The Turner Family

So, we're exiting the High School after working out and playing basketball with the kids on Sunday, and with the wealth of rain we received over the weekend, there was a commensurate wealth of worms on the sidewalks and pavement. Tiffani offered a Big Mac to whomever chewed and swallowed a worm, to which there were no acceptors of the challenge. Cue to our turn on to Belknap Street a few moments later, and the peripheral notice of the giant puddle that appears every spring behind the house on the corner (recall the rain mentioned in the previous paragraph). The weather was cool and gray, certainly not swimming conditions in the midwest, but a new challenge was proffered: submergence in the Belknap Lake would also merit a Big Mac. The results... Big Macs all around. Sophia charged out of the van for the water, but Nick's chum, Ezra, was the first to actually log roll through. Warm showers, and then a hot lunch .

Thanks to the downturn in the economy, Glen's company hasn't had much work, so he hasn't had any either. In this northern Michigan winter that will not end, he turned his attention to indoor projects, which got him started on "sprucing up" his pow wow regalia. When he realized how much he enjoyed doing that, he started working on things for other people. This is all very labor-intensive stuff and I'm very impressed with his efforts. Thought you might like to see some. The first thing he made was a fancy strap for his "medicine bag" In the olden days, the longer white and dark pieces would be made of hollowed-out animal bone and horn. Nowadays, if you can't find those items, it's acceptable to use plastic. There's a couple of local places where you can actually get bone and horn "stringers". From the first project, he went on to make a tiny breast plate for our 4 year old grandson, Parker. All of the beads, buttons, fringe, etc,...

Meg at the airport with her two MUN buddies. They had to be at the airport at 8:30 p.m. for a 11:30 p.m. departure time. They will arrive in Cairo at 7:30 a.m. and be whisked away for some sightseeing before the conference starts on Friday. Meg was SO excited! Jason, Garrett and I are flying up on Saturday night and will do a little exploring on our own until Meg finishes the conference on Tuesday, after that we are all boarding a 3 night Nile Cruise . Thank you Grandma and Grandpa for the care package, everything was a huge hit! I opened up the gate one afternoon and this guy was strolling by, I never did find out what it was he was carrying but my guess would be some empty jugs.

Tiffani dropped us off at a pancake breakfast fundraiser at the Grand Ledge Masonic Temple, then we had plans to visit the public library and mosey home. The breakfast was good, but very sparsely attended: a mother and son, half a dozen firefighters , and us. (Local political intrigue: the former mayor , and the current mayor , were both present. Bitterness?) We made our way to the library via the new path underneath the bridge, but the kids had to regale me with all the stories of already having performed all these stunts, walked these paths with Bompa and Grandma. Some books and movies chosen, a re-introduction to the library cat statute, a ride on the library porpoise, and a pleasant walk home in the sunshiney, chilly morning.

City Market Luling, Texas 3/2/09 The City Market in Luling is one of the premier barbecue houses in all of Texas. It consistently rates in the top ten in Texas year after year, by many different rating groups and/or individuals. We have eaten here once before, about five years ago. Luling is fifty miles east of San Antonio, situated in long low undulating hills. The movie, Second Hand Lions, was filmed not too far away. A double railroad track runs the length of the business district in a grassy parkway. The town of about 5000 hosts a watermelon festival every summer. The City Market is a modest place in an old building in downtown Luling. The pits are in the screened-in back room. It’s necessary to walk the length of the restaurant and enter the cramped dark smoky pit area where you order from one of three pit men. He slices up what you want, flops it in brown butcher paper, squeezes the ends of the paper up so that the package resembles a canoe and you pay for your meat ...

Cooper’s Pit Bar-B-Cue Llano, Texas 2/28/09 This was our second visit to Coopers in Llano. We had learned of it in the first book from Jane and Michael Stern. Llano is a ranching town of 3300 souls, about 80 miles west of Austin. The surrounding country is attractive rolling hills that are dry, dry, dry, and scrub covered. It’s hard to imagine that cattle ranching can be profitable, as little grass as there is. We approached Llano coming 40 miles up from the south, on a state highway. We crossed many cattle guards in the pavement, followed by signs that would announce “Loose Cattle”. The Texans are not intimidated, in that everyone passed us even though we drove about 55 MPH. I didn’t like the idea of impacting a steer at high speed. Cooper’s is a classic Texas joint where you order from the pit man outside. There are eight or ten large brick and steel pits, with the pit man at the one nearest the restaurant door. As he slices off your selections fro...

Click on the title above to go to the digital version of Arrow Trade magazine, then select page 79 for a profile of Family Tradition Treestands , complete with pictures of our entrepreneurial Turners. Or, if the font isn't too small, read my screen capture above. Well done, Jack and Jenny.

We headed into the Texas Hill Country after several weeks along the coast, building up our craving for barbecue. Our first stop was at Texas Pride Barbecue, just east of San Antonio. Texas Pride Barbecue near Atkins, Texas. 2/26/09 We were alerted to this place when it appeared on DDD. The building has been in the Talanco family since 1924, beginning as a filling station. It was closed for many years and re-opened as a barbecue joint in 1996, and has been highly tricked out to look like a 1940s gas station. Inside it’s festooned with all sorts of old dry land farming equipment and old farm signs. We ate in the screened-in side room on the right. I suspect it would be blistering hot there when summer rolls in. Ten foot long picnic tables filled the room. Six dusty farm workers, who obviously come here often, sat behind us telling fishing stories that they all seemed to have heard many times. It was not particularly busy at 2 PM on a Thursday, so the counter man had the time to recogni...

