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That’s the best way to describe our weather today. Single digit temps, winds 30-40 mph and whiteout conditions due to falling and blowing snow. Don’t believe me? Here is a picture of the Portage Lake Lift Bridge and here is a shot overlooking Lac La Belle. Grace would normally have gone to both Houghton and Calumet to figure skate, but Nora and I nixed both of those due to the nasty weather. Since moving to Jake, we not only have a longer drive to all places, but also more difficult and lonely stretches when the weather is bad. So we take the weather and road conditions a lot more seriously than when we lived outside of Mohawk.

This is suppose to keep up through the night and into the day tomorrow, so it will be very interesting to see if there is school tomorrow. They can do a 2 hour delay, but I doubt that will do any good, except to allow it to be daylight when most of the busses are running. One of the criteria they use is a windchill of -25 and it looks like it will be right there through at least noon. They have already had one day off and a 2 hour delay since going back last week, but the state did change things and no longer makes schools up here make up days that are lost due to weather past a certain number, I think it used to be 4 or 5.

It probably sounds like we have had a ton of snow this winter, but that is actually not true. Keweenaw County has officially measured 123.5″ as of last week Thursday, which is a respectable number, but nothing crazy for this area. The main issue has been the wind. I cannot remember when we have had a windier winter. There have probably been 4-5 storms that have pushed the annonometer over 50 mph and that is probably more than we have in an average winter. Remember, I am talking about winter and not the cold season (which would include autumn).

As eventful as the weather has been this past week, my forays into the great outdoors were lacking. I did not do any riding. I was planning to ride with friends Friday, stay the night with them and then ride again Saturday, but had some things come up and stayed home. I had appointments in Houghton/Hancock both Monday and Tuesday, so those took a good part of both of those days. I did do come organizing in the shop and did get things setup for the new video format of Snow Church. There are still some lighting changes I need to make to get rid of come glare, but things are getting closer to being dialed in for that. 

Yesterday I started a project in our kitchen. I am replacing a very antiquated cooktop and wall oven with a brand new range. Things were moving along pretty good with the removal of the cooktop, when I got a call that the folks flooding the ice rink were planning to be here in around 90 minutes. So I had to drop the kitchen work and it was all hands on deck for Nora, Grace and I to get the plastic liner down in the rink and make sure we were all ready for the flood. They came and put one tank of water into the rink and then had problems getting more water, so they came back today and finished the job. Well, almost finished. I had messed up in one spot and the liner did not go high enough up the board, so we had water leaking out of the rink area. We did place a spare piece of plastic under the main liner and up the boards to help with the leak, but it only slowed it. Rather than have them finish flooding, we took some snow and packed it in to build an ice dam and stop the leaking and seems to have worked pretty good. The entire rink did have water in it, so now I am just going to wait until it freezes solid and flood the rest with our own water. I’m not sure how much water they put in, but I think it was close to 6000 gallons. Our well would have run dry long before that!

So other than the last bit of flooding I need to do, I also need to set up the lights and the mini-Dee will be all ready for skaters. We are going to have it open to our community down here for open skating, including sticks and pucks and I cannot wait to be able to get out there and toughen up my ankles and get the rest of my body into better shape. Grace is really chomping at the bit to get out there. The AL Cam does point right at the rink, so be sure to check in during the evening hours to watch us skate. I do not plan to do any work on it tomorrow, I am going to wait for the thermometer to register at least double digits before I spend a bunch of time out working on it.

 I know I have been inundating you all with deer pictures the past few weeks, but Nora took this shot of one licking the peanut butter off of it’s nose and it was just too cute not to share. Friends of ours gave us the bird feeder made from a piece of birch tree with holes drilled into it and then a mixture of peanut butter and birdseed put into the holes. Nora had refilled it, but then had to help get the rink ready for water yesterday and could not put it up on the feeder pole until we were done. So that is how the deer managed to get a freebie!

Take care and stay warm, as the cold is headed south for a few days. I will chat with you all next Sunday!

