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In this Feb. 20, 2019, file photo a coming soon for sale sign sits in front of a home in the Dallas suburb of Richardson, Texas. On Monday, the National Association of Realtors reported on sales of existing homes in March. (AP photo)
From mincing garlic to making buttermilk, there are certain little tricks that make cooking easier. Others include how to soften brown sugar or how to quickly ripen avocados. (Photo courtesy of MetroCreative)
Home sales fall 4.9% in slow start to spring buying season
By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON — Sales of existing U.S. homes fell in March after a huge gain the previous month, held back partly by a sharp slowdown among the most expensive properties. The National Association of Realtors said Monday that home sales fell 4.9% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.21 million, down from 5.48 million in February. The drop followed an
11.2% gain the previous month, the largest in more than three years. Home sales are struggling to rebound after slumping in the second half of last year, when a jump in mortgage rates to nearly 5% discouraged many would-be buyers. Spring buying is so far running behind last year’s healthy gains: Sales were 5.4% below where they were a year earlier. Most analysts expect sales to rebound in the See Sales p. 2D
In this Feb. 21 photo a sign is posted near a newly constructed home in Natick, Mass. On Tuesday the Commerce Department reports on sales of new homes in March. (AP photo)
New-home sales up 4.5% in March
By JOSH BOAK AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON — Sales of new U.S. homes increased 4.5% in March, the third straight monthly gain as the housing market appears to be cautiously recovering from a mortgage rate spike last year that caused homebuying to slump. The Commerce Department said Tuesday that new homes sold at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 692,000 in March, up from 662,000 in February. For the first three months of 2019, new-home sales were 1.7% higher than the same period a year ago. March’s sales pace was the strongest since November 2017, a sign that the market for newer properties is building some momentum. New-home sales began
See New homes p. 2D
6
little tricks that every cook should know
By KATIE WORKMAN Associated Press There are certain small skills that make life better and easier. I’m well aware that many of them take place outside of the kitchen, and I probably don’t know as many of those as I should. I’m of no use if you have a flat tire or need to calculate the circumference of something or want to find your way out of the woods. But after many years of clanking around in the kitchen, I have collected a fair arsenal of cooking tips and shortcuts. Here are a few that everyone should know: HOW TO QUICKLY RIPEN AVOCADOS
If you have a hard avocado and you need it to be soft in a day or so, simply place it in a brown paper bag with a banana or apple and fold the top to close it up. The natural ethylene gases emitted by the other fruit will cause the avocado to ripen faster. Depending on how hard your avocado is, it might take a couple of days. HOW TO MINCE GARLIC SUPER FINE If you are using minced garlic in a dish, particularly a dish where the garlic is uncooked, big chunks are not what you are looking for. Just smash a clove or two (or five) with the side of a heavy knife, slip off the papery skin, and start chop-
ping on a cutting board. As the garlic gets chopped, add a pinch or so of kosher or sea salt, and keep chopping. The salt acts as an abrasive so the garlic gets minced fine, finer, finest. Every once in a while, use the side of the knife to smear the garlic against the cutting board, then scrape it back up and keep mincing. You can hear the salt crunching under the blade as it works to pulverize the garlic. HOW TO MAKE BUTTERMILK Unless we are really planning ahead, when “buttermilk” comes up as in ingredient in a recipe, it’s unlikely most of us have it on hand. Easy solution: Make
your own. Place 1 tablespoon lemon juice or white vinegar in a measuring cup and then fill it with milk to the 1 cup line. I like to use whole milk, but you can also use 2%. If you see slight curdling, don’t worry — it won’t affect the finished product. This may not be as thick as regular buttermilk, but the acidity in the milk will perform the same function — getting you to a tender, flaky and flavorful baked good. HOW TO PEEL GINGER WITH A SPOON Ginger’s skin is thin enough to be scraped off with the edge of a teaspoon. See Tricks p. 2D
In the Garden
Give your flower and veggie seedlings some tough love S
