Category: Uncategorized

Sorry for my absence. Sunday last week was Christmas eve and my family and I were down visiting “Grandma” in southern WI and I figured I would get a free pass on that one! Sunday I was busy sleeping so I could stay up to midnight! Actually, I did take a little nap, then went to some friends house and came home around 10:30. Then we all settled into the living room to watch the “ball drop”. I promised Gracie that I would do my best to make it to midnight, but made no further promises. I did fade off a few times, but never into a deep sleep. I looked over at Gracie and Nora cuddling in the chair together and both were out. At around 5 minutes to midnight, I looked over again and Nora was awake, so we both woke Gracie up and we all got to watch the ball drop and rang in the new year with some non-alcoholic bubbly and then all fell asleep withing minutes of letting our heads hit the pillow. I did start to write yesterday, but for some reason, my method of transferring photos from my camera to my PC did not work. I worked on that for a bit and then gave up around 5 pm so I could make my famous (with my family) BBQ chicken. By the time dinner was done, it was too late for this old boy to write. So here I am!

I realize that most of you do not need me to give my reasons for not writing, but I just wanted to let you all know that myself and family are all very healthy, happy and Nora and Gracie are wise and that I do take my writing duties seriously. I get so many compliments from visitors to the site and can identify with that, as I have had fun following others via the web or other media that I really do want to sit down and share the happenings in the Keweenaw with you all.

Despite the fact that it has been over 2 weeks since I last wrote, I don’t have a ton to share and am a little pressed for time, as I need to get over to Gracie’s ice skating lessons in about 90 minutes and then have to preside over our snowmobile club meeting for the month of January. Speaking of our club. We are again raffling off a barrel sauna as a fundraiser. You can go to the website to purchase tickets as well as look for the fliers in businesses up here and they will be selling tickets. We also are having our first annual bonfire on February 3rd at the Trailside Lodge just outside of Calumet. It will run from 11 to approximately 3 pm. We will have a nice big fire going to warm you up, free hot dogs/brats, pop, chips, coffee, hot chocolate and some sweets. We also hope to have one of our groomers there so you call can get a close up look at one of them. So please swing by and say hi! I would love to see you all!

So as mentioned, Nora, Gracie, the pups and I headed south for the Christmas Holiday. We left Friday morning the 22nd and returned on the 26th. The weather for the drive down was wonderful and things for the drive back were good, except for the final 80-90 miles or so. If you have forgotten, the 26th was a pretty chilly day in the Midwest. The temp in southern WI when we left was around 6 below and we remained in below zero temps all the way through the entire state and into the southern UP. The temp finally climbed to 2 above when we entered the Houghton area. So we had to drive approximately 400 miles north to warm up!

Usually when the temps are that cold, the skies are clear and that was the case from southern WI all the way into the southern UP. Then as we approached the southern side of Bruce Crossing, the clouds associated with the lake effect that had been pounding the western UP LES belts started to appear. A somewhat ominous sign, but we pressed on. After passing through Bruce and heading a bit further north, the clouds drew closer, but it was still not snowing and the roads were still pretty good. The snow depth was a bit deeper, but still around a foot or less at that point. A little further up the highway the clouds completely obscured the sky and flakes began to fly. It was not snowing heavily, but the snow depth was noticeably deeper.

As we approached and passed through Mass City, the snow was coming down a bit heavier, the roads were freshly snow covered and the depth on the sides of the road were quite deep. The snow coating the trees was also much more prevalent by the time we were to that point, showing that snow had been falling previously to our arrival and at a pretty decent clip. Not long after turning onto M-26 past Mass City, the visibility dropped significantly due to the snow falling. The road was completely snow covered and the banks on the side of the road were quite big. Keep in mind that the distance traveled between the shot with the blue skies and the one with near white-out conditions was only about 20 miles and the time was only around 20 minutes. Further up the highway, we arrived in Twin Lakes. By that time, the visibility was down to less than an 8th of a mile and EVERYTHING was blanketed in around 3 feet of fresh snow!

Thinking back to our travels through WI and the southern UP, where the sun was shining, the roads were clear and a modest 8-10 inches of snow lay on the ground, it was as if we had been transported to a completely different place on earth. In reality, we had just traveled around 40 miles! It came down heavily all the way to Houghton and Hancock and then let up a bit as we got on top of Quincy Hill just beyond Hancock. Still snowing, but not as heavily, we arrived home to lots of fresh snow since we had left, but not like we had seen further south in places like Twin Lakes, Toivola and Painesdale.

