Just Around the Corner

10/28/2026

10/28/2026

10/28/2026

We still have beautiful and fun fall decor at JUST AROUND THE CORNER in Houghton Lake!!
Open Fri Sat Sun
11:00 til 5:00

10/09/2026

10/03/2026

Six bands will take the stage this Saturday for the annual Roscommon Rocktoberfest in the Village.

The live music, which will take place from 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m., is free and will be held at the AuSable River Center, located at 211 Main St., Roscommon.

09/13/2026

The old-fashioned trick that extends the tomato season by weeks.

THE METHOD: Before a hard freeze, pull the whole plant. Shake or hose off most of the soil. Hang upside down from a rafter, hook, or beam in a frost-free, ventilated space — garage, shed, basement, or unheated porch. Ideal temperature is cool but above freezing, roughly 55-65°F. Fruit ripens progressively over several weeks.

WHY IT WORKS: Mature green tomatoes have already accumulated enough internal resources to complete ripening. Remaining moisture and stored compounds in the vine support the process. Ripening is driven by ethylene, which the fruit produces itself.

WHICH FRUIT WILL RIPEN: Only MATURE GREEN or later. The signal: full size for the variety, GLOSSY (not dull) skin, and often a slight color break or pale patch at the blossom end. Small, hard, dull, dark green fruit will not ripen properly.

THE OTHER METHODS: BOX OR PAPER BAG — pick mature green fruit, place in a single layer in a box or bag with a ripe apple or banana (ethylene sources). Check every few days and remove any that soften or spot. WRAP INDIVIDUALLY in newspaper for slower, staggered ripening. WINDOWSILL — works, but is NOT necessary; sunlight isn't required for ripening and can cause uneven softening.

NEVER REFRIGERATE unripe tomatoes. Cold permanently damages flavor compounds and causes mealy texture. This is well documented.

WHAT TO DO WITH TRUE IMMATURE GREENS: Fried green tomatoes, green tomato chutney, pickles, salsa verde, or green tomato relish.

FROST WATCH: Light frost damages fruit even if the plant survives. When frost is 24-48 hours out, harvest everything.

09/13/2026

Florida just paid farms to stay farms, and 6,200 acres said yes before the developers could blink.
Here's the secret history nobody tells you about conservation: most of it fails because it waits until the land is already ruined. By the time the bulldozers show up, the price tag is astronomical and the habitat is already half-dead. Florida has been watching this playbook repeat for decades. Citrus groves become subdivisions. Cattle ranches become strip malls. Wetlands get drained for parking lots. The state would buy "natural" land after the farms were already gone, which meant they were buying scraps while the working landscape — the actual connective tissue of the ecosystem — got paved into oblivion.
So Florida flipped the script. They approved protection for more than 6,200 acres of working agricultural land, but with a twist that makes developers furious. The farms and ranches stay in production. Cattle keep grazing. Crops keep growing. The land keeps working. But the soil, the water, the rural habitat, and the open space are legally shielded from future conversion. It's a conservation easement with a paycheck and a tractor still attached.
The mechanism is called a working lands protection program, and it's surgical. Instead of removing agriculture from the landscape, it removes the threat of sprawl from the agriculture. The rancher in Polk County keeps his herd but can't sell to a developer in ten years. The vegetable farm near the Everglades keeps producing tomatoes but can't become a warehouse district. The ponds, fence lines, and wetlands embedded in these working properties stay intact because the land stays whole.
The second-order effect is massive. Florida's panther, black bear, and migratory birds don't need pristine wilderness. They need connected corridors of open land. Working ranches with intact wetlands and native pasture provide exactly that. By keeping 6,200 acres working instead of converting them, Florida didn't just save farms. It saved the migration routes that everything else depends on.
Land works. Habitat stays. Sprawl loses.

09/13/2026

Line 5 could be facing another roadblock.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is directing state environmental regulators to reconsider their approval of the Line 5 tunnel project after the Michigan Supreme Court ruled a separate state review was too narrow.

The reviews could take months — or even years.

Read more here: https://www.9and10news.com/2026/09/09/whitmer-directs-egle-to-re-evaluate-line-5-tunnel-project-approval/
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09/13/2026

The township met Tuesday to discuss their options for a planned 1,800 acre solar development.