Podcasts about Pine Mountain

This podcast hit paid subscribers' inboxes on Oct. 17. It dropped for free subscribers on Oct. 24. To receive future episodes as soon as they're live, and to support independent ski journalism, please consider an upgrade to a paid subscription. You can also subscribe to the free tier below:When we recorded this podcast, Norway Mountain's adult season pass rates were set at $289. They have since increased by $100, but Hoppe is offering a $100 discount with the code “storm” through Nov. 1, 2024.WhoJustin Hoppe, Owner of Norway Mountain, MichiganRecorded onSeptember 16, 2024About Norway MountainOwned by: Justin HoppeLocated in: Norway, MichiganYear founded: Around 1974, as Norvul ski area; then Vulcan USA; then Briar Mountain; then Mont Brier; and finally Norway Mountain from ~1993 to 2012; then from 2014 to 2017; re-opened 2024Pass affiliations: Freedom Pass – 3 days each at these ski areas:Closest neighboring ski areas: Pine Mountain (:22), Keyes Peak (:35), Crystella (:46), Gladstone (:59), Ski Brule (1:04)Base elevation: 835 feetSummit elevation: 1,335 feetVertical drop: 500 feetSkiable Acres: 186Average annual snowfall: 50 inchesTrail count: 15Lift count: 6 (1 triple, 2 doubles, 3 handle tows)The map above is what Norway currently displays on its website. Here's a 2007 map that's substantively the same, but with higher resolution:View historic Norway Mountain trailmaps on skimap.org.Why I interviewed himWhat a noble act: to resurrect a dead ski area. I'll acknowledge that a ski area is just a business. But it's also a (usually) irreplaceable community asset, an organ without which the body can live but does not function quite right. We read about factories closing up and towns dying along with them. This is because the jobs leave, yes, but there's an identity piece too. As General Motors pulled out of Saginaw and Flint in the 1980s and ‘90s, I watched, from a small town nearby, those places lose a part of their essence, their swagger and character. People were proud to have a GM factory in town, to have a GM job with a good wage, to be a piece of a global something that everyone knew about.Something less profound but similar happens when a ski area shuts down. I've written before about Apple Mountain, the 200-vertical-foot bump in Freeland, Michigan where I spent my second-ever day on skis:[Apple Mountain] has been closed since 2017. Something about the snowmaking system that's either too hard or too expensive to fix. That leaves Michigan's Tri-Cities – Midland, Bay City, and Saginaw, with a total metro population approaching 400,000 – with no functioning ski area. Snow Snake is only about 40 minutes north of Midland, and Mt. Holly is less than an hour south of Saginaw. But Apple Mountain, tucked into the backwoods behind Freeland, sat dead in the middle of the triangle. It was accessible to almost any schoolkid, and, humble as it was, stoked that fire for thousands of what became lifelong skiers.What skiing has lost without Apple Mountain is impossible to calculate. I would argue that it was one of the more important ski areas anywhere. Winters in mid-Michigan are long, cold, snowy, and dull. People need something to do. But skiing is not an obvious solution: this is the flattest place you can imagine. To have skiing – any skiing – in the region was a joy and a novelty. There was no redundancy, no competing ski center. And so the place was impossibly busy at all times, minting skiers who would go off to start ski newsletters and run huge resorts on the other side of the country.When the factory closes, the jobs go, and often nothing replaces them. Losing a ski area is similar. The skiers go, and nothing replaces them. The kids just do other things. They never become skiers.Children of Men, released in 2006, envisions a world 18 years after women have stopped having babies. Humanity lives on, but has collectively lost its soul. Violence and disorder reign. The movie is heralded for its extended single-shot battle scenes, but Children of Men's most remarkable moment is when a baby, born in the midst of a firefight, momentarily paralyzes the war as her protectors parade her to sanctuary:Humanity needs babies like winter needs skiers. But we have to keep making more.Yes, I'm being hyperbolic about the importance of resurrecting a lost ski area. If you're new here, that part of My Brand™. A competing, similar-sized ski center, Pine Mountain, is only 20 minutes from Norway. But that's 13 miles, which for a kid may as well be 1,000. Re-opening Norway is going to seed new skiers. Some of them will ski four times and forget about it and some of them will take spring break trips to Colorado when they get to college and a few of them may wrap their lives around it.And if they don't ever ski? Well, who knows. I almost didn't become a skier. I was 14 when my buddy said “Hey let's take the bus to Mott Mountain after school,” and I said “OK,” and even though I was Very Bad at it, I went again a few weeks later at Apple Mountain. Both of those hills are closed now. If I were growing up in Central Michigan now, would I have become a skier? What would I be if I wasn't one? How awful would that be?What we talked aboutBack from the dead; the West Michigan snowbelt; the power of the ski family; Caberfae; Pando's not for sale; when you decide to buy a lost ski area; how lost Norway was almost lost forever; the small business mindset; surprise bills; what a ski area looks like when it's sat idle for six years; piecing a sold-off snowmaking system back together; Norway's very unique lift fleet; glades; the trailmap; Norway's new logo; the Wild West of websites; the power of social media; where to even begin when you buy a ski area; the ups and downs of living at your ski area; shifting from renovation to operation; Norway's uneven history and why this time is different; is there enough room for Pine Mountain and Norway in such a small market?; why night skiing won't return on a regular basis this winter; send the school buses; it doesn't snow much but at least it stays cold; can Norway revitalize its legendary ski school?; and why Norway joined the Freedom Pass.  Why I thought that now was a good time for this interviewHello Mr. Television Network Executive. Thank you for agreeing to hear my pitch. I understand I have 10 minutes with you, which is perfect, because what I'm proposing will take no fewer than five years, while simultaneously taking 10 years off both our lives. Because my show is called Who Wants to Own a Ski Area?The show works like this: contestants will navigate a series of logic puzzles, challenges, and obstacle courses. These will act as elimination rounds. We can base everyone at an abandoned ski resort, like in The Last of Us, where they will live while games materialize at random. Some examples:* It's 3 a.m. Everyone is sleeping. Alarms blare. A large structure has caught fire. The water has been cut off, but somehow you're standing in a knee-deep flood. Your firefighting arsenal consists of a bucket. You call the local volunteer fire department, which promises you they will “be along whenever Ed gits up here with the gay-rage door keys.” Whoever keeps the building from melting into a pile of ashes wins.* It's state inspection day. All machinery must be in working order. We present each contestant with a pile of sprockets, hoses, wires, clips, and metal parts of varying sizes and thickness. Their instructions are to rebuild this machine. We do not tell them what the machine is supposed to be. The good news is that the instruction manual is sitting right there. The bad news is that it's written in Polish. The pile is missing approximately seven to 20 percent of the machine's parts, without which the device may operate, but perhaps not in a way compatible with human life. Whoever's put-together machine leads to the fewest deaths advances to the next round.* The contestants are introduced to Big Jim. Big Jim has worked at the ski area since 1604. He has been through 45 ownership groups, knows everything about the mountain, and everyone on the mountain. Because of this, Big Jim knows you can't fire him lest you stoke a rebellion of labor and/or clientele. And he can tell you which pipes are where without you having to dig up half the mountain. But Big Jim keeps as much from getting done as he actually does. He resists the adoption of “fads” such as snowmaking, credit cards, and the internet. The challenge facing contestants is to get Big Jim to send a text message. He asks why the letters are arranged “all stupid” on the keyboard. The appearance of an emoji causes him to punch the phone several times and heave it into the woods.* Next we introduce the contestants to Fran and Freddy Filmore from Frankenmuth. The Filmores have been season passholders since the Lincoln Administration. They have nine kids in ski school, each of which has special dietary needs. Their phones are loaded with photos of problems: of liftlines, of dirt patches postholing trails, of an unsmiling parking attendant, of abandoned boot bags occupying cafeteria tables, of skis and snowboards and poles scattered across the snow rather than being placed on the racks that are right there for goodness sake. The Filmores want answers. The Filmores also want you to bring back Stray Cat Wednesdays, in which you could trade a stray cat for a lift ticket. But the Filmores are not actually concerned with solutions. No matter the quickness or efficacy of a remedy, they still “have concerns.” Surely you have 90 minutes to discuss this. Then the fire alarm goes off.* Next, the contestents will meet Hella Henry and his boys Donuts, Doznuts, Deeznuts, Jam Box, and 40 Ounce. HH and the Crushnutz Krew, as they call themselves, are among your most loyal customers. Though they are all under the age of 20, it is unclear how any of them could attend school or hold down a job, since they are at your hill for 10 to 12 hours per day. During that time, the crew typically completes three runs. They spend the rest of their time vaping, watching videos on their phones, and sitting six wide just below a blind lip in the terrain park. The first contestant to elicit a response from the Crushnutz Krew that is anything other than “that's chill” wins.The victor will win their very own ski area, complete with a several-thousand person Friends of [Insert Ski Area Name] group where 98 percent of the posts are complaints about the ski area. The ski center will be functional, but one popped bolt away from catastrophe in four dozen locations. The chairlifts will be made by a company that went out of business in 1912. The groomer will be towed by a yak. The baselodge will accommodate four percent of the skiers who show up on a busy day. The snowmaking “system” draws its water from a birdbath. Oh, and it's in the middle of nowhere in the middle of winter, and they're going to have to find people to work there.Oh, you love it Mr. Television Network Executive? That's so amazing. Now I can quit my job and just watch the money pile up. What do I do for a living? Well, I run a ski area.Hoppe won the contest. And I wanted to wish him luck.What I got wrongI lumped Ski Brule in with Pine Mountain as ski areas that are near Norway. While only 20-ish minutes separate Pine and Norway, Brule is in fact more than an hour away.Why you should ski Norway MountainYou can ski every run on Norway Mountain in one visit. There's something satisfying in that. You can drive off at the end of the day and not feel like you missed anything.There are hundreds of ski areas in North America like this. Most of them manage, somehow, to stuff the full spectrum of ski experience into an area equal to one corner of one of Vail's 90 or whatever Legendary Back Bowls. There are easy runs and hard runs. Long runs and short runs. Narrow runs and wide runs. Runs under the lifts and runs twisting through the trees. Some sort of tree-skiing. Some sort of terrain park. A little windlip that isn't supposed to be a cornice but skis like one, 9-year-olds leaping off it one after the next and turning around to watch each other after they land. Sometimes there is powder. Sometimes there is ice. Sometimes the grooming is magnificent. Sometimes the snow really sucks. Over two to four hours and 20 to 30 chairlift rides, you can fully absorb what a ski area is and why it exists.This is an experience that is more difficult to replicate at our battleship resorts, with 200 runs scribbled over successive peaks like a medieval war map. I ski these resorts differently. Where are the blacks? Where are the trees? Where are the bumps? I go right for them and I don't bother with anything else. And that eats up three or four days even at a known-cruiser like Keystone. In a half-dozen trips into Little Cottonwood Canyon, I've skied a top-to-bottom groomer maybe twice. Because skiing groomers at Alta-Snowbird is like ordering pizza at a sushi restaurant. Like why did you even come here?But even after LCC fluff, when I've descended back to the terrestrial realm, I still like skiing the Norway Mountains of the land. Big mountains are wonderful, but they come with big hassle, big crowds, big traffic, big attitudes, big egos. At Norway you can pull practically up to the lifts and be skiing seven minutes later, after booting up and buying your lift ticket. You can ski right onto the lift and the guy in the Carhartt will nod at you and if you're just a little creative and thoughtful every run will feel distinct. And you can roll into the chalet and grab a pastie and bomb the whole mountain again after lunch.And it will all feel different on that second lap. When there are 25 runs instead of 250, you absorb them differently. The rush to see it all evaporates. You can linger with it, mingle with the mountain, talk to it in a way that's harder up top. It's all so awesome in its own way.Podcast NotesOn Pando Ski CenterI grew up about two hours from the now-lost Pando Ski Center, but I never skied there. When I did make it to that side of Michigan, I opted to ski Cannonsburg, the still-functioning multi-lift ski center seven minutes up the road. Of course, in the Storm Wandering Mode that is my default ski orientation nowadays, I would have simply hit both. But that's no longer possible, because Cannonsburg purchased Pando in 2015 and subsequently closed it. Probably forever.Hoppe and I discuss this a bit on the pod. He actually tried to buy the joint. Too many problems with it, he was told. So he bought some of the ski area's snowguns and other equipment. Better that at least something lives on.Pando didn't leave much behind. The only trailmap I can find is part of this Ski write-up from February 1977:Apparently Pando was a onetime snowboarding hotspot. Here's a circa 2013 video of a snowboarder doing snowboarderly stuff:On CannonsburgWhile statistically humble, with just 250 vertical feet, Cannonsburg is the closest skiing to metropolitan Grand Rapids, Michigan, population 1.08 million. That ensures that the parks-oriented bump is busy at all times:On CaberfaeOne of Hoppe's (and my) favorite ski areas is Caberfae. This was my go-to when I lived in Central Michigan, as it delivered both decent vert (485 feet), and an interesting trail network (the map undersells it):The Meyer family has owned and operated Caberfae for decades, and they constantly improve the place. GM Tim Meyer joined me on the pod a few years back to tell the story.On Norway's proximity to Pine MountainNorway sits just 23 minutes down US 2 from Pine Mountain. The two ski areas sport eerily similar profiles: both measure 500 vertical feet and run two double chairs and one triple. Both face the twin challenges of low snowfall (around 60 inches per season), and a relatively thin local population base (Iron Mountain's metro area is home to around 32,500 people). It's no great surprise that Norway struggled in previous iterations. Here's a look at Pine:On Big TupperI mention Big Tupper as a lost ski area that will have an extra hard time coming back since it's been stripped (I think completely), of snowmaking. This ski area isn't necessarily totally dead: the lifts are still standing, and the property is going to auction next month, but it will take tens of millions to get the place running again. It was at one time a fairly substantial operation, as this circa 1997 trailmap shows:On Sneller chairliftsNorway runs two Sneller double chairs. Only one other Sneller is still spinning, at Ski Sawmill, a short and remote Pennsylvania bump. Lift Blog catalogued the machine here. It wasn't spinning when I skied Sawmill a couple of years ago, but I did snag some photos:On Norway's new logoIn general, animals make good logos. Hoppe designed this one himself:On social mediaHoppe has done a nice job of updating Norway's rebuild progress on social media, mostly via the mountain's Facebook page. Here are links to a few other social accounts we discussed:* Skiers and Snowboarders of the Midwest is a big champion of ski areas of all sizes throughout the region. The Midwest Skiers group is pretty good too.* Magic Mountain, Vermont, an underdog for decades, finally dug itself out of the afterthoughts pile at least in part due to the strength of its Instagram and Twitter presence.* The formerly dumpy Holiday Mountain, New York, has meticulously documented its rebuild under new ownership on Instagram and Facebook.On NeighborsMy 17-year-old brain could not comprehend the notion that two ski areas operated across the street from – and independent of – one another. But there they were: Nub's Nob and Boyne Highlands (now The Highlands), each an opposite turn off Pleasantview Road.We turned right, to Nub's, because we were in high school and because we all made like $4.50 an hour and because Nub's probably had like 10-Cent Tuesdays or something.I've since skied both mountains many times, but the novelty has never faded. Having one of something so special as a ski area in your community is marvelous. Having two is like Dang who won the lottery? There are, of course, examples of this all over the country – Sugarbush/Mad River Glen, Stowe/Smugglers' Notch, Alta/Snowbird, Timberline/Meadows/Skibowl – and it's incredible how distinct each one's identity remains even with shared borders and, often, passes.On UP ski areasMichigan's Upper Peninsula is a very particular animal. Only three percent of the state's 10 million residents live north of the Mackinac (pronounced Mackinaw) Bridge. Lower Peninsula skiers are far more likely to visit Colorado or Vermont than their far-north in-state ski areas, which are a 10-plus hour drive from the more populous southern tiers. While Bohemia's ultra-cheap pass and rowdy terrain have somewhat upset that equation, the UP remains, for purposes of skiing and ski culture, essentially a separate state.My point is that it's worth organizing the state's ski areas in the way that they practically exist in skiers minds. So I've separated the UP from the Lower Peninsula. Since Michigan is also home to an outsized number of town ropetows, I've also split surface-lift-only operations into their own categories:On last winter being very bad with record-low skier visitsSkier visits were down in every region of the United States last winter, but they all but collapsed in the Midwest, with a 26.7 percent plunge, according to the annual Kottke Demographic Report. Michigan alone was down nearly a half million skier visits. Check out these numbers:For comparison, overall skier numbers dropped just six percent in the Northeast, and five percent in the Rockies.The Storm publishes year-round. Join us.The Storm publishes year-round, and guarantees 100 articles per year. This is article 66/100 in 2024, and number 566 since launching on Oct. 13, 2019. Get full access to The Storm Skiing Journal and Podcast at www.stormskiing.com/subscribe

In episode 55 The Mechanic and I hit Pine Mountain and give you the pre and post ride coverage. Lets go Into the Gnar! The CamJam! https://www.amazon.com/Nite-Ize-CamJam-Cord-Tightener/dp/B0CKFP3BFZ/ref=sr_1_1?crid=YPX5JGBCWZ9D&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.ZDSBjSu7142xTGLcgDRL4eWJMKKXiCaPw6_E-hodbblwMMjRgHsPhZ1-V-h9BR0l4uyU5i-K6oxZqJQJw8zNclWkl_IO39099IXUddFSiXk494pEcmrwcu7jIQzdIXUGBPmQcRDFNmE_NRk8kbu439pmNyuAQ02nMVILpHK32zLQmeK1z_YZN30C0aRMzgo64_t-HCi-kB6laYlP072GcUXazvDrUuVGGgHPUMGD0tYyP6G4kG-LuwcgARImN-vhg2pHavTIcI5s6yWbRk5x8vQBGfy7DnVS9W4aJvwZqMw.sh2Y5GNrpfI-zLdODNAmILcBNhObGaTryRa3Ssu9Uaw&dib_tag=se&keywords=time+atacize+camjam+cord+tightener&qid=1719345234&sprefix=time+atacize+camjam+cord+tightener%2Caps%2C367&sr=8-1 --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/josh-schaefer/support

The right to a high-school level education is something that most people take for granted. Indeed, parents today often confront an array of options when it comes to the types of educational opportunities available to their children. But this has not always been the case. Join us for a discussion with a KHS research fellow who studies the Pine Mountain Settlement School and who will talk about shifting views on education in Kentucky. Adrien Lievin earned his MA in American history at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Lille (in France). He has worked in France, Poland, and the United States. His dissertation focuses on the Pine Mountain Settlement School and is currently entitled: “Progressive Education and Industrial Capitalism Before and During the New Deal, in Harlan County, Kentucky, 1913-1944.” KHS Chronicles is inspired by the work of researchers from across the world who have contributed to the scholarly journal, The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society, in publication since 1903. https://history.ky.gov/explore/catalog-research-tools/register-of-the-kentucky-historical-society Hosted by Dr. Daniel J. Burge, associate editor of The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society, and coordinator of our Research Fellows program, which brings in researchers from across the world to conduct research in the rich archival holdings of the Kentucky Historical Society. https://history.ky.gov/khs-for-me/for-researchers/research-fellowships Kentucky Chronicles is presented by the Kentucky Historical Society, with support from the Kentucky Historical Society Foundation. history.ky.gov/about/khs-foundation Our show is recorded and edited by Gregory Hardison, who also wrote the original underscoring of the interview. Thanks to Dr. Stephanie Lang for her support and guidance. Our theme music, “Modern Documentary” was created by Mood Mode and is used courtesy of Pixabay. To learn more about our publication of The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society, or to learn more about our Research Fellows program, please visit our website: history.ky.gov/ https://history.ky.gov/khs-podcasts

