Port Crescent State Park in Port Austin is proud to announce its Seventh Annual Vintage Camper Show, July 24-27. Each summer, the traveling club Tin Can Tourists brings more than 85 vintage trailers and motor homes to the campground and opens its doors to the public for trailer tours. This year, tours will take place Saturday, July 26, from noon to 4 p.m. for anyone interested in taking a walk down memory lane.

This event began when the owners of about seven or eight vintage trailers came from New York, Indiana, Ohio, Florida, Michigan and Ontario to camp one weekend at Port Crescent State Park. Through the years, many more members have joined the Tin Can Tourists for this annual campout. A number of the trailers have been meticulously renovated and the owners are always willing to share their stories and photos. Read more

July 15 marks the end of the three-month window when oak wilt can be transmitted from diseased to healthy red oak trees. Although this time frame is coming to a close, the Department of Natural Resources reminds residents not to move wood from trees with oak wilt. Wood from oak wilt-killed trees can produce spores, which can infect healthy oaks if (the infected trees are) wounded between April 15 and July 15 the following year.

According to Dr. Robert Heyd, forest health management program manager for the DNR’s Forest Resources Division, oak wilt is a serious disease of oak trees. It mainly affects red oaks, including northern red oak, black oak and pin oak. Red oaks often die within a few weeks after becoming infected. Because white oaks are more resistant, the disease progresses more slowly.

“The normal time-tested advice is to prevent oak wilt by not pruning or otherwise ‘injuring’ oaks from April 15 to July 15,” Heyd said.

He added that the spread of oak wilt occurs during this time of year as beetles move spores from trees killed last year by oak wilt to wounds on healthy oaks.

Oak wilt has been detected in Alcona, Allegan, Alpena, Antrim, Barry, Benzie, Berrien, Calhoun, Cass, Cheboygan, Clinton, Crawford, Dickinson, Genesee, Gladwin, Grand Traverse, Iron, Kalamazoo, Kalkaska, Kent, Lake, Lenawee, Livingston, Macomb, Manistee, Menominee, Midland, Missaukee, Monroe, Montcalm, Montmorency, Muskegon, Newaygo, Oakland, Ogemaw, Oscoda, Ottawa, Roscommon, Saginaw, Shiawassee, St. Joseph, Van Buren, Washtenaw, Wayne and Wexford counties.

Although oak wilt hasn’t been detected in every Michigan county, Heyd said the need for vigilance is present statewide. Read more

Fred was in the fertilized egg business. He had several hundred young pullets,’ and ten roosters to fertilize the eggs. He kept records, and any rooster not performing went into the soup pot and was replaced. This took a lot of time, so he bought some tiny bells and attached them to his roosters. Each bell had a different tone, so he could tell from a distance, which rooster was performing.

Now, he could sit on the porch and fill out an efficiency report by just listening to the bells. Fred’s favorite rooster, old Butch, was a very fine specimen, but this morning he noticed old Butch’s bell hadn’t rung at all! When he went to investigate, he saw the other roosters were busy chasing pullets, bells-a-ringing, but the pullets, hearing the roosters coming, would run for cover.

To Fred’s amazement, old Butch had his bell in his beak, so it couldn’t ring. He’d sneak up on a pullet, do his job and walk on to the next one.

Fred was so proud of old Butch, he entered him in the Local Farm Show and he became an overnight sensation among the judges. The result was the judges not only awarded old Butch the “No Bell Piece Prize,” but they also awarded him the “Pulletsurprise” as well. Clearly old Butch was a politician in the making. Who else but a politician could figure out how to win two of the most  coveted awards on our planet by being the best at sneaking up on the unsuspecting populace and screwing them when they weren’t paying attention.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – The Coast Guard repatriated 43 Haitian migrants Wednesday from two separate interdictions in the Mona Passage, including a pair of migrants who had to be rescued after they were forced into the water by smugglers attempting to avoid interdiction at sea.

The Coast Guard Cutter Confidence repatriated the migrants to Haiti Wednesday. Read more