A couple of days ago, we dusted off the potato cannon and conducted a few test blasts. As you can see in the video above, it worked. My father and I constructed the potato cannon a few summers ago with instructions from the book, Backyard Ballistics. It is made mostly of PVC pipe, with a flint sparker on the end. Last time we used an aersol hair spray as a propellant, and this year we used starter fluid.
The book has a lot of ideas of experiments to do that mostly involve explosions and gadgets. One of the boys favorite television programs is Mythbusters, and they love tinkering with experiments. We’ll continue to hone this one until we get the potato shooting out across the neighborhood. I made the “tennis ball mortar” with my science classes in Anaco to great success. They also had a homemade version of the fire paper lanterns that we had at our farewell party last month. I am also a pyromaniac and love blowing things up with the boys.
Owen said that someday he wants to be a scientist, soccer player, and a spy. He is not sure which one.
Ollie and Owen are shown riding their cousins’ electric car. We spent the day at my brother’s house in near by Iron Mountain, Michigan. It is about 40 miles south east of Iron River. They are getting along well with their cousins. We also had the first basketball game as Owen and I took on Jim and Tony.
I spent the morning sorting through the year’s financial corresponsdance. I am organizing our credit card statements, bank statements, retirement accounts, taxes, etc. Lots to do. In the afternoon we went to Iron Mountain. Last night we just hung out at the house.
We are visiting the Upper Peninsula this summer holiday. We ran into to other visitors to this beautiful region, one wanted and the other unwanted.
The first is shown above – it is an Indian Blue Pea Fowl (Pavo Cristatus) that I photographed as it was walking along the road near the Ski Brule Resort. We were on the way home from Hagerman Lake it was walking in the middle of the road. People call them pea cocks but actually only the male is known as a pea cock. The female is known as a pea hen and the species is pea fowl. The bird is a member of the pheasant family and there are two species in its genus of Pavo. The other species is known as the Green Pea Fowl.
The Blue Pea Fowl is native to India. This one is obviously someone’s pet and they do make good pets. They serve as a “watch fowl” and need minimal care. They are from a temperate to tropical climate and so need to be protected from the cold winters.
Zebra Mussels On A Rock from Chicagoan Lake
The Zebra Mussel ( ) is a nuisance species. It is native to south east Russia, but with the advent of extensive global trade, bilge water containing mussels was dumped into Lake St. Clair, a small lake between Erie and Huron in the Great Lakes. It was first reported in 1988 and then spread throughout the region since then. It first appeared in Iron County lakes around the turn of the century. The New York Sea Grant Program has an excellent dynamic map showing the progessive spread of this mollusc. They are found all the way down the Mississippi River, all of the Great Lakes, as well as lakes throughout the midwest.
They are a nuisance because they are voracious eaters and they take away plankton and algae that would normally feed fish. The Zebra Mussel also clogs intake pipes as well as contaminated bodies of water with their feces. They are filter feeders and concentrate toxins in their bodies as they eat. Their feces contains much of these toxins.
We found them all over most of the rocks in Chicagoan Lake, which is close to my home. My friends have a cottage on the lake and their children were finding them and taking them off of the rocks. I applaud their efforts, but with females able to produce 30,000 – 100,000 eggs per year, it will be tough to manually get rid of them.
There is a ton of information on the web about the zebra mussel. One good article is found here. It will be interesting to see what can be done about them.
Ocean is shown above enjoying the beach at Hagerman Lake. It is a favorite beach of ours because there is a large, flat, grassy area and hardly anyone goes to the public beach. When we went on Thursday, there was no one there except for us. The weather has been nice so far, with hot temperatures during the day and cool temps at night. Ocean lived up to her name and was the last to leave the water. She shows no fear for water, going up to her neck and then jumping up and falling on her “dupa” and then giggling.
Owen and Ollie are having a nice time with their cousins, Beau and Tony, the sons of my brother Jim. They are not fighting all the time like they were last summer. Beside swimming at Hagerman Lake, Friday we also went to Chicaguoan Lake to swim at the beach at the Bonetti’s cottage. There are so many lakes in our county. We could visit a different one almost every day of our holiday. And that is a nice thing about Iron County, there is hardly any people here so anywhere you go, there is plenty of space and no crowds.
Tony, Owen, Beau, & Oliver
Besides swimming, Nadia has been running daily. I drop her off 6 miles from our home and she runs here. I got out to run twice with Owen on the bike on the Apple Blossom Bike Trail.
On a sad note, we buried my mother in the Stambaugh Cemetery on Friday. Father Clisch, from our home parish of St. Cecilia’s Catholic Church in Caspian gave a short service. Cemetary and funeral home officials were very kind to wait for me to return from Belgrade. The ceremony was attended by a small group of close friends and family. It was touching to see Ollie put a blue flower from the McDonald’s garden on the casket. Blue represents our school colors of West Iron County Public Schools. We will be ordering a tombstone later and are thinking of putting “Coach” on the stone. My mother was a big sportsperson. Afterwards, we had a BBQ in the backyard. Andy is shown below on the grill. It was good to catch up with my aunts Darlene and Ione, and cousin Debbie, as well as friends Mac and Julie. It was a nice way to say goodbye to my mother. She will be missed.
