Welcome to our informal "blog", where we share miscellaneous happenings on and about the homestead and our lives. Check out the individual pages via the menu above for more info on the various topics. We enjoy hearing from our readers. You can email me (Sue, the main poster) by clicking on the Comment button below.

Enjoy!  &

December 6, 2025 -- Saturday 3:00-5:00 -- Village Artisans of Garden annual Silent Auction and celebration. For us it is a fun and wonderful start to the holiday season! We'll be in the back room (with the deserts!) playing music, chatting with friends, and leading the sing-a-long. This is a happy friendly party open to all - a great way to help fund the Artisans' activities (like children's art classes) and take home some special surprise(s) if you are a successful bidder!

For more information and to view some of the items that will be in the auction go to: www.villageartisansofgarden.org/celebrating-the-holidays

November 28, 2025 -- A special Thanksgiving Gift -- You have to love diversity to enjoy living up here! And we do!

       Today   Two weeks ago...

November 27, 2025 -- Happy Thanksgiving! -- Let's Sing About Love and Joy and Happiness!

"Let’s Sing About Love" - here's a song for you (written by me last winter)

Let's sing about Love; Let's sing about Joy; Let's sing about Happiness.
Let's set our selves In this great big day.
Forget the sorrows, Sickness and loneliness.
Come on around To a better place.

Today is for Love; Today is for Joy; Today is for Happiness.
Today is mine, For to follow the sun.
We'll find the beauty, Hope and delightfullness.
Smiles from the heart Push the blues away.

Let's be about Love; Let's be about Joy; Let's be about Happiness.
We make the music That inspires our lives.
The feeling’s greater; The choices ours to make.
I think I'll go For the laughter and fun.
Yes, I think I'll go For the laughter and fun.
       Copyright 2025 by Susan J. (Sue) Robishaw (lyrics and music)

And the video to go with... (click on photo to go to YouTube):

October 29, 2025 - Manistique Farmers Market

Today was the final day of the weekly Manistique Farmers Market, and a very good market season it was! Though many weeks the rain (and in October the cold) sent the Market inside the old garages in the back of the Lake Effect Community Arts building the wonderful vendors showed up and the appreciated (and appreciative!) customers came out to shop and enjoy the festive atmosphere. We had a great time providing tunes and song for everyone all season. We're already looking forward to next year, with thanks for everyone who contributes to the whole, and particularly the hard-working, friendly, generous, special (volunteer) managers Emily and Eric.

September & October 2025 - Cider Time!

The squash wasn't the only crop to surprise me, we ended up with a pretty good apple harvest this year. Some trees chose to wait for a better year but our root cellar managed to fill nicely with Dudleys early on, and Black Oxfords and Haralsons later, plus many small harvests from other trees. This meant, for us, enough apples to make cider! Not only fun, but delicious. We also have plenty for sauce and fresh eating, plus some to share. Though mostly neglected during the growing season this year the fruit trees went ahead doing what they do best - making fruit!

Not only apples, but pears and plums! What an appreciated abundance.

September 25, 2025 - Squash Gifts

With the rather cool, damp growing season, with little sunshine, the heat loving crops were a bit reluctant to mature a crop. I didn't expect much and instead hoped someone will have managed to grow some winter squash that we could purchase. In late August tomatoes, peppers and squash did perk up, the ever-hopeful squash even put out a batch of new blossoms! I knew I could ripen tomatoes inside but didn't expect much from the immature squash that the vigorous plants had managed to grow. But my own-cross-selected orange squash wasn't so ready to give up - they made good use of the now abundant sunshine and managed to ripen a decent crop. Thankfully the fall frosts and freezes held off. What an amazing year!

September 22, 2025 - Happy Equinox!

With wishes for a happy balanced life.

August 14, 2025 - Blue Sky!!

We have always appreciated, loved, and enjoyed the beautiful skies we are fortunate to have in the Upper Midwest, but we have never celebrated it more than this year. We were blessed with beautiful weather back in mid May during the week we pulled our old well pipe and installed the new electric pump. We noticed and appreciated that every long day of that week. Then we got a spell of wet weather; not at all unusual for spring, but it continued ... and continued ... and, well, when it finally backed off a bit in July we were happy to simply have some days of no precipitation! And so the summer went on, work outside was in fits and starts, and anything green grew like crazy (this was a salad lovers year!). Since we also had constant haze from the many wildfires in addition to the high humidity fog we literally didn't see blue sky again until today - August 14! And what a beautiful sight it was. The song "Blue Skies" sure took on a new special meaning.

  July 6, 2025 - New Carport Project ...

Over the years we have made several 'carports' out by the shop to protect the cars from the sun, falling limbs and birds but none were designed to last and the most recent was recycled a few years ago. I saw an opportunity to re-purpose a few of the pieces of well drop-pipe from our recent well upgrade so surplus well pipe became carport roof support posts. All of the wood was from homestead stock; maple and cherry for the main support beams and rough-sawn basswood 2x4's and more cherry for the five trusses. The roofing metal and a few U-bolts to hold the roof down were the only purchased materials. You can see some 'in progress' photos here. It was a fun 2-week project!

