In the News!

They wrote about me!! This morning there was an article in the Traverse City Record Eagle about my career as a documentary filmmaker. I held my breath as I read the article but fortunately the facts were correct. The Traverse City State Theater is showing my half hour documentary, Journey to Joy, this coming Tuesday. Journey to Joy captures the four members of the band, Song of the Lakes, as they prepare for their 25th anniversary concert. You can read more about the documentary on my biz site Real People Media. The clip below is not from my documentary but from the Song of the Lakes concert which will be shown following the film. Come out and enjoy the show!

Time to Tap

I woke up feeling horrible. Contemplating life, love and the pursuit of happiness. The weather started out gray and dreary which made getting out of bed all the harder. Fortunately the clouds lifted and the sun came out in force- melting the snow and actually heating the house through the south facing windows. "Time to tap the trees," I thought. I've been thinking about taping my trees all winter. "This year I'm really going to do it," I said to myself. The challenge was getting all the supplies together- especially on a budget. Last Sunday after church I talked with a couple members of the "Men's Group" responsible for the church's sugar bush operation. Dougherty asked, "Got any maple trees on your property?" "Yes, I said and I'd like to tap some" "Need any spickets? I've got some and some buckets if you need them," he added. So there was my blessing. He delivered 11 buckets and spickets to my door the next day. When I mentioned that I still didn't know how I'd boil all the sap down, he suggested, "Got a turkey fryer?" No, I didn't but my friend Barb did! She received it a year ago for Christmas but hadn't even taken it out of the box. Another blessing. So this afternoon, I and my two dogs, Ollie and Harry headed to the far corner of my six acre backyard to the little grove of old maple trees. The melting snow crunched under our feet as we sank in closer to the earth. As I slowly drilled into each tree and added the spicket the dogs first explored and then sat in the sun next to one very large maple and watched. And I tasted the sap as it came out of each tree to make sure it indeed was a sugar maple. And my body absorbed the sun reflecting off of the snow and the trees. And I listened to the crows and the chickadees calling to their friends, and I felt healed for the day.

Grandma's 100th Birthday

My alarm went off at 7am this morning, but I ignored it. About a half hour later I heard rain against my bedroom window. "Just as they forecasted" I thought to myself. I had intended to leave Charlevoix this morning by 8.am in order to make the 4 hour drive to Pinnebog, Michigan in order to attend my grandma's 100th birthday party. The freezing rain continues and I did not make it to her party but hope to make it to Marshall in the next couple of days. Here's a photo of my grandmother back in 1995. Flossie is 87 and my grandpa is 97 in the photo. The photograph was taken with 400 ASA film and I used a regular light bulb in a flood holder to help light their faces. It is one of my favorite photographs of them. Happy Birthday Grandma!