Category: Uncategorized

Back in Black

Yep, I’m sure most of you guessed what the title of this entry is about. They are back. Those nasty little creatures dressed all in black and buzzing your head. The black fly’s finally showed up in earnest this week. All it took was some consistently warm temps. Our highs for early in the week were still cool, but then by the second half of the week we rose into the upper 60’s to mid 70’s every day and that was enough to bring the buggers out in full force. As is typical with every black fly season, some places are worse than others. For some odd reason, they have not been too bad in our immediate area. By that I mean our yard and parking area. I have been harassed pretty bad on my morning walks with the dogs, especially if we stop for a moment. I don’t know if they have just not hatched fully in our immediate area or if we will just get lucky. In either case, I am enjoying being able to be out and about in our yard and driveway area and not have to run inside for fear of my life! The best news is that they have a limited shelf life and in about 2 weeks will already be on the outs and in 3-4 weeks should be totally gone until next season!

The warmer temps also caused the green to fill completely out. Our woods are now in full summer fashion. That is quite a change from just a few weeks ago. It sure is nice to look out and see the beautiful woods all filled out again. We have had to re-train the pups that they cannot go too far into the woods again. They are allowed to go as far as we can see them and in the winter, that can be several hundred feet. In the summer, maybe a dozen or two.

The early summer flowers are also starting to fill out. Mostly the ones that are very small and close to the ground, including the dandelions. However, it won’t be long before all the other beautiful summer flowers we have up here appear. The lupine will probably be starting to show up in another week or to and the other that comes to mind are the daisy’s. We even have some wild roses that grow in spots up here. On our walks, I have spotted a fair amount of wild strawberries. Some of them in spots I have not seen them before. I am not about to divulge where, as they are like gold up this way. Imagine all of the sweetness and flavor of a full sized, domesticated strawberry (the ones that you get at the stores or roadside stands) packed into something only about 1/4 of the size. That is a wild strawberry and the only thing better than eating them fresh off the plant is to have them in a jam.

Our own strawberries are also in bloom. Not full bloom, but that is fine, I like it when they are staggered and then they ripen at different times and can be enjoyed for a longer period of time. Man, all of this talk of berries has me really anxious for the season to get underway up here! We are so blessed to have places where we can go to either get freshly picked berries, or pick our own. We still have some fresh-frozen from last season and I suppose a pie or two or three would be a good thing to have to use them up to make room for the upcoming seasons harvest!

The girls have been busy this week getting the garden ready for planting and planting as well. The latest update is that everything is in the ground with the exception of some zucchini and one or two other vegetables. I think we might also be putting in some more berries. Not sure what just yet, but probably blueberry and maybe strawberry. We have a pretty good supply of raspberry and blackberry bushes growing in our woods.

That last pic was actually taken from inside my wood shop. I have been pretty busy in there, working on the shelves for my office and have the lower shelves done and installed. The upper shelves are pretty much done, I just need to hand the drawers and then hang the shelves themselves. I was hoping to have them all done by this writing, but fell just short. So next week for sure and with a little luck, I will also be done with the next project on the list. I cannot remember if I said what it was going to be or not, but will refrain and surprise you all. The only hint I will give is that will get a lot of use, once it is done!

As I mentioned in a previous entry, it has been a lot of fun to be in the shop working with no strict deadline. At one point, I thought my dream scenario would be to live off of income made from this website and woodworking. I am starting to back off the idea of the woodworking. At least as a full time gig. I would not mind having some commissions to do at a relaxed pace and perhaps that will pan out someday, but I think having the pressures of having to complete jobs in a specific time to have the income would not make it fun anymore. Or at least as run and relaxing as it is now. I can get out there, start working and lose all track of time. Sometimes I will look at my watch had it has been 2 hours since I started and it only feels like 20 minutes. I also feel a real sense of calm while I am out there. The biggest bonus is that the pups have really turned into what I call “shop dogs”. Ever since they were pups, I have been bringing them out there, but up until the past month or two, they always seemed more content to go back into the house and chill while I was in the shop. Now, they love to just hang out with me and relax and if they feel the need, do a little playing around like they were in that last picture. If I could only get them to clean up the messes that they make, it would be a perfect scenario!

