I refuse to press any buttons on the menu and eventually I'm switched to a live person! If you still had a rotary phone how could you press one? Here's a funny story about Beavers! STATE OF MICHIGAN Reply to: GRAND RAPIDS DISTRICT OFFICE STATE OFFICE BUILDING 6TH FLOOR 350 OTTAWA NW GRAND RAPIDS MI 49503-2341 JOHN ENGLER, Governor DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY HOLLISTER BUILDING, PO BOX 30473, LANSING MI 48909-7973 INTERNET: http://www.deq.state.mi RUSSELL J. HARDING, Director December 17, 1997 CERTIFIED Mr. Ryan DeVries 2088 Dagget Pierson, MI 49339 Dear Mr. DeVries: SUBJECT: DEQ File No. 97-59-0023-1 T11N, R10W, Sec. 20, Montcalm County It has come to the attention of the Department of Environmental Quality that there has been recent unauthorized activity on the above referenced parcel of property. You have been certified as the legal landowner and/or contractor who did the following unauthorized activity: Construction and maintenance of two wood debris dams across the outlet stream of Spring Pond. A permit must be issued prior to the start of this type of activity. A review of the Department's files show that no permits have been issued. Therefore, the Department has determined that this activity is in violation of Part 301, Inland Lakes and Streams, of the Natural Resource and Environmental Protection Act, Act 451 of the Public Acts of 1994, being sections 324.30101 to 324.30113 of the Michigan Compiled Laws annotated. The Department has been informed that one or both of the dams partially failed during a recent rain event, causing debris dams and flooding at downstream locations. We find that dams of this nature are inherently hazardous and cannot be permitted. The Department therefore orders you to cease and desist all unauthorized activities at this location, and to restore the stream to a free-flow condition by removing all wood and brush forming the dams from the strewn channel. All restoration work shall be completed no later than January 31, 1998. Please notify this office when the restoration has been completed so that a follow-up site inspection may be scheduled by our staff. Failure to comply with this request, or any further unauthorized activity on the site, may result in this case being referred for elevated enforcement action. We anticipate and would appreciate your full cooperation in this matter. Please feel free to contact me at this office if you have any questions. Sincerely, David L. Price District Representative Land and Water Management Division _______________________________________________________________________ Dear Mr. Price: Re: DEQ File No. 97-59-0023; T11N, R10W, Sec 20; Montcalm County Your certified letter dated 12/17/97 has been handed to me to respond to. You sent out a great deal of carbon copies to a lot of people, but you neglected to include their addresses. You will, therefore, have to send them a copy of my response. First of all, Mr. Ryan DeVries is not the legal landowner and/or contractor at 2088 Dagget, Pierson, Michigan - I am the legal owner and a couple of beavers are in the (State unauthorized) process of constructing and maintaining two wood "debris" dams across the outlet stream of my Spring Pond. While I did not pay for, nor authorize, their dam project, I think they would be highly offended you call their skillful use of natural building materials "debris." I would like to challenge you to attempt to emulate their dam project any dam time and/or any dam place you choose. I believe I can safely state there is no dam way you could ever match their dam skills, their dam resourcefulness, their dam ingenuity, their dam persistence, their dam determination and/or their dam work ethic. As to your dam request the beavers first must fill out a dam permit prior to the start of this type of dam activity, my first dam question to you is: are you trying to discriminate against my Spring Pond Beavers or do you require all dam beavers throughout this State to conform to said dam request? If you are not discriminating against these particular beavers, please send me completed copies of all those other applicable beaver dam permits. Perhaps we will see if there really is a dam violation of Part 301, Inland Lakes and Streams, of the Natural Resource and Environmental Protection Act, Act 451 of the Public Acts of 1994, being sections 324.30101 to 324.30113 of the Michigan Compiled Laws annotated. My first concern is - aren't the dam beavers entitled to dam legal representation? The Spring Pond Beavers are financially destitute and are unable to pay for said dam representation - so the State will have to provide them with a dam lawyer. The Department's dam concern that either one or both of the dams failed during a recent rain event causing dam flooding is proof we should leave the dam Spring Pond