The birthday.

So Saturday, we had a pretty good day. Chuck and I went over and looked at a couple boats, we are thinking of moving up. Then when we came back and everyone was down at Herb's boat chatting so I said if you are all ready for cake, let's have cake! They were, of course, who doesn't love cake? It turned out to be the best cake I have ever bought from Wal-Mart! It was really delicious!

And it was super cute! I didn't make any plans, but we had a good turn out. These are the ones who stood still for the shot, except they all looked down? There was more people on the other side, but they dispersed when I turned around to take a photo!

Of course I didn't have 31 candles, so we just made them worth 10 + 1, which was actually aunt Sarah's idea!


Bob and Leeann got Chuck a pretty cool card, and gave him some of Bobs beer!

After all this, we ate dinner that Chuck made at home and brought with him. We were so full with cake and stuffed noodles! Aunt Sarah made a comment about walking the pier. I am still not sure how we managed to get the guys going but we did! It was the first time I had ever walked out there! I have rode by it on the boat, but never walked it. It looks really far, but it's really not so bad!

Even though it was kind of crowded, it was really peaceful.


At the end of the pier, the waves crash up against the wall and it's pretty awesome!

They are pretty strong and can drag you right in. It's pretty rough at the mouth of the river and the lake, not a place I would like to fall in! That is my son Jaden, he kept saying he was going to get wet, but he kept moving back! Saturday turned out to be a wonderful day!

Finally

Well Friday turned out to be a pretty good day. My husband Chuck finally arrived at the boat around 6:00 p.m. We went out to dinner and tried a new resturant-not good-but before he got there, Jaden and I went out and about and found some stuff to do. We went exploring again, we had to run into town to replace a propane tank and town was super busy so we took some side streets and found this adorable little coffee shop:

Chuck could not believe that it was called "fat chix"!! I tried to explain to him that it was spelled chix, but he didn't get it. Jaden said we should go there, but it was closed! We found some other cool stuff right near the marina.

Right at the entrance of our marina is a little park like area, it has a little pond and the bike path goes right through the pond or well right over:

Next to this area is a little patch of trees. There is a little path that you have to duck down into and it opens up into this:






At some point a willow tree fell over making a great place to climb, and someone spent some time in here making a sort of fort. It was so cool, the tree alone was awesome, it's still growing strong and from the outside you can't even tell the tree has fallen over! There was so many cool patterns. This would be an awesome place for photos such as senior pictures.

Here are some pictures of what the marina looks like when there is NO ONE there:


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We were so happy when people finally starting showing up! We had cake on Saturday for Chuck's birthday, but more on that and everything else later!

Day 8

It's starting to feel like we're stuck on a deserted island! My husband keeps getting later and later. Originally he was going to come on Thursday, but for some reason, I got the impression that he was just saying that! Well anyway, Thursday night he had no idea if he was going to have to work all day Friday or if he would be able to leave Friday morning! It's looking more like it's going to be Friday afternoon. Who knows-I sure don't! Tomorrow is his birthday and my son and I were so excited to get him up here with us, plus it's really lonely when no one else is here!

Last night Jaden and I tried a new restaurant because it was so windy we couldn't keep the grill going and our chicken was frozen. Mr Scribs it is called. I think it is a great place for pizza and subs, but you might want to pass on the ribs and seafood-my opinion-I am not an official food critic so don't take any of that to heart and put me in the papers!

While trying to make sure my son has a memorable week with his mommy, I have been diligently working to whittle away at the stack of photos awaiting edits so I can also remove the ones from my cameras so they can be added to a new stack awaiting edits. Some of these have been waiting so long I forgot I took them!

I call this one "love birds".

I call this one "bashful"

This one is "Three IS a crowd"

This one is called"stop pooping on my car please"
These were taken at the marina. We have a tree that has a couple branches that these birds seem to prefer over the hundreds of others. Everyday I have to wash my car because it seems to have a big bulls eye on it for the birds!

A few weekends ago, when my husband and I brought the truck and the jet ski up here, we went by the old fur tannery factory, I am not exactly sure what it was because it's been closed for about 5 years, and I haven't been here for five years. I am told though that it smelled horrible! Anyway we went by this and I added a wash and hdr, gave it a new feel


The top one is hdr and the bottom is a washed version. I think the wash version makes it look like an old photo.

Last weekend-is when most of these photos were taken, I was having camera withdraws, so I walked around the marina to find some interesting things to shoot.

People are complaining about the lily pads, but they have these flowers that I personally think makes them okay. Sometimes they form hearts and make feel a little squishy inside.


Now I can unload my cameras and have some more for tomorrow! Happy 8 day!

Day 7

That's right, it is day 7 at the boat. It is starting to get lonely up here. During the week there are very few people here at the marina. My son and I have been all over the Grand Haven doing the stuff that we normally don't do.

So it seems as the uploader isn't working again, so I will have to do this the old fashion way.

This was on the 4th, the river was so calm that night. This one has some photoshopping done, just playing around. The moon should have been out that night!

We should probably get the boat cleaned up today. We're not sure when dad will be here. Either today or tomorrow. The rest of the boaters will be here tonight or tomorrow morning.

This is a wheat field, I think they are so awesome looking. I would love to get out and stand in one for some photos. I think it would be cool to take photos of people in a wheat field too.

Not necessarily a theme but I have been taking a lot of "farm" type shots. I have heard they sell good in the stock photo markets. We will see!