The warmer temps have allowed us to spend a bit more time tooling around the neighborhood. The other day, Gracie was wanting to ride her bike around a bit, so she hopped on it and I followed her with the SxS. We did not venture too far, for fear we might get eaten alive. Not by bears or wolves, but by insects, but they were not bad. It was so cute to watch her ride her bike down a logging road. I have often wondered what it would have been like to grow up here. I know I would have had a blast with all the fun things to do outside, I just wonder if I would have taken it for granted and ended up leaving the area in search of bigger bucks. We’ll never know and with a little luck, I will never leave this place.

The bike ride took us to “Burt’s Pond“. So named because it is the pond that Burt and I would frequently walk to and he would go for a swim. I cannot go by that little pond or even see a picture of it without thinking of him and what a good friend he and Bailey’s were. I am now lucky enough to have two equally good friends. Huck will pretty much follow me around anywhere I go and is only content if he is by my side. Even if it means just taking a nap beside my feet. Sweet Millie is more content to go and hang out where ever she feels most comfortable. Most of the time it is the bed, although lately, she has been spending more and more time next to my feet as well. I am so glad that their health has been so good. In fact, when folks watch them run around and play, they are amazed at the fact that they are now 8 1/2 years old.

So it is safe to say that summer has officially arrived in earnest up here. Soon all of the festivals and celebrations will be going on each weekend. Bridgefest will be happening in a week or two, then 4th of July, then strawberry fest, then who know’s what else! Looking at the forecast, it looks like we might even by-pass the 80’s and go from 70’s on Thursday and Friday into the 90’s for the weekend. I know I am keeping an eye on things and have “penciled-in” plans to put the pool up this week. It would probably be the earliest that we have done so, but I would much rather put it up in cooler temps and then catch the heat, rather than have to put it up in the heat itself. Both the girls seem to be excited at the prospect of the pool going up- especially the one that has her last day of school this Friday!

I guess that about covers it for this one. Have a wonderful week everyone and…

Good night from the Keweenaw..
-JD

Going Green

So here we are…Memorial Day weekend. The “traditional start of summer”, or perhaps the kickoff to summer. Up until this week, we have not had anything even reminiscent of summer weather up here, but as if to follow some kind of a play book, mother nature has finally decided to become a player and join the rest of us. We have not been hot or humid, but then again, in a typical summer up here, you can usually count the total for the season of such days without having to take your shoes off.

Nope, no swimming weather yet, but that is fine by me. I will be ready for swimming weather in about 2 weeks or so. We have had “turn the furnace off”, “leave the jacket on the hook” and my favorite, “hang out on the screened porch” weather. The whole family enjoyed a nice quiet evening on the porch yesterday, just chillaxing. It’s amazing how relaxing it is to sit out there and just listen to the birds chirp, the wind blow through the trees and an occasional gibber from a red squirrel. I am so glad that Nora insisted we make that part of the addition 4 years ago. I did not fight it, I just did not think that we would use it that much. In addition to putting you out into the woods, it keeps us safe from any insects.

Speaking of insects, they have not been too bad so far. We all have been able to be outside without having to put on any repellent or even have to do some serious swatting. There have been a few mosquitoes that have flown around and an occasional black fly will buzz around, but I am cautiously optimistic that the black fly season will be another mild one. I don’t know if those things have peaks and valleys in their population like other insects and even woods critters do, but the past few years have been nothing like the first 5-8 years I lived up here. One can hope, but I will not call it a slow season for them for another week at least, perhaps two. The mosquitoes are a different story. All we need is some warm weather and rain and their population will surge. So far this season we have had plenty of rain, but not warmth.

