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Two of my favorite songs have that title, but that is not what I am referring to in this instance. Nope, in this case, it is the way I feel about the snow that is falling. I need not explain the “sweet” side of things. The “bitter” comes from the fact that this winter has not been the most prolific snow producer. If you remove the runs of a few days in mid-January and the first 2 weeks of February, this winter could go down as the one that never came. Then toss in the fact that temps this past week were warm enough to do some meaningful melting. Another is the fact that we are entering into the time of the year when the suns rays are strong enough to do some melting even when the temps are below freezing and the skies are overcast. All of that combines to put me in a situation with around a foot of snow on the ground and a forecast that starting Tuesday will see temps above freezing for highs and even some sun, spells a continued shrinking of the snowpack to a level that might even begin to allow for some bare spots to begin to appear. 

So I was getting into the mindset that we may as well be done with this disappointment of a winter. I am well aware that there is A LOT more snow in all other areas of the Keweenaw and that this snow will go a long way to freshening up things for snow play. Even with the weather this week, the new snow will likely hold up OK, as the traffic that the snowmobile and ski trails see beginning in a typical March is much lower. So for the areas that still have a rather abundant snow cover, it will be more sweet than bitter, but for me and our locale, more bitter than it’s sweet. That is actually a line from one of the 2 songs called Bittersweet that I like.  

Even though I consider the snow currently falling bittersweet, I do still love to see it snow and the trees become all flocked in snow again. Such is the case as I write this. Here is the current look from the AL Cam. This past Wednesday morning we picked up a couple of inches of snow. It stuck to everything, just like the current snow is and it always amazes me how a coating of snow on something a mundane as a bare cherry tree can transform it to a thing of beauty. 

This past Friday treated the somewhat early risers to quite the show. Normally our red skies happen in the late summer and autumn, as the smoke from fires in western Canada or the western US drift overhead and produce the yellows, oranges, reds and even violets. Such was the case this past Friday morning. Here is an image Nora took from her office window of the sunrise. I’ve said it dozens of times in my entries through the years, but this place truly abounds with beauty. It would be hard to go a day without seeing something to marvel at. I really have no idea how I became so blessed to call this area home and to have such a beautiful family to share it with. 

Good Night from the Keweenaw..
–JD

First things first. Here is the picture of the lake effect cloud that I spoke of in last weeks entry. I wrote that entry on the laptop we have in our house and for some reason, once I upload it from that machine, I cannot edit it any more. So lesson learned, no more writing from that PC! I will now vacate my spot in the writer’s chair to make way for my beautiful wife!

Well, I wasn’t really prepared to write this week, which leads me into this….I bet you all didn’t know that writing the journal is rarely a volunteered position. Sometimes we flip a coin, sometimes we swap a chore that the other doesn’t care to do and sometimes it’s taking a break from a “town trip”.  Which is the case this week. That, plus John wanted to watch Gracie skate her last winter lesson at Tech until most likely summer. We continue to skate in Calumet through April. 

This past weekend was spent in Iron Mountain at their annual skating camp. Gracie went last year but it was cut a bit short due to John’s “finger accident”. She had a great time and it was really a turning point in her love and dedication towards skating. She ended up skating for around 8 hours this weekend. Actually, 9 if you count her Tech ice time. Due to covid I was only able to watch her for a few minutes. It’s so fun to watch all the skaters, all levels, working so hard. It’s also super cool to see the professionals who come to coach and test the skaters. Iron Mountain picks up some pretty impressive skaters! A lot of the older kids are working on their dances and it’s so beautiful to watch them practice their dances, just gliding around the rink. I’m not really sure where Gracie gets her energy from….all that skating this weekend and she’s currently in the back yard shoveling the roof of the shed! 

