Sand Lake, Lake County

As I have mentioned before, there are many Michigan Lakes named Sand Lake. Today’s Sand Lake is located in Elk Township in northwestern Lake County.  The lake is a respectable fifty acres in size, 1.1 miles of shoreline with depths of up to fifty feet. The northern most tip of the lake stretches into southern [...]

White Fish Lake, Howard City

There are a lot of reasons Howard City is blessed. The city is blessed with good fishing, interesting buildings, eating places and close proximity to several Michigan lakes including Whitefish Lake, Little Whitefish Lake and the Little Muskegon River.
 I’m not sure what Howard City looked like in 1908 when this postcard was written, but I [...]

Decisions, Decisions

Every once and awhile I run across something that makes me wonder, “What were they thinking??”  One of those times came when I saw this sign near a closed down restaurant at the corner of 115 and 31, south of Beulah in Benzie County.
Now, my thought on this sign, which makes it look like you [...]

Holland’s Tunnel Park

I always enjoy paying a visit to the area of Holland, located along the Lake Michigan shoreline in Ottawa County.
Originally settled by a group of Dutch immigrants under the leadership of rev Albertus Van Raalte in the mid1800’s, Holland is located on the shores of Lake Macatawa. After settling into Holland, the industrious Dutch dug [...]

Racine Boat Manufacturing

Racine Boat Manufacturing Company was one of the many boat builders in Michigan’s rich history of boat manufacturing. Named after its original location in Racine Wisconsin, it relocated to Muskegon Michigan after experiencing a devastating plant fire in the Racine location.
 Much like what is often done today, Muskegon offered several financial incentives to entice the [...]

Wamplers Lake

Wamplers Lake is well located along the Jackson County – Lenawee County lines. To the north is Norvel Township, to the south is Cambridge Township.   The lake is convenient and close to many places of interest, including antiques, golf courses and many other lakes to explore.
The lake is only 8 minutes from the Michigan International [...]

2010 Upcoming Michigan Boat, Fishing, Cabin Shows

Happy New Year!
You know a new year has arrived when the indoor boat show season begins.  This year, as usual,  a nice  variety of shows are scheduled throughout the state.  These shows provide a great escape in the middle of a Michigan winter and remind us that warm weather and sunlight is coming again!
Here is [...]

Caledonia

Sometimes you can hardly recognize the past. The old railroad depot in Caledonia is a good example of this.
 At one time it was bustling with activity; worried mothers checking and double checking to make sure all the kids and pieces of luggage were accounted for, grandparents eagerly waiting for grandchildren, or family members waiting for [...]

Survey

Do you really want to spend hard earned money on a survey?
 No, but you must.
 Recently a customer purchased a rural home and pole barn on some acreage. The price was attractive and the buildings were in relatively good condition.  There were very few improvements required.
 The home was cleaned, painted in and out and new carpet [...]

Major Snowage

It’s here at last, and it hasn’t wasted any time settling in. I’m talking about West Michigan’s first real snowfall of the winter, which arrived Thursday night. Residents awakening on Friday morning opened their curtains and looked out the window at a landscape transformed.
We didn’t get just a little snow, either. I don’t know exactly [...]

Driving to Battle Creek

I was out and about with my camera, looking for things to photograph in a month of the year that doesn’t much stimulate my imagination, when my appetite began tapping on my shoulder, requesting to be fed. Smoked ribs came to mind, along with memories of a tiny mom-and-pop joint in Battle Creek that makes [...]

Happy Thanksgiving

“Dear Ruthie,
Here is your card for your pretty new album. How are you?
Please tell Mama to write to Aunt Jennie saying what a little girl like you needs or wants for a gift. I can’t think of anything. Lovingly Aunt Jennie.”  sent from Detroit to Belding  on November 25 1908
From Waterland Living wishing you a [...]

Base Lake

“I am wearing my overalls. Please send card in return.” Sent from Augusta MI May 23 1908
I always find the messages on postcards interesting. Some message are pretty generic, but every once and awhile you find one like this and have questions. Why was it important for the recipient to know the writer was wearing [...]

Sunset Theater

Saturday dawned blue and beautiful, filled with November haze and blessed with temperatures warmer than we’ve got any right to expect this time of year. It was a great day for a walk, and out at the W. K. Kellogg Experimental Forest southeast of Gull Lake in Kalamazoo County, people were seizing the opportunity.
I was [...]

Don’t Forget the Faucet

I was talking with a cottage owner this week and he was so enthusiastic about the weather this fall. The reason? He could still plan weekend getaways  at his Northern Michigan cottage. He feels  any weekend at his cottage is a good weekend. It gives him something to look forward to during the week. I [...]

It’s All in Your Attitude

“We are having a dandy time. It rained all day yesterday and the night before we had an awful storm.”  “Earl and Ma”   Postmarked June 21, 1913
 Don’t you love their attitude? It “rained all day yesterday and the night before we had an awful storm”, but yet they had a “dandy” time.
 I am not sure [...]

Unless You’re a Deer Hunter

I have a theory and I’m about to prove it. But first, how many of you are deer hunters? Raise your hand.
Very good. Kindly exclude yourselves from the following poll.
As for the rest of you, how many are huge fans of November?
Hmmm…okay, let’s try that again: if you love the month of November, raise your [...]

Tom Turkey

Let me introduce you to a friend of mine. This is Tom, and he’s a real turkey.
I know that’s not a very nice thing to say about someone, but in Tom’s case, truer words were never spoken. Tom is the resident turkey of the small animal farm at Bowen’s Mills. He’s also about as nice [...]

Swan Song of the Leaves

This is the time of the last of the leaves. As I write, a deep low pressure center is moving out of northeast Minnesota into Ontario, dragging with it a steamy plume of unseasonably warm, moist air and high winds across the Great Lakes region. It is the inevitable leaf-stripper of late October that denudes [...]

Fall at the Farmer’s Market

Well, a recent visit to the Farmer’s Market certainly brought home the fact the summer is gone and fall is here.  No more strawberries, blueberries, sweet corn or peaches.  Now it’s pumpkins, mums, apples and cider.  The vendors are bundled up against the cold, and probably finding it’s pretty hard making change while wearing mittens!
 But, [...]

October Impressions

Come, take a walk with me through October. It is a path that winds through grouse woods and along quiet pond sides, past blaze-red maples to aster-frosted meadows and beyond; and from painted landscapes that are autumn’s glory to the stripping of the trees by winter’s first cold, windy caress.
October is the year’s latter April, [...]

Logging

“Hello Old Man, How are you getting along? Are you ever going to write to me? It seems pretty cold here. We are all well. George is going to strike out to hunt a job before long. Charley and Sade started to Penn. the next day after I got here. I was up to Sidney’s [...]

The Train

You never know what you are going to see while traveling around the state of Michigan. Recently I came across what appears to be an abandoned train near Traverse City, on 31 where it separates from M37.
 I don’t know the story connected to this train, but I know that there is one. All of the [...]

Table Top Art

 I have written about the Green House Café  before, but whenever we visit Traverse City we make it a point to stop there for breakfast and our recent visit to Traverse City was no exception.
 This is probably the first time we have been there so late in the season and I was very surprised at [...]

Sunrise Over the Bay

My wife and I recently traveled to Traverse City on a chilly, cloudy Saturday. It would not have been our first choice of days to go weather-wise, but we had an appointment there that day so really did not have much of a choice. As always, I threw the camera in the car “just in [...]

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