It has since snowed almost non-stop since we got home. I suppose there may have been a few hours without snow, but for the past 12 days, the flakes have been flying pretty much non-stop. No question we are off to a great start up here. Looking around at all the snow up here, it is almost hard to believe it is only January 2nd, as things look more like mid-February when we have usually hit our apex for snow cover.

The snows have been so ambitious to fly that we have had some pretty decent snow shower activity occur with nearly clear skies. Thursday evening I had to run out to the shop for something and it was snowing pretty good. When I returned to the house, I looked up to see the moon shinning brightly!

On Saturday early afternoon, we had one of those temporary lulls in the snow. It did snow pretty good in the morning and by around 1 pm, the next round of lake snow was gathering off to our west. Here is a shot of some rather ominous looking lake effect clouds off to the west of us. Not as ominous looking as a severe thunderstorm, but as lake effect clouds go, that was pretty nasty looking. Or perhaps awesome looking- all depends on your love of lake effect snow I guess!

The snows did hit and it came down pretty good for the afternoon. I had thought about riding both Friday and Saturday, but things just got too busy and I decided to hold off. I did partner up with my friend John and his son Jacob and together with Gracie we did some riding in our woods Saturday afternoon. Mostly just the kids, but it is so fun to watch them tool around on their 120’s. Gracie was all excited to wear her new helmet and jacket and stood out well with the neon pink and yellow.

So I guess that about covers it for this one. The snow is very deep for this time of the year up here. I have a big old curled over drift I need to knock down from the empty woodshed. I sure don’t miss having to go out into the cold to load wood 2 times a day! I am pretty surprised that I have not gone out riding yet! It has been pretty cold and the great snows have only been around since a week or two before Christmas, so I was pretty busy. The next round of arctic air is headed our way as I type, so I will not be riding those three days, but the weekend and next week look warmer and I can feel the snow calling!

Good night from the Keweenaw..
–JD

 

It’s a winter wonderland! 25″ of snow since I last wrote a week ago. Not too shabby. We are closing in on 100″ for the season and need just six and a half more inches to get there. It’s looking pretty promising for that mark to me met by the end of this week.

I would have to say that the area is in full winter mode now. Plow banks are nice and big and a few have already been cut back by the snow-go’s. I’ve seen a few roofs being shoveled and most locals have that game face on. It is not an angry or upset one, or even scared. It is more like: “Oh, another 8″ of snow today, no problem…”. There are not too many places where that happens. I guess one could say it is something to brag about, but very few locals brag about it. It is just simply the way things go up here.

We are not on a record pace for the season, but not too far behind either. A good snowy week or so (25″ is medium-snowy!) would put us right in the running. In the record breaking year of 78-79, we hit the 100″ mark on December 11th. So we are lagging behind, but still within reach if we keep up a good pace. I really do not know if that record year will be broken. It is quite a feat when you think about it. nearly 400″ of snow in around 6 months. What makes it that much harder is the fact that there is a bit of a conundrum in the fact that about 70% of our snow comes from lake effect and the very thing that produces the lake effect also works to defeat it as the season goes on. We need the cold to produce the lake effect, but the longer it is that cold, the more ice that forms on the lake. The more ice that forms on the lake, the less lake effect we get! So there-in lies the problem.

I have often wondered just how that winter of 78-79 was able to pull that off. I was not around then and while I do have the daily snowfall and temperature data from that season, there really is no data to say how each snow event happened. Best I can figure, much of the snow through early January was lake effect or lake enhanced and then as the lake got more ice covered, system snows were plentiful and regular. I do know that there were big storms into March and even early April that year, so that is why I said in an early entry we need to go close to full speed from start to finish.

Another thing that will help is the temps that produce the lake effect. It might be thought that the colder it gets, the heavier the lake effect gets. This is not true. As the air gets colder and colder, it also gets drier and drier. So it is harder for the lake to put enough moisture into the air to cause the flakes to be large enough to accumulate at a good rate. In cases where bitterly cold arctic air is spilling down from Canada and keeping places like northern MN in the -20’s for daytime highs, we are usually around 20 degrees warmer and it is snowing, but the flakes are very small and do not pile up as quickly.