The kids are shown above sleeping at the gate of our United Airlines flight in Chicago’s O’Hare Airport. The flight was eventually cancelled and we had to take another flight the next day. We tried to get on a later flight, but they only had 3 empty seats and we needed four. The kids as well as I were exhausted by this time as we had left Belgrade early in the morning European time. With a short stopover in the Lufthansa hub city of Frankfort, we made good time over the Atlantic.
Ollie & Ocean Hitch a Ride on My Carry-On
My father lives in a small town in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and it is a remote area not well serviced by airlines. The nearest larger airport with regular flights is Green Bay, Wisconsin. We landed in Chicago around 1:00 PM and as you can see, our 5:00 PM flight was cancelled. United Airlines was nice in providing us with a good hotel and a free breakfast for the night. I think they felt sorry for us, especially the dramatic scene at the gate with three children sleeping in front of the desk. They also put us on an American Airlines flight the next morning.
Now that I have flown Lufthansa quite a bit living in Europe, it is a pretty good airline. The only problem with them is the lack of leg room. When a person leans his/her chair back, there is almost no room for the passenger behind.
We eventually made it the next day, although the cancellation caused a bit of inconvenience for my father and brother. My hometown is a 3 hour drive from Green Bay.
Sunday Nadia and I ran the 28th annual “Run Your Bass Off” 10 kilometer road race in Crystal Falls, Michigan. The race is part of the Bass Festival held at Runkle Lake. We were unsure of going when we got up Sunday morning as it was 50 degrees F and drizzling. We powered through however and got the kids up and packed and drove the 15 miles to the other side of Iron County. We dropped the boys off with our good friend’s the Bonetti family and dropped Ocean of at my aunt Ione’s home in Crystal Falls. It was great! We felt like we were on a date with no kids. As you can see, I was a bit more excited about running in the cool weather than Nadia.
Most of the 279 present were running the shorter “Half Bass” or 5 kilometer run/walk. Crystal Falls should be renamed Crystal Hills as there were killer hills throughout the race. There were some nice scenic spots as we ran by the Paint River. Nadia and I ran together as it was a rare opportunity for us to do something together sans offspring. Nadia started off slow but then got her second wind and we passed some runners. There was a large hill however at the 4 mile mark that took the wind out of her sails and she slowed a bit. In the last 2 miles she recovered and we finished strong together at 1 hour and 2 minutes. We didn’t win but that wasn’t the point. We enjoyed ourselves thoroughly and got out and did some exercise.
Every time I come home to Caspian for a visit my mother makes my favorite meal. She calls them pizza rolls, and they are an Italian dough and meat cinnamon roll shape covered in a red sauce. It is a simple recipe and the only work is in preparing and shaping the dough.
To the right is how the dough is laid out and the meat placed. It is then carefully rolled and cut into small slices.
My mother got the recipe from her mother who got it from Mrs. Stiffe, a neighbor in their Italian neighborhood of Caspian. I’ve eaten these since I was a kid and always eat too many of them.
Below my Dad and Mom enjoy the pizza rolls in the foreground. My brother and his family came from Iron Mountain to enjoy the rolls and spend some time with us. We went up to the baseball field and played with the kids after the meal.
Instructions: Mix flour & salt – add eggs (dough will be soft and sticky) add a little milk if too dry. Put oil on hands and over dough. Divide in half – roll on floured bread 1/4 ” thick. Spread on meat – roll like a jelly roll-cut 1″ slices – place 1″ apart in cake pan. Mix sauces and water – pour over slices – cover – bake 350° F for 45 minutes to 1 hour.
Andy’s tip – mix the meat the night before to make it easier and it gives the pork a chance to give more flavor to the beef.
Sunday we drove up to Ontonogan for our annual trip to one of the Great Lakes. My town of Caspian is located an hour from Lake Superior and Lake Michigan and every summer we try to at least spend a day at the beach. We usually go with my brother’s family and our good friends the Bonettis. This year Jim couldn’t make it, but we went up with Mark, his wife Danell, and children Brandl and Lauren.
We wanted also to explore the Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park. It was about 90 miles away from Caspian. We stayed at the Superior Shores Resort located on the Lake about 6 miles outside of the park. The annual trip is also a celebration of “Yooper Culture” and we try to stay in locally owned motels and eat in local restaraunts.
