Book excerpt: In Tales of Two Peninsulas and an Island, Gary Swagart recalls some of his experiences as a semi-Yooper kid before he changed to a Troll and later became a Yooper again. Many of these experiences revolved around subsistence living farm life, which contained a lot of hard work, drudgery, even. Some of the stories are about some real characters, simply because that is just what they were. His love of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, Lake Superior, and Isle Royale shows through despite some hair-raising, near-miss incidents that easily could have resulted in catastrophe (including putting his wife in jail.) In this sometimes harsh, but always beautiful part of the world, Death can slip its icy fingers around the unwary without warning. Something as simple as getting a wet foot or forgetting to put car flaps down can be fatal. As can be getting lost in a Lake Superior fog, going downwind, or dropping a wrench in a boat. Simply underestimating the amount of time it will take to get from point A to point B can be fatal. The person who escapes the icy fingers learns to appreciate just how tenuous the thread of life can be.