Vacation Time
We quickly packed our bags for one of our two summer weeks at the cabin we share in Michigan just north of Stockbridge, about three hours from Tiffin. We packed sweatshirts and shorts, canned goods and bedding, fishing tackle and a pruning saw. In the tackle box was the popper lure that floats on the top of the water and a six inch lizard for that big one.
We both packed an assortment of books. Mary took two new books from the library, Of Cats and Men by Nina de Gramont and Selected Short Stories by Patricia Highsmith. Percy took The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien and Robert Ludlum’s The Prometheus Deception.
We had to stop outside of Stockbridge for nightcrawlers and groceries. We always have to outrun the neighbor’s dog every time we approach our road through the woods. This time the woods were glorious with Dames’ Rocket in white and various degrees of lavender-pink. Many people think this plant is an early blooming phlox. Jack-in-the-pulpit was beginning to fade. Down by the dock, yellow iris were in bloom. Three different kinds of dogwood and a viburnum brightened the understory of the woods.
In no time we had made the beds, stashed the groceries and were sitting on the deck watching birds come to the feeder. Red-breasted grosbeaks, cardinals, house finches and red-bellied woodpeckers all showed their brilliant colors. Chick-a-dees, titmice, downy woodpeckers, and the amazing nuthatch all came to the feeders. The nuthatches are amazing because they can hop down tree trunks as easily as they can hop out a branch. They can even eat upside down.
We can hear the fee-e bee, fee-bee call of phoebes, but they don’t come to the feeders. Just listening in the evening, we could hear the snort of a deer near by. Farther away we heard a tchock-tchock like someone clicking his tongue against the roof of his mouth. Percy spent many hours in the woods squirrel hunting and wondering what that sound was. He finally discovered it to be the sound of chipmunks. Several flocks of Canada geese honked their way north.
We closed up the cabin at night because the temperature dropped into the forties. In the daytime we had sunny days in the 70’s and 80’s, still not warm enough for swimming even for the teenagers.
Percy fished every day that it was not too windy. One time his pole bent double and it seemed that he had a log on his line, but the “log” tried to swim away from the boat. As he pulled it close to the boat, he saw he had a snapping turtle, maybe 16 inches in diameter. There was nothing to do but cut the line and let him have the worm.
Mary cooked fish a new way. She used self-rising flour and cornmeal, and an egg, and some beer to make a batter. She had to experiment to find a good consistency. With the oil almost smoking, She cooked the filleted bass, bluegills, crappie, and sunfish very quickly. Every bite was eaten.
In the evening we read or played Scrabble. We came out about even with Scrabble games. Mary liked Of Cats and Men enough to recommend it to a daughter-in-law, but Mary Highsmith’s stories are too, too memorable. She explores our frustrations when they are carried to extreme and paints dark pictures. She is even good at showing the frustrations and frightening actions of animals when they are provoked beyond reason.
Percy enjoyed the fast paced Ludlum book. It was difficult to put down. One night he read it past 2AM.
Friday afternoon we saw Spiderman in Ann Arbor. We were the only people for that showing. Percy pruned Catherine’s forsythia bush and we went downtown in Ann Arbor with Catherine, her husband, Ray, our granddaughter, Eril, and Beth, Ray’s daughter, and ate at a table on the sidewalk and people-watched.
On Saturday Rick Hughey, a former neighbor, and his wife, Patty paid us a visit. They brought along their camera and a telescope and had fun taking pictures of the birds at the feeders. Patty teaches astronomy and she informed us that the two bright stars in the western sky we had been wondering about were Jupiter and Venus.
Percy went down to the lake after supper and fished until around ten. He had a great time using his popper lure and caught two large bass. In the dark, it was a good feeling to hear the popper land in the water rather than in the bushes.
We didn’t spend much time on the “devil weed” this time nor did we pull garlic mustard or dig up multiflora rose. The “devil weed” is Asian bittersweet which invaded our woods long ago. Vines as thick as our arms had climbed to the top of many trees, twisting around their trunks and killing them. About five years ago we cut the large vines away from their roots, but the roots sprouted even more vines. We have cleared large areas and still have not eliminated it all. The fruits are red and orange just like those we buy for fall decoration, and the birds eat them and scatter the seeds.
All too soon it is time to clean the cabin for the next partner, load up our gear, and head home. One more important detail, at the cabin, ants were marching up and down the wire that held the hummingbird feeder. We think that putting Vaseline on the wire will stop them. They appear to make the nectar taste bad because the hummingbirds did not linger at the feeder.
– Mary and Percy