There are hundreds of these scrap metal-collecting carts around town. They are all the same and always have two young men pushing, pulling, riding or sleeping on them. This particular pair had hit the jackpot. I spotted them while on my way to the school on Friday morning.

Hello All, Just a few photos from yesterday here at Port Aransas. We were at the local birdwatching site at a wetlands area, and a large alligator appeared from the tall grass. The locals say it was his first appearance of the year from hibernation, and that he is the only large alligator in the area. We were told the only other large one had to be relocated because it became too aggressive and would appear in peoples yards. So, we got lucky. He wallowed over to check out the birders. Last evening was the local Mardi Gras parade. In this area, 70 % of the parade is geezers (and geezettes?) in decorated golf carts. We did manage to catch some beads. Tomorrow we leave here, headed for the hill country and serious barbeque research. Love, Dad/Bil

Last weekend Meg and I went on a little day trip with some friends to Aburi Botanical Gardens. The Gardens are about 20 km north of Accra but because of the roads it took us a little over an hour to drive. Aburi is a quiet little town on the top of what we would call a foothill. We declined the guide but probably will hire one next time around. We had lunch at a small restaurant in the Gardens. Like most African restaurants the menu was four pages long but they only had one item available, chicken and rice. Luckily, it was very good. We also had an audience of three chickens and one kitten. The chickens were pretty brave and wandered underneath and around the table for the entire meal while the little kitten sat just outside the gazebo. When the waiter came around he would scare the cat away but didn’t even acknowledge the chickens, who were being much more aggressive. This massive tree was covered with this plant that looks like a houseplant gone Jurassic! Calabash! Meg wanted a pi...

A few pictures from South Padre Island. Kay standing at the edge of Laguana Madre at sunset. This was taken outside a little bar where we would go occasionally for cold shrimp and beer in the afternoon. Bike riding gets her in the mood for a beer, and having a heartbeat gets me in the mood. This is facing west at the bridge that connects SPI to mainland Texas. The yellow sign says to be alert for pelicans. On windy days (virtually always in south Texas) the birds may land on the bridge railings. The speed limit on the bridge is 55. We've never seen a pelican impact a windshield, but I bet it's dramatic. This bridge was hit by a drifting barge which brought down the three or four main spans. It happened the week of 9/11/2001, so it attracted very little attention nationwide, but us bridge guys were very alert to it. There is a manmade shipping channel from the Gulf that extends about 25 west miles in to Brownsville, TX. From that channel, it's about 10 miles south t...

Just for fun, Cynthia and some friends put together a team for the Traverse City Women's Championship Bowling Tournament. We called our team "The Amazons" and determined that, to be on the team, you have to be at least 5'8" tall and weigh in at at least 150#. (Most of us exceed that requirement.) Because we bowled on Valentine's Day, we decided pink would be the theme and all agreed to spray our hair pink for the event. In order to look mean, we also had to do the under-eye smudge, but that had to be pink too. Thought you might enjoy a couple of team photos. In case you're wondering how we did - we didn't score very well on the lanes, but we certainly caused a lot of "second looks" among all the other bowlers and spectators.

Meg’s Christmas present this year was a room makeover. We had thought she would have twin beds in her room so we didn’t bring any bedding for a queen-sized bed. Needless to say the room was a little dull. So we recruited her Aunt Janet to do a makeover. Janet and her daughter Sydney put their heads together and came up with the most amazing room for Meg. They even asked friends and family to send pictures, which are displayed in a really cool wall hanging. Everything is hand made from the bedding and pillows to the wall hangings and the curtains. A lot of thought and hard work went into the room. Meg was so surprised and bit overwhelmed, it was just wonderful! (Sorry, I got it all on video but the file is too big to upload... or something?)

Dietrich and I had a recent email exchange regarding our blog posting on the book on which he collaborated. See below for more information, and a link to his sailing adventures. Very interesting reading, and great photos to boot. Electronics and digital information has made our world very small. Hi Chris, A link to your family's blog was forwarded by the author of the cottage book. I didn't see Jeff in the family list. I wonder how he is? And then how about your folks? A few years ago I shot photos of the enlarged GLHS for Clark Construction and hardly recognized much of the building. Bonds are good. We are currently in Black Point, Exumas, Bahamas. I blew off a year of work and Annie my wife has retired from teaching 6th grade in Traverse City. We have sailed from TC through the Great Lakes, Erie Canal, Hudson River and down the ICW to get here. Whew. On Saturday I was on the water shooting a Bahamian sailing race and have attached a shot from the Farmers Cay Regatta. A...

I use a variety of sources and criteria for acquiring books for the library: student and faculty recommendations, lists, professional reviews, among others. When the 2009 Michigan Notable Books list came through my email, I was surprised to see our former neighbor, Dietrich Floeter amongst the recipients. Scroll down to Historic Cottages of Glen Lake , and he is listed as photographer, his photographs described as "lavish." For those interested, here's also the link on Amazon .

Meg accepting her award for achieving High Honors on her report card. Garrett and his friend Hunter during a school fieldtrip to the Akosombo Dam , their backs are to Lake Volta , the largest man made lake in the world. The Akosombo Dam produces 70% of Ghana's electricity. (Will he ever grow out of the silly faces?) Meg and Rihana, our Model United Nations student we hosted for four days. Rihanna is an eleveth grader from Burkina Faso . There were 60 students from 13 different schools from around the world who participated in the MUN event at the Kofi Annan Peacekeeping Training Center here in Accra . Meg was asked to be a scribe and had a wonderful experience.