We had a little bit of a scare this week with Huckie. I feel we are on borrowed time with our old friends these days. Like a lot of our other dogs, Huckie’s joints and arthritis will probably be the thing that takes him from this world. He had a real hard time mid week and could barely walk one day. He never shows signs of pain and some times he runs like he’s a pup. We do watch him very closely though. Never do we want any of our dogs to suffer. So I was feeling a bit sad about our old friend and started to look through my photos. It was very obvious looking through the pictures that Gracie and Huck have been buddies all the along the way. I love this picture where her little hand just reaches over to pet him in the truck. He would do that on long trips…ride backwards like she had to in her car seat…lol….And on the rare occasion we didn’t have Gracie in the truck with us, he’d always sit in her car seat! They basically have grown up together….he was only 7 months old when Gracie was born and unlike Gracie, Huckie would sleep anywhere when he was a pup. I remember when Burt was in his final months, a gentleman saw us out on a walk and said, “look at that old guy”. I remember thinking that was odd because he didn’t seem that old looking to me. It wasn’t until I saw this young picture of Huck, and then looked at my friend sleeping at my feet, and saw no longer a young pup but an old, faithful companion. The good news is, Huckie sprung back and is running and even initiated a wrestle with Bleau yesterday. 

As mentioned, our deer friends are back and eyeing up the feeders. When I pulled the images from one of our cameras at first I thought this was a cow! Man, that’s a big deer. We do have one deer that surely must be pregnant. So now we have “cow” deer, Anya, Apple, Star….I don’t know how but we can actually tell them apart….And yep, they are still driving Bleau crazy and they clean out the bird feeders on the daily. While we were out of town, we picked up another tube feeder. Those they can’t get into as well. And so far they don’t touch the suet. We also added some feed to the back yard. We won’t be able to do that in the summer as that will encourage the bear to wreck the fence and come close to the house. John and Gracie left for town and the dogs and I took a 30 minute sit in the den. The birds have already found the new feeder and seemed to be very pleased with the berry suet. 

I am also happy to report that we have finally come out of the deep freeze! Today I walked the dogs for the first time in probably a week or 2. Not only is it cold for me, but it’s cold for their paws too….Bleau and Huck don’t really seem to mind but Kashi has sensitive little paws. I wasn’t going to take Kashi on the walk today, thinking that Bleau probably really needed a walk. He didn’t go to school on Friday and then was home on Saturday all day. But, as soon as I put Bleau’s collar on, Kashi was at my feet. She followed me around, stopping on occasion to howl at me. As if to say, “mom take me too”. So I reluctantly gave in. I was unsure how she would walk with Bleau at her side. There were times when her and Dune would have words with each other and knowing how Bleau is not her favorite “person”, I just wasn’t sure how it would go. But, it was a success! I think they were both so happy to be out and getting some exercise that neither wanted to grumble at the other. Poor Huckie wanted to go so bad and even ran to the door. I felt terrible but he just can’t make it. He received a chewy treat in place of the walk. 

In other news this week, John finally has a surgery date! He’s been waiting since April of last year for this surgery. We are very hopeful that it will fix the a fib and get him feeling back to somewhat of a normal guy. I really don’t know how he does it, other than to say he’s one tough cookie! All the medical issues, major surgeries etc. and he rarely complains. I watch him and know that many days he just doesn’t have the strength or energy to do what he wants to do. So, hopefully in a little over a month he will be on the road to living life to it’s fullest again! 

Looking ahead to this weeks weather it sure looks like the Keweenaw will be perfect temps for getting outside. 20’s and 30’s will make alot of people happy around here after the bitter cold. I know we are looking forward to spending some time outside too. You don’t realize how much nature and the outdoors fills you up, until you can’t partake in it. Thankfully there is so much right here for us to soak up.

Well, that’s all I have…always when I write the journal I wonder….anyone still reading who was around for the very first journal? 

Good night from Jake~

 

 

 

 

That’s the classic phrase in real estate, but the same rings equally true for lake effect snow. This week across the UP has been a classroom for lake effect snow (LES) study. Some places got pounded quite regularly, while others saw loads of sunshine. Unfortunately, where we live now was the second case and where we used to live was the first.

I thought there might be some hope for us when the winds turned mostly out of the west and we still partook in the LES, but then reality hit and we were mostly sunny from Tuesday through Friday. Not far north, about 15 miles to be exact) the snows pretty much never let up and once you were in the higher terrain from around Houghton/Hancock north, you saw snow fall almost non-stop all week last week. Even the twin cities of Houghton and Hancock, while not in the higher terrain, made out very well in the LES department last week. I don’t have all totals, but the spot where Keweenaw County takes their official measurement had picked up 55″ of snow as of Friday morning. It has been snowing just about non-stop since then up there, so I have no doubt that they have gone over the 60″ mark since this current snow cycle started on February 4th. 

