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Happy Independence Day + 1. I hope everyone’s holiday was a good one. For the Dee’s it was a great one! Good health for all of us is the number one reason. Living where we do and with such a great community is second and a close third is having family in town visiting. There are some other reasons that will be mentioned as we travel through this entry.

Our company arrived last Sunday and one of Nora’s Aunts left this morning. The other Aunt and Uncle will be leaving Wednesday. Then things will return to normal. Nora’s brother and his wife are here until Wednesday, but they are not company, they have their own place down the road. An as a bonus, her brother brought up his old zero turn motor for us to have. He bought a new one this spring. I was able to cut all of our lawns with it late last week and it is so much better! Way more comfortable seat and best of all, it takes half the time to cut the grass.

The week started out on the cool side with even a bit of rain. We missed all of the significant rain from that activity and are now becoming pretty dry. The cooler and damp weather made for good conditions to do a puzzle, so Gracie dug one out for everyone to do Monday evening.

It was not raining, so Nora and I decided to take the golf cart for a little spin. It was actually the perfect evening for taking a ride on it. Nice temps and no bugs or dust. We decided to test our luck and see if it would go all the way around “the loop” without running out of power. I did not think it would be a problem, as most carts can handle at least 2 rounds of 18 holes before needing charging, but one never knows! There is no battery meter on the cart, so we cannot tell how much charge is left in the batteries, but we made it around the loop just fine. The loop is around 3 miles long and consists of heading east and then north on Red Rock Road, then west on Sandstone Rd, then back south on Jacobsville Rd to Red Rock and over to our house. It is a healthy walk, a moderate bike ride and a nice ride in the cart!

When we returned, the puzzle building was still going on and they had been able to get the outside edges done, as well as a few pieces of the field. I jumped in and was able to get a small section done, as were others. It got late and we all hit the hay around 10:30. The next morning and afternoon found individuals as well as small groups of persons working on finishing it and by early evening on Tuesday, the puzzle was finished. Just in time for the weather to turn nicer!

Wednesday a buddy of mine from the gas company came and hooked up the line from the propane tank to the pool heater and so I got that heater going and we all have been enjoying the nice warm waters of our pool! I think it is going to be a well used feature all summer long. I do plan to keep it going as long as the weather permits. I even have plans to try and use it in some physical rehab for myself. Or at least that is what I am telling myself right now!

Most of the rest of the week was spend having fun with Nora’s relatives. Her one Aunt and Uncle took Grace to the Porcupine Mountains State Park on Wednesday and most of the crew went to the beach on Thursday and/or Friday. There was also some work to be done, as we were hosting the 2nd annual Jacobsville Independence Day Parade and picnic! So Friday, I cut the lawn over at the shop and also our backyard at the house with the new zero-turn and then Saturday I did the front lawn. I also swept the lawn of any leaves and clippings as that is where the picnic was to be held. Friday and Saturday I also built a corn hole game and Gracie and her friend Flora painted each board for the game. No pictures for this issue, but I will do my best to include pics of them in next weeks entry.

So come Sunday at 11 am sharp, the kids all hopped on their decorated bikes and us older folks hopped into our decorated golf carts and then a surprising howl was heard from down the block. That howl was coming from the siren on a firetruck from the Bootjack Fire Department! Flora’s dad is a volunteer on the department and was able to use one of their pieces of equipment to lead the parade! I could not see the looks on the kids faces, but it was a total surprise to them that it was going to be there. It was also a surprise to many of the adults!

So the kids all followed the fire truck on their bikes, followed by some of the adults in the three golf carts and another set of adults in a decorated side by side. Once the parade was over, everyone took to our front yard and spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying visiting with each other and chowing down on hot dogs, chips, fruit salads, veggie salads and a bunch of different sweets. By late afternoon most folks were packing up to go home or perhaps hit the cooling waters of Lake Superior. We did hit 91 for a high during the picnic, but fortunately our front lawn has a lot of shade and there was just enough of a breeze to help keep the heat from becoming too much.

I know Nora and I had a lot of fun and were happy with the turn out of 53 people. That’s probably 2/3rds of the population of Jacobsville in the summer! Just about everyone that I talked to said how wonderful this event is and how everyone enjoys talking to one another so much. Many commented on how it is so much like the summer celebrations of old. Jacobsville is really a special community and I am glad to be a part of it. I am also glad to see new blood being injected into it, that will help to keep the community going strong for years to come.

