The annual Civil War Days took place over the past weekend at Dellwood Park in Lockport, Illinois. It's a great little festival and it's free! The battle is always interesting and informative, and the setting is great as well - no modern lamp posts or antenna to distract you.
The rebel forces captured the Union artillery fairly quickly, but Union reinforcements arrived to recapture and win the battle.
The boys helped build the 8 foot tall Lego Yoda at Orland Square Mall. Each child was given the opportunity to build a single Lego rectangular brick (about 10 x 4 inches). Then the bricks were put together to build the giant Yoda. Lot's of kids participated over the weekend.
By Sunday, the Yoda was ready for the last piece. Along with some fanfare, two store employees who helped build the Yoda were on hand to put on the top of the head.
The kids enjoyed helping out and watching the Yoda take shape.
Marram Grass (seen here from a worm's eye view) is one of the first plants to take hold on a Great Lakes sand dune.
Once it takes hold, it's roots not only keep the sand from blowing away in the wind, the decaying grass begins to condition the sand. Once the sand has enough humus, it begins to support additional plant life, and that in turn offers more humus and shade so larger plants can survive.
Over hundreds or thousands of years, the dunes become rich in plant and animal life.
Following the 2.6 mile hike along the Cowles Bog trail, we finally reached the beach. It seems there are plenty of boaters who anchor off shore to use the beach - I guess it's a great idea since there aren't many people who attempt to walk to this beach from the parking area. I think it's a perfect hike through a wide variety of environments.
You can really get a sense of how the beach turns from sand to Marram Grass to forest by looking from left to right in this image.
Still water and floating leaves created an icy look to the surface of this wetland. Technically not a bog since the water is not acidic, Cowles Bog trail leads you through many different progressive environments in a 4 mile loop.
A walk through the Cowles Bog Trail revealed the first signs of autumn - red leaves. It must be the stress on the trees (water or poor soil) that makes these leaves turn a bit sooner than most.
I'm guessing this trail will be a great place to view the fall colors in early October.
Dr. Henry Cowles conducted extensive botanical research along the southern shore of Lake Michigan in the late 1800's. He was puzzled by the interesting variety of plant life found along the dunes. Some plants were native only to areas far north of Indiana, other further south. He set out to determine why this was.
He studied secondary dune succession - the sequence of dune building from the time they rebound from the weight of the glaciers until the land becomes a hardwood forest. This process continues today - the Lake Michigan bed rises a few centimeters each year. Sand dunes are slowly exposed and become inhabited by Marram and other grasses. Once this takes hold, it changes the environment by shading the sand, and the dying material creates humus, enriching the soil. Once the soil is enriched, other forms of plants can become established, further changing the soil and environment. This process continues from barren sand to Marram grass, to weeds, to tall grass prairie, to shade tolerant shrubs, and ultimately to hardwood forest of Oak and Tulip Trees.
The Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore is one of the few places one can see this succession in one place on a short hike. Cowles Bog is the perfect place to experience this . While not technically a bog (the water is not acidic), the wetland supports all sorts of interesting plant life and animal life. The trail begins in the wetlands, winds through sections of mature forest, shrubs, grasslands and then beach, all in a 2 mile hike.
One of the most striking things I noticed on this trail was the lack of garbage. I did not see a single can, bottle or even a piece of paper! It was great to see that this trail is treated with respect. It may also be that people don't care to walk 2 miles to the beach and 2 miles back to their car.
The beach is accessed mostly by boaters. It's a large stretch of open sand perfect for sunbathing or picnicking.
A branch highlighted by sunlight, hangs over the Little Calumet River along the Heron Rookery Trail of the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore.
The Heron Rookery is separate from most other parts of the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, is a bit out of the way, but it provides a secluded, quiet walk along this small river.
On clear days, the Chicago skyline can be seen from the Indiana shore of Lake Michigan. Depending upon where you are, that's a distance of 27 miles to 50 miles.
The very bottom of the buildings are lost below the horizon due to the curve of the earth. The actual horizon over water is around 4 miles away if you're standing on the shore - meaning you can only see the surface of the water 4 miles away. Taller objects can obviously be seen at greater distances, and standing atop a dune certainly doesn't hurt either.
