No worries, all is well. Were suppose to be in sunny Florida right now. Obviously that is a no go, but I am still taking time off. So will write next Sunday. Stay well my friends. You all are in our thoughts and prayers.
Good night from the Keweenaw..
–JD
As much as I wanted to refrain from referencing the events currently affecting our country and our world, I guess it is nearly impossible to do so. It sure has been an interesting week to say the least. The true nature of humans has been brought to light. Some go into raw survival mode very quickly, while others laugh and try to convince others and themselves that this is nothing…just another day ending in “y”. Others practice a watchful, but calm attitude and others toss their own concerns aside and concentrate on what they can do for others. I have no criticism for any of these groups. In my opinion, the variation is exactly what makes us human and different from many other living forms populating this planet.
As far as how the local community is handing things, it has been my observation that some of each group mentioned above exists here. The local Walmart and some other stores in the Houghton/Hancock area have had runs on certain items. I still have not heard why toilet paper has been the hot item, but that was one item that was picked clean from the shelves late this week. I believe it has been replenished, but when I went to the grocery store in Calumet, it was business as usual. Shelves were as fully stocked as they ever are and they did have a special display of TP as you first walked in, but it was about as bare as the special display of tortilla chips they had right next to it.
I have to admit that I was quite pleased and also proud to be living in an area that was practicing measured and calm actions to what is going on. I will also admit that I did buy a package of 12 rolls of TP, but we truly were running low and had it been the last role, I would have likely left it for someone that I hoped needed it more than us. Before you think I am trying to toot my own horn, one thing that did make the move and probably could not have just as easily, is a 35 gallon garbage bag of old socks, shirts and other cotton garments that I use in the shop for finishing and cleaning. That would have been an easy 2 month supply for us, more had we needed to wash and reuse!
The other actions going on up here mirror those in the rest of the nation. Michigan Tech has gone to online classes only. The kindergarten through grade 12 schools have suspended classes through April 5th. The week of April 15-21 was spring break.
All sporting events have been canceled or postponed and most other events that brought more than around 25 people together have been canceled or postponed.
It will be interesting to see how things progress going forward. I suspect that the US is really just in the early stages of cases. However, I also believe that the restrictions being put in place will help to keep the spread from going as far as it did in other countries. I have been doing some reading on the events in other countries and in all cases, once restrictions on gatherings were put in place, the spread of the virus declined significantly.
I had a pretty quiet week and there were no notable events to capture on “film”, so I have no pictures to share. We did get some snows on Thursday. It started out as rain, but changed to snow around midday and then came down as “snow bombs” for several hours. I call them snow bombs, as the flakes were 3-4″ in diameter. A sign that they were formed in a relatively warm and very high moisture environment that allowed the edges of the flakes to be sticky and have other flakes stick to them, as well as to grow in size themselves. It sure did whiten everything up again, as it was also very sticky as it fell and stuck to everything here at the surface.
Much of it has since melted, but we look to pick up an inch or two from late tonight through tomorrow and probably a bit more later this week. So anyone still wanting to ride will have plenty of snow to do so on up here. I cannot promise the roads will be covered, as the sun is getting stronger and stronger and is much more apt to melt the snow, but once on the trail, you will be dandy.
I had thought that once my finger becomes less sensitive to banging it, I would try and sneak in a ride, but it extremely sensitive to the cold. Just a few minutes in even 30 degree weather makes it feel like it is on fire. It is still too swollen and sensitive to put a glove on as well. So I think it is safe to say my season is over for sure. I may even sell this sled and look for something more fitting for my riding style these days, so shoot me an e mail if interested. It is a 2012 M8, 153″. It also has the EZ Ryde curve suspension and I have a set of SLP skis as well as the stock skis.
So I guess that is it for this one. Have a great week and stay healthy all!
Good night from the Keweenaw..
–JD
Since last weeks entry was titled: “The beginning of the end” and the weather we have experienced in the past 4-5 days, I think it is appropriate to call this one what I did. Things were quiet and temperate on Wednesday, Thursday we got some snow, Friday cool, but quiet and then mild and sunny yesterday and today. That is about as typical as the first week or so of “spring weather” gets up this way. For some areas, it is the greening of grass, or the opening of leaves, or maybe even the return of a type of bird or other animal. Nope, up here the ending of winter and thus beginning of spring typically has some snow, some rain, some sun and temps all over the road.
