Aldo Leopold-style bench under the spreading willow tree on Guyer Creek, Verdant Ground. The bench is not a present. Sitting on the bench is a present.
Yesterday I delivered an Aldo Leopold-style bench to Verdant Ground so that I will have something to sit on while I watch Sue Swain and Shirley Johns renovate the guest cabin on the property. I have a particular interest in this enterprise.
1. This is the land where Grace Hooper was born.
I told you a little about Grace back in 2012: One day Shirley Johns showed me how her house enfolds the log cabin where Grace Guyer Hooper grew up. It’s not the same cabin where her father Thomas Guyer grew up, along with his brothers Theo and Herman, but it’s on the same land . . . . The Pioneer Road climbs the ridge behind the house, rocking along over axle-breaking boulders just as it did a century and a half ago when horsepower came with hooves.
Grace Guyer Hooper (1888-1984) knew the Civil War veterans I haul around with me wherever I go. She grew up listening to their stories, wrote their obituaries for the Central Lake Torch, walked the back roads wrapped in a long cloak gathering the details of their lives, always hoping to write a book. Nora Metz says Grace was no kind of housekeeper at all. Betty Beeby says she was an inspired eccentric. The Cowboy says she reminds him of someone he knows.
Grace was the storycatcher of Antrim County. The book she hoped to write was published after her death as Grace Hooper’s Pioneer Notes. The tales about her father and his brothers became the beloved Whistle Up the Bay by Nancy Stone and Betty Beeby.
If you would like to claim your very own copy of either Whistle Up the Bay or Pioneer Notes, read on.
Whistle Up the Bay (Nancy Stone and Betty Beeby) and Grace Hooper’s Pioneer Notes. The presents will be nice new copies, not these, which are my beloved and somewhat dog-eared copies.
2. I might find myself staying in the guest cottage at Verdant Ground for a few weeks while my house is up on stilts.
The Writing Studio and Bait Shop is long overdue for fluffing up. I have major renovations in mind, and Miss Sadie, the Cowboy and I are not going to live there while they’re going on. Fortunately, Sue and Shirley think having us camp out at Verdant Ground is a fine idea. That is a different post entirely, and I will tell you all about it in due course.
If you would like to drop by to visit me at the guest cottage at Verdant Ground, and sit on the Aldo Leopold-style bench I built with my own hands–and a lot of help from some friends–read on.
Verdant Ground Guest Cottage, Before. The cottage is not the present. Staying at the renovated cottage is the present.
3. Sue and Shirley fed me.
Last year I was pretty sick for awhile. All my family and other friends were keeping me upright and hopeful and offering to do anything, what did I need? Sue and Shirley cut to the chase. “We will feed you!” they said.
They fed me and my sister Mary, the New York Farmer, and visiting firefighters. There were quantities of excellent treats from Verdant Ground: heirloom beans and tomatoes, squash, kale, beets, and hand-crafted meals. (That means home-cooked; I’m trying to learn to write like a foodie.)
The least I can do is to write this post.
If you would like to claim your very own pound of heirloom beans, read on.
Another present choice, a pound of Cherokee Black Beans. Not these very beans, these are mine. But you can have some just like them from this year’s crop.
I’m writing today with an ulterior motive.
Sue and Shirley have an Indiegogo campaign going to fund materials for the renovation of their guest cabin. When the guest cabin is all shipshape, they will be able to generate a little extra income and/or house the folks who spend part of each year helping them keep Verdant Ground going.
You can read all about Sue and Shirley’s campaign at Verdant Ground Cottage Project. (Please note: The campaign has nothing to do with the renovations at the Writing Studio and Bait Shop, which are fully funded by the cashing in of the Cowboy’s retirement account. Miss Sadie, the Cowboy and I are Funders of Sue and Shirley’s project, along with several dozen other people so far.)
There are presents for Funders, like the ones I described above. If you would like to help, you can pick your present and then go to the Paypal part. If you mess it up you can just send me a note and we’ll figure it out. (I say this because I messed it up and didn’t mark my present so I know how that can happen.)
You can come sit on the bench with me even if you don’t become one of the Funders, but you’ll have to brush the Cowboy.
If you want to learn more about Verdant Ground, you might like these posts:
Torch Lake Views 
dawnkinster
April 28, 2016
I will go read about their project. I am glad you are getting your project done too.
Gerry
April 28, 2016
Well, the RFPs are out. We will see whether we are able to get a contractor to commit to doing the job this season.
shoreacres
April 28, 2016
Those beans look mighty tasty. I do love black beans. And what a neat way to fund such a commendable project. But I have to ask: what makes your bench an Aldo Leopold bench? Looking at it, I realized it’s almost an exact duplicate of the benches that are tucked here and there in one of our nature centers. Can it be that we have experienced northern influence without realizing it?
I must say, if you have to establish yourself elsewhere for a time, it looks like you have an excellent place there. And in spring, too. I suppose that makes sense. Up there, you probably don’t have much winter construction.
Gerry
April 28, 2016
I have a Bench post in the works – here’s a link to hold you: http://www.aldoleopold.org/AldoLeopold/LeopoldEvents.shtml
It would not surprise me a bit if your nature center thought of its benches as Aldo Leopold-style benches. Aldo was a universal kind of guy.
We have no exterior winter construction. The last time I had the house reroofed the shingles were delivered in October, it snowed on Halloween, and we did not see the roof again until April.
Martha
April 29, 2016
“Hand crafted meals”. Oh my. Must be a knee-jerk reaction to the concept of “home”.
Congratulations on the green and growing happiness surrounding you. You deserve it. I’m very curious what renovations you will be having at your studio!
Gerry
April 30, 2016
I am rather curious about those renovations myself. I will keep you apprised!
Andi
April 30, 2016
Having never heard of Aldo and after going to your link, I had to Google him! Now I want to sit on your bench! Good luck to all three of you!
Gerry
April 30, 2016
I will lend you one of my copies of Sand County Almanac. You can sit on my bench to read it!
Kathy
May 10, 2016
The bench looks like a cozy place to sit, and I like the name Verdant Ground. Sounds luxuriously green and I am in love with all the green appearing this time of year. Headed downstate tomorrow so will get to see even more. Speaking of renovations, we are getting our roof re-shingled this summer. It’s a costly project, but overdue. Maybe new siding next year. But we also need a new car…or two…
WOL
May 10, 2016
The Writing Studio and Bait Shop getting fluffed up! (I’ve been out of pocket lately which is why this reply is late.) Any adjustment in the status quo of the habitat is always an adventure. Hope it is one of those adventures that is not too exciting and not too harrowing and that rounds off with good times and happily ever afters.