Forest Area Warriors Pop Warner Football team has a fantastic season!

I was able to capture a really nice photo of the moon over beautiful Perch Lake in Kalkaska County.  This was taken a few hours before sunrise.

Pop Warner Football

        My son had his first Pop Warner Football game.  He was very excited.  He was especially happy when his team won.  The score was Forest Area 18 to  Boyne City 14.

Both teams did a great job.  I only wish it wasn't pouring rain during the entire game.

I found this game more exciting than any professional game I have ever watched.  It is amazing how having a son on the team can get you fired up about the game!

I must own 50 Star Wars novels and the plotlines have gotten crazy and the authors seemed determined to kill off every major character.  So this is what I want to see in the next novel.  Something that tells us that the events of the last twenty novels have all been a dream.

I wish I drew this but it was done by a fellow artist for me.  You can see his online gallery here: http://vagabondx.deviantart.com/

And if you have not been reading the novels this will make no sense at all to you.  :)

Another attempt to teach myself to oil paint

My first attempt to oil paint was on a 20X16 canvas.  I decided that I wanted to see if I could work on a smaller 8X10 Panel canvas.  It is a whole lot harder to do detail work.  I am not especially happy with this painting, but I am just learning, so I hope I will get better over the years.

I am including the reference photo for this painting.  It is a photo of the Traverse Area Community Sailing Center.

 

Boardman River Nature Center

I brought my son to the Boardman River Nature Center in Traverse City yesterday so he could work on his Boy Scout Tracking Merit Badge.  Before all you former Boy Scouts chime in that there is no such thing... I have to tell you it is a merit badge only offered in 2010 in honor of the 100th Birthday of the Boy Scouts.  There are about 5 or 6 decommissioned merit badges that were brought back this year.  If the scout does not finish the work this year he will be out of luck.

So anyway, my son needs to find tracks of wild animals and take photos of various types of animals for this merit badge.

Usually around my house I am always seeing animals.  Deers jump out in front of my car, wild turkey roam the nearby fields, there is grouse around and I even saw a black bear last month while down in Interlochen.

As soon as he starts this merit badge it is like all the animals disappear from around my house.  When we want to see them they go into hiding.

Eventually I decided to bring him to the Boardman River Nature Center in the hopes to see some animal tracks.

We were not disappointed.  We hiked down the trails along the Boardman River and also the Sabin Pond.  We found all types of animal tracks.  Of course everytime we see a huge track he says "I think that is a bear, lets see if we can track it."  I am like, "Ummm... no I don't think so."  I am pretty sure what he saw was the tracks of a large dog.  It was in a boggy area so it was very distorted and unfortunately we could not get a good photo of it.

The Boardman River Nature Center has great trails with some fantastic views.  If you are looking to connect to nature I would highly suggest a visit.  Also, during the summer and spring break they host various nature classes for the kids.

For more information on the Boardman Nature Center go to:  www.gtcd.org/nature-center/

Fun at Camp Greilick, Boy Scout Camp

This weekend my son attended the Camp Greilick WEBELOS Adventure Camp.  WEBELOS are Cub Scouts but they are the upper ranks of Cub Scouts and will soon pass over to Boy Scouts.  Because they are older boys they are allowed to do activities that are not age appropriate for the younger cub scouts.

Therefore my son was able to do fun activities like work in a blacksmith shop where they heated up metal and pounded them into functioning spoons.  My son was also able to climb the the rock tower.

There were all kinds of fun activities to include Geo-Caching, art classes, first aid courses, swimming, geology classes, outdoorsman classes, just to name a few. 

We were supposed to have heavy rain that weekend, but we experienced fairly good weather.

The scouts have all types of great opportunities for boys.  The council that covers the Traverse City area is the Scenic Trails Council.  If you have a son interested in joining the scouts you can find more information at the local council website:  http://www.stcbsa.org/main/portal.php