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Gonna be a quick write for sure. I am short of events, short of adventures, short of pictures and we all have been short of snow up here. Living down here where the snow totals are always less, it does not even seem like we are living in the Keweenaw. The tiny spits of snow from time to time are not what I am used to. Truth is, it has not been that much different in the big snow area of the high country, only that they have about twice the snow on the ground as we do, so that would make it seem like the Keweenaw.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not complaining. I would love to have more snow, but a few years back I taught myself to just take it all as it comes and be grateful for what we have, rather than get all down on the “what if’s”.

For the month of February so far we have only picked up 7″ of snow. If I extend that back through the last two weeks of January, I would only be adding 11 inches of snow to that seven. 18″ of snow from middle of January through the middle of February? That has to be some kind of a snow-drought record. Amazingly, all the reports I have been getting from snowmobilers visiting the area are that trails are in very good shape. That all can be chalked up to our groomer operators. Just yesterday, one of our groomers counted 917 sleds in his 12 hour shift.

The forecast does not look real promising for big snows either. Maybe 3-5″ this week and not much seen for the weekend or early next week. Wonder if we will get into a snow cycle before we turn the corner towards spring? Only about a month away and we usually start to see the March sun start eating into the snowpack.

The good news is that we still have a whole bunch on the ground up here and no big thaws are seen, so it will just be steady as she goes for a while longer. 

Really not much else going on. I did not take any pictures early in the week and then Thursday and Friday were really too cold and windy to spend much time outdoors, so I am picture less this week.

I have been enjoying working on putting my shop together. It has been a slow process, but I am actually trying to slow things down and do it right the first time. The chances are exceptionally high that this will be the shop that I use the rest of my life and that many of the things I am doing now will not be undone in my lifetime either. The slowing it down is good for me. Many of my past projects were tied into a time frame for one reason or another and thus were done at a pace that does not bode well for perfection or near perfection. So it is nice to be able to stop, re-group and get it right before calling it “done”. I am still probably at least 2-3 weeks away from having a functioning shop, perhaps more, but am really having fun.

I guess that gets you all caught up on things up this way. Perhaps next week will have more excitement for you all! “till then…

Good Night from the Keweenaw..
–JD

 

My apologies for not writing last week, but had some kind of a phantom bug. Not the two that are going around, one being the barf bug and the other the flu, but just felt really tired and even dizzy. So after getting my Sunday work done, I took it easy. Felt better on Monday and then back to “normal” Tuesday.

All in all, I’d say that things are going good up this way. We have been in a pretty good snow drought here in the Keweenaw. We have picked up a few inches here and there, but it has been over 3 weeks since I have measured more than 3″ of snow in a 24 hour period and much of the region is not doing much better. The good news is that we have also not had much melting in the past 3 weeks and our base is still good. The next 10 days looks better for snow. No big storms, but a cold front looks to trail a clipper system on Wednesday and cold, unstable air behind it looks to get the lake going. The lake is basically ice-free, at least from a lake effect producing standpoint, so it will be interesting to see how well it performs. Typically by this time of the year, the lake has enough ice on it to diminish the snow making to some degree and there have been years when it was basically covered with ice. So that is the one upside to the mild winter we have had. Some more light snows are seen for late in the weekend and early next week.

My congrats to southern MN and central WI for getting your snow last night and today. Should make for some good “close to home” snow playing this week. There is more seen for northern IL, the southern 1/3rd of WI and much of lower MI for Wednesday night too. Only the Northwoods of MN and WI look to go without much snow in the next 7 days and then chances for at least 2-5 by early next week. 

Despite the lack of serious snow and cold the past few weeks, the neighborhood has been filling up with deer. Jacobsville is one of the yarding areas for the Keweenaw. There are actually many yarding areas, all of them are in the lower snow areas, where the deer can get around better and forage for food. The DNR and sportsman clubs will donate food to folks living in these areas to feed the deer and I am thinking about getting into one of those programs next year.

As many of you noticed, the woods cam was down for most of the week. A little issue with the reboot of the PC that runs it, but I got it squared away yesterday and just in time, as the deer are loving the food coming out of the feeder and there seems to be at least a few there at all times, even though the feeder only dispenses food four times a day. This morning, Nora and I watch a bunch there and there was quite a bit of tussling going on. If you ever check the cam and see a deer up on it’s hind legs, it is “boxing” or fighting another deer. Here is a shot I took about an hour ago, as I was getting ready to start this entry.

