Its been a while since I’ve had something of any merit to post here, but after a trip to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan I found some amusing things to share. My trip started yesterday morning at 5am – I was making the trip north to deliver my friend’s car for storage over the winter. He has a barn there and had driven up the day before… In total, I spent just over 24 hours in the U.P…here are some of the things I saw while there:
I was able to help with a couple projects around the far
m – the first of which was to move the “hunting camp” from a spot by the river to higher ground. The original camp was also built on tree stumps which had moved so much over the years that the structure was no longer stable. A river also runs about 50 yards from the camp and the water often rises so much that someday the building could float away. For those wondering what a hunting camp is, it is basically a shack with a wood stove and cots where people go and don’t emerge until they run out of food, beer, or until they shoot a deer. Here is a picture from ’05 showing the camp in its original glory.
The process of moving the camp took many hours and its a sheer miracle that we were able to complete the process. Essentially we had to back a trailer under the building, secure the building to the trailer then cut the building from the tree stumps and supports that were securing it about 6 ft in the air. Its also a miracle that we all walked away with life and limb considering we were using a 3 ton automotive floor jack and logs to support the place while cutting the supports with a chain saw. I wish I had more pics documenting the madness. Well into the project, once the camp was on the trailer, the trailer sank into the thick U.P. clay/mud and the tractor couldn’t pull it out. So, we hooked one, then two, trucks up the tractor, which was in turn connected to the trailer and pulled. Finally after jerking the tractor and camp loose with the truck and tow straps we moved it 1000 yards to its new location. Here is a picture of the tractor and camp on the move, not in the picture are the trucks connected to the front…it was something to behold 
While in town for breakfast we stopped at the local thrift shop we jokingly call the “shit shack” they have everything you never knew you wanted until someone else was ready to throw it away. While looking around I came across this unique display holding all varieties of condoms. Upon close inspection I found that they had all expired last year… They seemed to be a good deal, but the population of Pickford may accidentally increase by a couple more this year!
Later that day I snapped this pic of someone who came to the farm to pick up an old bed off a pickup truck. You can’t see it very well in the picture but he brought his old truck out hooked up to a boat trailer which now has another old bed on it… Again, only in the U.P.
Finally, this morning after breakfast this morning we noticed a unique shed in someone’s backyard. It was an ingenious design and so well put together that you could barely tell that it was nothing more than a couple walls made out of 6 foot fence segments with an aluminum truck topper on top as a roof. Amazing!
So, that was my last 24 hours…can you top that?