Lake Superior is one of my favorite places in the world. It has the largest surface area of any freshwater lake in the world (82,178 km square). It’s average depth is 149 meters. It is the Lake that took down the ss Edmond Fitzgerald in 1975, memorilized in that famous song by Gordon Lightfoot. British poet Rupert Brooke had noted in 1913, “These monstrous lakes, which ape the oceans, are not proper to fresh water or salt. They have souls, and they are wicked ones.” It is also a very cold lake, with an average temperature of 40 degrees F. The lake is huge and cold and beautiful. (I like that Hemmingway-esque description)
The weather was cold on Sunday, we we loved it. After we settled in to the motel, we went for a hike at the Lake of the Clouds inside the park. We made it down to the lake in back. In the evening we went to the Kontecka Supper Club in near by White Pine. This is a dying little town near the park. There used to be a big copper mine, but when it shut down in the late 80’s, so did most of the town. The club feeds local wild bears and it was great the kids had a chance to watch the big black bears come in. I do not like this artificial feeding, but it has helped the club survive. Many tourists go there to watch the bears and have a bite to eat.
The next day we made a short stop at Bonanza Falls after lounging at the motel and a pancake breakfast at Syl’s Cafe in Ontonogan. There was a bad smell downtown Ontonogan from the big paper mill. The mill makes corrugated cardboard and employs around 300 people. We then drove just east of town and there is a nice public beach on the lake. It was a nice sunny day and we really enjoyed a day at the beach. I took the photo of Owen above.
We came home and then I took the kids up to the weight room as my brother needed to watch the football players. You can click on our flickr photos to see more photos from the trip. I would like to that Mark and Danell for being such wonderful company!
There was no time to blog on Friday or Saturday. Friday morning we went up to the Ice Lake hospital and met with Dr. Naseem Rizkalla. He is a very nice gentleman from Jordon who has been practicing in the US for over 20 years. At Nadia’s physical Thursday, Dr. Cloutier referred her to Dr. Rizkalla for her diastisis. Dr. Rizkalla agreed to see us free of charge since the insurance would have taken a few days to authorize. He quickly examined Nadia and did concur with Dr. Cloutier that surgery would be necessary. Nadia’s abdominal muscles are stretched from three preganncies (especially Owen’s) and there is a bulge. Since we are leaving so soon (July 21) he did not want to do the procedure now. It will be painful and Nadia is still nursing. She will have to wait for a better time. It is not a matter of life or death and she can continue to do all the activities that she normally does as there is no threat for a hernia according to Dr. Rizkalla. I also went to get my blood test for the William Russell life insurance in case I cannot be insured locally. More on that later, but I did can say I did not have TB.
In the afternoon we went to Iron Mountain to meet with our friend and real estate agent, Monica Maule. She works for Stephens GMAC and is trying to sell our house in a really bad market. We then went shopping at Dunham’s Sports for running shoes, shorts, etc. After that was done, we went to my brother’s house. Jimmer and I took the boys for a hike above the hills of Iron Mountain. There are still lots of wood ticks around the woods as we found dozens of them on us. Nadia absolutely freaks outs about wood ticks! My sister-in-law Michelle prepared her famous north side lasagna and we stuffed our faces.
Saturday was spent packing. We have 8 boxes to send to New Jersey to ship to Serbia.
In between packing, I played football and soccer with the kids and took all three up to Community Center to play in the park. The boys helped Grandpa in the garage in the morning too. He can still box at age 75!
In the evening, we went up to the Gaastra Field and watched my brother Andy play soccer. Every Saturday evening at 6:00 PM, people get together to play soccer there. I got into the game for awhile and it felt good to run around a bit.
This morning we are getting ready to do the Run Your Bass Off 10KM in Crystal Falls Michigan. It was 53 degrees F when I woke up with the wind howling! We will then spend the night in a motel on the shores of Lake Superior near the Porcupine Mountains wilderness area.
It was a tough day yesterday for Nadia. We are both tired of the housework and child care that is usually taken care of by our domestic help in Venezuela. We had two girls come in Monday – Friday to assist us with the house and children while we were working. We never had to wash/dry/iron clothes, clean the house, cook lunch or breakfast and clean up afterwards. Other things such as cleaning the car, mowing the lawn, etc. were taken care of by the school’s maintenance department. Much time goes into these kinds of things and it takes away from the “quality” time of spending time with our children doing enjoyable activities or stimulating our intellects.
Nadia had a doctor’s appointment in the afternoon for her physical for her new job. The doctor recommended immediate surgery on her diastisis. This is a spreading of the stomach muscles in women after pregnancy. She feels a loose area there and the doctor was impressed that Nadia had been walking around with it for so long. We are sorting through the insurance and choice of doctor this morning. I need to find our more about the procedure, but it would require an overnight stay in the hospital. I understand they will either sew or insert mesh into the stomach muscles to hold it together better. Entry would be through the belly button. More posts later on this.
In better news, Ocean is growing so fast! She is getting even chubbier. The video above shows her eating and she does have a healthy appetite when she is in the mood. She is crawling everywhere and we had to put her in the crib so she doesn’t destroy the house.
We are also packing boxes to be shipped to the International Schools Services ware house in New Jersey. Our school is having a second shipment of cargo from the USA to Serbia go out in mid-October. They are very generous in the amount of shipping we get and we appreciate it, especially with a big family.
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