It’s been another slow week as far as material for the journal goes. The family has been kept busy just plodding along through life. Nora did get round one of plants for around the house and in the garden. She has not put them in the ground, but Gracie and her are outside as I type and Grace just came in from outside and asked where her gardening gloves are, so maybe they are up to something. I have been sharing my time between the office, the woodshop and the great outdoors. The shelving project for my office is still not done, but I have been taking my time at it. Also, I worked a bit too long yesterday, as my thoughts started to get a bit foggy. I ended up making two bone-headed mistakes that caused me to have to re-do a few things. Nothing too major, but they did give me a good chuckle. Had I been under a deadline, perhaps a scrap piece of wood would have been tossed in frustration, but I am not under any strict deadline, so I just laughed out loud at myself. The first mistake was to attach the false front of one of the drawers inside out. So I ended up putting screws right through the show face of it and had to make a new one this morning. The other mistake was to build the drawers too wide by not accounting for giving room for the drawer glides. I suppose when one is doing everything off the top of their head and not off of any plans, mistake number 2 can happen. Both mistakes were corrected this morning and this afternoon I started the finishing process on that one false front. So with a little luck, the project will be done by tomorrow.

The warmer weather has things finally starting to look like summer around here. The trees are not fully filled out, but probably over halfway done, which you will see in a video coming up in a tiny bit. I did cut the grass for the first time of the season yesterday and we even fired up the smoker and smoked a brisket yesterday! I figure the pool will go up in another week or so and then we will be off to the races.

Gracie has only two more weeks of school left and then she is out for the summer. Its funny how things have changed. Back in the days of kindergarten, she was dreading the last day of school and even had some crying sessions just thinking about it. These days, she is all excited for the summer break to come. I believe she still loves school as much as she did in kindergarten, its just that she knows that she will have lots of fun not having to go to school. Plus, she will be able to stay up later and sleep in longer. Nora works the summer, her job is full time and does not get the summer off like students/teachers. For the most part, she enjoys the change. Things are much quieter and she still has things to do, but can do it at a slightly more relaxed pace and is not constantly interrupted. Plus, she can adjust her hours so that she goes in a bit earlier and then gets out earlier and can enjoy most of the afternoon.

It is easy to tell that most of the snow-birds have returned from their migration south and that there are even some summer tourists starting to show up. The highways and by-ways are starting to get busier up here and even the stores seem to have more folks coming and going. I don’t mind the pick up in population too much at all. Sometimes the traffic can get a little more noticeable, but that usually means that you are number 5 or 6 behind the lead car at the red light and not number 1 or 2. So kinda hard to complain about that!

I can report that the Laurium Glacier finally melted for the season. It did so late in the day yesterday. I have yet to go to the discussion board to see who the winner is, but plan to do so tomorrow and let them know.

So, other than sharing a little drone video with you, I do not have any media to go along with this entry. I guess that is what happens then nothing too miraculous happens! The video I have to share today was shot just before I cam in to write this entry. Its a good thing I did it when I did, as there is a line of strong thunderstorms marching towards us from the SW and will probably be here before I even finish writing this. Anyway, it is just a quick flight I took from the house. I figured many of you would like to see more of the house than just the “front of house” shot, so I fired up Eagle One  and flew it to an altitude of 400 feet above ground level and then did a pan of the neighborhood. Hope you enjoy!

Good night from the Keweenaw!!

–JD

Missing: The 70’s

Nope, not the decade. In fact, there are probably as many reminders of the 70’s up this way as there are anywhere in the good old USA. I’m talking temps. Officially, the Houghton County Airport has yet to hit 70 degrees or warmer this season. Same goes for my weather station. The warmest both have reported was 67 degrees on April 25th. For the first time this spring, I can report that no snow fell in the Keweenaw. Well, at least not what I could gather. It tried pretty hard on Thursday, with a cold rain and our temp at 36. The algorithm that colors the radar returns in different colors to represent different precip types (green-rain, blue-snow, pink-ice) did paint some blues way up at the tip of the Keweenaw and also into some sections of southern Houghton County and I also saw some pink in eastern Baraga county Thursday afternoon, but I did not get any official reports of wintry precip reaching the ground. At times, it looked like the rain that was falling here was freshly melted snow though, as it had kind of a slushy look to it.

