THE CRACKLE OF THE FIRE

Day is done, almost gone the sun. Big Bass Lake has also retired for the day as nary a ripple of a wave is upon her. At the campfire all you can hear is the crack of the fire with six tired boys around it. 

The Marion Boys Club kids had a rugged windy day At Lake Michigan which even meant wading work. I had made some hot black cherry belly wash which was welcome to all. Suddenly an acorn dropped into Otis mug. Some squirrel had lost it. David giggled asking Otis if he planned to return it. Otis was too tired To argue the point.

Within a half hour all were asleep but Demmie and me. He visited the commode and then it was back to total quiet at the lake. How restful it was.

 

 

CMJ at Sauble River

how many former Camp Martin Johnson campers recall canoe trips on the Sauble River? How far did you canoe? Did you camp out on the side of the river overnight? How many adults and kids went on those trips? How did you like the trips and was the food good? Lots of questions for former campers to answer so please leave a comment to start the discussion.

The Badger Heading Out

What a beautiful picture and it is the Badger leaving Ludington and heading for Wisconsin with a lot of cars and trucks aboard. The Voyage takes about 3 hours in normal weather. It takes a little longer if stormy. For passengers it’s a pleasant three-hour Cruise and many spend it out on Deck. If in the area you might want to try it sometime or even from the Wisconsin side as Lovington is a beautiful tourist town.

Irons Festival

I haven’t mentioned much about Irons, Michigan, on this website thus far. My dad used to tell that in his day it took almost a half day to reach Irons by wagon. From our farm today it takes about ten minutes. I once attended a festival in Irons in mid July that featured a lot of “doings” including a parade. The Manistee Marching band was practicing along the Manistee National Forest and the twosome looked so out of place. The town inself is less than four or five blocks long with no stoplights whatsoever at least in 1992.

Yet the parade was an impressive one for so small a town with the band and sirens and even a float or two.

The big doings were at the park where you can see a lot of that activity in the picture above. In addition the town has a couple of restuarants and two churches. I once knew the sitting priest at the Catholic church who allowed me to play their organ on occassion.

For a small town, they became a big one for this week’s festival. It was similar to how Ludington swells to four times its size on the fourth of July.

The Length of Our Family Field

Pictured here are my older sister Treva, named after our mother, and my youngest sister, Kathy. Even though Kathy is some eight years younger than me our birthdays are one day apart. They are pictured next to a signpost that reads, “Noreika Road” which was our original family name before my father and his brother and sisters changed the name to Norris in the 1940’s. My grandmother kept the original to the day of her death. Our field follows Big Bass Lake Road and extends to The Noreika Road where my two sisters are pictured.

This picture is taken from the dirt road that cuts through the middle of our property. For nearly one-half mile before you is our family farm field. It stretches all the way to that one tree which you can see from our cottage (pictured elsewhere). Somewhere near the middle of this field is a dip that I once thought was in the pattern of a flying saucer. The ground is severely indented and I can’t imagine how that came to be.

That field must have taken in one big crop at one time. It runs along the southwest corner of Big Bass Lake Road. About halfway through the field is another field that is bordered by our forest on each side and by our dirt road. It is apart from this main field. I used to call our family farm our “Ponderosa” cause it was rather large consisting of about 250 acres.

Looking East from the Big Island

I believe this is one angle of the lake that I’ve never had a picture of. This is from the Eastern Shore of the Big Island. Not far over those woods is Bluegill Lake. This would be just north of Grandma’s Hat Island. The Big Bass Lake store it’s just south of the small island. The old ski jump would have been in this area. Not a bad place to live.

Sauble River Outlet

You might have a hard time believing this but this is where the Sauble River empties into Lake Michigan. Not much of a river is it? It looks more like a trickle. About a half-mile up River is the.Hamlin Lake Dam. Sometimes the dam is but a trickle itself holding back the water in Hamlin Lake. At the outlet the water is quite warm. As it empties into Lake Michigan the water becomes quite Cold. But warm or hot or frigid the scenery is outstanding. The outlet is just before the Ludington State Park.