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 farm – 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?

Wow…I’ve really slowed down posting actual blog entries since using twitter more heavily.  If you really need to follow my life more closely you can get regular updates here: http://twitter.com/benrapin (or just read the updates to the right)

A lot has happened in the last month.  Holly and I found and bought a 4 acre parcel of land between Ada and Lowell, Michigan.  We actually looked at this a little over a year ago and it was just outside our price range, well since then the owners got motivated and dropped the price by $20,000!  It is very similar to the place I grew up, minus the 150 year old farm house…  It is a rectangular lot backing up to a farmer’s field and horses on the land next door.  I’m trying to convince Holly that raising chickens and having a big garden would be the best use of the land but she isn’t fully on board yet.  I’m not sure where the desire to have a small farm is coming from given the fact that I didn’t always (if ever) enjoy “working the land” as a kid.  I guess it is like going to church…I never liked that when I was forced to go, but now that I get to choose to go I get more out of it, when I go (of course, I don’t do that very often either).  Not sure exactly when we’ll build a house on the land but it certainly won’t be until we can sell our house without losing our pants.  The next challenge will be finding a house that Holly and I both want to build…as we’re discussing it we’re finding that we have a lot of different ideas on what to build, but no surprise there.

Speaking of gardens, I decided to forgo the small garden across the creek this year and opted to plant a couple pumpkin plants over there while downsizing the tomatoes to a big pot on the deck.  Hopefully flooding and animals won’t take all the tomatoes this year.  The pumpkin “vines” are growing pretty rapidly so I’m optimistic that we’ll have a couple pumpkins come fall.

This past 4th of July marked the 12th annual canoe trip with our friends from college.  We’re all getting older but you wouldn’t know it by how we all act when we get into the woods and onto the river.  We drank (some more than others), played washers, sat by the fire, smoked a lot of pork in the smoker, and spent a long day in the sun on the river.  This is also the first year we’ve gotten a keg – and boy was that a lot of Oberon.  We came so close to emptying a 1/2 barrel but had to dump the final gallon or so.

The highlight of this week was finally hanging a photo in my office that Holly and I bought in Key West a couple years ago.  Holly spent a lot of time at Hobby Lobby, and a small fortune, getting frames for many photos/painting/pictures we’ve bought over the years and we’ve spent the days since hanging things all over the house.  Maybe I’ll snap a couple photos and post those next if I get ambitious.

So, now you’re caught up…we’ll see if I can post something more regularly from here on out.

Its been some time since Holly and I have seen a movie but this weekend we managed to fit in a couple.  Friday night we managed to sneak in dinner and a movie before getting home in time to watch the Detroit Redwings lose in game 7 – disappointing to say the least.  At least we had a great dinner at the Honeycreek Inn in Cannonsburg – Holly tried bluegill for the first time and I went with a safe ribeye option.  After dinner we went down to Celebration Cinema to watch The Taking of Pelham 123.  I can’t believe how expensive movies have gotten (not to mention concessions) – now I know why we don’t go to the theater very often.  I thought the movie was very good but I was expecting a different ending; on the Ben Rapin scale of 1-5 I would give this a 3.5 (I am a tough critic).  I didn’t realize the movie is a remake of an older version – we learned this tidbit from Holly’s dad who is a TV/movie aficionado.  For those interested, the CW Network is showing the original movie tonight (Sunday, June 14).  Holly also told me that the New York Transit Authority has never again scheduled a Pelham train to leave at 1:23…interesting movie trivia.

Last night after a long day of celbrating (aka euchre & beer) my cousin’s graduation on my part, and entertaining & babysitting on Holly’s part we decided to rent a pay per view movie – finally settling on Clint Eastwood’s Gran Torino.  Despite some interuptions from a “fussy” baby and a “chatty” audience I was thorougly enthralled with the movie and surprised that it didn’t get more buzz when it was in theaters.  I really like Clint Eastwood and thought this movie, where he plays a gruff, racist, war veteran who softens up as he adapts to “diversity” moving into his neighborhood, just added to his repotoir of fine movies.  If you get a chance I would highly recommend seeing this. I gave it a 4.5 on the Rapin scale!