I tell you what!
I’ve been thinking that Michigan, especially SE MI, needs a full featured Outdoor Center. Like Nantahala and other famous such places.
I see they say that the Mill Lake CCCC Center in Waterloo will take $400k to restore and get back in action. They’re trying to line up funding.
Why not just convert OYB into an OC? I could teach kids and adults a good dozen skills. It could also be a retail shop and bookstore. We’d sell all the things I’ve outlined before that I’d like to sell at my Man Booth (https://outyourbackdoor.com/article.php?id=433). We’re zoned here for retail — we can have up to 10 cars a day parked here at one time, something like that. We can have livestock. Across the street, literally, is rules-ville (Meridian Township). Here, it’s the Wild West.
I also have an article here about my Backyard Olympics — about 34 sports, as I recall, that I did in 2.5 hours (https://outyourbackdoor.com/article.php?id=586).
We could serve healthy snacks in exchange for donations. I could whip some fine homebrew and wine.
I note that the church next door has a commercial kitchen they rent to a caterer — if it came to that, it might be helpful. We could have a Mexican Feast, say, like the old St. Martha’s Day parties. Post the menu on a tree.
I could level out the Pringle-shaped swimming pool for a cocktail space.
We could tidy up the landscaping and trails around here.
The river is down the street a half mile and I have a buncha neat canoes and kayaks. There’s Lake Lansing for sailing, windsurfing, and open water swim training, a few miles away.
Oh well! Of course it’s silly. Who needs outdoor skills and Localstyle DIY Indie fun like that? Who’d PAY for it? Sure, they pay millions in other states. But we won’t fall for that! …It’s what they do up in Traverse City, maybe.
Ya know how I wrote articles on innovations I came up with in 4 outdoor sports magazines last year on 4 wide ranging topics? And how nobody else writes, promotes or develops in such breadth? Well, that scope seemingly has no value, but I can’t help trying to think of ways not to waste it. Been trying a long time. Haven’t gotten anywhere much other than that journalistic and innovative stunt. But I keep trying! Why, I’d even save your kids from the gizmos, if I could!