In all honesty, if one were to ask me, I would say that the first day of summer is when the leaves are all open. The grass has already turned green and the hearty flowers are already up and open, but for what ever reason, the trees are the last to take on their summer look. It will be interesting to see when all of that happens where we live now. Back in the high country, you could almost set your calendar to it. The final week in May is when the majority of the trees had filled out their canopy. Lake Linden was around 5-7 days earlier. I suspect we will be at least 10 days earlier, if not 2 weeks. That will sure be an upside, as I do not like when the trees are bare and there is no snow on the ground.
Anyway, I do have some pictures to share with you this week. The first two are of the snow on Thursday. The storm sure gave some the fits, trying to figure out what it was going to do. On Wednesday, the call was for around 2-4″ to fall. We all then woke up Thursday morning to a winter storm warning, with 5-9″ and a lot of wind expected. Most areas ended up with 4-5″, although there were some spots that did pick up 6″+. The snow started a bit later than expected and that allowed the local schools to go to 1 pm and then let out early. A good thing, because by the time the buses would have been running, it was coming down pretty good and the winds were howling. 42 mph at the airport and 48 at Copper Harbor. This was the scene of the shop during the period of heavier snow Thursday late afternoon and here is a shot of the house when it was coming down even heavier.
It sound weird to say and felt even more weird to feel, but it was refreshing to see the snow fall! I sure have not lost my love of it and was kind of sad when it tapered off in the late evening. I did not even bother moving it. Friday was a sunny, but chilly one, with a high only in the upper teens. Little snow melted that day. Here is a shot of the drive way to the shop Friday afternoon.
We then hit 50 yesterday with tons of sun and the same is happening today. So most of that Thursday snow is gone and the sun and mild temps are doing their work on the stuff that is left over from the winter. Here is a shot of Huck living and loving the sunshine yesterday around 1:45 in the afternoon. Here he is a few hours later as the sun was getting lower in the sky and things were starting to re-freeze.
The melting of the snow is starting the annual spring reveal. Nope, not of new cars or truck or some new fashion for the gals, just things that were buried in the snow the past few months. Some things are still buried, while others are still stuck. All of the trees in the background of this shot were bent over by our big storm the day before Thanksgiving and have been that way ever since. It will be interesting to see if they straighten back up to where they were, or if they will still retain some kind of a bend in them. Others were not able to bend as much as asked by the storm and broke. With the shrinking snow cover, I have been able to get back to take a look at a clump of large cedars that fell during that storm. This one was about 18″ in diameter, which is quite large for a northern white cedar. All of the fallen cedars will make great fence posts from the thinner tops and thicker, lower branches. The thicker part of the lower trees will make some great cedar boards. I already plan to make some shelves out of them for our closets.
Today the entire clan, dogs and all, hung out in the back yard, soaking up the sunshine. Nora and I did put a few things into the storage shed that did not make it in before the pre-Thanksgiving day storm. Grace has been climbing onto the roof of the shed for the past few months and even built a bit of a fort up there. The snow ate away most of her fort, so today she decided to get up there and shovel it off. No real need to, but she said she was having fun. Joy to my ears! I have a roof shoveler daughter!
It’s funny how the warmer weather and sunshine just puts so much energy into us all. We all have been doing more, not just more outside. Today Nora went for morning walk with a friend. She checked out some of the places on the lake that our friends own. They all survived the high water and storms this winter. We are almost done with high wave season along the shoreline. So that will be good news for our friends. While out at the lake, they spotted a “Paper Cub”. It is actually a Piper Cub. A little two seat aircraft. The paper comes in from the fact that they are skinned with a fabric that was somewhat like paper, rather than the aluminum of a traditional aircraft. How do I know this? My dad used to them way back in the day and called them “Paper Cubs”. 🙂
About the only other main activity this week has been to continue to work in the shop. I got more things put into their place early in the week and then Thursday got lighting into the woodshop area. Just two 4 foot LED’s for now, but they provide ample light for what I need to do right now. Friday was a pretty bid deal for me. Way back in October when I was moving everything into the shop and looked at the complete mess I had and all the work ahead of me, my only thought was that I was looking very forward to the day when I got to doing my restoration of the cast iron tables on the bigger woodworking machinery that rusted while in storage this summer and fall. Friday was the day I restored the first table. It was my main table saw and was chosen because it is my main work horse out of all the machines that need to be re-furbished. I really had a great time listening to tunes and going through all the stages to get it back to looking like new. It started with a wire wheel on a drill to get into the miter slots in the table. Then the main surface started with 60 grit sandpaper. I went through 5 more grits of sand paper, ending at 440. Then switched to rubbing compound like one might use on a vehicle and ended with paste wax applied with 0000 steel wool. That was buffed out and the table looked like new.
