West End News: July 18

Patty Nordahl, the wonderful and effective Director of the Birch Grove Foundation is organizing a community meeting to explore the idea of building a greenhouse at the Birch Grove Community Center in Tofte.  The mmeting will be on Wednesday, July 24^th starting at 5:45 pm and there will be pizza served from the Birch Grove hearth oven. Dough, sauce and cheese will be provided for a nominal fee.  You should bring your own toppings and beverage.
 
Diane Booth, will be there, along with the Birch Grove Greenhouse Advisory Committee, to brainstorm on what a greenhouse could do for our community.  Diane wears many  hats, but she is basically the agriculture guru for Cook County. 
 
I hope the committee will take a hard look at the combination fish farm and greenhouse that has been so successful in Silver Bay.
 
Everyone is welcome to attend and share ideas. Let Patty know at 663-7977 or email [email protected] if you plan to come.    You can always call WTIP for contact information.
 
Birch Grove will be hosting a very exciting event on Sunday August 18^th starting at 3:00 p.m.  The Grammy Award winning “Okee Dokee Brothers” will be appearing.  The event starts with a children’s concert at 3:00, and trust me, kids love these guys. 
 
After the show, there will be a “West End Outdoor Recreation and Cultural Break” where people can explore the local hiking and biking trails, parks and museums.
 
Then, at 6 pm there will be another concert geared toward and all ages audience.  This fabulous event is co-sponsored by the Birch Grove Foundation and the North Shore Music Association.  The foundation will be selling hearth oven pizza and the music association will be selling beverages.
 
As you can plainly see, the wood fired hearth oven at Birch Grove is being kept busy.  Patty tells me that the regularly scheduled pizza bakes on Wednesday evenings have been a big success.  It works in the same way that I mentioned earlier, with dough, sauce and cheese being provided for a small fee and you bring the toppings that you like. It starts at 5:30 and continues until no one is hungry.
 
As a side benefit, the oven is still hot on Thursday morning, so anyone that wants to bake bread is welcome.
 
As you drive through Tofte, you can’t miss the Grindbygg timber framed boat shelter that has sprung up at the Commercial Fishing Museum. Although the building is designed to protect the historic fishing vessel, “Viking,” it is a work of art in itself and very appropriate to it’s purpose. 
 
Don Hammer, Director of the North Shore Commercial Fishing Museum, told me that if the Tofte brothers could time travel to today, they would immediately recognize the building from their childhoods in 19^th century Norway.
 
Greg Tofte and his construction crew will be roofing the new structure soon and the “Viking” will arrive as soon as they’re done.  A grand opening celebration is being planned for the latter half of August.  Keep an eye open for details here on WTIP and all the other local news providers.
 
Meanwhile, I highly recommend that you stop and look for yourself.  It is well worth the effort.
 
Nashville songwriter, Jerry Vandiver, has been hanging around Cook County for much of the summer.  Jerry has written hit songs for country stars Tim McGraw, Gene Watson, Phil Vassar, Lonestar, The Oak Ridge Boys, Lee Greenwood among others.  His songs, "It Doesn't Get Any Countrier Than This" and “For a Little While" are among the gold and platinum records on display at the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville.
 
In addition to being a hit songwriter, Jerry is an avid canoeist.  While he’s around this summer, he’ll be playing house concerts on the Gunflint Trail and in Ely.  He’ll be bringing his band to Fisherman’s Picnic where they will be headlining the Harbor Park stage on Saturday night. 
 
Along with his well known hits, he’ll be singing a couple of locally inspired songs, “My Sawbill Journey” and a brand new song called “In Grand Marais.”
 
Last week, Jerry hosted his second annual songwriter’s campfire here at Sawbill.  He invites local songwriters to share there songs in a circle format, where each writer presents one of their songs and then the next writer takes a turn.  Jerry is highly complimentary about the songwriting skills of local musicians.  I must say, folks that were camped in the Sawbill Lake campground and stumbled across the campfire, were surprised indeed to hear big hits being performed by the author, way out here in the West End of good old Cook County.