The waves on Lake Michigan were high enough to come over the South Haven Pier, drenching those who dared to venture to the South Haven lighthouse.
To get an idea of how high the wave was, people can walk under the support for the catwalk, and this was about as tall as that.
Previously, I was only wet to my ankles, but once this wave came over the pier, I was soaked through to my neck!
Here are the some photos of the previous seconds before I got soaked.
Mike hikes along the Lake Michigan shore on a windy, cool late August afternoon.
His backpack came in handy for shoes, extra shirts and all of the fossils he found.
High winds kicked up Lake Michigan creating waves that crashed into the Pier in South Haven, Michigan. This is exactly why this particular lighthouse gets completely covered in ice in the winter.
It's almost done. I made the solid oak drawer fronts last night (had to make a primitive router table to shape them), installed the drawer slides, drilled pilot holes for the pulls and stained the drawer fronts.
Tonight I'll simply size up the remaining drawer, add a toe kick, run electricity to the microwave shelf, then install the pulls and baseboard - project complete just in time for the weekend.
Next week sometime the granite for the counter will arrive.
Drawers are fun to make - especially when you dovetail the front joints and have to make several of the same size.
I chose poplar for the sides and backs, it's a smooth wood that takes a finish perfectly, yet isn't too expensive. In this case, five drawers took 32 linear feet of 1/2 by 6 poplar.
First I cut the boards to length, taking into account the width of the cabinet face frame, depth of the cabinet, thickness of the drawer slides (to be added later) and the dadoes of the drawer sides.
Then I cut a 1/4 inch dado at the bottom of each board to accept the drawer bottom.
Now the drawer sides had to be cut to accept the fronts and backs. I cut dadoes at the back and rabbets at the front. It's sort of a production line since there are so many the same size.
After the sides are glued and tacked to the back, the bottom plank was cut and slid into place.
Now it's time for the fronts - a bit of glue and there you have it, drawers.
Next, I'll make the visible drawer fronts from 1 x 10 oak, rout the edges, sand, stain, then install the pulls and the slides on the drawers and inside the cabinet and the project will be complete.
Following a day of sanding and staining, I installed the cabinets and hutch to check everything for size. Of course, my wife had to test it out too by placing things on the shelves! We've got some granite samples on the counter - the real stuff arrives next week.
At this point, all I have to add is crown molding on the top of the hutch, two decorative oak brackets under the upper portion of the hutch, the toe kicks, and the drawers.
After this project comes new paint in the kitchen........
After laying a new floor in the kitchen, we decided to add more cabinet and counter space where we used to have a table.
Day one consisted of cutting the wood for the base cabinets, building the cabinet carcass and then making the face frames.
All the face frames were built of solid oak, the carcass was made from cabinet grade oak plywood (but you can't see any of it).
It took the better part of a day to design, cut and assemble the 7 foot long base cabinets and the upper portion of the hutch.
An early morning view of the Sag Quarries in Lemont, IL. These limestone quarries were allowed to flood, and taken over by the Cook County Forest Preserve. They are a popular place for fishing.
The one thing I've noticed in this forest preserve is the large amount of garbage. It's everywhere. Mostly drink or bait containers and fishing supply wrappers. It's really a shame.
If you venture off the common path and into some of the other less traveled areas, you can experience some great views and some wildlife.
Some areas are only accessible using a makeshift log bridge across a 10 or 12 foot wide channel. I wondered just how deep the quarry was at this point as I was balancing on an 8 inch diameter log with my camera gear. At least I've still got my balance - and thanks to that, I also still have my camera gear.
An evening view of the Chicago Skyline from the 5th level of U.S. Cellular Field. I still want to call it Comiskey Park...........
Chris earned two free Chicago White Sox baseball tickets from school last year, so he finally attended his first major league baseball game.
He had a great time, even though our seats were practically in the next county.
Here's the view we had:
On our way to Cleveland, the weather was rainy and overcast. Our first visit to the Marblehead Lighthouse was nice, but gray. We decided right then that on our return trip we would make our way back to this lighthouse if the weather improved. It did!
We arrived around 9:00 am, but the lighthouse and museum didn't open until 1:00pm, so we didn't have enough time to wait around for a tour. Too bad, since this is the oldest continuously operating lighthouse on the Great Lakes.
We'll just have to pass by again.