The best temperature for the heaviest lake effect is actually around 18-22 degrees. At that temp, the air can still have enough moisture in it upwind of the lake that the lake can provide the extra needed to produce the heavy snow. The air is also plenty cold enough to cause the air that is warmed by the lake to rise nicely. If you can add some natural moisture in the air around 5000-8000 feet up and keep the air unstable enough, then then you can really get some decent snow to fall. There is actually a zone in the atmosphere where most of the snow is made. Meteorologists call it the “dendrite growth zone”, or DGZ. It is not always at the same height above the ground and does depend a lot on the air temperatures of the atmosphere aloft. But if you can put lake moisture into the DGZ, you get big beautiful flakes to fall and those big flakes pile up quicker than the small ones.

Such was the case Wednesday afternoon when we had some beautiful, big flakes falling from the sky. That was taken around 4:30 in early evening as I was out grilling dinner, but we had some decent snow fall for much of the afternoon and evening and ended up with around 8 1/2″ for the 24 hour period from 7 am Wednesday to 7 am Thursday. The snow was so light and fluffy that it could be moved off the vehicles with a broom, but 8.5″ is 8.5″ when adding things up!

I am sure that I am going to get ribbed pretty hard for saying this, but I have not yet been out on a ride! I had full intentions to do so yesterday, but I woke up feeling pretty run down and just decided it would be best to take it easy for the day. It was a pretty hard decision to make, as I could have ridden with good friends in great snow, but as one of the friends I could have ridden with said; “the winter is just starting and there will be lots more chances”. I believe he is right. There will be plenty more chances to ride.

One of the reasons why I was a bit tired is that the day before was a pretty busy one for this old buck. I had the usual waking up at around 4:15 to start work. Then had quite a busy day of taking care of business and even moving some snow. Then as I was finishing up moving snow, the girls got home from school and Gracie and I got cleaned up and ready for our Daddy/Daughter date night. It consisted of heading down to Houghton to grab a bite to eat and then take in the new Star Wars movie. We are both big fans of the Star Wars movies and were excited to be seeing the first showing of it up here in the Keweenaw. I actually pre-purchased out tickets and we got there about an hour before it was to start, so that we would be able to get some good seats. We got some very good seats, a big bag of popcorn and water and enjoyed the show. I am not going to spill a single bean about the movie, but I will say that if you are any kind of a fan of the series, go, you will get your monies worth, just like all the other episodes.

So it is hard to believe that in one week it will be Christmas Eve! Gracie is pretty excited, but not climbing the walls…at least not yet. Actually, she has never gone absolutely nuts in the lead up to Santa’s arrival, but certainly does get excited. Who doesn’t? Right!

For those wanting to come up and ride, there really is no excuse. The protective mat and layer of snow was put down on the lift bridge between Houghton and Hancock, so crossing it is a no-brainer now. Our trails are all being groomed and are in pretty decent shape. We still have a couple of closures due to some logging that is being finished up, but we have been told that the loggers will be done this week. Those trails are 132 from Delaware to Lac La Belle and 124 from Gay to Phoenix. 133 has some logging going on, but we will be able to use the trail when the loggers are in there, as we will not have to ride through their logging operations or even share the roads with the, just cross the road that they are using. We are also working out some issues with a land owner on 133 and are hoping to have that resolved in the next week or so.

Well, I guess that will do it for this one. I will try my hardest to write next Saturday or Sunday, but with all the festivities cannot make any promises. So just in case, Have a Merry Christmas Everyone!

Good night from the Keweenaw..
–JD

How things can change up here… As I am sure you remember, last Sunday I threw out a challenge to our dear friend Mother Nature. I challenged her to break my will for snow. To bring it so fast as furious all season that I would be begging for it to stop. She seemed to get the message and did not waste time beginning her challenge. Monday remained mild, in fact, we had thunderstorms roll through Monday evening. Some good boomers too. Very strange for December 4th. Anyway, the thunderstorms did herald the arrival of colder air and that colder air changed our rains to snows early Tuesday morning.

