Vacuum

Michigan Corn Mazes 2009

Michigan Corn Mazes – Fall of 2009

If you wish to be added to this list, contact the Michigan Corn Office at (517) 668-2676 or email Theresa Sisung at tsisung@micorn.org.

Andy T’s Farm Market
3131 S. US-27
St. Johns, MI   48879
989-224-7674
www.andyts.com

Barbott Farms &
Greenhouse 7155 Cleveland
Stevensville, MI  49127
269-422-2378
www.barbott.com

 
Bosserd Family Farm
14721 Verona Rd.
Marshall, MI  49068
269-781-4905
www.bosserdfamilyfarm.com

Chelsea Corn Maze
 14550 Jerusalem Rd.
Chelsea, MI  48118
734-417-6877
www.chelseamaze.com

Country Corn Maze
450 N. Vernon Rd.,
Corunna, MI   48817
734-604-3994
www.cornmazefun.net

Country Mill Farms
4648 Otto Rd. 
Charlotte, MI  48813
866-424-3779
www.countrymill.com

Crots Corn Maze
4800 W. Temperance Rd. 
Ottawa Lake, MI   49267
734-856-7183
www.cornmaze.itgo.com

Depner Farms Corn Maze
5945 Griggs Rd. 
Caseville, MI   48725
989-856-4688
www.depnerfarms.com

Erwin Orchards U-Pick & Cider Mill
61475 Silver Lake 
South Lyon, MI  48178
248-437-0150
www.erwinorchards.com

Farmer Charlie’s Maze Adventure
6421 N. Stony Creek Rd.,
Monroe, MI  48162
734-240-0825
www.farmercharlies.com

Flavor Fruit Farms
11025 S. Jackson Rd.,
Somerset Center, MI  49282
517-688-3455
www.flavorfruitfarm.com

Fruit Ridge Hayrides
11966 Fruit Ridge Rd. NW,
Kent City, MI  49330
616-887-5052
www.fruitridgehayrides.com

Gallagher Farm Market
7237 E. Traverse Hwy.,
Traverse City, MI  49684
231-947-1689
www.gallaghersfarmmarkettc.com

Grandmas Pumpkin Patch
4277 N. Eastman  Rd.
Midland, MI  48642
989-835-8024
www.grandmaspumpkinpatch.com

Heck of a Corn Maze
4309 W. Albain Rd.
Monroe, MI 48161
734-497-5075
www.heckofacornmaze.com
heckofacornmaze@yahoo.com

Heritage Farms
1888 S. Maple Island Rd.,
Fremont, MI  49412
231-854-8846
www.heritagefarmsandmarket.com

Izzi Farm Corn Maze & Pumpkin Patch
8475 Marine City Hwy
Ira Township, MI
586-612-2511
www.izzifarm.com

J Webb Farms
 4262 Post Rd.
Newport, MI  48166
734-652-4287
jwebbfarm@aol.com

Jacob’ Farm
7100 E. M-72 West
Traverse City, MI  49684
231-632-6293
www.jacobs-corn-maze.com

Johnson’s Giant Pumpkins
4715 N. Portsmouth Rd.
Saginaw, MI 48601
989-752-3133
www.johnsonsgiantpumpkins.net

Just A Plain Farm LLC
5055 Gill Rd.
Carp Lake, MI  49718
231-537-2302
www.justaplainfarm.com

Klackle Orchards 11466 W. Carson City Rd. 
Greenville, MI  48838 616-754-9223 www.klackleorchards.com

Maybury Farm 50165 Eight Mile Road
Northville, MI  48167 248-374-0200
248-465-6089 www.northvillecommunityfoundation.com

Mr. Green Jeans Corn Maze
& Pumpkin Patch 141 Rule Rd.
Imlay City, MI  48444 810-724-8488 www.mrgreenjeanscornmaze.com

New Lawns Corn Maze
 50240 Martz Rd.
Bellville, MI  48111 734-481-0033 www.newlawnssodfarm.com

New Salem Corn Maze
 4516 24th St. 
Dorr, MI  49323 616-681-2342 www.newsalemcornmaze.com

Orchard Hill Farm 2934 68th St. SE 
Caldonia, MI 616-868-7229
 
Papa’s Pumpkin Patch 3909 S. Summerton Rd. 
Mt. Pleasant, MI  48858 989-773-7750 www.papasfamilyfarm.com

Post Family Farm
 5081 Bauer Rd.
Hudsonville, MI  49426 616-669-1964 www.postfamilyfarm.com