Not much good weather this past week either. We did need the rain, as things were dry and we are in one of our main fire seasons. Both the autumn and spring are the main fire seasons, as there is so much dead and at times dry, vegetation on the ground. Summer can be too, but unless there is a severe drought going on, there is enough green in the woods to keep the fire risk lower there. More open areas are at a bigger risk for fires in the summer. The rain did help to green up the grass a bit, but it has been so cool that I have not had to cut the law yet. The cool weather has also slowed the melting of the Laurium Glacier. That picture was taken on Wednesday, but  there has been minimal melting since, with temps largely in the 40’s for highs and even some nights where the temps dropped below freezing. I am not sure it will make it to June, but its going to be pretty close, as our temps are suppose to remain on the cool side through this week and the holiday weekend coming up next weekend.

While we did not officially have any snow reported, there was quite a bit of it that fell in the mountains out west. I spent some time cruising through the NCN cams this week, watching it pile up in place like Paradise Lodge in Mount Rainier Nation Park. They still have a ton of snow on the ground up there. For reference, the object off in the distance in front of the pile of snow in that last shot, was a full sized van. The storm that him them midweek appeared to bring them around 2-3 feet of fresh snow and it looks like they have around 20 feet still on the ground. I am not sure if this was a record year for snow for them, but I do know that it was a record year for rains in lower elevations in that neck of the woods.

The cooler temps have also done two other noticeable things. One is to keep the bugs at bay. We were in the mid 60’s on Monday and Tuesday and a few black flies did come out to pester me when I was cutting firewood, but it was by no means the typical aggressive swarming that comes with the main hatch. The other insects have been largely missing as well. Way too cold for mosquitoes and on the warmer days some bees will buzz around, but that is about it. The other thing that the cool weather has done is kept the trees from opening up too much. I took this picture just about an hour ago. It’s kind of hard to tell from that picture as well as for all of you to compare things to a few days ago, but the buds have opened up a bit more and there is a tiny bit of green to the woods now- both in the trees and on the ground. It will be interesting to see how things progress in the next week, as we are to remain fairly cool, but typically by the end of May, the woods are close to fully filled out.

I guess a third thing is that Nora has not been chomping at the bit (at least in a noticeable fashion) to go and get her plants for this growing season. I know she mentioned wanting to head to the greenhouse yesterday, but then it got late and she did not want to drag Gracie and I into things, so it did not happen. I suspect that as we get close to the memorial day weekend, she will get busy getting plants and might even brave putting them in the ground, as June 1st is our average last frost date and any threat can be mitigated by tossing some tarps over the beds.

As ugly as the weather was on Thursday, it did turn around nicely for Friday, which was a good thing, because it was bike-to-school day at Gracie’s school. Last year Nora and I took her to a point where we were around a block away from the school and let her ride the side of a back road that is never busy. This year, Gracie and I parked about a half mile away and got ready for the ride. It was crisp, still below freezing, but the sun was up and no wind, so things were not too bad for our adventure to school. As we rode up, Nora was waiting for us, camera in hand to capture the moment. Who knows, maybe next year we will ride all the way from home! Not!

I guess the cooler weather has been good for spending time in the shop. I think I went in and did some work just about every day this week, but some of the visits were fairly brief, so I do not have any completed projects to share with you. Perhaps next week. I have had some company in the shop this week as well. The pups don’t mind coming in there with me. They will just hang out and every once in a while start wrestling with each other. My other company came from Gracie. She helped me cut some wood yesterday and in the process, I picked up a few cedar branches that I wanted to keep for future use. She decided she wanted to do the same and then when we got to the shop, I saw her trying to strip the bark off with a flat head screwdriver. She is getting to the age where she can use most hand tools with supervision, so I broke out my small draw knife, illustrated to her how to use it and what not to ever do (touch the blade) and she went to work shaving the bark off the limb. I am proud to say that the limb is now completely de-barked and she did a great job and did not hurt herself. While she is pretty fearless, she is also one to follow rules very well. I am not sure if woodworking will be something that grabs a hold of here as strongly as it did me, but I am enjoying every minute she is in the shop with me now.

Good night from the Keweenaw..

