Clearwater Press

Brett Pharo owns a farm. But, not just any farm. It’s not a hobby or for amusement, it’s his way of living. More specifically, it’s how he makes his living. The Pharo farm or Back Acre Farm, as the sign outside it reads, raises and sells sheep for the purpose of selling seed stock rams to customers around Michigan. The left over livestock are either kept to help next years reserve grow or are sent to be butchered. After they are butchered their meat is sent to people who put in orders. While this might sound like an uneventful and banal process, Pharo has some insights and techniques that he applies to his work that use common sense and border on innovative.

The kind of sheep Back Acre Farm deals with is the Polypay breed. This breed is a hybrid between four other breeds including the Dorset, Targhee, Rambouillet and Finnsheep.  He runs his farm using different kinds of methods concerning feeding, health and policies on creating a type of sheep. Brett only uses one feeding group to minimize the work that goes into getting the sheep ready for selling. He feeds them on grass instead of grain. This is a logical solution says Mr. Pharo, seeing as that’s what sheep were bred to do. Their stomachs are built to process the green and not the grain. This cuts down on paying for the grain and getting the grain around to feed. The farm also does not do vaccines and tries to stay clear of antibiotics. In keeping with the low attention to unnecessary medical concerns, the sheep are seldom wormed even though the parasite is prevalent in the animal. Brett is able to do this because he is taking cues from Charles Darwin and making sure only the strong survive. Ones with low worm resistance are sent to slaughter, therefore leading to a resistant faction of the breed allowing him not to have to de-worm. Other defects and unwanted characteristics are weeded out in this process dubbed “culling.” This has proved to be a successful and shrewd business move. The driving force behind this unnatural selection is keeping records says Brett, “They’re very important.”

Recently Brett and his brother Kit, who raises and sells cattle out west, took their ideas of less production and more profit on the road. Kit, who is the owner and head of Pharo Cattle Company, travels all around the country preaching these ideas to eager to learn livestock entrepreneurs. His latest stop was Gladwin Michigan and this time Brett was asked to come along and give his views on raising and selling sheep. “I was kind of like the opening act,” jokes Pharo. The conference was quite a crowd drawer and had been advertised on radio as well as other mediums. The conference was a success. Brett and Kit seemed to have developed a system that is efficient and modern in a farming world that calls for both.

Claira Freeman   Freelance Journalist

mmlearner

Local Rapid City Special Olympian, Special O, as Cory Gay calls it, walked away with three gold ribbons on Friday at Howe Civic Arena in Traverse City. Cory is the son of Sharon and Ron Gay of Rapid City.

Ecstatic Ellen O’Malley, Director of Area 2 Special Olympics watched as Cory’s training paid off, training twice a week and on weekends.

Cory is currently training for State Special Olympic Games which will take place June 1-3 in Mt. Pleasant at Central Michigan University Campus.

Dan Pohlman and local Rapid City resident Sylvia Stroh help make the swim meet programs seamless, according to OMalley.  It helps when Pohlman recruits his high school aged daughters over the years, who then recruit their friends to volunteer their time keeping times and trophies.

The Special Olympic program is open to eight year olds on up. This year, as swimming is part of the school curriculum, the Special O program saw more younger swimmers than ever.

It’s a sure thing that with athletes like Cory Gay as their role model, they will keep striving to keep up with his success.

The Sport of Bowling.

Mackenzie Wolfgram

This seasons conference bowling came to its end last Saturday at what is now Lucky Jacks. (Formerly Timber Lanes) The ceremonial end was all smiles, especially for an all conference bowler Mitch Gribi from Elk Rapids, “It’s awesome to know that, even through missed meets, I still made all conference.” Gribi says.

Jon Tuck, from Traverse City Christian had the most total pins of all the bowlers in the local conference; a commendable feat.  Also receiving praise (but no medals) was the player chosen coach of the year, Ken Hicks from the Elk Rapids boy’s team.  Hicks success stems from encouragement, knowledge of the game, and of course; buying the team pizza every once and awhile.