Good Night from the Keweenaw..
–JD

So I was talking with my mom yesterday, wishing her a Happy New Year and getting caught up on the weeks events and she mentioned how she really liked the look and sound of 2022 better than 2021. I thought that was very interesting, because I had been thinking the same exact thing an hour or two before she said it. I’m not sure if any of the rest of you feel the same way or not, but if so, then there could be something to it!

The week between Christmas and New Years is typically a slow one for the Dees. The girls are still off from work/school and all the hustle and bustle in the lead up to Christmas is gone, so we usually just take it pretty easy. Such was the case this year too. We did remove all the ornaments off the tree on Tuesday and then Grace and Nora took the lights off and the tree down on Wednesday. 

Also on Tuesday, we all took a drive to Copper Harbor as I wanted to introduce myself to the new owners of the Pines, which they have renamed to the Lake Effect bar and grille. However, they were closed for some reason, so we ended up making the 90 minute drive from Jake for the scenery. I actually had not been to the harbor since early September, so it was nice to get there and it was a nice drive. Especially the part through the covered drive.

The harbor was a pretty bustling place for snowmobiles while we were there. With the Lake Effect closed, the Mariner had a very full parking lot. That was just the front lot, the side lot was full too. Speaking of full, the hotels and motels also had lots full with trucks and trailers. Here is a shot of Truck Row at the AmericInn in Calumet and when we drove by the Trailside up the road, it had about as many trucks and trailers there too!

I took my own ride on Wednesday. The gentleman that bought my Keweenaw Kamo sled came up to get it and we took a short, but nice ride in the backcountry in the afternoon. We did ride a few miles of trail and the main observation I made was that both the backcountry and the trails really need more snow. The small amount of trail that we rode did not have any bare spots, even where they had been logging and plowing it just a few weeks back, but missing were the 2-3 foot banks of level snow on either side of the trail. The little amount we rode was also not too bumpy, but not perfectly flat either. The holiday periods are not the time to be expecting flat trails in the Keweenaw. It happens every year, but I will read a comment from someone saying how bumpy the trails are and wish they could understand all the issues that come to play and the “tricks” to avoid having to ride on bumpy trails ALL DAY. The main trick is to take the trail less traveled. Stay off the main arteries as much as possible. One of the problems is that there is only one trail one can take from Twin Lakes to Houghton/Hancock and then from Hancock to Calumet. With hope, the DNR will be able to make the repairs needed to the trail from Hancock to Lake Linden and that will help out the section from Hancock to Calumet a lot.

No bumpy trails in the backcountry, only flat and white snow and in some spots some almost covered tracks from a previous boondocker. My riding companion, Jeff, and I did find some untouched paths to take as well. It had been at least 3 years, probably more, since I had ridden in the area where we were and the loggers had been busy, both cutting trees and making new paths. It’s a bit of a bittersweet thing whenever I go into an area that has been recently cut. Bitter because the woods are generally thinned out quite a bit, so gone in some of the ambience. Also a tiny bit bitter because I can get thrown of by the new roads they have put in, but sweet because some of those roads allow me to get to new and unexplored areas.

We did take a few of those new roads and found many did not connect with existing roads and we ended up having to turn around. At the end of one, I swore I had been to that same spot before and was surprised that we could not keep going. During the stop Jeff broke out his phone and snapped a shot of us. I broke out my phone to see if I could find out where they heck we were! Turns out, I was right, I had been there before, only on the other side of a creek that had no way across and large berms on either side. With a lot more snow and enough talent to use the berm as a ramp, I could jump the creek and be on my way, but that will never happen! Not in my lifetime! The bottom line is that the woods were a joy to ride as always, but could use at least a foot to make it even better.

