Top Ten

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Take the Ultimate Mushroom House Tour

It seems you can’t call yourself a Northerner unless you’ve taken a tour of Earl Young’s famous “mushroom houses” in Charlevoix. For those who haven’t — or have, and understandably want to learn more about the visionary behind them — don’t miss your chance to sign up for David L. Mile’s upcoming online presentation “Boulders: The Life and Creations of Earl A. Young in Charlevoix, Michigan, 1889–1975.”

Curator for the Charlevoix Historical Society, Miles has written 10 books on Charlevoix’s history, produced two Earl Young’s Half House, 1947. Courtesy NCMC. documentaries (one a 16-decade pictorial history of the town; the other an extensive overview of Earl Young’s creations), and participated in another about Young (“The Wizard of Boulder Park”), which was shown on Michigan PBS in 2016 and awarded a Michigan Emmy for Best Historical Documentary. Mile’s latest work, “BOULDERS,” the first biography of Earl Young, was honored in 2021 as one of the Library of Michigan’s 20 Notable Books of 2020.

During the author’s one-hour presentation, Miles will walk viewers through his book’s creation and Earl’s artistic development from the time of his first creation, 1919-1921, through the blossoming of his incredibly productive middle period, and on to the completion of his last work in 1973. Free and available through North Central Michigan College’s Lifelong Learning Club. Register for the 7pm May 17 event at www.ncmclifelonglearning.com

Coming soon to 4041 US-31 Chums Corner!

Barry Jones of JonesCraft Timberworks

Stuff we love Overworked Contractors Working Extra Hard to Help Save Local History

Given the booming housing market, builders these days are worth their weight in gold. Some, like Barry Jones of JonesCraft Timberworks and local builder Kevin McCarty, are worth even more. With the help of many more volunteers and Preserve Historic Sleeping Bear (PHSB), the two have played a critical part in restoring the oldest structure on the mainland of the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.

Some backstory: The Kraitz Cabin, a small log cabin on Bohemian road built between 1856 and 1860, was thought to be a goner after a tree fell on the structure in 2014, and the cabin below quickly deteriorated, despite the park’s efforts to patch its roof. A true fix wouldn’t be quick, or simple; saving the cabin would require finding several logs to match the originals in size, material, and appearance. Enter local builder Kevin McCarty, who in 2015 offered PHSB some hemlock trees he was removing from a property. Turns out, they were exactly the size needed, so McCarty milled them. After volunteers rebuilt the loft floor, roof, and gable ends; removed the deteriorated floor; and redirected the drainage around the building, contractor Barry Jones recently began completing the last of the log replacements. Want to get golden, Pony Boy? The PHSB still needs volunteers this June to rebuild the cabin floor, chink logs, and rebuild windows. For more information, visit www. phsb.org or call (231) 334-6103.

tastemaker Yucatan Guacamole

Whichever food scientists deemed the mighty monounsaturated-fat-filled avocado good for the human heart failed to take into account how cruelly it also toys with that organ. Sure, avocados reduce the risk of heart disease and curb inflammation. But if you’ve ever known the joy of finding a bag of these much-coveted emerald gems at what looks and feels to be the perfect just-before-peak ripeness — then got them home, blinked once, and found their innards scarred by unavoidable amounts of brown spots and veins, you know all too well the devastation these ovate orbs can wreak. Before you risk another taco, do some justice to your Cinco de Mayo celebration: Shell out $7 for 12 ounces of squeezable certainty. Much like its genius airlock packaging, Yucatan Guacamole’s guarantee to stay green for two weeks is real. We tasted it — both spicy and mild were immensely flavorful and without weird additives or fillers — and we tested it (three squeeze packs in three months, in fact). And it is the best thing to happen to our thrice-weekly taco night since we learned Costco refunds bad avocados without requiring you to drive them back to the store. We found ours at Oryana West (3587 Marketplace Circle, in Traverse City) and various Family Fare supermarkets. Northern Express Weekly • may 03, 2021 • 5