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April 27, 2023–My family hosted a Celebration of Life service this past Sunday at the Leland Lodge for Steph’s father, Jon Graber, who passed away recently from cancer. The Lodge is surrounded by a lake and golf course, two of Jon’s favorite things, which seemed the loving theme of many of the stories shared. As the …
April 20,2023–The weather is back this week to normal April and the only one that is really happy with this wet, gusty cold is Sonny. To a degree, Colebrook and Hawthorn, love taking advantage of the bad weather canceling tennis and track events to go deep into the Shutz woods to build mountain bike trails. …
April 14, 2023–This was as Michigan-y a stretch of weather contrasts as I can remember. On Friday night, I spent the night sleeping outside under the stars at a friend’s property adjacent to the park. My brother was with me, and we talked the night away and headed to sleep just as the moon began …
April 7, 2023 — Wednesday was as whirly of a weather day as Northern Michigan has had in a long time. We woke in the morning to an alarm clock of thunder and rain thick as sheets. I walked Sonny later that morning through a water-soaked world where every branch and bush glistened with water …
March 31, 2023 — If St. Augustine has been anything, it has been relaxing. After a busy winter up north, we needed some sweet southern idle time. And so, we’ve slept in till the encroaching sun has turned our rooms into ovens, and layed out to feel the cool ocean breezes battle the warm midday …
March 23, 2023 — March and April are the months Northern Michigan travels. We’ve been on a bike trip, a ski trip, and tonight Colebrook, Hawthorn, Sonny and I drive south to meet Steph down in St. Augustine, FL, for a swimming trip. Coming out of the pandemic, our family has no natural rhythm to …
March 2023 — It is March 15 and this mild winter still has a firm grip on the north. It’s certainly March and we are seeing more sun and the days are longer, but the lakes and land and beach are still frozen. And over these last days, even with lots of sun, snow dominates …
March 10, 2023 — When I came home from work last night, Colebrook and Hawthorn were loaded up with their skis standing in the driveway. I barely got my truck into park before the boys were piling equipment into the bed. While I went inside for skis, the boys waited in my truck for a …
On Saturday morning Hawthorn and I went backcountry skiing and we parked where the snow plow stops his route on Basch road. I wanted this to go perfectly for Hawthorn so I took him to a steep, long forgotten cow pasture where the trees are slowly taking over. It’s gorgeous. It’s wind protected. And it …
February 24, 2023 — It’s Thursday morning and Colebrook and Hawthorn are sleeping in, thanks to a snow day based more on a missed prediction of a giant storm than the limited actual snow we received. We received a decent four inches of powder and every window, tree and nook in these northern woods are …