In other happenings, the deer continue to congregate in Jake. To my knowledge, there have not been anymore car-deer incidents, but that is just to my knowledge. They found the feeder I put out around 2 weeks ago and have been busy feeding off of it. As mentioned in the previous entry, they also have found their way into our fenced in backyard. (editors note: I cannot see last week’s entry and have no idea where it went!). Then a few days ago they really got rowdy and knocked the feeder over. I could not get an interview from an eyewitness, so I have no idea if it was done on purpose or by accident, but it has been too cold to be out there trying to get it all put back up and filled with feed. I do plan to do that tomorrow afternoon though. If you have not been to the woods cam much, you should check it out, as there are deer there more times than not and the cam has a live video stream, so you can watch them in action.

With that feeder down, they have been to the bird feeder more often. Not much there for them, only the droppings and they need to get there before the squirrels do, but they must find enough to make it worth their trouble, as they do go there quite a bit too. The bird feeder is only about 10-15 feet from one of the picture windows in our living room and Bleau spends a lot of his free time on the lookout for them.

Our New Years Eve was a pretty quiet one. That is how we roll in the Dee family. Actually, if I remember correctly, I believe I have only been “out” to ring in the New Year. That does not include eating out, but it does include being at a bar or party for New Years. Not too surprising if you know me well, I am not a big group type of person, I prefer the company of a smaller group of good friends. The Dees have established a new tradition that I think will be around for many years to come. We take it easy until around 9 pm and then partake in the card game of euchre. Grace and I only learned the game about 3 years ago, but can now keep up with the average player. Most of the really stupid mistakes have been made and, at least for me, it is only the stupid mistakes I make. Anyway, we had planned on Nora’s aunt joining us, but she was not feeling good, so we had to play the 3 handed version. It changes the dynamics of the game a bit and thus how you play things out, but is still as fun. 

This year, Grace threw in a twist. Starting at 10 and repeating at 11 and midnight, we all would go outside and light up some sparklers. Surprisingly, it was pretty cold out at 10, 11 and midnight on December 31st in the Keweenaw! but most of us still bundled up and went out for the celebrations. Grace was the only one tough enough to just wear a light jacket, no gloves or hat. It might also have something to do with her age. Anyway another tradition is take a selfie of the three of us at the stroke of midnight and here is the one of us welcoming in 2022.

I like Grace’s new addition to our New Year tradition, but think we will be kicking it up a notch for the years to come. I believe some bigger and more dramatic pyrotechnics will be in order for the future. Although this year we did have some pretty big sparklers for the midnight lighting! Haha!

So I think that covers it for this first edition to 2022. I hope everyone reading had a fun holiday period and now that life will be getting back to the usual routine the joy of the holidays and time spent with family continues through the year.

Good Night From the Keweenaw..
–JD

‘Twas the journal before Christmas and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. Well, except for a red squirrel that got into the garage this morning and made ma shriek and then yell “You Get Otta Here!” at it. Then Bleau came running to see what all the commotion was about and then proceeded to bark at it. Otherwise, it is pretty quiet around here!

It’s been a hard week to smile through with the melt down the first half. It started out innocently, just as many multi-day thaws do. We had little snow loss on Monday, more settling than anything. Even our snowy roads were snowy when I returned from a trip to Marquette in the evening. Tuesday was warmer, more humid and the overnight temps decided to remain above freezing as well. That took a pretty good chunk of snow off the ground.

Wednesday and Wednesday night was the final nail in the coffin to get rid of all of our snow here in Jake. We were about the only ones that I know of that went to totally bare ground. Areas like Houghton and Hancock dropped to just a few inches on the ground and areas like Calumet and Mohawk shrank to around 8-12″ on the ground. We did not have much precip during the day on Wednesday, a bit of drizzle from time to time, but never really amounted to anything. Wednesday night was a different story. Thunderstorms rolled through during the middle of the night and rattled everything. There were some strong winds that blew with the storms, but we hung onto power. Our rainfall with the storms was around .25″, but some other areas in the Keweenaw did pick up around .50″ and Copper Harbor picked up 1.13″. Temps were also mildest Wednesday and through Wednesday night. In fact it was still 50 degrees at 1 am Thursday.