Once the change over happened, there was no going back. It was off to the races. By sunrise, we already had a few inches on the ground and it was still coming down good. Even though the roads were not impassable, school was called for the day because things were just going to go down hill all day, with the heavy snow to continue, along with very strong winds. I did venture out in the early afternoon to go to the bank and post office in Mohawk and my plans were to head down to Calumet to take care of some business. However, it was snowing and blowing enough that I decided it best to just go home and not down to Calumet.

It is a pretty rare occasion in which I decide not to drive somewhere because of snow and/or blowing snow. However, things were pretty bad. At times, the winds gusted to 55 mph and sent visibility down to just a few feet. At best, the visibility would climb to around 1/8th of a mile. So we all just hunkered down for the afternoon and evening and the girls all hoped for another snow day on Wednesday!

The winds and snow kept up pretty decently through Tuesday night into Wednesday morning. There had not been a ton of new snow since sunset, but with the strong winds continuing, there were some monster drifts that had formed and despite the fact that we have the best plow crews in the nation up here, they could not promise that they would be able to open up all the country roads in time for buses to make their rounds, so the girls hopes of another snow day came true for Wednesday.

The snows and winds did let up enough that we were able to get out of the house and take a drive Wednesday afternoon. The plan was to head down to the big lake to see how she was liking the storm. On the way down, we stopped at spot along the road where you can take in a nice view of the Eagle River. There are some neat falls in that spot, but they are kind of strung out and hard for one single photo to capture. Thank goodness for the panorama feature on my phone, as I was able to capture a 180 degree view of what I was taking in.

We got to the big lake and she was pretty stirred up. Not as bad as it probably was the day before or in some of the other big blows we have had, but still plenty rough. Another thing I was hoping to see was some neat ice formations caused by the water being splashed up onto shore and then freezing. It did not take long at all to see the first example of that. A little further up the coast, the ice formations got more dramatic and impressive. The coolest thing I saw was a pine totally encrusted in ice. Makes you wonder if when all that ice melts, will it take out any branches, or was it added in a way in which the ice is supporting itself? In either case, there was little doubt that the weather conditions that caused that to occur were pretty harsh. This next shot reminds me of a moonscape, or perhaps the surface of Pluto. Nope, it was just a coating of ice on a big rock along the Lake Superior shoreline.

We made it to Eagle Harbor and drove over to the light house, thinking there might be some near ice formations there, but not much that could be seen from the observation deck they have there. I speculate that from the other side of the lighthouse, there might have been some neat things to see, but with the winds still blowing strong and temps in the teens, I quickly snapped a shot of the girls and then took a quick shot of the frozen shoreline east of the harbor entrance. Once that was done, we all scrambled for the warmth of the vehicle and started making our way home. When we got to where the snowmobile trail crosses the highway near Phoenix, we pulled over so I could take a picture of the trail. Much to my surprise, the groomer had been through since we passed on our way out to the lake and had panned the new snow.

With the temps being cold and the forecast calling for more, it was determined that it looked like a good time to start making ice at the local rink in Ahmeek Location. So Thursday morning, I headed over with Big Red to do the first clearing of the season. The rink looked like it had been abandoned for years, with the snow piled up against the boards. Strange to think that just 4 days earlier, there was not a lick of snow on it. In the northeast corner, the snow had actually drifted right up to the top of the boards. The snow was quite light in its density and Big Red made fairly quick work of clearing the snow off the rink. Unfortunately for the start of the rink, more snows came that day, so the flooding process was put off for another day. I did get over there on Friday and cleared it off and 2 floods were put on it. We repeated that process on Saturday, so it should be pretty close to being ready.

Friday morning we awoke to a fresh 9-10 inches of snow. It it always neat to flick on the outside lights and see that a bunch of new snow has fallen overnight. Friday morning is our time for garbage pick up, so I always have to run it out to the end of the driveway, only this time, when I dropped the tailgate to put the can into the bed of the truck, the bed was already filled up! So the can got to ride on the tailgate this time.

Saturday I drove down to Greenland to attend the open house at Pat’s Motorsports. I was looking forward to the drive, not because it was still snowing and the roads were rather slick, but because it would allow me to see first hand how the snow distribution had gone in areas from Mohawk to Greenland in the past 4 days. To me it appeared as though all areas had at least 12-15″ on the ground and the two areas that seemed to have a the most were the general Calumet area, as well as from around Painesdale to Donken. There, the snow looked to be around 18-24″ deep, accompanied with some nice Keweenaw Kamo.

