ottahand7

@smitty34877 Prayers that all goes well with your DHs surgery today. 🙏

Good morning. We are going to turn the lake pump on again. Yesterday we were near 90 with 15 mph winds. It dried everything out. Thanks Rich for starting our mornings off each day. A nice quote that are great words to live by. Pass on the cocktail and today's meal but the Cloudy Bay Chardonnay will be a nice wine. Thanks Eva for keeping our daily cares and celebrations lists for us. Prayers for all needing them and the people of Ukraine. Yesterday we smoked a fully cooked pork picnic and it turned out wonderfully. That cut has more fat and bone so it smoked well and stayed moist. Have a great Wednesday. Nancy

Happy Birthday Jacqui! 🍾🎂🍷

@RedneckBob I thought the same thing when I saw our cocktail and the minty chicken. Total pass on those. But the wine is a terrific wine. Good morning everyone. Thanks for the Daily and Fleet Reports each day Rich. Yesterday was water the flowers day. We got the lake pump working so everything got a long drink and my rain barrels filled to the top. Good thing because we have little meaningful rain in our forecast. Today is attempting to get the Starlink installed on the roof of the porch. Lots of news coverage of the Carnival Sunshine in the bad storm. It had to be so scary for those expecting calm seas. Pipes do break when there are rough seas. We had just left Antarctica and the high waves and wind on the Volendam when the pipe broke on our floor. When one signs up for Antarctica one knows to expect rough seas but these poor folks weren't signed up for that. One thing was our Captain Arno kept us up to date on upcoming challenges. Eva thanks for keeping our Cares and Celebrations lists. Prayers for all needing them and the people of Ukraine. Have a great Tuesday. Nancy

Good morning. We recognize those who lost their lives to keep our country free. 🇺🇸. I think today's wine would be great and also the chicken dishes look wonderful. I think I will pass on the fruity cocktail. Thanks for the Daily and Fleet Reports each day Rich. Eva thank you for keeping pure cares and celebrations list. Prayers for all needing them and the people of Ukraine. John and I were in Puerto Montt in January on the Volendam. We did a HA tour that was one of our best on the long voyage. We did a culinary trip with a former Michelin starred chef who left Santiago and opened a restaurant in the Lake District. We started out at a Farmer's Market choosing the food and the heading to his restaurant for our group to prepare the meal. There was also almost unlimited tasty wine from the chef's vineyards. It was also a great way to meet some shipmates early in our long voyage.

@smitty34877 I hope that your neighborhood crew can get Tana out to enjoy your picnic today! Good Sunday morning. Thanks for the Daily and Fleet Reports. If we passed by today's port we must have missed the notification. I rather disagree with the Twain quote. No need to change one's opinion just because most agree. Today's chicken dish looks lovely. We have been on strict diets since we returned from our cruise. I woke up this morning thinking I need to figure out how to make our salads more interesting. Meat and salad can get boring. I will pass on the obscure wine but thanks to @cat shepard for finding some information about it. Total pass on the cocktail, way too sweet. @superoma Thanks for keeping our care and celebrations lists each day. Prayers for all of our group needing them and the people of Ukraine. More weeding here today and trying to get the lake water pump to work. We at least got the gauge to move off from zero. No rain in the forecast here until Wednesday so we really need to get it running for my plants so they flower like I like them. Have a wonderful Sunday and I hope a lot of you have wonderful get togethers to recognize this special holiday. Nancy

@DeniseT Bon Voyage!

We had help show up yesterday when the people that opened our cabin for us stopped by on the way up to do work on our neighbor's cabin. They helped us roll our large dock on wheels into the lake and with some tweaking it will be ready to go. We won't be able to get our boat in anytime soon as the road is washed out on the way to our neighbor's house. It is passable for vehicles but a tippy pontoon boat would be too iffy. Not like there is nothing to do here. There were 6 counties up here that were under Disaster areas due to the spring flooding. I planted 5 Oak trees that we were able to cram into our very packed truck. That brings us up to 10 Oaks in the middle of a Maple forest. Today is weeding. I can't move too many plants at this time because we are in a drought with no rain until mid next week. No water in my rain barrels and a low output well is an issue. We have a pump that we can pump water out of the lake but that is our problem right now. It won't properly prime so we will dry one more method today otherwise it will be a trip to the "big city" Escanaba to get all new parts for the water fittings. It was such a luxury to have unlimited water. Thanks to all the brave soldiers who lost their lives keeping us free. Have a lovely Saturday! Nancy

Good morning from sunny Michigan. It is going to be a beautiful day here. @StLouisCruisers I am so happy to read that you are on the mend but what an upsetting event at your family's graduation celebration. Thankfully they had great care on site! @richwmn thanks for starting us off with the Daily and Fleet Reports. Cellophane tape is a throw back, what wonderful things the 3M company has done with adhesive tape. @0106Thanks for the great looking spring roll recipes. @summer slope The Rum Punch looks really good too and I am sure I would enjoy the Washington State Riesling. @superoma I am glad things went smoothly with your father's estate issues and thank you for keeping our cares and celebrations list during this sad time. Prayers for all on our care list and the people of Ukraine. Bon Voyage to @Oceansaway17!