–JD

6,571

Happy Mothers Day to all the moms! I have yet to call my mom, but we typically do our Sunday call in the evening, so I guess we will stick with it. Gracie and I did give Nora her present, some moo-la to spend on flowers and vegetables for her planters and garden. It is getting to be that time of the year where she will be loading up on all that stuff. It is still too early to be putting things into the ground, but in any small planters that can be brought inside or covered up she will be getting going on those.

Our trees are still in hibernation, but the grass is greening up nicely and a few folks have already even cut their lawn. The bugs are still hiding for the most part, even though it was a pretty nice week. We were in the 50’s for highs most of the week and even into the 60’s for Friday and Saturday. It has also been nice and dry and quite a bit of sunshine. Most of the outdoor yard work that I could get done has been done and I even spent some time in the woodshop working on the very early stages of the shelves for my work desk. I have five computers that I use, three of them are set up on a shelf that sits on the desk, while the other two hang from hangers on the wall. Once I am all finished with the shelves, I will be sure to share a pic of them, as they will be a little more than your typical shelf.

Not much else went on this week. At least that you all would find interesting! No drone flights to speak of. I did do a real quick flight right outside our house, but only to check a few things. Hopefully I will be able to get out and the weather will cooperate to allow me to get a flight in this week. I am really loving that thing and see doing a lot with it. My confidence still needs to grow before I fly it when the wind is blowing. As you can imagine, there are not too many days when that is not the case up here. Many mornings are, but by the time I finish with my work, the boundary layer has become activated by the suns energy and the winds are blowing.

The pups and I have gotten into our morning walk routine every day. They are so cute, it did not take long for them to get used to the fact that as soon as I was done with my shower, it meant we were headed out for our walk. That was always the routine until we stopped this winter. It is nice to be getting out and enjoying the beautiful weather we have been having of late, as well as catching up on what is going on in the neighborhood. Not gossip wise, but the important stuff, like what trees have fallen, how full the swamp is and any critters that have been passing through. The other day we happened along a pair of daffodils that have busted through and shown themselves.

Friday evening it was nice enough that the girls decided we should head out to do some fishing. I am not a big lover of fishing and do not even have a licence yet, so I did not do any fishing, but watched them gear up and then wet their lines, as well as kept an eye on the pups. Up until now, Gracie just bobber fished, dropping her line straight in, or having someone cast her rig out a bit for her. On Friday, Nora taught Gracie how to cast with a lure and she did a great job and caught on very quickly! I don’t know who was more thrilled, Gracie for accomplishing the art, or Nora for Gracie loving it so much that she now has a new fishing partner! Either way, it is a win-win scenario. I will most likely tag along with them and keep tabs on the pups on most of their trips, but it is nice to know that if I am pre-occupied or not feeling like it, Nora will have her go-to fishing buddy!

For me, it was nice to just relax and watch them fish, as well as watch the dogs explore. It’s neat how the dogs sure are in their element when we get around water. They just never stop tromping around, either looking for something or sniffing something out. Millie even did a cool agility thing. There were some logs floating near the shoreline and she initially just put her front two paws on one of them that was sticking out into the water and floating. The next thing I know, she has put all four paws on it and is walking along it. I scrambled to get my camera and catch a shot of it, but was a bit too late. While walking along, she came upon another log that came in at around a 90 degree angle to the one she was on and decided to walk on it. Unfortunately, it was smaller and less stable and even a bit more rotted, so she lost her footing and all I was able to capture was the moment when she lost her footing and hit the water, but it was so cool to see her walking along that log- especially as it was floating and not stable at all! Not bad for an 8 1/2 year old lab, heck, not bad for any aged dog!

So this morning, Gracie was feeling especially helpful in wanting to take care of the pups. It has become her job to feed them every day and she does a great job at that and never complains. After breakfast, I went into the bedroom and found Huck and Millie chilling out on the bed, so decided since it was a Sunday, I would chill with them for a while. Not long after that, Gracie joined us, but did not last long chilling. Instead she grabbed the brush and started to brush Huckie out. This is not the first time she has done this. In fact, she has probably been brushing the dogs out for as long as she could hold and work the brush. What made this morning different was the fact that she brushed him out for over an hour. I should have probably gotten a picture of the two of them to share with you, as they both looked about as content as can be.

