Live The Northwoods Life

Howdy, Neighbor. People have been telling Phil he’s a good storyteller for a long time… so we are trying something new and pretty-much non-sales Just sharing occasional sweet stories, tall tales, and life lessons learned around these parts.

Northwoods Notes are a new, semi-bi-irregular peek into the heart and mind of Phil Frasier… you can read or listen… whichever you prefer… and you are receiving a copy because you’re a current customer of Frasier’s Plumbing and Heating, Inc.. We think you’ll like them, but you can unsubscribe any time by clicking on the link at the bottom. But we hope you give us a chance!

Listen:

Read:

You know, for more seasons than I can count, I’ve watched folks move to the Northwoods because they’ve vacationed here.

Then, they get busy, life gets in the way and they forget what brought’em here in the first place.

When I was a kid, my grandpa would spread out a big lake map on an old oak table.

He’d stick a Rapala knife in my hand, look me dead in the eye and say, “Ok Phil, drop it.” The spot the knife landed on, we’d go fish.

My grandpa’s Dad started Frasier’s Plumbing, Heating and Cooling way back in 1918. Then, my grandpa took over the business. I worked for him when I was a kid.

But that wasn’t all we did.

Sure, we worked, and we worked hard, but we fished hard, too. Ya see, it was important to grandpa—to my whole family, in fact—that you never lost sight of what made ya who you were.

Work’in, yes, but also play’in, liv’in and lov’in the land you call home.

Flash forward to 1996, having moved up from Chief Flashlight Holder to Service Technician for the family business, Joanna and I bought a lot from grandpa and we moved on the lake, too. It was then he told me, “Well, you’re probably going to be like the rest of them now, you’re going to live on this lake and never fish it.”

“I don’t think so, grandpa,” was my response. Which still echo’s in my head and my heart when I head out nearly every day to fish on this lake. Not because he said that, but because I love it. Because we loved it, It’s a part of who we were and It’s a part of who I still am today. It’s a part of you, too.

I get it, we all get busy, sometimes we forget.

Don’t just live here, live here. Enjoy this Northwoods life and all it has to offer.

Relish our winters as much as you do our sweet summers and fantastic falls. Savor the stillness of an early-morning snowfall with flakes so big they look like the paper cutouts we made as kids. Feel the softness of flannel and the warmth of the fire, and hear its crackle and the crunch of the snow steps underneath your boots.

For you maybe it’s not fishing, maybe it’s snowmobiling. Don’t ever lose your love for it. Hit the trails.

If you love cross-country skiing, strap on your ski straps and take to those trails. Snowshoeing, rabbit hunting, ice fishing, grouse or deer hunting, or just watching the snow fall.

Whatever it is you love to do, can I make a suggestion? Do it. Otherwise you’re just missing out on the reason were here. You’re missing out on who you are, who God wants you to be.

As grandpa always said, “Never lose sight of what made ya you.”

Anyway, that’s the way things are today in the Northwoods where everyone’s a neighbor, and an early-winter wilderness adventure with your best friends is just about as awesome as it gets… because a conversation is good, the time is slow, and the memories burn into your brain forever.

Hope to see you out there on a lake sometime, but in the meantime, take care, Neighbor. Take good care.

Phil

Oh, and PS – Last year, 658,000,000 vacation days went unused by Americans. That’s one statistic you want no part of.