101 Lakes Livng

101 Lakes living has greater meaning now that we have put the family yacht in at my cousin Cindy's on Jimmerson Lake. Ironically the 1986 Bayliner Capri is identical to the brand new one my buddy Darrell owned and ran on Coldwater Lake in 1986, man we had some fun times on that yacht back in the day. Cruising Jimmerson, James and Snow Lakes last week end was some much needed chill time from the business, we boated to Potowatomi Inn at Pokagon State Park and feasted on the brunch buffet Sunday.

You know you are getting old when it is difficult to get your moneys worth at a buffet and you find yourself floundering after half a plate. I still managed a fresh omelet even the chefs bad jokes did not spoil that delicious treat. We arrived late enough that we enjoyed breakfast and lunch as they brought out fried chicken, pork tenderloin and the salad bar after we had eaten our eggs and fruit. I was disappointed that they did not have any bread pudding one of my favorite local brunch items and of course champagne would have been a nice addition to my orange juice.
The striking swans that populate the channels and calm bays are handsome and seem eager to pose. Their serenity is disturbed easily by perceived threats and they angrily protect their chicks, the beautiful parents and awkward, ugly children.

This house on the channel between James and Jimmerson was completed just before the 4th of July last year. The stellar, glacial stone walls are hand stacked and free standing built by Theresa with a bit of help from one of the guys. The Canadian hemlock trees are the anchor plant that brings down the scale of the house and grounds the deck. The beds are full of shrubs, perennials and a few annuals stuffed with color, texture and form. Snap cut stone steps on both sides of the deck make getting to the lake a breeze.

Seems there are lots more water lily beds on the lakes now then I used to recall, don't know if that is good or bad but it sure makes for some great pictures. I always loved water lilies and have fond memories of snagging them from Crooked Lake while my sister Cass rowed us about. We would take them into Gramp's cottage and float them in bowls of water for our mom. The lakes ripples, colors and shadows made for some interesting shots last Sunday.

My favorite photo of the day has got to be these dragonflies. The way they seemed trapped between water and sky as the clouds are reflected against the water, wow. Take a thousand photo's and maybe you get one that really turns you on, what a great surprise .

Baker, MVP

Continuing to profile Millgrove employees, meet Gary Baker man of many talents and a great addition to our workforce. Having someone in house who is very capable with a wrench has saved us lots of money on truck and equipment repair and maintenance. The first thing you hear when something breaks is, "ask Baker or see if Baker can fix it," he is often inventive with quick fixes but knows how to fix things for the long haul as well. Gary has virtually performed in every parameter; installing hardscape, greenscape, doing maintenance, building, wiring, painting, heavy and light equipment operation.

Gary is local from Orland which is only four miles west of our shop, I really like the idea of being able to provide employment for those close by and who grew up in this area. Gary and I are further associated as I worked with his brother , Roger in my Garden Shed days. I know his family and employed his nephew a couple of years ago Roger's son Kenny who I had last seen when he was about six. I nicknamed him Bug and it was such a perfect name, unfortunately Bug and I severed ties when he nearly ran me over. But Uncle Gary gets my Millgrove MVP for his versatility, hustle, knowledge, broad grin and never give up attitude.

Great Blooms, New Brooms & Post 31

Some of the jobs we worked on earlier are coming to life with extra vigor provided by the excessive rain and heat of this spring. May we had double the amount of normal rainfall and by June 5th we had already reached our June average. The warm nights are especially good for germinating grass seed, a new lawn we installed on Lake James in late April has already been mowed three times. Lots of blooms are showing from knock out roses to coreopsis , my favorite annual Victoria blue salvia and the Endless Summer hydrangea are especially outstanding.
We have hired two new employees a man with extensive hardscape experience and a woman who was a waitress for the last 17 years, the women said the magic words, "I like to weed," during the interview, she does and she is good at it. Robert, the new guy uses PVC to screed off of for paver installation, I am anxious to see if that method is more efficient or not we always use a 2 x 4", notched and cut to length.