In this rapidly changing world, few things are as important as equipping the next generation of leaders, assisting them in identifying their values, discerning their gifts, and living out their callings. In today's episode, we will hear from John Basie, Director of the Residency Experience at Impact 360 Institute, as he shares how they employ coaching with their students and staff to achieve these important goals. Tune in to learn more about: • Why obtaining a coaching credential is crucial • How they have cultivated a coaching culture • The transformations they have witnessed About John Basie Dr. John Basie is an alumnus of PCCI. He serves as Director of the Residency Experience at Impact 360 Institute in Pine Mountain, Georgia. He also holds a faculty appointment with North Greenville University (SC) as Affiliated Professor of Leadership. He has served in various leadership capacities in Christian higher education since 1997, and has extensive experience in the for-profit and nonprofit sectors as a certified executive and career coach. John's competencies include EQ assessment and coaching, life purpose planning, and next-generation leader development. He has also served as consultant to a church planting agency in the assessment and selection of ministry leadership candidates.     John is a member of the Association for Talent Development and the Evangelical Theological Society. His latest book is Know.Be.Live.: A 360° Approach to Discipleship in a Post-Christian Era (Forefront, 2021). John has been married to his bride, Marana, since 1997 and they have three college-aged kids. Free Book: Know. Be. Live.®: A 360 Degree Approach to Discipleship in a Post-Christian Era https://www.impact360institute.org/freebook/

Welcome to Pine Mountain Observatory, nestled in the serene landscapes of Oregon about 34 miles southeast of Bend. In this episode, we unveil the highlights of the night sky with our guest, "astro monk" Alton Luke, Head of Operations at Pine Mountain Observatory and a key figure in the University of Oregon's Physics Department. Today we get to peer through the lens of Alton's perspectives as he takes us on an astronomical exploration to share more about the observatory, how to prepare for visits, and what kinds of celestial events to look out for.  If you want to peer through the lens of some telescopes too, jump off the bike during the Dark Skies route and keep an eye out for a clear weekend with no moon. https://pmo.uoregon.edu/ ------------------------------------------------- This podcast is produced by Dirty Freehub, a nonprofit organization that publishes hand-curated (and great!) gravel cycling Ride Guides. Our mission is to connect gravel cyclists to where they ride through stories about culture, history, people, places, and lands with the hope that they will become involved as advocates, volunteers, or donors with organizations that protect and preserve recreation spaces. Our Podcast Channel  / ⁠⁠⁠The Connection ⁠⁠⁠ Our Ride Guides / ⁠⁠⁠Dirty Freehub⁠⁠⁠ Our Ask / ⁠⁠Donate⁠⁠

A Snowmobile crash on a remote train near Pine Mountain in Gorham, NH yesterday afternoon. Two men robbing a 7-11 convenience store early yesterday morning in Rockland. Boston Mayor Michelle Wu heard from the voices of the future yesterday during the Mayor's Youth Summit. Five minutes of news that will keep you in "The Loop".

This podcast hit paid subscribers' inboxes on Dec. 8. It dropped for free subscribers on Dec. 15. To receive future pods as soon as they're live, and to support independent ski journalism, please consider an upgrade to a paid subscription. You can also subscribe to the free tier below:WhoBenjamin Bartz, General Manager of Snowriver, MichiganRecorded onNovember 13, 2023About SnowriverClick here for a mountain stats overviewOwned by: Midwest Family Ski ResortsLocated in: Wakefield (Jackson Creek Summit) and Bessemer (Black River Basin), MichiganYear founded: 1959 (Jackson Creek, as Indianhead) and 1977 (Black River Basin, as Blackjack)Pass affiliations:Legendary Pass (also includes varying access to Lutsen Mountains, Minnesota and Granite Peak, Wisconsin)* Gold: unlimited access* Silver: unlimited access* Bronze: unlimited midweek access with holiday blackoutsThe Indy Base Pass and Indy+ Pass also include two Snowriver days with no blackoutsClosest neighboring ski areas: Big Powderhorn (:14), Mt. Zion Ski Hill (:17), Whitecap Mountains (:39); Porkies Winter Sports Complex (:48)Base elevation:* Jackson Creek: 1,212 feet* Black River Basin: 1,185 feetSummit elevation:* Jackson Creek: 1,750 feet* Black River Basin: 1,675 feetVertical drop:* Jackson Creek: 538 feet* Black River Basin: 490 feetSkiable Acres: 400 (both ski areas combined)* Jackson Creek: 230* Black River Basin: 170Average annual snowfall: 200 inchesTrail count: 71 trails, 17 glades, 3 terrain parks* Jackson Creek: 43 trails, 11 glades, 2 terrain parks* Black River Basin: 28 trails, 6 glades, 1 terrain parkLift count: 11 (1 six-pack, 6 doubles, 1 T-bar, 2 ropetows, 1 carpet)* Jackson Creek Summit: 6 (1 six-pack, 2 doubles, 1 T-bar, 1 ropetow, 1 carpet)* Black River Basin: 5 (4 doubles, 1 ropetow)View historic Snowriver trailmaps on skimap.org.Why I interviewed himI could tell this story as a Michigan story, as a young skier still awed by the far-off Upper Peninsula, that remote and wild and snowy realm Up North and Over the Bridge. I could tell it as a weather story, of glacial bumps bullseyed in the greatest of the Great Lakes snowbelts. Or as a story of a run-down complex tumbling into hyper-change, or one that activated the lifts in 1978 and just left them spinning. It's an Indy Pass story, a ski area with better skiing than infrastructure that will give you a where's-everyone-else kind of ski day. And it's a Midwest Family Ski Resorts (MFSR) story, skiing's version of a teardown, where nothing is sacred and everything will change and all you can do is stand back and watch the wrecking ball swing and the scaffolding go up the sides.Each of these is tempting, and the podcast is inevitably a mash-up. Writing about the Midwest will always be personal to me. The UP is that Great Otherplace, where the snow is bottomless and everything is cheap and everyone is somewhere else. Snowriver is both magnificently retro and badly in need of updating. And it is a good ski area and a solid addition to the Indy Pass.But, more than anything, the story of Snowriver is the story of MFSR and the Skinner family. There is no better ski area operator. They have equals but no betters. You know how when a certain actor or director gets involved in something, or when a certain athlete moves to a new team, you think, “Man, that's gonna be good.” They project excellence. Everything they touch absorbs it. Did you know that one man, Shigeru Miyamoto, invented, among others, the Donkey Kong, Mario Brothers, Legend of Zelda, and Star Fox franchises, and has directed or produced every sequel of every game for four decades? Time calls him “the Spielberg of video games.” Well, the Skinners are the Spielberg – or perhaps the Miyamoto – of Midwest skiing. Everything they touch becomes the best version of that thing that it can achieve. What we talked aboutSnowriver's new six-pack lift; why Snowriver removed three chairlifts but only added one; the sixer's all-new line; why Midwest Family Ski Resorts (MFSR) upgraded this lift first; the rationale behind a high-speed lift on a 538-vertical-foot hill; knocking 100 vertical feet off Jackson Creek Summit's advertised vertical drop; “Voyager” versus “Voyageur”; swapping out the old Poma for a handletow; the UP snowbelt; the bad old days of get out of the trees you blasted kids!; Gogebic Community College's ski area management program; Mt. Zion, Michigan; Giants Ridge, Minnesota; the Big Snow time capsule; why MFSR purchased Snowriver; Mount Bohemia; changing the name from “Big Snow” to “Snowriver”; where an interconnect lift could run and what sort of lift it could be; why Snowriver renamed all the lifts and many trails on the Black River Basin side; potential future lift upgrades on both sides of the resort; potential terrain expansion; new and renamed trails and 17 new glades on the 2023-24 trailmap; the small parcel of Snowriver that sits on U.S. Forest Service land; why Black River Basin is only open Thursday through Sunday; and a joint pass to Snowriver, Granite Peak, and Lutsen.Why I thought that now was a good time for this interviewThe entity now known as Midwest Family Ski Resorts has been running ski areas for decades. I've been running The Storm for four years. So by the time I launched in 2019 and then expanded out of the Northeast in 2021, MFSR had already transformed Granite Peak and Lutsen into modern Midwestern giants. Their work on Granite had been particularly impressive, as they'd transformed Wisconsin's beat-up and decrepit Rib Mountain into a sprawling and modern ski area.I mean look at this dump:And here's the same ski area in 2023:So what a gift when, last year, the company announced the purchase of the side-by-side time capsules then known as Indianhead and Blackjack. A rare chance to see that Skinner magic uncorked on a beat-up backwater, to watch, in real time, that transformation into something humming and hefty and modern.Most multi-mountain operators buy diamonds, ski areas already streamlined and upgraded and laced with modern machines. MFSR digs deeper, finds coal, then pounds it into its final form. It's a rough and expensive way to go, but the strategy carries the great advantage of maximum flexibility to sculpt a mountain into your daydream.The dream at Snowriver is straightforward but impossibly complex: modernize the snowmaking, chairlifts, bedbase, trail network, and grooming; connect the two ski areas with an aerial lift; and establish this snowy but remote complex as a legitimate midwestern destination ski resort. MFSR has, as expected, moved quickly, rebranding the resort; removing five(!) lifts from the Jackson Creek Summit side and building an outrageously expensive six-pack; and making dozens of subtle tweaks to the trail network, adding new runs, renaming lifts and trails, and dropping more than a dozen marked glades onto the trailmap.This period of rapid change, pronounced as it is, will likely be viewed, historically, as a simple prelude. MFSR is not the sort of operator that lays out grand plans and then glances at them through its binoculars every three years. They plan and tear s**t apart and build and build and build. They act how every skier thinks they would act were they to purchase their own ski area. The difference is that MFSR has money, ambition, and a history of transformational action. Watch, amazed, as this thing grows.Questions I wish I'd askedBartz started Ben's Blog, a cool little update series on Snowriver's goings-on. I wanted to get into his motivation and mission here, but we were running long.I also wanted to get into a unique feature of Snowriver a bit more: the huge amount of onsite lodging, which was a big motivating factor in MFSR's purchase, and a large part of the vision for building a sustainable destination ski resort in a region that has struggled to support one.What I got wrongI said that the four Black River Basin Riblet chairlifts dated to the 1970s, and then corrected myself to say that “I believe” one dated to the ‘80s. Ascender, Brigantine, and Draw Stroke date to 1977; Capstan was installed in 1983.Why you should ski SnowriverEver wonder what it's like to ski in 1978? Pull up to Black River Basin, boot up, and walk over to the lifts. There, you just time traveled. Centerpole Riblet doubles, painted ‘Nam chopper green, squeaking uphill, not a safety bar in sight. There's snowmaking, but most of the snow you're skiing on blew in off the big lake 11 miles north. Skiers in their modern fat skis and helmets would blow the illusion, but there are no other skiers to be found.Then a kid skis by, backpack speaker booming, and you're like, “OK phew for a second I thought I'd really time-traveled and would be forced to do things like drive around the block without navigation assistance and carry around a camera that was not also a supercomputer and required $15 to purchase and develop 24 photographs.”If Black River Basin is the past, then Jackson Creek Summit is the future. That sixer landed like an Abrams tank on a Civil War battlefield. I took this video of the old summit double last February:Now look at the top of the six-pack, which sits on more or less the same spot:Wild, right? Snowriver is going to keep changing, and it will keep changing fast. Go see it before you miss what it was, so you can truly appreciate what it will become.Podcast NotesOn the four removed chairlifts on the Jackson Creek Summit sideSnowriver's new six-pack directly or indirectly replaces four old lifts. The resort also switched up the trail network, with a bunch of new glades and a handful of reconfigured trails. Check out the Jackson Creek Summit side of the resort's trailmap from pre-sixer and then today (note, also, all the newly marked glades and renamed trails):On the new trails on the Black River Basin sideMFSR has also renamed most of the lifts and trails on the Black River Basin side, and removed a handle tow (which is now on the Jackson Creek Summit side). Here's a side-by-side of the ski area's 2018 and 2023 trailmaps:On Gogebic Community College and Mt. ZionSo you can actually earn a college degree in ski area management. There are a few schools that do this, one of which is Michigan's Gogebic Community College. From the program's overview page:OverviewThe Ski Area Management Program at GCC is one of the nation's most comprehensive training programs for individuals interested in pursuing a career in the snow sport industry. Technical and academic study is combined with a practical internship which is conducted at major resorts throughout Coast to Coast.  A valid driver's license is required for completion of this program.Unique FeaturesStudents spend their freshman year and the first eight weeks of their sophomore year completing prerequisite courses. During this period, the Mt. Zion Recreation Complex is utilized as a training laboratory. Mt. Zion is our college-owned and operated winter sport complex located on campus which is open to the public.  Co-opThe Cooperative Work Experience assignment (Co-op) is the capstone of the Ski Area Management Program. All sophomore Students participate in the five month internship where they gain important operational experience in an actual resort environment.The huge advantage that Mt. Zion has over similar programs is that it owns an on-site ski area, Mt. Zion. While this is just a 300-vertical-foot bump served by a double chair, it's laced with some twisty fun little runs fed by 200 inches of annual lake effect:On Giants RidgeBartz really launched his career as Mountain Operations Manager at Giants Ridge, a 500-footer in the Northern Minnesota hinterlands. Here's the most recent trailmap:On the UP snowbeltFor such a remote area, the UP is home to one of the densest concentrations of ski areas in America. Five ski areas sit within a 21-mile stretch along the Wisconsin-Michigan border: Whitecap (in Wisconsin), and Mt. Zion, Big Powderhorn, and the two Snowriver ski areas, all in Michigan. Here's how they line up:On the proximity of MFSR's portfolioMFSR's three ski areas are, as a unit, really well positioned to serve the major Midwestern cities of Minneapolis-St. Paul, Milwaukee, and Chicago. Here's where they sit in relation to one another:And here's the distance table between them:On Rick SchmitzRick Schmitz – who owns Little Switzerland, Nordic Mountain, and The Rock Snowpark in Wisconsin – once owned Blackjack, now Black River Basin. He relays that experience, and why he ultimately sold his interest in the ski area, starting at the 39:40 mark of this podcast we recorded together last year:On Mount BohemiaBoho is, as I've written many times, one of the most amazing and unique ski areas in America. It has no grooming, no snowmaking, and no beginner terrain. It's lodged at the ass-end of nowhere, on a peninsula hanging off a peninsula in the fiery middle of Lake Superior. While regional lore credits (or blames) the renaissance of MFSR's Granite Peak with looting Snowriver's skiers, the rise of Bohemia, which opened in 2000, surely drew more advanced skiers farther north. Here's a trailmap:And here's a conversation I recorded with Boho owner, founder, and president Lonie Glieberman last year:On two ski areas becoming oneFor decades, the two Snowriver ski areas now known as Jackson Creek Summit and Black River Basin were separate, competing entities known, respectively, as Indianhead and Blackjack. Observe the varied style of trailmaps of recent vintage:At some point, the same entity took possession of both hills and introduced the “Big Snow Resort” umbrella name. Each ski area retained its legacy name, as you can see in this joint trailmap circa 2018:Then, last year, MFSR changed the umbrella name from “Big Snow” to “Snowriver,” and changed the name of each ski area (though they framed this as “base area renamings”) from Indianhead and Blackjack to Jackson Creek Summit and Black River Basin, respectively. I broke down the name change when MFSR announced it last September.On the Snowriver interconnectBartz provided outlines of four potential interconnect lines. In all cases, Jackson Creek Summit sits on the left, and Black River Basin is on the right:On US 2The Snowriver ski areas both sit off of US 2, a startling fact, perhaps, for skiers who use the same road to access ski areas as far-flung as Stevens Pass, Washington and Sunday River, Maine. US 2 is, in fact, a 2,571-mile-long road that runs in two segments: from Everett, Washington to St. Ignace, Michigan; then breaking for Canada before picking up in northern New York and running across Vermont and New Hampshire into Maine. It is the northernmost cross-country east-west highway in America. Ski areas that sit along or near the route include Stevens Pass and Mt. Spokane, Washington; Schweitzer, Idaho; Blacktail and Whitefish, Montana; Spirit Mountain, Minnesota; Big Powderhorn, Mt. Zion, Snowriver, Ski Brule, and Pine Mountain, Michigan; Bolton Valley, Vermont; and Sunday River, Titcomb, and Hermon Mountain, Maine; among others.On the Legendary PassFor the 2023-24 ski season, MFSR dispensed with offering single-mountain season passes, and combined all three of its properties onto the Legendary Pass. The gold tier, which is now sold out, debuted at $675 last spring. The Silver tier ran $475 early bird, which is not a material increase from the $419 Snowriver-only 2021-22 season pass (which did not include any Granite or Lutsen access):The Storm explores the world of lift-served skiing year-round. Join us.The Storm publishes year-round, and guarantees 100 articles per year. This is article 106/100 in 2023, and number 491 since launching on Oct. 13, 2019. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.stormskiing.com/subscribe

Hey there, trailblazers!

On episode 28 of the 435 podcast, Robert Macfarlane interviews Kurt Ivie, a candidate for Washington City Council. Ivie talks about his experience coaching baseball, the geology of Pine Mountain, the water supply in Washington County, the need for economic growth, and the issue of affordable housing. He suggests a grassroots process to limit bills and have more decisions made at the county level. Ivie also emphasizes the need for citizens to have access to resources such as lobbyists and local leaders who are willing to advocate for citizens. His campaign slogan is 'Let's continue our success' and he encourages everyone to vote on November 21st.Find Vote STG here:https://votestg.com/Find Washington County Diabetic Youth Association here:https://www.wcdya.com/Find Wealth 435 here:https://www.wealth435.com/Find Blue Form Media here:https://www.blueformmedia.com/

State revenues fall $435 million short of the goal in order to lower our income tax by .5% in Kentucky. I talk about what this means, and how should conservatives respond. Last month an incident took place at Pine Mountain in Harlan, KY. I go over what the facts are and who is right and wrong in the situation. Finally, I talk about a common curriculum project called GRAPES in public schools, and why it should be stopped.

Hey Family. We are streaming today live from Pine Mountain, GA. And Monique has some things she wants to share about improving our outreach to those around us.

On this episode of Mothboys, the boys come up with the next big movie franchise while discussing the Lone Pine Mountain Devils, a flying nightmare with sharp fangs, and even sharper talons.Mothboys is sponsored by:Visit Braxton, WV-Braxton County, West Virginia is Home of the Flatwoods Monster, as well as sightings of Bigfoot, UFO's  and ghosts… Visit the link above for more information on all the wonderful things that Braxton County offers.Follow along on our moth-journey on Instagram at @mothboyspodcast and on Facebook at Mothboys.