Just driving around the different spots here in the Keweenaw will clearly illustrate where the main snow banding has been since last Monday. The snow banks down here are small. Something you might see in central WI when they have some decent snow on the ground. Travel north to Lake Linden and they double and start to look a whole more like what you would expect in the Keweenaw in mid-winter. Head up the hill to Calumet or even more dramatically Mohawk and the banks are at least triple what we have here. I can say this with 100% confidence as that is exactly what I did just a few hours ago. I did take some pictures and will be sharing, but I was not able to stop in as many spots as I wanted to because the shoulder of the roads is gone due to the plow banks and the visibility was very low due to falling and blowing snow.

So before I get into the snow pictures, I can also add that despite this week long cold snap, Lake Superior is still largely ice free. That image taken yesterday afternoon and this picture from Friday afternoon. However, despite the fact that Lake Superior is still largely ice free, we have had some cold nights. Usually the big lake will keep us significantly warmer than surrounding areas. It is not uncommon for us to be above zero, but the southern UP, northern WI and northern MN to be 25-35 degrees colder than that at the same time. Saturday morning I had to go to Hancock and when I left our house, the truck thermometer read -11. As I drove north the temperature kept getting colder and colder and thinking I had seen it get as cold as it would, I kept pulling over and taking a picture of the screen on the dash. Finally, as I was driving through Lake Linden, I hit rock bottom at -23. That is the coldest I have seen in the Keweenaw in some time and the coldest ever with the Big Lake still mostly water!

All the snow, plus the cold temps and winds have allowed some nice drifts to form. I snapped a shot of this one on the front of the shop this morning. As long as they do not look to be threatening the overhangs, I typically let them go to see how big they well get before breaking off. Hey, it beats watching the grass grow in the summer! As I was driving through Calumet and Laurium, I spotted this one hanging from the roof of a home in Laurium. Lots of those old mining homes are not too well insulated and thus the 12 foot long icicles! Now that one I WOULD be taking care of!!!

The Calumet school does an amazing job of keeping the parking and play areas open around the school They have some regular plow trucks and then have at least one front end loader that does the heavy lifting. That loader also makes some rather gigantic mounds of snow that the kids play on. When it is warm enough for outdoor recess, Grace usually has a story or two of something that happened to her or a friend on that very pile. For some reason, that picture does not do justice to show how big the pile is. Further to the right, the pile is lower, but is still taller than the top of a standard height basketball backboard.

As mentioned, the plow banks down here in Jacobsville pale in comparison to those in the big snow areas. Here is a shot of the Jacobsville Road a few miles north of us. I do have to admit that even though the plow banks are not 4-5 feet+ high, that road is still one of my favorites to drive down in the Keweenaw! Had we not moved to Jacobsville, this would have been the look down our road…Just a bit different! That was the #6 Road between Mohawk and Copper City.

Speaking of Copper City, they have some rather impressive banks of snow on the side of the road. Here is a shot with a pickup in it to help show the size of them. I rather doubt that we will ever see plow banks that tall and snow that deep down here in the banana belt, but I a grateful for the snow we do get and to be living where we do. This is probably THE best place to live in the Keweenaw when it is not snowing and I also do not have to travel very far at all to see or even play in the real deal.

Speaking of playing in the snow, I am sure that all of you have noticed an absence of any snowmobile rides I have been on. I have not been with holding. I just have not gone out. About 2 years ago my heart went into a-flutter, which is very similar to f-fib. typically the only real concern with someone with it is the risk of a blood clot. My risk is rather low because I am on blood thinners for my artificial valves. However, because of the other ailments my heart has been through and some that is still has, the a-flutter causes my hear to pump rather poorly. Only about 25% of the blood that could be pumped out of my heart does. I must also add that no one has 100% pumped out. About the best most folks will have is 70%. I had a procedure done back in July of 2018 that stopped the flutter and I was good until around this time last year. So I was going to go have a different procedure done to permanently fix the flutter, but then covid hit and I have had to wait. I am in the on-deck circle and should be having that procedure done in the next month or so and then will be able to be more physically active, including snowmobiling and even things like cross country skiing/snow shoeing. So I have not given up on snowmobiling, quite the opposite. I am chomping at the bit to be able to ride. My riding will be more subdued, but I still plan to stick mostly to off trail, just a more mellow variety. I have plans to sell my sled this off season and get a new one. I just have not figured out which one just yet. Heck, maybe I can get the folks at Tiaga to send me one and I can be their marketing rider for the Midwest! I seriously would love to have one of those!

