While Waiting for Estimates

I spent most of the past week at Presque Isle, talking with one builder and getting lines on others.  Having this project re-bid has slowed the process to a crawl.  However, this visit gave me an opportunity to show the building site to Susan and John Feeney who are vacationing this week at Camp Chickagami.  The lake view below is approximately what I will see from my living room.  Someday.

Just down Kauffman Boulevard from my home site is the Presque Isle Township Cemetery.  Over the years I've spent a lot of time in cemeteries!  This one is unique in my experience, because the Township allows plots to be outlined, and sometimes even raised above grade.  Many modern corporation-operated cemeteries prohibit traditional headstones or anything else which rises more than an inch above grade because such monuments to the dearly departed complicate lawn care.

Mildred "Midge" Kauffman, from whom I bought my property in 1986, is buried here.  Nearby is the grave of Levi Thornton who died at age 12.  He was one of the first people buried here.  In the 1850s northern Michigan was mostly wilderness, far from even the primitive medical care of that day.  Sadly, accident and illness claimed many children.

On Tuesday I visited the 1905 House (below, in foreground) at the New Presque Isle Light Station.  Now a museum, this structure was built in 1905 when the original Keeper's House next door was deemed too crowded because it housed four families numbering 19 adults and children!  The recent decision to restore the lake view from the 1905 House's porch has gotten some Township residents up in arms.  However, it was on his porch that the light keeper would sit with a spyglass to identify passing ships.  Then, if a particular vessel failed to reach its destination, searchers would have some idea where to look for survivors, if any. •••