If you need a great place to visit for Kentucky history and beautiful scenario Pine Mountain Settlement School is the place your looking for. We set down with Director Preston Jones and Programs Coordinator Jason Brashear and talk about all the school has to offer.https://www.pinemountainsettlementschool.com/https://linktr.ee/Kyhistorypod

About Us: Business owners, Chamber directors, industry leaders, Main Street Directors, school and hospital leaders discuss what's happening in North MS with station owner, Melinda Marsalis. Interviews are recorded in Ripley, MS at Sun Bear Studio, broadcast every Tuesday at 11 am on The Shark 102.3 FM Radio and added here to help you stay informed.   If you would like to be considered for an interview, you can call or email Melinda.  The Shark 102.3 FM Radio Station and Sun Bear Studio are located in Ripley, MS and owned by Chris and Melinda Marsalis.  Chris and Melinda have a passion for community development and love all of the amazing things that are going on in North Mississippi.  www.jc.media662-837-1023theshark1023@gmail.comPine Mountain Tree Farm46 CR 608 Walnut, MS 38683662-643-3902Take CR 608 off of highway 72 between Corinth and Walnut.  

In this episode Troy B. Marden tells us about the terrifying event that began his horticultural adventures.As an accomplished garden designer, he shares the vision of fellow gardeners in his clients, writings, television show and worldwide tours.He seeks to help you discover the inspiration found in garden cultures around the globe and domestically.Also, today Troy smashes a couple of common garden myths.Troy's love for gardening began on the Kansas plains.At the age of 14 he began his horticultural career working at the local Blueville Nursery.His unique passion for plants and gardening lead to college internships at two of the country's most esteemed public gardens, Callaway Gardens in Pine Mountain, Georgia and the world-renowned Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania.He has called Nashville home for over the past 25 years.Where he grew a successful business in garden and floral design, special events, garden photography, writing, public speaking, and television.For over 20 years he has been a part of Nashville Public Television's hit gardening show, Volunteer Gardener.Troy's passion for seeing the world's most beautiful places burns brightly. He now curates and leads small group adventures around the world through Troy B. Marden Travel.He seeks to share his many loves of gardening, food, wine, art, architecture, design, nature, photography, and history with each adventure.FacebookInstagram

To support independent ski journalism, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This podcast hit paid subscribers' inboxes on Oct. 26. It dropped for free subscribers on Oct. 29. To receive future pods as soon as they're live, please consider an upgrade to a paid subscription.WhoLonie Glieberman, President of Mount Bohemia, MichiganRecorded onOctober 21, 2022About Mount BohemiaClick here for a mountain stats overviewOwned by: Lonie GliebermanPass affiliations: NoneReciprocal pass partners (view full list here):* 3 days each at Bogus Basin, Mission Ridge, Great Divide, Lee Canyon, Pine Creek, White Pine, Sleeping Giant, Mt. Spokane, Eaglecrest, Eagle Point* 2 days each at Porcupine Mountains; Crystal Mountain, Michigan; Giants Ridge; Hurricane Ridge* 1 day each at Brundage, Treetops, Whitecap Mountains, Ski Brule, Snowstar* Free midweek skiing March 1-2, 5-9, 12-16, and 24-25 at Caberfae when staying at slopeside MacKenzie LodgeLocated in: Mohawk, MichiganClosest neighboring ski areas: Mont Ripley (46 minutes), Porcupine Mountains (2 hours), Ski Brule (2 hours, 34 minutes), Snowriver (2 hours, 35 minutes), Keyes Peak (2 hours, 36 minutes), Marquette Mountain (2 hours, 40 minutes), Big Powderhorn (2 hours, 43 minutes), Mt. Zion (2 hours, 45 minutes), Pine Mountain (2 hours, 49 minutes), Whitecap (3 hours, 8 minutes).Base elevation: 600 feetSummit elevation: 1,500 feetVertical drop: 900 feetSkiable Acres: 585Average annual snowfall: 273 inchesTrail count: 147 (24% double-black, 49% black, 20% intermediate, 7% beginner)Lift count: 2 lifts, 4 buses (1 double, 1 triple - view Lift Blog's of inventory of Mount Bohemia's lift fleet)Bohemia has one of the most confusing trailmaps in America, so here's an overhead view by Mapsynergy. This displays the main mountain only, and does not include Little Boho, but you can clearly see where Haunted Valley sits in relation to the lifts:Here's an older version, from 2014, that does not include Little Boho or the newer Middle Earth section, but has the various zones clearly labelled:Why I interviewed himImagine: America's wild north. Hours past everything you've ever heard of. Then hours past that. A peninsula hanging off a peninsula in the middle of the largest lake on Earth. There, a bump on the topo map. Nine hundred feet straight up. The most vert in the 1,300-mile span between Bristol and Terry Peak. At the base a few buildings, a cluster of yurts, a green triple chair crawling up the incline.Here, at the end of everything, skiers find almost nothing. As though the voyage to road's end had cut backward through time. No snowguns. No groomers. No rental shop. No ski school. No Magic Carpet. No beginner runs. No beginners. A lift and a mountain, and nothing more.Nothing but raw and relentless terrain. All things tucked away at the flash-and-bling modern resort made obvious. Glades everywhere, top to bottom, labyrinthian and endless, hundreds of acres deep. Chutes. Cliffs. Bumps. Terrain technical and twisting. No ease in. No run out. All fall line.To the masses this is nightmare skiing, the sort of stacked-obstacle elevator shaft observed from the flat shelf of green-circle groomers. To the rest of us – the few of us – smiling wanly from the eighth seat of a gondola car as ya'lling tourists yuck about the black diamonds they just windshield-wipered back to Corpus Christi – arrival at Mount Bohemia is a sort of surrealist dream. It can't be real. This place. Everything grand about skiing multiplied. Everything extraneous removed. Like waking up and discovering all food except tacos and pizza had gone away. Delicious entrees for life.And the snow. The freeze-thaws, the rain, the surly guttings of New England winters barely touch Boho. The lake-effect snowtrain – two to eight inches, nearly every day from December to March – erases these wicked spells soon after their rare castings. And the snow piles up: 273 inches on average, and more than 300 inches in three of the past five seasons. In 2022, Boho skied into May for the third time in the past decade.There is no better ski area. For skiers whose lifequest is to roll as one with the mountain as the mountain was formed. Those weary of cat-tracks and Rangers coats splaying wobbly across the corduroy and bunched human bowling pins and the spectacular price of everything. Boho's season pass is $109. Ninety-nine dollars if you can do without Saturdays. It's loaded with reciprocal days at nearly two dozen partners. It's a spectacular bargain and a spectacular find. At once dramatic and understated, wide-open and closely kept, rowdy and sublime, Mount Bohemia is the ski area that skiers deserve. And it is the ski area that the Midwest – one of the world's great ski cultures – deserves. There is nothing else like Mount Bohemia in America, and there's really nothing else like it anywhere.What we talked aboutOctober snow in the UP; how much snow Boho needs to open; “we can get five feet in December in a matter of days”; why the great Sugar Loaf, Michigan ski area failed and why it's likely never coming back; a journey through the Canadian Football League; what running a football team and running a ski area have in common; “Narrow the focus, strengthen the brand”; wild rumors of a never-developed ski area in the Keweenaw Peninsula overheard on a Colorado chairlift; sleuthing pre-Google; the business case for a ski area with no beginner terrain; “it's not just the size, it's the pitch”; bringing Bohemia to improbable life; the most important element to Bohemia as a viable business; how to open a ski area when you've never worked at a ski area; community opposition materializes – “I still to this day don't know why they were mad”; winning the referendum to build the resort; how locals feel about Boho today; industry reaction to a ski area with no grooming, no snowmaking, and no beginner terrain; “you actually have created the stupidest ski resort of all time”; the long history of established companies missing revolutionary products; dead-boring 1990s Michigan skiing; the slow early days with empty lifts spinning all day long; learning from failure to push through to success; the business turning point; Bohemia's $99 season pass; the kingmaking power of the lost ski media; the state of Boho 22 years in; “nothing is ever as important as adding more and new terrain”; why Bohemia raised the price of its season pass by $10 for 2022-23; breaking down Boho's pass fees; the two-year and lifetime passes; why the one-day annual season pass sale is now a 10-day annual season pass sale; why the ski area no longer sells season passes outside of its $99 pass sales window; protecting the Saturday experience; could we see a future with no lift tickets?; the potential of a Bohemia single-day lift ticket costing more than a season pass; “reward your season ticket holders”; the mountain's massive reciprocal ticket network; the Indy Pass and why it wouldn't work for Bohemia; the return of Fast Pass lanes; “we have to be very careful that Bohemia is a place for all people that are advanced or expert skiers”; why Bohemia's frontside triple functions as a double; what could replace the triple and when it could happen; considering the carpet-load; what sort of lift we could see in Haunted Valley; whether we could ever see a lift in Outer Limits; a possible second frontside lift; where a lift would go on Little Boho and how it could connect to and from the parking lot; why surface lifts probably wouldn't work at Bohemia; what sort of lift could replace the double; whether the current lifts could be repurposed elsewhere on the mountain; what Bohemia could look like at full terrain build-out; the potential of Voodoo Mountain and what it would take to see a lift over there; whether Voodoo could become a Bluebird Backcountry-style uphill-only ski area; why it will likely remain a Cat-skiing hill for the foreseeable future; sizing up the terrain between Bohemia and Voodoo; where to find the new glades coming to Bohemia this season; the art of glading; breaking down the triple-black-diamond Extreme Backcountry; why serious injuries have been rare in Bohemia's rowdiest terrain; the extreme power of the Lake Superior snowbelt; Bohemia's magical snow patterns; why the Bohemia business model couldn't work in most places; whether Bohemia could ever install limited snowmaking and why it may never need it; how a mountain in Michigan without snowmaking can consistently push the season into May; “Bohemia is a community first and a ski area second”; why Bohemia is more like a 1960s European ski resort than anything in North America; and Bohemia's stint running the Porcupine Mountains ski area and why it ultimately pulled out of the arrangement.Why I thought that now was a good time for this interviewIt may be the most-repeated trope on The Storm Skiing Podcast: “skiing is a capital-intensive business.” It's true. Scope the battle corps of snow cannons lined hundreds deep along resort greens and blues, the miles of subsurface piping that feed them, the pump houses, the acres-big manmade ponds that anchor the whole system. The frantic rental centers with gear racked high and deep like a snowy Costco. The battalions of Snowcats, each costing more than a house. The snowmobiles. The cavernous day lodges. The shacks and Centers and chalets. And the chairlifts. How much does a chairlift cost? The price seems to increase daily. Operators generally guard these numbers, but Windham told me in March that their new 389-vertical-foot D-line detachable quad will cost $5 million. Again: more than a house. More than a neighborhood. And that's before you turn the thing on.But what if you get rid of the, um, capital? What if you build a ski resort like Old Man MacGregor did in 19-aught-7? Find a snowy hill and point to it and say, “there's my ski area, Sonny, go do yourself some ski'in. Just gimme a nickel and get the hell out of my face so's I can kill me a chicken for supper.”OK, so Boho stood up a pair of modern (used) chairlifts instead of MacGregor's ropetow slung through a Model-T engine, but its essential concept echoes that brash and freewheeling bygone America: A lift and a mountain. Go skiing.This isn't supposed to be good enough. You need Magic Carpets and vast lineups of matching-jacket ski instructors and “impeccably groomed” trails. A place where Grandpa Earl and Earl Jr. and Earl Jr. Jr. can bond over the amazing logistical hassles of family skiing and enjoy $150 cups of chili together in the baselodge.But over the past two decades, the minimalist ski area has emerged as one of skiing's best ideas. It can't work everywhere, of course, and it can't work for everyone. This is a complement to, and not a replacement for, the full-service ski resort. If you've never skied and you show up at Bohemia to go skiing, you're either going to end up disappointed or hospitalized, and perhaps both. This is a ski area for skiers, for the ones who spend all day at Boyne peaking off the groomers into the trees, looking for lines.There is a market for this. Look west, to Silverton, Colorado, where an antique Yan double – Mammoth's old Chair 15 – rises 1,900 vertical feet and drops skiers onto a 26,000-acre mecca of endless untracked pow. Or Bluebird Backcountry, also in Colorado, which has no chairlifts but marked runs rising off a minimalist base area, a launch point for Uphill Bro's bearded adventures. Neither pull the sorts of Holy Calamity mobs that increasingly define I-70 skiing, but both appear to be sustainable niche businesses.Of the three, Bohemia appeals the most to the traditional resort skier. Silverton is big and exposed and scary, a beacon-and-shovel-required-at-all-times kind of place. Bluebird is a zone in which to revel and to ponder, as much a shuffling hike as it is a day on skis. Boho skis a lot like the vast off-piste zones of Alta and Snowbird, with their infinite choose-your-own-adventure lines, entire acres-wide faces and twisting forests all ungroomed. Both offer a resort experience: high-speed lifts, (a few) groomed boulevards, snowguns blasting near the base. But that's not the point of Little Cottonwood Canyon. I skied Chip's Run once. It sucks. I can't imagine the person who shows up at Snowbird and laps this packed boulevard of milquetoast skiing. This is where you go for raw, unhinged skiing on bountiful and ever-refilling natural snow. For decades this was Utah-special, or Western-special, the sort of experience that was impossible to find in the Midwest. Then came Bohemia, with a different story to tell, a version of the Out West wild-nasty in the least likely place imaginable.What I got wrongIn discussing a possible skin/ski between Mount Bohemia and Voodoo Mountain – where Boho runs a small Cat-skiing operation – I compared the four-mile trek between them to the oft-skied route between Bolton Valley and Stowe, which sit five miles apart in the Vermont wilderness. The drive, I noted, was “about an hour.” In optimal conditions, it's actually right around 40 minutes. With wintertime traffic and weather, it can be double that or longer.I also accidentally said that the new name for the ski area formerly known as Big Snow, Michigan was “Snowbasin.” Which was kinda dumb of me. But then like 30 seconds later I said the actual name, “Snowriver,” so you're just gonna have to let that one go.Why you should ski Mount BohemiaMidwest skiing in the ‘90s was defined largely by what it wasn't. And what it wasn't was interesting in any way. I use this word a lot: “interesting” terrain. What I mean by that is anything other than wide-open groomed runs. And in mid-90s Michigan, that's all there was. Bumps were rare. Glades, nonexistent. Powder unceremoniously chewed up in the groom. The nascent terrain parks were branded as “snowboard parks,” no skiers allowed. A few ski areas actively ignored skiers poaching these early ramps and halfpipes – Nub's Nob was especially generous. But many more chased us away, leaving us to hunt the trail's edge in search of the tiniest knolls and drop-offs to carry us airborne.It didn't have to be this way. As often as I could, I would wake up at 4 and drive north across the border into Ontario. There lay Searchmont, a natural terrain park, a whole side of the mountain ungroomed and wild, dips and drops and mandatory 10-foot airs midtrial. Why had no one in Michigan hacked off even a portion of their Groomeramas for this sort of freeride skiing?In those years I visited friends at Michigan Tech, forty-five minutes south of where Bohemia now stands, each January. Snow always hip-high along the sidewalks, more falling every day. One afternoon we drove north out of Houghton, along US 41, into the hills rising along the Keweenaw Peninsula. Somewhere in the wilderness, we stopped. Climbed. Unimaginable quantities of snow devouring us like quicksand at every step. In descent, leaping off cliffs and rocks, sliding down small, steep chutes.We did not bring skis that day. But the terrain, I thought, would have been wildly appropriate for a certain sort of unhinged ski experience. Like a super-Searchmont. Wilder and bigger and rowdier. We could call it “The Realm of Stu's Extreme Ski Resort,” I joked with my friend on the long drive home.But I didn't think anyone would actually do it. The ski areas of Michigan seemed impossibly devoted to the lifeless version of skiing that catered to the intermediate masses. When Boho opened in 2000, I couldn't believe it was real. I still barely do. Live through a generation or two, and you begin to appreciate impermanence, and how names carry through time but what they mean evolves. The Michigan ski areas that once offered one and only one specific type of skiing have, as I noted in my podcast conversation with Nub's Nob General Manager Ben Doornbos a couple weeks ago, gotten much more adept at creating what I call a balanced mountain. Boyne, The Highlands, Caberfae – all deliver a far more satisfying product than they did 25 years ago.Boho drove at least some of this change. Suddenly, an expert skier had real options in the Midwest. Not that they new it at first – Glieberman recalls the dead, dark days of the ski area's first few seasons. But that's over. Bohemia is, on certain days, maxed out, in desperate need of more lifts and a touch fewer skiers – the famous $99 pass will increase to $109 this season for anyone who wants to ski Saturdays. The place works, as a concept, as a culture, as a magnet for expert skiers.Most ski areas, if you look closely enough, exist to serve some nearby population center. There are only a few that are good enough that they thrive in spite of their location, that skiers will drive past a dozen other ski areas to hit. Telluride. Taos. Jay Peak. Sugarloaf. Add Bohemia to this category. And add it to your list. No matter where you ski, this one is worth the pilgrimage.Podcast Notes* Glieberman references the book 22 Immutable Laws of Branding  - specifically its calls to “narrow your focus, strengthen your brand.” Here's the Amazon listing.* We don't get into this extensively, but Lonie mentions Mount Bohemia TV. This is an amazing series of shorts exploring Boho life and culture. Here's a sampling, but you can watch them all here.More Bohemia* A Vermonter visits Boho* A Ski magazine visit to Porcupine Mountains – a state-owned ski area – when Glieberman ran it in the mid-2000s.* A Powder Q&A with Glieberman.* I'm not the only one who's amazed with this place. Paddy O'Connell, writing in Powder seven years ago:Midwestern powder skiing is alive and real. The Upper Peninsula of Michigan is the home of the greatest grassroots ski resort in North America, Mount Bohemia. Storms swell over Lake Superior and slam their leeward winds on to the UP all winter long. Endless exploration is waiting up north through the treed ruggedness of Haunted Valley and the triple black Extreme Backcountry. The resort prides itself on being almost 100 percent unmarked and nearly devoid of ropes. The terrain is fun and adventurous and the bounty of snow is remarkable. Keweenaw County uses a 30-foot snow stake to measure season totals, and is currently measuring just under 25 feet. While my friends out West have been mountain biking and crack climbing, I have been slashing creek beds and frozen waterfalls, chomping on frosty Midwestern face shots. Yes, they exist here and in abundance in Michigan. The folklore is factual—all true skiers need to ski Mount Bohemia.* Boho was, amazingly, once part of the Freedom Pass reciprocal lift-ticket coalition, which grants season pass holders three days each at partner resorts. These days, Boho manages its own corps of reciprocals. This is an incredible list for a $99 ($133 with fees) season pass:Voodoo MountainPerhaps the most compelling piece of the Bohemia story is that the ski area is nowhere near built out. The mountain adds new terrain pretty much every year - Glieberman details the locations of three new glade runs in the podcast. But four miles due north through the wilderness - or 16 miles and 30 minutes by car - sits Voodoo Mountain, a three-mile-wide snowtrap that currently hosts Boho's catskiing operation. They even have a trailmap:Those cut runs occupy just 125 acres, but Voodoo encompasses 1,800 acres across four peaks on a 700-foot vertical drop. Glieberman tells me on the podcast that a 1970s concept scoped out a sprawling resort with 22 chairlifts (if anyone is in possession of this concept map, please email me a copy). The terrain, Glieberman says, is not as rowdy or as singular as Boho's, but Voodoo averages more annual snowfall - 300-plus inches - and its terrain faces north, meaning it holds snow deep into spring. Here's another map, currently posted at the resort, showing conceptual future build-outs at Voodoo:The Storm publishes year-round, and guarantees 100 articles per year. This is article 117/100 in 2022, and number 363 since launching on Oct. 13, 2019. Want to send feedback? Reply to this email and I will answer (unless you sound insane, or, more likely, I just get busy). You can also email skiing@substack.com.The Storm is exploring the world of lift-served skiing year-round. Join us. Get full access to The Storm Skiing Journal and Podcast at www.stormskiing.com/subscribe

Post Daily Dose from 8.5.19 Featuring Post Institute Co-Founder, Bryan Post Have you become Trauma Informed Certified?? Don't forget your FREE copy of the book "From Fear to Love" HERE! Find everything for your Post Parenting Toolbox at, Post Institute Facebook: @PostInstitute Instagram: @post_parenting --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/post-institute/support

Want to play a part in helping monarch butterflies avoid becoming extinct? Get a copy of Jeanne Megel's book “Raise Healthy Monarchs At Home” and find out how easy it is. Visit https://magicalmonarchs.com (https://magicalmonarchs.com) for more information.