This past week I have been working on a quote and drawing for the Angola American Legion Post 31 the site, building design, ability to water plants post installation and need for low maintenance landscaping make my job more challenging. This long building is set back from the parking lot as much as 23' on one end and only 10 on the other, the foundation is surrounded on two sides by coarse limestone a few inches thick which meets up with the parking lot. It screams, " I need green." There are also some unsightly a/c units on the roof that need to be camouflaged and the vinyl fence that hides some other units needs softened up with some shrubs.
My thoughts were to create some height, hide the less attractive features and remove all the limestone using turf separation on the 23' bed. By the way the parking lot is also from 14-17" higher than the building so we have a unique opportunity to beef up the existing rip rap drainage with a glacial stone dry creek bed, might actually see some water when it rains heavy. For the height I want three columnar oaks two on the left side and one on the right side of the entrance. Boxwoods under the trees left with dwarf zebra grass on the south end. On the north side hostas under the oak, a line of hicksi yews in front of the fence, a Bloodgood Japanese maple with boxwood under plantings. Repeat some taller grasses before using 7 large Chicago Luster viburnum to hide the tan pole building. The sculpted lawn in front of the wide side will provide some much needed curb appeal.

Of course I am in the bidding process currently and a long way from contract signing. Generally when I am dealing with an organization such as the Legion I find it takes a little longer to get a consensus of opinion, often there are committees that need to meet and lots of discussion before jumping into a big project like this. In addition to the foundation planting this Post would like a retaining wall on the north end of the west side of the building. They have also requested a quote for a sign that lays on a hill which can be read from the highway, announcing the post number and name. For that I have contacted Andy who has a graphic sign business in Fremont, he is putting together some numbers for the three foot tall letters, we are providing a quote for the concrete footer the letters will require. I will keep you updated on the status of this project, wish me luck.


Caught this deer munching my flowers yesterday, bad deer.

A Wonderful Place To Work

My plan was to interview all of the employees this year but three temporaries have already come and gone. This young man is new with the company, his name is Darrick Brown and he volunteered to go first, ask him if you happen to see him. We have high hopes for Darrick and of course a sweet spot since like Bruce and myself he is a Purdue grad. By the way all comments are purely unscripted. And I agree with just about all of Darrick's remarks.

Rest in Peace

The killdeer eggs are gone and no sign of papa and mama bird not even a eggshell left behind. Suspicion rests with a predator, I am thinking that it was likely a raccoon since all the eggs are gone and one of our flags was missing as well. Daisy (the cat) is the main killer of small critters here but I do not think this is her work.

A small company such as mine is affected more easily and with greater impact by events beyond our control. For example inter company romance that does not work out can result in personnel turn over (happened), lame brained three wheeling on the weekend can result in busted up key employees being off for a month (happened just recently), employees of seven years get cancer and die within a matter of months (happened in08') and people have accidents. A week ago Friday one of our long term employees was in an automobile accident and had to be life flighted via helicopter to Parkview hospital in Fort Wayne he is at home now recovering but his passenger was not so lucky, she was killed. This tragedy has had a deep impact on everyone both here at Millgrove and the small community of Orland where the women lived. Our thoughts and condolences to the family.When we were not thinking or talking about the accident this week we managed to complete a couple of jobs, start a new one and even get some extra work done at the shop (I hired a new yard person). I interviewed a gentlemen who I am going to call today and offer a job, I hope he agrees to come to work tomorrow.

Peace Lutheran Church you might recall from an earlier blog entry called Holy Smoke. Fire caused by a electrical short in a neon lit huge cross on the building dropped sparks onto leaves which caught the shrubs and building on fire around Easter. The siding has been repaired, the cross rehung and the landscaping replaced by us.
About ten years ago we landscaped the first big new addition Peace put on and that landscaping has matured nicely. Since our first installation they have added a Family Center building which houses a day care operation among other things. While we were replacing the material damaged in the fire they asked that we bid on new landscaping for their addition. We got the job and installed the design this week. These photo' s show the work of the past and most recent additions. I still like the old design and think that it looks good although better maintenance through the years would have benefited the plant material. It is a bit heavy on boxwoods but they are also the shrubs that look the best. The three new pyramidal boxwoods look great under the cross and the wave of hostas is easy on the eyes. We also did some touch up on a bed the parishioners installed and transplanted two of their dwarf lilacs to a more suitable location.