All areas up here are grooming what can be groomed. There are a few spots that are too wet to get at right now, but with temps struggling to even get to 20 degrees for daytime highs, they should be freezing up soon. I also know that due to the wet spring, summer and autumn, the logging work got severely delayed and north of the bridge, some sections of trail are not yet open because they are finishing up the logging. The two main spots are trail 124 from Gay to Phoenix and also trail 132 from Delaware to Lac La Belle. I have been told that they are getting closer to being done and should be by the end of the month. Most other trails from Houghton to Copper Harbor are open and being groomed.

So while we did not not open the trails December 1st with bountiful snow, things did change in a big way in a short period of time in the past week up here and with the cold and additional snow this week, they will only get better. For many areas of the Midwest, the snow conditions we have on the ground right now would be called epic at any time of the winter, but for us, it is called a good start.

My final story and pic comes from my activities Saturday night. The old movie theater in Hancock has been transformed into a pizza place and venue for live music. I got my first experience with this place a month or two ago and made another visit last night. The old theater really lends itself to providing great acoustics for listening to live music, plus it is a really nice and intimate atmosphere, not to mention that the pizza is really good too. They had a blue grass band playing last night and it was great to sit and listen to them, while eating some pizza. The band was excellent and I look forward to seeing more shows at the Orpheum.

So I guess that about does it for this one. Hard to believe that in two weeks, Santa will already be flying around the globe delivering his gifts to everyone. It looks a lot like Christmas up this way and looks to stay that way for some time! If you are in need of snowplay, we have what you are looking for!

Good night from the Keweenaw..
–JD

Mother nature, I know you are reading this. So this is for you…I dare you…no, double dare you….nope, I triple dog dare you to break me and have me beg for it to stop snowing. I know you are a tough old gal and have many tricks up your sleeve, but I am ready. Give me all you got! Not just this week, or this month, but in any time frame. I promise that I will admit defeat if you are able to break me. But I doubt you can.

Tough talk I know, but I really do mean it. I am ready. I probably have not been more ready to be snowed into submission than the first year I lived up here. I do have to admit that I am probably as set to handle the snows as I have ever been. Big Red is all set to go, the truck has new tires on it. All of my needed outdoor chores are done and the fact that I will not have to trudge through the snow and cold to feed the wood boiler. No more laying down in bed for the night, having my head hit the pillow and remembering that I still need to load the boiler! It was a great piece of equipment to heat the house and shops, as well as hot water, but I sure do not miss having to go out in the brutal cold and wind to load it. The other silver lining is that it looks like we will probably end up spending less to heat with our new setup than we did using wood.

It’s still early and we have not had any bitterly cold air, but there was some pretty chilly temps in mid-November and we have had enough need for heat that I am able to do a rough comparison. Since the new take was charged with fuel back on October 28th, we have used around 30 gallons of propane. That is roughly 50 dollars. In that same time frame, we would have used nearly a cord of firewood at the price of $125-130 a cord. So not only has all the work been removed, but new setup is going to save us money! While I cannot say for sure, I believe that the fact that the water had to travel around 150 feet from the boiler to the house and lost heat during the entire trip to and from, is the biggest reason for the savings. I know that there was quite a bit of heat lost from that traveling of the boiler water. The snow would always melt some where the pipes were buried. The pipes were insulated, but even with the best insulation, there is still going to be heat loss. Of course when we started using the wood boiler, we got our wood for free, so it was free heat. Things change.

It was a pretty quiet week as far as the weather goes up here this past week. It was a nice break from all the rain and snow that we had in the 3-4 weeks leading up to last week and allowed for me to get the last of the outdoor chores done in decent weather. With the conclusion of main firearm deer season Thursday, the pups and I were also able to take to the woods Friday and did just that. There were still a few patches of snow left, but for the most part, the woods were nice and dry. Most of the puddles that had formed with the wet weather earlier were able to disappear and the melting of the snow did not really make things too wet. It was very comforting to get back into the woods. The stillness and tranquility is something that is very good for my soul. We did pay a visit to Old Granddad. He was still standing proud and seemed to be all ready for winter. Some of you must be pretty tired of me sharing pics of him, but for some reason, that tree is very special to me. Much like the Keweenaw is. I cannot say exactly why in either case, but am grateful that I have both in my life.