Good morning. We continue to get a lot done in our catch up work for cabin opening. Yesterday I planted my 3 tomato plants in their large containers, 4 pot Dahlias and about 30 Tithonia and Cardinal Climbers I grew from seed at home. I have Zinnias and Marigolds seeds started here now. We got the wiring installed for the Starlink and today it is putting it on the porch roof. We are really pleased with it, much faster than AT&T hard wired at home. We actually can stream here. The phone service has also improved so I can text from my easy chair. Thanks for the Daily and Fleet Reports. A great quote by George Burns. Pass on all three comestibles and thank you for researching them for us each day. Prayers for all on our Care list and the people of Ukraine. @Nickelpenny Happy retirement. Wishing you lots of fun and adventure in your future! 🍾

Good morning from the chilly UP of Michigan. It was 33 when I got up an hour ago. Lots of sun for the next week and high fire danger. @richwmn thanks for starting us out with the Daily and Fleet Reports. Today I will pass on all of the comestibles. Prayers for @dfish and @superoma. Thinking of you both today. Thank you for keeping our Care and Celebrations Reports at this sad time for you and your family. I hope everyone that has had recent surgery and healing well. Prayers for all on our care list and the people of Ukraine. I have been to Gibraltar in September 2018 on the Konigsdam. We did the tour to the fortress and the Barbary Apes. It was an absolutely beautiful day.

Good morning from chilly Michigan. It is 46 degrees and windy. Water started right up as did our refrigerator. Black flies are terrible. The Starlink was set up temporarily this morning with a great signal. Just in time to get a Navigator message we have a Pinnacle Grill dinner tonight at 6. Does anyone else get this? I get about one a week. Prayers today for Debbie @dfish and @superoma. Happy birthday @Heartgrove. 🎂🍾 Lots to get caught up on here. Have a lovely day! Nancy

I totally agree about the changes in Marquette. It is just a massive main drag that is always being worked on and congested. Iron Mountain is getting really built up too. We try to go to Iron Mtn or Escanaba every couple of weeks and then stay put in the woods. Thanks for the well wishes on our systems, refrigerator is going to be easy but the well pump starting may be more problematic. Nancy

Good Saturday morning. Eva @superoma Sincere condolences on the passing my of your dear father. Thanks for the Daily and Fleet Reports. Endangered species day is very important because sadly the list of them gets longer and longer due to habitat loss. A strange quote. I will pass on the salmon, the fruity cocktail and the fabulously priced wine. Thanks for researching them for us. Today will probably be my last post for a couple of days because we will be on the road the next two mornings and setting up wifi is lower on our need to do list. Thankfully the cabin has been cleaned and the furniture uncovered and back where it belongs. A few less things to do. Another big day of horse racing here while I clean the house and step outside and back in between races to spray poison ivy. Have a wonderful weekend! Nancy

@Crazy For Cats Bon Voyage! 🍾

We are about an hour and a half SW of Marquette near Crystal Falls/Amasa. It is on Porter Lake. We have about a 45 minute drive on dirt and logging roads to get there from Amasa. It is indeed beautiful and mostly unspoiled.

Good Friday morning. We have decided to step up everything so we are leaving on Sunday morning and driving to Marquette and spend the night there. That way we can wake early and get into the cabin in the morning. We thought we would be going into the cabin with the refrigerator running and the water running. Neither happened so we will have real work to do after all. As I said before I am hoping it was operator error. John wants to go to Sault St. Marie on our route but there is a slightly quicker route taking a north road off from US 2. Thanks for the Daily and Fleet Reports Rich! I will pass on the cocktail, have the flaky Cod minus the celery and we had the Sena Cabernet on the Volendam at the Cellar Master Premier tasting. It was overshadowed by its' counterparts in the tasting. Prayers for all on our care list and the people of Ukraine. It has been bit of a lull with Bon Voyages for our group but I am sure they will begin anew. Today I am going to get a manicure and pedicure before we head into the woods. No place for nail care nearby up there. Then the last stop to the grocery to buy bread and salad supplies for our cooler. Most other things I have already bought. Have a great Friday! Nancy

