Danielle Horvath

Features Danielle Horvath It‘s like stepping into a circle of warmth in the middle of winter. Large windows bring in bright light, even on a gray day. The steel support beam dIrects your eye up to the skylight dome in the middle, and then down the wood trim that completes the circle to the wood floor. Open, airy and inviting, the yurt home of Karen Coussens stands out in a field overlooking an 80-acre valley in Benzie County.

Features Danielle Horvath Benzie veterinarian uses acupuncture, kineseology, energy sensing, and herbs on animal patients

For over 40 years, Dr. Bill “Doc“ Wagner has cared for animals, from large and small farms near Manistee in the early ‘60s, to his small animal practice that began in Beulah in 1968, to his Crystal Lake Veterinary Clinic in Benzonia where he’s been since ’75. What makes Doc different from other veterinarians is that he’s also been treating them using alternative health methods, sometimes with amazing results.

Features Danielle Horvath “Real work is never a disagreeable chore. It contributes to life rather than taking from it; it gives us the chance to discover and hone our skills, to see how we fit into life, and to lose our sense of isolation by sharing a common goal with our fellow human beings.“ - Eknath Easwaran, The Compassionate Universe

At the end of a two-track road in rural Manistee County, an ancient tradition is being kept alive and lovingly nurtured into a small family-owned business. Gerard Grabowski and Jan Shireman began Pleasanton Bakery nine years ago in a small building behind their house. Their dream was to create a home-based business that reflected their beliefs in organic agriculture, whole food nutrition and sustainable living, while producing a product that would be useful and valuable to the community.

Features Danielle Horvath Brian Lea has an adventurous spirit. Whether running the Boston Marathon or scaling a mountain somewhere out west, he‘s one of those types that doesn‘t sit still too long. And since turning 50 last year, Brian has decided to embark on fulfilling some of his life-long quests. One of them happened last fall when he spent two months in Antarctica, as part of a job with the Raytheon Polar Services Company to work as an electrician on the construction of a new research station.
It took six planes and 24 hours to travel from Northern Michigan to New Zealand, where Lea underwent training in how to dress and prepare for the frigid climate. The last six hours of the trip was in a military-style cargo plane from the U.S. McMurdo Station on the edge of Antarctica to the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station.
“It was quite a shock when I got off that warm plane and into the air. It was minus 58 degrees, I never felt air that cold!“ Lea explained.