All in all the season was a great, laid back experience.  I am on the Elk Rapids team and I see bowling apart from all other sports. I also play on the soccer team and bowling is a 100 percent friendlier atmosphere among opposing teams.  Instead of becoming enemies with your competing teams; it is common that by the end of the meet you have some new friends from different schools.  While most sports have banquets at the end of the year with teams separated and at their different schools; bowling mixes kids together at the end of the year for one last chance to get to know each other, or catch up with friends you’ve already made.

Regionals were held in Cheboygan this weekend, and they were a blast.  Teams from the U.P. dominated competition but a good time was had by all.  Not only was there bowling, the pool and local restaurants were a great location to have fun.  Some unprecedented team bonding took place this weekend, along with even more friendships being made.

And so it was that the bowling season came to an end for all but one local school, St. Francis was the only local school able to advance and we wish them the best of luck in the state competition.  It was another fun filled year of high school bowling, an activity that i would recommend to all high-schoolers.  It can’t hurt to give it a try and it’s foolproof fun!

Now that the school teams are gone there will be a few more open lanes at lucky Jacks! Sunday is fun-day, bowling is $1.95 per game until 1:00 pm and children’s’ shoes are free.  So give it a try, it’s a great family activity that can be enjoyed whether you’re eight or eighty!

(Rapid City)

Claira Freeman

New Horizons is located just outside Rapid City. All that marks this helpful establishment is a small sign bearing the organizations name. This is a modest way of going about awareness for a place that does so much good. New Horizons is a place for people eighteen and up who suffer from serious persistent mental illnesses. People suffering from diseases such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and major depression makes up the majority of members. They specialize in psychosocial rehabilitation, a form of treatment that allows members to learn how to achieve work and social readiness as much as possible. Similar programs have been in Northern Michigan since 1994 but the location that New Horizons resides at now was established eight years ago when the Antrim and Kalkaska buildings decided to merge. The programs run at the clubhouse are state and federal funded through Northern Michigan Community Mental Health. Since this location opened up eight years ago their have been 350 members helped at New Horizons. New Horizon’s goal for all members is that they get to the point where they can be comfortable functioning in society and accepted by the rest of their peers.

New Horizons does not have patients. While they offer a wide range of counseling and other services, all of the people who come to New Horizons do it out of their own will. It is their choice to participate in this program and improve their wellness, hence the name alternative name clubhouse. Just as they volunteer themselves to be apart of the clubhouse, the members also give their time to keeping the place running. There are three major departments that members run; maintenance, business and food service. To address these matters the members, along with the four staff that assist there, will have a morning meeting to decide the chores of the day for each department. The tasks are divided and completed. After lunch is made and served by the members, which is quite and undertaking considering that there is about thirty people who frequent the clubhouse, another meeting is held and the afternoon’s duties are squared away. The members are experiencing and learning the skills of being self supporting and building personal relationships. The Associate Director of Community Support at New Horizons, Amy Christie, attests to their methods of rehabilitation “I will have more impact on a member while making lunch with them than sitting them down in a chair and counseling them.” Members experience something unique and effective when they come to new Horizons. It is the genuine understanding New Horizon members are after and their staff is there to help provide that for them.

When asked about how to sum up her experiences at New Horizons Amy gave a sincere account that not only expresses her feelings on the issue but also speaks for the members themselves, “I see our job as helping people becoming apart of a community, because it’s what they want. They don’t want to be looked at as different. They need natural and community support to help them reach that point. If you close the door on them they won’t get better.” So, that’s what New Horizons does, they allow an open door for people who want to get better and despite their modest location, they have a tremendous impact.

Its noon on a Sunday and I’m just now eating breakfast. While this may seem like an odd time to take in the first meal of the day, I am not alone in my eating habits. I am posted in new restaurant Settlers in Elk Rapids, which is as busy as can be with customers waiting to get a chance to try this family owned establishments home cooked meals.

Settlers is located right across the street from The Village Market in Elk Rapids. It had its grand opening on January 6 of this year and has been going strong ever since. “We sold sixty-five dinners that first night” said April Cikity who owns and runs the restaurant with her husband Eric and their children.

