January 2025

Snowy Morning, December 13, 2024
Photo Credit to Camille Athanas-Butler

 

Winterfest at the Sheffieck’s

Join your lake neighbors for a wintery (hopefully!) evening at the Sheffieck’s. Their annual Winterfest event will be on February 8, starting at 6:00pm. BYOB plus something to share.

Michigan’s Winter Identity

For generations, Michigan winter weather has inspired public celebrations across the state — from Heikinpäivä and Heikki Lunta, mid-winter celebrations in the U.P. honoring Finnish snow gods, to polar plunges in Houghton Lake, ski contests in Traverse City, Michigan’s longest sled dog race, the UP200, snowmobile races on Lake St. Clair, and snurfing — a precursor to modern snowboarding — in Muskegon.

Winter recreation is so fundamental to Michigan’s culture, it is even codified in state law! The State Department of Natural Resources is required to host one fee-free weekend each year for snowmobiling and ice fishing. This year’s dates are listed below in the Commodore’s Comments.

Tracking Snow Pack: Did you know that the University of Michigan has a Biological Station which tracks a variety of data? One of the thing they track is the snowpack levels, and you can view data that is updated every hour! You can read more about the snowpack sensors here, and an article about a recent roundtable hosted at UM regarding winter weather and snow science here.

Winter Poetry

While looking for content for this month’s online Barker, I found an archive of winter poems. Below is a well-known bit of winter poetry, and you can find many more at the link above!

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

Robert Frost, 1874-1963

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

Commodore’s Comments

Hello neighbors,

Sending Happy New Year wishes to all of you! May 2025 be full of peace, joy, and love!

Due to the winter weather, travel, and the busy holiday season, we don’t get many opportunities to see each other. I am looking forward to the Sheffieck Winterfest party on February 8th. Thank you Mike and Julie for once again hosting this fun winter gathering in your beautiful home!

In January there are some interesting winter activities or festivals to consider:

Birch Lake is also not far from snow skiing. Our son, Johnny, enjoys downhill skiing at Swiss Valley. For six weeks on Monday nights starting in January, he skis with a group called SOLO (Special Outdoor Leisure Opportunities). There are volunteers that help individuals and they ski for free.

If anyone is interested or has any questions, give me a call.

These are just a few suggestions to get us through the weeks ahead! We come from many different places, but we are on the same boat, we love Birch Lake!

~Commodore Julie

Fleet Captain’s Corner

Happy 2025,

I hope everyone had a great holiday season spending time with family and friends and found some good holiday sales, pun intended.

While there isn’t much sailing of the traditional variety at Birch Lake this time of year, I am crossing my fingers for cold weather to form some ice on the lake. Last fall Bill Butler stumbled upon an Ice Sailboat that we got fixed up last year, but the ice conditions were not such that we could try it out.

I had personally not heard of ice sailing until last year but have learned that it is one of the fastest – if not the fastest – forms of sailing, with the capability of going five times faster than the speed of the true wind. This is due to the fact that the boat rides on skates and has very little resistance.

The class of boat Bill has is a DN (Detroit News), and is the most popular type of Iceboat. From my understanding, the DN original design was part of a newspaper design competition in the 1930’s in Detroit, and that is where it gets its name. The DN “can” top out at speeds of 60+ MPH, while there are other Iceboat classes that can go over 100+ MPH.

While researching Iceboat sailing last winter, I found there are Ice Sailboat Races and several Ice Sailboat Yacht Clubs. There is a rich history of Ice Sailboating in Michigan. In fact, I counted five Ice Sailboat Yacht Clubs, 24 DN North American clubs, and 7 World Championships that have been held in Michigan over the years. Actually, the first DN World Championship was held at Gull Lake between Battle Creek and Kalamazoo in 1973, and their Ice Sailboat Yacht Club is over 100 years old! Bill and I attended one of their monthly meetings last year to learn more about the sport.

If you’re interested in seeing more about Iceboat Sailing, check out the DN Classes website. It has some good videos, pictures, and information about Ice Sailboating.