eedlings raised on windowsills or in greenhouses have been coddled to some degree and aren’t ready to face the great outdoors. A temporary period called “hardening off” can prepare these plants for more intense sunlight, wind and varying temperatures. Make this transition gradually, over the course of a week or two. A good place to LEE REICH harden off seedlings is in a somewhat sheltered spot outdoors, such as in a coldframe (basically an open-bottomed box with a clear, removable cover) or near a wall in dappled shade. Or offer the
seedlings full exposure for limited, but increasing, periods. ACCLIMATION TO TEMPERATURE The changes that lower temperatures during the hardening-off period will induce in coddled seedlings depend on the nature of the seedlings themselves. Seedlings of cabbage, lettuce, snapdragon, pansy and other plants that can eventually laugh off cold even well below freezing develop that tolerance for cold by building up sugars in their cells. Cold also changes the composition of their cell membranes. Seedlings of tomatoes, marigolds,
zinnias and other plants that cannot tolerate temperatures much below freezing suffer from so-called chilling injury even at temperatures below 50 degrees F. Changes in plant membranes from chilling injury interfere with sunlight driving photosynthesis, so instead damaging toxins build up in leaves. As a tomato or other warmth-loving plant becomes hardened off through gradual exposure to cooler temperatures, it becomes better able to repair and prevent such damage. AVOID SUNBURN Even in the absence of cold, outdoor sunlight — which can be as much as 10 times more intense than light streaming through a sunny, south-facing window — can injure coddled See Garden p. 2D
This undated photo shows seedlings in New Paltz, N.Y. Gradual exposure of seedlings to outdoor conditions readies them for eventual planting out in the garden. (AP photo)
2D The Mining Journal
House to Home
Thursday, April 25, 2019
Mortgage Index 30-YEAR Rate-Fee/Pts.
High rate
4.375
1
4.875
1
Low rate
4.250
1
3.625
1
Average rate
4.281
1
4.000
1
Garden from
This Saturday photo shows large paper flowers in Hopkinton, N.H. The flowers can add impact to party decor, whether for a wedding, baby shower or Mother's Day brunch. This grouping features blooms in similar hues made with three different types of paper. (AP photo)
Decorate with giant paper flowers for Mother’s Day and more By HOLLY RAMER Associated Press CONCORD, N.H. — Sure, a single stem tucked in a bud vase looks pretty alongside breakfast in bed, but why not go big this Mother’s Day, with longlasting, giant paper blossoms that can brighten up an entire room? Fresh flowers are still fairly scarce where I live this time of year, but paper flowers know no season, and they won’t wilt. Super sizing them ups the impact considerably, and they’re actually easier to make than smaller-scale blooms with fiddly little petals. And depending on the colors and design, giant flowers can be used for gorgeous backdrops for weddings, showers, nursery decor and more. I even found tutorials for making stems that allow the flowers to stand up on their own, though I decided to skip that for now and focus on sticking them on the wall. I tested three different methods of making oversize flowers to hang on the wall. While the techniques were similar, and each resulted in flowers that measured about 16 inches across, the biggest difference was in the materials: crepe paper, card stock and tissue paper. Here’s what I found, with each method rated from 1 to 10, with 10 indicating the least expensive, easiest and best results: CREPE PAPER Before I tried making a few small paper flowers a few years ago, my experience with crepe paper was limited to those cheap rolls of streamers you hang up for kids’ birthday parties. This is a different kind of product, one that comes in large sheets or rolls and is thick and stretchy. I followed a tutorial on the website for Mercantile Craft Company that uses crepe paper, glue and a sturdy paper plate. The easy-to-follow instructions call for cutting simple petal shapes out of a double layer of crepe paper, then gathering the bottoms together and gluing them to create a double petal. While I think it would be easier to use a stapler instead of glue
at this step, it was not difficult, just time consuming. The petals are shaped by gently pulling the paper into a cupped shape, and then they are glued onto the plate in layers. The center of the flower features smaller bits of crepe paper arranged more at random, and a fringed piece in a contrasting color for the center. I was surprised to see that nearly an hour had passed by the time I finished my flower, but I expect that I would speed up if I was making more because I wouldn’t be stopping to view the video of each step. The result was easily my favorite, and everyone I showed it to agreed. It wasn’t the cheapest, however. It took an entire 20-inch by 8foot piece of crepe paper to make one flower, which cost about $3.50. COST: 6 EASE: 8 RESULTS: 9