Generally we do not plant flowers in stone but to cut down on weeding we ran landscape fabric (Dewitt ProV is my favorite), slipped the hosta in a pre-cut opening, ran soaker hose and top dressed with number 8 river wash stone (glacial small stone, quarried locally), looks good and easy care. This church has a lot of square footage of landscape beds and anything we can do to make it easier sure helps. We also redid the lawn around the addition, construction sure takes its toll on grass.

Specimens, Gates & Blooms

This is a specimen weeping Norway spruce located at Trelan Nursery in Roanoke has been one of my favorites for years. I often quipped to the owners when they wanted to remove it I would be happy to take it off their hands. Specimen trees or shrubs are often the result of mans intervention of mother nature as they are frequently hybrids or grafted plants. The reaction to many specimens typically is people either love them or hate them. This particular spruce is fascinating to me and reminds me of wicked trees that chased kids in the cartoons of my youth. It evokes wonderful imagery. Other specimens would include pom poms, poodle, topiary and assorted dwarf evergreens. Deciduous plants are morphed by breeders also, they are often put on standards (tree forms) like lilacs, viburnums, pea shrubs even cotoneasters but most often deciduous shrubs are bred for bigger flowers, color variation or size changes.


Driving the back roads from our job on Devil's Lake I spotted this iron entrance to a property set back off the road, it gives a different meaning to the term "gated community". The moniker is Ghost Riders Motorcycle Club, note the lantern holding jockeys. This area is not far from where the FBI recently foiled a alleged conspiracy by the Michigan Militia.

This natural tree entrance I photographed on the northeast shore of Coldwater Lake was a bit cowboy for my tastes but fit perfectly at the horse stable it guarded. When we first bought our property there was a lovely livestock gate across the lane it was both inconvenient and ugly but did serve to detract strangers from entry. I have been on the look out for some thing cool to ad at my entrance and preferably something free but so far it remains naked.

Siberian iris are in bloom, their delicate clear blue flowers are bountiful and make a terrific cut flower. The hummingbirds have returned with the installation of feeders and the hanging baskets of dragon wing begonias. It is quite a thrill when they dive bomb your chair as they greedily attack the feeders. Watching the aerobatics between these territorial little beauties is a great way to unwind at the end of the day.

It surprised me to get this picture of these three deer since I had to stick my head out the sunroof of my girlfriends vintage VW bug as we tooled off for breakfast last Sunday morning. They jumped the fence in front of them but that was the picture that got away.

Killdeer Protects Nest

The killdeer bird couple are a new critter for us, having nested in such a heavy traffic area we can not help but be amused by their antics. I have observed this species nesting before but never on a daily basis. After a while their song loses some of its musicality and hovers between a piercing shriek and fingernails on the chalkboard. These birds definitely get your attention. In order to protect this pair from being crushed by our vehicles we flagged the nest. I wonder if that draws attention from other potential predators. Building your nest on the ground in the open does not seem like a optimal strategy for procreation if you ask me.

Killdeer mate for one to several years. They use their wings to scrape out a small depression in soft dirt, sand or gravel often adding bits of other materials. Both the male and female sit on the nest protecting the precious eggs from weather and predation. When the parents perceive a threat to their eggs they begin high pitched vocalizations, hop off the nest and drag a wing while twirling in circles of near collapse in an effort to draw potential diners away from their babies and onto themselves. Such behavior is both effective and entertaining for us humans, my dogs have recently taken to killdeer patrolling as she is just beyond the limit of their invisible fence.