October 20th, 2018; a man goes scouting for a hunting location in the remote wilderness of Wyoming.  While driving to the destination, his pickup truck gets stuck in a large rut, north of the Pine Mountain Area.  Footprints leading away from the truck, eventually disappearing into the thick vegetation, are the only clues searches found.  Join us this week as we investigate the mysterious disappearance of Terry Meador.     Thank you to Athletic Greens for supporting this episode:   Athletic Greens is going to give you a FREE 1-year supply of immune-supporting Vitamin D AND 5 FREE travel packs with your first purchase. All you have to do is visit (https://athleticgreens.com/EMERGING). Again, that is (https://athleticgreens.com/EMERGING) to take ownership over your health and pick up the ultimate daily nutritional insurance!   New Patreon Shoutouts - Kellie Morales, Luke Conde, Tish Mollett, Monica Medeiros.   Episode suggestion shoutout: Samantha Porter.   Want to help the show out and get even more Locations Unknown content!  For as little as $1 a month, you can become a Patron of Locations Unknown and get access to our episodes two days before release, special Patreon only episode, free swag, swag contests, your picture on our supporter wall of fame, our Patreon only Discord Server, and discounts to our Locations Unknown Store!  Become a Patron of the Locations Unknown Podcast by visiting our Patreon page.  (https://www.patreon.com/locationsunknown)   Want to call into the show and leave us a message?  Now you can!  Call 208-391-6913 and leave Locations Unknown a voice message and we may air it on a future message!   View live recordings of the show on our YouTube channel: Locations Unknown - YouTube   Want to advertise on the podcast?  Visit the following link to learn more.  Advertise on Locations Unknown   Learn about other unsolved missing persons cases in America's wilderness at Locations Unknown.   Follow us on Facebook & Instagram.  Also check us out on two new platforms - Pocketnet & Rumble.   You can view sources for this episode and all our previous episodes at: Sources — Locations Unknown

Content marketing comes in many shapes and sizes. Creators like you have a lot of options: blog posts, social media updates, visuals, videos, slide decks, and even more. You can even add podcasting to this mix. Audio is being used in clever ways to fit into the content plans of some top forward-thinking websites and blogs. Dave Summers, Founder, and Owner at Pine Mountain Digital talks to us about podcasting. About Dave Summers Dave is the Founder and Owner of Pine Mountain Digital. He is a Digital Media Producer. He creates impactful podcasts, interactive web events, irreverent video blogs, instructive explainer videos, and more. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/tbcy/support

Skip and Daniel talk about their recent camping experience at FDR State Park in Pine Mountain, Georgia. Following a day of scorching temperatures and a night of heavy rain and thunderstorms, Skip announces an end to primitive camping after his tent get flooded in the raging storm. Listen in as he explains what his plans are for future camp outings.

Join our warm conversation with Impact 360's Dr. John Basie, Ph.D. He's been in teaching and Higher Education Administration for going on 2 decades. Dr. Basie did his Ph.D. degree in Religion, Politics, and Society at the Baylor University Institute for Church-State Studies, the premier place in the world to study First Amendment religion, culture, and government issues at that time. He now directs Impact 360 Institute, in Pine Mountain, Georgia, affiliated with Union University in Jackson, Tennessee for undergraduate work. For graduate work, their work is partnered with North Greenville University (South Carolina). Both are COC SAC (regionally) (legit) accredited. It's a program that has been rightly influenced by the deep and wonderful life-work of the late great scholar of Christian Philosophy and Spiritual Formation, Dr. Dallas Willard, Ph.D., who taught our mentors at the University of Southern California for many decades, and did it right and was a model for doing it right for our professors and mentors. Major funding for the founding of the Institute came from the Chik-Fil-A family. You can check out the program at https://www.impact360institute.org/ The Republican Professor is a pro-Chik-Fil-A, pro-Higher-Education-done-right, pro-do-something-a-little-differently-in-order-to-do-it-right, pro-conscientiously-taking-the-student-soul-seriously, pro-education-infuenced-by-Dallas-Willard podcast . Welcome, Dr. John Basie, Ph.D. !

To support independent ski journalism, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Starting in June, paid subscribers will receive podcasts three days before free subscribers.WhoTJ and Wendy Kerscher, Owners of Paul Bunyan Ski Hill, WisconsinRecorded onMay 23, 2022About Paul BunyanOwned by: TJ and Wendy KerscherLocated in: Lakewood, WisconsinClosest neighboring ski areas: Keyes Peak, Wisconsin (1 hours); Ski Brule, Michigan (1.25 hours); Camp 10, Wisconsin (1.25 hours); Granite Peak, Wisconsin (1.5 hours); Pine Mountain, Michigan (1.5 hours)Vertical drop: 150 feetAverage annual snowfall: 65 inchesTrail count: 6 (2 black, 2 intermediate, 2 beginner)Lift count: 3 (1 T-bar, 2 ropetows - view Lift Blog’s of inventory of Paul Bunyan’s lift fleet)Trailmap: Paul Bunyan has yet to create an updated trailmap. This overhead-oriented version created by skimap.com is the closest thing I could find, though TJ told me that the ropetow and tubing park - and associated trails - looker’s left on this map have not yet re-opened (he hopes to have them ready for the 2022-23 ski season, along with a top-to-bottom ropetow that runs parallel to the T-bar):This map, from 1993, shows the state of the ski area just before it closed, in 1995:This map, from 1980, is probably my favorite from an aesthetic point of view:Why I interviewed themIn 2016, a California businessman named Jeff Katofsky purchased the long-dormant Sugar Loaf ski area in northern Michigan. A real estate developer and minor league baseball team owner, he seemed to barely understand skiing, declaring shortly after taking possession of the property that he had visited Whistler “to get ideas.” Which is like visiting the Palace of Versailles to get ideas on how to decorate your hunting cabin. The next year, he stripped all five Hall* doubles from the hillside. “The ski hill presently has to basically be gutted because nothing on there can work,” he told the Glen Arbor Sun. “Whether we can put another ski hill together or not, we’re crunching a lot of numbers together to see if that works.”The Crunchinator came up with some pretty intense numbers. For Katofsky, skiing was a high-end pursuit, which could only be provided in an ultra-luxurious context. “Skiing is purely a financial question,” Katofsky told the Sun in 2018. “I have to take it seriously because I know it’s important to people. But I’m not doing this for charity. We’ll invest literally tens of millions of dollars in this. If skiing works financially, you’ll have it. If not, you won’t.”Skiing must not have worked financially. In December 2020, Katofsky sold the property to an anonymous buyer and disappeared, without comment, into the void.Katofsky, to be fair, was not trying to spend tens of millions of dollars to resuscitate a ski resort, explicitly. He intended to spend tens of millions to build a year-round spa-and-valet sort of place that had a little ski hill as an addendum. Something like Villa Roma in New York’s Catskills, which offers a minimalist ski experience but long ago mothballed an entire terrain pod.That’s a shame. Sugar Loaf was once one of the best ski areas in Michigan’s Lower Peninsula, a nationally unsung ski mecca as nuts about this stupid snoskiing thing as anyplace that’s cold and remotely hilly. The front side was 500 feet of pure fall line, the backside woods and narrow lanes. The summit view was gorgeous. The vibe pure zest and zeal. No pretention here. The place was fabulous, as good as Boyne Mountain from a pure skiing point of view. I couldn’t believe it when the hill closed in 2000.I’m still miffed. I’m not alone: the 5,015-member Friends of Sugar Loaf Facebook group is an online watering hole for the nostalgic and the hopeful (though IT’S NOT HAPPENING Bro is an unfortunate omnipresent parasite as well). I tend to be It Could Happen Bro, certain that a minimalist version of skiing could be viable. Last year, I exchanged emails with Traverse City native, former Sugar Loaf ski patroller, and Waterville Valley general manager Tim Smith about the possibility of a minimalist version of Sugar Loaf resurfacing at some point:Stuart: I'm really curious about your point of view on Sugarloaf, since you've been in skiing so long and really understand what it takes to bring a mountain back to life, and you seem to have a knack for making things happen. How much would it take to bring a minimum level of skiing back to Sugarloaf? Like let's say you sent [Waterville Valley’s retiring] Sunnyside Triple there and strung it base to summit up Awful Awful and brought in some mobile snow guns - would that be enough? I'm probably over-simplifying it, but I feel like the current owner has it in his head that skiing needs to be uber luxurious before you sell a lift ticket. But you look at Mount Bohemia in the UP, and the guy basically opened the place with some yurts, a base lodge, and a lift.Tim: Your simplification is pretty spot on. Minimum infrastructure to get going again would be a new/used lift, say $2 million will cover that with installation. For snowmaking pipe/pond/pumps/electrical for the frontside (Round About, Nastar, Waful, k2 and Awful Awful) 25 acres or so (that’s twice the size of Waterville Valley’s high country) feed that with 2,000 gpm giving an acre foot of snow every 1.33 hours, so 33 hours at full blast to cover the area with a foot of snow. To blast that type of snow the area would need at least 20 guns but I would recommend 40 as maxing out requires extreme cold. That’s 500k in guns, 500k in pumping, $1.5M for pipe, hydrants, electrical (bit of a WAG as I don’t know what is still there for primary electrical). A steel building lodge like Crotched runs about $2.5 but a yurt village would be doable for a few 100k so let say $1M for now. Parking is still in OK shape but I think the thing that would kill the project is the demo of the old lodge, but the county or state may help as it is a public nuisance at this point, so let’s say the fire department does a controlled burn 🔥 All said and done on a shoe string $5M should get it up and running. But if it was me I would go all in as I think the area could support a higher end resort, just need the right money man 😎. This is off the top of my head, some day it would be fun to run these numbers down and see if something could really work.OK, aren’t we here to talk about Paul Bunyan? Indeed. Excuse the detour, but I had a point: In about nine months in 2020, TJ and Wendy Kerscher and their family accomplished what gazillionaire Katofsky couldn’t in four years. In the midst of the early Covid lockdowns, their bar and their figurine factory idled, the Kerschers looked out at the overgrown and long-abandoned ski hill in their backyard and got to work. TJ meticulously dismantled and reassembled the 1967 Hall T-bar and several ropetows that had been A-Teamed together from 1940s truck parts. With crews of chainsaw-wielding friends, they marched up the hillside and cleared 25 years of forest. They borrowed snowguns from idled Norway Mountain, Michigan; picked up a trio of used Snowcats from Granite Peak; worked with K2 to build a small fleet of rental gear. In February 2021, the ski area re-opened to ecstatic locals.“They filled this place,” Wendy Kerscher told me in the interview. “They filled the hill. We ran out of rentals. It was amazing.”The Katofskys and IT’S NOT HAPPENING Bros of the world would have taken one look at Paul Bunyan and came up with a thousand reasons why the place was inoperable. Too decrepit, too small, too remote, too tired, too knotted to a bygone era of skiing, when surface lifts and five turns top-to-bottom were good enough.I have little use for such people. The cynics and the you-can’ts, the ones who always tell you why not. I am searching for the TJ and Wendy Kerschers of the world, the optimists and the puzzle-solvers, the people who are too busy working to realize that what they’re doing is impossible.The way they did what no one else could do was to simply do it. No master plans. No consultants. No expensive crews. No engineers. Just chainsaws and shovels and some borrowed heavy equipment. A little assistance from the ski industry. It helped that TJ had enough mechanical acuity to rebuild the lifts himself. It was a lot of work, but the result was a ski hill summoned out of the grave by Midwest FTW grit-and-grind.“You never can count sweat equity,” TJ told me. “It was awesome. I would do it all over again five times. I don’t count the work at all. We just had so much fun with this project.”It’s too bad the Kerschers didn’t live in front of Sugar Loaf. Were the mountain’s Hall lifts – famously reliable machines – really beyond repair? Could a more restlessly optimistic soul like TJ have saved them? Someone who truly loved and understood skiing? I tend to think the answer is yes. And we’ve got a story to prove it, a ski area saved, improbably but truly: Paul Bunyan is back.*Props to Lift Blog for ID’ing these lifts for me.What we talked aboutThe Kerscher family story; the family’s various businesses; the origins of Paul Bunyan as a local nonprofit; when and why the Kerscher family purchased the hill; growing up in an entrepreneurial family; how you react when your father buys a ski area; running a mountain at age 18; why Paul Bunyan closed in the mid-90s; deciding to re-open the ski area after 25 years dormant; a silver lining in Covid; the state of Paul Bunyan’s lifts, trails, and snowmaking after two and a half decades idle; improvisational snowmaking and long-term plans for improvement; that DIY Midwestern grit; restoring the fantastic homemade ropetow network cobbled together with 1940s truck parts; restoring a 1960s Hall T-bar; a fortuitous call from a friendly neighboring ski area; which of the four classic ropetows have been brought back into service, and which are next; the status of the tubing operation; reviving the overgrown trail network – “we got some guys together with some chainsaws and started cutting”; where the ski area is adding runs this summer; options for the forthcoming terrain park; skiers are “really embracing” Paul Bunyan’s “old-school … hang-on-tight ropetows”; restoring the hill’s 1969 Tucker Sno-Cat and why those machines still beat modern groomers for certain tasks; the large ski area that helped Paul Bunyan modernize its grooming fleet with a deal on used machines; setting up a rental shop, ski school, and patrol from scratch; managing labor as a small ski area; insurance; approaching such a massive project day-by-day; how it felt to see the lifts spinning again; “every single weekend, we are sold out of ski equipment”; bringing back night skiing; whether Paul Bunyan could ever be a seven-day-per-week operation; optimism and attitude are everything; advice for aspiring saviors of lost ski areas; the generosity of the greater ski industry; and whether Paul Bunyan had considered the Indy Pass Allied Resorts program.   Why I thought that now was a good time for this interviewI spend a lot of time shuffling through skiing’s online fringe. I am obsessed, for whatever reason, with completeness. This most obviously manifests itself through the Pass Tracker 5001, where I’ve been tracking U.S. America’s season pass prices for the past couple years. For hundreds of resorts, tracking down these numbers is a fairly simple exercise. Northstar – Epic Pass. Mammoth – Ikon Pass. And so on. But perhaps a quarter of the nation’s ski areas exist in a sort of steampunk half-world, online but without a formal website, a Facebook page usually, pointing skiers in a choppy, inconstant way toward their little hills, typically a neighborhood bump with a collection of Rube Goldberg surface lifts trundling up a few acres of clear-cut.I’ll frequently message these pages with queries about hours of operation or season pass prices. They almost never write back. So I was fairly surprised last month when a query to Paul Bunyan’s account produced a coherent response within hours. We exchanged a few messages and I invited them onto the podcast. So here we are.Believe it or not, it is typically more difficult to secure an interview with the operators of the Paul Bunyans of the world than the Steamboats or Beaver Creeks. The large ski areas have budgets, communications teams, marketing departments. The executives have talking points and media training. They expect me to knock on the door, and they’re usually willing to talk when I do. With the smaller places, it’s often difficult to determine who owns or manages the hill, and there’s rarely an obvious way to connect with them.So when I had the opportunity to talk to a family who had the audacity to say, “yeah we’re just going to re-open this ski hill with 60-year-old lifts on a minimal budget and by the way if you think this is impossible we’re just going to ignore you,” I couldn’t book it fast enough.Part of what makes skiing great is the raw adventure of a four-thousand-footer sprawling across a half dozen peaks with 35 lifts driving up and over cliffs and trees and elevator-shaft inclines. But a big part of what makes it interesting is that it’s not just that. That a network of hundreds of small-bore versions of this gigantic thing exist anywhere that cold weather and hills collide. If The Storm is after the full story of lift-served skiing, it must be not only aware of the world outside the Epkon flex palace, but immersed in it. There’s no better way to do that – and to bring you along with me – than to connect with operators like the Kerschers, whose story is one of pure love and passion, the one-turn-at-a-time kind of fun that so many in skiing have forgotten.Why you should ski Paul BunyanIf you live anywhere nearby, the answer to this question is obvious: because it’s there. In-between turns when you can’t make the drive over to Granite Peak. Because skiing can be your wintertime gym. Dip in, get your reps on, bounce. Don’t overthink it.For the rest of us – I live 1,100 miles away – the answer is more complicated. I acknowledge that only a handful of the most curious outsiders will ever deliberately visit the Midwest to ski. The ski media has ignored this region for its entire existence, focusing instead on two themes that invariably lead skiers north to New England or west to the Rockies: the ultra-rad or the ultra-luxe. Understandable. However, there exists a third narrative in skiing: discovery. I’ve spent the past two ski seasons in a state of perpetual ramble, bouncing from neighborhood bump to backwoods freeride to ridgeline 500-footer lodged at the top of America. It’s fun. You find little stashes, quirks, thrills. I almost never find crowds. Lift-served skiing is an impossibly rich world, dynamic and varied, funky and weird, curious and fascinating.Someday, I will roll through Wisconsin, and I’ll of course ski Cascade and Devil’s Head and La Crosse and Granite Peak and Whitecap. But I’ll also float through Paul Bunyan, ride the old T-bar, angle jet-fighter style toward one of the hill’s many ropetows and grab on mid-flight, as TJ so exuberantly suggests in our conversation. It won’t be Vail, but I won’t go in expecting that. You shouldn’t either. And what you’ll take away will be pretty cool: a mental snapshot of skiing stripped of all glam and pretense, of a snowsliding business defined by the activity itself, of a place homey and welcoming. That sort of ski-them-all completeness is not for everyone, I understand. But for those of us who adopt such a mentality, the rewards for going in on a Paul Bunyan lift ticket are enormous. More Paul BunyanCoverage of Paul Bunyan’s re-opening:Paul Bunyan Ski Hill to Reopen in Oconto County – Fox 11 Online, Nov. 30, 2020Lakewood Family Re-Opens Paul Bunyan Ski Hill – Spectrum News 1 – Feb. 9, 2021Dozens of Skiers Hit the Slopes at Paul Bunyan Ski Hill in Lakewood – Fox 11 Online, Dec. 26, 2021Paul Bunyan’s comeback is inspirational, but it’s an anomaly. The Midwest Lost Ski Areas Project has documented 374 lost ski areas across the 12-state region, including 97 in Wisconsin. Let’s hope there are more people like Wendy and TJ Kerscher out there, willing and able to take the low-budget path back to viability. You can follow along with updates on Paul Bunyan’s very active Facebook page:The Storm publishes year-round, and guarantees 100 articles per year. This is article 58/100 in 2022, and number 304 since launching on Oct. 13, 2019. Want to send feedback? Reply to this email and I will answer (unless you sound insane). You can also email skiing@substack.com. Get full access to The Storm Skiing Journal and Podcast at www.stormskiing.com/subscribe