As the saying goes about making lemonade when given lemons, Nora, Grace, Graces friend Flora and I took advantage of the mild temps to put up the boards for the ice skating rink in our backyard. For a first time project of this nature, it went very well. I had the girls help me move the 2×12’s to their general location and they also helped me get the first 2 walls straight and perpendicular to each other. Nora then went into bake treats for all of Graces teachers and Grace and Flora went out into the woods to explore. I was able to finish up the rest of the boards without issue and before the sun even set, the rink was ready for its liner and then water.

It’s 70×35 and will make for a nice sized rink. Two years ago I also did an ice rink, but really struggled to get it good enough to skate on. I learned a TON that year and so far that education by fire has paid off. I have a single sheet of plastic to put down. Two years ago I used several, which just let the water leak through. I also did all the flooding myself, using the shallow well we have in the back yard. It’s called a cask well and is basically a 2 foot in diameter clay pipe that does down to the water table and then beyond around another 10 feet, depending on where the top of the water table is. It refills pretty nicely, but did not hold enough water to even come close to being able to put much more than a think layer on the entire rink. This year I am having a contractor come with his tanker truck and will use that to literally flood the entire rink with as much water as it takes to produce a solid layer in all spots. I will then be able to use the well water to resurface. I plan to have it flooded this week, so watch the AL Cam for the action. Plus the skating once it is done!

I also did get both the AL Cam and Woods Cam working again and the girls moved the deer feeder in front of the woods cam and I will be setting it up to feed the deer either later today or tomorrow. A third camera will be added to our humble abode. It will be pointed at our bird feeders. All these cams are live streaming, so you will be able to watch us skate live, the deer feed live and the birds eat live. I hope that the last two can provide some relaxation to those stuck in a stressful office all day. 

On Thursday morning, the cold front blasted through and our temps fell from a high of 50 at 1 am to the low 20’s by late in the day. Those cold temps were helped in by some of the strongest winds the Keweenaw has seen in some time. I do not have a list of all the wind reports, but I did hear reports of over 50 mph in most areas and a few of 70mph winds occurring. The winds did take down power in many areas of the Keweenaw, the western and central UP. We first lost power around 7:30 am and it was out until around 11:30. That recovery only lasted around 30 minutes and we were out again. This time until around 7:50pm. As the temps dropped, Nora built a fire in the fire place and we did have a propane fired wall heater in the utility room. The both of those kept the house pretty warm. The shop has an automatic standby generator, so it was business as usual there.

On Saturday, I did go to town and was able to see the culprit for our first power outage. A tree came down on a line right near the Dreamland Bar and managed to snap on of the poles holding the lines. They were able to do a quick fix by just bolting the broken top part to the top of the remaining pole. Obviously that will be repaired in full very soon. I do not know where the second outage occurred, but it had to be a pretty big transmission line, because once it was fixed, all the outages in Lake Linden, Bootjack, Rabbit Bay, Jacobsville and up into the Traprock Valley suddenly came on at the same time. I really have to comment the linemen at UPPCO. This is not the first time that they have had to deal with massive outages in the Keweenaw and will certainly not be the last. Most of the fixing also has to be done in very nasty weather. Can you imagine having to be up in a bucket, working around powerlines in winds of 50-70mph and snow falling?! They sure do deserve every dollar they make and perform their duties with pride. I have never heard a single one complain about the conditions they have to work in. They wear that like a badge of pride. They are the cowboys of our time.

The couple of inches of snow and strong winds on Thursday did help the Laurium Glacier to put on some pounds. I have driven past it a few times this early winter and had not really seen much growth, but on my way to Calumet Saturday I stopped to take a picture of it in pretty good early-season form!

The drive back home from all of my Saturday errands brought me into a beautiful winter wonderland as I drove south down Jacobsville Rd. I even stopped on a little turn off and took a very short walk down a snowy two-track going into the woods. The snow was not deep, but was as white as fresh snow can be. The silence of the woods was inspiring too. Causing me to just slowly meander my way down the two track and admire the beautifully frosted woods. All the while listening the flakes hit the ground, the trees and my jacket. I also stopped to admire the macro world of fresh snow in the forest. If you look closely at that last picture, you can see individual snow crystals and some of the different forms they take.