Beavers alone rather than harassing them and calling them dam names. If you want the dam stream "restored" to a dam free-flow condition - contact the dam beavers - but if you are going to arrest them (they obviously did not pay any dam attention to your dam letter-being unable to read English) - be sure you read them their dam Miranda rights first. As for me, I am not going to cause more dam flooding or dam debris jams by interfering with these dam builders. If you want to hurt these dam beavers - be aware I am sending a copy of your dam letter and this response to PETA. If your dam Department seriously finds all dams of this nature inherently hazardous and truly will not permit their existence in this dam State - I seriously hope you are not selectively enforcing this dam policy, or once again both I and the Spring Pond Beavers will scream prejudice! In my humble opinion, the Spring Pond Beavers have a right to build their dam unauthorized dams as long as the sky is blue, the grass is green, and water flows downstream. They have more dam right than I to live and enjoy Spring Pond. So, as far as I and the beavers are concerned, this dam case can be referred for more dam elevated enforcement action now. Why wait until 1/31/98? The Spring Pond Beavers may be under the dam ice then, and there will be no dam way for you or your dam staff to contact/harass them then. In conclusion, I would like to bring to your attention a real environmental quality (health) problem: bears are actually defecating in our woods. I definitely believe you should be persecuting the defecating bears and leave the dam beavers alone. If you are going to investigate the beaver dam, watch your step! (The bears are not careful where they dump!) Being unable to comply with your dam request, and being unable to contact you on your dam answering machine, I am sending this response to your dam office. Sincerely, Stephen L. Tvedten

As Larry would say, "I mudded in some onions today." We haven't had much rain so far this year, but we have had just enough light showers to keep things wet since the cold days passed. We had light rain this morning and have a 20 percent chance of more tonight. I tip-toed between the rain showers and planted all of my Candy onions in a raised bed. We are going to have several cloudy days in a row so it seemed like a good time to get them out. My husband was in Atwood's today and called to tell me they had Dixondale onions and asked if I wanted more. He read me the list and I think Candy was the only intermediate day variety they had and all the rest were short-day. Since I had ordered Candy with the group order, I told him I didn't need anymore of those and didn't want the others. Although I live in that lap-over area that Dixondale says will grow both short day and intermediate day types, I am at the very top of it, and feel I will probably be better off with intermediate day types. That is another reason why I like to order with the group order since the local stores don't seem to pay much attention to that.

But one gets higher rates of interest in Sanford banks!!!! I have a sneaking suspicion that FDIC insurance wasn't the first thing on these investor's minds when they made their deposits.

He owes you $12,000? In that case I would hire a lawyer - not chump change! Especially if you ordered face-frame cabs and now he only does frameless - that is a total breach of contract. All I can say about lawyers is you DEFINITELY get what you pay for! Pay more for a really GOOD lawyer with experience in this area - trust me - a bad lawyer is the WORST thing in the world! At least a good vs. bad divorce lawyer, that is ;) -- Melissastar, Along with all the quality problems, we did have trouble getting them to "finish" up (before we fired them). They "disappeared" for a few weeks - and we kept harrassing them about putting in the windows - the ENTIRE project was estimated to be FINISHED by Labor Day (September - broke ground beginning of July) but in late October it was already getting really cold and we had NO WINDOWS! This was why the lawyer advised us not to fire them at the time - we PAID for the windows and siding! So, my mother called up the window place, and it turns out the windows were sitting there for over a month - they would NOT allow them to leave the shop until the GC paid for them! So, my mother was like, "But WE paid HIM for THOSE windows." Sorry, the GC never paid us! The GC had been LYING the whole time - he kept saying "The Anderson Factory is months behind." They finally installed the windows in November - that was when the SH-T hit the fan - they caught me taking photographs of their trucks and license plates! And got really p-ssed! The windows were already on my property, so I really didn't care at that point, but they removed all their tools from the premises (big deal - one of the guys saw my Dewalt jigsaw and was like "What are YOU doing with that nice saw?" And I replied "I KNOW how to build!") -- Marti8A, Do you NEED a GC? Good question! I know that in order to get the permit they required a licensed CONTRACTOR, but not sure if that means GC. We were originally planning to GC it ourselves, and we found our excavator through a reference - he was the guy who recommended our GC. The excavation / foundation guy was cool AT FIRST - all that went well. But once the framers started, it all went downhill. The excavator guy was around in the beginning of that, but we kept complaining, and he even saw the screw-ups, and after the whole roof / closet fiasco he simply DISAPPEARED - and DISCONNECTED his phone! Seriously, the problem here is that we are both FEMALE! There is NO WAY all this would EVER happen if a guy was on the premises everyday. The proof is that as soon as my brother came down from Vermont they actually listened to him - and corrected some of the mistakes. But, when I pointed out the exact same mistakes they told me "You don't know what you are talking about!" -- Funny story: We added on to the back of the house, but I REALLY wanted a Portico over the front door (I HATE the snow blocking the door in winter). I had already designed it to fit between the two different roofs (front is L-shaped with main roof 12/12 pitch and smaller roof 8/12 pitch - front door is in the corner on the short side). That was not in the plans, but during the initial consult I asked the GC if he could build it "Of COURSE!" he said. Well, we checked with the code / inspector guy and he said that as long as it was only over the door / stoop - not a full porch or going beyond the existing front of the house, that he would allow it without a permit. So, one day they show up (hadn't been around in like a week) at 7am and say "We're here to frame the Portico - $2,000 cash upfront" (we had already agreed to that cost). Yeah, they ALWAYS want more money BEFORE they FINISH ANYTHING. But, the portico was separate from the addition, and we were just glad they showed up at that point. We had already thoroughly discussed the design - the bottom was only one freestanding post holding up a hip roof that ties into the valley of the two existing gable roofs. It was supposed to have exposed rafter tails, but they would have come down too low, so I agreed to just squaring out the eaves with fascia trim. Fine, right? WRONG! Well, all of a sudden the guys start arguing amongst themselves in Spanish (OK, this is another whole problem - do yourself a favor and meet the ENTIRE CREW before you sign a contract - just because the GC seems like a normal Italian and the excavator is Irish does NOT mean the guys actually doing the work are Americans - when my brother found this out he flipped!). So, I'm like "What's the problem?" And the GC is like, well, those two roofs are different pitches - we cannot do it! WHAT?!?!? You've been working here all these months and you JUST NOTICED that the two roofs are not the same pitch? What the bleeping Hell does that have to do with anything anyway? So, he's like, "A hip roof is always a square - the same on both sides." No, actually NOT if it's a rectangle like the house RIGHT NEXT DOOR!!! So, as the guys are fooling around with some wood up on the roof, trying to figure out what to do, I say "Give me that wood!" I took the wood, climbed up on the ladder, put the wood in the valley and showed them that the ridge goes from the top of the valley and slopes down to the post on the outside corner. Then, the short hip rafters connect from one roof to the ridge beam and the other roof to the ridge beam, and then ledger boards are carried across from below the eaves of each original roof forming the "square" that surrounds the stoop and attaches at the top of the post. Oh, well "That would be called a "B-stard Hip" because the rafters would be different on each side - it will look weird!" the GC said. What? I replied "I DON"T CARE WHAT YOU CALL IT! OF COURSE the rafters must be two different pitches - the CURRENT two roofs are TWO DIFFERENT PITCHES!" Are you sure that's what you want? YES! THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT I WANT! Well, that's strange, so I'll have to call your mother to make sure a "B-stard Hip" is OK. Fine, on the phone we go, and I had to explain WHY it has to be a "B-stard Hip" because of the different pitches. I assure her that I know exactly what I'm talking about and that it is EXACTLY what it SHOULD look like. "Fine, I'll do it, but it will cost an extra $700 because we'll have to calculate two different pitches to cut." WHATEVER - JUST DO IT! So, finally they are going to start the work. They had to remove the fascia, trim and two batts to install the ledger boards into the old