The next machine will be the other table saw. It was in the worst shape, so I would like to get it cleaned up so that none of that rust finds it’s way deeper into the iron. 5 more machines after that and I will have a shop full of shiny cast iron machines! I still need to wire up my main table saw and plan to do that this week. I need a circuit breaker that I can only get at a building supply in Hancock and am going that way Wednesday afternoon, so it will have to wait until Thursday to be energized. Once it is, the shop will be functional enough that I can do most of what I need to do, so that will also be a fairly meaningful point in this shop construction.
For those wanting to come up and play in the snow. I would say that you probably have at least one week left to do so. Be aware that all the roads are free of snow and there are likely some thin spots on some of the trails, but still plenty of snow on the ground and the temps do not look to be warm enough to do major melting. Beyond that? Well, we will just have to wait until next week to make that call!
Good night from the Keweenaw..
–JD
While the title of this week’s entry might sound prophetic, it really is pretty standard procedure this time of the year in most snow seasons. Sure March has provided some whopper snow storms and this one might just pull that our of the hat, but March is typically the time of the year where the stronger sun starts to eat into the snowpack. Even with big dumps, a few days of sunshine and temps near freezing can eat most of the new snow away and leave the old, dull stuff standing against the elements.
The true beginning of the end typically is more towards mid-March, but because we have been relatively snow free for over 6 weeks, this year it seems to be happening sooner. The weekend provided beautiful weather for all of us in the Keweenaw that have seen snow on the ground since before Thanksgiving, but also ate into the snowpack across the region. I lost around 5-6″, while some others look to have lost nearly a foot.
There is still plenty of snow to play in, so folks should not be thinking of tossing in the towel as far as coming up here to snow play. The same can e said for many UP locations in the lake snow belts, even some outside of the LES belts.
As far as happenings up here, most of the locals seem to be pleased that we have reached March and can see light at the end of the tunnel as far as true winter weather goes. Although it also seems like most are nervously watching over their shoulder for potential trouble!
The CopperDog Sled-dog race happened this past weekend. I was planning to join Grace and Nora work a crossing near Lake Linden with some friends, but Huck had an upset stomach Friday morning and it worried me so that I just decided to stay home with him to keep him from feeling any stress. Bleau was spending the night with some co-workers of Nora to get him get more acclimated for when we might be out of town and cannot have him come with us.
From what I have heard, the race went well and without any major incidents. The weather was nearly ideal, with the exception of possibly getting a bit too warm for the dogs on Sunday. I believe that this may have been the only race I have missed since it’s inception. There have been a few years where I went to the race’s start on Friday and flew out to snowmobile in Wyoming on Saturday and there were many years where we manned a crossing all on our own.
Not much else is going on. My finger is healing slowly but surely. It still has a constant dull pain and at times it feels like it is on fire and other times throbs pretty bad, but overall, each day is a little better than the last. I did go into see the Dr about it last Tuesday and he said it looked to be healing well and have a return visit scheduled for tomorrow. Regardless, I believe my snowmobile season ended before it could even start. Yep, this will be the first season in my history of living here that I did not ride and first time since 1991 that I did not ride here! Pretty good streak I’d say.
I have not been letting my finger injury keep me from working on the shop. I did take Monday and Tuesday of last week off, but after speaking to the Dr about any limitations was back at it Wednesday. I have made very good progress and with the help of a friend Wednesday and then Nora and another friend yesterday, I now have all my big machinery in place. Now I just need to put some of them fully back together, get power running to them as well as some lights in the shop and I will be in business!
It really is hard to believe that it is already March! Seems like just a few weeks ago, it was early January. I have a feeling that March will fly by and the mud month will be upon us. No worries, I will have plenty to do in the shop and office to keep me from going stir crazy.
Well, I guess that covers it for this one, even though it is 10 am, I am going to stick with tradition.
Good night from the Keweenaw..