This past week was Michigan Tech’s Winter Carnival week. The statue building for some had been going on for several weeks and then they also have an “all nighter” event, in which the statue has to be entirely built in just one night. Nora, Gracie and I went down to campus on Thursday to check out all the hard work. It was one of the nicer days, weather wise, for viewing that we have ever had. Seems like more times than not, it is bitterly cold and windy. Might have something to do with the fact that it is always early February and we live in the UP!

Anyway, our routine is to park in the parking lot near the memorial union and then walk around campus, taking in the statues. We did not stray from that routine this year and one of the first statues we came upon was a dinosaur with a cannon and turret on top. Seems a bit odd, but let me explain. The dinosaur was because this years theme was prehistoric. The turret/cannon was because the statues were built by the ROTC program. Another one we came across was a cool rendition of a dino skeleton. Done by the Pavlis Honors College at Tech. 

A common theme among many of the statues was the movie “Ice Age” There were many statues done with the mastodon, saber tooth tiger and even the acorn cracking the ice. Here was one that was in that theme. Of all the statues on campus, there was one that Gracie and I liked the best. It was not made of snow, but we did pose by it for a selfie.

After viewing the campus statues, we headed across the bridge to the Phi Kappa Tau house in Hancock. It had one both the overall best statue and the best in the men’s division and word had it that was not one to miss. Upon arrival in the area of the fraternity house, we were met with a bit of a traffic jam. Apparently we were not the only ones that were headed to view it. We parked across the street in their parking lot and jaws dropped when we first set eyes on the “statue”. I used parentheses because it was not a single statue, but as you can see, it was an entire village made of statues. 

The pictures do not really do it justice, but I urge you to back to the last shot and just slowly look over it, observe all that is going on. The bigger statues grab your eyes first, but there has to be dozens of objects made of snow and ice in it. I did take some close ups of some of the finer details in the village. Here are some fish smoking over an open fire. Here is a parrot, notice the axe and pickeroon in the background, as well as the details of the two men. They even managed to make a bowl out of ice and some kind of an animal skull. It kind of looks like a longhorn cattle skull, but not sure if they were around in pre-historic days!

I too was busy this past week with my own ice work, but it was of a different nature. Cold temps allowed me to finally get the ice rink in our backyard in decent shape. It is not 100% done, there is one small spot that needs some patch work and one corner that needs to have more ice made in it, but about 90% of the rink is about as good as outdoor ice can get.

Gracie is really into a lot of things and one of them is the moon and stars. Se informed me that this Saturday was the full moon and I happened across an article on the web that mentioned the full moon in February is the “Snow Moon”. So it was decided we would celebrate the Snow Moon with a bonfire and skating party. We invited my brother and our friends from the Jacobsville area over for the fun. We have developed such good friends down here in Jake and it makes it extra special that they have girls that are Gracie’s age. The evening was good for the party as well, with temps around 20 and no wind. Most of the party actually took place indoors, but we did keep warm hanging out around the fire while we watched the girls perform an ice skating show they put together that day.

I was the last one in after all the skating was done and when I came into the mud/utility room, I saw all the snow pants, boots and winter jackets strewn on the floor. This is not a practice that we allow Gracie to do in regular instances, but when I came in and saw all of this winter garb laying on the floor, I could not help but smile and feel a very warm feeling in my heart, knowing that some lifetime memories were made. That’s what it is all about.

Good night from the Keweenaw..
–JD

That is the theme to the snow this past week. I am not complaining, I will take snow of any kind over rain or freezing rain and quiet frankly, given the pseudo-El Nino going and the upper air pattern it has presented to much of the US, I am even more grateful. 

Most of the northern Midwest should be grateful too. It was not the best snow to play in, but it could have just as easily been rain and destroyed the snow pack across much of the northern Midwest. We picked up around 8″ of snow since Wednesday and some of the higher terrain picked up even more. 

I do feel sorry for the folks that made the trek up here to ride this weekend. We had nearly perfect conditions last weekend and through most of this week and then the warmer temps and traffic took their toll. It was too warm to run the groomers Saturday, so that was the worst day by far. They have gone out since and trails are coming back around. While daytime highs still look to be fairly mild this week, they will be staying in the 20’s and overnight lows look to be in the low 20’s, so grooming will be going full steam ahead and will also hold.