Have a Great week everyone and…

Good Night from the Keweenaw..
–JD

Please excuse me for my absence last week, but Grace and I hopped town the week before to go and visit my mom in southern WI and my Aunts in northern IL. Covid kept us from seeing them last summer and it had been a long time since we had been down south. Unfortunately, the morning after we arrived at my mom’s, she had a heart episode and had to be taken to the hospital. She is recovering very well, but is 86, so the recovery is slow and she is still in the hospital. She looks to be moved to a nursing home type facility early this week to further rehab and then will be going home. 

That incident really through our trip for a bit of a loop. My brother had been staying with my mom since around late April or early May and the hospital was not letting anyone under the age of 12 in to visit patients, so Grace and I were not able to go and visit her, so we ended up leaving for home a day early. I had promised Grace that I would take her to a nice restaurant and even let her pick out a new dress for the occasion, so we did that on Thursday and then got up bright and early Friday to beat the weekend traffic heading north. 

The dinner was very nice. Grace and I have a really good time on our daddy-daughter dates and it was also fun to go shopping with her and watch her go through the racks of dresses and then find one. We even picked up a few pieces of jewelry for the occasion. Here is a shot of the beautiful girl and her pregnant dad! Of course I was not pregnant, it was all fluid. With my heart not pumping as well as a normal one does, I really have to avoid consuming too much sodium. When I am at home, that is not too hard, as we have all the foods for that and I have lots of choices. When not at home and especially when having to eat out a lot, it is nearly impossible to eat low sodium meals. So I was bloated! Poor Grace had been paddle boarding earlier in the day and a wave caught her and the board by surprise and caused her to lose her balance and fall. When she did, the handle end of the paddle hit her in the eye and produced quite the shiner! It is still in the process of going away, even though it happened 10 days ago.

Grace and I got home Friday evening and then rested Saturday. Sunday was spent with Nora and Grace packing for their own trip. This one was down to Eagle River WI to attend a week long skating camp. They bring in professional skaters, some even from Europe, to give lessons. It’s pretty intense, but all of the coaches are super nice and I know Grace learns a lot! This was her first year at the camp, but will be going there as long as she wants to. The girls kinda roughed it while there by staying with another skater, her sister and mom in their camper. I stayed back and tended to the house and dogs and cut lots of grass! We are still cutting our friends yards, which total about 3-4 acres. Our yards make up another 2-3 acres, so I literally was on the mower every day last week. The good new is that Nora’s brother is bringing up the mower that he used to use and has since gotten a new one. The old one is a zero turn mower. So that should nearly half the time it takes to mow the lawns.

In addition to Nora’s brother and sister in-law arriving this Thursday, her Aunt and Uncle that live in California and her Aunt that currently lives in the south central UP, but will be moving just down the block from us will be arriving in a few hours and will be spending at least several days with us. So we have been busy getting the house ship-shape for their arrival and even did enough to the bedroom and bathroom in the apartment above the shop so that her one Aunt and Uncle will be able to stay there. It sure will be nice to have that apartment completely done! Not sure when that will happen, but it will be nice for visiting friends and family.

In other news, the wildlife has been pretty abundant around here this summer. We do not know if it is the same bear that caused us some problems, but there has been a bear causing some issues at other residents in the neighborhood. One incident was a break-in onto a porch. There was also a sighting of a black bear trying to steal a riding mower!

While cutting our front lawn, I had to avoid a young porcupine who was strolling through. Nora also had to wait for this big old snapper to get out of the way so she could back her car out of the garage. There are lots of turtles in the neighborhood. In fact, it is a rare day that I do not see one crossing the road. I heard that one of them had laid a bunch of eggs, but some other creature found them and made a meal out of them.

The weather has been very nice for the most part. Perhaps a bit on the dry side, but not as bad as it had been in lots of other places in the Midwest up until the past few days. No hot temps, but nothing too cold either. The bugs are for the most part tolerable, so that is allowing us to spend time relaxing outdoors. It also created a bit of a situation, that being what do you do when you have 3 hammocks and only two places to hang them? You do two of them Gilligan’s Island style!

The final little diddy I have to share with you is that Nora and Grace got tour the Jacobsville Lighthouse. This is not to be confused with the light at the end of the pier at White City. that is the lower entry light. The Jacobsville Lighthouse is privately owned and sits atop a bluff just above the big lake. It is for sale for anyone that would like to own a lighthouse. I believe the asking price is $750.000. The tour even included a climb to the top of the light via the cast iron spiral staircase. 

Have a great week and great Independence Day and I will write on the 5th!

Good Night from the Keweenaw..
–JD

Usually when I am a day late, I apologize, but not this time! Nope, it was my birthday and in our house we get to do what ever we want or don’t want to do on that day. So I chose to spend the entire day with my two beautiful girls and enjoy the day!