In addition to the lack of precip this week, we also had some rare November sunshine. Some days gave us almost completely clear skies, while others allowed us some nice glimpses of the sun. Coming out of the Calumet Coliseum Friday night after Grace’s skating lesson, we were treated to a magnificent sunset. We don’t get too many that look like that this time of the year. I also caught glimpses of what was a magnificent sunrise we had this morning. I had let the pups out after breakfast and saw a beautiful red-orange glow off to the southeast.

A fairly monumental thing did happen at the Dee compound this week. On Friday, the folks that bought the wood boiler came to take it away. As much as I am not missing having to load it twice a day, I will miss it. It was a fixture for longer than we lived here. Put in around a month before we moved in and has been here since. So it was bittersweet to see it being carried away and is a little strange to look over to the spot it kept for the past 11 years and see only a bare slab and a couple of pipes coming up from the ground. Again, things change.

As mentioned, Big Red was fitted with his snowblower and is all ready to go. I took advantage of the nice weather to get the loader taken off and the blower put on. I also added a nice feature, an electric powered chute adjuster. I did not have to adjust the elevation of the snow coming out of the blower much, especially when I do our driveway, but clearing the ice rink did find me having to get out of the cap and adjusting it manually more than I wanted to! The funny thing is, I have had that attachment for about 2 seasons now, but just never got around to putting it on. Being one of those persons that prefers to do as much as they can themselves does have it’s consequences!

This afternoon I had to head over to the groomer barn for a bit and Gracie said she was bored, so she accompanied me. It was a huge thrill for her to get up close and personal with the huge machines and she even got to climb up into the cab and take one for a spin. I promised that we would go on a ride-along sometime this winter.

Just prior to our trip to the groomer barn, Gracie, the pups and I went for a little stroll in the woods. She had a girlfriend over yesterday and the two of them did some playing in the woods and discovered a frozen “pond”. I know that we do not have any real ponds in our woods and if we did, she would have been instructed to never go on it until I said she could, but there were stories of them having fun on the ice, so this afternoon she took me out to see it. There was talk of her getting her skates on and skating around on it, but I was able to persuade her to wait for the outdoor rink to open up! Speaking of outdoor ice, the parking lot that I showed in a previous entry is now ice free. I do not know if it was done naturally or if salt was put on the ice to melt it, but they are back to bare pavement…for now. Our parking area actually still has a few ice patches on it, we’ll see what the rain does to that tomorrow.

So the ground is mostly bare right now, but that will change soon. There is currently a winter storm watch posted for our area. We look to see rains tomorrow and then those rains will change to snow tomorrow night or early Tuesday morning and then it looks like the lake snow guns will open up on us by Tuesday and continue for the rest of the week and possibly into the weekend. The snows will likely come down pretty hard at times and given the fact that they are suppose to occur almost non-stop for 7 days, I have a hard time seeing us not get at least 2 feet of snow, perhaps more. It also looks like much of the Midwest will see at least some snow fall in the coming week, along with all areas seeing the coldest air of the season take over. So hope you all are as ready for winter as I am!

Good night from the Keweenaw..
–JD

Although there are still 4 days left in the month and 4 days left in the main firearm deer season, most of the hunters are likely pulling out of the woods and will be going back to work. Like a lot of activities we humans do, it’s always the build up and then start to the season that is most exciting. There will still be hunters in the woods for the remainder of the main season, but they will be much lower in numbers. Probably the ones that either still NEED to harvest a deer for their meat for the coming months, or those that let some go in hopes of the big one coming by, which did not happen and will harvest the one they feel suitable at this late stage. The other 75-80% of the hunters are either still staring at the pictures of them posing over their kill, or talking about the one that never came.

There is hunting done all of the month of December as well. Muzzleloading will go into mid-month and 2nd archery season will run right through the entire month, but the hunt that keeps everyone but hunters out of the woods will be drawing to a close in 4 days. That means for those of us that do not hunt, we can return to the woods and do our thing. Many of you reading this are hoping we have enough snow to come up next weekend and play in it, but unfortunately, we lost a good portion of our snow and little is seen through the upcoming week.

