Happy Birthday to our daughter–August 30, 2011

Wishing you a wonderful beautiful birthday, Jenny!  We love you so very much!

Our time in Baraga, MI–Aug 23-25, 2011

Before we left the Ishpeming/Marquette area it was time to stalk up on almond butter, this was the best kind, grind it yourself.  Also since Bob had switched to almond butter from peanut butter, we go through it faster.

This is our home, the Ojibwa Casino in Baraga, for the next three nights until we can get into the City RV park in Houghton (pronounced Hoe-ton).  The Casino has twelve level RV full hookup sites, in fact, this is the first full hookup site we have had in the U.P.  Four sites have 50 amp, the rest 30 amp.

This is a memorial to Bishop Frederic Baraga, Apostle of the Chippewas.  He founded a Catholic Indian Mission in 1843 in this area. 

 

 

 

 

 

Talk about a fancy garage door and a brightly painted home!

Not far from Baraga is the historic Alberta Village.   One of the sawmills of the Ford Motor Company to provide the wood for the Ford vehicles.  Until 1937, the frames were made of wood.  After that, the station wagons’ sides were made of wood.

“Like many of Henry Ford's pet projects, the prim 1930s sawmill (rear) and powerhouse (foreground) at Alberta combined his economic and social goals. The timber sawn for his autos was logged from 400,000 acres of Ford-owned U.P. forests near Sidnaw, Pequaming, Big Bay, and elsewhere. Millhands and their families lived in adjoining Ford-designed Cape Cod houses, agreeing to live by his many rules.”

The Sawmill.

At the visitor center, this woodworking display shows some very unique gifts.  Would you pay $17,000 for this rocker in birdseye maple, called Born to be Wild?  The builder hopes so.  Check out his website.

 

 

I do pity the two horses in the photo below,  A World’s Fair Load of Logs, 36,055 feet,  Feb 26, 1893.

Below is a two weeks pay envelope from Nov 1947, gross wages was $226.82, along with withholding for SS, Federal withholding,  U.S. Savings Bonds, Group Insurance, Union Dues and CIO Assessment.  But best of all, “There’s a Future with Ford”. 

We both enjoyed our visit to the Hanka Homestead.  It has survived since 1920 pretty much as it was then.  This is Herman Hanka.

 

 

 

 

 

Their smoke house and sauna.

Back at the coach, we had a repair job to do.  One of the slide toppers was starting to tear.  This topper had been replaced about 18 months ago.  I had kept the old one,  just in case we might need some of the fabric and it worked out well as I sewed a small patch and also removed some of the thread  from a hem to stitch the patch in place.  The sewing begins, with Bob on top and me on the ladder using needle nose pliers to pull the needle through the fabric layers.

The final patch was not pretty, but hopefully will stop any further tearing.

Mr. Turtle basking in the sun.

Several days of sightseeing, Ishpeming, MI–Aug 19-22, 2011

Today we were off to the Cliffs Shaft Mine Museum and for a tour of the 1200 ft tunnel.

Here Bob is being shown what is above us.  This tunnel takes the miners from the Dry Room (Changing area) to the cages when they descended into the mine shafts.

The brass tag area.  Each miner was given a small numbered  brass tag before going down the shaft.  At the end of each shift, each marker needed to be accounted for.

These are the baskets the miners used to leave their dirty water soaked mining clothes at night.  This changing room or Dry Room was heated so at least the miners had dry clothes to start out their shift.

 

 

 

 

This 170-ton iron ore truck’s tires are 12 feet high.  This truck was huge!!

This is one BIG bucket, wonder how many of these it takes to fill that 170-ton truck?

This display shows the progress of miners’ lights.  Can you believe the early miners just had a candle?

This is “Jilly” the mascot for the Jilbert Dairy. 

Yes, these Moose Tracks sundaes from the Jilbert’s Dairy Store were as good as they look, we also bought some cheese curds.

Marquette History Regional Museum…

Notice that several of the hunters are sporting skirts!

An Iron Lung from the 1950’s.

Blueberry Jam and Marquette, Ishpeming, MI–Aug 17-18, 2011

Another short drive today, just a hour back to Ishpeming’s Country Village RV Park, glad to take advantage of their Passport America rate too.  Before we hooked up our electric, Bob was to check to see if we had any loose wires in the electrical panel inside the coach.   While running our heat pump in the mornings recently, it had tripped the circuit breaker.  Bob could not find any problems, everything was tight and secure. (I am writing this on the 19th and we have been running the heat pump this morning as all is okay, not sure what the problem was, but I am happy all is working fine.  Last time the Front AC/Heat pump unit tripped the breaker-over and over, it’s compressor was shot and had to be replaced.)

Shortly after we arrived in Ishpeming, I headed off to the local Farmers Fruit Stand and bought two quarts of wild blueberries ($5/qt).  For the first time ever, I was going to make some blueberry jam.

And we both can attest, the jam is delicious! 

Thursday we were off to visit Marquette again, this was taken from an overlook in Presque Isle Park.

Signs in this area cautioned visitors to be aware of standing on overhangs.  For once, Bob was being careful!

Another area where we investigated the smoothed  lakeshore rocks.  This area is just beautiful!

This is the abandoned ore dock in the lower harbor, with the longer ore boats, it was just too short.

See Bob’s newest present.  A water filter stand,  I had ordered it last week from a nearby RV Supply Dealer.  It came in today.  Works great.  All purchases we make always comes with the  question, “Where will it go when we move?”  I’m thinking since it was for him, he will have to come up with that solution.

Iron Mountain, Aug 15, 2011–Part 4

After leaving the mine, we stopped at a nearby alpaca farm. Aren’t these faces … well interesting!

Norway Spring just along the highway at a road side stop. Folks were here filling up their water jugs. Must have been good water.

“In 1878 a sawmill was erected here as the first industry in the Norway - Vulcan area. John O'Callaghan was owner of this mill which supplied early mining number needs until 1902. This spring was caused by a 1094 foot hole which was drilled in 1903 by the Oliver Mining Company in search of iron ore. The hole cuts several steeply dipping porous strata that trap water at the higher elevations to the north. The difference in elevation causes pressure: this pressure is released by the drilled hole demonstrating the principle of the artesian well. On the slope to the north are the obscure workings of the Few and Munro mines, operated in 1903-1922, now owned by the Ford Motor Company.” Source, see link.

No, this is not us, but someone parked at the Iron Mountain Iron Mine had some issues. Perhaps a tire blow out?

Iron Mountain, Aug 15, 2011 – Part 3

This is a dynamite heater, when filled with sticks of dynamite, it (he said) was then placed over a charcoal fire to warm. I did find another reference to the heater on the internet, here is the link. They talk about playing with fire…well this could be worse. So when you went home from work and your kids asked you what you did, you told them you heated dynamite over fire, hummm. I guess that is where, “do as I say, not what I do” comes into play.

Here we are almost out of the 43 degree mine. They have this pipe and a blower set up to blow the cold mine air into their gift shop and museum for air conditioning.

After leaving the mine, we stopped at a nearby alpaca farm. Aren’t these faces … well interesting!