April 4, 2022 — As PG&E's tree-cutting crews move into more neighborhoods, some property owners are slowly starting to think in terms of an organized response. But the enhanced vegetation management program, with its multitude of contractors and the lack of education or publicly available documents, is bewildering to most landowners. Lauren Robertson is a resident of Pine Mountain in Willits. She described the approach she's seen in her neighborhood. “PG&E has been masterful at dealing with people individually,” she opined; “doing favors for some property owners. And as soon as they do a favor for a property owner, that property owner is suddenly not mad anymore. And that's a little disturbing.” Robertson is scrupulous about hardening her property for fire safety. “We could bury our houses also, and that would prevent fires from burning our houses down,” she reasoned. “But we've hardened our houses. And I think that's what PG&E is not doing. They're not hardening their lines. Or hardening their infrastructure by cutting down trees.” A recent report by acting State Auditor Michael Tilden blasted the privately owned utilities and the agencies that are supposed to regulate them. Tilden wrote that the Energy Safety Office, which is part of the California Natural Resources Agency, approved PG&E's 2021 safety plan, in spite of its own review, which “found that the utility failed to demonstrate that it was properly prioritizing other mitigation activities, particularly power line replacement and system hardening efforts,” like insulating bare cable in high-risk areas. Tilden added that, “The CPUC does not consistently audit all areas in the utilities' service territories, it did not audit several areas that include high fire-threat areas, and it does not use its authority to penalize utilities when its audits uncover violations.” “There's no authority that can tell them what to do. They can just do whatever they want,” according to Walter Smith, a former logger who turned his attention to international deforestation prevention efforts in the 1990's. “We all know that corporate power is a problem. And now it's right in our face.” Smith was also instrumental in starting the Mendocino County Climate Advisory Committee in 2019. For the past month, he's been spending three or four hours a day researching the public resource code, making phone calls, and sharing his findings with an email list that includes dozens of environmentalists and political representatives in Mendocino and Humboldt counties. So far, he's succeeded in keeping crews out of an old-growth grove that's especially important in a millennial drought. “This whole hill was left as old growth,” he said on a recent afternoon, as he led a reporter into the deep, cool shade of the grove. “Because underneath, at the bottom of this hill, is an underground river, which we get our water from, and all these houses get their water off of that same one. The old-timers knew to protect the water, you gotta keep shade on it, and you gotta keep the old-growth trees on it.” Smith is especially perturbed by the damage that was done to an old madrone, when crews felled a tree from his neighbor's property into the grove, tearing limbs from the old struggling hardwood and leaving debris from the felled firs all over the forest floor. “This tree, in terms of this neighborhood, is a heritage tree,” Walter related. He said neighborhood kids used to sit high in its branches and feel like they were “at the top of the world,” or swing out over the underground river on a rope swing. “So this old tree meant something, other than just being an old tree in the forest,” he concluded. “It was a home base, if you will, for children on this hill.” Marie Jones is the chair of the Mendocino County Climate Advisory Committee, which recently drafted a letter imploring the Board of Supervisors to petition the Governor and the Office of Energy and Infrastructure Safety to call a halt to the program long enough to get some answers, “on a range of issues,” she began. “So one is, what are landowners' rights regarding tree removal? A lot of people don't realize, but landowners can actually say, no you can't remove these trees from my property. And also, if PG&E's tree removal results in significant devaluation of your property, you can actually require PG&E to pay for that devaluation. We're also very concerned about whether or not there really is a scientific basis for tree removal. I think it's an easy fix for PG&E because it's relatively inexpensive compared to upgrading their systems. But in the long term, it's also very ineffective, because it does increase the fire risk, rather than reducing it.” The organized response is slow-moving and small-scale. But Randy MacDonald of Pine Mountain is holding out until he gets the documents and contracts and signatures he expects from any serious, legitimate project. “They have not been able to provide that,” he reported. “Now it's been two weeks, and I said, get back to me when you have all the paperwork. And they have not gotten back to me, and I'm just getting more and more educated here.” On Thrusday afternoon, MacDonald's neighbor Bobbi Mallace sat on her porch looking at what remains of the trees that used to shade her home and provide privacy from the road. “Obviously, we can't move it,” she said. “So we're dependent on PG&E, which tells us they're going to pick it up. If they pick it up, great. If they don't pick it up, it's going to stay there and become a fire hazard…I don't feel safer.” Asked if she thought there was any kind of legal response, Mallace said the only one she could come up with was a class-action suit. But “you've got to have a class,” she pointed out. “Because fighting PG&E has got to be a pretty big class. Alone, I don't think you could do a thing.”

John D. Basie (Ph.D., Baylor University) serves as Director of the Masters Experience at Impact 360 Institute in Pine Mountain, Georgia. He is also the author of “Know. Be. Live. A 360 approach to discipleship in a post-Christian era.” So we will be discussing the faith of the next generation.

Today I am chatting with Brian Sharbono, he won this inaugural Monroe Cross Trail 50 Miler this year as he preps for the Umstead 100. He has a handful of great runs at races such as winning the 2021 Pine Mountain 19 Miler and the Pine Mountain 46 Miler in 2019. He's done the Sweat, Swat, n Swear and took a victory at the River to Sea 6 Hour. At the 2021 Leadville 100, he ran a time of 23:42:12 to have a Top 50 finish. So last weekend, that last weekend of January the Monroe Cross Trail 50 Miler took place in its inaugural event! Diane Romero-Lopez knocked it out of the park with this one. Now, it's a paved point-to-point 50 miler that starts in Volusia County, starting from Rotary Park in Edgewater, Florida and going 50 miles to the finish line at Central 28 Beer Company in DeBary, Florida. Brian Sharbono took the victory this year with a time of 6:13:19 as he preps for the Umstead 100. Marc Burget took that 2nd overall with a time of 6:31:26! Luis Gomez, who placed second at Long Haul this year came in 3rd with a time of 7:28:59. The women's race was a close finish!! The first woman came in 4th overall, Joanne Fisher, she ran a time of 8:11:41. She was shortly followed by 5th place overall, and of course your second place woman… Jennifer Jordan with a time of 8:11:53. Shirley Olson was your third woman and 9thoverall with a time of 9:10:51!