Late

There hasn't been time lately to blog. Surely I was afraid that this would happen. There wasn't any photos to blog about, since I hadn't even had time to get out and shoot. Explanation: working. We were loaded with work, not so much any more. Hillsdale is suffering drought like conditions, therefore no green grass and nothing to mow. Last Thursday we all left for our boat, and my son and I stayed here, and are still here in Grand Haven. I started to blog yesterday, but it wasn't saving right so then I decided that I should probably take Jaden to the beach like promised. This was our mommy and son week, and now it's Wednesday, I am ready for my break! It hasn't been bad, Monday we had to get groceries and went swimming in the pool, Tuesday we went to the beach. We tried to make sand castles but that didn't go well, the sand wouldn't come out of the garbage pail we took. So then Jaden just swam for 2 hours, in the what I thought was freezing water! Oh, I also got sunburned on the front of my legs, and the middle of my back. Sunday all of us had sunburn on our legs from the knees down, how? Riding the jetski. Oh, crazy stuff happened right here in Grand Haven Last Saturday. About 9:30 p.m. we started hearing tons of sirens and what not, and we were sitting at the neighbors picnic table watching the coast guard and police boats fly by. Turns out there was a boating accident, a man who was supposedly drinking hit another boat causing the other boat to sink. There were two people on the sinking boat, a man and a woman, the woman managed to cling to the side of the boat until anther boat picked her up and she was in serious condition and the man was thrown from the boat. The search lasted for 4 hours in the dark. At that point they were not doing search and rescue, it was search and recovery. The man was found 17 hours after the accident. Isn't that just said, you would think people would learn not to drink and drive, let alone boat and drink-bad news for the man on the boat that didn't sink, the coast guard does not tolerate drinking and boating! Here is a link to the newspaper story: http://www.grandhaventribune.com/paid/299112414869642.bsp
No pictures this time, the picture uploader isn't working. I will try to get some more on here as quickly as I can.

The hardest part

Yes it has been a long time. For the last two weeks, I have been working for my husband while he does other jobs. They are big shoes, or boots, to fill when I am taking his place for the week. I have to work hard, be the boss and try not to break all my nails in one day! Oh, we own a lawn mowing company that I work for. We are very grateful to have the work, and we have work! Still getting calls and it is almost July.

About two and half weeks ago we took Brian to the rehab home in Stockbridge, MI. If you remember from previous posts, Brian was the baby deer we took in. We ended up having him just short of four weeks. It was a Wednesday evening after work, we loaded him in the car and headed off with the bag of sheep pellets and kid milk we had bought for him. Wrapped in his blanket, he rode for the hour drive sleeping on my lap the whole way. Right now it tears me up thinking about this. Nothing bad happened, I just had no idea that I would fall in love with this little creature. Him going to the rehab farm was the best thing for him.

What will happen is this; about fall time, Sherry-the woman licensed to take care of (rehabilitate) wild animals-will continue to nurse the baby deer until roughly fall. At this point she will remove a panel from their enclosure and they (she has 6 now) will be able to come and go as they please. There is 40 acres of wood land for them to roam on, as well as Sherry's families farmland that surrounds her land. This is really the best thing for the little guy. When bucks get older and start liking does they can be very aggressive and cause damage. Many people have been hurt or killed by bucks. Well it broke my heart to leave him there but I know that he will be okay!

Raising Brian.......

So....in my last blog I made a mention of raising a baby deer. Now I can officially talk about it-or at least I am going too! We have had "Brian" for two weeks now, we think he was only possibly a day (or less) old when we found him. He didn't take to the bottle right away and he wasn't walking. By the end of the day he had taken to the bottle. I went to the store and bought milk replacer for kids(baby goats) because I searched the Internet and that is what I found. Started mixing up bottles--one cup of powder to 8 ounces of water because that's what the bag said to do! Turns out that is what you do for baby goats, baby deer on the other hand only get 1 tablespoon to 8 ounces. When you mix it really thick the deer gets really stinky gas and diarrhea-deer don't usually have diarrhea, they have hard nuggets which many people see right in their back yard. The one tablespoon is much like he moms milk, which is very watery.


Here is what you do if you find a baby deer: Leave it alone!! Unless; you see a dead doe near the baby. This is what I have found out through this ordeal, you can NOT get a permit to keep a deer, not in the state of Michigan anyway. This I learned by calling the Department of Natural Resources (DNR), I actually had my husband call, but none the less we called. They said, it is illegal to have them "contained", so in your house IS illegal! Then they gave us a website to go to that had the name of licensed rehabilitation homes to call. We found one in Jackson, which is about an hour away from us. She said she wouldn't have room for him for about two weeks. If we could hold on to him "for her" we would not have any trouble with the DNR or anyone else and if we do, give them her name and number and she will deal with it.

You are not supposed to get the baby accumated (or attached to you). Well that is almost impossible when you have to feed him a bottle everyday and rub his butt with a damp cloth to encourage a bowel movement. It all makes great sense, but how can you not want to cuddle with this:

Let me say this, it is A LOT of work. He thinks he needs to eat every time he sees you, so he nudges you with his head which is VERY annoying but it's all he knows, so you forgive him. He pees A LOT! Not a tinkle, a river, it's more than dogs pee. He is also wild so he has no idea that he's peeing inside or outside, on a rug or in the grass. One other thing he doesn't understanding of glass. He hasn't broken any, but when I come home from work he can't wait to get to me so I can feed him and he runs into the glass, and I rush to him, because I don't want him to knock himself silly!

Over all this has been a great experience. Most kids would never be able to say that they took care of a baby deer when they . Most adults would never be able to say it either! Nor would you be able to come home and tell him he needs to get out of the chair!
It gives you a soft spot in your heart for deer, no matter how much trouble they cause.