Last Rose of Summer (Fall)

It is cold this morning (32 degrees)  I was suprised to see these. 

 

 

Adventures ? with Charlie

Charlie is laid up AGAIN!!!
He fell from the hay loft on Saturday,  October 13.    He lost his balance while throwing hay down for the horses. 
was able to catch something so he did not fall on his head.  He broke the femur in is right thigh and shattered his left heel.  

He had surgery on Sunday morning, the Doctor said that the femur usually heals in about 6 weeks, the heel will take 3 months.  He came home Thursday evening (10/19), he is using a wheelchair and is getting around fairly well. 

Here are the x-rays the doctor gave me after surgery.  It looks to me like they just threw some nails into his heel, but I guess they know what they are doing.

Femur

The heel

One more of the heel.

 He had stitches out Tuesday (10/30). YAY, he can finally take showers. 
He goes back on November 29 for more x-rays. Hopefully he will be able to put weight on his right leg.

A couple of friends brought a scooter over  yesterday,  it is wider than the wheelchair so it won't go up the ramp or down the hall in the house, so it is currently parked in the carport, (or at least it was when I left for work this morning.)  I guess that means he can be a little more mobile, he still cannot put weight on either leg, so we'll have to see what kind of trouble he can get into now.
 
Thanks to:
Tom Moon, Ed Choate, Mike Townsend for putting up a ramp.  Thanks to Sharon Erickson, for the use of the wheel chair, and bath stool, and the scooter that they just brought over yesterday.  
Danielle Townsend for making sure our horses get fed. 
Laurie Mead for bringing dinner one day last week.  

P.S.  He did use the scooter today, he went from the house to the pole barn. Stay tuned for more adventures with Charlie. 
 

Ponderings

As you can tell it has been a while since I have posted.  I don't really know why,  just lazy I guess.  Or nothing exciting has happened. 

I have been trying  come up with a reason for this blog. 

When I started blogging about 6 years ago I thought that it would be a fun way to stay in touch with family and friends who are scattered across the country. I'm not sure that it worked out that way. I know that a couple of people commented, but it is hard

hen it became more of a personal diary.  I could look back and tell what I had done in the past few months or year.

Then Facebook came along, and I began to send family and friends mini sound bites about what is going on at that second

I don't think of myself as a "writer" but I have had people tell me that I "tell" some good stories.   I would like to be able to write and share with friends and family.

I am going to blame, the not being able to write part of that on my high school English composition teacher.

One of our assignments was to write a humorous story about a real incident. 

I wrote my story, and handed it in.   She told me it was not humorous.  I don't remember her ever telling me why, or any suggestions on how to fix it. 

I think that part of the problem may be that my writing is to stiff, my verbal storytelling may be more animated. I may start working on that. 

Again I will try to update this blog more often.  Please comment at the bottom of this page. Let me know if you have any suggestions for topics you would like to see. 
Check back and see what happens or use a  feed to subscribe so you will automatically know when I update.

Annual Betz Buzz December 2011

Published by

the Charles Betz family

Springport Michigan

Written by Joyce Choate Betz 

2011 was a fairly quiet year in the Betz household, so quiet in fact that I hope you do not find this newsletter so boring as to put you to sleep.

Snow Storms…...

As usual the year started with snow.  These pictures was taken on January 8, everything was covered in hoar frost.    I can’t find any place where I wrote about it at the time but  It seems to me like I drove to or from work in a snow storm every day

In  February, we got a big snow storm that some  were calling 

Snowpocolypse 2011,  I posted on Facebook that Lansing got 11 inches of snow, Jackson got 7 and we got about 9.  You can see more pictures from that storm  On my Facebook page

 

…And  Wind Storms

 On memorial weekend, we had quite a storm, as did many people in neighboring areas.  We were coming back from a horse show on Sunday When they ended the show early because of impending storms moving our way.  On the way home, we heard on the radio that  there were tornados sighted in the area.  (I swear I saw a funnel cloud) As we turned toward home, The rain was so bad we couldn’t see the road so Charlie stopped the car just off the road to wait it out.  The wind really rocked the car, we both thought it might get picked up or roll over.

When it finally stopped  we found out that the neighbor who happened to be a little way behind us pulled in to a driveway because they couldn’t see either, and the  wind tore his  camper off the truck and threw it into a tree. 

It took us about two hours to get home (about 1.5 miles.  All of the roads had trees down blocking the way,  we were finally able to get through when the township crews were able to cut some of the trees  on one of the roads.  There were lots of trees, down in the horse pastures.  Charlie was finally able to sell some of them to a lumber broker who moved them out. Here is a photo of one of the apple trees ripped up at the roots.  

The Farm 

In the spring Charlie sold a couple  of horses in to a YMCA camp in West Branch  Through that he  became friends with Brandy and Ashley Nelsey.  

Brandy and Ashley are riding their horses from West Brach, Michigan to Texas.  They started riding in tember and are currently in Kentucky.  They are helping raise money for clean water wells in Haiti.  A project that their church had started.   