On Friday, I walked out onto the ice rink in the back yard and nervously scraped the snow off it with my boot. I was worried that the warm temps and wet snow had done some damage to it. I did keep the snow on purposely so that it might protect the rink from any non-frozen precip we might get. None of that came, with all falling as snow, but was pleased to see the ice was good underneath. So I fired up Big Red and cleared the snow. A little later that afternoon Grace and my Brother laced them up and took to the ice for some hockey. Initially they just passed it around and my brother gave Grace some good tips on handling the stick and puck. Then it was on to a quick little game. Poor Gracie had a stick that was too short for her, so my brother let her use his, but it was a little too long, so we will be looking for a relatively inexpensive wooden one to cut down. Despite the stick issues and the fact that she had never played ice hockey before, she did quite well and watching the two of them have so much fun was worth all the hours put into the rink. I can’t wait to get out on the rink with Grace tomorrow afternoon when she gets home from school. 

Saturday was the annual Keweenaw Snowmobile Club’s bonfire. The weather was quite agreeable, with temps in the low 30’s and a steady snow falling all day. The big hit of the event was one of our PistenBully groomers. Folks were able to climb up into the cab and check things out. A little later in the day they popped open the “hood” and the rear deck so that folks could get a look at the power plant and all the other parts that make these pieces of machinery do their thing. We put on a pretty good spread of grub too, with hot dogs, brats, chips, hot and cold drinks and some home made desserts, including two marvelous cakes. 

Today, the Dee’s enjoyed a nice breakfast, which included some natural, organic maple syrup courtesy of our neighbors down the road that make and sell it. Once they have their supply all re-stocked, I will be sure to let you all know how to get it, as it was THE BEST maple syrup I have ever had. I have to admit that I have tried many different brands and never really preferred them to the gunk you get from the name brands. However, this stuff was so good, I don’t want to go back, but for the next 2 months I will have to, as we have just the one bottle.

Anyway, after that, I did my usual Sunday work for my other meteorological services and then we all went for a walk in the woods and road. Before heading out, I grabbed the “good camera” so that I would be better equipped for any photo opportunities. Funny how when I have the SLR, I suddenly feel compelled to take a lot of pics. When I am with just my cell phone, it seems like I will just pass by them and not bother to stop and take a pic. The SLR also can take pics that the phone can’t, so that plays a role in the shot taking amount. Anyway, the rest of this entry will be short on writing, but long on pics.

We started out around the house. Our bird feeder is extremely popular with the local chickadee crowd. Many of the other types of birds do not even over winter up here, including our state bird…go figure. I spotted one in the tree and snapped this shot before it flew off. A little lower in the tree, I spotted another beautiful chickadee and snapped a picture of it. Before I left, yet a third beauty showed up and I was luck enough to capture a picture!

Up high in a Norway maple in our front yard sits a nest. It is not being used and I am interested to see if come spring it gets re-used. I have no idea what type of bird built it either. Just across the driveway is a string of fir trees and these two pine cones clinging to a snow flocked branch caught my eye.

Around the back side of the house we then went and I thought you all might get a kick out of this old wheel or perhaps pulley hanging on the back of the garage shop. Reaching the back of the yard, I turned to take a picture of the house, as I don’t remember sharing with you that view.

Grace never struggles with fun things to find to do. She just makes the most out of any situation she is in and fully loves the outdoors. This shot is just one example of the things she does while we are out on a family walk. Others are climbing trees, or using blow downs as a balance beam…and the list goes on! What is a family adventure in the woods without a family selfie, right? The deer seem to be growing in numbers as the winter progresses. No surprise at all, I just was expecting them to start showing up in big numbers sooner. In any case, their routes through the woods are very well marked by their prints in the snow.

The second part of walk was done on the road. Not much of a difference in the beauty seen or quietness either. Just better footing, although our road does not get plowed every day, but is taken care of very well when there is enough snow to make travel difficult. Gracie switched from walking to riding once we hit the road. She discovered that she can ride her bike in the winter and snow, as long as the surface is firm enough. She did very well riding her bike in the snow and I may even have to take a shot at it, as long as it is not too cold!

Huck always likes to get ahead of the pack and blaze the trail, even when we are just walking down the road. He is still getting around very well for his age and ailments, but is smart enough to take a load off when he has to wait while we are stopped and fiddle for a while. Just down the road from us is the Jacobsville Community Center. Home of “coffee hour” every Sunday evening after the evening church service near by. There are also monthly meetings of the Jacobsville Community and bingo every Wednesday evening in the summer and early autumn. This time of year, it quietly sits in the snow, waiting for the feet and voices of the Jacobsville community to fill it’s halls. It will be nice to have the seasonal residents back in the area. I was just getting to know many of them before they headed off to warmer climates for the winter. Although I am also fully enjoying the solitude that winter brings to Jacobsville too!

That about does it for this one, time to ride back to the garage, relax for the evening and get ready for another week!

