Coming Home to Paynesville

I took the road less traveled.

I did.

It seems I continue to do so.

And I wonder if this is a common theme in everyone's life, not just mine. If we could see down that road, the road that is our life, the one with so many twists and turns and branches...if we could truly see down that road, I think we might just be terrified.  Because there are so MANY twists and turns, obstacles, ruts, sinkholes, and just plain scary stuff, would we ever have the courage to go that way?

I think it's fortunate that we can't see what's down the road.  Because taking it one step at a time is what makes it manageable.

Did I know three months ago that the road was leading me to Paynesville?  No way.  The only thing I knew about Paynesville is that it has an old school building that looks like this:

A little scary, and a little sad.  I wish someone would have been able to save it.

I can't find much info on the unincorporated town of Paynesville.  It used to have a post office.  It was named after the Payne family, who were homesteaders in the area. It was a railroad stop, so the dairy farmers could get their milk to market.  It sits in this beautiful meadow "bowl" surrounded by forests. It was populated by Finns, hence the sauna in everyone's backyard. The sauna was such an integral part of a Finn's homestead, very often it was the first building to be built, and the family lived in it until the house could be built later, which was certain to be after the livestock had their barns and stables and coops.

What is left of Paynesville are some closely situated houses and homesteads, a blacksmith road

(but no blacksmith), meadows of hay,

TWO Lutheran churches,

Our Savior ELCA

First Apostolic

and an ORV trail.

We own 2 acres of Paynesville, a house from 1956, a huge garage (bigger than our house) a shed and of course, a sauna--say SOW(like the pig)-NUH.

It looks MUCH better on the inside!

I think it must have been a pretty big metropolis at one time.  Because people decided that it was important for people to know how close they were to getting to Paynesville.  Go one mile north, and the road is One Mile Road.

Go two miles, and it is (bet you can guess) Two Mile Road.  Easy to know how far you are from Paynesville.

Some of the roads coming into Paynesville are straight, but others wind a little.  Like my life, lately. Tonight I am sitting in my newly (green) painted kitchen, looking out the sliding door to the beautiful view of the mountains (very OLD mountains) surrounding Paynesville, thinking that this was a good twist in the road/plot of my life.  Every day, this is my view,

until the deer start showing up, at which point it looks more like this,

or if I get bored, I can drive a little up the road (maybe as far as Two Mile Road), and see the beautiful colors that are just starting to light up the Upper Peninsula autumn.

Sugar Maple

Might be edible...I dunno!

aspens and maples

Might be a Whomping Willow!

Red and Sugar Maples

Pretty, and pretty cool, right?  After seeing the beginning of Autumn here in the little non-town of Paynesville, I am even looking forward to the beauties of Winter.  And as usual, I know that whichever direction this road leads me, I am blessed!

P.S.  Thank you, dear readers of my ramblings.  We hit 1000 views today!