How do City Folk Pick Mushrooms?

If you ever wondered how City Folk pick mushrooms, read on.... Mr. & Mrs. City took litte city mushroom hunting this week in the Schug woods around Schoolcraft.

In case you missed the first installment, little city is Jen & Joel's son Jadyn (look City I can spell) and Mr & Mrs. City are yours truely.

It's a long story but it went something like this (Bill:"look at those crazy city folk" Jadyn: "What's a city folk look like?" Bill: "you" Jaydn:"no, you!" and hence we have Little City and Mr & Mrs. City...

It was a productive trip, here is a picture of Mr. City teaching Little City what Poison Ivy looks like so that he would try to avoid it - hopefully that lesson worked - haven't heard about any poison ivy outbreaks....

We also learned about the secret to finding mushrooms in the woods (if you are asking right now, what is the secret.... good luck, you will need to take that up with Mr City unless you can get little city to tell)

Oh and to top it all off, we found some mushrooms!

The Pond - Remix

As I mentioned before, the pond is in the rebuild stage. Bill has been working hard to get it back in action (because as we know when it comes to ponds it's all about the action - just ask Joel)... here are some of the in progress pictures... I will add the final pic when it is totally done.

Dad, if you are reading this post, look at these little tiny rocks that the farmers "pick" in schoolcraft, HA - pretty funny stuff...

The Great Mushroom Hunt

It was a beautiful day for a mushroom hunt, so as Bill & I were leaving the farm for the day on Sunday - Trevor decided to convince us that if we didn't go find mushrooms with them, he would have to find them all.... of course we couldn't turn down this challenge so off to the woods we went. This was Lexi's second year of mushroom hunting, but last year she was uninterested and fell asleep as mom carried her through the woods. This year though, her favorite uncle Bill was convinced that he would teach her to find more mushrooms than her dad, and I think he succeeded.

As it turned out we were not the first ones to decide that it was a beautiful day for mushroom hunting, so we found a few stumps where others had beaten us to the sacred spots, but don't worry - Uncle Bill was up to the challenge, and soon Lexi had found her first mushroom with a little assistance...

The best part was Lexi asking Uncle Bill where the rest of the mushrooms where and telling him she wanted to find more... and screaming Unnnnnncllllllllleeeeeeee Biiiiiiiilllllllllll through the woods when he got too far away from her :-) It must suck to be the favorite uncle.

Goodbye to a friend

Today we said goodbye to a loyal friend. Sadie (Gator) was loved by all and it is hard to imagine LaKnoll without our Sade. It is so sad to see her go, but we will always remember the joy she brought to our lives and the lives of all the visitors to the farm.

I will always remember the trip to go get Sadie, all of us crammed in the blazer all the way to Detroit and dad picking out not the runt of the litter, but the chubby puppy... How could we ever forget the bone buffets, cheese snacks, gator rides, sniffers, kitty friends and early morning conversations that made us love Sadie?

How about obedience school where Sadie won the award for worst behaved dog when she jumped in the pond when she was supposed to be learning to come?

When she was young she sat in the barn and waited until the guys were busy working on something, then quickly stole their hat or rag for a fun chase around the barn. Not to mention all the sandwiches, doughnuts cookies, and other snacks that the guys shared with her during their farming breaks.

When dad got hurt and she laid on the picnic table outside of the window were he was waiting for him to come outside to work. As she got older, she waited all day for the tractors to come home and always knew which tractor dad was in and would wait to meet him when he arrived.

The Gator never left without Sadie and the few times we made that mistake she showed up anyway down to Trevor's or Gramps, exhausted and out of breath, and slightly annoyed that we would have the nerve to leave her behind. Sadie, it is sad to see you go, but we would not trade the memories and joy you brought to our lives. Although the farm will not be the same without you... we will always think of you when we go for a gator ride or come home on the tractor and you are not there.

If It Should Be

If it should be I grow frail and weak

And pain prevents my peaceful sleep,

Then you must do what must be done

When this last battle can't be won.

You will be sad, I understand.

Selfishness might stay your hand.

But on this day, more than the rest,

Your love and friendship take the test.

We've had so many happy years

That what's to come can hold no fears.

You'd not want me to suffer.

So,When the time comes, please let me go.

Take me where my needs they'll tend.

Only -- stay with me until the end.

Hold me firm and speak to me.

Until my eyes no longer see.

I know, in time, you too, will see

It is a kindness that you do for me.

Although my tail its last has waved,

From pain and suffering I've been saved.

Do not grieve it should be you

Who must decide this thing to do.

We've been so close, we two, these years......

Don't let your heart hold any tears.

Author Unknown

"What if we are surrounded?"

Well blog readers, if you tuned in for the first edition of the turkey hunting drama, you will be happy to hear that the hunt continues.....

Last night we decided to go on the quest for the giant Tom Turkey (by the way for those of you who have never been lucky enough to hunt Turkey's other than the ones you find in the freezer around Thanksgiving it turnes out that you can only shoot male turkeys, females are off limits.) Thus, when there is a flock of turkeys around you have to quickly deduce who is the biggest male before shooting.... How do you do this you ask ... good question, ask Bill!

