointment.  Once we've seen him, we'll know how many tests need to be run and will have a better idea when the surgery will occur.  Wiley's anxious to get it over with.

4/18/11 (Monday):  It's cold and SNOWING today!  Unbelievable!  We already have about an inch, and it's supposed to go on for a couple more hours.  We've already had to refill the propane tanks once, and may need to do it again.  Don't want to run out in the middle of the night.

 Aside from the weather, we had a pleasant trip up and are enjoying visiting with family.  My grands have really grown.

 Anna and Margo both take piano lessons and are doing well in school.

Claire is enjoying preschool a few days a week and Kristin is keeping a crazy schedule.  Tom continues to enjoy his work at Ford.  He says the new Fiesta is a great little car--very European.  Makes me want to try one.  Sometimes I get a little tired of driving around in a big truck.

We had hoped to stop in Kentucky for a couple of days on the way up.  We've driven through the state a couple of times, but had never explored it.  The countryside along I-75 is beautiful there--mountains and rushing streams--and the dogwood and redbud trees were in full bloom.  But the weather was really bad, so we didn't do much.

We stopped at Cumberland Falls.  It's known as one of only two places in the world where you can see a moonbow.  Known as the "Niagara of the South," the 125-foot wide curtain of water is dramatic day or night. But it's only at night during a full moon that you can see the moonbow, a phenomenon not found anywhere else in the Western Hemisphere.  Apparently, if you stand in certain places, the moon shines through the mist of the falls and creates the moonbow.  If you're interested, here are the best dates for seeing a moonbow in 2011:  April 16-17-18-19-20; May 15-16-17-18-19; June 13-14-15-16-17; July 13-14-15-16-17; August 11-12-13-14-15; September 10-11-12-13-14; October 10-11-12-13-14; November 8-9-10-11-12; and December 8-9-10-11-12.

You don't have to walk far from the parking lot to see these pretty falls, but take a peak at the waterfall going down the stairs!  Needless to say, we didn't spend long at this stop.

Our lunch stop was in Berea, the folk arts and crafts center of Kentucky.  Unfortunately, not only was the weather still bad, but it was a weekday and almost everything was closed.  Maybe on the way back.

We got to Ypsi late in the afternoon and got set up about dinnertime.  We checked our GPS (we call her "Mandy") for nearby restaurants and found one called Bonehead's BBQ in nearby Willlis.  Wiley had been lobbying for BBQ the whole way up (not my favorite), so we set off to find it.

It turned out to be a really neat place (great burgers and salads to go with the BBQ).  There's not much left of the little town of Willis, but in its day, it was a bustling little town on the stagecoach line.  The postmaster carried the mail in his hat!  This building was the general store and post office for many years and the interior decor is very special.  We'll definitely be going back.

I know I promised to post some pictures from the last few days in Florida, but in reviewing them, I don't see anything really different from previous posts.  So I'll look ahead to new adventures--stay posted!

4/10/11 (Sunday):  We left Florida this morning, beginning our next great adventure!  We're in Cordele, Georgia right now.  We took I-75 the whole way--they've finally finished the construction!  Near Lake City, FL, we saw huge fields of cabbages being harvested.  There was a line of about 15 workers picking the cabbages and putting them on a low trailer being pulled by a truck.  They went automatically from the trailer onto a conveyor belt and were dumped into a truck.  Very cool!  We also passed a van on fire on the side of the road near I-10.  The burning van had caught the field on fire.  The fire department got there just as we passed.  Otherwise, pretty uneventful driving.

We'll be in Michigan by April 15.  Wiley has an appointment with the neurosurgeon at U Mich on the 19th.  Hopefully, he'll have his surgery and recover quickly so we can enjoy our visit with family.  Then it's back to Florida for the last couple of weeks in June and my follow-up doctor visits.  In July, we'll head west to South Dakota and Wyoming.  Should make for some interesting blogging!

I meant to do a final post before we left Florida, but we got busy.  My internet connection here is slow, so I'll plan to post some pics from FL next time.  Bye for now.