–JD
Well, I guess there’s only a few ways to get a “guest” writer and losing part of your finger is one of them. Poor John, he just had some really bad luck on this one. For those of you who may have missed the announcement and pictures, John had some heavy equipment fall on his fingers resulting in amputation of part of his middle finger on his left hand. He’s really getting along very well considering. He’s had times of alot of pain but I think those times are getting fewer and fewer…thankfully! Gracie and I were at a figure skating camp for the day in Iron Mountain when we rec’d the call. I’m so thankful that our good friend and neighbor Lisa was around and able to get him to the ER. Living where we do, we are very fortunate to have made many great friends. So Lisa transported him very quickly to the hospital. Since John is on blood thinners that was really my main concern. He had some skin cancer removed last Thursday and even with internal and external stitches, he still had SO much bleeding! So I was really worried that he would lose alot of blood, quickly. But, thankfully that was not the case. The doctor said that he had so much adrenaline in his body, therefore he didn’t have much bleeding. Pretty amazing! While Gracie was skating there were many calls and texts to see what the plan would be for John. There wasn’t a hand specialist on call at Marquette or Wausau aspirus so the decision was made to amputate. Which we felt really was the best solution long term. With John’s heart problems and being on blood thinners any sort of extra surgery just aren’t the best for him. So the plan was amputate and then he could go home. Gracie and were able to finish up the skating and then we headed home just in time to pick him up from the hospital. He’s bandaged up a bit and still smiling! Not to down play it, but once you’ve had a couple open heart surgeries, a few other heart surgeries etc. losing a bit of the finger is nothing for John Dee!
The deer continue to hang around. We’ve had an addition of one solo tom turkey as well. He comes earlier in the morning and hangs out around the yard and woods for most of the day. He’s been enjoying the bird seed from the feeder and driving Bleau crazy. The deer are mostly still Bleaus “friends” and most times they just stare at each other. Speaking of Bleau he’s really been doing lots of great things at the school. There was a tragedy at a local school and he spent Friday in that school with or SSW. Sounds like he did real well and was able to make a difference that day for the students. That is the first time he’s “worked” out of his own school environment so it was a pretty big deal for him. He’s really a smart and funny dog. When I’m busy working and he feels like getting my attention he’ll nudge things at my desk just to see if he’ll get a rise out of me. On valentine’s day a cupcake arrived and I put it on my desk. As you can see he is so tall he’s the perfect height to eyeball anything on my desk. We don’t feed him real food except for oranges, apples, cucumbers and that sort of food. John picked up the best oranges at the local store and we’ve started a new tradition of sorts to enjoy the juicy goodness in the afternoon together. Much healthier than what he snagged off the kitchen counter. Little bugger!
Gracie has been busy with school, piano and as mentioned skating. Our weeks seem to be jam packed but it does help to get through the winter. I do love winter but it can get a little long after awhile. So the extra time at the rink sure makes the winter fly by. Gracie had a special eye test this week to try to determine why she see “dots”. She’s been seeing them since Kindergarten. She has a reading level of a HS student so the dots don’t interfere with her reading or learning but it really bothers her that she didn’t have a reason for seeing them. So her eye Dr. decided to do a special eye test. Thankfully there weren’t any serious problems. She did look super cool in her testing equipment…a little steampunk don’t you say?
Today we headed over to my brothers cabin. He purchased a place just down the road from us. Gracie has been riding her bike for a few weeks and with the beautiful weather we have had the last 4 days, she didn’t waste an opportunity to get on her bike and head over to the cabin with us. As we approached the neighborhood many deer came from a near by neighbors home, ran across the street in front of her and then back into the other yards. At point she had to stop as the deer were running right out in front of her. As you can see the warm temps have the roads bare in spots and muddy in others. She was pretty covered in mud by the time we returned home. John and I am just so blessed to have this little person who enjoys being outside and exploring and enjoying life! Even when she does give me the “what you talking about Willis”? face.
Gracie was actually going to help write this entry with me. But she’s reading “the best book ever” and who I am to put a damper on that.
Let’s see..what else? I know the snow loving people, which I consider myself to be as well, really are bumming about no new snow of late. But, I for one really am loving this sunshine. People are happier, they have a little more bounce in their step and that really is nice to see. Winters can be long and tough on the folks up here and working in any sort of service job you can really notice it. The sun comes out and everyone is simply kinder. That’s the best part of a little break in the grey days.
All this nice weather has me really itching about gardening! I haven’t fully decided what I’ll do for this year. The long term goal would be to have the large raised beds like we had in Mohawk. They were a bit pricey to make and fill so with needing a full fence in the backyard for the dogs, it will need to wait until next summer. So my dilemma is should I do some square foot gardens or straw bale gardens? There are pros and cons to both. The biggest con to the straw bale is that you can’t find straw around here. Which from what I’ve heard and read hay would work but not as nicely as straw. The other con of that is it would be a totally new form of gardening for me. Gardening brings me so much peace and relaxation that I don’t want to blow it whatever I decide. Of course there is also the option of tilling the space that my grandmother had her garden all those years ago. Which is a very sentimental thought but I really want to get my garden up and going this year. I suppose I’ll think on it a little longer since there is still time.
So here is my journal for the year 🙂
Good night from Jacobsville!