Category: Home Ownership

The sun and warmth of summer has finally returned to Traverse City, after leaving us in the cold for much of late July and early August.

On Friday evening, Lindsey, Harvey and I watched the “Derby,” which is sort of a fun tournament within another fun tournament known as the “August Invitational”, a/k/a the “Men’s Member-Guest. The top ten members are paired with the top ten guests (1 with 10, 9 with 2, etc.). They then play four holes of alternate shot format until a winning team is determined. Betting is permitted and hors d’oeuvres are served. Harvey fell asleep for the last two holes – he was sound asleep when I took the photo below.

On Saturday, Lindsey helped me pile up the hundreds of saplings that I felled earlier this summer. The southern side of the lower driveway is cleaning up nicely. A little raking and additional trimming and we’ll be right where I wanted to be at the end of summer.

We also patched some of the driveway, which was far easier than anticipated. What remains to be seen is whether it will stand the test of fall and winter (think snowblower scraping over and over!).

And I will leave you with a quick shot of one of my favorite parts of our property in the morning – the hillside next to the upper driveway where the soft orange of the sun peeks through the canopy and scatters itself upon the leafy forest floor.

I spent several hours earlier this summer clearing saplings and other overgrowth from the southeastern portion of our lot, which is located closed to East Shore Road. The area is low-lying and has been taken over by poison ivy. I can only imagine that it was once a nice looking portion of the property, but had become a dense unused space.

I started with a handheld saw and pruning shears. A bug-bite that sent me to the doctor, three bouts with poison ivy, and an achy back later, I’ve made some headway. It is much thinner from the side as you drive into and out of the Double Dogleg. However, I still need to improve the view from the living room down to the lake. That will take some additional work – and perhaps a crew to eliminate some of the larger, dead trees.

The next step is to either remove or chip the felled trees.

I’ve been waiting to get this shot for some time now. Photo credit goes to my valentine, Lindsey. The temperature was 34 degrees, so the snow was heavy today. I had to snow blow on the number 2 setting. Makes for a slow trip up and down.

Eight hours later, when I finished, we went to Don’s Drive In for a romantic last meal as just the two of us.

Happy Valentine’s Day. Lindsey and I built the above shelves as our gift for each other this year. Very simple, and I am fairly confident that they will remain attached to the wall. Enjoy some chocolate, flowers, and shelves today!!

About seven inches of snow fell last night, which gave me an opportunity to snow blow this morning. It takes six trips up and down the driveway with the snow blower to clear a path wide enough for a car to pass. Between the clearing of the snow and the salting of the hill, the whole process takes me about 1.25 hours – usually from 6:15am to 7:30am. I thoroughly enjoy doing this – at least so far. Perhaps, because it is so much easier than shoveling the whole darn thing. And there is great satisfaction in seeing the clean-cut walls of snow along the edge of the driveway.

Today marks the end of the first month of 2013, which passed quickly. Where did the time go?

• Ringing in the New Year with the Cherry Ball drop
• Playing ping-pong with Zack Fivenson
• Good news passing of two more Baby Rogers doctors appointments
• Tasty chili at the downtown chili cook-off
• Golden Globe beandip with Mom, Dad, and Katy
• Dinner with the Jeffries
• Dinner and play with Dan and Peg
• Vegan or vegetarian dinner with Katy
• Inauguration of President Obama
• Estate Planning seminar with Dad
• Chamber Dinner
• Lunch with G’ma and G’pa Lanham

And the other (exciting) news . . . our herb plants from mom and dad are sprouting! See the picture below.

On to February, the month of Black history and Valentine’s Day love.

We did some bush whacking this morning to clear a sledding chute down the back of the Double Dogleg. Here’s a couple videos of me testing it out.

Take Two:

Now we just need some more snow to cover up the leaves.