June 20, 2025 - Hay Time!

In spite of rather a wet spring Steve managed to cut hay for mulch for the garden. And it dried nicely on those in-between dry days. So the hay stack has begun growing, as he rakes and hauls. This is a welcome sight for me! I'm getting getting caught up on weeding and soon will be moving hay to keep those pesky weeds from regrowing. They are loving this weather! But so are the garden crops. It's an enthusiastic growing machine out there.

Happy Summer!!

  June 6, 2025 - Guitar Repair Project

Last week I did a quick cleanup and re-string job on an older tenor banjo for a local antique shop. I've done this kind of work for years and do enjoy the challenges some of these older instruments present. I have accumulated a nice collection of instrument building and repair tools so it is nice to get to use them once in a while.

Rick, the owner of Christopher's Antiques in Manistique had this 1930's Regal Parlor Guitar that his wife had fallen in love with and stuffed away in a closet for safe keeping. She recently passed away and Rick wanted the guitar brought back to playable or at least presentable condition. When I got it the bridge had lifted completely from the top, there was some significant impact damage to the lower bout, it needed new strings and a general clean-up, especially the celluloid fret-board. You can click on the photos to see the 'before' condition of the guitar.

The first three photos show the damaged areas. This turned out to be a pretty straight-forward repair; I first cleaned up then misted the area and then applied multiple small clamps to gently press the top and rib back to their correct shape. I left the clamps on overnight, occasionally tightening them. It all came back into position pretty well so I applied hide glue to the top cracks and end damaged spots, put the clamps back on and let it all dry for another day.

In the first photo above you can barely see the bridge laying loose on the top next to the spot where it should be. Again, I cleaned the bridge and top, devised a simple through-the-bridge-holes clamp and used hide glue to secure the bridge back into position. These older instruments were almost exclusively assembled with water-soluble hide glue. This makes them quite easy to disassemble and repair but also explains why some instruments that were stored in a humid environment could literally fall apart.

The seam between the back and about 4" on either side of the end block was open - that's what all those clamps in the fourth photo are fixing.

I carved a tiny piece of beech to fit in that spot where the purfuling was missing and dyed it to match its neighbors. In the last photo you can see that it all came together OK. In the end the guitar looks fine but to be really playable it needs a luthier to reset the neck to lower the action and it could use new frets. This isn't likely to happen with this instrument. It looks kind of cool with those stenciled designs but it probably never did have particularly good tone because of the woods it was made from (spruce top & birch body) and the ladder-bracing construction. I suspect Rick will just keep it for a while and maybe eventually it will end up on someone's music room wall. Rick liked the results and this was an enjoyable project for me.

June 1, 2025 - Active Time!

Just a week ago this Chickadee was checking out the first buds in the orchard thinking of blooming. Now, a week later, this tree is lighting up the entire area with as many full blossoms as it can possible fit on the tree! Some trees are like that. Welcome to June!

May 28, 2025 - New Song / New Video

The homestead provides unending topics for musings and for songs, especially in the spring! Here is one I wrote late winter, called "Days are Getting Brighter", as we welcomed the longer days and more sun, and looked forward to spring. The tune is from a David Holt song 'Too Late to Pray' which we had learned long ago. While that song wasn’t in our repertoire Steve would often noodle the tune when warming up and I found it going through my head now and then. Before long words came, too, and this song was born, with kind permission from David Holt to use his tune.

Living in the north woods as we do with with the nearby wetlands, our thoughts of spring include, quite naturally, black flies and mosquitoes (which have just started enforce today!). A comment oft heard when challenging winter weather is afoot is “at least there are no mosquitoes!”, which puts it all in perspective. We live with them, and they with us, and spring and summer up here is truly wonderful, insects and all. And, as you can hear in the video, the birds think so, too! Click HERE or on the photo above to go to the video on YouTube.

P.S. The song, being posted on this date, is also a Happy Birthday to Steve's sister! With minimal black fly action this time compared to the infamous (to a very small circle) of that ill-fated birthday video of 2021 ("It's a Wonderful World"). It's all in the timing, and location!
--------------------------
“Days are Getting Brighter” lyrics by Sue Robishaw
          (tune by David Holt)

The days are getting brighter; Hope is here to stay.
Spring flows in and seeds find kin; Spirits lift and sway.
Trees are popping budlets, Grass begins to grow.
Snakes move out and cranes fly in; Breezes melt the snow.

     Insect life is plenty, Black flies have their day.
     But when winter comes, we’re having fun, when
     Mosquitoes have gone away.