Good morning, a cool morning here, in the 40s. It will warm up later as we get more sunlight. Our sunrises and sunsets are rather red from the smoke from the Alberta fires and Red Flag fire alerts are now in our state. Windy and a lack of rain this month. Thanks for the Daily Reports Rich. Always interesting to see where BHBs are each day. I have relatives nearby and saw my older sister yesterday and will see all three tomorrow for my older DS birthday dinner. I will pass on the high carb meal and the sweet drink but today's wine looks great. Never saw it in a store so it must be low production. I have been to NYC many times but never on a ship. It got so crowded and pricy it wasn't that fun anymore. Thanks for doing the Cares and Celebrations reports for us @superoma. Prayers for all needing them, the fire victims in Alberta and the people of Ukraine. Our truck is fully loaded so I don't have to worry about will everything fit. I have a lot of weed removal work before our Monday departure and printing off the Daily Racing Forms for the Black-Eyed Susan and Preakness race cards. Living in MD for so long these 2 events were regulars on my schedule. DH chose not to go to the Black-Eyed Susan races and sometimes I just went by myself. We had our seats for long I knew a lot of people who sat around me. Have a great day! Nancy

Good morning! It is another beautiful day. An hour after I had fallen asleep last night I awoke to scratching on the wall and I knew exactly what it was, a raccoon climbing the door frame to try to eat the Oriole's grape jelly. I shooed him off and now I will have to bring in the jelly and the suet every night due to those pests. Thankfully I was able to get back to sleep. His mischief didn't end at the climbing, he toppled over a lot of newly dug plants just for good measure. Thanks for the Daily and Fleet Reports Rich. Another good quote today. It is important to keep an eye on hypertension and get on proper medicine as soon as it is needed. My upper number is beginning to creep up but the docs don't say anything about it yet. I did some work on pack ratting because when we returned from our cruise we had three new suitcases to fit in the basement closet so that got me into weeding out old clothes in that closet. Then I went upstairs and started through linen closets, my drawers and my closet. Between what John had decided to pitch it was multiple boxes and bags to the Salvation Army which is conveniently nearby. We had Falmouth as a substitute port stop on the GSA after Grand Cayman was cancelled. We opted to stay aboard. The country of Jamaica issued a warning about crime so in addition to its' bad reputation it made our choice easy. I think it is on one of our itineraries for next winter. Prayers for all on our care reports, the people of Ukraine and the family of the former US soldier who was killed fighting in Ukraine. I know it will be a pass on the dish, to high carb and the peach drink but the red wine looks like is a winner. Have a wonderful day! Nancy

@Heartgrove Sorry to read that Sam is doing poorly.

Good morning everyone! It is another beautiful day in SW Michigan. We are going to the casino this afternoon as we were all prepared to leave for the cabin today. We are kind of in a waiting game. Our casino habit got a little bit worse having on conveniently downstairs on the Volendam. Thanks for the Daily Reports Rich. I have a lot of purple to wear as that is one of the Ravens colors. Jerry Seinfeld's quote is so true, keep moving! @dfish Today's recipes are all winners, @summer slopetoday's cocktail looks very tasty but probably another I would drink too fast. @cat shepard Today's wine is truly excellent. We used to buy it in the old days when we could buy it for $45 per bottle on futures. We have a few from the 90s still in the cellar and the only time we usually drink one is on a BHB. @Cruzin Terri I am sorry your husband had a bad night sleeping. @smitty34877 so happy to read Tana's aid is working out. @superoma thanks for the Cares and Celebrations Reports. Prayers for all needing them and the people of Ukraine. Time to go outside and water the plant sale plants I dug up the last few days, they are going to our Farmer's Market booth on Saturday. Have a great Tuesday! Nancy

@aliaschief Happy anniversary!

Good morning everyone! A cool but beautiful morning here in SW Michigan. I am going to run a few errands, especially food as we were expecting to leave tomorrow. @Cruzin Terri Prayers for your DH as he goes through his Mohs surgery. For me the worst parts were the first numbing shots and then the huge bandage. I hope they get it first pass. Sandi, thanks for the Daily and Fleet Reports. Jung's quote today is a good one. I think I will like today's dish but will pass on the pricy vino. I think I would have a hard time handing the cocktail recipe to a bartender and get a smile. Pretty complicated. Sandi thanks for the pictures from Tasmania, it looks like a beautiful place! Thanks for the weekly care and celebrations lists. Prayers for everyone on our care list and the people of Ukraine. @StLouisCruisers I hope Ren's team does well today! Have a nice Monday! Nancy

@StLouisCruisers those plants are mostly volunteers and divisions from my garden in the UP. My plants love the climate there. About 10% are gifts from my sister. We ran out yesterday so I went to my sister's and dug 25 more volunteers at her place.

@SusieKIslandGirl Bon Voyage!