Travelogue Series: I start a multi-episode travelogue exposition in 2022, by visiting North Carolina and the Yadkin Valley. In this multi-part series on North Carolina, we’ll explore the Yadkin Valley, meet with producers, and feature several interviews for the YouTube portion of the show with those producers. We will feature Finger Lakes producers in between, and ultimately also explore The Hill Country in Texas, and the wine-growing regions of Idaho. Please excuse errors in the text, this was dictated and gently edited.North CarolinaWhen I moved to the Finger Lakes a decade ago, I was hungry to find as much information as possible about the region. I wanted to find books magazine articles, podcasts, and nearly anything that would shed light on the history of the region that I was moving to. At that time, there really weren’t very many publications. At the very least, I couldn’t seem to find a short history of how the finger Lakes and become one of the most discussed emerging regions in the United States. There was of course the wonderful book, Summer in a Glass, by Evan Dawson, in which he follows a number of different winemakers through the growing season 2009 in the Finger Lakes. In the absence of such a book, I set out to write one of my own, with much more of an eye towards content marketing for our new winery, and dug into all of the old journals, periodicals, and textbooks on American wine I could find. I published A Sense of Place in 2014, and have been able to use it as a great tool to help educate customers and even tasting room associates. I wasn’t able to find anything quite like that on North Carolina, and realized a lot of the lessons I would learn would have to be done on the ground.The Yadkin Valley is vast, covering more than 1,300,000 acres. With such a large span of land, I knew that there was going to have to be variation in the topography, and even the climate to a certain extent, within the AVA. I was a bit surprised flying from my layover in Atlanta into Greensboro, to see a dusting of snow covering the ground. For the cold climate winemaker, I just assumed that North Carolina would be significantly warmer than the finger Lakes I had left behind. I was surprised at the temperature spread on the ground that morning was only about 10°, with a balmy 31°F when I landed. Setting out from the airport, and passing through Winston Salem, more than anything else I just wanted to get a feel for the lay of the land. Whenever I arrive in a new place, in order to get my bearings in a sense for what the place looks and feels like, I’d like to just go for a drive. It gives me a better understanding of where the towns are that get referenced in conversation, what some of the local historical landmarks are, and even where the politics of a place takes place. Knowing that I was in the Yadkin Valley, and heading west from Winston Salem towards Yadkin County, and the Yadkin River, I figured why not plug Yadkinville into my GPS.I had broken up my trip into visiting the southern portion of the EVA for the first day and a half, and the northern portion of the AVA on the second and third days. Highway 218 seems to cut the AVA in half so it was a good working point to begin to discover some of the different wineries I had a particular interest in tasty.To choose just a few wineries in an emerging wine region is an extraordinarily difficult job. In a sense it’s kind of a gamble, you rely on reputation, customer reviews, and references from people who are much more expertise in the region and then yourself, but so much of wine still comes down to personal taste, and aesthetics. What I had decided I wanted to do, in pursuing a slightly deeper understanding of the AVA, was to look at oneThat was an anchor in terms of the history of the region, to look at a winery that was relatively new, but small and focused on extraordinary quality, and to look at one of the biggest producers in the AVA with an extraordinary offering of a variety of different ones. I figured I would have a chance to taste several other wineries along the way and include them in this report.Because in so many ways this was a last minute trip many of the people I reached out to likely hadn’t even opened their inbox by the time I was heading out of town. It was the period just after New Year’s, and often times it’s pretty slow start in the new year in the wine industry. I had however, gotten replies from Shelton, that winery that I referenced as a pioneer in the AVA, and really one of the reasons why there is a Yadkin Valley a View today. I had received word back from Childress, the the winery name and founded by Richard Childress, of NASCAR fame. North Carolina is NASCAR country, and Richard Childress has built one of the largest brands, in fact one of the few I had heard of before traveling to North Carolina, while making wine in New York. I also received word from Diana Jones, of Jones Von Drehle, one of the wineries at the northern end of the AVA, and one that had come extremely highly recommended.  Some of the wineries on my shortlist included Ray Lyn, Raffaldino, Shadow Springs, and a handful of others. I guess from the perspective of somebody who is trying to discover a new wine region, one of my only frustrations was not having more direct links to members of winery staff where I could email or contact them directly. I realize this is a problem on my own website, and after experiencing this, something I’ll be change. Sometimes the ease of having an inbox that serves as a catch-all becomes a crutch for us small business owners, but as someone who is seeking some very specific answers to some very specific questions, it can make sense to ensure that those individuals with deeper questions can reach winemakers directly.In any event, I arrived in Yadkinville, crossing the Yadkin River, and decided to head to town where I could pick up some bottled water and a couple snacks and see what the town offered. Yadkinville is a small town, there doesn’t seem to be much of a culinary scene, and it really is just the county seat. It’s where you go to get permits, and like we have your county planning board meetings. There wasn’t much by way of a presence of wine in the town, but I did notice when I stopped in to the local grocery store, Food Lion, and realized this was a state that sells wine in grocery stores, and they had a small selection of some of the local producers, with Childress being one of them. The wines on offer were very basic, emphasizing the muscadine production of sweet wines from local producers, but there were a few dry reds and whites included on the shelf. Since Yadkinville marked in the center of the AVA, and it was getting to be towards the middle of the afternoon, I figured I would enter wineries into my GPS to see if any were open, and get back on the road. Leaving the main highway I drove beautiful winding roads and very gentle hills in what was largely agricultural countryside. I drove by a winery called Bradford Hills, which was a very small tasting room and an out-building, a small but well manicured vineyard, and it look like a fantastic place to visit on a beautiful summer day. It didn’t look like it would be open until after my flight was departing on Friday, and I quickly realized that I likely would not have a chance to taste many of the wineries that I hadn’t made contact with, during the middle of the week. This meant that a lot of the small producers, wineries about my own winery’s size and smaller, would have to wait for another trip.After taking some pictures I set back out onto the road, looking at my GPS and seeing what wineries I would be passing on my way to Lexington, where Childress is located and where my hotel room was booked. I noticed that RayLyn could be reached with a small detour. From my research it was a winery that I really wanted to taste at, and I noticed they were open, so I made my way. Even though it is winter, there’s still more sun and warmth then we get in the finger Lakes. The grass was still green, though the trees were bare, and the bare trees opened up the countryside even more so that you could see the hills and buildings, that were off in the distance. Making my way from Bradford Hill winery, the landscape became less dramatic, slightly flatter, but retaining the same intrinsic quality. Passing fields that had recently been ploughed, the deep tones of brick and garnet that marked the clay that is found all throughout this region, was everywhere. My GPS led me to RaeLyn Vineyards, and upon entering I was impressed. The site was easily accessible from many of the main highways, and from that perspective, it seems to be ideally situated to attract a steady flow of customers. One of the things I’ve learned as a producer, especially one in an emerging region, is how important it is to be able to attract customers in as convenient of a location as possible. When so much of your business depends on people knocking on that cellar door, you want that door to be easily accessible. RayLyn was marked with a beautiful gate as an entrance, and a a gentle drive through the vineyards towards the tasting room in winery. I passed a small new planting of strawberries and several young rows of blueberries. I particularly like when wine wineries are able to integrate other forms of agriculture into their farms. Whether they are used for any sort of wine production, I think it encapsulates this idea of our responsibility to the soil and to the earth. It also reminds us of the other forms of agriculture that we can be excited about. I’ve begun integrating more produce at our winery, planting cucumbers and tomatoes, peppers and squash, and hope to grow this out in the future.Approaching the parking lot at Ray Lynn, there’s a very nice outdoor tent that they seem to be able to use for banquets or weddings, and likely overflow for the tasting room if the weather is inclement. At this point in the afternoon the temperature had risen to about 41°, but with that southern sun shining bright, the fresh air combined with the warmth felt wonderful on my skin. And it wasn’t just me, there were a couple folks sitting out enjoying the day on some picnic tables outside the tasting room with a glass of wine. They were polite and smiled and gave me a small raise of the glass as I walked by. I entered the tasting room was read it immediately. People in North Carolina are friendly. I spoke with the tasting room staff, explained I was a winemaker and operated podcast, and had wanted to feature RayLyn on the shelf. This was one of the emails that had gotten lost in my expedited travel plan, and so without an appointment I took a gamble. It was a great choice. The tasting room staff was excited, informed me that her husband was from Watkins Glen, and eagerly brought up the names of some of my favorite producers in the Finger Lakes, folks that they have close personal relationships with. Being from Watkins Glen, of course the Stamp family at Lakewood, received some of the highest praise. She offered to taste me through the portfolio and I happily agreed, this would be my first taste of North Carolina wine In North Carolina.This winery offers a full suite of different wines, emphasizing dry veneer for a red and white wines, they also offer a beautiful Charmat style rosé, of course some of the sweet wines that have built this region made from the Muscadine grapes, and canned wine as well. We worked our way through the Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, and the dry rosé. Review my notes to include some of the specifics about each wine here. Fortunately, the tasting room also had available detailed notes on the chemistry of the wines, the harvest date, and the components that were in most of the blinds. It’s interesting in the finger Lakes, our growing season doesn’t really kick off until May, and that means that most varietals won’t begin harvest until September. Of course there are some hybrid grapes that are harvested much sooner, but those don’t tend to be any of the bridals that I work with. With harvest starting in September, there have been vintages where we are harvesting all the way through early November, and that doesn’t include wines that we are making as light harvest wines, where we can be harvesting all the way to Thanksgiving, or ice wines which may be picked in January or February of the next year. It seems to me, that much of harvest will begin in August here in North Carolina and be ramping up by the end of September. It also struck me that that works very well for those people who enjoy wine country visits in October, during the fall when the air begins to cool and the excitement of all the dressings of fall are in the air. As a wine maker in the finger Lakes, Columbus Day marks our busiest weekend of the year. It also marks one of those weekends where we are fully in mashed in all of the seller activities, and that means I rarely get a chance to spend time with customers during harvest. It would be great to have the opportunity to spend more time as a wine maker with customers just as harvest is wrapping up and tourism is peeking. Though I love both red and white wines, my desert island wine will generally consist of a white. For me white wines offer a transparency into Vineyard practice and seller practice that edge out reds. Consequently I spend a lot more time thinking about white wine, I spend a whole lot more time making white wine in the finger Lakes, and I find that I drink or white wine. All of the whites offered at RayLyn were wonderful, some with a small component of Muscat Canelli, which added some wonderful aromatics.  Add a little bit of the history from the website of RaeLyn here. While tasting Rachel, one of the owners and daughter of the founder, and the ray of RaeLyn stop by to say hi. She made sure that I was enjoying my tasting, and trying to help me make contact with Steve, their winemaker. He had been in Asheville that day and wouldn’t be arriving until later in the week. She gave me his email address and I hope to have him on in the future in a long distance long-form interview. From everything I’ve heard, he’s one of these towering pioneering figures in the Yadkin Valley and someone who is clearly taking their wines to great heights. The Reds were equally as compelling as the whites, and in someways perhaps even more so. You can get the sense when you’re at a winery, what is the family who makes these wines prefer to drink, and I did get that sense here. One of the bottlings, had what I assumed with some modern art on it, but upon looking closer and receiving the explanation understood That it was actually the Doppler radar of a hurricane. Yes one of my questions has been immediately answered, hurricanes can be a factor here in the Yadkin Valley, though they are nowhere near the factor that people who live closer to the coast have to deal with.  Discuss this wine.After a really wonderful visit at RaeLyn, I ordered a case of wine, had it shipped back to our winery in New York, and set off for Lexington. Again with no familiarity of any of these towns or cities, I chose Lexington because it is the closest town to Childress vineyards. Lexington is nestled in the far south eastern portion of the AVA and most of the city isn’t included in the AVA itself. The town itself is it fairly nice downtown area, and it does feel like there is a small foodie movement emerging, with some local cafés and a Piedmont cheese shop. But in many ways it remains in agricultural and industrial, southern town that I can picture with time and investment has the potential to grow itself into a hub of Wine and food centrality.Just outside the fenced in property for Childress Vineyards was the Holiday Inn and adjoining plaza.  There weren’t really any shops in the small but nice strip mall that is next to the Holiday Inn, but it is all designed in a very similar fashion to Childress itself. The hotel has one side that looks out at the vineyards which I imagine would be a wonderful way to wake up. I was booked on the highway facing side, but the room is quiet and clean and a nice place to eat my takeout Mexican dinner for the night.So much of my philosophy is based on the specifics and the importance of place, and tied up with that philosophy is the notion that small is often better. Most of the time, most of the restaurant and dining options I observed, or chains that work cute in to specializing in any notion of local cuisine. Out here it wasn’t even real common to find a lot of barbecue joints, which I half expected to see almost everywhere. Again maybe I wasn’t looking in the right places, but I do have the sense that restaurant and food entrepreneurs will likely have a huge market to tap into if that’s the direction they would like to go in partnering with this growing wine country.My appointment with Mark Friszolowski was at nine the next morning, and so after getting a good nights sleep and waking up fairly early, I headed over to Childress Vineyards. I was said to meet him in the lobby and as a military man, who retired as a colonel and between his active and reserve duty spent 37 years in the army, I knew that on time was to be 10 minutes early. Driving into Childress which was literally just around the corner from the parking lot of the hotel in through the gates, you pass through a wonderfully manicured vineyard.  The varietals are all identified by signs with the trademark Richard Childress logo, and varietals like Maulbeck and Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, and multiple Ciano I’ll stand out. There were signs marking planned plantings of Chardonnay and Pinot noir, which I’m particularly interested to see how they do with the North Carolina heat. The tasting room and winery set a top of hill which can be seen from almost any point of the drive into the wineries grounds. It is a beautiful Modern take with an Italian 18. It is the sort of Tuscany inspired building but you’ll find Americans like to build. It sets the tone for the romantic visions that we have of European, and especially Italian, winemaking culture. I know that there are some people who don’t like this form of architecture, they don’t like the sense that it calls out and emotive response that she would find somewhere else in the world but with modern building materials and aesthetics. I’ll be honest, I liked it. I think that they put a lot of effort into creating a beautiful building and grounds with a nice setting that makes you feel like that The winery you’re entering is making some special wines, they put in a lot of effort to set a tone and that tone carries through from the heat and painted murals on the wall of scenes of grape harvest, to the indoor fountain, to the seated tasting room with string lights and doors. This is not the Olive Garden experience, this is something much nicer and with such warm staff, more personal too. The entire tasting room experience was wonderful, The seller tour, The tour of the grounds in the bonded warehouse, explanations on infrastructure projects, a peek inside the restaurant and banquet facility, were all greatly appreciated. Mark was a wonderful host, who poured some great wines. We focused on their vinifera wines,tasting Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay, as well as Montepulciano, and some red blends. Mark’s personal history, from his time helping out at Dry Creek Vineyards in California, managing operations at Pindar on Long Island, and ultimately moving to North Carolina to help found Childress. Mark is one of the first winemakers in the country to collaborate on creating the Meritage Alliance, and therefore creating Bordeaux based blends.  The specific vintage of Meritage we tried, the 2015, is a well aged current release. It carried many of the things I love about older Bordeaux, the hints of cedar, the forest floor. It was it both times bolder than what you’ll find in many offerings in the Finger Lakes, but leaner than what you would find in California. And struck a nice middle ground, and was a sort of sweet spot of bold but not overly dramatic red blends that I personally like, and that I think complement food quite well. I’ll be spending an entire feature in an episode with Mark on Childress, so for now we’re going to continue with our travelogue and look at the rest of us the experience here in the Yadkin Valley._____ In crafting the short travel log, I wanted to make sure that it wasn’t strictly about wine. Most of the time when we travel, there are other things on our quotation mark to do quotation mark list. There are a couple of really interesting tourist activities here in the Yadkin Valley, but deal both with history, pop-culture, and the wonderful natural surroundings. Mark was so generous with his time, but I found myself leaving the winery later than I had expected. I certainly wasn’t disappointed and I had made sure to leave a good window of time to spend at this landmark property. I figured I would spend the rest of the afternoon exploring some of those other offerings, and found my way to highway, and I headed up for the town of Mount Airy.Mount Airy sits on the North Carolina Virginia border. It is like so many other hill and mountain towns in America, a quintessential snapshot of life in both modern and past American societies. Mountains and hills can I think we people to be a bit more hearty sometimes a bit tougher but always genuinely very nice. The town itself is built around its historic Main Street. And coming in to Mount airy do you understand what that history is all about.  The name of the highway even changes and becomes the Andy Griffith Parkway, and that of course is named after the famous television show an actor that for seven seasons captured the aspirational qualities of American small-town life. With its classic whistling introduction, it’s sensitive skipping Stones and safety and security, of good old fashion morals and values and being raised in small-town life, Mount Airy was the inspiration for the Andy Griffith show fictional town of Mayberry. Mayberry is the corner stone upon which so much of the towns character now rests. You see signs for Aunt Bee’s café, you see the Mayberry antique shops, the Mayberry museum, ice cream shops meant to look like they were preserved from the 1930s, and a sense of pride that their town was once the basis for this dreamscape of Americana. Some of that dreamscape feels a little rough around the edges now, who knows if it was then if that’s what it’s always been, or if the changing times or loss of industrial base, of structural changes to our economy, and even the opioid epidemic that we face in this country, have added a touch of tarnish to the shine. In all, it’s a great place to be, a wonderful old historic town and I’m happy I made a detour.As you leave Mount Airy and head south on the highway back towards a more central location of the AVA you pass a geological wonder, an outcropping called Pine Mountain. It dominates the skyline and can be seen from many many miles away when you’re on top of hills. Driving past it, and without enough time to drive to the park and visit the mountain personally, I realize that this will be on the top of my list when I have a chance to return with my family and my children. I used to love walks through areas like this when I was a child and I can’t wait for Andrew And Audrey to have that experience with me. I found out, it isn’t the only fascinating geological wonder to explore, as there’s also Stone Mountain, which figured prominently in my second visit on my third day on the ground in the Yadkin Valley.For that evening I had made reservations in a small town called Elkin, or rather just outside of it, in the adjoining town of Jonesville. Jonesville is the classic sort of truckstop town, that offers some heavy industry, but largely consists of some gas stations, hotels, a Cracker Barrel, fast food restaurants, and a grocery store that serves the locals. It did have a Mexican restaurant, this one called Margaritas, which I took advantage of both nights of my stay in the Hampton Inn.Arriving at the hotel, it was a little older, but the staff was exceptionally accommodative, the room was perfectly clean, and the setting itself was quiet. When you were on the road there are very few other things that you actually need. Warm cookies were waiting for us as we checked in, and I unloaded my bags and all of our equipment in my room before I set out for the town to see what was available. Before I set my sights on dinner, I wanted to see Elkin itself. For my own personal aesthetic tastes, this portion of the AVA felt like it matched my desires more closely than the south eastern portion of the AVA. Elkin was quaint but beautiful. As the sun was coming down, the Yadkin River roared not too far away, the train tracks cross run adjacent to the main street, and the town itself seems well put together. Large murals adorn some of the older brick buildings, many featuring grapevines, and the town features a wonderfully restored old theater. Elkin felt nicer than Mount Airy in someways, not to denigrate Mount Airy at all, but it struck me that Elkin is the sort of town that could deal with in Oakville grocers type of concept, some interesting fine dining that features many of the local wineries strongest efforts, and some other cultural activities. Again it’s the off-season and perhaps there is that sort of activity that is going on that I’m simply not aware of, but I feel like the future for Elkin is bright. There aren’t a lot of accommodations right around downtown, but with all of the hotel options in Jonesville, Elkin will be able to maximize the heads in beds that is so important for wine country tourism. Interestingly Elkin and Jonesville, where you reach Jonesville by crossing the Yadkin River, are in different counties. I’m not sure if any of the development has anything to do with that, but in my own experience, especially when you’re dealing with the county and town level, so many of the decisions on what can happen and how well a town or region grows, are based on the local politics and the bureaucratic decisions that are made. I’d have to be there for a lot longer to know if any of this is in play.I picked up some carnitas and pollo asado street tacos, and headed back to my room for another great night sleep. The next morning I had appointments with two different wineries, Shelton Vineyards, and Johns Von Drehle.I woke up early the next morning, spent some time on my computer making sure that I had transferred all of my photos and videos, refreshing some of my notes from my previous day’s visit, and set out for Shelton Vineyards. Any of my initial skepticism‘s on the beauty of the countryside, how this wine region will grow and what its potential is, we’re set aside as I visited Shelton. Shelton is located in the town of Dobson.The exit from the highway for Shelton Vineyards also leads you to Surrey Community College. Surrey Community College was constantly a subject of discussion with most of the people in the wine industry that I met. It is a community college with a vineyard and enology program, and one that was largely initiated and funded by the Shelton Brothers the founders a Shelton Vineyards.  Similar to my emphasis in the finger Lakes on the finger Lakes community college Viticulture program, the Surrey community College program helps to introduce and train up the next generation of viticulture lists knickers. The college itself has a program and a 10 acre Vineyard where students can learn. Against that backdrop of both philanthropy and history, I was excited to have the chance to meet with Ethan Brown, winemaker in Shelton in Vineyards. Ethan had been there for four years, and in a way that completes the circle of the importance of programs like the one at Surrey community college, he attended the program many years ago. Ethan was a young organized dynamic guy, and he wasted no time in showing me around the winery tasting room, and providing a little bit of context for the history of the place. Currently the largest vinifera vineyard in the state of North Carolina, Shelton farms 80 acres of grapes with plans to plant a lot more. Exceptionally manicured, with beautiful old fashion light posts lining the long driveway from the highway to the winery, Shelton truly transports you to a different world. The gentle rolling hills adorn with a backdrop of the mountains, which on clear warm days, I can imagine, inspires you to find your own piece of beautiful grass, and enjoy a glass and some cheese with someone you laugh. For those wine club members who want the best of views, you can climb up to the gazebo that rests surrounding vineyards and truly has the best features of the entire valley.Built in 1999, Shelton Vineyards really isn’t showing it’s age that much. It speaks to the efforts of the staff to ensure maintenance is done regularly and things are taken care of. The cellar itself is built into a hillside which means most of it is underground. The barrel rooms are probably 20 feet high but at least 2/3 of that being underground meaning temperature control from both cold and heat is a lot easier and done with much less energy.  Producing around 25,000 cases a year, this is a Winery that has seen the baton passed from the founding Shelton brothers to the next generation. With that transition is an intention to grow their programs and initiate new ones. With the recent purchase of a break tank and a small hand bottling counter pressure system the winery seeking to do more charmat style sparklings. Ethan also talked about expanding cock and re-instituting their traditional methods Sparkling Wine program. I tasted a Sauvignon Blanc, a dry rosé based on Merlot, Petit Verdot, and a Petit Verdot/Cabernet Sauvignon blend.. All of the wines were exceptionally crafted, showing what I had begun to discern as something that speaks to the North Carolina fine wines that I tried. The whites and the reds are both fuller bodied than what we find in the Finger Lakes, they have generous acid ,but lower than what we have in truly cool climate winemaking; and the reds weren’t overly extracted. They spoke of great fruit, they were well balanced, and their alcohols were generally about 13%. I also tasted a great Tannat. My wife and I have visited Madiran in southern France, I’ve had a lot of experience with the French version of the varietal. We visited a number of producers large and small in Madiran, and I love those wines, there just aren’t that many American Tannat’s that I have fallen in love with. Of course the wines of Jenny McCloud of Chrysalis have been wonderful, and I’ve been lucky enough to cellar those for many years. This North Carolina Tannat, my first experience with a varietal in the terroir, makes sense for the region. There are some very strong Virginia Tannats that are growing, and with this particular vineyard in North Carolina, I renewed my love of the varietal. As with Childress, and the winery I’ll be talking about next, Jones Von Drehle, Shelton will have its own feature in the podcast, as I sat down with Ethan Brown to discuss his own experience, Shelton Vineyards, and where the region and the winery is going. As Ethan and I wrapped up, and he was generous enough to spend several hours and taste a lot of wines with me, I headed off for my last visit of the day to Jones Von Drehle. The roads grew less crowded, the bends and winds and hills became more dramatic, and I started to wonder where in the heck was this place. I arrived early, about an hour or so, and took advantage of the opportunity to do just a little bit of driving and perhaps find something to eat. I typed in food nearby and the nearest place was the Stone Mountain General store. It wasn’t too far from the Stone Mountain State Park entrance, and so I figured I’d head over there and see what was available. The general store itself feels plucked from time. An old rustic wooden building, but offers inside a few knickknacks, necessities for campers such as para chord, fire starters, and offers a few small food items for the weary traveler camper. Simple offerings like a hamburger or cheeseburger, or a housemaid turkey or ham sandwich were available. The turkey sandwich tasted like home, although it was on white bread. Turkey, American cheese, lettuce, tomato: all for $2.95. It wasn’t the most glamorous meal I’ve ever had in wine country, but it filled me up, tasted just fine, and was certainly marked as my cheapest option I’ve ever had on the road. I took advantage and drove around the park a bit, didn’t have a chance to see Stone Mountain itself but just like Pine Mountain, this will be on my itinerary for the next visit, one I hope to take with the family.Heading back down the hill I arrived at my appointment just on time at Jones Von Drehle, and boy was I impressed. The Vineyard itself has two entrances, a service entrance and a guest entrance. I can tell it was an extremely quiet day but I wanted to have the standard customer experience, and so I entered the other guest entrance. Driving down the crusher run you are snaked through the vineyards, pass the retention ponds, as the tasting room and winery, and brand new amphitheater open up before you. It is an impressive and beautiful experience. The slope of the hills hug you to your right as you wind your way around the vineyards on one side nature on the other and approach your final destination. The hills jumped in different directions the vines bear open up the view to see row after row in this well-kept vineyard. The amphitheater itself is gorgeous. Recently finished it’s part of the philosophy of the owners to incorporate wine music in food into living a good life. The tasting room is not extraordinarily elaborate in it’s design, but it’s well thought out and well appointed inside. The most impressive feature, is the immersive feeling you get when you walk in turn to your right and look out the windows in the back of what is the tasting room. The slopes feel even more dramatic here from the vineyards, and with the trees bare of their foliage you can peer through the trunks to see the steep incline of the Granache and the Malbec and other varietals.  Well lit, and open, without any sense of clutter, the tasting room invite you to a horse shoe shaped bar in the middle were the tasting room attendant who was very nice and gracious, and the new to the wine industry expressed an amazing thirst for knowledge, that is extremely inviting. Diana Jones was waiting for me, and informed me that her husband Chuck was on his way back from Charlotte where they had been delivering some wine. This 6000 case winery is centered around 30 acres of a estate vineyard. They do not have a distributor, and unfortunately don’t ship to New York state right now, but when they get that license, I can assure you I’ll be ordering more wines. Everything was wonderful and unique. From their Grenache rosé, to their Chardonnay - both stainless steel and barrel fermented, to the real interesting Petit Manseng, which carries a fairly heavy alcohol, but is it so well balanced on the pallet that it is neither distracting nor over the top. It is well balanced and full bodied, and a wine that they described as being extremely popular at restaurants who have received James Beard‘s nominees and nods, as a “buy the glass” pour. Tasting through their Grenache rosé, this dry rosé echoed Provence with its own North Carolina flair. It was a wonderful wine and one I decided I had to take one home. Their red offerings were equally as compelling. Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Petit Verdot and Cabernet Sauvignon blend - all were well-crafted, clearly brilliantly grown, and offered everything I could hope for. Their winemaker, cut his teeth in California, spending decades in the industry until he finally decided he wanted to have a small farm himself and, with land prices in California being what they are, realized the East Coast offered his best opportunity to become a farmer himself. He took over the reins at Château Morissette in Virginia, and this large production oriented winery did well for him for sometime. As he sought to become more ingrained in a small production oriented facility, he had heard about the efforts of these two crazy couples from Atlanta Georgia with original roots in North Carolina, that had planted an estate vineyard in the middle of the hills just south of Stone Mountain. It’s been a match made in heaven and with Dan’s experience, and the attention to detail in Vineyard, the wines are truly top-notch. The way the Vineyard is set up, many of the worst things that you deal with in the Yadkin Valley AVA, are ameliorated naturally. Water naturally runs down the clay hill slopes, with the help of some drain tile. The intense humidity and moisture that you deal with in North Carolina, is marginalized by the fact that the steep hills along with the fact that the mountains are in the distance, create an almost constant airflow which helps to dry the canopy and the fruit during crucial periods of the year. Additional measures such as the first cordon being 42 inches high instead of 36 inches from the ground help reduce ground moisture from impacting the fruit. The whole property is fenced to keep our critters. The wind also helps to protect the vines from early-season frosts, which often compromise buds, particularly the primary buds where the majority of the fruit is located, and get them through very treacherous periods where the temperatures will impact that year‘s harvest. And overall just the amount of effort that the team here puts into their vineyards, the philosophy that fine wine comes from extraordinary vineyards rings true. We go even deeper into Jones Von Drehle in our long-form interview, which is slightly shorter than the long form interviews I do from the studio, but nonetheless will give you a much deeper picture of this winery it’s history and it’s increasingly prominent role in the North Carolina wine industry.Returning to Elkin for the evening, I had wished I brought an extra bottle to enjoy that evening. Instead I did what we winemakers often do and grabbed some local beers, picked up another to go order of Mexican food from Margaritas, and spent some time recapping the visits with my wife, enjoying the shrimp chipotle that I filled into some fresh corn tortillas, and then headed to bed. The next morning I would be leaving the Yadkin Valley, and any initial apprehension that I had as to where this wine region was, was disappearing. When it came to food, Diana Jones had mentioned that Asheville and Raleigh were truly astounding foodie towns. With that as a basis, it won’t take long for some enterprising young chef or cook who wants to do their own project, to find their way to one of the small towns and make it work during the busy tourist seasons.Yet again, I woke up early worked on my computer for a bit, and double checked my itinerary checking in to my Delta flight. I realized at this pace, I may not have time to taste at any other wineries, but I could at least take a peek at the landscapes in the settings that the region had to offer. I took a drive out to a winery that I had really wanted to visit, but in this trip just couldn’t make it work.  Raffaldini is widely regarded as not just an important landmark in North Carolina wines, but a house that is making some truly stellar North Carolina wines.  From all my research, it is the sort of aspirational wine story that is bred in a man who worked hard and made a great deal of money in another field. Using those resources, he has poured them in to building a truly astounding estate. You can look at pictures on the Internet, you can watch videos on YouTube, but with some properties you don’t understand just how special they are until you actually visit them. And so setting Raffaldini in my iPhone map, I headed in the direction of the winery.  Driving down the highway, North Carolina has done such an excellent job in featuring the different wineries throughout the state with these large highway adjacent signs, that I quickly realized this was a pocket of the AVA I should’ve explored right away. Instead of one or two wineries indicated there were multiple. And not only were there multiple, they were all wineries that in my research into the region, come vaguely familiar with. Wineries like Laurel Gray, Shadow Springs, Raffaldini Vineyards, Piccione, and several others. That last winery was one that I heard mentioned multiple times when I was tasting in different tasting rooms and talking with local proprietors of every sort.  If there is a small pocket of fine wines, with multiple wineries working towards the same goal, emerging in North Carolina, this may be the place. There are of course a lot of people doing a lot of great work throughout the entire region. But one thing I have understood in my research of, particularly American wine, is that like the person who wants to start a gas station, the very best place you can locate a new gas station is across the street from an existing gas station. The logic may seem counterintuitive, but if people start to think of that intersection as a place to get gas, then that is where they will get gas. Likewise in wine, tourists often don’t take the extraordinary measures of researching soil types, property histories, winemakers, and all of the other factors that lead to a specific winery making great wines. They look for the clusters where numerous proprietors are working on their own, sometimes in concert with their community, to pull the best fruit from their land and produce the best wines from their grapes. If there is an early nucleus that we can expect the North Carolina wine country in the Yadkin Valley to flourish from, my sense was, this might be it. With that said, I did not have an opportunity to taste any of these wines.For those listening who are interested in exploring North Carolina wines, I would certainly say that visiting any of the wineries I have mentioned is a prerequisite. But I think that in my next visit, I will certainly start in this particular part of the AVA. I will likely visit Raffaldini, Piccione ,and many of the other surrounding wineries. I would not miss out on visiting either Shelton or on Jones Von Drehle Vineyards Winery or Childress. But I think that this particular corner of the AVA is fostering a sort of spirit that seems to be building upon itself. There are no restaurants nearby, there are no hotels within a 1 mile drive most of these places. For the entrepreneurs listening, I would expect that to change, because this seems to be where some of the energy for the AVA seems to be admitting from.I guess as a closing retrospective, there is an immense amount of differentiation within the Yadkin Valley AVA. From topography, to culture, to wine styles produced by the different wineries. When I landed, and first began to explore the very core of this viticultural area, I will admit to feeling a little underwhelmed. That feeling began to dissipate upon visiting RayLyn, and after tasting at Childress I was excited. The entire focal point of the trip changed as a ventured outside of the south east quadrant and moved into areas that, admittedly, felt a little bit more familiar. Call it a personal bias, call it a personal preference. My conclusion is this… The Yadkin Valley AVA is vast, it includes so many different specific tear wars, that it’s difficult to call it one region. From the wind and hills at Jones Von Drehle, to the gentle slope‘s just south west of the northern reaches of the AVA, to the flatter more populated areas in the south east corner of the viticultural area.  What I can say is this, each producer I visited produced all level of quality that far surpassed any of my expectations. Too many regions I visit , Or rather have visited in my life, think of themselves as Napa in the 1970s. This is not Napa in the 1970s, because this is not America in the 1970s. This is North Carolina in 2022, and it is full of surprises, and beauty, and wines that will surprise at every turn. Is this a region worth visiting question?  If you are an American who loves wine, this is a region you must visit. You will fall in love with many of these wines. I don’t know what your personal preferences, I don’t know if you like red or white, or lean or bold, or salty whites or tannic reds, but you will love it. You will find wines you love and you will want to taste these wines the rest of your life. In vino Veritas, and in North Carolina, there is indeed, great wine.________Visit our website at www.VitiCulturePodcast.com, and don’t forget to share with your friends via all major social media platforms @VitiCULTUREPodVisit Bellangelo Winery and Missick Cellars at www.Bellangelo.com and www.MissickCellars.com.You can watch the interview on our YouTube channel here: Get full access to The Viti+Culture Podcast Newsletter at viticulturepodcast.substack.com/subscribe