Ripley’s Haunted Acres 9580 Carlisle Highway
Vermontville, MI  49096 517-726-0187 www.ripleshauntedacresllc.com

Rowe’s Farm Market & Pumpkin Patch 4047 W. Columbia Rd.
Mason, MI  48854 517-676-9360 www.rowespumpkinpatch.com

Spicer Orchards & Cider
Mill 10411 Clyde Rd. 
Fenton, MI  48430 810-632-7692 www.spicerorchards.com

Talladay Farms 6250 Judd Rd. 
Milan, MI  48160 734-483-6502 www.talladayfarms.com

The Flower Farm, LLC 236 Pigeon Road 
Bad Axe, MI  48413 989-269-8754 www.theflowerfarm.biz

Three Cedars Farm 7897 6 Mile Rd.
Northville, MI  48168 248-437-8200 www.threecedarsfarm.org

Uncle John’s Cider Mill,
Inc. 8614 N. US-27 
St. Johns, MI  48879 989-224-3686 www.ujcidermill.com

Westview Orchards & Cider
Mill 65075 VanDyke 
Romeo, MI  48095 586-752-3123 www.westvieworchards.com

Tiger Stadium, 1984

The National Anthem from the 1984 World Series from the University of Michigan Men's Glee Club at Tiger Stadium - there's a lot of good stadium shots here to help you remember the old ballpark.

Shiawassee River Paddle Event--June 7, 2009 - Holly, MI to Fenton, MI

More info on the event web site.

Canoes available for rental thru Heavners Livery
Shuttle transport all day long until 6pm

Join over 100 local paddlers for a day of fun

PUT-IN 

WaterWorks Park
602 South Broad St, Holly, MI 48442-1674

TAKE-OUT
Strom Park
299 South East Street, Fenton,MI
near the East Street Bridge.

Shiawassee River Paddle Event--June 7, 2009

Start : WaterWorks Park in Holly, Michigan
End : Strom Park in Fenton, Michigan
Distance : 7 scenic miles of numerous twists and turns
Schedule :
10:00 am : On-site registration WaterWorks Park
11:30 am : Introductory Ceremony
11:45 am : Experienced Canoeists Start
12:15 pm : Novice/Youth Canoeists Start
12:45 pm : Kayak/ Single person canoeists Start
***1:15 pm : Leisure/fun paddle Start *****
6:00 pm : Final river sweep completed

Canoes available for rental thru Heavners Livery
Shuttle transport all day long until 6pm

Questions ?

Call Sue Julian, 248-634-3513
or email sjulian @ provide dot net

Call Doug Lanyk 248-634-4551
or email dslanyk @ comcast dot net

Call Willi Gutmann 586-215-6387
or e-mail Willi_H2O @ Yahoo dot Com

In memory of the victims of the Bath Massacre, May 18, 1927

On May 18, 1927, disgruntled school board member Andrew Kehoe bombed the Bath, Michigan school, killing 38 children and six adults.

There is a new book out on the disaster, entitled Bath Massacre: America's First School Bombing, from the University of Michigan Press, written by Arnie Bernstein.  The press kindly sent me a copy.  Bernstein has a historian's eye for small and significant period details of fascinating interest to anyone who thinks about what the 1920s were like in Michigan, which makes it easy to pick up anywhere and read some small detail that gives you a sense for the times. 

There is enough of a horrifying tragedy in these covers, a story that I don't know, that I think I need to get the book onto a high shelf so that my very literate 8 year old doesn't read it quite just yet until I get a chance to read it and figure out how to explain it to him.

Bath is northeast of Lansing at I-69 exit 92.  Pleasant Hill Cemetery has many graves, and the Dewitt Public Library serves the area.

Michigan morel festivals for 2009, and how to find morels

My search logs are starting to show hits for morel season, so it's time to put this year's post together.  The early reports from the morel progression sightings map show a few isolated dots in southern Michigan, as of April 22 2009, but typically May is morel month, when and where the May apples are in good form.

Here's a list of some morel festivals in the state; if I have missed any, please let me know so that next year's list can be better.

Make your plans for May 8th –10th, 2009 for our “Golden Anniversary”  50th Annual Mesick Mushroom Festival.  Mesick is on M-115 NW of Cadillac; they helpfully sell "spore bags" to pickers so that when you go out in the woods looking for morels you can seed new crops for future years.

49th Annual National Morel Mushroom Festival: Boyne City, Michigan May 14 through 17 2009  Brochure (pdf), and the site has the song, the Mushroomer's Waltz (mp3), which tells you precisely what sorts of locations are good to go picking.