Tricks from
place a damp paper towel over it, cover the bowl with a plate and microwave it for 20 seconds. Check to see if it’s soft, and if not, continue microwaving in 20 second bursts until it is. Use it pretty quickly, and when you store any leftovers, make sure to put a piece of fresh bread in the container with the sugar. HOW TO GET HONEY (OR MOLASSES, MAPLE SYRUP OR CORN SYRUP) OUT OF A MEASURING CUP Anything sticky is just plain hard to measure. You pour it into the cup, or spoon, and then into your bowl or pot, and a thick coating is always left inside the
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In fact, it’s easier to use a spoon than a vegetable peeler because the spoon can get into the crevices and navigate over the bumps more easily. Also, this means you can have even a very little kid help with this kitchen task, since they can’t nick themselves with a spoon. HOW TO SOFTEN BROWN SUGAR If you have a day or two, just place a piece of fresh bread in a container with the brown sugar, seal the container, and your brown sugar will soften right up. If you are in a hurry, place the brown sugar in a bowl,
CARD STOCK The JenniferMaker website is a wealth of crafting inspiration, particularly for paper flowers fashioned out of card stock. I chose the “Giant Winter Rose” tutorial because it most closely resembled the other flowers I was attempting, but the site also has instructions for other roses, sunflowers, peonies and more. This technique involves cutting out individual petals and gluing them to a round card-stock base. I used my Silhouette cutting machine, but a Cricut machine also works, as would tracing and cutting free templates by hand. With the exception of the inner stamen piece, I think hand-cutting would be faster, since it took me about 40 minutes just to cut out all the various pieces using my machine. Each petal is then shaped by rolling the edges with a spoon handle or similar object. The actual assembly went more quickly than I expected, though it was a bit tricky to maintain a round shape, and my flower ended up looking a bit more pointed around the edges than the example shown on the website. Though none of the flow-
ers I made are particularly “realistic” given their enormous size, the stiffness and smooth texture of the cardstock definitely gives this version a more stylized look. I found packs of card stock on sale at my local craft store, so even though this took about 18 sheets, the materials cost less than $2 for one flower, making this a more affordable choice assuming you already have a cutting machine or are willing to cut the petals by hand. COST: 7 EASE: 6 RESULTS: 7 TISSUE PAPER The third flower I made was inspired by the decor site Design Sponge, which featured a tutorial written by a clothing company that had made giant tissue paper flowers for its advertising. While the instructions also involved making stems so the flowers could stand upright, I limited my efforts to the blossoms alone. This tutorial was the least detailed of the three, since it gave no information about the size of the petals or how many to cut. That meant I had to guess based on the photos, which was a bit frustrating. Unlike the other two techniques that started with the outer petals and built inward, this one started with clutching the inner petals together like a bouquet and taping them together. Larger petals are then gathered around this bunch, and secured with more tape, until the desired fullness is achieved. I ended up starting with petals roughly 9 inches tall for the smallest size and 14 inches tall for the largest. Gathering the petals together and taping them got a bit unwieldy, and my flower didn’t turn out as ethereal as the examples shown on the website. But it probably used less than a dollar’s worth of tissue paper, making this the most affordable option. Since it also didn’t involve hot glue, this would be the easiest method to attempt with children, as well. COST: 8 EASE: 5 RESULTS: 6 measuring cup, drip drip dripping, but never fully getting out of the cup. The quick hack is cooking spray. Just spray the inside of the cup or measuring spoon with nonstick cooking spray, measure your sticky ingredient, and it will slide right out. Cleanup is easier, too! Now I’m off to google “how to change a tire.” Katie Workman has written two cookbooks focused on easy, family-friendly cooking, “Dinner Solved!” and “The Mom 100 Cookbook.” She blogs at http://www.themom100.co m/about-katie-workman. She can be reached at Katie@themom100.com.
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15-YEAR Rate-Fee/Pt.