house. When he removed the 3" long screws holding in the batt, he said "You were serious? You really DID use 3" long stainless screws?" with a really scared look on his face. "Yes," I said, "I had to go through the 3/4" thick batt, the 3/4" space between the boards, the 3/4" firring strips and then into the sheathing." "I TOLD you I wasn't going overboard." (This was in reference to how to install REAL board-and-batt siding - he'd only ever done the fake plywood with strips of wood for decoration.) So, from the time that they arrived at 7am and spent HOURS arguing with me, it was 10:30am by the time they even started removing the old roofing to build the portico. My internet had gone down the day before and Verizon was supposed to come fix it - the guy arrived at 1pm and the whole portico roof was already framed out. After he left I went out there and OH MY GOSH - IT WAS PERFECT!!! It fit between the valley perfectly! But, they spent more time ARGUING with me over how to build the bloody thing than it did to actually BUILD it! At the end of the day as they were putting up the new felt paper on the roof we went out to look at it and I was SO HAPPY! I was jumping up and down for joy and hugging them! And they were like, well, that was a lot of work, calculating all those different cuts. Yeah? "But it looks like it has been there since the house was built - EXACTLY what it SHOULD look like!" They only installed a few temporary 2x4's, not the actual post to hold up the portico. That would take ANOTHER WHOLE MONTH to get to! So, when they removed the old copper flashing that was inside that valley, they left it in front of the garage and I took it. It was a huge 24" wide and very long piece of copper. The guys were like "Where did the copper go?" I said I took it to make flower boxes out of. The next day when the roofers came to do the rest of the roof, I went out to get the copper from the other valley and it was GONE! They STOLE MY COPPER and immediately drove it off! I was P-SSED! They probably got $50 for that copper at the scrap yard, when in reality it was worth at least $2,000. THIEVES! We were really mad because we actually wanted them to leave that copper in the valley, but they claimed that you cannot install Ice and Water Shield on top of it. BTW: Copper is MUCH better than Ice and Water Shield. So, the portico looked awesome, and we finally FORCED them to get the cedar post and put in the concrete pillar and post bracket, and the beadboard for the ceiling. They wanted to put another post on the one side of the house with ground underneath it, but since they couldn't do that on the walkway side I said no (the roof would settle crooked then over time). The Ledger was made of double 2x12's and I was going to install the fascia myself, but the GC insisted that it be made of 2x10's (not normal 5/4 board), so I quickly ran to Lowes, found the nicest 2x10's they had, brought them home, sanded them smooth and primed all sides before they were installed. Also, while waiting for them to show up to install the post, I realized the ledgers were just installed using nails, so I installed a whole bunch of stainless lag screws into the house framing and heavy-duty brackets where the ledgers meet the house. Well, they dug and poured the concrete for the post, but it couldn't be installed until the concrete set. When they left the guys said to me "Don't go priming that post while we're gone!" Yeah, I'm OBSESSED with priming all wood before it's installed! Of course, I did prime it, and after waiting a few weeks they never showed up and I installed the post myself. I still have to finish the trim (tried making giant curved brackets by hand - NOT a good idea!), so I'm planning on making an arched valance below the fascia instead with stepped corbels along the posts (I installed floating 2x4 posts with really long lag screws under the ledger boards). I don't think they ever even noticed that I installed that post without them! Note: GW won't let me submit the word B-stard Hip, but yes, it was that profanity that he used to describe a hip with two different angles on each side. It actually looks NORMAL (each side above the portico - over the stoop - is the same) - only the edges of the hip rafters where they meet the two different roof pitches are cut differently. Oh yeah, my mother loved it when she got home - she agreed that it looks likes it's always been there, but she was REALLY MAD that the GC kept calling her up at work to argue about it. Also, everyone who sees it cannot even believe it's not original to the house. Now, I cannot even imagine the house without it! As for snow, well, it works quite well, EXCEPT with blowing snow drifts! I'm going to build a half-wall between the posts along the side without steps to keep the snow from blowing in from the side of the house.