Waterfowl Festival

Went to the Waterfowl Festival that is just down the road from me. Got to listen to duck/goose calls for 4 hours...yep lets say I no longer want to work for the guys on Duck Dynasty (okay I probably still would). 

Anyways, I took the pup because they were having a retrieve competition...which we ended up not entering in because we showed up after it started...opps. 

 

Took him down to the beach...I think he forgives me for not getting him in the competition. 

 

I live 5 minutes from the beach and this is the first time he wasn't a little nervous about doing into the lake...he actually went in willing waiting for me to throw the stick. 

 

Waiting patiently... 

Oh and there was a drawing contest... 

 

I won third place. I'm quite impressed with my drawing skills. Not like I had a whining pup that was over the whole sitting still thing after about 2 minutes. 

Over and out,
A Engineer in the Kitchen

Dear Mother Nature

Seriously Michigan, this you can't make up your mind if it's going to be winter or if it's going to be spring crap is really starting to piss me off.

It has been raining/snowing all week, there is so much water it has no where to go. The rivers are full, some above flood plains. Three of my roads to civilization are closed...makes trying to get where I want to go kind of difficult when you have to take the really long way and drive about 5 miles out of my way.

Here are some of the pictures that I look on Friday after most of the storm. However, yesterday it rain, snowed, hailed, and the sun even peaked out for a few minutes.

This ditch is down the road from the farm and it is 20 feet deep; normally I can't even see the bottom of the ditch. 

I had to drive way about 5 miles out of my way just to find a road that is almost under water...

This is the river...not a lake.

The other side of the lake river.

Same river, other side of the road...

It suppose to warm up next week, but it's just going to continue to rain.

Hope everyone stays warm and dry.

Over and out,
A Engineer in the Kitchen

Wordless Monday...Okay Mother Nature

(Taken Monday, March 18 2013)

Weather forecast for the week...snow on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday & Thurdsay...It's the flipping end of March I'm ready for no more snow!!!

Silver Lake Sand Dunes: Hank Edition

This post actually have nothing very little to do about trucks. This was our first "vacation" with the Hanky Panky. I had a lot fun playing on the beach, getting lots of sleep and driving around in the sand dunes with this little boy as my co-pilot.

He pretty much slept all the time while I was driving, usually on my lap. The sister in laws even offered a couple of times to drive around with me to hold him and when they were there in the truck (sitting in his seat) he was sleeping on my lap.

Here are just a few of my favorite Hank pictures from the trip.

I honestly have no clue what he was doing in this picture but I think it might of involved his "bird" (it is underneath him for those that can't see it).

I love his intense stares, he wins the staring contests all the time. 

Watching some trucks go by. He had never jumped out of the truck before with the window all the way down...well guess who learned how to jump out of the truck via the window.

He was an absolute riot to watch dig holes on the beach. He would seriously bark and run around his hole having a grand ole time. We had several people stop by and see his hole and to watch him play.

It was a rather large hole; it was up to my knee in depth.

I think he ate a lot of sand over the weekend from digging.  Along with to much people food, grrr relatives that give my dog to much people food but oh well it was vacation.

When he wasn't digging a hole or playing in the lake, he also learned how to swim during the trip, he was sunbathing.

Must protect my hole.

Chillin' the truck with dad, while mom took lots of pictures. 

Hank didn't even react to the loud trucks going by, he would occasionally turn his head when a dirt bike went by but I think he was looking for Cousin in law Josh to be honest.

It was definately a fun trip and I can't wait to have more camping trips with him. 

Over and out,

A Engineer in the Kitchen

Silver Lake Sand Dunes: Trucks & Beach

It's the perfect family vacation place.

The boys play with trucks, quads, and dirt bikes out in the sand, while the girls lay out on the beach and play in the water.

This is one of the few times that my truck has ever left a paved road (other than the dirt/gravel road that we live on). I had a four wheeler in the back of my truck and the boys only attempted to put it through my back window once.

I told the boys that I wanted the blue quad in the back of my truck so it would match; they laughed at me but I like to be color coordinated sometimes.