A couple of other items to share. The John Dee Stimulus Project that has been going on the past several weeks has ended. The great folks that handled ALL of the work involved are still tallying up the final numbers, but it looks like they will be VERY close to their targeted goal of $50,000! That is just incredible and I am so honored to have my name associated with the project, but also want to make clear that other than acting as an advisor and donating a pair of skis for the auction, I really did not do anything, so all the credit needs to go to those folks. The money will be split up evenly amongst the roughly 25 businesses in the western UP that applied for the funds. Way to go guys and gal!

Also, I forgot to mention that the title to last weeks entry came courtesy of Grace. We were a few days into this snow cycle and typically our winters up here seem to be cloudy almost every day. We had a few days of sunshine before the snows arrived and after a few days of clouds and snow, she said to Nora and I that the “Never Ending Cloud” was back. I just thought that was a very cool description to our weather at that moment.

A sneak peak at the forecast sees LOTS of snow for the SE Midwest. Most areas SE of a line from around St Louis to just south of the thumb of MI will see two storms this week. One later tomorrow and tomorrow night and another by Thursday produce over 12″ of snow. Some spots may even see as much as 18″ fall by the time all is said and done. Not much for the rest of the Midwest, but no thaws either. Warmer temps, but no thaws. By later in the weekend or the first half of next week some snows look to start falling every few days in the Northern Midwest.

I will leave you with one last picture. It is of a text book lake effect cloud off in the near distance. It was taken looking east down the road we live on. A thing of beauty if you ask me!

Good night from the Keweenaw..
–JD

My oh my, how quickly things can change. That goes for a lot of places in the mid-latitudes when it comes to weather, but sometimes the changes in the Keweenaw (especially with regards to snow on the ground) can be very dramatic. Such was the case late last week and weekend, with the snows that fell. 

The first flakes started falling around 4 am on Thursday, but ended fairly quickly, as they were associated with an “advance” push of moisture and energy out ahead of the main part of the storm. The main part of the storm’s snows arrived around midday on Thursday and came down lightly at first, but then intensified to the point where we had around 4-5″ by sunset. I did not sleep real well Thursday night, as I was like a kid with a big storm going on…hoping there was no school the next day. I did not get off work, but schools were cancelled on Friday because of the snow and blowing snow. Incredibly, that was the first “snow day” of this season! Typically we do not get too far into December before school is called due to snow and I have seen the first snow day happen in early November.

I did take a few peaks out the window Thursday night and each time I looked, I could see flakes falling in the light of the Woods Cam- which will be fixed soon. However, I did not have anything to reference to in order to gauge how much had fallen. I did bring my tall snow boots over from the shop the evening before, just in case we got enough snow overnight that it would have been deeper than my short boots. It was a good call, as I was very pleasantly surprised when I headed out the front door to walk to the shop at 4 am and found there to be well over a foot of fresh snow!

I did not take any measurements at that time, as I needed to get into my work day, the first act being to check to see what was going on and what was to go on during the day Friday locally, as I fist produce a forecast for some local radio stations and then get into the global weather scene for my other customers, before finishing up the morning’s work updating the website.

School on Friday had actually already been called off for Friday. A pretty rare thing up here to call school for the next day. The Keweenaw locals and, more so the road crews, are quite adapt to handling snow and it takes quite the snow event to call off schools up here. The forecast Thursday afternoon called for snow to fall all night Thursday as well as all day Friday, with falling temps on Friday into the upper single digits and lots of wind. So it was pretty much a no-brainer that school should be called off, but then again, the weather does not always follow the play book! So I was glad to find Friday’s weather to be following the script to the letter!

