The Big Five Fruit

Some of you may have heard of "The Big Five" of African game animals, which are apparently the ultimate goal of safari viewing, namely elephants, lions, leopards, cape buffalo, and rhinos. For the record, neither of us have acheived The Big Five, but we have decided to make a run for our own self-designated Big Five Fruit of the U-pick season of southeast Michigan, namely strawberries, raspberries, cherries, blueberries, and apples. All in one season. The first was strawberries, a very short season, but the first of the five, so a necessity or you're out before you even get started. Rachel made a yummy pie. Ah, summer...

Our Community Garden

Last year, upon moving into our antique abode "Grey Haven", one of the things we were most excited about, along with not having to scrape snow off our windshields every morning, was the idea of growing a garden. In our apartment, before moving in, we start our seedlings in little cups, and as soon as we planted them in our omni-shady backyard, the plants organized a revolt with our resident squirrels and promptly died, leaving a summer-wide collective harvest of 1 cherry tomato, which we staunchly ripened, and split between the two of us.

This year, revenge is ours. Our cool neighborhood association runs a few community organic gardens, and we got in for a nominal fee. Our 8x8 plot has a total of 11 vegetables in it, and they thrive. Thrive beyond any plot that the nearby squirrels could fathom. Fun way to meet the neighbors, and we'll keep you posted when the harvest comes in.

Making our old kitchen new (but old)

We have been in our 111 year-old house for over a year now. And slowly we have been updating some kitchen items. Below are two comparison photos. Can you spot at least 5 differences? (Differences in the flaws of digitally manufacturing these panoramics do not count)

Little Sister Wedding

On June 15th, a remarkable thing happened, namely that both of us were able to fly to Nashville for the wedding of Sami McLaughlin and Jonathan Durham. Lots of Eric's family. Brief sweet potato pancakes with the Ingalls and Luke Tomycz. The wedding was awesome, with banjo, piano, and viola as the wedding ensemble, and we were the distal groomsman/bridesmaid couple. Uncle Bill did a very cool sketch during the ceremony, and now the newest member of the McClan is in Puerto Vallarta with his new wife. Welcome, Jonathan (the 2nd).