The University of Michigan Press has a book - How to Find Morels, by Milan Pelouch, recipes by Lila Pelouch - which tells all:

While many morel fans remain tight lipped about their favorite subject, in How to Find Morels author Milan Pelouch freely shares everything he's learned during his years of morel hunting. The book covers all aspects of finding and eating morels: identification of true and false morels; what to wear (and not to wear) and take with you on mushroom hunts; when to search for morels; the best places to look for them; cleaning and preservation methods; and, of course, delicious recipes using morels in dozens of different dishes, from soups to entrées. Although the author's preferred hunting area is northern Michigan, his tips can be used in any location in the United States.

If you want Scientific Research to go with your morels, see doi:10.1007/BF02858213, a touching account from a Harvard lad fresh to the Michigan woods published as Morchellamania in Michigan, Economic Botany, Volume 33, Number 1 / January, 1979.

Any day you can go for a walk in the woods is a good day!

Mike Brennan, Michigan Technology News

Mike Brennan edits Michigan Technology News, a news wire for stories, information and events listings about Michigan technology companies and entrepreneurs.  The text is accompanied by a podcast interview series, produced by Mediarica.

As you might expect the Michigan news of late has been dominated by automotive, and this service also brings in content from sites like John McElroy's Autoline which covers the auto industry.

The Michigan Economic Development Corporation

from their web site:

For any company already in Michigan or considering a location in the state, the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) offers one-stop business assistance. Our business development managers work with consultants, utilities, associations and local economic development agencies to best match businesses' needs with Michigan's opportunities. From attractive financing through our $2 billion 21st Century Jobs Fund to significant and long-term tax abatements, few places can offer a more attractive financial package. The MEDC is also the channel for continuous improvement of the state's business climate.

One of the things they are doing is running commercials in an "Upper Hand" program around the country (via WJRT, ABC 12)

The Michigan Economic Development Corporation says state businesses are stars of nationwide commercials to convince companies that Michigan is the place for growing industry.

Cascade Engineering in Grand Rapids. It's commercials like those that are playing across the country, urging corporations to bring their business to Michigan.

Millions have been invested by the MEDC in the "Upper Hand" campaign. The MEDC's Lisa Dancsok says if you commercialize it, they will come.

I haven't seen any of these "Upper Hand" commercials (and if you think carefully about it, the lower peninsula is the lower hand, and the UP is the upper hand, in any reasonable depiction of Michigan).

The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, November 10, 1975

November 10, 1975.   I was 10, and I had a paper route delivering the Marquette MIning Journal, which means I was out delivering newspapers to the Marquette Harbor Lighthouse the day the Edmund Fitzgerald went down.  Television news in those days was black and white, and there's a clip of Harry Reasoner that plays at the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum from the news the next day that I must have seen two dozen times which brings me back.  (sorry, no link, couldn't find it.)

There's lots too much to write about, but here's a few clips that are new to me this year.

(Bootleg) live Gordon Lightfoot singing The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

boatnerd's summary of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald

from http://www.boatnerd.com/fitz/

The Fitzgerald cleared Superior, Wisconsin, on her last trip on November 9, 1975, with a cargo of 26,116 tons of taconite pellets consigned to Detroit. Traveling down Lake Superior in company with ARTHUR M. ANDERSON of the United States Steel Corporation's Great Lakes Fleet, she encountered heavy weather and in the early evening of November 10th, suddenly foundered approximately 17 miles from the entrance to Whitefish Bay (47º North Latitude, 85º 7' West Longitude)

The storm that sunk the Fitz

from Steve Ackerman and John Knox at U of Wisconsin Meteorology

On November 9 at 7 p.m. the National Weather Service (NWS) issued a gale warning for Lake Superior. In a gale, the wind speeds range from 34-40 knots. The NWS predicted east to northeasterly winds during the night, shifting to NW to N by the afternoon of November 10. At approximately 10:40 p.m. the NWS revised its forecast for eastern Lake Superior to easterly winds becoming southeasterly the morning of the 10th. At about 2:00 am November 10 the NWS upgraded the gale warning to a storm warning (winds 48-55 knots) with a prediction of "northeast winds 35 to 50 knots becoming northwesterly 28 to 38 knots on Monday, waves 8 to 15 feet". Around 2 a.m. the Captains of the Anderson and Fitzgerald discussed the threatening weather and decided to change their route. This safer route would take them northward, toward the coast of Canada. The northern route would protect them from the waves that the storm generated.

The disasterous weather of November 6-11, 1913

The Great Lakes Storm of 1913 (wikipedia) destroyed 19 ships, damaged 19 others and killed more than 250 people. Tales of Riverside has an account of the storm and photos of all of the ships lost.