Unfortunately, after taking that short little foray into the woods, I was driving down Jacobsville Rd and was about 2 miles from the end of it when out of the woods a large deer decided to run across the road, directly in my path. It’s in an area known for deer, so I was already going slower. I did hit the breaks and steered a bit to the right to try and avoid it, but it was on a mission and did not slow down or adjust its course and I ended up hitting it. It was a large deer and made a very solid thump when it hit, but I did not hear any glass break, nor any crumpling of steel and was surprise to see that the only damage was some small cracks in the drivers side headlight lens. 

I did not stop, as it was snowing, the roads were snow packed and I did not have a safe place to pull off. I did see the deer end up in the ditch of the far side of the road. It was laying there with its legs up and not moving, so I assumed it was dead. Once home, I did put a post on Facebook about it, in case a local had not yet harvested a deer for the season and wanted it for food. Nora’s cousin responded, but by the time he got there, the deer was gone. So either it did not die, or someone else harvested it. I have been driving for nearly 40 years and had never hit a deer until this season and then I have hit two in exactly one month! Hopefully that will be it for a while!

Not much else going on. The weather looks to bring us some snows this week. A system for Tuesday has the potential to bring us around 4-7″ of fresh snow. The rest of the northern 1/2 of the UP and northern 1/4 of MN look to see those snows, with lighter amounts of 1-4″ in central MN, the southern UP and far northern sections of WI. Late Wednesday and Thursday sees another 1-2″ possible for northern MN, the UP and northern sections of WI/lower MI and then a Christmas Day low holds the potential for 3-6″ in NE MN and much of the UP, with a couple of inches in northern WI. 

Earlier in the week I was approached by a friend who is doing a fundraiser for the Wertz Warriors. It is a raffle for a brand new 2022 Arctic Cat Riot. The tickets are $100 each, but only 250 of them are being sold, so you have a fairly decent chance of winning it! You can purchase tickets at M&M Powersports in Hancock MI or the Dreamland Bar south of Lake Linden in Bootjack. I have my ticket! So best hurry while there are still tickets available!

Have a Very Merry Christmas My Extended Family!

Good Night from the Keweenaw..
–JD

Hello again friends! Welcome to this last weeks recap of life in the Keweenaw. When I last wrote, the big storm was winding down and I was more than a little disappointed in the results for Jacobsville. However, it did get over Mother Natures snub of our neighborhood in the snow department. We did pick up several inches on Wednesday and again late Friday night and early Saturday. All told, we picked up around 17 1/2″ since last Sunday afternoon. Our snow depth as of yesterday evening was around 8″, but it has since settled and even melted a bit and is sitting around 6″ or so.

In addition to the snows, temps got quite chilly this past week as well. Especially Tuesday and Wednesday morning. Both mornings saw the “digital mercury” settle at 3 above zero. That did a great job of frosting up the windows on the front porch, which is not heated. Not only were we cold, but the entire upper Midwest experienced the arctic air, with lots of single digits and even some sub zero readings. Needless to say that with all the snow on the ground and the cold temps, it both looked and felt like it was the dead of winter.

The snow piles and banks in areas that saw a foot+ of snow fall last Sunday-Monday and then saw the 6-8 fall with the Wednesday and Friday night activity looked like mid-winter. Nobody is grumbling yet, but I get the feeling that the folks that do not like snow very much have resigned themselves to the likelihood that this will not be an “easy”winter for us. I sure hope that their guts are right! Haha! Actually, looking at the forecast models beyond the warm up for the first 3-4 days of this week, it is looking to get snowy again in our neck of the woods as well as much of the upper Midwest. 

I did ride my snowmobile twice this past week. On Thursday I headed south to ride with a friend down in Twin Lakes. He lives in MN, but has a place there. I was grateful for the second batch of snow that fell on Wednesday. Not because it made a huge difference in the snow to ride in, but gave me enough snow to move around and build a ramp to load my sled into the back of my truck! I made use of the raised septic field as well and just had to put enough snow to fill in the side of the septic field so that I could back my truck up to it. I have a ramp, but really prefer NOT to use it, as it is a tiny bit sketchy.