The story of how Settlers came to be is not an uncommon one in today’s economy. Eric worked roofing and April runs a portrait studio while being a nurse. When work became scarce the couple decided to start up an old business venture they had previously had success with. “We used to live out west and owned seven other restaurants before this one” says April. The Cikity clan moved to Michigan in 2002 and began looking for a spot to re-enter the food business two years ago.  They did not settle on a location until early this year. Hence, the establishments quaint name. “We had a Settlers thirteen years ago and the name just seemed to fit again considering the circumstances.”

Settlers is all about family. The Cikity Seven, as April refers to them, does everything needed to the keep the restaurant running. Eric is the main cook, taking on baking a twenty-five pound turkey everyday but Sunday and whipping up four batches of mash potatoes a day. As for the girls their responsibility is the dining area, where they provide friendly service to satisfied customers. “We even plan to pass this place on to our kids one day” fawns April.

When asked about her favorite dish at Settlers, April has a hard time deciding. She comes to a stand off between the omelets or anyone of the salads. But, she also throws in that the fish and liver and onions are also extremely popular items. As soon as April comes to a conclusion on that difficult question a man makes his way over to our table. “The ham steaks are great!” he exclaims. Obviously he doesn’t mind eating breakfast at noon, if it’s at Settlers.

Claira Freeman

They say no matter how small, every contribution to this world matters. This idea rings true when talking about other countries in need. Believe it or not, people are making those little, yet powerful donations right in our local community. They are lending not only a helping hand, but their feet too.
Traverse City coffee cooperative Higher Grounds Trading Company also doubles as a non-profit global charity called On the Ground. On the Ground started when its mother coffee cooperative, which specializes in dealing with indigenous coffee farming communities, came upon less than acceptable living conditions in one of their Ethiopian business partner’s villages.  To combat this they created the Chiapas Water Project to bring aid to the ravaged community. The organizations latest success is the Run Across Ethiopia campaign.

This endeavor pits nine long distance runners, seven of whom have close relations to Northern Michigan, against 250 miles of African desert between Addis Ababa and Afursa Waru. By running this race against poverty, On the Ground was able to raise enough money to build three schools in the Kololo and Hase Gola villages. In addition to raising the money for education, forty teaching jobs were created and there were funds leftover to provide lunches for the students.

What’s impressive is the fact that people from are own area were able to scale this mountain of good will. Along with the runners having ties to Northern Michigan, many other local residents contributed their time for this cause. Well known musical act, Seth Bernard and May Erlewine created a CD and DVD to sell to help raise money for the cause.
To celebrate this monumental fundraiser, a dinner at the Park Place in Traverse City was held last week. Over-seeing the festivities was Bill Palandino, the executive director of On the Ground. Mr. Paladino was generous enough to give insight into a different, yet maybe the most valuable part of the charitable journey; the involvement of local kids.
Of the runners that traveled to Ethiopia, many took their children with them. Aiden Voss, 13, is the daughter of runner Hans Voss who is the director of the Michigan Land Use Institute. Aiden had the opportunity of observing Ethiopian culture first hand. As did her littler sister Lucy, age 10. To sum up the eye opening experience Lucy said “The area people were excited to see the runners. They are an affectionate culture.” Siblings Stella and Connor Young, children of the RAE team leader Timothy Fitzgerald Young, also went along for the run. Stella, a Glen Lake Schools student, commented on her experiences with the new environment saying, “The terrain was very dusty, really hot, and until you got used to it, it was kind of hard to breathe.”
Other young people were willing to participate on the home front as well. Thirteen year old Traverse City East Middle School student Margaret Hoagg raised $1400 and invaluable amounts of awareness for the cause in Ethiopia. When asked about the motivation behind her kind hearted ways she simply replied, “I was inspired by the cause.”

While On the Ground’s Run Across Ethiopia was able to cultivate an overwhelmingly generous contribution to a community in need, its importance goes beyond monetary gain. Its greatest achievement is that it proved our efforts still mean something. Their organization’s operation not only brought out the best in our very own Northern Michigan adults, it also motivated and enriched our youngest contributors.