I finished up my work Friday morning and then headed to the house for a late breakfast. The sun had not risen yet, but there was enough light for me to snap some shots of the newly fallen snow. It’s so cool how a coating of fresh show can bring beauty to just about anything. Behind the shop and kind of between the shop and house sits an old outbuilding. We call it the “red shed” as it is painted red and was used as a shed. The roof has collapsed and it has a severe lean towards the woods, so we plan on dismantling it this summer. Normally it is just an eyesore. Kind of a nostalgic eyesore, but still an eyesore. With the snows covering it and the trees around it, the eyesore part had been diminished greatly. While the house is not an eyesore, I do look forward to the day when we can update it’s look on the exterior. The fresh flocking of the crabapple tree on the side of the house, as well as the thick covering of nature’s frosting made for a very serene and beautiful look. 

My mornings are very busy now, with added work of the SnoScoop videos, so I was not sure if I would be able to clear the snow before my midday updates or after. As it turned out, I was able to move the snow before the midday. I sure do love moving a big dumping of snow with Big Red. It so easily eats into the snow and tosses it aside. Plus I am in a heated cab, listening to my favorite tunes with headphones on. I am not sure exactly why, but Friday mornings clearing was particularly satisfying. Perhaps it was because nothing went wrong! Typically operator error will cause some form of mishap to occur. Some very minor and others a little more complicated to remedy, but I have yet to bring things to a halt for more than a few hours! Anyway, it was just so fun to sit in the cab and guide Big Red and it’s massive blower through the deep snow.

All the Dee’s stayed put on Friday and Friday night. It continued to storm pretty bad and as the temperature dropped into the single digits, the snow was picked up by the wind much more readily, which also decreased visibility. None of us went anywhere during the day on Saturday either, but I did drive to Hancock to meet up with a buddy for dinner. The drive varied as I passed through the differing banding of lake effect snow. At times, I could barely see past my hood and at other times I was afforded the vision of a few hundred yards.

With the heavier snows, the critters- large and small, have all been on the hunt for food. Grace and Nora have been keeping the bird feeders nicely stocked and there always seems to be a few hanging out there. 

Last week, before the snows and cold hit, I moved the new satellite setup from Starlink (cha-ching) to give it a better look at the north sky and it’s performance has improved a bunch. When it was in the yard next to the shop, there were some trees partially blocking it’s view, but now it has a clear line of sight. I ended up putting it on the picnic table to get it off the ground and keep it from getting buried in snow. Good thing, as it would have been buried. Here is a shot of it from Saturday. The snow where the dish is represents what we got from Thursday morning to Saturday afternoon and the deeper stuff to the right of the dish is for the season. We have had more snow than that for the season, but it had melted and settled, so that we only had around 6″ on the ground before this snow cycle started. The dish produces heat somehow. I do not know if it is intended, or just a by-product, but enough heat is produced to keep snow from accumulating on it. When it is near zero out, a bit can accumulate, but still not enough to block the service.

Since the big snows arrived, it is also more pleasurable to look out into the backyard. To me, the yards really are the focal point of where we live. We do have plans to remodel the exterior of the house (as well as interior), but for now, I prefer to look at the yards rather than the house! The only problem with the deeper snow was that it was more difficult for Huck and Kashi to get around. Huck has some really bad joints in the back legs and Kashi has shorter legs. Bleau is like a horse and has no problems! Yet!

Yesterday I decided to take Big Red into the back yard and clear some paths for the dogs. That was a ton of fun too. I was grinding through the entire season’s worth of snow, but Big Red still was able to get through it without hesitation. I did not cut the snow right down to the lawn, but did clear enough to make it easy for the old guy to get around. The only downside was that I had forgotten that I could not bury the cable from the dish to the router in the house, so when I got to that spot, I suddenly saw the cable pop up out of the snow and begin to be pulled into the blower like spaghetti onto a fork. I hit the lever to disengage the blower from the PTO, but it did not stop in time, the cable was cut. Thankfully I was able to splice it back together and it is working just fine! It was a scare though, I’m not gonna lie! Incedentily, that was the reason why I did not write yesterday. I used up most of my free time fixing the cable!