The IRS has been riding high recently because of several Tax Court victories on “technical” issues in conservation easement disputes. However, several signs exist that the tide might be turning. One of these is the recent decision by the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Pine Mountain Preserve, LLLP. This article explains the general rules related to conservation easement donations, critical facts from the case, analysis by the Tax Court, overlooked aspects of the initial decision, recent rulings by the Court of Appeals, issues that the Tax Court must now decide on remand, and the positive aspects of the case thus far for taxpayers making charitable donations.

Howdy y'all! Hopefully some of the 8.5 listeners made the trip down to Whitesburg, KY the weekend of October 16th and were a part of the first annual Cruising with Cruisers Car Show - reckon it turned out very good! Over 160 vehicles, mostly minitrucks - and mini styled - complete with a cruise to the top of Pine Mountain and full police support! In this episode, hear from the guys behind the scenes as we are joined once again by Trooper Burton and Trooper Gayheart in this no-holds-barred episode! Hear what they liked, hear what they DIDN'T like, Matt's love of the Back Street Boys... and a heaping helping of country fried thank-yous! (Plus, plans for next year!) Also - we bring out an old favorite for the Generic Mountain Dew Challenge! BTW: Anyone see our interview with Street Trucks? Neat, eh? Thanks to Adam Johnson for that!

JUSTIN DECKER is fast gaining momentum and recognition in the crypto community as his extensive study and vast knowledge of mysterious creatures are both captivating and intriguing fellow researchers throughout the nation. Decker, who now resides in the epicenter of The Great Smoky Mountains in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, is known for his astute insight into the fascinating field of cryptozoology, and his colleagues say he has profound, thought-provoking theories and ideas that facilitate riveting cryptid discussions on media platforms such as podcasts. Decker is becoming a highly sought-after guest on such podcasts as the popular Paranormal Roundtable Discussion podcast and The Skookum Sessions. Decker may be new to the crypto community, but his research into the unknown, particularly with cryptids, has been a life-long passion and endeavor. Decker was born and raised in the Amazon Jungle in Colombia, South America, instilling within him a close connection to the land and a keen observatory nature. He is a survivalist enthusiast and an avid reader, having read over 1,000 Bigfoot reports. Colleagues say it is Decker's talented and articulate storytelling that makes him a podcast favorite. He is a gifted speaker who is already getting bookings for the 2021 convention lecture year. In one of his most recent podcasts with the Paranormal Roundtable, one YouTube listener commented that she was “hanging on to every word!” Decker's stories from the wild terrain of the Amazon Jungle certainly enthralls, but it is also his intelligence in the field of cryptozoology and firm grasp of the subject that compel people to listen to him. In his research, Decker looks for common threads in cryptid behavior such as patterns and details. Justin loves to hike and cook and hopes to expand Bigfoot research and documentation in The Smoky Mountain region. He is also interested in other unknown subject matter and describes himself as a “curious seeker of anything odd or peculiar.” His life's motto is Vivamus Ferox, which is Latin for “Live Fiercely.”JENNIFER MCDANIELSJennifer McDaniels is a 15 -year newspaper veteran, having written for several newspapers throughout Appalachia. Some of her writings concerning the issues of Appalachia's coalfield communities have been published in newspapers all over the world through the Associated Press. Jennifer gained national attention when she became an imbedded reporter covering the historic Black Jewel coal miners protest in 2019 - a story that went global and continues to unfold today. Her video footage of the protest was aired on CBS News. Although Jennifer is currently a freelancer, she worked 10 years for The Harlan Daily before becoming a public relations specialist for Southeast Kentucky Community And Technical College. Although writing is in her blood, Jennifer's current goal is to become a High School English teacher and to instill within teenagers a love for expressing themselves through the written word. She has her Master's in Communications, and is currently working on her Master's in Education.Since she was a young girl, Jennifer has been intrigued by her Appalachian culture - particularly the folklore of her mountain home. She has documented the stories passed down to her by her elders, and she has collected hundreds of folklore stories by mountain people through the last 10 years. She has served as the past president of the Harlan County Arts Council and was recently nominated and voted in as president of the Harlan County Historical Network. She has received numerous accolades for her writing, including awards from the Kentucky Press Association. Her writing and photography have been included in several books, including Berea College's "Appalachian Heritage."Although she loves to write about her Appalachian culture and heritage, Jennifer has most recently become passionate about folklore. She feels that folklore, oral histories, and storytelling are important art forms that preserve the more humanistic aspects of history. She has spoken at conferences and lectures on Appalachian folklore concerning Foxfires, the Blue People of Appalachia, Mountain "Haint" Stories, as well as her experiences of being a single woman reporter in the mountains of Southeast Kentucky. Jennifer has discovered in recent years her Melungeon heritage and hopes to soon lecturing on this fascinating group of people. Jennifer is currently working on three books she plans to have published in 2022 including mysterious happenings on Harlan County's Big Black Mountain, the murder of Pine Mountain's Laura Parsons, and her memories as a young girl growing up Appalachian.

Join us this week on Lewis and Broad to hear all about a local farm and CSA organization known as the Jenny Jack Farm. Chris Jackson, co-founder with his wife Jenny, shared what it's like owning a micro-farm in small-town Pine Mountain, Georgia, just outside of LaGrange. The Jacksons hold a philosophy of "less is better" at Jenny Jack, and he explains how they live out that mentality. Below is a link to their website, as well as our brand-new website!https://lewisandbroad.orghttps://www.jennyjackfarm.com

Warbler Ridge Preserve (Photo: KNLT) Essential to life on planet earth, trees are the center of attention for  a week of celebration in numerous Kentucky communities. "Tree Week" is coming in October. We hear of plans in Lexington, Hazard and Berea | More forestland on Pine Mountain come under the protection of the Kentucky Natural Lands Trust | Lexington author Margaret Verble details her latest historical fiction, "When Two Feathers Fell From the Sky" | Why the letter "X" has become controversial in many Latin communities | Storytelling season is here. Details of the latest festival in Paris, KY  Tree Week -  Heather Wilson, Lexington; Jenny Williams, Hazard; Wendy Warren, Berea - LISTEN  Warbler Ridge Preserve expansion; climate change in Kentucky forests - Greg Abernathy - LISTEN  Tom Eblen, Margaret Verble on her new book, "When Two Feathers Fell From the Sky" - LISTEN  Why some want to nix the "x" in "Latinx" - Cristobal Salinas - LISTEN  Kentucky "story telling season" comes to Paris - LISTEN 

What would a 360˚ approach to discipleship in a post-Christian era look like?  In this episode of the Impact 360 Institute podcast we're talking with John Basie, the editor of our brand new book Know. Be. Live. : a 360˚ Approach to Discipleship in a Post-Christian Era. Join us this week as we talk about why we need this new book now, how we raise up a new generation of students to be ambassadors for Christ, the cultural aspects that are shaping today's students, and how to have a holistic approach to making disciples in our post-Christian culture. Listen in, and pre-order Know. Be. Live. here, out on October 12th!John D. Basie (Ph.D., Baylor University) serves as director of the Masters Experience at Impact 360 Institute in Pine Mountain, Georgia. He also holds a faculty appointment with North Greenville University as an affiliated professor of leadership. John has served in various leadership capacities in Christian higher education since 1997. One of his gifts is coaching undergraduates, graduate students, and young professionals in a process to identify their strengths and God-given callings.He is a certified executive coach who has facilitated leadership development seminars in both the for-profit and nonprofit sectors. John is a member of the Evangelical Theological Society. He is the author of Your College Launch Story: Six Things Every Parent Must Do (2016). He resides in Pine Mountain, Georgia, with his wife of nearly twenty-five years, Marana, and their three teenage children. John and his family are members of St. Andrews Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Columbus, GA.

Jennifer Bailey went for a morning jog up on Pine Mountain in Bell County, Kentucky in August of 1990. After she never came back down the mountain, a frantic search began. What they found on the mountain was horrifying. Find out more on this episode of Mysteries of The Ohio Valley

Pine Mountain, Georgia, is the gateway to Callaway Gardens and the gateway to what has been called the southenmost mountain in the eastern United States. Cindy Bowden, board member of the Chipley Historical Center, talks with Carolyn Hutcheson, In Focus host, about the area's unique history and its ties to FDR.

Ron Rademacher is a Travel Writer, Author, Speaker, Story Teller, and a Guy,Who Holds The Record For Getting Lost On The Back Roads Of Michigan. Around Michigan This Week: GRAND HAVEN – Coast Guard Festival - nationally recognized festival honoring men and women of the United States Coast Guard - provides family friendly activities. NEGAUNEE - Michigan Iron Industry Museum - Iron Ore Heritage Trail Bicycle Tour A leisurely guided bike tour on the. Travel approximately 15 miles as you go from the Michigan Iron Industry Museum to Ishpeming and then back again. Stops along the way include the Jackson Mine and Old Town Negaunee, there are challenging hills. MANISTIQUE - Manistique hosts the Tour Da Yoop, Eh bicycle ride around 1200 miles of the upper peninsula August 6-15. www.tourdayoopeh.com/ MANISTIQUE –  Tour Da Yoop, Eh is more than just a bike ride, it is a full experience of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Come meet the nicest people and have an experience you'll never forget. Learn more and register at www.tourdayoopeh.com/ - we travel through all 15 counties, ride along side 3 great lakes, see beautiful waterfalls and countless wildlife. IRON MOUNTAIN - Pine Mountain 500 King of the Mountain Race yourself and other competitors up the 500 stairs of Giant Pine Mountain, ON FOOT! The event starts at the top of Pine Mountain. Participants race down Kramer Dr to lower Pine Mountain Rd/Hibbard St before turning on Pine Mountain Rd and racing to the Pine Mountain 500. Event is chip- timed LIMITED SPOTS AVAILABLE ESCANABA - Armageddon On Wheels Motor Mayhem - Bump & Run, Tough Trucks, Figure 8 Bus Racing - Upper Peninsula State Fairgrounds Grandstands show is so good it costs $25 bucks to go HEADS UP – MONARCH BUTTERFLY MIGRATION SOON

The Pine Mountain Music Festival celebrates a return to live music along with its 30th Anniversary of bringing classical music to Marquette, Houghton, Iron Mountain and Crystal Falls. These two celebrations also bring 30th Anniversary performances, on Friday, June 25th at the Kaufman Auditorium in Marquette , and Saturday, June 26th at the Rozsa Center in Houghton . Both dates bring the talent of promising youth performers in a free performance by the UPStarts at 4pm. After a break for dinner on both the Friday and Saturday performance dates, a variety of performers present the 30th Anniversary Show . This performance is a collaboration with members of the Marquette Symphony Orchestra, the Keweenaw Orchestra, the Marquette City Band, Northern Michigan University's Dance Department, and tenor Miles Mykkanen (one of the original UPStarts). We hear all about the 30th Anniversary performances in an interview with Diane Eshbach, Trustee and President of the Pine Mountain Music Festival

The 30th Anniversary show is this Saturday for the Pine Mountain Music Festival. Learn more about what to expect for this year's performance with Diane and Charlie Eshbach.

We're the next big thing, and we're in the BEVERLY HILLS WEDDING (2021) and:  We had to cancel the Beverly Hills wedding. THEME: "The Rockford Files," by Mike Post PART ONE Dave is baking evasive ... THE Beverly Hills wedding ... Dan Smith, BYU ... Edited by Valentine's, 2022 ... Go balls out ... Cast rundown, callbacks and The Hume Cronins ... The Expositional Challenge ... False twist expectation ... Lame excuses! ... Less charming hermeticism ... Covid makes Hallmark make sense ... That's great Malick Break: Original music by Chris Collingwood PART TWO  Re-entering the cup of hot cocoa ... Spot the Angel: Terence Roquefort, but problematized ... Small town vs. Beverly Hills freaks ... "It used to be about the weddings, man" ... Eat Your Heart Out: Van crepes; green seafood puck; dessert colors; redneck voices; the worst champagne in Scotland; what about beer; Polaner All Fruit; gold dusting with a smattering of pearls; stagey class artifice ... The Hallmark Expanded Universe: Hallmark's greater Pacific Northwest; Episode 50; Episode 69 ... Hallmark's version of fancypants ... Gray as hell ... The Powder disease ... Is this Pine Mountain? ... Fog of War soundtrack ... Robert McNamara's Overdetermined: You left, you failed a promise to your dreams, you suffocated your sister, this wedding will fail, you're an idiot ... Valentine's wedding candy invitation  Break: Original music by Chris Collingwood PART THREE The Swagony of Defeat: Nice Hyundai; Zack Snyder's Justice League; Godiva (twice) ... Crossover: "Roquefort Origins: Terence in Maine"; Malick in Maine; schnapps with or without ice ... The Hallmark Bechdel Test: Mom/art exhibits/photography ... The Hallmark Voight-Kampff Test: Homiletic husband Gary; Knox Harrington, the video artist; "otherizing" the gay character beyond Hallmark uncanniness; Terence's Wonka-esque affect ... Who's the Real Villain?: Influencer-driven conspicuous consumption ... Creeping to the glass of the critique  Break: Original music by Chris Collingwood PART FOUR Rating: 3.0 ... Shut up, Jordan ... "Watchable" ... The Leftovers: Paul Ziller's IMDB (again!), Covered in Bugs/Possessed by Demons ... Worms! ... Just try a sweepstakes ... Hugh's ... It's Spagett! ... Jordan's opinion, not needed ... Out of your element, Jordan ... Haunted Jason Mraz-style Weezer cover ... They used "Hash Pipe!" ... Hallmark showed feet ... Tandem bike ... Abraham Lincoln ... iZombie, Marine sequel, the Craig Zahler universe crossover ... Urban clearance ... Merry Christmas! All other music by Chris Collingwood of Look Park and Fountains of Wayne, except: "Orchestral Sports Theme" by Chris Collingwood and Rick Murnane and "Cop Killer [8-bit John Maus cover]"

Why use Drip Irrigation? There are several different reasons why we prefer to use drip irrigation instead of overhead watering in our vegetable gardens. One of the most important reasons for using drip irrigation is we are able to feed the water right where plants need it most --- plant roots. Another reason for drip irrigation instead of overhead watering is the overall reduction of the amount of water you are applying in the garden. By reducing the amount of water we are also able to decrease weeds because we do not have excess water sitting on top of the soil leaving it a breeding ground for weed pressure. Another benefit to using drip irrigation is the option to easily fertilize plants while watering which saves you time and energy in the vegetable garden. Frequently Asked Questions: Drip Irrigation We've compiled a list of some of the most frequently asked questions regarding drip irrigation. So we can answer them all for you right here in this blog post. Does it work like a soaker hose? Much more reliable and controlled output than soaker hoses0.48 gallons per hour per 100 feet of drip tape or 0.00048 gallons per hour per emitterWhat are the pressure/flow requirements?0.5 - 8 gallons per minute15 psi to 90 psi max50 - 60 pounds max of pressure for the Filter Regulator ComboFigure out your flow rate by calculating how long it takes you to fill up a 5-gallon bucketHow big of a system can I run at a time?100' row max with 5/8" mainline tubing250 feet of tape per 1 gallon of flow rate8 gallons per minute = 2,000 feetCan I use it with a gravity-fed system?Yes, if you can generate enough pressure4.3 psi per 10 feet of elevationNeed 35' off the ground for 15 psiHow deep can it be buried?6 inches max2-3 inches is ideal for vegetablesAre the holes pre-punched? Can I punch holes in it?Yes, our drip tape is pre-punchedStandard emitter spacing is 12 inchesIf you have a smaller garden we recommend using our Container Gardening KitEmitters up or down?UpHow many lines to run in a 4' wide raised bed?One line per row3 lines per 4' bed if planted denselyCan drip tape be reused?8 mil -- 3-4 growing seasons 15 mil -- several yearsPlant on top or to the side of drip tape?You can do both!Double rows we like to plant to the sideHow long do you run it?Lots of variables - temperatures, soil type, crop, plant spacing, etc.No rainfall, 1-2 hours every other day is sufficient Show and Tell Segment On the show and tell segment this week, Greg and Travis share a little update on what's happening in the greenhouse and garden right now. Even though the weather conditions have them a little more behind than usual, the guys are staying positive and looking forward to better weather coming soon to South Georgia. Travis and his family just got back from Pine Mountain, Georgia on a little camping trip and while he was there he picked up some pickled okra for the guys to try on the show. Travis has a 162 cell seed starting tray full of several different okra varieties. The guys mention that okra is one of the last crops you will plant in your garden, due to the fact that okra does not like cool climates. Viewer Questions For the Q & A segment this week, the guys answer some viewer questions about sourcing seeds from the south, eating peas early, using inoculate on snow peas/purplehull peas, and planting zipper peas on double rows. Greg and Travis mention that the seed trade is international, however, in the United States, the west coast is ideal for growing seeds due to the climate. Greg mentions that you can eat peas with the shell on them just snap them in half. You do not necessarily need to add inoculate if you have grown peas in that certain area before, however, if it is a new garden spot it needs to be added to that garden spot. If planting zipper peas on a double row in a 4x12 raised bed the ideal spacing is 1 foot off the side of the bed and 2 foot in the middle. Product of the Week

46☆30☆70 - Stephen Marshall and James Yorkston discuss Dunino, brewing and other such, with music from The Sprigs, Danlee Parker, Pine Mountain Girls' Octet, Sam Gendel and more, including a world exclusive session track by James Yorkston and The Second Hand Orchestra --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/46-30/support

October 22, 2020 KURT M. SMITH, author & pastor of Providence Reformed Baptist Church of Pine Mountain, AL who will discuss PART TWO of: “THUNDERING the WORD: The Awakening Ministry of GEORGE WHITEFIELD”   Subscribe: iTunes  TuneIn Android RSS Feed Listen:

October 22, 2020 — The Board of Supervisors unanimously denied an appeal to block a cell phone tower on Pine Mountain about five miles from the Willits city center on Tuesday. And the second reading of an ordinance regulating a pilot program for growing industrial hemp passed along the same lines as the first reading, though it still meets with opposition from cannabis farmers.