Not long after that, I was in my office taking care of my Sunday work and Gracie came in and joined me. We then heard the clanking of one of the pups tags against the side of the water bowl. That happens when the water level gets low and they have to really dig in there to get a drink. It is a convenient method for letting us know that the water bowl needs filling up. Gracie has gotten big enough to be able to fill the bowl at the bathroom sink and return it to its spot, so I asked her if she could. She did right away and then I could hear her fiddling around, doing something. She is not one to sit still for very long, so I have gotten used to her working on one of her “projects”. It was probably about 20 minutes later when I finished my work and Gracie grabbed my hand and had something to show me. She had filled up a bunch of empty cans and plastic bottles and put them around the dogs water bowl so it would be easier to put more water into the bowl! Never a dull moment around here!

So I am one day away from the 18th anniversary of moving up here! If I did the math correctly (accounting for 2 leap years), it would be 6571 days ago. I can still vividly remember much about that day and I hope I never forget those details. It was probably one of the most exciting moments in my life and I was fortunate enough to share it with my dad. I sure made that poor guy work hard unloading all the stuff I had! Not only enough furniture to completely fill up a 3 bed-2 bath home, but a bunch of woodworking equipment to boot! He never complained once and after driving 7 hours to get here, then sitting at the closing for an hour or so, we were both able to get the moving truck fully unloaded before the sun set. In ways it seems like a lifetime ago when that day happened and in some ways, it seems like last week. One thing is for sure, I sure did make the right decision to move up here. I have NEVER regretted it and pray I NEVER have to leave. It has truly been a dream come true to live here and something I try very hard to never take for granted.

Good night from the Keweenaw..

–JD

Snowflakes, Sawdust and Vitamin D

Welcome to May everyone! Whew, we finally made it! There is just something about the month of April that I do not like. I suppose almost all of it has to do with the weather and what is going on up here. In most years, we are melting off the winters snow in the first 7-10 days, then spend the rest of the month in rains or snows and a few sunny and nice days. Not too many sunny and nice days this go around, so it seemed to make it extra hard to endure.

But alas! we have made it to May and the weather seems to be coming around a bit as well. Looking out the window Tuesday morning, one would have not thought that it was May 2nd or that the weather had made any kind of a turn around, as we had another snow event. Not a lot. Schools were not called, nothing delayed, but just more teeth clenching smiles from the locals. Monday was not picnic either, with a cold rain for most of the day.

Wednesday was a bit of a turn around day for us, with sunshine breaking out in the afternoon and temps almost hitting 70. We made it to 67 and I suspect that a few folks a bit south of us might have even hit 70. The day was so nice, I spent a lot of it outside, just taking things in. When the girls got home from school/work, we had dinner and then donned some hiking shoes and gloves and went to clean the trash from the sides of our road. I started my morning walks with the pups again and noticed that just about all the snow was gone from the ditches and no vegetation had come in yet, so all the junk that had found its way into the ditches was fully exposed and ready for the picking. So Gracie and I did the picking, while Nora and the pups helped point out things and cheered us on. Truth be told, I don’t remember doing it last year, so there was a fair share of stuff. We ended up with two full garbage bags and even found some pieces of cars that were too big to fit into the bags- things like the broken part of a front spoiler or tail light. Its a little sad that so much trash ends up on the side of the road, but I guess it could be worse and it sure was nice to walk the road the next morning and see nothing but nature.

There were other clean ups this weekend. I know they had a community clean up at the Keweenaw Mountain Lodge on Saturday, our local ball field was cleaned up and groomed yesterday as well. Gracie is not going to play baseball this season, so we did not even know it was going on until I drove by on my way to an appointment yesterday and saw them working. Today, there is a clean up going on at the mouth of the Gratiot River and I have seen volunteers cleaning trash from the sides of the highways for the past week or to. It is awesome to live in a place where so much volunteering still goes on. I am certainly not picking on the more populated areas, as it is a different story. Just that it is great to see folks step up and take care of things themselves, rather than rely solely on a government entity to do it.

