The summer of '07 in Barry County Michigan has been pretty uneventful, and yet has been flying by.

Barry County is rural Michigan at its best. Bucolic and charming, a photographer's dream. The county is full of eskars and moraines, Amish fams and charming farm animals.

Okay you say, what the heck is an esker or a moraine?

Well, they are gravely hills left behind by the glaciers. If I have it right, eskers are the ridges and moraines are the humucky hills. The glaciers pick up gravel and such and move it around and drop it here and there, or melt and create things that way. They can also leave potholes (kettles) which are small lakes that eventually become ponds and then swamps and then wonderful growing land.

This Amish farmer is plowing at the bottom of a moraine.



The ridge in the background is an eskar, probably a small moraine in the foreground.

I never took geology, so I am remembering what my mother-in-law, Geology Professor Jane Elliot, now deceased so I can't double check with her, or her mensa member son, for that matter. Ah, but again I digress. Anyway, she told me about these thing and that was a few years back and eveyone knows how bad my memory is...

Kettles
These are the small lakes and ponds left behind after the glaciers. Right is one a few miles from my trailer. The great lakes which surround Michigan are glacial in origin and Michigan is dotted with many lakes created by the glaciers. Below is a kettle that has completely filled in and now is great farmland.

Thornapple Lake is a lake into which the Thornapple River flows in at one end and out the other. Thornapple Valley is a brand name for meats and may sound familar because of that. This lake is probably a large Kettle.

Our campground has flooded because it is basically a wide spot in the river and every 50 years or so it rains so hard that the river-fed lake overflows into the park.

The fishing is great in this lake, bluegills, walleye, muske (large muske), trout, bass, and it is rumored that we even have sturgeon in the lake.

Birds are everywhere, baltimore orioles, red-winged blackbirds with their melodious trill, yellow finches, bald eagles, blue heron, songbirds of every type making a crescendo of song at dawn. At right are a couple of noise-makers that have one of the harshest sound in the bird world, the sandhill crane. These ancient birds are common in this area, after all, we have a lot of sand hills!

This is Amish country. I like to drive around the area and look at the farms. You can almost always tell where the Amish live as the overalls will be drying on the line and there will be horses around the place and very few if any mechanical equipment that is powed by electric or fuel. No cars, or few cars.

Below and to the right are a few of the wonderful farms in the area.

To the right is a new house, I saw it being built by the Amish last year. It appeared to be a community effort for a newly married couple. Look for the overalls and pinnafores on the line.

This farmer has a great sense of humor. We city girls appreciate the label.

And I just love the farm animals.


Happy cows are not all in California.

Even the work horses look pretty fit.

Far, far better life than the carriage horses in Cozumel

The wildflowers are such fun. Those posies pose so nicely.

More as it happens.....CMcC

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