Summer time is heaven; Music fills the air.
Gardens grow and berries flow, There’s oh so much to share.
Busy bees on flowers; Each one has its way.
Sparrows sing and swallows wing; Chipmunks chip and play.
chorus

We can laugh to see them, Thankful for the show.
The sky gives way and Rain comes down, to wash our cares away.
Autumn leaves are pretty; Chickadee caps are gay,
Woodshed’s full and asters bloom; And the bluejays has his say.
chorus

Copyright 2025 by Susan J. Robishaw (lyrics), David Holt (tune)

05-25-2025 - Transitions

It's that time of year when harvest starts transitioning from the greenhouse to the garden. Some hardy souls were planted in the garden in cold frames about a month ago and many were getting large enough to thin and add to our lunch salad. Meantime, the older plants in the greenhouse are thinning out as I start harvesting the last leaves. The spinach has been gone for awhile but there were several super lush plants in the garden that made it through the winter in fine shape, for a welcome spring treat. And there are always a few missed onions and maybe a carrot or two to discover. It's a lot like Easter, finding gems here and there. It's simply a wonderously fun, and delicious, time of year.

May 20, 2025 - Big Change on the Homestead

For almost 50 years we've had a close relationship to our beautiful windmill, and the wind that has allowed it to pump our water from way down underground up into our above ground water-tank. We know the wind patterns here very well! As it is definitely a hands-on management affair. The windmill has done its job well but for a number of reasons we decided late winter to switch to an electric deep-well (100 feet) pump. This was also a very hands-on affair! What a project. For a little more than a week our days were completely full of the pump project, starting with removing the original pump-rod and pipe (did I mention 100 feet?!), and ending with putting down the new (and beautiful in its own stainless steel way) electric pump, run by the sun via our nearby PV panel array. So few words for so big a project, including a few bumps along the way. But it is now done. Pumping water now is fast, it is simple, the management easy. (Should I admit that it is also a bit boring?) And somewhat bittersweet as I truly loved (and still do) the water pumping windmill. But the windmill is still there! On that sturdy reliable tower. Now it is for looks, no longer for pumping, but still an important, appreciated, and loved part of the homestead.

For more details and many photos of the whole project click HERE to go to our Windmill and Water page, where there is also the story of the original windmill installation and a few other happenings along those lines between then and now. 

May 5, 2025 - New Video!

We did take quite a break from making videos but were inspired by a beautiful, sunny day, warm enough for fingers and instruments to play outside. So here is one of my songs from this winter's writing spell called "The Delight of the Land" (informally called 'Critters'). It seemed appropriate for the wakening world of spring. Hope you enjoy it. Click HERE or on the photo to go to the video on YouTube. (For a list of our previous videos you can go to our music video page HERE).

---------------------------

"The Delight of the Land" by Sue Robishaw

The world is a magic; There's no need to hide.
We're surrounded by critters, Below and be-hind.
Look skyward, look closer; They're ev-ry where grand.
Be feathered or furried, The delight of the land.

I look out my window; I go out my door.
They are looking right at me; From their own grassy shore.
No reason to pa-nic; I've seen them be-fore.
They're letting us live here, Just out-ide their front door.

Be kind to those neigh-bors, So happy and free.
Coexisting with others, Doing just what they please.
They know what they're doing; We'll learn it from them.
To play and be merry; And to all be a friend.

     Copyright 2025 by Susan J. Robishaw

May 4, 2025 - We're Back!

Well, we haven't really gone anywhere particular meantime but I realized it had been a year and half since I last posted anything! Life focus naturally changes and we simply hadn't been spending much time at the computers. But we're still here, still enjoying life and all that we do. And I decided to step back in to sharing some of that news and happenings on the homestead as we go along, and connecting with friends and family near and far. It may be sporadic  but it will be sincere!

A few highlights of this past winter:

CARVING - Steve was inspired to get back into the bowl carving mode this winter and came out with three beautiful cherry bowls. The wood came from a large wild black cherry tree growing just NE of the house where that section of the woods start. That tree was fine but there is a very large dying white birch that needs to be taken down before it decides to come down on the house, and that black cherry was, unfortunately, between it and where it needed to be dropped. So that beautiful cherry gets to continue its life as beautiful bowls (and maybe some spoons). Such is the life of the forest tree. Click HERE to go to the bowl carving page.

MUSIC - While Steve was carving I decided to dive into song writing. I have, in the past, often added verses or changed lyrics or wrote new ones to already established songs or tunes that we do, but I had never started from scratch, writing not only the lyrics but the music and chords. I had a folder and notebook full of bits and pieces of word fun, some long, most short, little poems or lyrics that run around in my head now and then. Sometimes I write them down. I felt it was time to see if I could give some of them an extended life as a song. It was quite an adventure, challenging but enjoyable. I found I could write songs or tunes that I couldn't sing or Steve couldn't play, but I ended up with some songs that I liked, and Steve liked, and we could both do. A big surprise was how difficult it was to learn a song neither of us had ever heard before, realizing how much we learn by ear. We'll be sharing videos of a few of these songs off and on (including in a few days!). Actually, we started the year with one that I wrote a few years ago, "Wild Hair Don't Care". Although I wrote the lyrics and the chorus the main body of the tune is from the old Irish jig Lilliburlero. HERE is a link to that video on YouTube. 

Contact Sue or Steve