8/13/11 (Saturday): It's a beautiful day in Ypsilanti, Michigan! After weeks of extreme heat and lots of rain, we're now experiencing glorious days in the upper 70's with low humidity. Such a welcome change!
Wiley continues to recover nicely from his brain surgery. He'll have the second part of the surgery done on 9/2. Two weeks later when they turn the DBS on, we hope to see him tremor free for the first time in a couple of years. Thanks to everyone for your support.
Because Wiley can't be too active right now, we've been taking lots of rides in the country, stopping to buy farm fresh produce at roadside stands and admiring the neat fields of soy beans and corn, the big red barns and the prosperous looking farm houses.
There are lots of scenic dirt roads in this area and it's possible to ride for hours without seeing a vehicle.
On one of rides, we stopped at Zilke's Vegetable Farm near Milan, Michigan. For $5 we got four patty pan squash, two bell peppers and four ears of corn! I stuffed the patty pan squash with onions, peppers, bread crumbs and crumbled bacon (yum!) ... but I'm getting ahead of myself here.
Zilke's produce is all organically grown and some of the fields are right beside the farm stand.
While we were there, this cute restored pick-up truck pulled up. It's a 1949 Diamond T, called the Cadillac of pick-up trucks. They were manufactured in Chicago from 1938 to 1949 and are very rare. The gentleman who owns this one told me that Jay Leno owns one! His wife also had some interesting stories. Her father was a gardener on one of Henry Ford's estates.
Another day, we drove from Ypsilanti to Clinton on U.S. 12 to visit some of the yard sales in "
Michigan's Longest Garage Sale." We didn't buy much, but it was really fun driving along this beautiful road and stopping at farms and homes along the way to see what was for sale.
One of our first stops was at
Rentschler Farm, just East of Saline, Michigan. This historic farm sits right on a major road, but it feels so bucolic when you step into the barns!
A lot of people had set up tables with stuff for sale, but the interesting part to me was seeing the pigs, sheep (and two newborn lambs!), chickens, geese and turkeys.
There's a lovely old house on the property that's open for tours on Saturdays. I think I'll have to go back and do that tour. According to Wikipedia.com, Emanual Rentschler purchased his 216 acre farm just after the turn of the century. At that time, there was an old farmhouse and a large dairy barn that stood perpendicular to the road. Over the next few years Rentschler made several improvements to the farm. These improvements included adding a new farmhouse in 1906 which was built by his brother, Matthew. The farmhouse reflects an era of great change in farming, including going from the use of horses to tractors, from kerosene lamps to the use of electricity, and from an agriculture-based economy to a manufacturing economy.
The fields were planted with corn and there was a big vegetable garden. I think I must have been a farmer's wife in a previous life because I came home wanting to can something and work on a quilt! Or maybe I could knit some socks, like this exhibitor, who knits socks on an antique machine!
I bought a pair--they're incredibly comfortable!
Saline, the town where Rentschler Farms is located, is another place we'll have to explore more thoroughly. The
Davenport-Curtiss house sits on quite a bit of acreage in town. I've never seen anything like it in Florida (except maybe the haunted house at Disney World)!
On the way home, we stopped for lunch in one of our favorite restaurants, The Beirut. It has gorgeous murals on the wall. I adore their Falafel sandwich and Wiley is very fond of their chicken schwarma. It's just one of many Arabic restaurants in this area, which has a big population of Mid-Easterners.
I have to run now--I'm watching the two youngest granddaughters today while the oldest goes to the eye doctor.