It’s been a pretty busy week. Now that I am feeling better, I am able to get out and about more and even do some things around the house, shop and yard. The weather has been a little schizoid. Most of the days have been pretty nice, but we hot weather last weekend, then cooled off and we got a little rain. Midweek was mild temps and some more rain and then Friday we barely made it into the 50’s, under a heavy overcast and a bit of drizzle.

As far as the bugs go, the mosquitos are probably ranking average, which means when it is warm and sunny, you are fine. Go into the woods and you better be protected. What has popped up very quickly and with very large numbers is the deer and horse flies. They started showing up later last week and now are quite nasty. At least at our house. I’m not sure about the entire region. I know that they like to hang out in the taller grass and then take flight when the sense a target is near. They actually do more looking then picking up on a scent like the mosquitos do. So I remember reading about a very simple technique you can use to bring the population of those buggers down a lot. It came from a USDA study in which they use a sticky gel made to trap bugs on it- much like a fly strip. What you do is to hang a medium sized bucket, something around the size of a beach pail, off of a Shepard’s hook, or tree limb or similar. You coat the pail with that sticky stuff and let nature to the rest. It is important that the pail can swing in the wind, as that is what catches the fly’s attention. They also said the best color to use is dark purple or dark blue. Black also works very well, but the lighter the color the less effective. We just ordered the sticky stuff on line today, we we’ll see how it works when it arrives.

Probably the biggest event this this past week was the ending of the school year for Grace and Nora. Nora is a 12 month employee, but her schedule in the summer is a bit less demanding for her. I remember when Grace first started school, she would be so sad on the last day. Mainly because she would not be able to see all her friends every day. That has turned around and she now very much loves the summer break. I think that turn around was enhanced when we moved to Jake, as the beach is so close by and she has some friends close by and there is just lots more to do in the summer for her.

The last day of school also happened to coincide with an eclipse. It was not a total eclipse, but rather an annular and it only was really visible in just a few spots of the world. The tip of the Keweenaw was actually the starting point for it and then it traveled north across northeastern Canada, Greenland and into Russia. So Thursday morning, we all woke up early and headed to the pier at White City beach to catch it. Some friends of ours also met up with us. We all got there just as the suns rays were really starting to illuminate the sky and to our dismay, there were some clouds on the horizon that would block out the sunrise, which was the optimum time to see the eclipse. Of course with the beautiful sunrise blooming, gentle waves rolling along the pier and the sound of seagulls and a pair of bald eagles, none of us were disappointed at all to be there in that spot that morning! It even prompted Nora and I to take a “selfie“. I love how she is all dressed and ready to go to work and I still have bed-head and bags under my eyes! The life of retirement!

After waiting around 25 minutes past the sunrise time, the sun finally popped it’s head above the clouds. Our friends had brought some glasses that are for viewing the eclipse, so we all got to at least see what was left of the eclipse. I had picked up a filter for using with my digital SLR camera and even though I had a very hard time seeing what I was shooting with it, some pictures did turn out. Here is a shot of the sun with the moon eclipsing it on the lower left. That one was taken while zoomed out. Here is a shot zoomed in. So not the eclipse we were all hoping to see, but it was still pretty cool and a beautiful morning at the lower entry.

We have several traditions in the Dee family and one is that on the last day of school (which is always a half day) we all meet up for lunch. We also have been going to the same restaurant since the tradition started, that being the Hut in Kersarge. Nora has to go back to work after lunch, so it is close enough to allow that to happen and we also have always enjoyed eating there. So lunch on Thursday kept with the tradition and it was also nice to be back on track and be able to dine inside! Last year we had to get it to go and I think we ate in the vehicle. 

Another main activity for me this week was to setup the pool. I did have lots of help from Nora and Grace in the actual setting up part and then kinda took it from there. Our house is on a well here and with the pool needing around 8400 gallons of water to fill it, I did not want to run the risk of running that well dry. We also have a crock well by the house and another by the shop. For those wondering what a crock well is, it is a shallow well that fills with water a few feet below the surface. Last season, the water was around 3 feet from the surface and this year it is around 4 1/2 feet. The well then goes down around 20 feet. I used it in the winter of ’19-’20 to make the ice rink. Anyway, between the two wells, I got the pool filled in around 36 hours.