Still missing a taillight...some day the insurance company will call me back telling me it is okay for me to get it fixed.

On the way out to the dunes I was following Big-D and well he slowed down to make sure Cousin in law Josh didn't need help pulling some guy out. Of course because he was slowing down it caused me to slow down and since I already had a quad almost going through my back window I was pissed. Well he slowed down to a stop caused me to stop and well get stuck. He came back yelling at me and I was like I am stuck get your truck over here and get me out (I tried rocking to get out but every time I switched gear the quad would smack the window). This is the traffic jam that I created.

The trucks on the beach: Cousin in law Josh's truck, my truck, and Big-D's truck.

Before I took this picture I actually made Big-D pull his truck up because it didn't line up right.

Cousin in law Josh taking the quad out of the back of my truck.

Coming down the ramp.

Seriously I think this pictures should be in a magazine for Ford trucks. I totally love it!

I like taking pictures of our trucks, I don't know why; I probably do it for the same reason that I have a billion pictures of Hank.

There was a island of trees in the dunes, I totally had Big-D take his big ass truck up into so I could take some pictures. It was rather difficult to get back out.

We sat on the beach for about four hours and the people that belonged to this towel and flip flops never came back.

A couple of larger boats came to the beach and the people swam to the beach to hang out. 

The sister in laws complained about the boats coming up to the beach, they didn't like that the boat was blocking their view. I simply informed them that it was a state owned beach and that the people on the boats had just as much rights to use at as we did.

Please someone come up with a caption for this pictures and leave it in the comments.

Then it rained, we loaded all of the stuff back into the trucks and decided to go shopping. Of course once we got off the dunes it basically stopped raining.

I like taking random pictures of rain.

Next up Hank and the Dunes!

Over and out,

A Engineer in the Kitchen

Michigan's Desert

Did you know that Michigan has a desert? Okay it's not a desert but it is about 2000 acres of sand. So maybe it's just a huge beach...

Anyways, Silver Lake Sand Dunes is a fun place where there is lots of sand, people and water. Best part is that you can drive around on a large portion of the Dunes and you can literally drive down to the beach of Lake Michigan (do I need to a Michigan hand map again). They don't allow people to drive on the beach but you can get to about 20 feet from it. 

Big-D, his cousins, his siblings and I all went to Silver Lake Sand Dunes for a weekend of camping fun. I think Hank had the most fun out of all of us to be honest. He learned how to swim (even though it is a natural instinct of the breed), got to dig really big holes on the beach, got way to much people food and was loved on by lots of people.

I would have to say that best part or at least the funniest part of the weekend was when I got pulled over for not having my taillight. I don't remember which one of Big-D's sisters were riding with me at the time but when I saw the cop pull out behind me I bet her $20 that he was pulling me over for my taillight; I won the bet. I found this funny because since I live in a little no-where town I drive mostly highways to get where I need to go, I drive between three big cities everyday and I drive by the Michigan State Troopers station on a almost daily basis, I haven't had a taillight for three weeks and none of these police officers have pulled me over...but no I get pulled over my a middle of nowhere county sheriff. To be completely honest I don't even know the name of the county sheriff department that  pulled me over.

Here are some pictures of the Silver Lake Sand Dunes.

From top of one of the many hills, looking out towards the beach and Lake Michigan.

Lake Michigan and some trees on the horizon.

You have to be careful when driving on the dunes due to the random trees that are out on the dunes. 

More trees and a red house...I don't know if I would like to live on edge of the Dunes for the fact how busy the Dunes are during the weekend.

A jeep and sand rail driving on the Dunes down by the beach.

Sunset from the Dunes is quite amazing.

More sunset.

Hank watching vehicles go up Test Hill.

Test Hill is the steepest hill on the Dunes and it truly test a vehicles/ATV ability to climb it.

I have many more pictures to share with you all but I think this is a good start. I had a decent vacation at least it was nice to have to work for FOUR days, but I did start to feel like a lazy bum after about day two.

Over and out,

A Engineer in the Kitchen