I have said many times before and will say it again. April is the worst month to be in the Keweenaw. At least most of the time. The snows are generally in a state of melting and usually become unusable by the first week or two. The woods are still too wet or have too much snow in them to be able to walk or ride a bike and temps are in that cruddy zone, mainly the upper 30’s to mid 40’s. The only thing different this go around was that the snows were pretty much gone by early in the month, otherwise, the woods were too wet and with just a few exceptions, the temps were in the cruddy zone.
I had a lot going on in my personal life this April, so the conditions outside did not really have much of a negative impact on me. In previous years, I would get close to clinical depression. Now that I am retired and once I win the lottery, I plan to spend the month of April on my 55 foot sailboat. Bee bopping around FL, the Bahamas and Caribbean. Even though it has been eons since I last sailed, it is in my blood for sure. Not sure how it got there, but it’s there. This summer I will be able to scratch a bit of that itch with the sailfish sailboat that I received from my older brother that passed away last July. I have also promised to teach Grace how to sail the sailfish this summer and she is super excited. By the time I was her age, I knew how to sail the little boats like the minifish and sunfish and would spend many hours out on Lake Geneva sailing around. Our family then picked up a used 16″ Hobie Cat and I upgraded to it and never looked back. For those that do not know, the Hobie Cat is much the Ferrari of sailboats. Incredibly fast, comfortable to ride in and that is about it. If the winds were blowing good and I was by myself, I could pass water skiers while sailing that thing! Good times indeed!
So April is gone and now we are living the life in May. To me that means more sun than clouds. Temps warming to the level where it is comfortable to be outside without a jacket and no bugs for at least the first 3 weeks. It is the warmup to the summer and the final good-bye to any snowflakes (but not until the middle of the month in some years). The grass grows and the early blooming flowers color the spots where they grow. By the end of the month, the tree buds give way to open leaves and the browns of the woods turn to a deep green.
Unfortunately, this week looks to be more like mid to late April, with some chances for a few rain showers from time to time and temps mainly in the 40’s for highs.
We had quite the trip through the weather world this past week. Monday we all awoke to it snowing. It really started to come down by later in the morning, just about the time I was headed north to Calumet. I stopped near the intersection of Jacobsville Rd and Princes Point Rd to snap a shot of the flakes falling. They were the big, silver dollar flakes and despite the fact that we were in the daylight hours at a time when the suns rays are as strong as they are in August, the snow was beginning to accumulate. As I got to Lake Linden, the ground was white and by the time I got to the to of the Calumet Hill and into Calumet/Laurium the ground was well covered and the trees were also flocked pretty good. I drove out to the site for the new Keweenaw Snowmobile Club’s groomer barn and things looked way more like the last half of November than the end of April.
It was not a pleasant thing to come out of the store with the wet snow pelting my face, blown around by 30 mph winds. Later in the day, after the Girls got home, Nora and I drove over to check on a friends house and walked out to the cliffs to take a picture of the angry lake meeting the Jacobsville Cliffs.
Tuesday was a cold day as well and pockets of the snow that fell the day before were still hanging on into the afternoon. By Wednesday, we had sunshine at the temps warmed to around 50 degrees. Not super warm, but warm enough for this old guy to bask in the sun and roll in the grass. He is the only dog remaining in our family that likes to roll in the grass. Poor Huck is really starting to slow down. He can still get around good enough to do this daily routines, but climbing up on a chair or couch requires a little boost sometimes. I think we are all starting to mentally prepare ourselves for the day we have to say good bye. It may be in a week or two, or a month or two, but I doubt that he will be able to get by for more than 6 months given his current state. He is a great dog and probably my most faithful companion. Perhaps tied with Burt on that one. Burt was also at my side 24-7-365 once Millie passed.
I did a bit of drone flying earlier in the day and was hoping to take some pictures and do some flying around, but the winds started to pick up and when I thought I was taking some pictures, I was really creating some 1-2 second video clips. I did capture a frame from one of the videos and it shows the house and backyard, as well as the woods behind the backyard. Hopefully the weather will cooperate enough this week that I will be able to do some more flying.
I guess that about does it for this go around. Have a wonderful week everyone!
Good Night from the Keweenaw..
–JD