The water from the crock wells is not for drinking, although I have been told that the first people to live here did use it for everything, including drinking. Once the pool was filled, it did not really look like the kind of water one would want to be swimming in. I do have a sand filter that is sized for a full sized in-ground pool, so it does a great job of keeping the water clean and it took around 20 hours of running it to get the water clean. The other thing that needed addressing was the silt that was on the bottom of the pool. Thanks to Nora and the birthday present she got me, I was able to drop a self cleaning pool vacuum in and let it do it’s job. It does an amazing job and best of all, it does it all on it’s own. It is powered by the water pulled through it and designed to wander the pool, even the sides, and clean it. Here is a shot showing the job it does with just one swath. So today, with the pool clean, the sun out and temps in the low 70’s our fearless swimmer took her first of many swims in it. Once the gas company comes and runs a gas line to the heater next week, this old fart will be swimming right along with Grace!

We have been visited by a black bear almost every night for the past week or so. The first night, it took out the bird feeder in front of the Al Cam, the next night it took out a suit feeder hanging from a tree in our side yard. Then late last week, we were all relaxing in the living room, when it snuck up and took out Nora’s fancy bird feeder, which did not sit well with her AT ALL! That would never have happened if Huck and/or Millie were still alive. We yelled at it and it took off, but initially, not too far. So Nora snapped a shot of it. Just a yearling, but they can make a big mess too! In fact we made the mistake of putting our garbage out last night and it proceeded to tip the can over, pull two bags across the street into our neighbors woods and have a feast. Not a lot of fun picking up garbage and swatting mosquitos at the same time! The garbage will NOT be going out until Monday morning for the rest of the season.

I think that about covers it for this one. Independence Day is rapidly approaching and the Keweenaw will be full of things going on. Including the 2nd annual Jacobsville parade!

So until next time, I leave you with this treat. It was one of the magnificent views Nora had while driving to work today.

Good Night from the Keweenaw..
–JD

This might be a slightly abbreviated entry, with 90+ degree temps and then a full belly, my energy level is a bit low, but I did want to write and fill you in on the latest. Last week when I wrote, I explained how the doctors at Mayo had fixed my clogged cardiac artery and was just waiting for the effects to kick in. They said it could be anywhere from a couple of days to 2-3 weeks. My best day after the procedure was actually the next day, Friday. Saturday was a little worse than Friday and by Sunday, I was feeling no better or maybe even a little worse than before the operation.

Monday morning started out kind of rough, so I decided to pass on going to the Memorial Day service they have at the Jacobsville Cemetery. Nora, Grace, Nora’s brother and his wife all went and I just hung out on the couch at home. After a while, it felt like I just needed to get out of the house and get my mind off things, so I headed to the shop and fiddled around with some things and even did a little straightening out. After about 30 minutes at the shop, I started to feel better and in another 30 minutes, I was feeling REALLY good. Gone were pretty much all of my symptoms I have been dealing with for the past 3-4 years. While being cautiously optimistic, I also did not put a ton of hope that this was the “new” me.

As it turns out, it pretty much is the new me! While I have some days that are not as good as others, none of them since the switch flipped on Monday have even been close to as bad as they were in the past. Life around here is much more active for me. Instead of being a slug, I can help Nora and Grace and that is a great thing.

Most of my work still has not been ultra physical. I have been doing things like cutting grass and even helping pull some old, scraggly, even dead bushes out of the ground that were in the front of the house. Many were beyond hope of making them look good again and others were just plain old dead.

So yesterday evening, I fired up Big Red and grabbed some rope and Nora, Grace and I went about getting the bushes out of the ground. The first row of bushes were right in front of the screen porch. Initially, the plan was to pull them out by putting a slip knot at one end and letting it cinch around the base of the bush and pull it out of the ground with the tractor. Well, that went OK, but a lot of the bushes did not have many branches and that allowed the cinch to just slip off. We did get a few using that technique, but then I came up with another idea. I would just use the end of the forks to dig up the root ball and plant. That technique worked like a charm. In just a little bit, all the bushes in that spot were gone.

The next spot was in front of the living room window and just to the left of the porch. There a tangled mess of Holly were growing, with about half of the plants dead and the others not really doing much like flowering and producing berries. These were much bigger plants and took a bit more work do get out, but that extra effort proved successful, as they came out one by one.

Bleau sat right by the window and seemed to enjoy all of the deconstruction going on. It got late as we were nearing the final scraps of the Holly and the bugs were also starting to get nasty, so we called it quits for the day. Today was just too darned hot to do anything outside, well anything buy lay on a hammock under the trees. We hit 93 and while the dewpoint was not outrageous, it did get to 68.

We had a lot of luck yesterday with the heat, or better put, escaping it. Our temp was rising and it was looking like we would get into the upper 80’s or even low 90’s, but around 2 o’clock, a beautiful lake breeze kicked in and our temp went from 83 to 66 in around 15 minutes. It then stayed in the upper 60’s the rest of the day.