It should last the remainder of the season. I might have to put a tiny bit more on it, depending on how much snow we lose in the next 3 days. The good news is that I do not have to do much manual labor either. I did get the snowblower mounted onto Big Red last Tuesday and just used it (without the blower running) to push the snow into place. I will be great to have that there for the rest of the season to make loading the sled easy. I will likely be doing that a lot, as there are very few places to ride right out of my doorstep. You might be asking what about when I get to the place I will be riding? Well, there are now plenty of banks large enough to use in a similar fashion at any of the spots I would be dropping of to ride.

 While my ride on Thursday was just the two of us, we rode again on Saturday, but this time had a group of 7. That is typically the max amount of riders I like to go out with riding. Be it trail or off trail. Larger groups that that can start to develop logistic problems. Someones sled breaks down, or someone is late or rides too fast for the group. This group was great and in synch the entire day and there are some others that are part of this same general group of riders and they would not have had a negative impact to the fun, only enhanced it!

On the way down to ride in Twin Lakes yesterday, I was treated to the tail end of a snowstorm. I really do not mind driving in the snow. I do worry a bit about others around me and their ability to control their vehicle, but to me, it is actually quite fun to drive down a snowy, sparsely traveled road. Driving through the snow to get to my riding destination is even better!

The riding conditions we had yesterday were nothing short of spectacular! Temps in the upper 20’s. The snow that was falling on my way down gave way to a mix of clouds and bluebird skies and lots of fresh powder to play in. If you are thinking that last picture was of the only untouched path through the woods, you would be mistaken. We were even treated to a fun playground! It was early season and even though the snow was quite deep for December 11th, it was not quite deep enough to do anything we wanted to in the playground. None the less, we did a pretty good job of drawing some lines in the snow.

Normally I would consider a winter scene like this perfect, but when I was sent a picture of the same exact spot, only this time with my friend Skylar and I stopped right in front, I actually liked that better! In fact, I believe it might be my digital Christmas Card this year!

I did wear my video camera for all of the ride and had it going much of the time. However, I also forgot to check the first footage shot and here I am at the point of discovering all the footage was no good because I had the camera pointed too far down! Oh well, I will be sure to check things next time and I am thrilled that I was right about me being healthy enough to get out and play in the snow. I had a lot of rust to clean off my skills and still do, along with getting into better shape for riding, but it will be fun to work on both!

So until next time…

Good Night from the Keweenaw..
–JD

Greetings friends! My apologies for not writing yesterday, but I had a pretty busy day and just plum ran out of time. Plus, I figured with the storm going on, I would likely have more material to share today. I do have more material, but not as much as I had hoped for. I was planning to get out and do a little tour of the Keweenaw to show the differing conditions, but ended up struggling with one of my projects (more on that in a bit) and that took up much of my free time.

In any case, the storm is still going on across the Keweenaw. The snows have transitioned to pure lake effect. That transition came early in the day. It has been snowing non-stop since around mid-morning and the totals today here in Jake are around 3″. That is on top of the 4.5″ we had overnight. Jacobsville was robbed in the snowfall department yesterday and overnight. Winds were out of the east-southeast and we were just far enough south to not partake in the lake enhancement that much of the rest of the Keweenaw saw. I have scratched out a little map to help illustrate what I mean. The black line illustrates the main wind direction for the second half of yesterday and much of the overnight hours. The red dot is us here in Jake and the yellow line illustrates the path the winds took to get to us. As you can see, the air flowing across Jake spent very little time over the lake and did not pick up much moisture or heat, compared to areas just north of us, where the air had plenty of “fetch” over the lake to pick up moisture and heat. Thus, about 4 miles to the north of us saw around 8-10″ of fresh snow by this morning, compared to our 4.5. Other totals were in the 8-12″ range from around Houghton north, with some areas seeing 12″+. I saw an unofficial report of 18″ having fallen in Calumet by this morning.