~ F.C. Bob

Bill’s Ice Sailboat
Bill working on the Ice Sailboat

Public Service Announcements

Homeowner’s Association

The Birch Lake HOA has contacted the Cass County Road Commission and there is no money in the budget to put a guard rail on the west side of Birch Lake Road, between Sears Road and the public landing. Please give any car heading up towards Sears Road as much room as you can safely do so. 

Turtle Signs

Please remember to put away your “Slow Down” signs so they don’t get destroyed over the winter!

Update Your Email Preferences

You can choose which emails you want to receive from the Birch Barker! Please click here to update your email preferences.

BLYC Website Updates

Be sure to check out the updated BLYC website! We have recently added an Archives section with copies of Birch Barkers dating back to the very first edition in July of 1944. Eventually, I plan to add a section of historical information about Birch Lake.

There is also a Photographs section on the site where we will post photos from lake events. There are currently photos from the Earl Troeger, Jr. Memorial Regatta, the Fall Dinner, and photos taken by Birch Lake residents of the Northern Lights in October.

If you need to contact any of the Birch Lake Yacht Club Directors, Officers, or Committee Chairs, click on the “About BLYC” link at the top of the page to find the list of members and contact information.

If you have any old Barkers that are not posted on the site, historical information, or photos you would like to share, please email birchbarker1@gmail.com so that I can add them.

BLYC Directory

Corrections and updates to the new directory? Send any updates to birchbarker1@gmail.com and we’ll publish them here for folks to update their directories.

2025 Yacht Club Dues

It’s never too early to pay your BLYC dues for next summer! You can pay online here or mail a check payable to BLYC to:

Deb Spratt, Treasurer
18100 Farmington Hills Dr.
South Bend, IN 46637

Events

2025 BLYC Board Meetings

Board meetings take place at 9 a.m. on Saturday mornings at the Yacht Club, and are open to all lake residents. The 2025 schedule is TBA. We will meet in May, June, July, August, and September.

Upcoming Events

  • February 8, 2025 – Winterfest at Mike and Julie Sheffieck’s, 6pm
  • May 17, 2025 – Spring Dinner
  • June TBA – Trivia Night
  • June TBA – Commodore / Vice Commodore Party + Stock the Bar
  • June TBA – Spaghetti Dinner
  • July 5, 2025 – Boat Parade
  • July 5, 2025 – Fireworks
  • July 6, 2025 – Pancake Breakfast
  • July 18, 2025 – Ladies’ Golf Outing
  • July 25, 2025 – Men’s Golf Outing
  • July TBA – Family Picnic
  • August 2, 2025 – Corn & Sausage Roast
  • August TBA – Fall Dinner
  • September TBA – Fall Frolic
  • October TBA – Bad Patty Crockpot Challenge

Kids of the Month

Buddy

Buddy has recently adopted Dan and Sharon Waxman and is enjoying his first winter at Birch Lake.

Elyse, Harrison, Sherry, and Kieran

Elyse, Harrison, and Kieran Grundy watching a movie with Grandma Sherry during her visit to Birch Lake for the holidays.

Raegan and Jane
Luke and Isaiah

Jan Temple and Tom Kuhn (west shore) enjoyed four of our favorite Christmas blessings over the holidays — Raegan, Jane, Luke, and Isaiah (born December 22).

Leslie

Leslie King with a Bumble from Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.

Caden’s First Christmas

Caden King (7 months), grandson of Bob and Leslie King (north shore, and son of Cal and Liz King, celebrated his first Christmas this year.

🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍

Please share your own kids (or pets or whatever!) to be featured in an upcoming issue. You can email them to birchbarker1@gmail.com.

Classifieds

Wanted to Buy: My large extended family has owned a cottage called “Chaos” (Cove) for 60 years. Our place will stay in the family… but our own individual needs have expanded and we are looking for more room so our grandkids can stay during the summer and make memories here, too. We are looking for a 3 or 4 bedroom place on the lake. If you are thinking about selling, please email Ann Nyberg at ann.nyberg@gmail.com.

Wanted to Buy: Bill and Sherry Holleman are looking to get back on to Birch Lake part-time or full-time. If you are thinking about selling, please email Sherry at dakotalynn01@aol.com.

Services: I do sewing and mending at fair prices – zippers, hemming, small alterations; call Kathy at 269-476-9317.

Barker Funnies

(click on image to enlarge)