This winter has been especially long, hasn’t it? On Thursday, I was driving down the road, in the same winter trance I’ve been in for months, and I flipped to the Detroit sports station, to listen to the same sports talk I listen to every day, and I heard a crowd cheering, and the crack of a bat. Baseball is back!

It was all of a sudden that I also noticed that the sun was shining. Brightly. And it was warm. I even cracked the window for a few minutes.

The start of a new year is as good a time as any for folks to take stock of their lives in terms of finances, business, personal, family and other aspects. People set new goals, review their old goals. People make changes, readjust and establish resolutions with newfound vigor.

I am no different than most folks. Once again I vowed to be more organized, watch what I eat, stick to my exercise program and, this year, I have added a review of our investments; not so much the investments themselves but more so the philosophy.

I have probably bought a dozen blueberry bushes in the last couple of years. All except one of them died within a year. They all get kind of yellow-green in color and lose leaves and die. One is left and it doesn’t look good either. I planted them where they get morning sun my lawn sprinklers water them. So what am I supposed to do to get them to live and make berries?

Oh, let me count the ways. Growing blueberries is a “challenge.” It can be done but it isn’t going to happen without a whole lot of knowledge-driven work.

Recently Neil Woodward, one of our board members was interviewed by Michigan Radio and asked, "What three things can we do to help Michigan?"  I liked what Neil had to say and you can listen by clicking here. 

What do you think?  What can each of us do to make it through this "Great Depression", which is how it feels to many of us.

I have my three:

This winter has been especially long, hasn’t it? On Thursday, I was driving down the road, in the same winter trance I’ve been in for months, and I flipped to the Detroit sports station, to listen to the same sports talk I listen to every day, and I heard a crowd cheering, and the crack of a bat. Baseball is back!

It was all of a sudden that I also noticed that the sun was shining. Brightly. And it was warm. I even cracked the window for a few minutes.

The start of a new year is as good a time as any for folks to take stock of their lives in terms of finances, business, personal, family and other aspects. People set new goals, review their old goals. People make changes, readjust and establish resolutions with newfound vigor.

I am no different than most folks. Once again I vowed to be more organized, watch what I eat, stick to my exercise program and, this year, I have added a review of our investments; not so much the investments themselves but more so the philosophy.

I have probably bought a dozen blueberry bushes in the last couple of years. All except one of them died within a year. They all get kind of yellow-green in color and lose leaves and die. One is left and it doesn’t look good either. I planted them where they get morning sun my lawn sprinklers water them. So what am I supposed to do to get them to live and make berries?

Oh, let me count the ways. Growing blueberries is a “challenge.” It can be done but it isn’t going to happen without a whole lot of knowledge-driven work.

Recently Neil Woodward, one of our board members was interviewed by Michigan Radio and asked, "What three things can we do to help Michigan?"  I liked what Neil had to say and you can listen by clicking here. 

What do you think?  What can each of us do to make it through this "Great Depression", which is how it feels to many of us.

I have my three: