Christmas Eve

We spent Christmas eve with my parents. In years past we would go to my grandparents house on Christmas eve but they are now deceased and all the families do their own thing.  I ordered a dozen Pasties from Hunt's in Mackinac City and we had them and a light salad for our meal.  Very delicious.  There was a high wind warning throughout the day and we made the 90 mile trip home before the worst of the storm front blew through.

Nolan got a light up Chuckit ball from us and a new blanket from his "grammy"

This is me and my cousins with our dolls in 1968.

How the Grinch Stole Christmas

So we were victims of theft today. Got a call from the WPD around 7 pm letting us know that they had packages that were stolen off our porch after being delivered by the US post office. There were 5 other houses that were also robbed. The silver lining in this is that WPD caught the perps- an adult male and two male juveniles who had the goods in their possession when caught. Hope they get charged with a federal crime. We love our police department. They really do work hard. 

They stole my incoming new mini bee hive which I recently discovered and purchased from a speciality store in Utah.  (I'm sure they were excited upon opening the package to discover their great and valuable find). I kept bees back in the 90's until the mites hit hard and wiped out a lot of hives in Ohio. After that I didn't bother to restart my hives as conceding with that time I also moved to a new house that needed a lot of yard work.  Now that we have established a prairie garden and have flowers that start blooming in February and continue through September I feel good about starting another hive or two.  

Mini bee hive photo from Eco Bees

Anyway the hive is in the evidence locker and hopefully we will get it back in a day or so. Don't need it until April so it wasn't too big of a crisis.

Saving the Beaver

Andrew and his colleagues worked at Glacier Ridge Metro Park today to install a beaver dam flow through device. Metro Parks would like to keep the beaver and dam because it is creating excellent wetland habitat at no cost. In this particular situation a beaver has dammed a drainage ditch that flows through the park and drains other private individuals property. In an attempt to maintain an acceptable water level, this device, built by Andrew, will allow the beaver dam to stay in place and the water to drain through it. This is the first time this type of device has been used in the parks and if it works- the beaver will be able to remain at Glacier Ridge as one of nature's greatest wetland architects. 

The basket (below prior to installation) Andrew made functions to allow water to flow into the tubing but excludes debris, limbs, turtles etc that might clog the entrance to the tube. It's made of heavy metal rebar and anchored in place. The tubing goes over the beaver dam and the beaver will likely do some additional construction in the area around it so later the tube won't be so noticeable.

Wine Night

My wine group had their Christmas gathering this evening. It was, as usual, a lot of fun.  I made these ornaments from wine corks as gifts for the other members. I got the idea from Pinterest.

Painting Ohio Prairies

Andrew and I attended a gallery reception at the Springfield Museum of Art entitled Painting Ohio Prairies by The Ohio Plein Air Society. The reason we were invited was because the Plein Air group used several of the parks and prairies in which Andrew and his colleagues had a hand in restoring. The artwork was beautiful and I had my photo taken by my favorite work that was done at my favorite place in Ohio; Pearle King Savannah.

 Andrew and his colleague who is a well known prairie biologist in the state of Ohio and a family friend.

Me with the painting of Pearle King.

Post Thanksgiving Fun with the Family

Spent the day with the family-raiding my aunts treasure trove of 35mm slides and having lunch/Graeters while traversing throughout the sleet covered streets of the 'Burg.  The Colorado side of the family was in town and they don't have the famous Graeters icecream out there so we opted for a scoop even though it was freezing cold outside. I bought a negative and slide scanner from Amazon and hope to start scanning the old family slides and photos to digital.

Enjoying ice cream at Graeters

All of us

Aunt Patty, cousin Karen, me and mom

Selfie with mom & dad