The girls stayed with us for a few days on their way through and did a presentation the elementary school.  This picture was taken by the Jackson Citizen Patriot on September 27.  Charlie is planning on us taking a trip when they get to Red Banks Mississippi, which is where is son, Terry and his family live. 

 You can find out  more about Brandy and Ashley’s trip at Facebook  or friend them on Facebook as Horseback for Haiti or check out the blog

We also had a new edition to the herd, born on Easter Sunday so Charlie named her Lily.  She is a friendly little thing,  She loves to have her back or ears scratched .  One day she followed me, and almost walked up in to the sun porch.

 We had some baby ducks hatch this spring too, buteach day or so another one came up missing. We think that a snapping turtle in the pond got some of them.  It could also have been the raccoons or coyotes.

As  you may know, chickens don’t lay many eggs in  the winter.  Because we had some new ones this spring, when they started to lay  we got a variety of egg sizes. From extra jumbo to extra small 

 Travel  

 

Ed. and Joyce drove to Alabama, to visit Lois, Troy and Joe, in Birmingham.   Ed got some golf in,  I did a little geocaching.  I found out that Lois and Ed, think it is rather silly,  Troy and Harper, seemed to like it though,  It was a nice break from the cold, and good to spend some quality time with some great people.  Thanks Lo, Troy, Sheryl, Christian, Harper  (especially for letting me use your bedroom) Joe and  Kim.

We also had a Gilbert family reunion in AuTrain, Michigan in  July, Hosted by the Larson’s.  I have quit a few pictures , too many to add to this print copy of the newsletter, but you can see them on Facebook.,   I don’t have a picture of the whole group but here are a few of the scenery.    I had not realized there were so many waterfalls in the area.

We also found Lakenenland  between, AuTrain and Manistique. This guy had all kinds of welded “junk” sculptures. 

 

 

This and That—Odds and Ends

Charlie and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary in June, and Shonda surprised us with a party.  She did made all of the arrangements herself, and invited over 100 people.   She did a great job.   If you need an event planner she may be available. Her time maybe a little tight though because she is working full time at Springhill Suites in Lansing and is planning on taking 9 credit hours at JCC. She’s working toward her Bachelors in Journalism

As many of you know Charlie is currently having trouble with his back,  the Dr. says it is muscle spasms caused by  some kind of strain.  It is getting better.   He keeps himself busy around the “farm”  

My car died a sudden  unexpected death in September.  So we had to go car hunting.  We settled on a 2006 Buick Lacrosse. 

Big Winds 5-29-11

I am writing this hear to let everyone know that yes we are fine and give you a few details of what happened on Sunday.

We went out in the morning and did some Geocaching, then went to a horse show in Nashville, (no not Tennessee- Michigan)  it is west and north of Charlotte. Danielle and her dad pulled the horse trailer we were just going to watch.    The sky was getting really dark and the announcer said their was severe weather headed our way so we decided to leave early.    On the way  home, on Royston Rd. (here is a link to the map http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&tab=wl )  north of Bellevue Road the radio said there was a tornado sighted in Eaton county.  I looked to the southwest and said there it is - there is a funnel cloud.  We turned on to Springport /Holibaugh road and it looked like the cloud had dispersed, but you could see the line of  storms.  We got almost to Markle Rd. and couldn't see the hood of the car, so Charlie stopped and turned on the flashers.  The wind was so bad the car shook, it felt like we were going down a really really bump road and the car felt like it was going sideways.  I was sure it was going to break the windows.  Charlie said he thought it was going to flip.  I closed my eyes took a deep breath and thought OK what ever happens happens, there's nothing I can do about it now.

When the  rain and wind let up we tried to proceed. Just passed Markle Rd. there was a tree, a whole tree down across the road.  Since we had no chain saw or chain in the car we backed up thought we would try Markle.  Nope two trees across down.

Back tracked, met a couple of vehicles that said they couldn't get through on M50/99.   Our next door neighbor who happened to be behind us at the Bellevue Rd turn pulled into someones drive way and the wind took his truck camper off the truck and threw it against a tree.

We tried Royston.Lots of brush, water across the road and a wire down in the water that we didn't see until we were already on it, the utility pole was broken in half.

Another tree. two guys in a Pick up had a chain saw at home and went back to get it.  By the time they got there there were at least 4 vehicles behind us including our horse and trailer.  They cut through 3 trees, before we got to Love's farm.  There was a tree on top of his tractor, and wires down across the road and the drive. Decided to try Springport Road again.  The workers were out removing trees, so we were finally able to get through.  It took over 2 hours to go less than a mile.  At one point Charlie said we don't even know if the house is still there.  I said if it isn't we can consider ourselves lucky that we weren't in it. 

We were lucky, we lost trees, and have to repair the corner of the roof.  But the house is still there the horses and the dog and the chickens are fine.
It's just HOT and humid  and lots of clean up work to do.