Michigan bats - featuring the Iron Mountain Bat Mine

some notes for a project that my oldest is doing -

from the Michigan DNR: Landowner's Guide, Bats

The little brown bat is especially abundant throughout the state and is the most seen species. A light brown to dark brown in color, little browns are fairly small in size with a wingspan of 8 1/2 to 11 1/2 inches, small ears, and large feet. In summer, colonies of the species live in hot attics and under shingles and siding; in winter, they hibernate in caves, crevices, houses, hollow trees, or mines. Females form nursery colonies away from the males. Little brown bats like to feed on aquatic insects and are frequently seen dipping and diving over water but will also forage over lawns and pastures, among trees, and under street lights.

DNR: Beneficial Bats Are Nature's Best Bug-Eaters

There are in Michigan nine species of bats, and much of what is known about them comes from studies of the two gregarious (that roost in large groups) species most commonly found here -- the big brown bat and little brown bat. Keen's bat is another gregarious species widely distributed in Michigan, and the tiny eastern pipistrelle is an uncommon year-round resident of the western Upper Peninsula.

The Millie Mine Bat Viewing Site, Iron Mountain MI

The Millie Mine is a critical hibernating and breeding location for up to 50,000 bats—one of the largest known concentrations of bats in the Midwest. Big brown and little brown bats from all over the region come here to hibernate during the cold winter months. They are believed to migrate in from throughout the Great  Lakes region–Wisconsin, Minnesota, Ontario, perhaps even Michigan’s Lower Peninsula. Bats start arriving  at the mine in late August and early September. They remain in the mine shaft throughout the winter and begin emerging in late April and May. Some use the  mine as their permanent home. Most, however, will  fly back to their forested home areas to spend the  summer where they roost during the day under the bark  of dead trees or in other small crevices. The females will typically use large hollow trees, abandoned buildings,  or other human structures as maternity roost sites where they raise their young with other females during ; the summer. Males live a separate and more solitary  life during this time.

Fiborn Karst Preserve - a set of limestone caves in an old limestone quarry in Mackinac County, MI:

Both the Little Brown Bat and Keen's Bat have been found using the caves for swarming or hibernation. Keen's Bat was most common in the swarming studies. Following the winter of 1978-79 a large number of dead Little Brown Bats were found in Kochab Cave; they had possibly been trapped by an ice block at the entrance for too long after they emerged from hibernation. Studies of the bats and other small mammals are being conducted by scientists from Eastern Michigan University.

While the primary significance of the Fiborn Karst Preserve is geological, the plants and animals of the Preserve are important components, and their protection is part of the management objectives. The MKC would welcome further biological studies in the Preserve.

For lots more information, see the Bat Conservation International site. 

Sleeper Lake Fire mushroom hunting near Newberry, MI

Last year there was a fire near Sleeper Lake in Newberry, MI in the UP; when I wrote about it, I collected fire maps of the Sleeper Lake area showing where the fire lines were. That fire is out now, but that page where I had those maps is still getting a steady stream of page views. So, I have to ask, why?

The other popular seasonal page is my annual Michigan morel map, which I pull an excerpt from the morel progression sightings map and highlight the appearance of these tasty mushrooms in the Michigan woods.

We know from previous years and previous burns that morels love to grow where it has recently burned. US Forest Service research credited to David Pilz (!) on Productivity and diversity of morel mushrooms in healthy, burned, and insect damaged forests of northeastern Oregon speaks to forest manager use of fire to promote mushroom growth.

I don't know if it's morel season near Newberry now, and of course no one will tell you exactly where to pick. I would, however, take a look at that fire map before I went out.

Newberry is hosting a THE FIRE IS GONE AND THE SPIRIT LIVES ON’ 4TH OF JULY PARADE this year - contact Mary Archambeau at 906-293-3729 with any questions.

UPDATE:

Confirmation! No exact details of course, but here from the Morel Finds page on morelmushroomhunting.com

June 6th, 2008: Brian Grant burnsite morel - general location = Newberry Michigan Growing Conditions = Hi Chris We had 20,000 acres burn here around Sleeper Lake in the UP last August and fire burn morels have showed up here since last weekend. I've never seen them in Michigan before except in pictures.I have picked around 80 pounds since Saturday. The burned pine areas are producing the best. Unbelievable! Should be good pickin through the weekend with these cooler temps and more rain now. This is a once in a lifetime for me, I'm sure. Additional Comments = Chris...Will a burn area such as this, produce any next year? Very little the second year. - Chris M