I took Grace to figure skating practice at Tech yesterday afternoon and the whole time we were in the rink, it snowed heavily. It continued to snow heavily on the way home, all the way up to Lake Linden and then back south through Dreamland and to right around the Rabbit Bay Rd and then lightened up. There was around 4″ of new snow on the Jacobsville road to around the Rabbit Bay road and then by the time we got to our road, there was maybe an inch or so new! Needless to say I was more than bummed. I was really looking forward to this storm because it was to bring a fairly widespread accumulation of 8″ or more to all of the western UP, including us. That was the system snow part of the snow. I knew that LES would take over for today and tonight and we would see less, but would be happy with the 8″ of system snow. I knew when we got back from skating that we were not going to see that 8″ and really missed living in the big snow area near Mohawk.

As mentioned, it has been snowing all day today and at a respectable clip, so my spirits are better! But that 4 measly miles still eats at me! Poor Johnny! Haha!

We started the week with snow covering the ground and then Wednesday night we had some rain fall and that blasted most of our snowcover away. There was still a few inches on the ground in places like Calumet north to Copper Harbor, Quincy hill above Hancock and then down south of the bridge from around Atlantic Mine to Mass City at least. 

On Friday, Nora and I had to go to Marquette for an appointment I had and got to see the snowcover situation between here and there. The deepest snow was between Alberta and Michigame. We did not stop to measure, but I would have estimated it to be around 6″ deep there. Marquette proper had just a trace on the ground, but Negaunee and points west still had several inches.

So prior to this current storm hitting, I figured I had better get the blower mounted onto Big Red. For some reason, it is usually a bit of a process and I typically encounter a few challenges. Mounting the blower involves removing the loader arms and in the past that has given me a few issues, but I have made some good notes to go along with the instructions provided by the manufacturer and that has smoothed out the process. I have done the same thing with notes for mounting the blower but struggled yesterday to get things lined up properly. I was getting tired and figured I could do it today with a fresh mind and body.  I was able to get things aligned, but then the front of the blower mount assembly did not lift things high enough for me to align the mounting pin holes. I tried several things and ended up passing on it for today! We did not get enough snow that is was necessary to use the blower, infact, this was the perfect snow to pank down into a mat and provide the surface to use as the base for the season. As long as it does not melt! Tomorrow I have to go to town and plan to pick up a floor jack to “cheat it up the 1/2” it needs to go for me to pin the front mount. Hopefully the rest will go smoothly as I am getting too old to be trying to muscle these heavy things around!

Today was a snow day for all the schools in the region. So Grace and Nora got to sleep in, although Nora does not sleep in very well. They then went to some friends for the early afternoon and when they got home, Grace and I got ready to take the first ride of the season. A neighbor of ours has around 30 acres of open field and a few weeks back, I asked him if we could ride in the field to get Grace comfortable on the full sized sled we picked up for her this summer. He said, sure, have at it! So we got the sleds out and headed to the field. I had told him we would not use his main entrance, which as a cable across it when he is not there, but rather use a path that comes in at the opposite end of the property and basically connects to our property. So I fired up the sleds. My new ride looked really good in the newly fallen snow and I had that familiar feeling of excitement as I prepared to hop on it and go.

We wound our way through a tight and twisty trail to get to the entrance on the back end of the field, only to find it blocked with some cut logs. I used all my Keweenaw boondocker skills to try and find another way into the field, which was sitting around 50 feet from us! But I could not find any way that would not involve riding over some saplings, so we had to turn around and give up the field for today. I plan to go out and move a few of the logs to make enough room for us to scoot by and into the field and then when the season ends, I will put them back. 

So a bit of a bummer in the snowfall department and also in the fact that we could not get to the field today, but all in all, life is good. The snows have seemed to put the Keweenaw right where we should be as far as snow and how things should look this time of the year. Plenty of reasons to be grateful, including me being healthy enough to be out riding and with my best girl to boot!

Good Night from the Keweenaw..
–JD