Sun and clouds. A very brief shower. Warm in places, cold in others, with a fire in the stove right now.

M'Chigeeng for some paint. Porch work. Removal of a big balsam that was causing eye sores along the road between us and Donna and Al. Etcetera.

And here is a rough draft of just the first part of the review of the book I just finished, Saving Arcadia. Tomorrow I will plan on posting the complete, edited review.

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Saving Arcadia

Some books are hard to read because it’s impossible to sit still while reading them—they make you want to get up and start doing things. The book Saving Arcadia, by Heather Shumaker, is that kind of book, at least for me. I squirmed in my chair the whole time reading it…wanting to be outside getting stuff done.

Arcadia in this book refers to an area in the state of Michigan, along the Michigan coast, from Frankfort up towards Traverse City, just south of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.

Back in 1969 the biggest energy company in the state, Consumers Power Company, began buying land there.

For local businesses, cottagers, and farmers who called the place home, not selling was not an option—any resistance was met with a bigger offer or the threat of eminent domain; and over a decade or more Consumers ended up owning well over 6,000 acres of lakeshore—giant dunes, forest (hemlock, pine, beech, black cherry, and maple), and dozens of farms which, since first settlement, had been adapted to growing the most suitable crops—sweet and tart cherries, apples, peaches and grapes.

Consumers watned to flood the whole area for a pumped storage hydro plant. But Consumers was not a nice company. Eventually, like its role model Enron, it started doing especially bad things, and eventually the corporation came tumbling down. Consumers Power found itself broke and in court.

That left over 6,000 acres of beautiful Michigan land, and the people who lived and recreated and farmed it pretty much out in left field. "Now what?" everyone wondered.