THE FALLS OF UPPER MICHIGAN

We visited two of the many falls in Upper Michigan.  The geology there is filled with slate and layers of metamorphic rock.  It is a contrast to what I am used to in Idaho and quite beautiful.  
Along the way, we were treated to the last days of the fall foliage.  

Munising Falls

The deciduous forests in the east do look different from ours. 

Miner's Falls

KITCH -ITI-KIPI

Mom and Dad took us to a spring.  It was pretty cool.  It is quite a large pond that is fed from the bottom through springs bubbling up through the sand.  It is a State Park; they have a raft that you wheel out across the lake with a view of the bottom in the middle.  

The bubbling sand was fun to watch.  It was pretty cool.  Next are photos of the little lake.

FALL IS BEAUTIFUL

We are a little late for the fall colors up here in upper Michigan, but it is still beautiful.  

EXPLORING THE UPPER PENINSULA

 Today we took a drive to a restored 19th century town.  Fayette was a company town; the business was pig iron.  At the time the town was booming, there were 500 people living in this little cove and working the charcoal kilns and iron smelter.

This is a replica charcoal kiln, built with bricks from the originals

An original smelter for extracting the pig iron from the iron ore.

Iron ore left at the sight

Like all company towns in the 1800's, the mine owned the store, the hotel, the work shops and all of the homes.  This particular company along with the iron smelter had a limestone quarry that they prepared the limestone for the smelter from, hardwood forests that they cut the wood for charcoal from, and the black smith and the machinist worked for the company.  The whole economic and social system was a product of the company.  This town thrived for about 20 years and then the need for their pig iron dwindled and the town was abandoned.  

It was a fine autumn day.  We enjoyed the fresh air, the views of Lake Michigan and our lessons in history from Fayette Township!

WISCONSIN

Thursday we slept in and didn't get off from the hotel until after 10 am.  The water tower just across the street from the Holiday Inn read "Tomah - Cranberry Country".  Who knew?  Two miles down the road, we came across a sign that said "Fresh Cranberries" and it appeared as if it might be the farm, so we headed over.  Sure enough, it was the farm and they were harvesting!  So we hung around for an hour or so and saw the whole process.  Did you know that cranberries are not grown in water bogs, they just use the water to harvest.

The cranberry plant is a low growing, ground cover affair.  It almost seems as if it would be an evergreen plant. 

  
They are planted down in a bog that is about 4 feet deep.  Before harvest, they run a harrow throw them to loosen the berries from the plant and then the bogs are filled with water to the top.  The berries float.

The berries are then gathered up with a floating net sort of thing.  

There were tiny little frogs jumping around on top of the berries.    And Crayson found a giant snail along the  ditch that runs around each of the bottom of the bogs when they are not filled with water.

These guys are pulling the float and gathering the berries.  They use the blowers to keep them out of the grass along the edges.

The berries are  picked up with a conveyor that they stick down into the berries in the water.  From there they are taken to a shed to be washed and then loaded into the back of dumb trucks.  

It was a very interesting processes.

Always something new when you are on the road.  I love to stop and check them out.  I am happy to have a family (or at least a husband) who thinks that is great too.  The boys are getting to be teenagers and some times they are bored, but most of the time they have a good time.  One of the gifts I hope to give my children is the gift of continued curiosity and desire to learn more all of the time.

TRAVEL DAY

Today we traveled through three states!  Started out in the Black Hills on the west side of South Dakota and ended up most of the way through Wisconsin!  Minnesota was in between.  Don't have much to tell you about, unless you would like a book review of the audios we have been listening to - Blasphemy, Pompeii, and The Lovely Bones.  So, here are some photos of the states, in case you have not been there.

White Tailed Deer, Crayson took the photo.  I don't think he knows there is a zoom on the camera

These TPs are at all of the South Dakota rest stops

The Missouri river

Road Construction, it's every where!

Harvesting in Minnesota

Minnesota Country

Close up of a section on the Corn Palace (the photo at the top of the page)

These men are putting up a new section, using the corn cobs, split in half length wise

Shows the colors of the corn

What is left when they take a picture off of the wall.

No pictures of Wisconsin, it was dark when we crossed the boarder.  Now it is on to Michigan to visit my parents who are serving a mission in Gladstone.