The winter storm fizzled! We probably got 2 inches of snow after being promised a whole lot more. We had wonderful guests (again). Ken & Sandy were here from Fort Wayne. They skied at Headquarters except the day they did the Vasa trail. They found us a few weeks ago and it was nice to have them back. Sandy is an Oboe player for the Fort Wayne Philharmonic. Ken owns his own business.

Eric, one of our winter regulars, spent Friday evening out in the garage waxing his skis for the Cote Dame Marie Ski Loppet at Hanson Hills. The weather report called for a high of 34 on Saturday. Due to a clear night, the temps on Saturday morning were in the single digits. He is using this experience to buy a second set of skis so that he can have "a cold waxed pair and a warm waxed pair".

Saturday brought more return guests. Mike & Jo spent the day at Hartwick Pines snow shoeing, Heather joined Eric for more skiing after his race and the "Brooks girls" were up for their "sisters week-end"Jeanne has been staying with us since our first winter of owning Borchers! Joy has been coming for at least a decade. We missed seeing their other sister, Kathy, but were promised that they will all be here this summer for a kayak trip. We had Borchers Pie on Sunday morning which I don't make as much as I used to. Other recipes have come along over the years, but I know that it is a favorite with these BFFs.

Rod & Irene were back on Sunday. They spent some of the evening watching the Olympics with Ken & Sandy.

We are crossing our fingers that Mother Nature will send a little more snow our way for just a few more week-ends of winter fun.

This month is just whizzing by. We keep getting just enough fresh snow to keep our guests out on the ski trails.

The Hewitt family was back for a visit this past week. Brad brought us some wonderful coffee from his internet business, www.siriuscoffeeroasters.com.
McKenzie opened her presents at breakfast with her sisters looking on. Her American girl doll is sitting in the chair.

Bob & Joanie stopped for a night on their way to the U.P. to see the grandkids. We haven't seen them for a while and it was fun catching up.

The week-end brought a full house from the
Sarett Nature Center. They skied Hartwick,
Hanson Hills, & XC Ski Headquarters.

Sunday night Rod & Irene checked in. What a fun couple! Rod insisted on tea & cookies. Now living in Lansing, Rod had lived in the area and grew up in Westbranch, he shared some great stories and observations.




Today is President's day and another girl has her birthday. Mark, 'Cede, & I celebrated by doing what I like to do so we went to Culver's and later had a nice long hike in the woods.

I am looking out my window at the most beautiful winter morning. The sky is an amazing blue and the sun is reflecting off the snow. Our guests have headed to Cross Country Ski Headquarters to take advantage of the awesome grooming. By the way, the Headquarters was featured in the USA Today travel section of 10 Best Places to Play in the Snow. Congratulations, Bob & Lynne!

In our opinion, unless you group everything in our county together, Crawford Country has at least 5 out of 10 of the Best Places to Play in the Snow! 'Cede's favorite is the Rayburn property.

When I came to work this morning, I knew it was cold from the steam on the river and the little ice floes. The river gets really "flat" when it is cold. I was a bit surprised to read -2 on the thermometer. The sunshine made it seem a lot warmer.

















We received a couple of emails from our friends, Matt & Danielle, Matt has raced the Marathon many times, a couple of times with staffer ex-officio, Sean Casey. They will be returning to Borchers for Marathon 2010. Matt sent a link to their recent trip to Hawaii on You Tube. They have the best adventures, Kauai and Grayling!

The winter is going too fast even though Punxsutawney Phil predicts six more weeks, on a beautiful day like today, it's not long enough. Fresh snow in the forecast...

It was a great week-end at Borchers. Our dear friends, Mel & Denise Banfield, showed up on Friday joined by Terry & Renee, and Bob & Bev. These three couples are always a joy for us to host.

We also had guests attending the Small Farm Conference at the high school. Mel always gets up early and has coffee ready for me when I come to work. Over said coffee, Mel & I sat and visited with Oriana, Chris, & Kim while they had an early breakfast. Mel is interested in getting some chickens ( I think he needs a reason to get an antique chicken coop).

It is interesting to me, how small the world is. They all had common acquaintances and shared places.

The conference attendees went off to learn the latest and greatest in the world of small farming and the other six headed out to the Cross Country Ski Shop and the golf course loop. When they returned, we spent some more time catching up and Denise expounded on the healing properties of honey, a sort of "honey on honey".

Our couples dined at Bennethum's and Mark and I anticipated the arrival of new guests along with one of our favorite familys, the Slaughters from Chesterton, IN. When everyone was settled in, Mark & I grabbed our skis and followed John, Marie, and Wesley to Hartwick Pines for the Lantern Lit night ski. They had already completed one loop and were waiting for us by the bonfire.
We skied the loop and for at least a few minutes, the Wolf Moon peeked through the clouds, helping to light our way.
For those of you wanting to experience this event, 75 lanterns lighting the 1.25 mile trail will be out again on Feb 13 & 27.