The rest of the week lent itself to some pretty nice weather. Mostly sunny skies and temps in the 50’s for highs. Just about all of the snow in our yard had melted by Friday, so I took advantage of the nice morning weather to do a little cleaning up of our yard. No trash, as we keep up with that on a regular basis, but the melting snow had revealed all the sticks that the pups had brought out of the woods and played with all winter. So I spent about an hour, raking and picking up sticks from the driveway, playground area and area where the pool goes. It is amazing to me how many sticks those two knuckleheads will bring out of the woods. I almost filled an entire wheel barrow. I gotta say though, even tough they are just sticks and all part of nature/living in the woods, it did look nice to have them all picked up. It also gave a bit of fuel for the wood boiler. What I saw after tossing the sticks into the boiler made me crack up. Out comes Millie with the next stick! She must have sensed that might have not been the thing to do at that moment, as she did bring the stick over to me and I was able to toss it into the boiler and then we all went inside and I gave her and her brother a treat for keeping me company while I worked.

On Saturday morning, I made use of some free time and good weather to cut up the rest of the firewood that was piled up in reserve. There was about 10 logs in total and the cutting was made pretty easy by picking the logs up with the forks on Big Red and bring them over to near the boiler and cutting them at a comfortable height. I think we have enough to get us through the rest of the heating season, which should be ending in another week or so. There are a few dead falls in our woods that I will cut up to keep the boiler going to heat our hot water for the rest of the month and early June and then have several options to get enough wood cut up to heat the hot water and pool for the summer season and then we say good-bye to the boiler!

While cutting the wood, I stopped for a moment and looked up and just admired all the beautiful blue sky. It has been an unusually cloudy spring and of course we do not see much in the way of sun from mid-October through early March, so we were overdue for some sunshine. It may be my imagination, but I swear that my mood was not only uplifted by being in the sun we had the second half of this week, but that even after coming inside, my mood is better. The good news is we are getting into the sunshine season for us. The big lake really is a cloud eater and I know there are periods in the summer where I seem to almost wish for a cloudy day…just to break things up. We’ll see how that goes this summer.

I was also treated to a beautiful view of another nature while cutting wood. I had some “helpers” out with me while mom did spring cleaning inside and looking over to check on them just about brought a tear to my eye when I saw this sight. I just had to take a picture, as words could not describe she scene. What I did not see while taking the picture was the rays of sun appearing in the shot due to the camera lens…as if the three of them were basking in heavens glow.

As you could see in the blue sky picture, the trees are still bare up here, but some of them have had their buds burst. Soon all of them will be having the buds burst and in another couple of weeks the woods will be turning green. The grass is starting to green up around here and this years strawberry crop in Nora’s garden is coming to life…or at least the strawberries are. So far so good with the bugs. I did actually encounter two black flies the other afternoon, but they were just the advance guard. The main invasion force will be here in a few weeks. Gracie did pick up a tick while we cleaned the side of the road, but it had not attached itself and so far Nora, myself and the pups have been tick free.

Yesterday afternoon we took to the woods for a walk. We hit one of the hiking trails and were treated to a pretty waterfall on the Jacob’s Creek. The woods were also very beautiful, even without the leaves on the trees. Perhaps even better, as it allowed more sunshine to get through and help keep the chill of the temp in the upper 40’s from bothering us. We even came across a remaining patch of snow. Somewhat remarkable to be still finding snow given the fact that winter basically gave up bringing us much new snow around here the 3rd week of February. Speaking of snow patches, I did pass by the Laurium Glacier yesterday and snapped a shot of it. Still going pretty strong and looks to have at least 2 weeks left, if not more. My guess (which does not count) was May 18th. I thought I would be way too late. Looks like I will be close!

So I guess that about covers it for this one. Hard to believe that the next time I write, we will be almost half way through the month of May!

Good night from the Keweenaw..
–JD