But I digress, back to the story... Last night a hunting we will go and as we are getting out of the truck Bill asks if he should bring his gun (as he thinks I am mad that he shot the other turkey) HA... so I say of course you should bring it and he says maybe he should leave it then there is no chance he can shoot my turkey... to which I retort, "What if we are surrounded".

As it turns out, I was forecasting the future - just call me Cleo...

So here we are marching to the back of the field - I look like Elmer Fudd (seriously I do) and Bill is following me playing cat scratch fever on his turkey call... of course no turkey's want to talk to us - why would they that noise hurts my ears.... As we get to the back of the woods near the field my task is to go put the turkey decoy in the field so off I go to do this and WAIT A MINUTE THERE ARE TURKEYS IN THE FIELD... oh man now what... do I put the turkey decoy down do I run do I shoot do I scream do I duck... what do I DO? I think I did a little duck and weave back to Bill with the decoy and my gun still in my hand... to which he laughs and says why didn't you put the decoy down? Why didn't you shoot? I DON'T KNOW!

So here we go sit down under the tree, call in the turkeys, here they come they are everywhere and there are a TON of them. Some to the left some to the right, some girls some boys, some Jakes - those are young males with red beards, and Bill says shoot THAT ONE - Big Tom and he waits and waits and no BOOM - so he is like hello what are you doing?

I was waiting for them to come closer... oh what so you can beat them over the head with your gun?

So anyway - we were surrounded by Turkey's and Bill did have his gun and fortunatly for the turkeys I was more interested in watching then shooting (and Bill knew better) I was so shocked to be surrounded I couldn't figure out which one to shoot, so I shot none of them!

As Kim would say... "good thing you have a day job!"

Don't worry, the hunt continues...- stay tuned for page 2!

My First Turkey..... or not!

For those of you who didn't know... Bill loves to hunt. When I say LOVES I mean some people like to hunt, some people really enjoy hunting... then there is the Peck category.... off the chart.... until you have actually experienced hunting with Bill, you really have no idea the level of committment he has to hunting (hunting anything; Deer, Bears, Turkeys, Groundhogs, Gophers, Sandhill Cranes, Coyotes, Prairie Dogs, Fish, arrowheads, you name it, he will hunt it...) Therefore, I realized early on in our relationship that if I too would be a hunter. The thing about hunting with Bill is there are rules and you must follow the rules, whether it is scent proof clothing, leafy pants, rubber boots, the wind is in the east, whatever... there are rules he should write a book.

The other thing you quickly learn when hunting with Bill is that he makes it seem so easy. When I don't go he comes home with whatever he has been hunting and nonchalantly mentions that he shot another *insert random game here* no big deal. Usually we eat whatever crazy thing he has shot and he gives the creature away for someone else to mount (I will never understand this)... but anyway point being he makes it look easy like all you have to do is go out in the field, shoot the thing and come home. This has not been my experience with hunting (especially when Bill is with me).

So... if you are still reading you are maybe wondering about the turkey. Here we go... This year I decided to embark on Turkey hunting. A sport I have choosen to pass on because of the insanely early hours you have to spend hunting. However, as I mentioned before there are Bill rules, and in these rules he has decided that all the other turkey hunters are crazy and actually you can shoot very nice turkeys in the middle of the day. And as this is now a new rule in the Peck family, we decided to get suited up in our favorite leafy camo and go shoot a turkey (another rule Bill has - no leaving until the thing that you are hunting is dead, even if that means you stay all day).

So here we are out in the field, Bill is making screechy turkey noises that sometimes sound to me like a sick cat... and no turkey's are answering. So after about 3 hours we decide to move to anther location (actually we were considering leaving without a turkey) but alas, as we are walking down the trail and Bill is making the screeching cat turkey noise, a turkey Gobbles back! And after 3 hours of sheer boredom the fun commences...

We run over to a tree sit down and start cat screeching like crazy... The turkey answers every time and it seems to be coming closer... but we quickly decide to move to a better location. We move and are both on either side of this smaller pine tree... the screeching and gobbling continues and I am aiming my gun where this giant Tom Turkey is going to step out of the fencerow to his demise..... We wait and wait and all the sudden I hear a rustle next to me where Bill is calling the Turkey then BOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMM his gun goes off and the turkey is dead.

Of course this is the part in the story where I remind you that we were supposed to be getting my first turkey, and I could go on and on about all the reasoning why Bill HAD to shoot. But we all know the truth....

I am sure we will be going out on another quest for turkeys later this week so I will update you with the rest of the story on the quest for my first turkey.....

Time flys when you are having fun.....

Hey all you blog readers out there - I know it has been awhile since I posted but we have been busy busy busy. Happy Spring to everyone - for real this time - no snow for weeks :-)

Bill has been moving trees and doing Encore jobs like crazy... he is happy that it is finally nice outside and wants to get working on the landscaping... we have torn out our pond and are starting over... here is phase 1...

I am happy to report today is the last day of my class at KVCC - School's out School's Out - teachers let the fools out?

The dogs are happy that spring has sprung... Neo has a new haircut and trinity is next in line...