Good night from the Keweenaw..
–JD

Things are looking like January in the Keweenaw! A storm on Wednesday night and early Thursday brought anywhere from 8-12″ to the region and even shut down schools. It was not so much the falling snow as much as it was the blowing snow and the timing of the worst conditions (right at the time the buses would be picking up and transporting kids) that shut things down for the day. It was only the second snow day for the season up here and I think it gave a nice break for both teachers and kids. In the past, we have had as many as 4-6 snow days by this time of the season.

The second storm hit Friday night and continued through yesterday and is currently trying to wind down, but with the big lake still basically wide open, the flakes have been stubborn to stop. Totals with this second storm ranged from around 10-17″. We had the 10″ down here in the banana belt and the 17″ came in from Kearsarge, which is a stones throw from where we used to live.

It was nice to get all the fresh snow. Not that things were getting all that dingy, but I really like it when the trees are flocked and the snow on the ground is pristine.

I took Huck for a walk on Friday after the first storm and before the second one. He is still getting around very well and loves it when we go for walks, so I am trying to fit it into my schedule as much as possible. Even if it is just a short one. This one was a bit longer, about a mile or so, down to the old boat launch. It was so quiet and peaceful and the view before me magnificent, so I did my best to capture it in this panorama. The funny thing about that last shot is that if you did not know any better, you would think I took it on a corner of the road, but because the shot covers 180 degrees, it is actually the same road!

This next shot was taken Saturday late in the morning, just after I had cleared the snow off the driveway and was heading to the backyard to clear the rink. I have really been slacking on the front of house shot this season. It used to fit very nicely in with my schedule and now it is not in the way, but I just keep forgetting to take it! Anyway, consider that your front of house shot update!

Many of you probably noticed the fact that the banks of snow on the driveway were not very large. There are a number of reasons for that. First is that we just do not get as much snow as where we used to live. Probably only around 50% on average. Another big reason I have discovered is that the ground was still fairly warm and also very wet when we started to pile it up the day before Thanksgiving. The snow to fall on that warm and wet ground has insulated it and kept it from freezing much. In fact, if you were to go to a spot where the snow as undisturbed and dig down to the ground, you would likely find it still unfrozen. This has been melting the snowpack here. I discovered this when I did dig down to bare ground and also when I looked at the snow piled up on the picnic table in the backyard. That snow is undisturbed, but has also not had any melting done to it by the ground below. I did not take a direct measurement, but would estimate it to be around 38-40″ deep.

We had some friends come over on Saturday to visit and also to let the kids play together. It is the same families that have the girls that are Graces age and are all very good friends, parents and kids. I had gotten a fire going on Friday and burned most of the wood in the house, so Grace took it upon herself to go get another load so that we could have a fire after skating and get warmed up. 

The skating went pretty well. The rink was not yet to the point where I would have called it done, but was good enough for them to have some fun on for the afternoon. Then we all went inside to get warm and the girls had fun drinking hot chocolate by the fire while they played some games. Days like that are the fondest memories I have from my childhood and I am go grateful that I can provide her them like my parents provided for me.

The pups have been enjoying the new snow. As mentioned, Huck is still getting around very good and he and Bleau love to play with each other out in the snow. Bleau’s youth and long legs affords him a few steps on Huck, but he usually makes some turns and allows Huck to stay close and even catch him from time to time. Bleau also loves to fetch a tennis ball. Yesterday we started out with two and it did not take long for both of them to get lost in the fresh snow. He did manage to find them a few times they were buried, when he popped his head up out the snow the first time, I cracked up at all the snow sticking to his hair and got my camera ready for the next time so I could share it all with you.

Today was spent moving the few inches of snow that fell overnight and then I got to putting a few more floods on the rink. It is getting dangerously close to being done. Crazy to think I have been working on it for about a month and a half. Now that we are so close, I am glad that I did not throw in the towel a few weeks ago when things seemed to be at a standstill. I just finished putting a flood on it before coming over to write this entry. I snapped this shot to show you just how close it is. Hard to believe that just a week and a day ago, this is what it looked like.

Just one announcement this week. Next Saturday, the Keweenaw Snowmobile Club will be having it’s annual bonfire and cookout. There will be hot dogs, brats, chips, hot and cold drinks and some desert items. All are free and we are hoping if you are up this way, you will make it a point to stop by. The bonfire will held at the Trailside Lodge, right on the trail just north of Calumet. Things will get started at 11 am and run until 2 pm. Please stop by, it would be great to see you!

Good night from the Keweenaw..
-JD