I Love To Go A Gardening
Growing Our Life in Northern Michigan
Fireworks
Last weekend’s grueling trip south took a lot out of us, so I have not taken on any huge projects this week…like painting rooms. Instead, I’ve limited myself to unpacking a box or two or three a day in addition to regular chores like dishes, and laundry, and walking to get the mail. Now and then, I’ve taken a nap.
Well…I’ve done a few other things as well–but nothing tiring like painting a room.
We were able to bring all but two of the birdhouses to our new house last weekend. I checked carefully and the three I brought north showed no signs of occupancy, while the two I left appeared to have sparrows nesting inside. I will bring those two north in the autumn. Sunday afternoon I happily put up two of the birdhouses. Using EJ’s post hole digger, I dug several holes before I was happy with the locations of the houses. I haven’t decided where I want the third birdhouse yet.
I also brought up my bird feeders, but I can’t put those out until after the bears go to sleep for the winter because I read that they like eating from bird feeders–and they have long memories so that once they find a sources of food, they will keep returning to it. I think I will have to give away my hummingbird feeders because the hummingbirds migrate to this area during the summer when bears are awake. A black bear was spotted in an area not far away from us this last week.
EJ had an eye appointment on Monday morning in the Emerald City. I went with him. The ophthalmologist’s office was the biggest I have ever seen! Once EJ gets his new glasses and all, I will make an appointment to get my eyes checked.
JJ didn’t have to work on Tuesday or Wednesday. Tuesday afternoon he and I drove to our local library to get library cards. I do not have a descriptive name yet for this town. Its library is not as big as the one in the Emerald City, but it is several times bigger than the one in our old Village in the south. It looked small-ish from the outside, but was bigger on the inside. We look forward to getting to know it. As the librarian prepared our library cards, she told us that the first time we can only borrow one book, but after we successfully return it we can borrow an unlimited number of books. I was going to look for a book, but JJ was eager to go to our next destination: The fireworks store in the Emerald City.
We didn’t have any fireworks stores in the south. Instead, we bought our July 4th fireworks from a guy who set up a tent just a few miles outside of our village. He always let JJ have a lot of fireworks for his money–ones that would cost $20 to $30 elsewhere he’d sell to JJ for $5 or so. He quit selling them a couple of years ago. The fireworks store in the Emerald City had such a huge selection–from the “safe” ones sold in local stores to the bigger ones–that JJ wandered around in a trance. Finally, he chose to buy firecrackers and bottle-rockets. Meanwhile, I bought sparklers, snap-pops, and “snakes.” JJ laughed at the differences in our purchases. On the way home, I asked him if he liked living up north. He said, “Duh. They have fireworks stores!”
Since JJ has to work on July 4th, every day we have been going outside periodically to set off our fireworks. I took this video of EJ and JJ having fun. At the end they said, “This is dumb!” but that didn’t stop them from lighting other fireworks–or shooting them into the air with the wrist slingshot.
This week I’ve also worked on setting up on-line accounts so I can pay various bills on-line. I also had to email our new ISP to confess that in the chaos of moving, I had lost the log-on information for our wireless router. JJ said that they wouldn’t have that information, but since they had had to reset the router when they connected us to the Internet, I figured it was worth asking them. Yay! They were able to get me the information.
Last night the temperature dropped into the 40’s. I love the coolness here in the north. Even when it’s “hot” outside, there’s an underlying coolness so many days it’s pleasant wearing jeans and sweatshirts, which I prefer. Our mortgage officer had told me that the Great Lakes act as an air conditioner to keep the area from getting too hot. We also don’t have swarms of mosquitoes. I don’t think I have been bit by even one since I’ve been up here. Down south, I have a friend who has been posting videos of such terrible swarms of mosquitoes in the area that she wears mosquito netting when she walks her dog. I told EJ that it seems to me that the mosquitoes have been particularly bad over the last few years, and he said that it’s because they spray the mosquitoes, which decreases the population of birds and insects that eat them, and when the mosquitoes repopulate, the predators aren’t there to eat them. I gloated a bit to my friend about having no mosquitoes up here, and she said, “But at least we don’t have bears.” True.
This morning EJ wrote notes on the cards I had bought to thank our realtor and the mortgage officer for helping us buy our new house. They were both really awesome people. As you can see, Kee-Kee tried to “help” EJ…NOT! He decided to nap on EJ’s arm.
Later, EJ and I walked down the driveway to put the cards in the mailbox. On the way, we saw some very pretty flowers growing in the field on our property. Some were such a bright flourescent fuscha that it wouldn’t have surprised me if they glowed in the dark. I’m enjoying the many beautiful flowers we are finding on our property.
Last weekend when we were at our old house in the south, I walked down to the post office to ask sweet CM questions about what happens when the mail-forwarding period is complete. I had read on an abuse site that mail is returned to the sender with the new address on it. We do not want the abusive people in our lives to know our new address. CM said she didn’t think returned mail would have our new address unless people specifically paid for the service, but I asked her if she could officially check so that we would know for sure. She called a supervisor and it appears that they won’t get our new address when the mail is returned. Whew! We had already changed our email address, and this week I changed all our phone numbers to our new local numbers. I was able to do it all on-line. So now all ties are cut from my abusive family/friends–they don’t know we have moved, they won’t know our new address, they won’t know our new email, and they won’t have our new phone numbers. I think it’s kind of sad, really, because people–especially family–ought to be loving, not abusive. However, not every family or person is loving. It took me a long, long time to decide to take the step of No Contact with them, and I only did it because my family put us through hell and I saw no indication that it would ever get better.
Now we can focus on healing, and enjoying our beautiful, peaceful Enchanted Forest.
I Love To Go A Gardening 
Good for you. God’s blessings to you all! But stay away from those bears.
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Yeah. I’m not quite sure what I’ll do if I run into a bear!!!
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Love to read your story Teri and so happy that you all are feeling free at last. And now it is time to heal to enjoy and to grow in that beautiful place. ❤
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Hi kids, your pictures are worth a 1000 words, so happy for all of you, have a safe and fun filled July 4th. Your enchanted forest is a restful, peaceful haven and just breath it all in. Love ya!!
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