Sunday was spent visiting with our guests. The Schulte family from Marshall had attended the Small Farm Conference and Mike and the kids headed out to Hanson Hills for tubing. Mom Stefanie stayed behind and she and Mel talked chickens and other farming. (Mel is definitely getting chickens!)

John, Marie, & Wesley headed back to
X-C Ski Headquarters for the afternoon.

One more guest joined us for Sunday night. Betty made Borchers her stop on the way to Stokeley Creek. She tells us she will be back, especially to see 'Cede.

After a warm, "dry" spell we finally got some fresh snow! It took two days of flurries, but we probably got 3-4 inches of fresh powder. 'Cede and I cleaned the driveway to accommodate our guests. We have a full house this week-end and are so happy to have some of our favorites returning and some new friends we haven't met yet.







The new "Michigan Travel Ideas" are hot off the presses and we were delighted to find Borchers featured on page 75. Whitney & Emily, cousins of staffers Alex & Allie, are picture perfect! Whitney is one of our regular customers, paddling down river as often as she can.

Our son lives at Lake Tahoe where they have been measuring their snowfall in feet. Out there they refer to some of the accumulation as "Sierra Cement". Well, we have not had any new accumulation in two weeks and with the warmer temperatures we currently have "Crawford County Concrete". It's still usable, the trails are still beautiful, but it's not perfect. The weatherman is promising some new snow this week.

We have had some wonderful guests over the last couple of week-ends and they have been making the most of the winter weather. Last week-end, our Toledo gang was here. It's pretty special when you can reminisce with guests about their visits over the last one and half decades!

Although we experienced temps in the low-mid 30's. They reported exceptionally good trail conditions.

The week-end prior to that, we met some new regulars. Two of our couples originally headed to Tawas and had to change their destination to Grayling to find snow. They shared the house with travel writer, Kath Usitola, Anita from Indiana, Mark & Beth and Tom & Kathy.

Beth writes:
Cheri, I just wanted to thank you for your hospitality.
We really enjoyed staying there and will tell everyone about it. Thank you for telling us about Wakeley Lake trail. We snowshoed the trail after we left the B&B and we loved it. It was our favorite trail of the weekend. We walked all around the lake even though early on we came to a junction where one way the trail was posted "closed" due to erosion. We chose the "closed" route and we had no problem but you may want to mention it to anyone who may be going out there that they should stick to the open trail and not go down the closed path because the trail is lost once you pass that sign. We stayed near the lake and we picked up the trail after some time and had a great outing, but others may not want to be so adventurous. Another option would be to just do the campground loop, which was beautiful.We appreciate the compliments and the photos that Mark sent!

Happy New Year!!!

I've already broken my resolution to take photos and blog on a daily basis. The New Year finds Mark, 'Cede and I healthy & happy with a very good Christmas Holiday behind us.

We spent Christmas Eve eve with our staff having pizza and catching up on everyone's lives since canoe season.

Mark & I "had our tree" before heading downstate to spend Christmas Eve with Mark's side of the family. We spoke with both sets of kids numerous times. Mark & Kristin sent a goodie basket and Michael & Teresa sent "way cool" ski jackets and pants.














We are all set to stay warm on the trail with a little "something, something" for apres' ski.


My sister-in-law, Jen, and I both made mom & dad a calendar on snapfish. What are the odds of that? Everyone can always use more than one calendar, right? Mark & I got a Reciprocating saw from Mom & Dad. We can't wait to make sawdust!!















Christmas Day was spent with my side of the family. As always, mom prepared a wonderful meal. My niece, Emily, is learning to be as awesome a cook as her grandma.


We came home to find our sign leaning precariously.
Mark spent the afternoon winching it back into
place and rebolting, but the high winds on
Monday prevailed.
I swear I was no where near that sign with my new saw!










We hosted the nicest people over the holidays!
We had some first timers from Columbus for the week. Hal & Sylvia skied all over the county. They enjoyed Hartwick Pines, Forbush Corner, Hanson Hills, & Cross Country Ski Headquarters. They also stopped at The Cross Country Ski Shop for accessories and advice.


Also joining us for the first time (but not last time - they have already rebooked) were Mike & Judy and Cheryl & Tom. We all played Apples to Apples and Scattergories in the evenings. We were joined by regulars, Eric (who is very good at Apples to Apples and skate skiing) and Shaun & Matt who were gracious to take our photo. They did let us hold their turkey. Matt officially joined us for Scattergories , Shaun ad libbed her answers while making snacks.








Since our busy week-end, it has been
really cold with only snow flurries.
According to 'Cede (and me)
there is still plenty of snow to play in.

We are expecting new guests tonight and tomorrow night and hope to see all of our regulars this winter.