Seven Bourbon Brownies

Well...I see I have not blogged in two months! Shame on me! Must be the nine farm markets each week. The eighteen hour days are catching up to us and I am not finding time to blog (or anything else!).

There is so much news to catch up on, including our new doggie of the week. More about that, later.

Today, Michael baked seven Bourbon Brownies for the Father Fred Benefit Run and Bake Sale. The volunteers suggested that he take them in the back door, so they could eat them directly, instead of selling them tomorrow at the Bake Sale.

More to come, I promise!

New Mixer

This space age looking thing is Michael's new mixer.
It can make about fifty mixes at a time.
That is going to make his production time so much better!

It sure looks funny, but as long as it works,
it will be a fun new way to make mixes.

Snow Flowers

Last week, when the snow was horizontal
and we ended up with about eight inches of heavy, wet snow,
my poor little hyacinth flowers were shivering from another dose of winter.

These flowers were sheltered from much of the snow at the front of the house,
so we can see bare ground in this image.

That still does not give the flowers the warm spring that they would prefer.
Snow is cold and wet, whether it is eight inches deep or just enough to cover a blossom.

The flowers have been basking in the rain today.
Let's hope they get some sunshine soon
so they can really bloom and show us their beauty!

Opey Visits

We have a new visitor to our bird feeder. Michael calls him Opey (O-Possum, get it?). I call him creepy!

A few nights ago, I looked on the deck and let out a scream! Mr. Opossum was dining on some leftover bread, saw me (or heard my scream), and squeezed himself into one of our old feeders. He stayed there for hours. Was he comfy or scared or bored or sleeping? I do not know.

He only has half of his tail. I am not sure where the other half went.

Michael was amused. I was not. Who knows what else will show up for midnight snacks at the bird feeders?

Blizzards to Flowers and Birds

Last Saturday, I was in Jackson for a funeral. I drove home on Sunday in one of the worst blizzards I have even been in! I was in the center of the storm for two hours! First came the freezing rain, then zero visibility as six inches of snow fell on the roads that were not plowed yet. I drove 25 mph for two hours on icy, unplowed, unsafe roads. When I arrived home, my fingers had to be pried to straighten them up.

Little did I know that within a week, we would be outside raking and taking a wonderful evening stroll and watching the hyacinths peek out of the ground and listening to the birds!

Michigan weather!!! I cannot wait to see what is next!

Raccoons and Robins

We have had visitors every night to our bird feeders and it is not a bird! It is two big fat raccoons.

For some reason known only to them, they think that the suet and sunflower seeds are for their dinner, so they have eaten all of it every time they get a chance. They have to climb out onto the edge of the deck to reach the bird feeder, but it does not seem to stop them.

I finally fooled them and took the bird feeders and the suet inside every night. Of course, the nights that I forgot, they had a nice midnight snack.

A few days ago, Michael stopped at McGough's to pick up more suet. The salesperson asked Michael if it was for the birds. Michael replied with, "it is a box lunch for the raccoons."

Tonight as I was walking back to the office, I heard a very noisy bird. I looked way up into our maple tree and saw a robin, the first one I have seen at Creekside this year! Maybe spring is around the corner, but you would not know it from looking at the foot of snow still on the ground.

The crocus flowers just poked out from under the snow and I saw about an inch of a hyacinth in the flower bed this morning, so there is hope!

New Moo Cow Cookie

In honor of my wonderful dog Annie, we named a sugar cookie in her honor. Annie died four years ago and we still miss her so much!

Since Annie was a puppy, she loved cows. We started calling them Moo Cows. Every time we passed a dairy farm in the car, and said, "Moo Cows, Annie, Moo Cows," she would get so excited! She would visit with the cows when we took walks, and would bark really loud when we drove past the dairy farms. Annie loved Wisconsin! The dairy farms were so much fun for her!

We found a cute dairy cow cookie cutter, so decided to add a Moo Cow Sugar Cookie to the list of baking mixes.

Be sure to have a large glass of milk with your Moo Cow Sugar Cookies!

Thanks again Kate

Wow! After one tv interview, Creekside Grains was busy! We received several emails, phone calls and web orders. I finally got all of the orders shipped today. Thanks everyone, for supporting our funny little business!

Michael is on his way home from the Lansing Gift Show, so I expect several more wholesale orders will be arriving shortly.

At the show, Michael sampled the root beer cookie, the brand new maple cookie, several of the beer breads, the new Aebleskiver and a whole lot more. He was a busy boy, baking and serving! He gets one day to rest, then off to Minneapolis to do this again.

More later!

Thanks Kate!

We had such fun watching TV 7 and 4 News today.

The interview aired at the 5:00 PM news,
so if you saw the 6:00 PM interview, it was a shortened version.

Kate did a great job!

We had calls and emails asking about stores outside of Traverse City that carry our mixes.
We have over ninety stores from as far east as Pennsylvania
and far west as North Dakota that carry Creekside Grains.

As soon as I can figure out where I can post it on the web site,
I will put a list of all stores that carry our mixes.

Michael is going to Lansing for a gift show this weekend, so hopefully,
there will be more stores to add to the list when he returns.
As soon as he gets back to Traverse City,
he will leave for Minneapolis to attend a five day gift show.
I can only guess how many more stores that will be added to the list!

I am going to Muskegon for the weekend,
with our new Miss Heart of Michigan, Missy Brown,
to join the Miss Michigan contestants for Orientation.

I will be back to work on Monday, trying to get all information posted for you!

Have a great weekend!

TV 7 and 4 Interview

Today was television interview day!
Kate Fox from TV 7 and 4 filmed Michael for Made in Michigan.
The interview will air tomorrow on TV 7 and 4 at 6:00 PM.

Kate is a beautiful young woman,
with great interview skills and a wonderful personality.

It was great meeting her today!

You can barely see Kate behind the camera on the left.

Thanks, Kate! We cannot wait to see the results!