October 15, 2020 KURT M. SMITH, author & pastor of Providence Reformed Baptist Church of Pine Mountain, AL who will discuss: “THUNDERING the WORD: The Awakening Ministry of GEORGE WHITEFIELD”   Subscribe: iTunes  TuneIn Android RSS Feed Listen:

Why is Pine Mountain Sports looking to support Saving Grace in the middle of a pandemic? Social distancing, unemployment, and stay at home orders affect all of us but are devastating for those in abusive relationships. Hear from Dan and Henry in a special interview with our Executive Director, Cassi MacQueen. Become a Pine Mountain Sports Community Ambassador now and help raise $100,000 for Saving Grace: https://saving-grace.org/pine

Jessica takes you on a spiritual journey of healing while at Pine Mountain, connecting with God through nature.

Thank you to Matt Holmes for introducing today’s episode! Matt was one of the first people Caddy met when he moved to Atlanta. He was the DJ at The Buckboard and they were roommates for a while. They’ve got some crazy stories they could share…love you brother. It has been a big week for the Choate boys. Caddy and his son Wil share a birthday and Wil turned the big 2-1. Caddy and Donna talk about where they went to celebrate, and where each of them were for their own 21st birthdays. Caddy’s happened a little after Donna’s. Where has the coronavirus gone? Where is Dr. Fauci? For months we were locked in our homes, massive unemployment and thousands of deaths…and then it just seems to have disappeared. Caddy and Donna talk about how were going to be talking it, and about what happened in the first half of 2020, for years to come. They’ll teach classes on it. The Wild Animal Safari in Pine Mountain, GA – you may have been there yourself – Caddy and Donna reminisce about taking the kids a few times. It’s hot, not very clean and the animals are…interesting. Hear about their adventures and make sure to subscribe to The Letter (Caddy’s weekend e-newsletter) for great pics from their trips! Keep sharing with us your hometown heroes! Thanks to Hurt 911 and Threadz Ink Printing we are recognizing people doing great things, often behind the scenes, in communities everywhere. Do you know someone in your hometown who is going above and beyond during the coronavirus pandemic? NOMINATE THEM to be recognized as a “Hometown Hero”. Here is how to do it: 1) Follow 1-800-Hurt911 on Instagram 2) Post a picture on any social media platform, use the hashtag #hurt911hero and tag Caddy 3) He’ll reach out to you via direct message to coordinate getting your hero a limited edition “Home Town Hero” t-shirt. That’s it – go nominate someone!  All that and more on today’s episode. Cadillac Jack. New show, same ride. Enjoy! Today's show is brought to you by Real Estate Expert Advisors, HURT 911, Dinner A’Fare, Gallery Furniture, and WellStar North Fulton Hospital. Hype songs sponsored by Core 57.  Follow Caddy on Twitter @ATLCadillac Leave a message for the pod by calling 770-464-6024. We might play it on a future episode! Please rate and review the show! It helps other people find us.

We kick off season 2 by chatting with chief of competition for the Kiwanis Ski Club, Mr. Eric Hiatt. I chat with Eric about his hall of fame ski jumping career, the future of ski jumping at Pine Mountain, and much more!

If you want to know who you truly are at your core, I am excited to announce that you are a WHOLE WOMAN. Many women are unaware of their wholeness because our true self is hidden. Strengthening your inner core is really about working from the inside out to uncover the core self. In today’s episode, we will discuss the reasons why you should strengthen your inner core and practical ways to get started immediately. Listen in as we discover more about who you really are. You are invited to join us at The Whole Woman Transformative Retreat 2019 - September 20-22 in Pine Mountain, Georgia. We will spend 3 intensive days growing, healing, bonding and sharing with like-minded women. You will overcome the obstacles, tap into your inner power and voice and take inspired action to create the life you desire and were intended to have. Get more details @ www.thewholewomanexperience.com  Natolie's Resources:  To learn more about Natolie and the Whole Woman Experience, connect on Facebook (@wholewomanexp  or @natoliewarren); Twitter (@wholewomanexp), LinkedIn, and Instagram. Natolie hosts retreats and conferences and facilitates virtual trainings and coaching programs to support you living the life you want and were intended to have, such as the retreat in September. Visit the website to get more details.  

Are the predictable patterns in your life not giving you the results you desire? Do you feel something is missing from your life? Are you wanting to feel more motivated and energized in your life? This may be a sign that it is time to change course. Resets are necessary in every area of your life and you can restart at any moment. Give yourself an entirely fresh start to begin your new efforts and it starts right now with Reset On A Retreat. I am inviting you to join us at The Whole Woman Transformative Retreat on September 20th-22nd in Pine Mountain, Georgia. Get more details @ www.thewholewomanexperience.com To learn more about Natolie and The Whole Woman Experience, connect on Facebook (@wholewomanexp  or @natoliewarren); Twitter (@wholewomanexp), LinkedIn, and Instagram.   Natolie hosts retreats and conferences and facilitates virtual trainings and coaching programs to support you living the life you want and were intended to have. Visit her website to get more details.  

Chatting with the president of the Kiwanis Ski Club, Mr. Nick Blagec, about the upcoming 80th annual Continental Cup ski jumping competition at giant Pine Mountain in Iron Mountain. Plus Yooper News and This Day In Yooper History!

This episode is jam-packed with memories of the one and only Jim Webb. Also known as Wiley Quixote, Jim was the eccentric and punny heart of this radio station since WMMT first took to the airwaves in 1985. Jim passed on October 22, 2018 at his home, Wiley's Last Resort, on top of Pine Mountain in Letcher County, KY. On this show, friends and family share some of their favorite memories of the unforgettable Wiley Q.

Ocilla Mayor and Small Town Podcast Host Matt Seale travels to Pine Mountain, GA to talk with Mayor Jim Trott. The two discuss how Mayor Trott came to live in Pine Mountain and how he was thrust into local government, as well as the journey Pine Mountain has taken in diversifying its economy while maintaining its small town charm. For more info, visit www.smalltownpodcast.com.

Originally published on 2015/12/31 Christmas Eve! (with a replay the following December 29, 2016) I am replaying this episode because I have a guest coming up who talks about Jenny’s problem of dealing with fire ants. If you haven’t signed up for Jenny’s email I can tell you I love getting their updates it’s always so fun to watch their family grow! On the Jenny Jack Sun Farm located one‐hour southwest of Atlanta in beautiful Pine Mountain, Georgia, Jenny and Chris Jackson, along with two apprentices, grow a generous variety of fruits, vegetables, herbs, and flowers on 5 acres running a successful CSA. Recently, heritage hogs have been added to the mix, including a rare breed called Red Wattle. Tell us a little about yourself. My husband and I have been running the farm full time for 8 years now. We met at the University of Georgia (http://www.uga.edu) . I studied horticulture and he was an education major. I was interested in the idea of farming in college but I wasn’t really exposed to small diverse farms until after I graduated. I knew I wanted to study plants and how they grow and how to grow them, but I didn’t have a clear path until we traveled after we graduated college. We went to Hawaii to work on different organic farms. Did you go through the WWOOFer program (https://wwoofusa.org) ? Yes, a friend that had traveled extensively told us about WWOOFing (https://wwoofusa.org)  you can work in exchange for a place to stay and food. By that I mean in a tent. Tent life as a WWOOFer But a tent’s probably ok for Hawaii? Yes, it’s an ideal place to camp for several months, so we stayed there for 5 months working on 3 different farms. We didn’t get an in depth education because as a WWOOFer (https://wwoofusa.org) , you work about 25 hours a week, so that way you have time to explore the area your in. So it was a good introduction. When we came back to Georgia after Hawaii we found a longer term apprenticeship. That’s where we really started learning what we would apply at our farm. Awesome! I think that’s great advice. I love to hear about experiences like that, I think it’s a good way to learn because One: it’s a lot of work so you can one learn how to be effective and efficient and two: also you can learn if you are ready to do all that work before you make a good commitment. I just had a guest who said you need to learn how to manage one acre effectively before you learn to manage 20. One of my very first guests Todd Ulizio (https://organicgardenerpodcast.com/?p=1374) did an apprenticeship and he recommended it because he said you have 0 risk but get all the knowledge. Tell me about your first gardening experience? I was fortunate because I grew up in the garden, my parents had a big garden, although I didn’t fully appreciate it as I was younger or help as much as I probably should have, at least I had exposure. took for granted that you could harvest it and eat it so fresh! Also we had a babysitter who was a serious gardener. When I wasn’t at home with my parents from the time I was a few months old, she had us in her garden just watching her as she tended her plants. So I feel really lucky that I was exposed to it my whole life basically. What does organic gardening/earth friendly mean to you? Well basically, there’s so many toxins in our environment today, and a lot of them come from agriculture, so when I started learning about the health hazards of conventional fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, number 1 I didn’t want to expose myself, or my husband or my workers to that, but when you’re growing for other people you want to make sure it’s as healthy and safe as possible too. For me not only is it about how to care for the soil, but it’s about keeping myself and my husband and our customers as healthy as possible! Personally what I have learned about conventional... Support this podcast

Join us this evening with our special guest, Sharon Robinson of Smith Chapel United Methodist Church, Pine Mountain, Georgia.  Pastor Yolanda Jones-Colton and the women of this great church are hosting their first Women's Conference entitled; Bent, Broken but Blessed.  Our conversation this evening will highlight what they've planned for this life-changing event.    Speakers for this conference will include First Lady Angela White Fannin, Missionary Tonja Thompson, Minister Valerie Burrell, and Mistress of Ceremony - Evangelist Stephanie Davenport.  This will be a day of worship, healing, and transformation that you don't want to miss.  Dial in at 323-927-3014 to join the live conversation or use the attached link to listen in.  I'm confident that you will be EMPOWERED!  

Welcome to the Women of Golf Show! Cindy & Ted start this week's show with a great discussion "Goals of your Junior Golf Camps". Joining them later in the show: John Godwin - Director of Player Development for the U.S. Kids Golf Foundation. More on John: John Godwin is Director of Player Development for the U.S. Kids Golf Foundation. The Foundation’s initiatives include over 1400 annual competitions, the U.S. Kids Golf Top 50 Kids Teachers Award, and its Introduction to Golf Program curriculum. In 2012, John co-founded the organization’s Certified Coach program. Since then, over 3,600 golf professionals from 49 states and 40 nations have participated in the training. John is a PGA Master Professional and currently serves as the Vice President of the Georgia Section. He is slated to become President March 19th, 2018. He has been the Rocky Mountain Section Player of the Year and Teacher of the Year and the Georgia Section Junior Golf Leader recipient. In 2004, he was selected as the National Junior Golf Leader by the PGA of America, its highest honor for youth golf development. He is a graduate of Florida State University and lives in Pine Mountain, Georgia. Join us LIVE Tuesday 9:00 - 10:00AM Eastern http://www.blogtalkradio.com/womenofgolf Listen to the Women of Golf Show on these social media platforms  iTunes.com , Stitcher.com  & Tunein.com

In Episode 266 seht Ihr den Test eines Marin Pine Mountain 2 Trail-Hardtails. Außerdem haben wir den Wahoo Elemnt GPS-Radcomputer für Euch ausprobiert und wir stellen Euch den neuen Hip Pack Race von Evoc vor. Ein Gewinnspiel gibt es auch.

This week we look at the exciting victories at Ft. Pitt and home in Cass against the united.  Padre phones in from Pine Mountain, Georgia to talk about the Rouge Rover experience this past week, and we look ahead to a rather quiet week for DCFC. Sean also takes a snapshot of the playoff picture in the division, who's still in the hunt and where DCFC stands in that mix. In this week's interview, John & Sean sit down with City goalkeeper Bret Mollon at Podcast Central (the tasting room at Motor City Brewing Works) and chat about his unique role as a player and coach. Bret also makes a special announcement. Links Non League USA 8-bit Cass City

The Romance Bookmark with Renee Bernard presents Kimberly Kincaid, one of our favorite guests on the program!  AFTER you listen to the show, stop over to www.kimberlykincaid.com, to pick up on all the Pine Mountain stories, the Sugar jokes, and why Kimberly Kincaid is uniquely qualified to be "Stirring Up Trouble".  Kimberly makes up a small town that every romance reader longs to stumble into...and when they find it, they never want to leave!  This series is going to be one of those keepers that we all go back to again and again!  

Fun, laughs, stories and happily ever after! 15 minutes of feeling good and learing about great books!  www.kimberlykincaid.com  Beyond books, Kimberly Kincaid proves that sometimes being the most talented woman in the room also makes you one of the nicest!  This NYT bestselling author of the Pine Mountain books (and who is waaay too svelte to be writing books involving cookies...just saying....life isn't always fair) is  a personal favorite and tonight's show was fun if only because it gave me a chance to cheer her on and congratulate her amazing success!  Go, Kimberly!

The Not Too Bad Bluegrass Band performs at the Library of Congress. Speaker Biography: The Not Too Bad Bluegrass Band formed in 1987, playing local venues around Bloomington, Indiana. Original members included Jeff White, who went on to play with superstars like Alison Krauss and Vince Gill; singer-songwriter Bob Lucas; and Lisa Germano, who later played fiddle with John Mellencamp's band. The current members have their own musical history. Brian Lappin played with bluegrass legends Jimmy Martin and Earl Taylor, and the bands The Ragin' Texans and The Crawdads. His tasteful banjo playing reflects the solid influences of Earle Scruggs and J.D. Crowe. Doug Harden has played mandolin since 1969. His early years were spent at the old Bean Blossom Jamboree barn, and in the Brown County Band. Doug has also spent time in the original Kentucky Ramblers and the band Pine Mountain. Greg Norman started at a local jam session and later joined the Off the Line bluegrass band and singer-songwriter Janne Henshaw's band. Kent Todd was trained in classical violin, and was steered toward bluegrass by his father Scott, also a bluegrass musician; he has played with Bill Grant and Dehila Belle, Michael Cleveland and the Blue Hollow Band, Gary Brewer and the Kentucky Ramblers, and currently is also a member of the Troubled Waters Band. The youngest member of the NTBBB, Brady Stogdill, is a member of the original International Bluegrass Music Association's Young Acoustic All Stars; his father Dean was a great banjo player, and he has learned to play almost anything with strings on it.

 Please click on the POD button to listen to the latest Atlanta Business Radio  show podcast broadcasting live each Wednesday at 10am EDT from Atlanta, GA, USA.   Here's how to listen to the podcast of our show. First click on the title of the show you are interested in. Then there should be a player in the upper right hand corner of the screen. Now just press play and the show you chose should start playing. You can also download the show to listen on your mp3 player. We are now available on iTunes, click this link and you can find all our past shows. Press SUBSCRIBE and you will automatically get the latest show when you sync your iPod to your computer. Today's show is brought to you by TAB of Northwest Atlanta.The Alternative Board of Northwest Atlanta brings together owners of privately held businesses to overcome challenges and seize new opportunities with a combination of peer advice and strategic business coaching. Board members meet monthly to learn from one another's successes and mistakes and create more valuable and profitable companies. Achieve Greater Success with Peer Advice and Coaching with TAB of Northwest Atlanta.  www.tab-nwatlanta.comOur first guest this morning was Elizabeth Gordon, Author of the Amazon Best Seller The Chic Entrepreneur and President of Flourishing Business. Elizabeth told us all about her work with The Alternative Board of Northwest Atlanta and how she is able to help women owned businesses flourish. For more information please go to her website www.flourishingbusiness.com Next we had on Dr Andrea Robbins and Brent Darnell co-hosts of The Total Leadership Conference, a four-day kickoff of to a yearlong program that will create fundamental behavioral change by focusing on individuals’ mind, body and life.  The conference will take place from Sept. 25 – 28 in fabulous Callaway Gardens in Pine Mountain, Ga. Hosted by Brent Darnell International, a training and consulting company that teaches people skills to technically trained professionals, and Naturally Balanced, a natural healthcare provider headed up by Dr. Andrea K. Robbins, DC, ND, The Total Leadership Conference will offer a myriad of interesting classes on improving communication, self-awareness, and wellness. Prior to the conference, participants will be given emotional intelligence and health evaluations in order to assess their particular needs.  During the conference, participants will create personal development and wellness plans and be given all the tools that they need to improve their leadership skills, improve their health, and reach their goals both personally and professionally.  . After the four-day kickoff, participants will be contacted by a health/wellness coach and a life/leadership coach throughout the year to encourage them, motivate them and give them what you need to become the best that you can be. Space is limited to the first 100 people.  For more information, visit www.BrentDarnell.com or www.NaturallyBalanced.com.   Next up we had on small business marketing expert and web design guru Erik Wolf with Zero-G Creative. Erik has leveraged his corporate experience in several diverse industries like packaged goods, information technology and journalism into a thriving small business marketing consulting business. Heading the marketing communications department of a global manufacturer helped prepare Erik for his work with small business owners at Zero-G Creative.Working in the corporate sphere and tasked with the job of managing traditional advertising, marketing and design agencies as well as freelance designers, Erik quickly learned that the system was flawed — and that very few companies were well-suited to serve the small and medium-sized businesses that he worked for. Realizing that his experience made him uniquely qualified to help small business owners market their products and services. For more information about Erik and Zero-G Creative please go to his website www.zerogcreative.com We closed the show with Darrell Rodgers, President of Emerald Data Networks. Darrell explained that he helps align his clients technology with their business objectives. In order to best determine the right solution Emerald takes the time to thoroughly understand their clients' business and goals. Darrell shared that Emerald has just been awarded the 2008 Community Service Award from the Better Business Bureau for their help in wiping clean and finding new homes for old computers. To learn more about Emerald Data Netwroks and Darrell please go to his website www.emeralddata.net Also if you know of a business in Atlanta that we should know about please email Amy Otto at Amy @ atlantabusinessradio.com and we will try and get them on the show.