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seedlings’ leaves. Gradual exposure to more intense light, beginning in dappled shade or with just a few hours each day in full sun, thickens cell walls, fibers, and cuticles on both existing and new leaves. With increasing light exposure, chloroplasts, the green, light-trapping energy factories in leaves, also move around and align themselves in such a way that the leaves turn darker green. And stomata, which are the tiny pores in leaves through which water is lost and carbon dioxide and oxygen are exchanged, become more quickly able to open and close in response to changing conditions. SHELTER FROM WIND Stomatal response also plays a role in a plant’s gradual adaptation to wind. During the hardening-off period, plants be-
New homes from
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to rebound after the average 30-year mortgage rate fell from its recent peak of nearly 5% in November 2018. “Homebuilders continue to indicate encouraging orders and traffic trends, crediting the drop in mortgage rates with reenergizing housing demand,” said Stephen Stanley, chief economist at Amherst Pierpont Securities. “The next 23 months will be critical, as the spring selling season will be a telling test of whether housing demand is truly firming.” Yet the housing market has been uneven in recent months, a sign that years of price gains have hurt affordability and that low-
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coming months. Borrowing costs have since fallen back to an average of 4.2% on a 30-year fixed mortgage. And solid hiring is pushing employers to pay higher wages, making it easier for more Americans to afford a home purchase. Applications for mortgages to purchase homes have been running at a healthy pace in recent months, evidence that final sales should pick up in the coming months. Demand remains strong, with homes on the market for an average of 36 days in March, down from 44 in February. “We look for a combination of strong demand and lower mortgage rates to support modest growth in sales over the balance of the year,” said Nancy Vanden Houten, senior U.S. economist at Oxford Economics. Still, a split in the market has emerged, thanks partly
This graphic represents a Tuesday survey of regional lending institutions. Figures are based on rates at Range Bank, mBank, First Bank of Upper Michigan and Marquette Community Federal Credit Union.
come able to respond more quickly to drying winds by closing their stomata. Even movement of the plant, whether from wind or anything else, plays a role in making stomata more responsive. Movement of plants has yet another effect: It slows stem elongation, which contributes to that stocky, lush green look that shows a plant has been well hardened off. So blow on, shake or gently brush your seedlings regularly to toughen them up and encourage them to become stocky plants better able to handle the real world of the garden. That, along with spending a week or so outdoors in a sheltered spot or for only part of each day, will ease your seedlings’ transition to the garden so they hardly know they’ve been moved. Which is as it should be. Online: http://www.leereich.com/blog http://leereich.com
er mortgage rates can only remove a degree of the pressure from higher costs. Sales of existing homes — which make up the bulk of purchases — plunged 4.9% in March, the National Association of Realtors said Monday. The median sales price of a new home in February tumbled 9.7% to $302,700. Price pressures are creating a search for more affordable options. In March, 16% of new-homes were sold for less than $200,000. This was marked increase from 2018, when just 12% of new homes sold for less than $200,000. Still, monthly sales figures can be volatile and the industry’s preference for more profitable homes at higher prices could cause that share to dip in the coming months.
to the Trump administration’s tax cut law. Sales increased slightly among mid-priced homes but fell sharply among homes priced at $1 million or more. Lawrence Yun, chief economist at the NAR, said that the tax changes have limited the ability of wealthier homeowners to deduct mortgage interest payments and property taxes. That’s discouraging sales of more expensive homes. Developers have built more expensive homes in recent years while pulling back from cheaper properties, even as middle-income Americans are eager to buy. “The lower-end market is hot while the upper-end market is not,” Yun said. Properties valued at $100,000 or less, mostly condos, also saw a sharp drop in sales, though that reflects a lack of available homes at that price point. The slowdown among higher-priced homes has occurred because of weak-
er demand. Sales fell in all four major U.S. regions, with the biggest decline occurring in the Midwest. That may have partly reflected the impact of massive flooding in Iowa, Missouri and Nebraska last month. The broader U.S. economy is looking much better now than it did a couple of months ago, when the government shutdown, slumping retail sales and slower global growth threatened to drag down the U.S. economy. Earlier this year, economists forecast growth could fall to as low as 0.5% at an annual rate in the first three months of the year. Now, analysts expect the government on Friday could report growth as high as 2.8%.
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FRONTAGE ON COPPER HARBOR
9
10 TBD Woodland Drive Copper Harbor MLS#: 1107351 $190,000 BOB SULLIVAN
4 CAMP AND 30 ACRES ON THE FORD RIVER
DIVERSE PARCEL IN ONTONAGON COUNTY
200 ACRES OF MENOMINEE COUNTY HUNTING LAND
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406 Acres Beaver Trail Road Mass City
200 Acres Million Dollar Rd Menominee
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COMMERCIAL PROPERTY IN CHOCOLAY TOWNSHIP
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Love the Land!
B o b S u lliv a n
A s s o c ia te B r o k e r / O w n e r C e ll: 9 0 6 - 3 6 1 - 4 2 1 2
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