We got our start in the land 'business' when we visited a friend of ours at their place on Lake Augustina. After several visits with them, we found that having a 'getaway' to the north was something we wanted, so we set out to find some 'dirt'. Our thought was to find some acreage, wooded, with maybe some water or a stream nearby.

So in the summer of 1997, we looked high and low with no success, but leave it to Carol to find a 2 line ad in the Detroit News that was offering 10 acre parcels. Too small to be of any fun, we thought, but we called anyway to get an idea of the price.

We talked with the owner, Larry, about the parcels; not really interested in the 10's, we asked about something bigger! I had assumed the 10 acre parcels were scattered about Upper Michigan, but we found that the ad was referring to a 160 acre (1/4 section) piece that was parceled out into 20+ contiguous lots, and that only 20 acres of the 160 acres had been purchased! The thing we were really excited about was that there was a lake on the property - finally 'lake' frontage!

We loaded up the car and blasted north to see this place, not sure of what to expect. We crested the first hill to find a stunning view, and there it was, Bloom Lake, a 6 or 7 acre lake covered with blooming white water lilies. We walked the property from front to back and fell in love - It was the middle of July and we had to have it!

We found that the "lake" was really shallow, and that there was no fish in the lake. The plantation red pines on the property were heavily thinned a few years ago, and electricity was more that a 1/2 mile away. But, hey, we can fix up the lake, stock it with fish, the trees will grow back, and we have a generator. We'll take it!

In my usual style, I looked into the purchase price to see if it was a deal; the mineral rights to see if there were any problems; land contracts to find about them, and last but most important lake cleanup. By the time all of this "research" was done, 2 more of the 10 acre parcels were gone. By now it was the end of August, and we decided we had better move on this, so Carol and I packed up my truck with enough for a week and drove to meet Larry up north on the property for the day.

So in the middle of August, 1997 we signed for the remaining 120 of the original 160 acres, setup the terms of the land contract, wrote the deposit check, then went to town to find a notary. When we returned to the lake we found a high spot on the east shore and set up our tent for the night. Carol and I (Nikki, too) cooked our foil dinners over the fire, drank our 'JD and Coke' from a 2 liter and generally enjoyed the cool night.

It was a noisy night with all of the animals moving around. They were cleaning up our dinner scraps and checking out the new owners. In the early morning it started raining, so the smarter one of the group said, "Hey, Paul, let's go out to breakfast"! With only a tent, staying on the 'property' was tough, so we didn't spend a lot of time there the rest of that year.

Our plan was to find a small camper to tow up and leave there. In the spring, we found a 24-foot self contained travel trailer that looked like it was in good shape. When we got the thing home, of course, our "good deal" did not seem so good after all. The water pipes had frozen over the past few winters, and what was left of them had a bad rust problem clogging up everything.

So we ripped out all of the galvanized plumbing and replaced it with copper pipe, then cleaned out the fresh water pump and all of the faucets. The furnace was clogged with, I don't even know what, so we ripped that out too, disassembling the whole thing, cleaning the burner, repairing the igniter, oiling the fan, fixing a few frayed wires. Next on the list was the 3-way refrigerator. It would not work on gas or 12v, only 120 AC.

I played with the burner for a while, cleaning out the years of mud dauber nests that had accumulated. We finally got it to work on propane, and decided that was enough for us. With all of the repairs made we just had to clean er' up, and we were ready to tow it up! This allowed us to be self-contained with a shower, toilet, refrigerator, stove and oven, sink with hot and cold running water! Just like home. We ran off of propane tanks for heat and cold, and a deep cycle marine battery for lights and the water pump, and this allowed us to stay in style.

Now comes the tricky part - if you have property you MUST have a bulldozer. And if have a dozer you need a pole barn, and to build a pole barn you need a dozer - follow me on this one? So in the spring of 1998 we found a dozer that was in good shape and cheap, too (remember the good deal story). She only needed some cleanup, right! Okay, this one was a good deal, but it did need a new turbocharger, a new seat, a few mechanical things, and some wiring work done. When all was said and done, it turned out to be a really nice little machine.

Next was the pole- barn. This was a logistics nightmare, trying to get the dozer, the cement for the posts, the wood and the postholes (someway to dig 'em) to all show up and in the right order during the 5 days I had planned to be there. We found a ride for the dozer with a local trucking guy running a light load up north on a Saturday morning (saved $$ there). Later that day, I flattened a rolling meadow with the dozer, but ran out of fuel. While in town filling my cans, I found a local farmer willing to dig the holes for me the next day (Sunday). This saved me the work and was cheaper than renting the equipment on Monday morning.

I called the cement company on Monday to get a truck early (due to the luck with the holes). They moved me up to 1 o'clock, but the truck didn't find me till 2:00 P.M.. The cement was 'smokin hot' from all of the rolling around on the truck. With the cement so hot, I only had a few minutes to work it level in the bottom of the holes. This was good, because it only took 3 hours (long enough to get an ice cream in town) to setup hard enough to put the posts on. This put me a day ahead of schedule!

Next was the framework for the polebarn - lots of hammering (no power tools here!). Then came the trusses for the roof. Alone, I set all 11 trusses in 2 days. I was ready to go home after that! We went back up for the Fourth of July vacation, and I enlisted some help from my mom, dad and Carol to help hang the steel sheeting for the roof. I went back up a few more days to finish the walls and to build the door and to finally park the dozer inside!

While Carol was up north, she decided to look for a "real" lake to have frontage on. This search finally lead her to Lake Sapphire. So we ended up looking at that too, but that's another whole story in itself.

With all that finished, we had the foothold we needed to now do some work on the lake, All that we needed was a way to do it. We researched into methods of cleaning an existing lake and found the only acceptable method, short of draining the lake, was the hydraulic dredge. The search for the dredge has started!

By chance, Carol found a dredge close to our house, We contacted the manufacturer, IMSI, but new they cost about $150,000, so we needed a used one. IMSI called back in November of '98' with a used Mudcat MC10 they took in on trade. Carol and I drove the 6 hours to the Ohio River Valley to look at it. We inked a deal that included everything we need to dredge including shipping to Michigan! She arrived on January 8th of '99' at a storage yard in Detroit.The rebuild will begin in the spring!