Family Journal: Friday July 3, 2009

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This is the big 4th of July weekend in the USA. Ocean and Ollie are shown above in Grandpa’s garage on the John Deere riding lawnmower. Ocean’s looks are changing every day! I spent the morning with these two as Nadia and Owen went for a run on the Appple Blossom Trail. I took them in the wagon over to the Caspian Community Center playground. In the afternoon we headed over to my brother’s home in Iron Mountain. Shelly was putting on my nephew’s birthday party. She rented a bouncy castle and they set up the swimming pool. Despite the cold water and cooler temps, the kids and I enjoyed swimming. The highlight of the party was the neighbors lighting the smoke stack across the street. There is a 50-meter smoke stack ear Jim’s house that was left by the mining companies. There were many iron mines in the area in the early part of last century. It was known at the Menominee Range and millions of tons of iron ore were shipped to Chicago and Detroit from here. Today all that are left are museums, open pits that have turned into lakes, and huge underground caverns and shafts that are largely unexplored and occasionally cave in. This was an era before the Environmental Protection Agency forced mining companies to clean up and restore the landscape when they were finished.

The Fire Truck Puts Out the Fire as the Kids Enjoy the Party
The Fire Truck Puts Out the Fire as the Kids Enjoy the Party

Anyway, unknown persons lit tires in the bottom of the unused smokestack in honor of a relative who passed away this week. He used to do this occasionally on the 4th. A while later, the Iron Mountain City fire truck came and put it out. I think it was unneccesary as it was not a fire hazard and only causing a bit of pollution. The police asked us who did it and we said we didn’t see anyone lighting it (true).

Owen slept over his cousin’s house and we took his little brother Beau.

Ocean and Nadia
Ocean and Nadia

Family Journal: Hike to Bennan Lake

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I didn’t have the camera with me yesterday (yes, surprise, surprise) but I wish I did as we had a fantastic adventure hiking to Bennan Lake. Jim and I took the four boys (Owen, Ollie, Tony, Beau) as well as Ocean on the Ge – Che Cross Country Ski Trail in the Ottawa National Forest. It is located close to our home in Caspian and is 6 miles long and goes by three lakes, Hagerman, Ottawa, and Bennan. Ge Che means “big lake” in the Ojibwa language.

We started from the car park near the Orville Lunn overlook and we walked the approximately 3 miles to the lake. Along the way we caught a toad, identified slugs, and picked up many ticks. The first half of summer is full of ticks. We had to pick them off several times off of all of us. When we arrived at the lake, several of us went for  a swim. It is a beautiful, little lake with only one dock on that we could see. A pair of loons were swimming near by. When we got back, Nadia had prepared some pumpkin risotto and an angel food cake berry delight. What a great end to a great day!

Family Journal: July 1, 2009

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I had a wonderful day yesterday. The cool temperatures have kept most people indoors. The boys went to the movies with Uncle Jim and Aunt Shelly. Nadia was not feeling well, so Ocean and I took advantage of this and went for a bike ride around Iron Mountain. Jim has a bike with a “rickshaw” and we rode around Lake Antoine, visited city park, and went by Iron Mountain High School. We stopped at various parks and had them all to ourselves. I guess it was a Wednesday afternoon and the occasional rain kept people out of the parks. As you can see, Ocean enjoyed it. It was good to spend time alone with my daughter. She is such a loving little girl!

Owen Gets a Basehit Off My Brother
Owen Gets a Basehit Off My Brother

Later, when the boys got back, we had batting practice. Owen is working on getting rid of his upper cut. My brother Jim is an excellent coach and really helped him at Northside Field. We then took the boys for pasties and headed home. All in all, a fantastic day!

White-tailed Deer are a Common Sight in the UP
White-tailed Deer are a Common Sight in the UP

Family Journal: Potato Cannon

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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.

Family Journal: June 29, 2009

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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.

Jims Style Hasnt Changed - Love the shorts!
Jim's Style Hasn't Changed - Love the shorts!

Fellow Visitors to the UP

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 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
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.

Summer in the Upper Peninsula

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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
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.

Andy Flips the Burgers
Andy Flips the Burgers

Long Flight to Michigan

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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
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.

The Kids Looking Out at Rosemount, Illinois
The Kids Looking Out at Rosemount, Illinois

Summer Holidays Begin

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This is my last post from Belgrade until August. We are going on our annual summer holidays. This year we will be spending it in my hometown of Caspian, Michigan, USA. I’ll be blogging about our experiences there.

Above I am pictured with Oliver at the Dinosaurs Argentina Exhibition which is currently being held at the Continental Hotel Exhibition Center in New Belgrade. I highly recommend it for families. The boys loved it and learned a lot. Gigantosauras and the dinosaur eggs were especially a hit. You can click on the photo to see more of the exhibition. It features the fossil finds in the deserts of Patagonia in central and southern Argentina. The species found there are just as impressive as the more famous North American finds like T. Rex, etc. 

 

Heaven in My Hand
Heaven in My Hand

I also wanted to share the photo above. Great fresh produce in the various markets around Belgrade. Raspberries are my all  time favorite fruit (the other 4 in my top 5 fruits are blueberries, mangos, bananas, and watermelon). The Kralovec family are “fruit alcoholics” and we are consuming punnets of raspberries at a rate of 8 per day. My personal record is 3 and 1/2 in one sitting. 

Well, I must finish packing as we head west across Europe and the Atlantic.

Cockta: The Drink of Yugoslavia

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Oliver is shown above enjoying a “Cockta” – a drink that was popular during the communist era of Yugoslavia, and which is making a comeback in 21rst century Balkans.

We first noticed it at the basketball games of Red Star. In the center of the floor was a big “Cockta” advert. I didn’t know how to pronounce it because I was going by the Serbian Latin pronounciation, which when there is a “c” it sounds like the “ts” of cats. Later I found out the name originates from a short form of cocktail, hence, “cockta.” An after riding the “cockta” train at Kalemegdan part a couple weeks ago, I needed to find out all about it. 

It was invented in the 1950’s in Slovenia. The drink was designed as an alternative to the capitalist west, Coca Cola. It became popular through a series of ads closely associated with the ski jumping in Slovenia. You can see all the adverts and read more about the drink on the company’s web site. Since then the company has new owners and I read it is making a comeback in the ex-Yugoslavia. I am not sure about market shares, but I see the adverts quite a bit here in Belgrade.

 

Always True Selection (A Bad Translation)
"Always The True Choice" (A Bad Translation) - Billboard in Belgrade

The soda pop looks like coca cola but has a much different taste. The key ingredient in the mix of 11 herbs, is extract from the dog rose berry. It gives is a distinctive taste and aroma. There is no cafeine  – part of one ad campaign says “If you want cafeine, go for a coffee, if you want milk – go for a cow” It does have sugar so it is not quite a health drink. 

Well, we had a Kralovec family taste test this weekend. Owen thought it tasted like medicine and Nadia thought it too bitter. Ocean is not drinking carbonated beverages yet. That left Ollie and I as the only ones who like it. Ollie orders it instead of coca cola now. I am not a big soda pop guy so I will not order it often. I admire anyone who tries to be original and go against the marketing juggernaut of Coca Cola. I recommend all visitors to Serbia to try one!