The week ahead looks to be pretty good. I know everyone in the Midwest could use rain, but as things stand right now, not much looks to fall to the north and east of a line from around Kansas City to Chicago to the thumb of MI. Our temps will be backing down some, but still look to run in the 70’s and even some low 80’s most days. The plan for this week is to get the pool put up so we can start enjoying it. I then hope to start doing some work in the shop. Nothing too physically demanding, but work work I have been wanting to get done for around 2 years now.

Good Night from the Keweenaw..
–JD

 

I sure feels to be back home. Nora and my trip to Rochester and the Mayo Clinic turned out to be a day longer than anticipated, but for all good reasons. I don’t know how many of you were up to date on the reason for us going, but it was to get some testing done on my heart to figure out the best way to fix some clogged coronary arteries. We already knew that it would not be by grafting in some arteries from another part of my body, as there was no good spot in the troubled coronary arteries to do the grafting. Stenting was also projected to be a risky proposal. So risky that the folks at Aspirus in Wausau referred me to the Mayo.

Nora and I headed south to Rochester on Sunday and then I had tests Monday and Tuesday and then I was to have a right heart catheterization on Wednesday. By around midday Tuesday, another appointment was added and all it said was “consultation”. The Mayo is a great place, but one thing I wish they would do is to explain better why some tests were ordered and the nature of the consultations. The new appointment for Wednesday was set for just an hour or so ahead of my heart cath. Nora and I were quite worried that we would not be able to get to the heart cath on time. Not just because the consultation was so close in time to it, but also be cause the consultation was at the Mayo Clinic and the cath was at St Mary’s hospital. The two are basically both considered the Mayo, but St Mary’s is where all of the procedures takes place and the buildings considered the Mayo Clinic are where most of the testing and consultations are done.

So Nora called to explain our concern and were told that we should not worry, because the cath lab was aware of our new appointment just ahead of my procedure. So Tuesday night and early Wednesday I went through all of my prep for the cath, mainly not eating and drinking as one would before sedation as well as holding some of my daily medications. We then went to the appointment at the “Mayo” end of town and there we spoke with some members of the cardiac clinic. It turns out that the doctors had done a little pow-wow and their “Ace” for doing stents had determined that he could perform the stenting of the artery that was the main trouble maker. So a ton of weight suddenly was lifted off of the shoulders of Nora and I. We really had thought that they would not do the stenting due to the risks and I would be put on the list for a transplant. The only minor down side was that their schedule in the cath labs was full for Wednesday and I would have to wait until Thursday. Hardly seemed like a downside at all!

So the first thing we did was get me some food and then did have one more appointment with a surgeon Wednesday afternoon just to completely fill us in on all that had gone down. He did a great job of explaining things and said that this stenting would be a good test to see if it was the main culprit for my symptoms and also give us all a baseline to go off of having that blockage cleared. He also said that I was knocking on transplants door, but that could be many years away.

The stenting went very smoothly and they did keep me overnight, just because it was not a typical stenting. We did get to see some pictures of the problem artery before and after and I got to see some before and after. The artery that they fixed is called the LAD for Left Anterior Descending Artery. We were told that it is responsible for supplying around 40% of the blood that the heart uses. So it’s a pretty important one! Mine was 99.5% blocked, but my heart had found some work arounds to supply my heart with enough blood to keep going. 

I got discharged Friday morning and then we hit the road for home. Poor Nora had to do all the driving, as I was not allowed to. The holiday traffic heading north made a 7-7 1/2 hour a 10 hour trip! She got us home safe and sound and now I am just taking it easy for the next few days, waiting for all the restrictions to come down. They said it will most likely take 2-3 weeks for me to feel the full effects of what they did and I still need to get the ablation done, but things worked out about as good they could on this trip and Nora and I are both full of gratitude.

The Friday before we left, we went to the lake and the air was fairly warm. Warm enough for Grace to take her first dip in the lake. We’re not talking a dipping of the toes or even wading out to her knees or waist, were talking full emersion! I don’t know what the water temp was, but it had to be no warmer than the 40’s and the look on her face when she came up showed how refreshing it was!

While we were gone, the rest of the filling out of the woods took place and we now are fully green, as well as some pinks and whites. That was the crabapple tree in our front yard and here is the cherry. The cherry tree looks kinda boring, but that is because it had already flowered and is now in the process of making it’s fruit.

I guess that covers it for this one. I thank everyone for their well wishes, thought and prayers for my trip to Mayo. It really helped to keep my spirits high and proved to push things in a very welcomed direction!

Good Night from the Keweenaw..
–JD