So the other waiting will commence…waiting for the white. As much as we all want waist deep snow by December first, the reality is, it is quite rare to have even knee deep snow on December first and in probably about 1/2 of the years, we do not even have enough snow to start grooming the snowmobile trails. That is probably little solace to those that were hoping to get up here next weekend to play in snow, but is just the way it goes. I still have not lost any hope that this will be an above average winter for snow and below for cold, just that we will have to wait out the next 5-7 days at least.

The good news is that despite the snow loss and rain on Friday, temps since have been cold and things continue to freeze up. The week ahead looks to see some daytime highs above freezing, but not way above and overnight lows will be falling into the 20’s, so overall, the freeze up will continue. Quite honestly, as much as I love snow and wish I was staring down the throat of a monster winter storm approaching us, the continue freeze up is what we probably need most at this point. I guess living in an area where the snow is a guarantee to come and can come in a big hurry also makes the wait a little easier.

It was a bummer to sit and watch it rain for most of the day on Friday. The rain was not exceptionally heavy, but with temps in the mid 40’s, it did put a pretty big dent in our snowcover. In some spots in the woods, there is bare ground showing and in some spots there is still several inches. One thing the rain and then freeze up did was to make an ice skating rink out of many parking lots, including ours. Yes, that is as slick as it looks. As you can see in that last shot, both vehicles are strategically parked in a manner where we do not have to get out and try and make it across the ice to get to the house! We are not alone in our ice skating rink for a parking lot. Here is the lot at the grocery store in Calumet. Yes, that is really ice covering the entire lot! I am actually a bit surprised it has been allowed to remain that way. It was very difficult for me to walk across, I can’t imagine what it was like for those older than I!

I still have not put the blower on Big Red. I am probably playing with fire, but have been pretty busy with other things and there has not been a need yet. Also, it is not a huge or time consuming job. None, the less, I think the time has come to get it ready and it is on my list of chores to do this week. Perhaps mother nature has been following my life and has been kind and is waiting to open fire with the snow guns once I am fully ready! Yea, and if you believe that, I have a bridge I can sell you!

With Thanksgiving past us, the Dee house has become a Christmas wonderland! Well, at least the inside. I actually got the tree up prior to Thanksgiving and then Nora, Grace and I decorated it last night. I sure do love our tree and I am glad that Nora shares my thoughts on how to decorate it. Almost all of the ornaments are of the “home made” variety. Most of them have not been made in our home or others, but have that look to them. Of course there are probably about a dozen ones that are home made and they are extra special. Gracie always has a fun time decorating the tree and last night was no different, only the time decorating the tree was shared with spontaneous periods of piano playing. Christmas songs to boot! She has really become a good piano player and can just sit down and open up a book and read the notes and play. Way further than I ever got in my career!

There is not much rhyme or reason to the tree decorating. We have a large plastic storage bin in which all the ornaments are kept and we all just take turns dipping into the bin, pulling out a few ornaments and then putting them on the tree. We also take turns climbing the ladder and putting them up high, but the one thing that is a tradition is for Gracie to put the “Texas” ornament up. She takes great pride in being born in Texas and while down there for the adoption, we picked up an ornament and she has put that one on the tree every year since…and will do so for as long as it gets put up. Gracie has also been the one to put the star on the top of the tree for many years. That was because it was easy for me to lift her up there to place it on top. She has gotten too big for that, so we both headed up the ladder and performed the jib crane maneuver, with me bracing myself with the stairs, holding onto her while she leaned out over the tree to place the star on top. She did not quite have the reach, so I ended up placing the star this year, but we will try again next year. Maybe a gantry crane would work better!

So I hope everyone’s Thanksgiving was wonderful. Mine/ours sure was. In fact, on the night of Thanksgiving eve, the whole family (dogs and all) were sitting in the living room while the fire was going. I was sitting in the “snow” chair, a chair that sits in the far corner of the living room and gives a great view of the front yard and any snow that would be falling at the moment. As I looked ahead of me and gazed upon the two beautiful girls cuddled up on the couch with the pups surrounding them on each side, fire casting an orange flicker on their faces, I could not help but feeling thankful for all I have. I really am a VERY lucky man.

Good night from the Keweenaw..
–JD