On the Fourth of July holiday Kern, Kathy and Matthew joined us to celebrate. No holiday would be complete without grilled hamburgers and cold beer.

When Kern and Paul get together at the cabin their aim is to spend some enjoyable time playing like the pros. The cool evening on the porch was the perfect venue for their strumming and singing.

The drive-in movie in Honor had always been a place we wanted to visit and this weekend was the perfect time. We enjoyed the movie "Ratatouille" and endless mouthsful of popcorn. When not in the van, we sat outside in the fresh air.

 

One sunny day in July Paul and I took a long hike in the state land and here I discovered a tree full of ripe Juneberries and enjoyed my fill of free government food.

On this same July hike we had packed a substantial lunch, in addition to the Juneberries. Paul relaxes with a half-eaten apple after having polished off the trail mix.

One of the blueberry shrubs we planted in 2006 produced a healthy handful of huge berries. We're expecting a real bumper crop of berries next summer.

The garden surpassed our expectations as evidenced by the large zucchini and tomato plants. The basket was necessary to bring in the harvest of peppers this day.

Paul planted tomato seeds and being the skeptic that I am I bought a flat of tomatoes. Here you see the results....at least 60 tomato plants! The deer enjoyed the popcorn plants in the background.

At Kathy's instigation we enjoyed a "girls' weekend" touring the wineries in the Traverse City area. Here Kathy, Anne and Amy are just beginning our tour, and haven't had a drop yet.

As evidenced by this photo we returned from the wineries completely sober, but having purchased a record amount of fine wines. Haile stayed behind with Paul and was treated to ice cream at Moomers and they also did some apple picking at an old orchard.

The visitors were warned that they would not be able to leave Grasshopper Ranch without taking a fair share of produce with them. Whatever they took meant we didn't have to worry about eating or processing.

Benzie county offers evergreen seedlings for sale, and we had wanted to plant a windbreak along Whitetail Woods. Matthew was a big help by tilling the soil so that the 75 various seedlings could be planted.

With Matthew's help in driving the tractor, Kern and Paul gave each of the new plants a healthy dose of water.

Unpaid labor can't be relied upon to work without several breaks.

The butternut squash harvest outdid itself as shown here. Even after pressing several on visitors we still had many, and at the end of the year are nearly out of them.

We were pleased to see the return of last year's turkeys, minus just one. Even my pet one, Gimpy with the damaged leg had returned. We hope to continue to see them.

Our friend Jack Mayer gave us this weather station and it proved to be very accurate. The chart at the top of the pole states that if the stone is white, it's snowing. We received the first snow of the season in late November.

Over the Christmas break, Alison, Wes & Little Wes came to visit. Wesley found the best stash of toys that any boy could ever wish for.

Memere and Wes catch up on political events. Wes looks quite amused.