Category: Home Ownership

Oh, The Driveway

This year, I am making a point to keep the lower half of the driveway very clear by shoveling any snowfall and sanding and salting. I have boxes of salt and sand placed along the driveway in three spots, to minimize the back-and-forth walking up and down the steep hill. I have also put my old Maxwell House blue plastic coffee canisters to work by using them as scoops. The older model canisters work better because the handle was separated from the body and not just indentations.

As the temperature grows colder, I am having a problem with my sand. Instead of nice granular sand – sand-sand – so to speak, I have large chunks of sand the shape of my boxes. The canisters do nothing to break-up them, and my gloved hands (and puny biceps) can’t punch through them. Thus, I’m left to dump the entire box on the driveway and stomp on it, then disperse some of the sand and rearrange the remaining chunks back in the box.

Short of keeping the sand at garage-temperature, is there a way to prevent it from bricking-up?

The salt is fine, but I try to use less of that than the sand. The other thing about the boxes of sand are that if you’re not careful, they can go shooting off like a self-propelled ground rocket. I was chasing one this morning.

Weekend of Leaves and Golf

I find it funny how my plans for a Saturday never play out as I write them down. This Saturday, I was going to sort some paper, play nine holes of golf, rake, and do some work. Instead, I ended up raking for three hours, going on a hike at Misty Acres down near Frankfort, MI with dad and Katy, and then raking some more.

After we cleaned the leaves off of the entire driveway, Lindsey and I went to the Old Mission Tavern for a nice meal. We tried to use a 50% off your second dinner coupon, but the (excellent) waitress informed us it wasn’t good until November. Woops! The bread and salads were excellent, regardless. Lindsey wasn’t crazy about her prime rib, but I liked my parmesan-crusted whitefish. What made the evening, however, was running in to my golf coach from the University of Michigan, Jim Carras. I had not seen him since 2002 or 2003, when I was a Junior in college. He was up with friends visiting the area.

Sunday morning was spent eating pancakes and trimming some pine trees on the south side of the driveway. I am bushwacking all throughout the developed areas of our property in an effort to recover some of what I perceive to be areas and views lost to overgrowth permitted by prior owners.

I played in the Big Hole Golf Event at the Grand Traverse Resort on Sunday afternoon with Ben Orr and Chris Day. This is an event where they cut 10 inch (instead of 4.25 inch) holes in all of the greens. It was fun, but we still couldn’t make a putt!

The Tigers completed getting swept for the second time in the World Series. Not sure what the problem is there. Would have been fun to see them win, but I’m not a huge baseball fan. Lions won. Woop-de-do. Until next weekend, have a good week.

Summer 2012

Summer is in full swing. It’s July 4th already, and the weather has been cooperating. I’m writing this post from our deck at 7:20 p.m. and it’s about 84 degrees. One of the expected benefits of the new house has been the beach access. Last year we only swam in the bay once or twice the entire summer. We’ve been in the water every day this week. Our beach is rocky for about 150 yards, so rock-socks are recommended. But then, just before the floating raft, the lake floor turns to sand.

We’ve bought a dog cable that can be screwed into the sand, so that Yogi can lounge in the shallow water while we swim out and jump from the raft. He enjoys the chance to cool off and doesn’t miss us too much!

One of my favorite things to do, once I’ve acclimated to the water temperature, is to swim low along the bottom of the deeper water – at the bottom of seven feet or so. The water is much cooler down there, and even more refreshing on these hot summer days.

Earlier today, we drove up to Leland to shop around. Mom and dad met us for lunch and to watch the parade pass. There were amphibious cars in the parade, and Lindsey commented that she’d love to see them go in the water. Well, as luck would have it, as we were walking back to the car past the Bluebird restaurant, four of the amphibious cars were driving into the river and motor-boat-caring around. It was very cool!

Happy 4th of July to all of our friends and family, and we hope that you’re having as wonderful of a summer as we are!

The DDD Day 1: Welcome to the Double Dogleg Daily

Introduction

Good Evening and welcome to the Double Dogleg Daily. Writing daily is a goal for 2012, and this daily email newsletter is one way to accomplish that. While the Daily may evolve between now and December 31st, I expect to include an interesting hyperlink and a look at the most recent 24-hour’s news from our hillside. Also, I promise to keep it short, but cannot promise that it will always (or ever) be pithy. I’m just not that interesting.

The History of the Double Dogleg

We have nicknamed our new house the “Double Dogleg.” If you are not an avid golfer, a double dogleg is golf hole that has two bends. For example, it would curve to the right from the teeing ground to the landing area and then curve to the left from there to the green. These are rare and can be challenging. Like a double dogleg golf hole, our driveway turns left and then right as you ascend to the house. We’ll see if the name sticks!

Lately, I’ve wanted to erect a ranch sign over the driveway. However, it does not look like this is permissible per the Peninsula Township Zoning Ordinance. Instead, we can install what is termed a “name plate” sign. The maximum height is four feet and max square footage for the sign is three square feet. So, come summer, when you’re driving E Shore Rd, you can look for the “Double Dogleg” sign and both know it is us and know what it means.

Happy New Year 2012!