 The game cam has been catching quite a bit of action lately. On Saturday, we had a burst of snow heavy enough to trigger it to take a picture. Also on Saturday it managed to catch a pair of deer doing their yoga exercises and earlier in the week, or friend the canid stopped by to pay a visit. I still cannot tell if it is a coyote or wolf. This latest shot of it looks like a wolf from the ear tips, but a coyote from the muzzle! Perhaps it will come around again and give us a picture that will settle it once and for all.

I guess that about does it for this one. Sure is nice to see the snow deep and getting deeper. We had some sun today, but Calumet north looks to get around 8-12″ tonight and early tomorrow. Might have to take a road trip to see the really deep stuff!

Good Night from the Keweenaw..
–JD

 

The sun is shinning the sun is shinning! Unless you live in the land of grey skies, you just don’t know how wonderful it is to see the sunshine and feel it’s warmth. 

Last Monday, a friend had invited Gracie to go skating on the Portage and we weren’t about to pass that opportunity up, no way no how! Any chance she gets an opportunity to skate, she is on it. The only thing I was not looking forward to was the cold temperatures. What a surprise when we arrived to the lake and the sun was out and shinning bright. There was plenty of warmth behind it and we all soaked it in. The kids would have skated until dark had we let them, but once the sun was setting those cold temps were easily felt. I couldn’t resist the photo opportunity of the beautiful sky and Gracie. Man, are we lucky!

The week was a busy one with Gracie spending the week at home during a cool down from face to face learning. She is a super smart kid but I need to keep her focused on her days at home….she’d spend them goofing all with dad all day if should could. So we are happy that we both will be back in the building for school and work. I just have a feeling that maybe that will be our last “cool down”…or at least I’m hopeful.

Last Saturday I was doing laundry and happened to look out the window facing the backyards and woods, and spotted something….my distant vision is not so good, so I was unsure if it was a small wolf or a coyote. One thing I knew for sure was it had a very bushy tail and it was on the move. John and another neighbor both had seen a small wolf about 1 mile from our house the day before hand. It was spotted separately but around the same time of the day. John said it was small and it also was on the move. As luck would have it, that night we spotted a coyote on the game cam. So I suspect this is the same guy I spotted moving along the fence line during the day. It was fun to see something other than deer and birds on the cam too! 

It’s really interesting how the deer come back to this area….one day there are about 3 deer hanging around and then the very next day you can have a dozen or 2. Yesterday we had the most in the yard to date, and that was 12. They aren’t too interested for some reason in the salt block right now, but they are very interested in my Grandma’s Oregon Holly bush! Of course Bleau and Huck just go nuts the first few times they see them so close to the house. But, by last night Bleau was already settling some and was somewhat calmly watching them from the window. 

It’s now been 2 weeks since we lost our buddy Dune. Gosh I loved that guy and miss him terribly! I will say that we’ve noticed a few things since his passing. The first being…the house is very quiet. We never knew that it was solely him who was so vocal and making the most noise of the bunch! I no longer get a 6 am howl, asking for food. The second BIG thing that has changed is that Kashi is 100% a household dog! She was pretty sad the first day Dune was gone so we had her with us, free range to the entire house. That was something we could only do a few times a day, for shorter period of times with Dune. Although, that was getting better too. That first day she found her favorite spot on the kitchen rug and spent the entire day there. We decided to chance leaving her out of the laundry room all night. We’ve had no accidents and she’s not eaten a single sock 🙂 Every day she gets a little more comfortable and spends a little more time in the living room area. She’s even tolerating Bleau going into the “her” kitchen and walking by her. He’s just not her cup of tea. He wants to play and she does not. So we are really really happy about her being just like all the other dogs, living free ranch day and night. We’ve even left her and Huck alone for a bit and they both came running to the door to greet us. Not much has changed with Huck and Bleau. They still lay around the house all day and pretty much move when there is an opportunity to eat something!    

So the weather man says we need to keep our eyes towards the end of next week for snows to come. Hopefully, this will pan out and the area will get a boost to the economy and we’ll get some extra snow to play in as well.

Good night from the Keweenaw..