Who Tends This Place
Who tends this place.
Big D had a dream.
Several years ago, our dad—known around here as Big D—started building something.
At first, it was a house.
But it was never really just a house.
He brought his grandsons into the work because he wanted to teach them how to build something with their own hands.
How to frame a wall.
Solve a problem.
Stick with something long enough to watch it become real.
And somewhere inside all that building was another idea:
family legacy.
A place made together.
A place that might remain.
A place the generations after him could point to and say, Our family built that.
So they did.
Over the years, the house took shape on forty acres along the Boardman River.
The building years.
Built by hand. Built together.
And then Big D realized something rather important:
He loved building the dream.
He did not particularly want to run it.
Which happened to be perfect.
Because while he had been dreaming of building a place like this, we had been dreaming of caring for one.
Austin and I had imagined a place where families could gather, friends could stay awhile, retreats could unfold, meals could stretch long past sunset, and people could remember something they hadn’t necessarily known they’d forgotten.
We could see it.
We just couldn’t imagine building the whole damn thing ourselves.
Turns out, we didn’t have to.
Big D had built the place he didn’t want to operate.
We had dreamed of caring for the place we couldn’t have built.
And somewhere in the middle, the two dreams recognized each other.
Then the family got bigger.
Ottaway Landing is a family place, although our definition of family has gotten considerably less concerned with bloodlines.
Our dear friends Stefanie and Vince eventually found themselves woven into the dream too.
Friends became collaborators.
Collaborators became family.
Today, the four of us—Erika and Austin, Stefanie and Vince—care for Ottaway Landing together.
It was built by many hands.
Now it is held by many hands.
For however long this place is ours, our hope is that when you come here, it feels a little bit like yours too.
Welcome Home.
Meet the tenders
Erika
Other Whole to Austin Morrison.
Mother of sons.
Minister of the Garden.
Little lightning in an earth body.
Sister Dragon Rose.
I exist to hostess
the ever-loving shine in you—
belonging,
belovedness,
Home.
Austin
Husband to Erika. Father of three sons. Builder, drummer, mentor, and lifelong maker of things.
After more than two decades in construction, Austin helped build Ottaway Landing alongside his sons and father-in-law, Big D.
He brings a builder’s hands, a musician’s ear, and a deep love of gathering people around fires, tables, music, honest conversation, and the things that make a life feel alive.
Stefanie
Americana songwriter, creative director, natural-born host, and wife to Vince.
Stefanie came to Northern Michigan from Nashville looking for a slower, more beautiful way to live—and eventually found herself woven into Ottaway Landing.
She brings beauty, food, music, imagination, hospitality, and an almost unreasonable enthusiasm for helping people put wings on their dreams.
Vince
Musician, producer, educator, experience curator, and husband to Stefanie.
After more than two decades of bringing people together through music, festivals, workshops, education, and community gatherings, Vince brings that same instinct to Ottaway Landing.
Music, hospitality, nature, community—and knowing when the moment needs a song.
We couldn’t introduce the tenders without tipping our hat to the man who started building before any of us quite knew what he was building toward.
Big D dreamed the first dream.
He brought his grandsons alongside him.
He taught them to build.
He put something in the ground for the generations coming after him.
And then—perhaps his greatest stroke of genius—he handed the whole thing to somebody else to run.
Thanks, Dad.
We’ll take it from here.